Oslac of York
Encyclopedia
Ealdorman
An ealdorman is the term used for a high-ranking royal official and prior magistrate of an Anglo-Saxon shire or group of shires from about the ninth century to the time of King Cnut...
(or earl
Earl
An earl is a member of the nobility. The title is Anglo-Saxon, akin to the Scandinavian form jarl, and meant "chieftain", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king's stead. In Scandinavia, it became obsolete in the Middle Ages and was replaced with duke...
) of York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
and its dependent territories. These included but may not have been limited to the southern half of Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
. His background is obscure because of poor source documentation. The latter has facilitated disagreement amongst historians regarding his family and ethnicity.
It is believed that he took over the position of ealdorman of York in 966, holding the position until his downfall in 975. He may have been the first ealdorman of southern—as opposed to a united—Northumbria, though an alternative tradition puts the division of Northumbria into two ealdormanries after his death. Little is known of his career as ealdorman, except for a legend that he escorted the Scottish king Cináed mac Maíl Coluim to the English royal court, and that he was expelled from England in 975. His life is unattested after this. He had one known son, but it is not clear if that son ever succeeded him.
Origins
Oslac's origins are unclear and no specific relationship with any previous known figure can be established from available sources. Oslac's name suggests to some historians that he was a Norseman. Susan Whitelock points out that the name Oslac is often an anglicisationAnglicisation
Anglicisation, or anglicization , is the process of converting verbal or written elements of any other language into a form that is more comprehensible to an English speaker, or, more generally, of altering something such that it becomes English in form or character.The term most often refers to...
of the Old Scandinavian name Áslákr, while the writers of the Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain entry on Oslac comment that the name suggests an origin in the Danelaw
Danelaw
The Danelaw, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , is a historical name given to the part of England in which the laws of the "Danes" held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. It is contrasted with "West Saxon law" and "Mercian law". The term has been extended by modern historians to...
, a suggestion supported by the fact that Thored, Oslac's son, held lands in Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
.
On the other hand Oslac is also a genuine English name, and the common Os element Oslac's name shared with the name of Osulf of Bamburgh, previous ealdorman
Ealdorman
An ealdorman is the term used for a high-ranking royal official and prior magistrate of an Anglo-Saxon shire or group of shires from about the ninth century to the time of King Cnut...
of York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
, points to a connection with the Bamburgh
Bamburgh
Bamburgh is a large village and civil parish on the coast of Northumberland, England. It has a population of 454.It is notable for two reasons: the imposing Bamburgh Castle, overlooking the beach, seat of the former Kings of Northumbria, and at present owned by the Armstrong family ; and its...
family of the English far north.
Accession
The Anglo-Saxon ChronicleAnglo-Saxon Chronicle
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...
recorded for the year 966 that Thored, son of Gunnar, raided Westmorland
Westmorland
Westmorland is an area of North West England and one of the 39 historic counties of England. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974, after which the entirety of the county was absorbed into the new county of Cumbria.-Early history:...
and that Oslac "took the ealdormanship". Some historians take this to mean that Oslac became the "senior ealdorman of all Northumbria, including the territory of the high-reeves of Bamburgh."
Records exist of Oslac witnessing charters as early as 963; this may mean he was ealdorman by 963, and would imply the death or deposition of his predecessor Osulf. Some of these charters are problematic as source documents, having been recorded only in later cartularlies; there is thus a possibility of interference in their transmission. Moreover, a charter dated 966 of a grant by dux Thored is witnessed by Oslac minister (i.e. "thegn"), suggesting that Oslac had not acceded to the ealdormanship of York before 966.
Division of Northumbria
De primo Saxonum adventuDe primo Saxonum adventu
De primo Saxonum adventu is a historical work, probably written in Durham during the episcopate of Ranulf Flambard . It recounts the coming of the English to the British Isles, treating individually the history of the rulers of the Kingdom of Kent, of the Kingdom of East Anglia, of the Kingdom...
, an 11th- or 12th-century compilation from earlier sources, claims that after the death of Osulf Northumbria was divided into two parts: Eadulf Evil-child receiving the lands between the Firth of Forth
Firth of Forth
The Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland's River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh and East Lothian to the south...
and the River Tees
River Tees
The River Tees is in Northern England. It rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines, and flows eastwards for 85 miles to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar.-Geography:...
and Oslac receiving the lands between the Humber Estuary and the Tees.
