Osbeorht, king of Northumbria

He was King of Northumbria (848/49) as successor to Aethelred II. He was deposed in 862/63 by the usurper Aelle II, who was not of royal blood. Osbeorht and Aelle were reconciled in 867. They jointly launched an expedition against the Danes who had invaded Northumbria. They succeeded briefly, and drove the Danes into York, but both were killed when the Danes re-grouped. Osbeorht's ancestry is unknown.

The capital city of Northumbria Eforwic (York) was first captured on 1 November 866 when the city was busy celebrating All Saints Day. There was hardly any bloodshed because supposedly everyone was at church except for the Vikings. It was the Vikings who renamed the city Jorvik. Vik means a bay in Old Norse. The Romans called it Eboracum and the Anglo Saxons changed it to Eforwic. The Vikings reputedly attacked Northumbria as revenge for the death of Ragnar the Hairy Breeched whom the Northumbrian king Aella put to death by imprisoning him in a snake pit. His three sons – Ivar the Boneless, Ubbi and Halfdan of the Wide Embrace invaded England to revenge him. the actual historical context is that there was thought to be a civil war raging in Northumbria between Osbert and Aella and the Vikings took advantage of it. It is thought that consolidation pressures in Scandinavia drove warriors out of their homelands. On 21 March 867, the Northumbrians tried to retake the city but the Northumbrian army was soundly defeated. Both Osbert and Aella were killed. Aella is supposed to have been ‘Blood-eagled’ -- hacking his ribs from his spine and pulling his lungs out. The only time this sort of death is mentioned in the Viking sagas. There is no historical evidence that it actually happened. The Vikings were known to turn the defeated on their stomachs to allow the eagles to feast on their backs. The Anglo-Saxon church made Aella into an instant saint. http://unusualhistoricals.blogspot.com/2013/08/five-fascinating-fac...