Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Oswy
OSWY, OSUIU, OSWIU, OSWIO, OSGUID, OSWEUS, OSWIUS (612?–670), king of Northumbria, a younger son of Ethelfrid or Æthelfrith [q. v.], king of Northumbria, was born in or about 612. He is described by a late writer (Vita S. Oswini, p. 3) as a bastard, but the statement is a mere expression of prejudice, and there is no reason to doubt that he was the son of Æthelfrith's queen Acha, the sister of Edwin or Eadwine (585?–633) [q. v.] On the overthrow and death of his father in 617 he found refuge, in common with his older brother Oswald [q. v.] and some young nobles, with the Scots of Iona, and remained with them during the reign of Eadwine. He was baptised and brought up by the Scottish monks, and may have returned to Northumbria in 633, when his brother Eanfrid succeeded Eadwine in Bernicia. On the death of Eanfrid, who was slain by Caedwalla (d. 634) [q. v.] in 634, Oswy's next brother Oswald came to the throne, and ruled over both the Northumbrian kingdoms; and when he was slain by Penda, king of the Mercians, in 643, Oswy, who was then about thirty (Bæda, Historia Ecclesiastica, lib. iii. c. 14), was chosen to succeed him. Oswald left a son named Oidilvald or Æthelwald, but he was passed over because, according to a late writer (Vita S. Osicaldi, c. 19), he was then a boy. Oswy was, however, compelled to share the kingly dignity with Oswin [q. v.], son of Osric, a kinsman of Eadwine, of the rival line of Ælla [q. v.], who reigned in Deira. It is evident that for some years he had much difficulty in maintaining his position in Bernicia. The old alliance between Penda and the Britons against the Northumbrians seems to have continued. Probably at the very beginning of Oswy's reign Penda invaded Bernicia, wasted the land far and wide, and set fire to the royal city Bamborough, which was saved from destruction, so it was believed, by the prayer of Bishop Aidan [q. v.] and in 645 Oswy was at war with Britons (Tighernac, an. 642). There were also constant quarrels between him and Oswin, whose kingdom was richer than Bernicia (Bæda, u.s.) With the view, no doubt, of gaining a party in Deira, Oswy sent a priest named Utta to fetch Eanflæd, the daughter of Eadwine and his queen Æthelburh from Kent, and married her on her arrival in Northumbria. The causes of quarrel between him and Oswin became serious, and in 651 he invaded Deira with a large army. Oswin, who gathered a force to meet him, found himself too weak to venture a battle; he dismissed his men, and took refuge with a single follower in the house of a noble named Hunvald, one of his friends. Oswy persuaded Hunvald to betray him, and sent one of his officers, named Ædiluine, or Æthelwine, who slew both Oswin and his retainer at Gilling, near Richmond, in the present Yorkshire, on 20 Aug. This deed rid Oswy of a troublesome rival, and enabled him to unite under himself both the Northumbrian kingdoms, but he conciliated the people of Deira, and perhaps also endeavoured to satisfy a dangerous malcontent, by giving the province a dependent ruler of its own in the person of his nephew, Oswald's son Oidilvald (ib. c. 23). At the request of his queen, and as an atonement for the murder of Oswin, he gave Eanflaed land at Gilling for the erection of a monastery, where prayers were offered for both kings, the slayer and the slain (ib. cc. 14, 24) [see under Oswin].
About 653 Oswy received at his court Peada [q. v.], the son of Penda, who had been given the kingship of the Middle Angles by his father. He requested Oswy to give him his daughter Alchflæd to wife. Oswy replied that he would not do so unless he received Christianity. Peada assented to this, for he was convinced of the truth of the gospel by the preachers at the Northumbrian court, and was further persuaded by Oswy's son Alchfrith [q. v.], who had already married Penda's daughter Cyneburga, or Cyneburh. Accordingly he and his lords and attendants received baptism from Finan [q. v.], the successor of Aidan in the bishopric of Lindisfarne, at a place called Wall, close to the Roman wall, perhaps Walbottle, near Newcastle. Oswy supplied him with four priests to evangelise and baptise his people, and with them he returned to his own land. It was through Oswy's means too that the East-Saxons, who had relapsed into paganism in 616, again accepted the gospel; for he was on terms of intimate friendship with their king Sigberct, and often received visits from him, and on these occasions he used to exhort his guest with brotherly affection to forsake idolatry. After taking counsel with his friends and his lords, Sigberct was baptised by Finan at Wall, and obtained teachers from Oswy for the instruction of his people (ib. c. 22).
