Osthryth

Who was Osthryth?

Osthryth, queen of the Mercians, was the wife of King Æthelred and daughter of King Oswiu of Northumbria and his second wife Eanflæd. She was murdered by the nobles of Mercia.

Osthryth was not the first of her family to become a Mercian queen. Her sister Alhflæd had married Peada, King of South Mercia 654-656. After Peada's death, allegedly murdered with Alhflæd's connivance, she retreated to Fladbury in Worcestershire, to judge from the place-name, which means "stronghold of Flæde", and its subsequent history. Sometime in the 690s Æthelred granted Fladbury to Oftfor, Bishop of Worcester, to re-establish monastic life there.S76 However this grant was later contested. Æthelheard, son of Oshere, maintained that Æthelred had no right to give Fladbury away, as it had been the property of Osthryth. Æthelheard claimed it as her kinsman and heir.

Æthelred and Osthryth loved and favoured Bardney Abbey in Lincolnshire. Osthryth placed there the bones of her uncle Oswald of Northumbria, who was venerated as a saint. It is clear from this story that Osthryth played a part in promoting the cult of St Oswald. Many years later she persuaded Oswald's widow Cyneburh to take the veil.