Osyth of Essex

• Preferred Name: Osyth of Essex ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]}
  
• Gender: F
  
• FSID: G68W-7DZ
  
• Death: 699 in Buckinghamshire, England at LATI: N1.7627 LONG: E0.6592 with note: GEDCOM data
  
• Title+(Nobility): with note: Description: Kentish Princess of Essex
  
• Ruling+Period+: 663 in Essex at LATI: N0.6912 LONG: E14.0358 with note: Description: Date of beginning of reign Source: Early English Queens, 650–850: Speculum Reginae
  
• Source URL: with note: Description: https://www.geni.com/people/Osyth/6000000002188118972
  
• Birth: um 650 in Quarrandom, Kingdom of Mercia, Anglia at LATI: N2.4379 LONG: E1.6496
  
• Burial: in Saint Mary's Church in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England at LATI: N1.7627 LONG: E0.6592 with note: 0653
  
• Notes:

  === Life Sketch ===
  geni.com Osgyth Birthdate: 670 Birthplace: Quarrendon,Aylesbury,, Death: 700 (29-31) (Killed by the vikings Inguar and Hubba) Immediate Family: Daughter of Frithwold, king of Surrey and Wilburga of Surry Wife of Sigehere, king of Essex Mother of Offa, king of Essex
  LESS
  
  SIGEHERE [Sigher] (-[683]). William of Malmesbury names "Sigher the son of Sigebert the Little and Sebbi the son of Seward" as successors of Swithelm, specifying that Sigher died before Sæbbi[183]. Bede names "reges Sigheri et Sebbi" as successors of "Suidhelmum" as kings of the East Saxons, subject to Wulfhere King of Mercia, specifying that Sigehere lapsed into paganism at the time of a plague but that King Wulfhere organised his reconversion[184]. Roger of Wendover records that "Sebba filio Sewardi et Sigehero filio Sigeberti parvi" ordained "Erkenwaldum" as bishop of London in 675[185]. Roger of Wendover records the death in 683 of "Sigehero orientalium Saxonum rege" adding that thereafter "Sebba" ruled as sole king[186]. m [OSYTH, daughter of ---. She founded a religious house at Chich in Essex[187]. The primary source which confirms her marriage has not yet been identified.] Sigehere & [his wife] had one child:
  
  1) OFFA (-Rome after 709). William of Malmesbury names Offa son of Sigeher as successor of "Segard and Seufred", sons of Sæbbi, specifying that he governed the kingdom for a short time, was "a youth of engaging countenance and disposition", and went to Rome with "Cenred King of the Mercians and the blessed Egwin bishop of Wictians" where he died soon after[188]. He succeeded his cousin King Swæfred in 704 as King of the East Saxons. Bede records that "filius Sigheri regis Orientalium Saxonum…Offa" left his wife and went to Rome with "Coinred [rex] Merciorum" and became a monk[189]. m ---. The name of Offa’s wife is not known. Bede records that "filius Sigheri regis Orientalium Saxonum…Offa" left his wife and went to Rome with "Coinred [rex] Merciorum"[190].
  
  === http://deloriahurst.com/deloriahurst%20page/2361.html#:~:text=Osyth%20was%20a%20Saxon%20princess%2C%20married%20to%20Sighere%2C,her%20the%20usual%20choice%20of%20death%20or%20dishonour. ===
  Osyth was a Saxon princess, married to Sighere, King of Essex. The marriage only lasted until the first evening, when Sighere decided he preferred stag hunting. Taking exception to this, Osyth took herself off to found the priory.
  
  Vikings Inguar and Hubba came up the creek in 653AD and gave her the usual choice of death or dishonour. Obedient to her vows, she opted for the first choice, whereupon they cut off her head. Undeterred, she walked a quarter mile, carrying her head in the traditional manner, until she fell at the church door.
  
  On being made a saint, her shrine became a place of pilgrimage and the priory of Chiche which she founded was named after her.
  
  The priory was re-built in 1118AD, so that nothing of Osyth's original priory can now be seen. However, St.Cedd's chapel at Bradwell, built in about 654 survives as an example of church building at the time of Osyth's martyrdom.
  -------------------------------------------------------------
  From: Catholic Online
  
  St. Osyth
  d. 700 Feastday: October 7
  
  Martyred nun, also called Osith and Sytha. Known mainly through legends, she was supposedly the daughter of a chieftain of the Mercians in England and Wilburga, daughter of the powerful pagan king Penda of Mercia. Raised in a convent, Osyth desired to become a nun but was married against her will to King Sighere of Essex, by whom she had a son. Eventually, she won his permission to enter a convent, and she established a monastery on land at Chich, Essex, donated by Sighere, where she served as an abbess. She was reputedly slain by Danish raiders and is thus depicted in art as carrying her own head. There are historical difficulties associated with her existence, especially as no mention is made of her by Bede in his Ecclesiastical History.
  
  There is no historical reference for this person. She was not the daughter of Wilberga who was born circa 660 and married Sighere.
  
  === Second Husband? ===
  There is no historical support for her marriage to anyone other than King Sighere of Essex.
  
  === Wikipedia - Saint Osyth of Essex ===
  Osgyth (or Osyth; died c. 700 AD) was an English saint. She is primarily commemorated in the village of Saint Osyth, Essex, near Colchester. Alternative spellings of her name include Sythe, Othith and Ositha. Born of a noble family, she founded a priory near Chich which was later named after her.
  
