Osburga
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Osburga or Osburh was the first wife of King Æthelwulf of Wessex and mother of Alfred the Great, "a religious woman, noble both by birth and by nature".
Osburga's existence is known only from Asser's Life of King Alfred. She is not named as witness to any charters, nor is her death reported in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It is presumed, but nowhere recorded, that she was also the mother of Alfred's older brothers Æthelstan of Wessex, Æthelbald of Wessex, Æthelberht of Wessex, Æthelred of Wessex, and of his sister Æthelswith, wife of King Burgred of Mercia. The internal chronology of Asser's life suggests that Osburga was alive after the second marriage of Æthelwulf, to the Carolingian princess Judith, in 856.
Osburga is described as the daughter of Oslac, pincerna (chamberlain, literally butler) of Æthelwulf's royal household. Oslac is described as a descendant of the fictitious Jutish kings Stuf and Wihtgar, and is also ascribed Gothic ancestry.
[edit] Reference
- Asser's Life of King Alfred
- Lees, Clare A. & Gillian R. Overing (eds), Double Agents: Women and Clerical Culture in Anglo-Saxon England. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2001. ISBN 0-8122-3628-9
