Oswiu
Oswiu | |
---|---|
Æthelfrith | |
Mother | Acha of Deira |
Religion | Chalcedonian Christianity |
Oswiu, also known as Oswy or Oswig (
One of the sons of Æthelfrith of Bernicia, Oswiu became king following the death of his brother Oswald in 642. Unlike Oswald, Oswiu struggled to exert authority over Deira, the other constituent kingdom of medieval Northumbria, for much of his reign.
Oswiu and his brothers were raised in exile in the Irish kingdom of
Oswiu was a devoted Christian, promoting the faith among his subjects and establishing a number of monasteries, including Gilling Abbey and Whitby Abbey.[4] He was raised in the Celtic Christian tradition of much of the Irish world, rather than the Roman tradition practiced by the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdoms as well as some members of the Deiran nobility, including Oswiu's queen Eanflæd. In 664, Oswiu presided over the Synod of Whitby, where clerics debated over the two traditions, and helped resolve tension between the parties by decreeing that Northumbria would follow the Roman style.[5] Oswiu died in 670 and was succeeded by his son, Ecgfrith.[6] His feast is 15 February in the East and in the West.[7]
Background and early life
Oswiu was born circa 612, as he was 58 at his death in 670, according to Bede. He was the third child of Æthelfrith, then King of Bernicia; his siblings included older brothers Eanfrith and Oswald and sister Æbbe.[8][9] Oswiu's mother was likely Æthelfrith's only recorded wife, Acha, a princess of Deira's royal line who is known to have been Oswald's mother.[10] Regardless, his heritage did nothing to endear him to the Deiran nobility; while they accepted Oswald as king apparently on account of his mother, they resisted Oswiu throughout his reign.[11]
At the time of Oswiu's birth, Æthelfrith was at the height of his power. In 604 he had taken control of Deira, evidently by conquest; he killed the previous king (apparently
On Æthelfrith's death, his sons and their supporters fled Northumbria, finding sanctuary among the Gaels and Picts of northern Britain and Ireland. Here they would remain until Edwin's death at the Battle of Hatfield Chase in 633.[14][15]
In exile, the sons of Æthelfrith were converted to Christianity, or raised as Christians.
As well as learning the Irish language and being thoroughly Christianised, Oswiu may have fought for his Gaelic hosts, perhaps receiving his arms—a significant event—from a
Equally uncertain is the date of Oswiu's return to Northumbria. He may have returned with his brother Eanfrith on Edwin's death in 633, as Bede appears to write.[14] Eanfrith apostatised and was killed by Cadwallon ap Cadfan, who was defeated and killed in turn by another brother, Oswald, who became king of Bernicia and probably succeeded to his father's old dominance of northern and central Britain.[20]
Eanflæd and Oswine
Oswald died in battle against Penda of Mercia at the Battle of Maserfield, dated by Bede to 5 August 642.[21] Oswald's son Œthelwald may have been his preferred successor, but Œthelwald cannot have been an adult in 642. So, the kingship came to Oswiu. Unlike Eanfrith and Osric, Oswiu held to the Christian faith in spite of his brother's defeat by the pagan Penda. This may have been due to his more thoroughly Christian upbringing, but the influence of Bishop Aidan of Lindisfarne, by then a major figure in Bernicia, could also have been significant.[22]
Bede summarises Oswiu's reign in this way:
Oswald being translated to the heavenly kingdom, his brother Oswy, a young man of about thirty years of age, succeeded him on the throne of his earthly kingdom, and held it twenty-eight years with much trouble, being harassed by the pagan king, Penda, and by the pagan nation of the Mercians, that had slain his brother, as also by his son Alfred [i.e.
