mouth, where he was reverenced as a saint until the Danish troubles, when his memory was forgotten. In 1065 his burial-place was miraculously revealed, and his worship restored. His relics were translated in 1110. At the dissolution of the monastery there was still a shrine there containing the body and vestments of St. Oswini. The 'Life of Oswini,' which was clearly written in glorification of Tynemouth, reproduces Bæda's narrative, together with an account of his discovery, translation, and miracles. It is contained in Cotton MS. Julius A., and is printed in the Surtees Society's 'Miscellanea Biographical There was an Osred [q. v.], king of Northumbria, who died and was buried at Tynemouth in 792; it is possible that his name caused a confusion with Oswini. Cotton MS. Galba A.V. is a psalter which is said to have belonged to Oswini.
[Bædæ Hist. Eccl. iv. 14, 24; Matt. Paris, i. 531–3, ii. 138; Miscellanea Biographica (Surtees Soc.) vol. viii.; Dugdale's Monasticon, iii. 112; Freeman's William Rufus, ii. 17–18, 603–6; Green's Making of England, pp. 295–7; Dict. Christian Biography, iv. 165.]
OSWULF or OSULF (d. 758), king of Northumbria, son of Eadberht, king of Northumbria, of the house of Ida, succeeded his father, who resigned the kingdom to him, in 758. Before he had reigned a year he was wickedly slain by the men of his household on 25 July, at a place called Mechil Wongtune, which it has been suggested may be Market Weighton in the East Riding of Yorkshire, He was succeeded by Ethelwold or Moll.
[Symeon of Durham's Hist. Eccl. Dunelm. c. 4, and Hist. Regum an. 758 ap. Opp. i. 49. ii. 41 (Rolls Ser.); Anglo-Saxon Chron. an. 757 (Rolls Ser.); Flor. Wig. genealogies, i. 255.]
OSWULF or OSULF (d. 1067), earl of Bernicia, was son of Eadwulf or Eadulf, earl of Bernicia, slain by Siward in 1041. Eadulf was brother and successor of Ealdred or Aldred, and a younger son of Uchtred (d. 1016), son of Waltheof [see under Oslac]. After the death of Eadulf, which must have taken place when his son Oswulf was a child, his murderer Siward was earl of the whole of Northumbria. When Morcar [q. v.] succeeded Tostig, the son of Godwin [q. v.], as earl of Northumbria in 1065, he put Oswulf, who is described as being then a young man, to rule over Bernicia, making him earl of the district north of the Tyne. In February 1067 the conqueror dispossessed Oswulf, and granted the earldom to Copsi or Copsige [q. v.], who drove Oswulf out. Oswulf took to the woods, where he suffered hunger, and gathered to himself a band of broken men. Five weeks later, on 12 March, he attacked Copsi as he was feasting at Newburn in Northumberland, set fire to the church in which Copsi had taken refuge, and slew him with his own hands as he attempted to come out. The following autumn a roober slew Oswulf with a spear. Oswulf's earldom was given to Gospatric [q. v.]
[Symeon of Durham's Hist. Regum, c. 159 ap. Opp. ii. 198 (Rolls Ser.); Freeman's Norman Conquest, i. 588, iv. 76, 107, 133.]
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
