Oswine (Kent)

Kent in Anglo-Saxon times

Oswine (also: Oswin, Oswinus, Oswynus, Osuuinus ) was 688 to 690/691 king in the eastern part of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Kent . He came from the Oiscingas dynasty . His parents are unknown, but he was probably a descendant of Eormenreds .

Domination

In 686 the east of Kent had come under the rule of Wessex and Caedwalla installed his brother Mul as sub-king. King Sighere of Essex , allied with Wessex, ruled western Kent. As early as 687 a rebellion broke out, during which Mul and twelve of his followers were burned. Caedwalla immediately waged a campaign of revenge against Kent. The west of Kent, however, remained with Essex and was administered by Swæfheard (687 / 688–692 / 694).

Caedwalla abdicated in 688 and King Æthelred of Mercia took this opportunity to assert his influence in the south-east of England. Presumably Oswine, who was apparently not regarded as a legitimate king by his contemporaries, was installed as king by Æthelred in 688. Beda Venerabilis counted him to the series of reges dubii vel externi ("dubious and foreign kings"), who ruled Kent between 686 and 690/691. Oswine clearly represented mercian interests and evidently ruled under the protection of Mercia. Although Oswine allegedly signed a charter "with his own hand" ( propria manu subscripsi ) in 689 , he seems to have been illiterate. Another charter he signed with a simple cross, the "Sign of the Holy Cross" ( signum sancte crucis feci ). Oswine and Swæfheard, the king in the western part of Kent, lived together peacefully and on an equal footing. This is indicated by documents bearing the signatures of both kings, alternately as exhibitors and witnesses. As early as 690 or 691, Oswine von Wihtred , the brother of the last “rightful” king, Eadric , was overthrown. Wihtred was given a longer term in office after a series of very short-lived governments.

swell

• S12 , S13 , S14

literature

• Barbara Yorke : Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England . Routledge, London-New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3 . PDF (6.2 MB)
• Lapidge et al. (Ed.): The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England . Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford et al. a. 2001, ISBN 978-0-6312-2492-1 .

Web links

• Oswine 2 in Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (PASE)
• Oswine in Foundation for Medieval Genealogy

Individual evidence

1. ↑ DP Kirby: The Earliest English Kings , Routledge, 2000, ISBN 978-0415242110 , p. 103.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England , Routledge, London-New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3 , p. 30.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 687
4. ↑ BAE Yorke: The Kingdom of Essex , In: Lapidge et al. (Ed.): The Blackwell Enzyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England , pp. 174-175.
5. ↑ Beda: HE 4.26
6. ↑ John Cannon, Anne Hargreaves: The Kings and Queens of Britain , Oxford University Press, 2009 (2nd revised edition), ISBN 978-0-19-955922-0 , p. 20.
7. ↑ Frank Merry Stenton (author), Doris Mary Stenton (ed.): Preparatory to Anglo-Saxon England: Being the Collected Papers of Frank Merry Stenton (Oxford Scholarly Classics) , Oxford University Press, 2001, ISBN 978-0198223146 , p. 52.
8. ↑ S10
9. ↑ S12
10. ↑ Oswine 2  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (PASE)  
11. ↑ S11 , S12 , S13 , S14
12. ↑ Barbara Yorke: Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England , Routledge, London-New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3 , p. 34.
13. ↑ Simon Keynes: Kings of Kent . In: Lapidge et al. (Ed.): The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England . Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford et al. a. 2001, ISBN 978-0-6312-2492-1 , pp. 501-502.

predecessor	Office	successor
Mul	King of East Kent 688–690 / 691	Wihtred