  Life
  Born in Quarrendon, Buckinghamshire (at that time part of Mercia), she was the daughter of Frithwald, a sub-king of Mercia in Surrey. Her mother was Wilburga, the daughter of the pagan King Penda of Mercia.[2] Her parents, with St. Erconwald, founded Chertsey Abbey in AD 675.
  
  Raised in the care of her maternal aunts, St Edith of Aylesbury and Edburga of Bicester, her ambition was to become an abbess, but she was too important as a political pawn to be set aside.[3] She was forced by her father into a dynastic marriage with Sighere, King of Essex. While her husband ran off to hunt down a beautiful white stag, Osgyth persuaded two local bishops to accept her vows as a nun. Upon his return some days later, he reluctantly agreed to her decision and granted her some land at Chich near Colchester where she established a convent,[2] and ruled as first abbess. She was beheaded by some raiding pirates, perhaps because she may have resisted being carried off.[2]
  
  Legends
  One day, St. Edith sent Osgyth, to deliver a book to St. Modwenna of Northumbria at her nunnery. To get there, Osgyth had to cross a stream by a bridge. The stream swollen, the wind high, she fell into the water and drowned. Her absence was not noted for two days. Edith thought she was safe with Modwenna who was not expecting her visit. On the third day, Edith, wondering that her pupil had not returned, went to Modwenna. The abbesses were greatly concerned when they discovered Osgyth was apparently lost. They searched for her and found the child lying near the banks of the stream. The abbesses prayed for her restoration, and commanded her to arise from the water and come to them. This she did.[4] A similar tale is found in Irish hagiography.
  
  Her later death was accounted a martyrdom by some, but Bede makes no mention of Saint Osgyth. The 13th-century chronicler Matthew Paris repeats some of the legend that had accrued around her name. The site of her martyrdom became transferred to the holy spring at Quarrendon. The holy spring at Quarrendon, mentioned in the time of Osgyth's aunts, now became associated with her legend, in which Osgyth stood up after her execution, picking up her head like Saint Denis in Paris, and other cephalophoric martyrs and walking with it in her hands, to the door of a local convent, before collapsing there. Some modern authors link the legends of cephalophores miraculously walking with their heads in their hands[5] to the Celtic cult of heads.
  
  Veneration
  On the site of a former nunnery at Chich, Richard de Belmeis of London, in the reign of Henry I founded a priory for canons of Saint Augustine, and dedicated it to Saint Osgyth;[3] his remains were buried in the chancel of the church in 1127: he bequeathed the church and tithes to the canons, who elected as their first abbot or prior William de Corbeil, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury (died in 1136).
  
  His benefactions, and charters and privileges granted by Henry II, made the Canons wealthy: at the Dissolution of the monasteries in 1536, its revenues were valued at £758 5s. 8d. yearly. In 1397 the abbot of St Osgyth was granted the right to wear a mitre and give the solemn benediction, and, more singularly, the right to ordain priests, conferred by Pope Boniface IX.[6] The gatehouse (illustrated), the so-called 'Abbot's Tower' and some ranges of buildings remain.
  
  Osgyth's burial site at St. Mary the Virgin, Aylesbury became a site of great, though unauthorized pilgrimage; following a papal decree in 1500, the bones were removed from the church and buried in secret. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) gives Saint Osgyth no mention. Undeterred, according to the curious 17th-century antiquary John Aubrey (author of the Brief Lives), "in those days, when they went to bed they did rake up the fire, and make a X on the ashes, and pray to God and Saint Sythe (Saint Osgyth) to deliver them from fire, and from water, and from all misadventure." A house in Aylesbury is still called St Osyth's in her honour.
  
  Her feast day is 7 October. She is normally depicted carrying her own head

• m. 680 in Wessex Kingdom, England

1. Offa King of Essex, b. 689 in Essex, England     d. 750 in Rome, Roma, Lazio, Italy

1. Title: Saint Osyth, "Find A Grave Index"
   Author: "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVVP-1VDZ : 24 May 2022), Saint Osyth, ; Burial, , ; citing record ID 28583571, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.
   Publication: Name: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVVP-1VDZ;
   
2. Title: Wikipedia: Osgyth
   Publication: Name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osgyth;
   Note: There is debate about the truth of her life and existence.
   Page: Add details
   
3. Title: Medlands Project
   Publication: Name: https://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ENGLAND,%20AngloSaxon%20&%20Danish%20Kings.htm#_Toc389126245;
   
4. Title: Between the Lines: Osgyth
   Author: Early English Queens, 650–850: Speculum Reginae by Stefany Wragg
   Publication: Name: https://books.google.com/books?id=Pw1pEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA89&dq=Saint+Osgyth&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjD5aSYpvz5AhWvpIkEHcP5CcsQ6AF6BAgJEAI#v=onepage&q=Saint%20Osgyth&f=false;
   Note: Google Book
   Page: Tradition vs. historical accuracy of Saint Osgyth
   
5. Title: Wikipedia -Osyth
   Publication: Name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osgyth;
   
6. Title: Legacy NFS Source: Ethelburgh -
   Author: #8727
   Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:2036700864
   
7. Title: Legacy NFS Source: Ethelburgh -
   Author: #8729
   Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:2036700870
   
8. Title: Human Family Project
   Author: Mary H. Slawson, Human Family Project - Reconstruction of the Irish Surnames from Milesus to 1600 (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Medieval History Specialist, Ireland 2005).
   
9. Title: Legacy NFS Source: Ethelburgh -
   Author: #8731
   Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:2036700874
   
10. Title: Legacy NFS Source: Ethelburgh -
    Author: #8728
    Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:2036700866