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Osthryth , Queen of Mercia



Family 1: Aethelred I King of Mercia,    b. 645 in Kingdom of Mercia, Anglia    d. 716 in Bardney, Mercia, England
  1. Ceolred King of Mercia, b. ABT 660 in Kingdom of Mercia, England     d. 716 in Kingdom of Mercia, England
Sources:
  1. Title: British Kings & Queens, A Brief History
    Author: Mike Ashley, A Brief History of British Kings & Queens, Carroll & Graff Publishers, (United States of America, New York, NY, 2002), Page 482.
  2. Title: Dictionary of National Biography
    Author: [Bæda, as referred to above; Bright's Early English Church, pp. 159, 311-95; Lappenbergs England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings, i. 222.]
    Publication: Name: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Ostrith;
    Note: OSTRITH or OSTHRYTH (d. 697), queen of Mercia, was the daughter of Oswy [q. v.], king of Bernicia, the brother and successor of St. Oswald (605?–642) [q. v.] She was therefore sister of Egfrid, king of Northumbria, St. Etheldreda's husband, and of Elflad, who succeeded St. Hilda [q. v.] as abbess of Whitby. Ostrith became the wife of Ethelred, king of Mercia, who had succeeded his brother Wulfere [q. v.] in 676. He was the third son of Penaa [q. v.l, king of Mercia, the fierce old pagan who had killed five kings in battle, including Ostrith's maternal grandfather Edwin, and her sainted uncle Oswald. But 'out of the eater came meat.' Penda's sons and daughters were as earnest in the support of the Christian faith as he had been in its destruction. Ostrith and her husband were largely instrumental in building up the church in their kingdom, especially in the endowment of monastic houses, which in those early times were, as missionary centres, the chief instruments in the propagation of religion. The matrimonial alliance of the two royal houses was ineffectual to put an end to the long-standing feud between Mercia and Northumbria. Once more Lindsey was the battlefield. In 679 Egfrid crossed the Mercian border, and a battle took place near the Trent, in which Ostrith's young brother Alfwin, dearly loved in both kingdoms, fell (Bæda, Hist. Eccl. iv. 21). Peace was eventually made through the wise counsels of Archbishop Theodore. As one of the conditions, Ostrith and her husband insisted on the immediate banishment from Mercia of Wilfrid, whom in 681, on his expulsion from Northumbria by Egfrid, Ethelred's nephew, the son of Iris brother Wulfere, the sub-king Berhtwald had received into his province, and bestowed land to found a monastic house. Subsequently Ostrith removed the bones of her uncle St. Oswald to the great abbey of Bardney, near Lincoln, which, if not actually founded by her husband, had been largely enriched by him and his queen. The monks, however, who could not forget or forgive the wrongs Lindsey had received from Northumbria, refused to admit the remains of a member of the royal house from which their province had suffered so much. The wain containing Oswald's relics was stopped at the abbey gates. But in the night a bright pillar of light appearing above it testified to the sanctity of the martyred king, and convinced the monks of their error, which they atoned for by the ready admission of the coffin the next morning (ib. iii. 11). The vindictive spirit of the Mercians was more fatally exhibited in 697 in the murder of Ostrith by the nobles of the northern part of the kingdom, on the south bank of the Humber, ' a primatibus Merciorum interempta' (ib. v. 24; Flor. Wig. sub ann. 696; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, sub ann. 697; Matt. Westm. 'crudeliter necaverunt'). Seven years later, in 704, Ethelred abdicated the throne, and retired to Bardney, where he was 'shorn as a monk,' became abbot, and died in 716. The name of one son of Ostrith and Ethelred is recorded, Ceolred, who succeeded his cousin Cenred in 709, and died in 716, the same year with his father.
  3. Title: History of the English Church and People
    Author: Bede, History of the English Church and People>, Leo Sherley-Price, (<44 Eagle Street, London WC1R 4FS|n.p.>: , <2012|n.d.>), Page 200.
  4. Title: Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
    Publication: Name: https://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ENGLAND,%20AngloSaxon%20&%20Danish%20Kings.htm#OsthrythNorthumbriadied697;
    Note: OSTHRYTH (-murdered 697, bur Bardney Abbey). Bede records that "Aedilredum regem Merciorum" married "Aelfuini frater regis Ecgfridi…sororem eius…Osthryd", dated to before the battle in which her brother Ælfwine was killed[969]. The Vita Wilfridi refers to the wife of King Æthelred as "soror Ecgfridi regis" but does not name her[970]. Alcuin's poem names "regis Edelredi regina Osthfrida…Oswaldi sancti…filia fratris"[971]. William of Malmesbury names "Ostgida sister of Egfrid king of the Northumbrians" as the wife of King Æthelred[972]. Bede records that the bones of Oswald King of Northumbria were transferred to "monasterium…in provincie Landissi…Beardaneu" by "reginæ Merciorum Osthrydæ…filia fratris eius…Osuiu…cum viro suo Aedilredo"[973]. Bede, in his general chronology, records that "Osthryd regina" was killed "a suis, id est Merciorum" in 697[974]. She was murdered by the Mercians[975]. m (before 679) ÆTHELRED King of Mercia, son of PENDA King of Mercia & his wife Cynewise (-after 709, bur Bardney Abbey). He abdicated in 704 and became a monk at Bardney Abbey, Lincolnshire.
  5. Title: Legacy NFS Source: Ostrith -
    Author: Dictionary of National Biography, George Smith, Oxford Press, Vols 1-21 (Orignially published 1885-90),Ed by Sir Leslie S, Page number: XV:1211-1212, 1230
    Note: Source Media Type: Book
    Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:2736742373
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