Osred II of Northumbria

Who was Osred II of Northumbria?

Osred was king of Northumbria from 789 to 790. He was the son of Alhred and Osgifu, daughter of Eadberht.

He succeeded Ælfwald, son of his mother's brother Oswulf, who was murdered by the patricius Sicga.

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

He returned from exile in 792, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 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 in 790.