Ingulf

Who was Ingulf?

Ingulph was a Benedictine abbot of Crowland, head of Crowland Abbey in Lincolnshire. He was an Englishman who, having travelled to England on diplomatic business as secretary of William, Duke of Normandy, in 1051, was made Abbot of Crowland in 1087 at Duke William's instigation after he had become king of England and the abbacy had fallen vacant. 1087 was in the last year of William's reign.

In the meantime, Ingulph had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and entered Fontenelle Abbey at Caudebec-en-Caux in Normandy, where after a time, he was appointed prior. He was appointed abbot there in 1080.

As his life as Abbot of Crowland progressed, Ingulph suffered the usual events: gout and the work of rebuilding after a destructive fire in the abbey. However, he was able to obtain an arm of Saint Wulfram; and in 1092 he received the body of Earl Waltheof of Northumbria, a Saxon who had been executed per William's orders and who was considered a hero and martyr in popular thought. These relics brought in the pilgrims and eased his money problems.