Oslac of York
Oslac ealdorman (or earl) of York from around 963 to 975. His territory included but may not have been limited to the southern half of Northumbria. His background is obscure because of poor source documentation. The latter has facilitated disagreement amongst historians regarding his family and ethnicity.
He may have been the first ealdorman of southern—as opposed to a united—Northumbria, though an alternative tradition puts the division of Northumbria into two ealdormanries after his death. Little is known of his career as ealdorman, except for a legend that he escorted the Scottish king Kenneth II to the English royal court, and that he was expelled from England in 975. His life is unattested after this. He had one known son, but it is not clear if that son ever succeeded him.
Origins[edit]
Oslac's origins are unclear and no specific relationship with any previous known figure can be established from available sources. Oslac's name suggests to some historians that he was a Norseman. Dorothy Whitelock points out that the name Oslac is often an anglicisation of the Old Scandinavian name Áslákr,[1] while the writers of the Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain entry on Oslac comment that the name suggests an origin in the Danelaw, a suggestion supported by the fact that Thored, Oslac's son, held lands in Cambridgeshire.[2]
On the other hand Oslac is also a genuine English name, and the common Os element Oslac's name shared with the name of Osulf of Bamburgh, previous ealdorman of York, points to a connection with the Bamburgh family of the English far north.[3]
Accession[edit]
Oslac attested three charters as earl in 963, all relating to the northern Danelaw.[4] He may have acceded on the death or deposition of his predecessor Osulf.[5] Some of these charters are problematic as source documents, having been recorded only in later cartularlies; there is thus a possibility of interference in their transmission. Moreover, a charter dated 966 of a grant by dux Thored is witnessed by Oslac minister (i.e. "thegn"), suggesting that Oslac had not acceded to the ealdormanship of York before 966.[6] Some historians think that Oslac became the "senior ealdorman of all Northumbria, including the territory of the high-reeves of Bamburgh."[7]
Division of Northumbria[edit]
De primo Saxonum adventu, an 11th- or 12th-century compilation from earlier sources, claims that after the death of Osulf Northumbria was divided into two parts: Eadulf Evil-child receiving the lands between the Firth of Forth and the River Tees and Oslac receiving the lands between the Humber Estuary and the Tees.[8]
According to John of Wallingford, King Edgar made this division during a council at York, in order to prevent the whole area becoming the inheritance of one man.[9] The Historia Regum claims that such a division took place not in Oslac's time but Osulf's, and that the division line was the River Tyne rather than Tees; historian Dorothy Whitelock considered this to be apocryphal.[10]