Osbald of Northumbria

Osbald (also Osbaldus; † 799 ) was a Ealdorman and in the year 796 a short time King of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria.

Life

Osbalds origin is unknown, but he and his family were involved in succession disputes. He probably came from the Northumbrian royal house.

Osbald was first mentioned in the year 780 of chroniclers, as he set up jointly with the Ealdorman Æthelheard an army and the patricius Bearn, a partisan of the king Ælfwald I ( 778/779-788 ), on December 24, 780 in Seletune ( unsure: Salton, burned in North Yorkshire ). Osbald was a friend of Alcuin, a counselor of Charlemagne, who was considered the greatest scholar of his time, with whom he was in contact by correspondence. Between 793 and 796 Alcuin wrote a letter to King Æthelred I ( 774-778/779 and 790-796 ) and Osbald, now the title patricius led, and warned them against injustice, robbery and an " unclean " lifestyle.

The ealdormen Ealdred and Wada led a conspiracy, the King Æthelred fell in Cobre ( Corbridge ) on April 18, 796 to the victim. Osbald was probably made ​​by the conspirators, as his successor. After 27 days he was deposed and forced to flee. First, he found asylum in the Lindisfarne monastery. A little later he fled with some monks by ship to the Picts, whose king Caustantín mac Fergusa granted him (around 789-820 ) refuge. His successor Eardwulf ascended the throne on 14 May and was on 26 May 796 in York by Archbishop Eanbald I (c. 780-796 ) and the bishops Aethelberht of Hexham ( 789-797 ), Higbald of Lindisfarne ( 780-803 ) and soon Wulf of Whithorn ( 791-803 ) crowned. Maybe Osbald supported in the year 798 the revolt of Ealdorman Wada, who rebelled against Eardwulf. In this context, it is probably another letter of Alcuin to Osbald to see, in which he exhorted him to fulfill his oath to enter the convent and renounce the worldly life. Osbald the call came and died as abbot in 799 and was buried in St Peter's Minster in York.

After Osbald the places Osbaldeston (Blackburn) and Osbaldwick are named in Northumbria ( York).

Swell

  • Anonymous: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Online at Project Gutenberg (English)
  • Symeon of Durham: De Regum Anglorum Gestis (Acts of the English kings )
  • Alcuin: Epistolae (Letters )
Barbara Yorke Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
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