Osgod Clapa

Who was Osgod Clapa?

Osgod Clapa, also Osgot, was a nobleman in Anglo-Saxon England during the reigns of Kings Cnut the Great, Harold Harefoot, Harthacnut, and Edward the Confessor. His name comes from the Old Danish Asgot, the byname Clapa meaning coarse, or rough, in Old English. He was a major landowner in East Anglia during a period in which no Ealdorman was appointed to the region. He held the post of staller, that is constable or master of the royal stables. In 1046 he was banished, and in 1054 he died.

Osgod is found as a witness to charters from 1026 onwards, but he first appears in narrative accounts on the occasion of the marriage of his daughter Gytha to his fellow-staller Tovi the Proud. It appears to be at these celebrations, on, or shortly before 8 June 1042, that King Harthacnut died suddenly.

Edward the Confessor kept Osgod in his position of trust, and the reasons for his eventual outlawing in late 1046 are far from clear. It may be that it was related to the earlier exile of Cnut's niece Gunnhild in 1044. Gunnhild was first married to Håkon Eiriksson, son of Cnut's trusted ally Eiríkr Hákonarson, and later to Earl Harald, son of Thorkell the Tall, a trusted servant of King Harthacnut, which placed her in a prominent position among opponents of Edward the Confessor's kingship. Osgod appears to have gone to Flanders, where Count Baldwin V gave him refuge.