Saga of the Sutherlands - Entry 16 (Ælfwyn, 1083)
appendices written separately by A.C. Wilstock in 2017
1071 - Here King Osrӕd II*, son of Osrӕd I, second son of Freþreik, son of Þiudareik the Old King
, son of the First King
Aþaulf the True, continues to rule by strength under His one dominion. Now of three-and-thirty years, His Stourness* the King has demonstrably been altered by the heinous murders of his good wife, and two firstborn children.
1072 - Here Lywell and Luwell slew a Suthran Earl of Oxenrigg, whose name was Lethen, marking the start of the War in the East.
1072 - Here Veldred ascended to the Earldom of Oxenrigg, marking the start of his rule of forty-five winters over the midland fiefdom. At his ascension, he held a moot of knights, bannermen and meansfolk*, and at this gathering slew the Lords of Littlepickring, Walsbrock and Runston for loyalty to the Cumbrians. Their bodies were hung at the gates of Ostead for over a week, charred from fire set by angry meansfolk by the end.
1073 - Here His Stourness the King rightfully put three-hundred and two-and-twenty to torch* for practising the cursed religion of Druidism. These included the Earl of Eamont, Elðwin son of Elðred son of Ragner.
1074 - Here His Stourness the King was married to Reyne, daughter of Ulfryk, of Arngill. All the realm attended* this ceremony to celebrate the union of the lives of Reyne and His Stourness, and here loyalty was assured in the South Marches*.
1075 - Here the Earl Sigrun of Ulmere died after committing great slaughter*, and was succeeded by his better son, Sigurþ.
1076 - Here the King Mother, Ælswyyh, did die, two days after reaching seventy-eight.
1076 - Here the Earl Veldred did fight Lywell and Luwell, and did hold off against the Cumbrians, to great personal cost. The victory of the Sutherans over the Cumbrians was assured from this point.*
1079 - Here, after many years of fighting, Lywell and Luwell seized the shire of Franklin* following the fall of Dalry. Lywell did die.
1079 - Here the Earl of Ævon, Wilber, son of Rykken, son of Rangar, son of Rulf, did die at three-and-fifty. His son, Edred, did ascend to the title.
1080 - Here was a great battle at the gates of Dalry, in which ten-thousand Sutherans valiantly gave their lives to the Crown's cause.* Among those who died was the true, right and only Earl of Franklin, Aswinn.
1080 - Here the Cumbrians did prevent the good King's army from breaching beyond Mold Mebwr* again.
1081 - Here, after long deliberation, his Stourness the King pronounced that his fourth child and eldest living son, Siward*, must ascend. Upon her refusal to give fealty to the true Crown Æþling* Siward, the King's third child and eldest living daughter Ældwyn did flee to Westmorland, where the traitorous Earl Þeodric, son of Þorbarn, son of Wulfryk, proclaimed her the (Pretender) Queen.
1083 - Here King Osrӕd II did smite Luwell at Rӕddsbrycg* himself*, ending the War in the East and granting its final victory to the Sutherlanders.
1083 - Here the Earl of Westmorland did rout the Camwallers at Hwystensgӕt*.
King Osrӕd II - Osrӕd II, known often as "the Merciful" as a reference both to his tendency to shy away from using force on those he captured, beat or sentenced as King due to a disdain for carrying out violence and death, but since used sarcastically following the harshening of his rule, arisal of paranoia and tendency to kill those who he felt "wronged" him after his wife and two eldest sons were assassinated in 1071. He descends into abuse of food and drink, and eventually dies in 1088, following a long illness brought on by his attempt to build up tolerance to poison. He is sometimes known as "the Heretic" for his deep rejection of religion, after having originally been pious in his early reign.
His Stourness - Literally "His Greatness", but more practically equivalent to "His Majesty"
Meansfolk - Commoners.
Put to torch - Burnt (likely at the stake.)
All the realm attended (the Wedding of Arngill) - The most notable omission of this Entry, it is estimated that a significant number of senior Earls refused to attend, particularly from the East.
South Marches - The name most commonly used to describe the peninsula in the first three centuries of Sutheran history. Arngill is situated towards the northern edge of the peninsula, and at this time the historic kingdom of Camwall (now used as the name of a province in the far-south) was situated further south, therefore the loyalty and obeisance of the Marcher lords was critical to the Crown.
Here the Earl Sigrun of Ulmere died after committing great slaughter - Earl Sigrun of Ulmere was assassinated, likely on the King's orders, after the noteworthy supporter of Cumbrian Kings Lywell and Luwell routed a major uprising orchestrated by their opponents. He is said to have beheaded over one-hundred rebels personally in a single afternoon, though how real this is remains unknown. The earldom passed onto his third son Sigurþ, after his first son was at sea at the time, and his second son - the supposed heir - had been taken prisoner, later dying in captivity, and quickly aligned with King Osrӕd II.
The victory of the Sutherans over the Cumbrians was assured from this point.* - While the victory of the outnumbered Oxenrigg Sutheran armies over Lywell and Luwell was unexpected and removed the possibility of an attack on the metropole, it also neither assured the safety of the realm as a whole nor won the war decisively. However, had Oxenrigg fallen, the capital (Eamont) would have been on the doorstep of the Cumbrian armies; it would thus be far more accurate to say that the Sutherans
Franklin - Franklin is one of Sutherland's largest provinces, sat in the mid-east of the country, and its temporary fall during the last decade of Luwell's life marked a nadir in the power of the Sutheran Crown. This likely drove Osrӕd's paranoia further, particularly as it fuelled challenges to his power internally.
The (Second) Battle at Dalry - Possibly the largest battle of the War of the East, the 2nd Battle at Dalry more or less confirmed Cumbrian supremacy over the eastern half of the peninsula, and made the western half deeply unstable as the Earls of Westmorland and Ævon feared for their own safety. While these gains were temporary, they likely confirmed the split of the Sutheran Kingdom north-south in the 12th century as the Sound and peninsula drew further apart politically. The failure of the Crown to ensure its security of borders was also likely the spark that led to the succession crisis in the latter years of Osrӕd's rule, which are already beginning to fall into place by the time that this chronicle entry is written.
Siward* - Siward (or Seward) the Broken
Crown Æþling - Heir to the throne, "crown prince" elsewhere
Rӕddsbrycg* - Rӕdstead, western Franklin
Mold Mebwr - Maulds Meaburn, mid-west Sutherland
Himself - Unlikely. It is unknown how Luwell was killed, but it is known that at this point the King was too ill to have been at the forefront of any battle in any fighting capacity.
Hwystensgӕt - Whystensgӕt, note the negation of
who the earlier "Traitorous" earl was when talking about military victories.