It seems probable that Oswy was at this time carrying on a successful war against the Picts and Scots, which led to an extension of his power in the north, while the influence that he had over the East-Saxon kingdom may have suggested an intention on his part of renewing the old strife with Mercia for the over-lordship of East Anglia (Green, Making of England, p. 299). Penda's jealousy was roused, and, in spite of the connection between their families, he again made war upon Oswy, and pressed him hardly, forcing him to deliver his second son Ecgfrith as a hostage to the Mercian queen Cynuise, or Cyneswythe. In 655 Æthelhere of East Anglia, in some unexplained way, caused war between them. Oswy, whose land had already suffered grievously from Mercian invasions, offered Penda gifts so many and so rich as, Bæda says, to surpass belief, to induce him to retire from his kingdom. They were rejected, and when he found that Penda had resolved to destroy and drive away his whole people, great and small, he said, 'Since the heathen will have none of our gifts, let us offer them to the Lord our God who knoweth all things,' and vowed that if he should gain the victory he would devote his daughter as a consecrated virgin to God, and give twelve estates for the foundation of monasteries. He then set out against the enemy with a small force, and accompanied by his son Alchfrith. The Mercian host was, it was believed, thirty times as large as his; it was composed of thirty divisions, some of them of British allies, each under the command of a royal leader or under-king, and it was guided in its march by Oidilvald, who joined the enemies of his nation. The armies met on 15 Nov. by the river Winwaed, in the district of 'Loidis,' supposed to be either the Avon which flows into the Firth of Forth, or the Aire which flows by Leeds in Yorkshire.
The first theory is maintained by Skene (Celtic Scotland, i. 255-7), who suggests that the place of battle was near Manuel in Stirlingshire, and takes 'Loidis' to be the northern province of Lothian; this would tally with the account given by the continuator of Nennius, in the 'Chronicle of the Picts and Scots,' p. 13, who says that the battle took place on the plain of Gai, apparently in the Pictish district of Manaw). The second theory, which accepts the river Aire, is supported by the fact that in the only other passage in which the name 'Loidis' is used by Bæda, 'Historia Ecclesiastica,' ii. c. 14, it signifies the district of Leeds, while Oidilvald would certainly have been more naturally employed as a guide in his own kingdom of Deira than in Lothian. The words of Florence of Worcester to which Skene refers in support of the Celtic version of the war do not seem materially to affect either theory; they might as well mean that Penda was marching northward against Bernicia as that he had actually entered the kingdom. Professor Rhys, in his 'Celtic Britain,' p. 133, endeavours to reconcile the Celtic story with the translation of 'Loidis' as the Leeds district, by placing the battle in Lothian, supposing that Oswy afterwards finished the war in the province of Deira, and suggesting that Penda fell there; but this is scarcely consonant either with the notices of the decisive character of the battle, or with the tradition apparently preserved in the words of Henry of Huntingdon, p. 60: 'percussus vero est per Oswium regem apud amnem Winwed.'
The Mercian army was overthrown with great slaughter, and the river being in flood the fugitives that were drowned in it were more than they that fell by the sword. Penda was slain, and with him fell nearly ill the thirty leaders of royal race, among them being Æthelhere, the cause of the war. Of the British leaders, Catgabail or Cadarail, king of Gwynedd, who deserted the host with his division, alone escaped. Oidilvald also deserted his allies, and waited the issue of the battle in a position of safety. Oswy fulfilled his vow by dedicating his daughter ÆIflæd, then scarcely a year old, to a monastic life, and by giving for the foundation of monasteries six estates in Bernicia and six in Deira, each of them being equal to the land of ten households or probably fourteen hundred and forty acres (Bæda, u.s. iii. 24; Robertson, Historical Essays, p. 98).
The result of this victory was that for a time the power of Mercia was completely broken, and that the country, together with the district of Lindsey and the land of the South-Angles, fell into the hands of Oswy. Of these territories he placed Mercia south of the Trent under his son-in-law Peada, as under-king, retaining the rest under his immediate dominion. His supremacy was acknowledged in the kingdom of the East-Angles and East-Saxons; he ruled probably directly over the Britons of Alclyde and the Scots of Dalriada, and is said to have brought the greater part of the Picts into subjection. He is the seventh of the English monarchs who, according to Bæda, held an imperial position, and who are described in the 'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle' as Bretwaldas. His victory enabled him to unite more closely the two Northumbrian provinces; Oidilvald lost Deira, and Oswy gave it in charge to his son Alchfrith. About a year later Peada died, and southern Mercia came under his immediate rule. But in 658 the Mercian ealdormen revolted, expelled the ealdormen that Oswy had set over their people, and made Penda's son Wulfhere their king. Oswy appears to have made no attempt to enforce his rule, and from that time his dominions were probably bounded on the south by the Humber. During the three years of his rule the Mercians accepted Christianity, and he is said to have joined Peada in founding the monastery of Medeshamstede, or Peterborough {Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Peterborough version, an. 665).
