Aubrey de Coucy

Alberic Earl of Northumberland was a person of great authority. The following legend is related of him in Dugdale: "Being dissatisfied with his condition, he consulted with the Devil, and was told he should possess Greece; whereon he made a voyage into the East, and joined the Crusaders. When the Greeks understood that his intention was to reign over them, then despoiled him of all that he had and expelled him from those parts. After his travels he returned into Normandy, where King Henry offered him a noble widow in marriage; but when the ceremony was taking place, he discovered that this noble lady was a mere phantom, conjured up by the Devil to deceive him." - Dugdale.

In 1080 CE William Walcher, bishop of Durham and Earl of Northumbria, was murdered. William the Conqueror gave the Earldom to Aubrey de Coucy, with large possessions in the midlands.