Ealhfrith], and by his cousin-german Ethelwald [i.e. Œthelwald of Deira], the son of his brother who reigned before him.[23]
Oswiu's first recorded action as king of Bernicia was to strengthen his position, and perhaps his claims to Deira, by marrying Edwin's daughter
Oswiu is known to have been married three times. Eanflæd, his Queen, bore him two sons and two daughters. The sons were Ecgfrith (644/645–685) and Ælfwine (c. 660–679), the daughters Osthryth (died 697) and Ælfflæd (c. 654–714). The Irish princess Fín was the mother of Aldfrith (died 705). Finally, the British princess Rieinmelth of Rheged is named as a wife of Oswiu in the Historia Brittonum.[26] It is thought that Ealhfrith was her son,[27] and Eahlflæd may have been her daughter.[28]
The first half of Oswiu's reign was spent in the shadow of Penda, who dominated much of Britain from 642 until 655, seemingly making and breaking kings as it suited him.
For the first decade of Oswiu's reign, Deira was ruled by an independent king, Oswine, son of the apostate Osric, who belonged to the rival Deiran royal family.[31] Oswine and Oswiu came into conflict circa 651. Bede blames Oswiu for the troubles and writes:
For when they had raised armies against one another, Oswin perceived that he could not maintain a war against one who had more auxiliaries than himself, and he thought it better at that time to lay aside all thoughts of engaging, and to preserve himself for better times. He therefore dismissed the army which he had assembled, and ordered all his men to return to their own homes, from the place that is called Wilfaresdun, that is, Wilfar's Hill, which is almost ten miles distant from the village called Cataract [i.e. Catterick], towards the north-west. He himself, with only one trusty soldier, whose name was Tonhere, withdrew and lay concealed in the house of Earl [comes] Hunwald, whom he imagined to be his most assured friend. But, alas! it was otherwise; for the earl betrayed him, and Oswy, in a detestable manner, by the hands of his commander [praefectus], Ethilwin, slew him...[23]
In order to expiate the killing of Oswine, who was later reckoned a saint, Oswiu established Gilling Abbey at Gilling, where prayers were said for Oswine and for Oswiu.[23] Oswine was followed as king of the Deirans by Oswald's son Œthelwald.
Penda
Oswiu's relations with
D.P. Kirby suggests that the killing of Oswine may have led to an improvement in relations between Penda and Oswiu in the early 650s. Oswiu's son Ealhfrith married Penda's daughter
In 655 Bede reports that Penda invaded Bernicia at the head of a large army. Bede states that Oswiu offered "an incalculable quantity of regalia and presents as the price of peace", but that Penda refused. Oswiu vowed to give his daughter Ælfflæd to the church, and to found a dozen monasteries if he was granted the victory, and assisted by Ealhfrith he engaged Penda with a small army in the
The Historia Brittonum gives a somewhat different account. Here, Oswiu's offer of treasure is accepted, and is associated with the siege of a place named Iudeu. It is assumed that
Overlord of Britain
The surprising defeat of the hitherto dominant Penda, and the death of the East Anglian king Æthelhere left Oswiu as the dominant figure in Britain. Œthelwald's ambivalent stance during the campaign which led to the Winwæd appears to have led to his removal as he disappears from the record at this time. Oswiu installed his adult son Ealhfrith as king of Deirans in Œthelwald's place. Penda's son Peada was installed as king of southern Mercia, while Oswiu took the north of the kingdom. Other subject rulers seem to have been established elsewhere in Mercia.