Oswy's marriage with Eanflæd brought the points of difference between the Roman and Celtic churches into prominence at the Northumbrian court; for the queen had been accompanied from Kent by a chaplain of the catholic observance named Ronan, and held to the Roman method of computing Easter, while Oswy kept the feast according to the Celtic usage in which he had been brought up; and so it might happen that he and his court would be celebrating Easter while his queen and her people were observing Palm Sunday. So long as Aidan, and after him Finan, held the bishopric of Lindisfarne, the differences between the two churches had not been held to be of much moment; but Colman (d. 676) [q. v.] was a man of another spirit, and under his teaching people began to regard these things as of vital importance. An abbot named Wilfrid or Wilfrith, to whom the queen had shown kindness, and who had lately returned to Northumbria after visiting Gaul and Rome, became the head of the Roman party in the north, and Oswy's son Alchfrith formed a close friendship with him, and joined him in advocating the catholic observance. Oswy must have inclined to the same side; for when the visit of the West-Saxon bishop to Alchfrith in 664 strengthened the Roman party, he submitted the questions at issue between the churches to the decision of a synod, and this was virtually to declare himself dissatisfied with the prevailing usage. At this synod, which was held at Whitby in the earlier half of the year, Oswy presided, being accompanied by Alchfrith, and declared himself convinced by the reasoning of Wilfrith. The assembly approved his decision, and so Northumbria deserted the Scottish church and accepted the Roman teaching [for this synod see under Colman]. During the absence of Wilfrith in Gaul, whither he was sent by Alchfrith that he might receive consecration, and on his return become the bishop of his kingdom or bishop of York, Oswy, finding that his return was delayed, sent Ceadda [q. v.] or Chad to Kent for consecration, that he might take Wilfrith's place. With this step is doubtless to be connected the fact that Alchfrith rebelled against his father and attacked him (Bæda, u.s. iii. c. 14); he probably hoped to gain some political advantage by his ecclesiastical policy, and the appointment of Wilfrith as bishop of Deira may have been intended as a step towards separation from Bernicia and the erection of the southern kingdom into an independent state. It is evident that Oswy was too strong for him, and his downfall is marked by the substitution of Oswy's nominee Chad for Alchfrith's friend Wilfrith. The see of Canterbury having been vacant since the death of Archbishop Deusdedit in 664, Oswy took counsel with Ecgberht or Egbert, king of Kent, probably in 667, as to the appointment of a new archbishop, and a priest named Wighard having been elected by the church, the two kings sent him with a letter to Rome, requesting Pope Vitalian, to whom they made rich gifts of gold and silver vessels, to consecrate him. The pope in reply sent a letter to Oswy, informing him of Wighard's death, and of the pope's intention to appoint an archbishop, rejoicing in Oswy's adhesion to the Roman communion, and telling him of the gifts that he was sending to him and his queen (ib. c. 29). The part taken by Oswy in this matter illustrates his predominant influence in England and his growing attachment to the Roman church. When Archbishop Theodore came to Northumbria he placed Wilfrith at York in the room of Ceadda, and to this it is evident that Oswy made no opposition. The next year (669) Theodore requested him to allow Ceadda to accept the bishopric of Mercia and Lindsey, which he accordingly did. His health grew feeble, and so great had become his devotion to the Roman church that he was anxious, if he should regain sufficient strength, to journey to Rome and end his days there, and he promised Wilfrith a large sum if he would go with him. He died on 15 Feb. 670, in his fifty-eighth year, and was buried in St. Peter's Church, in his daughter's monastery at Whitby. (ib. iii. c. 24, iv. c. 5).
Although the murder of Oswin is a blot on Oswy's memory, he appears to have been a religious man, sincerely anxious for the spread of Christianity. He had to contend with many difficulties, and overcame them triumphantly. Northumbria, which at his accession seemed to lie at the mercy of its great enemy, Penda of Mercia, was raised by him to a position of supremacy equal to that which it had held under Eadwine. Besides the overthrow of Penda and the increase of Oswy's power consequent upon his victory, his reign presents three characteristics of special importance. It was the period of the triumph of Christianity over heathenism in central and eastern England, of the consolidation of Northumbria, and of the rejection of the Scottish in favour of the Roman church. With reference to each of these critical changes Oswy appears to have acted with no small amount of skill. The evangelisation of his heathen neighbours was not a matter only of religious concern; it had a strong political bearing; for his supremacy in England was largely due to his success as a missionary king. His adhesion to the Roman communion had also a political side, for ecclesiastical differences would have greatly endangered the union of the two Northumbrian provinces, and it seems fairly certain that the Roman party was strong in Deira, the special land of Eadwine and his house, while Bernicia was more inclined to hold to the Scottish teachers. Alchfrith evidently hoped to make the religious question a means of establishing himself as an independent king in Deira, and Oswy acted with much prudence in avoiding this danger by adopting the views of the part of his dominions that was the richer, more united, and, for dynastic reasons, less likely to be loyal to his throne; for he was thus better able to crush the obscure attempt that his son, after failing to gain anything by his ecclesiastical policy, seems to have made to assert his independence by force of arms. Oswy married, probably before he came to the throne, Riemmelth, the daughter of Royth, whose name suggests a Pictish origin; and, secondly, Eanflæd [q. v.] , the daughter of Eadwine. His sons were Alchfrith; Ecgfrith, who succeeded him, and died in battle against the Picts at Nectansmere in 685; Ælfwine, who was born about 661, and died in battle against Æthelred of Mercia in 679; the last two being by Eanflæd, and a bastard son, Aldfrith [q. v.] , who became king of Northumbria, and died in 705. His daughters by his first wife were Alchflæd, who married Peada, and was no doubt the wife referred to by Bæda as generally held to have murdered Peada at Easter-tide 656 (ib. iii. 24); and, by Eanflæd, Ostrith [q. v.], and Ælfæd, abbess of Whitby [see under Eanflæd].