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Oswiu, also known as Oswy or Oswig () (c. 612 – 15 February 670), was King of Bernicia from 642 until his death. One of the sons of Æthelfrith of Bernicia, he became king following the death of his brother Oswald in 642. Unlike Oswald, Oswiu struggled to exert authority over Deira, the other Anglo-Saxon kingdom comprising medieval Northumbria, for much of his reign. Oswiu and his brothers were raised in exile in the Scottish kingdom of Dál Riata after their father's death at the hands of Edwin of Deira, only returning after Edwin's death in 633. Oswiu rose to the kingship when his brother Oswald was killed in battle against Penda of Mercia. The early part of his reign was defined by struggles to assert control over Deira and his contentious relationship with Penda, his overlord.〔Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms'', pp. 78–79, 105.〕 In 655, Oswiu's forces killed Penda in a decisive victory at the Battle of the Winwæd, establishing Oswiu as one of the most powerful rulers in Britain. He secured control of Deira, with his son Alhfrith serving as a sub-king,〔Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms'', p. 79.〕 and for three years, Oswiu's power extended over Mercia, earning him recognition as ''bretwalda'' over much of Great Britain.〔Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms'', pp. 82, 105.〕 Oswiu was a devoted Christian, promoting the faith among his subjects and establishing a number of monasteries, including Gilling Abbey and Whitby Abbey.〔Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms'', pp. 48, 80.〕 He was raised in the Celtic Christian tradition of much of the Irish world, rather than the Roman tradition practiced by the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdoms as well as some members of the Deiran nobility, including Oswiu's queen Eanflæd. In 664, Oswiu presided over the Synod of Whitby, where clerics debated over the two traditions, and helped resolve tension between the parties by decreeing that Northumbria would follow the Roman style.〔Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms'', pp. 79, 82.〕 Oswiu died in 670 and was succeeded by his son, Ecgfrith.〔Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms'' p. 82.〕 ==Background and early life== Oswiu was born circa 612, as he was 58 at his death in 670, according to Bede. He was the third child of Æthelfrith, then King of Bernicia; his siblings included older brothers Eanfrith and Oswald and sister Æbbe.〔Fryde et al., ''Handbook of British Chronology'', p. 5.〕〔Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book IV, Chapter 5.〕 Oswiu's mother may have been Æthelfrith's only recorded wife, Acha, a princess of Deira's royal line who is known to have been Oswald's mother.〔Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book III, Chapter 6, states that Oswald was Acha's son; Kirby, p. 89, and Stancliffe & Cambridge, p. 13, figure 1, consider it probable that Oswiu was also her son.〕 If so, his heritage did nothing to endear him to the Deiran nobility; while they accepted Oswald as king apparently on account of his mother, they resisted Oswiu throughout his reign.〔Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms'', p. 78, 79.〕 At the time of Oswiu's birth, Æthelfrith was at the height of his power. In 604 he had taken control of Deira, evidently by conquest; he killed the previous king (apparently Æthelric), married Acha, a member of the kingly line, and exhiled Acha's brother Edwin. His authority ran from the lands of the Picts and the Dál Riata in modern Scotland to Wales and the Midlands in the south.〔Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book I, Chapter 34 & Book II, Chapter 3.〕 Æthelfrith's power rested on his military success, and this success came to an end in 616, when the exiled Edwin of Deira, with the support of King Rædwald, defeated and killed him in battle by the River Idle.〔Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book II, Chapter 12.〕 On Æthelfrith's death, his sons and their supporters fled Northumbria, finding sanctuary among the Gaels and Picts of northern Britain and Ireland. Here they would remain until Edwin's death at the Battle of Hatfield Chase in 633.〔Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book III, Chapter 1.〕〔Æthelfrith's sons were not the first Anglian exiles to seek refuge in the kingdoms of the north. Hering, son of King Hussa of Bernicia, is said by the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' to have fought with Áedán mac Gabráin, King of Dál Riata, against Æthelfrith, at the Battle of Degsastan; ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', Ms. E, s.a. 603. The choice of a northerly exile, rather than flight to one of the southerly Anglo-Saxon kingdoms is discussed by Grimmer, §3–§6.〕 In exile, the sons of Æthelfrith were converted to Christianity, or raised as Christians.〔 In Oswiu's case, he became an exile at the age of four, and cannot have returned to Northumbria until aged twenty-one, spending childhood and adolescence in a Gaelic milieu. Bede writes that Oswiu was fluent in the Old Irish language and Irish in his faith.〔"Oswy thought that nothing could be better than the Irish teaching, having been instructed and baptized by the Irish, and having a complete grasp of their language"; Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book III, Chapter 5.〕 As well as learning the Scottish language and being thoroughly Christianised, Oswiu may have fought for his Gaelic hosts, perhaps receiving his arms—a significant event—from a King of Dál Riata, such as Eochaid Buide, son of that Áedán mac Gabráin whom his father had defeated at the Battle of Degsastan.〔Grimmer, §8.〕 The Irish annals name one ''Oisiric mac Albruit, rigdomna Saxan''—ætheling Osric—among the dead, alongside Connad Cerr, King of Dál Riata, and others of the Cenél nGabráin, at the Battle of Fid Eóin.〔''Annals of Tigernach'', s.a. 631; Grimmer, §9.〕 Whether Oswiu's marriage with the Uí Néill princess Fín of the Cenél nEógain, and the birth of Aldfrith, should be placed in the context of his exile, or took place at a later date is uncertain.〔Grimmer, §25; Kirby, p. 143.; Williams, p. 18.〕 Equally uncertain is the date of Oswiu's return to Northumbria. He may have returned with Eanfrith on Edwin's death in 633, as Bede appears to write.〔 Eanfrith apostatised and was killed by Cadwallon, who was defeated and killed in turn by another brother, Oswald, who became king of Bernicia and probably succeeded to his father's old dominance of northern and central Britain.〔Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book III, Chapters 1–2; Adomnán, ''Life of Saint Columba'', Book I, Chapter 1; Stancliffe, pp. 46–61.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Oswiu」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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