Further south, Æthelhere's brother
Oswiu's total domination lasted only a short time, around three years. The proximate cause was the death of Peada, supposedly poisoned by his wife, Oswiu's daughter Eahlflæd.[40] This probably occurred at Easter 656, and Oswiu proceeded to install governors or subject kings in Mercia. Probably in late 659, but perhaps in 657, a revolt led by three Mercian noblemen—Immin, Eata, and Eadberht—installed Penda's son Wulfhere as ruler of the Mercians and drove out Oswiu's supporters.[41] Oswiu remained a force to be reckoned with, and political settlement rather than open warfare appears to have resolved the crisis. Oswiu's kinsman Trumhere was named to be Wulfhere's bishop.[42] While Wulfhere extended Mercian influence and authority in southern Britain, he apparently continued to recognise Oswiu's primacy.[43]
Welsh sources suggest that Oswiu campaigned in Wales in the late 650s, imposing tribute on the Welsh kings who had previously been Penda's allies such as
Ealhfrith and the Synod of Whitby
In 664 at the
Ecgfrith
In 660, Oswiu married his son Ecgfrith to Æthelthryth, daughter of the former East Anglian king Anna.[50]
Death
Even in his final years, Oswiu remained a major figure in Britain. The newly appointed
Alcuin, writing about a century after Oswiu's death, describes him as "very just, with equitable laws, unconquered in battle but trustworthy in peace, generous in gifts to the wretched, pious, equitable to all".[51]
Family
Holy relics
Oswy and his wife
See also
- Kings of Mercia family tree
Notes
- ^ Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, pp. 78–79, 105.
- ^ Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, p. 79.
- ^ Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, pp. 82, 105.
- ^ Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, pp. 48, 80.
- ^ Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, pp. 79, 82.
- ^ Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms p. 82.
- ^ "A menology of England and Wales, or, Brief memorials of the ancient British and English saints arranged according to the calendar, together with the martyrs of the 16th and 17th centuries". 1892.
- ^ Fryde et al., Handbook of British Chronology, p. 5.
- ^ a b Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book IV, Chapter 5.
- ^ Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Chapter 6, states that Oswald was Acha's son; Kirby, p. 89, and Stancliffe & Cambridge, p. 13, figure 1, consider it probable that Oswiu was also her son.
- ^ Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, p. 78, 79.
- ^ Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book I, Chapter 34 & Book II, Chapter 3.
- ^ Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book II, Chapter 12.
- ^ a b c Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Chapter 1.
- King of Dál Riata, against Æthelfrith, at the Battle of Degsastan; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Ms. E, s.a. 603. The choice of a northerly exile, rather than flight to one of the southerly Anglo-Saxon kingdoms is discussed by Grimmer, §3–§6.
- ^ "Oswy thought that nothing could be better than the Irish teaching, having been instructed and baptized by the Irish, and having a complete grasp of their language"; Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Chapter 25.
- ^ Grimmer, §8.
- ^ Annals of Tigernach, s.a. 631; Grimmer, §9.
- ^ Grimmer, §25; Kirby, p. 143.; Williams, p. 18.
- ^ Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Chapters 1–2; Adomnán, Life of Saint Columba, Book I, Chapter 1; Stancliffe, pp. 46–61.
- ^ Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Chapter 9.
- ^ Higham, Convert Kings, pp. 220–221.
- ^ a b c Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Chapter 14.
- ^ Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Chapter 15.
- ^ Their son Ecgfrith was born no later than May 645.
- ^ Rieinmellt also appears, as Rægnmæld, in the Liber Vitae Ecclesiae Dunelmensis, among the Queens, immediately preceding Eanflæd; Grimmer §28.
- ^ Stancliffe & Cambridge, p. 13, figure 1.
- ^ Eahlflæd is said to have arranged the murder of Peada, in 657 or 658, suggesting that she was not Eanflæd's daughter; Bede, H. E., Book III, chapter 24. See also Higham, Convert Kings, pp. 252–253.
- East Anglia.
- ^ Deira was ruled by Oswine from 642 to 651, then by Œthelwald until 655 or later, then by Ealhfrith to after 664, and finally by Ecgfrith. See Kirby, p. 226, figure 7; Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, p. 75, table 8.
- ^ Oswine was Oswiu's maternal second cousin; Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, p. 76, table 9.
- ^ Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Chapter 16.
- ^ Fraser, p. 20; Annals of Ulster, s.a. 650.
- ^ Kirby, pp. 93–94; Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Chapter 21.
- ^ a b Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Chapter 24. The Winwæd is thought to be the River Went; Keynes, "Penda".
