Ealdred ( or Aldred ; died 11 September 1069 ) was Abbot of Tavistock, Bishop of Worcester, and Archbishop of York in Anglo-Saxon England.

In 1060, Ealdred was elected to the archbishopric of York, but had difficulty in obtaining papal approval for his appointment, only managing to do so when he promised not to hold the bishoprics of York and Worcester simultaneously.

Some sources state that following King Edward the Confessor's death in 1066, it was Ealdred who crowned Harold Godwinson as King of England.

Ealdred supported Harold as king, but when Harold was defeated at the Battle of Hastings, Ealdred backed Edgar the Ætheling and then endorsed King William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy and a distant relative of King Edward's.

Ealdred was probably born in the west of England, and could be related to Lyfing, his predecessor as bishop of Worcester.

Ealdred was a monk in the cathedral chapter at Winchester Cathedral before becoming abbot of Tavistock Abbey about 1027, an office he held until about 1043.

Ealdred was made bishop of Worcester in 1046, a position he held until his resignation in 1062.

Ealdred's expedition was betrayed by some Welsh soldiers who were serving with the English, and Ealdred was defeated.

That same year, as Ealdred was returning to England he met Sweyn, a son of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and probably absolved Sweyn for having abducted the abbess of Leominster Abbey in 1046.

Ealdred helped Sweyn not only because Ealdred was a supporter of Earl Godwin's family but because Sweyn's earldom was close to his bishopric.

Ealdred unsuccessfully tried to drive off the raiders, but was again routed by the Welsh.

Normally, the bishop of Hereford would have led the defence in the absence of an Earl of Hereford, but in 1049 the incumbent, Æthelstan, was blind, so Ealdred took on the role of defender.

Earl Godwin's rebellion against the king in 1051 came as a blow to Ealdred, who was a supporter of the earl and his family.

Ealdred was present at the royal council at London that banished Godwin's family.

Later in 1051, when he was sent to intercept Harold Godwinson and his brothers as they fled England after their father's outlawing, Ealdred " could not, or would not " capture the brothers.

By late 1053 Ealdred was once more in royal favour.

In this mission Ealdred was somewhat successful and obtained insight into the working of the German church during a stay of a year with Hermann II, the Archbishop of Cologne.

The main objective of the mission, however, was to secure the return of Edward ; but this failed, mainly because Henry III's relations with the Hungarians were strained, and the emperor was unable or unwilling to help Ealdred.

Ealdred, besides his episcopal duties, served Edward the Confessor, the King of England, as a diplomat and as a military leader.

Ealdred crowned King William on Christmas Day in 1066.

However, Ealdred did not receive the other two dioceses that Lyfing had held, Crediton and Cornwall ; King Edward the Confessor ( reigned 1043 – 1066 ) granted these to Leofric, who combined the two sees at Crediton in 1050.

In 1054 King Edward sent Ealdred to Germany to obtain Emperor Henry III's help in returning Edward the Exile, son of Edmund Ironside, to England.

Ealdred became involved with the see of Ramsbury after its bishop Herman got into a dispute with King Edward over the movement of the seat of his bishopric to Malmesbury Abbey.

William of Malmesbury says that Ealdred, by " amusing the simplicity of King Edward and alleging the custom of his predecessors, had acquired, more by bribery than by reason, the archbishopric of York while still holding his former see.

John of Worcester, a medieval chronicler, stated that Ealdred crowned King Harold II in 1066, although the Norman chroniclers mention Stigand as the officiating prelate.

It has been speculated that Æthelburh was the abbess who was a kinswoman of King Ealdred of the Hwicce, but there are other prominent women named Æthelburh during that period.

Gothfrith was expelled and at Eamont, near Penrith, on 12 July 927, Ealdred, King Constantine of Scotland and Owain of Strathclyde accepted Æthelstan's overlordship.

William was acclaimed King of England and crowned by Ealdred on 25 December 1066, in Westminster Abbey.

On Christmas Day, 1066 Ealdred, the Archbishop of York crowned William King of England.

Although Ealdred, the Bishop of Worcester actually went to the Continent in search of Edward, Ian Walker, the biographer of King Harold Godwinson, feels that Stigand was behind the effort.

Some say it was his father Earl Godwin who pleaded his case to the King, others that is was Aldred, or Ealdred, Bishop of Worcester who had met him in Flanders returning from his pilgrimage.

Eanberht, King of Hwicce, jointly with Uhtred and Ealdred.

Uhtred was the King of Hwicce, jointly with Eanberht and Ealdred.

In 778 Ealdred received a grant of land from Offa, King of Mercia.

Ealdred was able to discover that Edward was alive, and had a place at the Hungarian court.

Edward sent Ealdred after the death in battle of Bishop Leofgar of Hereford, who had attacked Gruffydd ap Llywelyn after encouragement from the king.

It is possible that the reason Ealdred travelled through Hungary was to arrange the travel of Edward the Exile's family to England.

It is not known exactly when Edward the Exile's family returned to England, whether they returned with Edward in 1057, or sometime later, so it is only a possibility that they returned with Ealdred in 1058.

The story of Ealdred being deposed comes from the Vita Edwardi, a life of Edward the Confessor, but the Vita Wulfstani, an account of the life of Ealdred's successor at Worcester, Wulfstan, says that Nicholas refused the pallium until a promise to find a replacement for Worcester was given by Ealdred.

After the Battle of Hastings, Ealdred joined the group who tried to elevate Edgar the Ætheling, Edward the Exile's son, as king, but eventually he submitted to William the Conqueror at Berkhamsted.

As is usual with charters of this period, the authenticity of some of these documents is open to question ( though Della Hooke has established high reliability for the Cornish material ), but that of others ( e. g. Edgar's grant of estates at Tywarnhaile and Bosowsa to his thane Eanulf in 960, Edward the Confessor's grant of estates at Traboe, Trevallack, Grugwith and Trethewey to Bishop Ealdred in 1059 ) is not in any doubt.