Osred was king 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...

 from 789 to 790. He was the son of Alhred

Alhred of Northumbria

Alhred or Alchred was king of Northumbria from 765 to 774. He had married Osgifu, either the daughter of Oswulf, granddaughter of Eadberht Eating, or Eadberht's daughter, and was thus related by marriage to Ecgbert, Archbishop of York...

 and Osgifu, daughter of Eadberht

Eadberht of Northumbria

Eadberht was king of Northumbria from 737 or 738 to 758. He was the brother of Ecgbert, Archbishop of York. His reign is seen as a return to the imperial ambitions of seventh-century Northumbria and may represent a period of economic prosperity. He faced internal opposition from rival dynasties...

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He succeeded Ælfwald

Ælfwald I of Northumbria

Ælfwald was king of Northumbria from 778 to 788. He is thought to have been a son of Oswulf, and thus a grandson of Eadberht Eating.Ælfwald became king after Æthelred son of Æthelwald Moll was deposed in 778...

, son of his mother's brother Oswulf

Oswulf of Northumbria

Oswulf was king of Northumbria from 758 to 759. He succeeded his father Eadberht, who had abdicated and joined the monastery at York. Oswulf's uncle was Ecgbert, Archbishop of York....

, who was murdered by the patricius (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...

) Sicga

Sicga

Sicga was a nobleman in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria.Sicga first appears in the historical record as senior lay witness to the proceedings of a council held by Papal Legate, George, Bishop of Ostia in 786, where he is called a patrician , a term which may correspond with the Old English...

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Osred, even though he united two of the competing factions in Northumbria, was king for only a year before being deposed in favour of the previously deposed Æthelred

Æthelred I of Northumbria

Æthelred was king of Northumbria from 774 to 779 and again from 788 or 789 until his murder in 796. He became king after Alhred was deposed...

 son of Æthelwald Moll. Osred was then exiled, apparently to the Isle of Man

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...

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He returned from exile in 792, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Anglo-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...

reports that he was "apprehended and slain on the eighteenth day before the calends of October. His body is deposited at Tynemouth." It is presumed that this killing was done by or for King Æthelred, who had had Ælf and Ælfwine, sons of Ælfwald, killed the previous year, and had attempted to kill Eardwulf

Eardwulf of Northumbria

Eardwulf was king of Northumbria from 796 to 806, when he was deposed and went into exile. He may have had a second reign from 808 until perhaps 811 or 830. Northumbria in the last years of the eighth century was the scene of dynastic strife between several noble families, and, in 790, the...

in 790.