Osburh

Events

Date of Birth: unknown.

Place of Birth: unknown.

Date of Death: unknown.

Place of Death: unknown.

Relationships

(supposed) Father: Oslac, pincerna of king Æthelwulf.

Nelson and Baldwin note that Asser is the only source for Osburh and her ancestry.

Mother: unknown.

Spouse: Æthelwulf (died 858), king of the West Saxons.

Children:

(Complete source citations for the children on this page are currently outside the scope of this project. Most information below comes from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography articles and Baldwin. There is only direct evidence for Alfred being a child of Osburh, but most scholars assume the others listed here were as well.)

Æthelbeald (died 860), king of the West Saxons. Married Judith, his father’s widow.

Æthelswith married Burgred, king of Mercia, in 853.

Æthelbeorht (died 865), king of the West Saxons.

Æthelred I (died shortly after Easter, 871), king of the West Saxons.

Alfred the Great, king of the Anglo-Saxons. Married Ealhswith.

References

Asser. Life of King Alfred (William Henry Stevenson ed.) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1904).

Baldwin, Stewart. “Osburh” in The Henry Project. [accessed 8 June 2014]

Miller, Sean. “Æthelbald (d. 860)” in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. (Oxford University Press, 2004).

Miller, Sean. “Æthelbert (d. 865)” in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. (Oxford University Press, 2004).

Miller, Sean. “Æthelred I (d. 871)” in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. (Oxford University Press, 2004).

Nelson, Janet L. “Æthelwulf (d. 858)” in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. (Oxford University Press, 2004).

Nelson, Janet L. “Osburh (fl. 839)” in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. (Oxford University Press, 2004).

Plummer, Charles (ed.) Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel: A Revised Text (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1892-1899).

Wormald, Patrick. “Alfred (848/8-899)” in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. (Oxford University Press, 2004).