Osred ( 697 – 716) was
king of Northumbria
Northumbria, a kingdom of Angles, in what is now northern England and south-east Scotland, was initially divided into two kingdoms: Bernicia and Deira. The two were first united by king Æthelfrith around the year 604, and except for occasional ...
from 705 until his death. He was the son of King
Aldfrith of Northumbria
Aldfrith (Early Modern Irish: ''Flann Fína mac Ossu''; Latin: ''Aldfrid'', ''Aldfridus''; died 14 December 704 or 705) was king of Northumbria from 685 until his death. He is described by early writers such as Bede, Alcuin and Stephen of Ripo ...
. Aldfrith's only known wife was
Cuthburh
Saint Cuthburh or Cuthburg, Cuthburga ( ang, Cūþburh; died 31 August 725) was the first Abbess of Wimborne Minster. She was the sister of Ine, King of Wessex and was married to the Northumbrian king Aldfrith.
Life
Cuthburh was the daughter o ...
, but it is not known for certain whether Osred was her son. Osred did not directly succeed his father as
Eadwulf Eadwulf (sometimes Eadulf) is an Anglo-Saxon male name. Notable people with the name include:
* Eadwulf of Elmham, a 10th-century Bishop of Elmham
* Eadwulf of Hereford (died 830s), Bishop of Hereford
* Eadwulf I of Northumbria, king of Northumbr ...
seized the throne, but held it for only a few months.
At the time that the usurper Eadwulf was overthrown, Osred was only a child, and the government was controlled by the powerful Bishop
Wilfrid
Wilfrid ( – 709 or 710) was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Francia, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and ...
, presumably assisted by
ealdormen
Ealdorman (, ) was a term in Anglo-Saxon England which originally applied to a man of high status, including some of royal birth, whose authority was independent of the king. It evolved in meaning and in the eighth century was sometimes applied ...
such as
Berhtfrith son of Berhtred. Osred was adopted as Wilfrid's son at this time. Wilfrid's death in 709 appears to have caused no instability at the time, which, together with the rapid rise and more rapid fall of Eadwulf, speaks to a degree of stability and continuity in early 8th century Northumbria which would not long outlast Osred's reign.
In 711 ealdorman Berhtfrith inflicted a crushing defeat on the
Picts
The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from ea ...
, in the area around the upper
Forth
Forth or FORTH may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''forth'' magazine, an Internet magazine
* ''Forth'' (album), by The Verve, 2008
* ''Forth'', a 2011 album by Proto-Kaw
* Radio Forth, a group of independent local radio stations in Scotla ...
, but the reign of Osred is otherwise unremarkable politically. Domestically, a variety of