Oslac

2. Genealogy of Alfred’s Mother. — The mother of Alfred was named Osburh, an extremely devout woman, noble in mind, noble also by descent; she was daughter to Oslac, the famous cupbearer of King Æthelwulf. This Oslac was a Goth by nation, descended from the Goths and Jutes — of the seed, namely, of Stuf and Wihtgar, two brothers and ealdormen. They, having received possession of the Isle of Wight from their uncle, King Cerdic, and his son Cynric their cousin, slew the few British inhabitants whom they could find in that island, at a place called Wihtgaraburg; for the other inhabitants of the island had either been slain or had escaped into exile.

ALFRED, the youngest child of Ethelwolf and Osburgha, was born in the year 848
… It appears that when Ethelwolf married the French princess Judith, Alfred’s mother was set aside to make way for his step-mother, and it is probable that the children took her part and went with her. It was after his father’s death, and in his mother’s house (not, as some have supposed, in that of his step-mother, who had then become his sister-in-law), that the following incident is said to have occurred. In his twelfth year, when he and his brothers were one day in their mother’s presence, she showed them a splendid book of Anglo-Saxon poetry, an article then of great value, and she told them that she was ready to give it to him who should first make himself master of its contents, and commit them to memory. Alfred, attracted by the beauty of the initial letter, and already distinguished by his thirst for knowledge, accepted the challenge, took the book out of his mother’s hand, and “went to his master and read it, and, having read it, he brought it back to his mother, and recited it.”

Ælfred was the fifth and youngest son of Æthelwulf, king of the West Saxons, and of his wife Osburh, daughter of his cup-bearer Oslac, of the old kingly house of the Jutes of Wight (ASSER). He was born at Wantage in Berkshire in 849. In 853 he was sent to Rome by his father, where the pope, Leo IV, took him to his ‘bishopson’ and hallowed him to king. It seems impossible to gainsay this last statement of Asser and the Chronicles, strange as it is; and it may help to explain some things that follow. If we literally follow the words of Asser, we must believe that the child was brought back, and that he went again with his father two years later, when Æthelwulf made his own pilgrimage to Rome in 855. But it is perhaps easier to suppose that he stayed at Rome for three years and came back with his father in 856. He was Æthelwulf’s best-beloved son, and his hallowing at Rome, an act so contrary to all English precedent and English law, no doubt helped with other causes to set the elder sons of Æthelwulf against their father. On his way home Æthelwulf married and brought back with him Judith, the young daughter of Charles the Bald, king of the West Franks, and afterwards emperor. And we are driven, however unwillingly, to suppose that Osburh, the mother of Æthelwulf’s children, was put away to make room for her (see WRIGHT, Biographia Britannica Literaria, Anglo-Saxon Period, p. 385), a step which among the Franks at least, would be in no way wonderful. In no other way can we understand the well-known story told by Asser, how Ælfred’s mother showed him and his brothers a book of poems with a beautiful initial letter, and promised to give it to the one who should first learn to read it. Ælfred found a master, and was soon able to read. This story is placed in Ælfred’s twelfth year, about 861, when the mention of his brothers is in any case a difficulty. But in no case could we put the story before the return of Æthelwulf in 856. It follows therefore that Osburh must have outlived her husband’s second marriage. The notion that by Ælfred’s mother is meant, not his own mother, but the Frankish girl, younger than some of his brothers, whom their father had put in her place, is too wild to be discussed.

[Æthelwulf] was married to Osburh, daughter of Oslac, the royal cup-bearer, a descendant of the ancient princely line of the Jutes of Wight, and gave his eldest son, Æthelstan, charge of the Kentish kingdom with the title of king, putting him in the position that he had held during the later years of his father’s life (ib. p. 241; A.-S. Chron. sub an. 836).
… and in July 856 betrothed himself to Judith the daughter of Charles. The marriage took place on 1 Oct. at Verberie on the Oise, though, as the bride’s parents were married on 14 Dec 842 (NITHARD, iv. c. 6), she could not have been more than thirteen; and there is reason to believe that Æthelwulf’s English wife, Osburh, was still living [see under ÆLFRED].

Oslac

Oslac's Family

Osburh

Oslac