Tovi the Proud

Who is Tovi the Proud?

Tovi the Proud was a rich and powerful 11th-century Danish thegn who held a number of estates in various parts of southern England. He was staller to King Cnut the Great.

According to the Waltham Chronicle, it was on his manor at Montacute in Somerset that a black crucifix or Holy Rood was unearthed following a dream in 1030. Tovi loaded the life-sized cross onto a cart, but the oxen refused to move until he mentioned another of his estates at Waltham in Essex where he already had a hunting lodge. Tovi rebuilt the church at Waltham to house the cross, on which he bestowed his own sword. His devout second wife Gytha, the daughter of Osgod Clapa, adorned the figure with a crown, bands of gold and precious stones. The cross became the object of pilgrimage, notably by Harold Godwinson. It was at Tovi's wedding at Lambeth on 8 June 1042 that King Harthacnut suddenly died of a convulsion "while standing at his drink". There is no record of Tovi after 1043 and he may have died at this time. His estates passed to his son Athelstan and then to his grandson Asgar, before being granted to the Norman Baron Geoffrey de Mandeville by King William the Conqueror.