- ^ Kirby, pp. 90, 94–95 accepts that Iudeu, also Giudi, may have been the site of modern Stirling, and proposes that Ecgfrith became a hostage as a result of Oswiu's submission to Penda.
- ^ Historia Brittonum, Chapters 64–65.
- ^ Kirby, p. 96–97.
- ^ Or not, needed.
- ^ Higham, Convert Kings, pp. 252–253, sees Ealhfrith's hand in his sister's murder of her husband.
- ^ Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Chapter 24.
- ^ Trumhere was a relation of Queen Eanflæd and first abbot of Gilling, established to expiate the killing of Oswine of Deira; Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Chapter 24.
- Eormenhild, daughter of the Kentish King Eorcenberht, the one ruler over whom Oswiu held no sway; Kirby, p. 114.
- ^ Kirby, p. 96.
- ^ Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Chapter 22; Higham, Convert Kings, p. 249; Kirby, p. 97.
- ^ The dating is discussed by Kirby, p. 101, who concludes that the synod can confidently be placed in 644.
- ^ Chisholm 1911.
- ^ a b Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Chapter 25.
- ^ Higham, Convert Kings, pp. 250–275. For an overview of the Easter controversy, see Stevens.
- ^ Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book IV, Chapter 19
- ^ Proposography of Anglo-Saxon England, quoting Alcuin's The Bishops, Kings and Saints of York.
- ^ Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Chapter 29.
References
- "The Annals of Tigernach" (in Middle Irish). CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts. Retrieved 22 April 2007.
- "The Annals of Ulster, volume 1". CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts. Retrieved 22 April 2007.
- ISBN 0-14-044565-X
- Blair, Peter Hunter, The World of Bede. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, reprinted 1990. ISBN 0-521-39138-5
- Charles-Edwards, T.M., Early Christian Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-521-36395-0
- ISBN 0-140-44727-X
- Fraser, James, The Pictish Conquest: The Battle of Dunnichen 685 & the birth of Scotland. Stroud: Tempus, 2006. ISBN 0-7524-3962-6
- Grimmer, Martin (October 2006). "The Exogamous Marriages of Oswiu of Northumbria". The Heroic Age, issue 9. Retrieved 6 April 2007.
- Higham, N.J., The Convert Kings: Power and religious affiliation in early Anglo-Saxon England. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-7190-4828-1
- Higham, N.J., The Kingdom of Northumbria AD 350–1100. Stroud: Sutton, 1993. ISBN 0-86299-730-5
- Holdsworth, Philip, "Oswiu" in M. Lapidge, et al., (eds), The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999. ISBN 0-631-22492-0
- Keynes, Simon, "Penda" in M. Lapidge, et al., (eds), The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999. ISBN 0-631-22492-0
- Kirby, D.P., The Earliest English Kings. London: Unwin Hyman, 1991. ISBN 0-04-445691-3
- ISBN 0-19-280139-2
- Stevens, Wesley M., "Easter Controversy" in M. Lapidge, et al., (eds), The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999. ISBN 0-631-22492-0
- Veith, Kenneth (1997). "The Columban Church in northern Britain, 664–717: a reassessment" (PDF). Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, volume 127. Retrieved 6 April 2007.
- Williams, Ann, Kingship and Government in Pre-Conquest England, c. 500–1066. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999. ISBN 0-333-56798-6
- ISBN 1-85264-027-8
- Yorke, Barbara, The Conversion of Britain: Religion, Politics and Society in Britain c. 600–800. London: Longman, 2006. ISBN 0-582-77292-3
- Zaluckyj, Sarah, Mercia: The Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England. Logaston: Logaston Press, 2001. ISBN 978-1-873827-62-8.
- Ziegler, Michelle (Winter 2001). "Oswald and the Irish". The Heroic Age, issue 4. Retrieved 22 April 2007.
External links
- Oswiu 1 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 365.