According to John of Wallingford
John of Wallingford
John of Wallingford , also known as John de Cella, was Abbot of St Albans Abbey in the English county of Hertfordshire from 1195 to his death in 1214...
, King Edgar made this division during a council at York, in order to prevent the whole area becoming the inheritance of one man. The Historia Regum
Historia Regum
The Historia Regum is a historical compilation attributed to Symeon of Durham, which presents material going from the death of Bede until 1129. It survives only in one manuscript compiled in Yorkshire in the mid-to-late 12th century, though the material is earlier...
claims that such a division took place not in Oslac's time but Osulf's, and that the division line was the River Tyne
River Tyne
The River Tyne is a river in North East England in Great Britain. It is formed by the confluence of two rivers: the North Tyne and the South Tyne. These two rivers converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Waters'.The North Tyne rises on the...
rather than Tees; historian Dorothy Whitelock considered this to be apocryphal.
Career
Oslac frequently attested charters of King Edgar the Peaceable, indicating that Oslac enjoyed some position of trust at court.De primo Saxonum adventu claims that Oslac, along with Eadulf of Bamburgh and Ælfsige Bishop of Chester-le-Street, escorted the Scottish king Cináed mac Maíl Coluim to the Wessex-based Edgar:
The two earls [Oslac and Eadwulf] along with Ælfsige, who was bishop of St Cuthbert [968—90], conducted Cinaed to king Edgar. And when he had done homage to him, king Edgar gave him Lothian; and with great honour sent him back to his own.This must have occurred — if it happened at all — between 968 and 975, i.e. between Ælfsige becoming bishop and Edgar dying. Richard Fletcher dated it to 973.
The historian Geoffrey Barrow believed this to mark the beginning of Scottish control over all the lands between the River Tweed
River Tweed
The River Tweed, or Tweed Water, is long and flows primarily through the Borders region of Great Britain. It rises on Tweedsmuir at Tweed's Well near where the Clyde, draining northwest, and the Annan draining south also rise. "Annan, Tweed and Clyde rise oot the ae hillside" as the Border saying...
and Firth of Forth (defining "Lothian" in this manner), though another historian, Alex Woolf
Alex Woolf
Alex Woolf is a medieval historian based at the University of St Andrews. He specialises in the history of the British Isles and Scandinavia in the Early Middle Ages, especially in relation to the peoples of Wales and Scotland. He is author of volume two in the New Edinburgh History of Scotland,...
, has suggested that the part about Lothian may have been fabricated later to give credence to the claim that the Scottish kings owed homage for lands in Lothian.
Downfall and legacy
In 975, not long after the death of King Edgar, Oslac was banished from England. No reason is given by the Anglo-Saxon ChronicleThe valiant Oslac was driven from the country, over the tossing waves, the gannet's bath, the tumult of the waters, the homeland of the whale; a grey-haired man, wise and skilled in speech, he was bereft of his landsThe historian Richard Fletcher guesses that Oslac's downfall may have been the result of opposing the succession of Edward the Martyr
Edward the Martyr
Edward the Martyr was king of the English from 975 until he was murdered in 978. Edward was the eldest son of King Edgar, but not his father's acknowledged heir...
.
Oslac is said by the Historia Eliensis to have had a son named Thorth, that is, Thored. His successor was indeed a man named Thored, but it is not clear whether this was Thored Oslac's son or Thored son of Gunner; historians tend to favour the idea that Thored the successor was son of Gunner.
The Gesta Herwardi
Gesta Herwardi
The Gesta Herewardi is the name of a Latin text probably written around 1109-31, recounting the deeds of Hereward the Wake. The Latin text of about 1109-31 claims to be a translation of an earlier work in Old English, with gaps in the damaged original filled out from oral history...
tells us that his great-great granddaughter, Aedeva (Edith), was Hereward's
Hereward the Wake
Hereward the Wake , known in his own times as Hereward the Outlaw or Hereward the Exile, was an 11th-century leader of local resistance to the Norman conquest of England....
mother.