Oswald (Old English pronunciation: [ˈoːzwɑɫd]; c 604 – 5 August 641/642[1]) was King of Northumbria from 634 until his death, and is venerated as a saint,[2] of whom there was a particular cult in the Middle Ages.

[5] Oswald was apparently born in or around the year 604, since Bede says that he was killed at the age of 38 in 642;[6] Æthelfrith's acquisition of Deira is also believed to have occurred around 604.

[7] Æthelfrith, who was for years a successful war-leader, especially against the native British, was eventually killed in the battle of the River Idle around 616 by Raedwald of East Anglia.

Oswald thus spent the remainder of his youth in the Scottish kingdom of Dál Riata in northern Britain, where he was converted to Christianity.

[9] It has been considered that Oswald is one of the three Saxon princes mentioned in the Irish poem Togail Bruidne Dá Derga, being named as 'Osalt' in that work.

[10] After Cadwallon ap Cadfan, the king of Gwynedd, in alliance with the pagan Penda of Mercia, killed Edwin of Deira in battle at Hatfield Chase in 633 (or 632, depending on when the years used by Bede are considered to have begun), Northumbria was split into its constituent kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira.

Subsequently Oswald, at the head of a small army[8] (possibly with the aid of allies from the north, the Scots and/or the Picts[11]), met Cadwallon in battle at Heavenfield, near Hexham.

[12] Adomnán in his Life of Saint Columba offers a longer account, which Abbot Ségéne had heard from Oswald himself.

[8] Following the victory at Heavenfield, Oswald reunited Northumbria and re-established the Bernician supremacy, which had been interrupted by Edwin.

Bede makes the claim that Oswald "brought under his dominion all the nations and provinces of Britain", which, as Bede notes, was divided by language among the English, Britons, Scots and Picts; however he seems to undermine his own claim when he mentions at another point in his history that it was Oswald's brother Oswiu who made tributary the Picts and Scots.

Shortly after becoming king he asked the Irish of Dál Riata to send a bishop to facilitate the conversion of his people.

Bede mentions the story that Oswald "ended his life in prayer": he prayed for the souls of his soldiers when he saw that he was about to die.

Bede says that the spot where he died came to be associated with miracles, and people took dirt from the site, which led to a hole being dug as deep as a man's height.

[30][31] Aspects of the legend have been considered to have pagan overtones or influences[31]—this may represent a fusion of his status as a traditional Germanic warrior-king with Christianity.

[27] In writing of one miracle associated with Oswald, Bede gives some indication of how Oswald was regarded in conquered lands: years later, when his niece Osthryth moved his bones to Bardney Abbey in Lindsey, its inmates initially refused to accept them, "though they knew him to be a holy man", because "he was originally of another province, and had reigned over them as a foreign king", and thus "they retained their ancient aversion to him, even after death".

It was only after Oswald's bones were the focus of was said to be a miracle, in which, during the night, a pillar of light appeared over the wagon in which the bones were being carried and shone up into the sky, that they were accepted into the monastery: "in the morning, the brethren who had refused it the day before, began themselves earnestly to pray that those holy relics, so beloved by God, might be deposited among them".

[32] In the early 10th century, Bardney was in Viking territory, and in 909, following a combined West Saxon and Mercian raid led by Æthelflæd,[33] daughter of Alfred the Great, St Oswald's relics were translated to a new minster in Gloucester, which was renamed St Oswald's Priory in his honour.

[34] Æthelflæd, and her husband Æthelred, ealdorman of Mercia, were buried in the priory, and their nephew, King Æthelstan, was a major patron of Oswald's cult.

The story is that a small group of monks from Peterborough made their way to Bamburgh where Oswald's uncorrupted arm was kept and stole it under the cover of darkness.