Ælfwald I of Northumbria

Ælfwald I was king of Northumbria from 779 to 788, murdered by a great noble of the kingdom and afterwards venerated as a saint at Hexham. His memory is kept on 23 September, the day he was killed.

He was the son of Oswulf and the grandson of Eadberht, of the old royal house of Northumbria. His father was killed in 759, and Ælfwald, who had gone into exile, returned to the kingdom in 778-779. The nobility then rose against King Æthelred, son of Æthelwald Moll, who was driven out, and Ælfwald became king.

He ruled for about ten years and was regarded as a just ruler. In 780 he supported the election of his friend Eanbald as archbishop, and in 781 he set Tilberht as bishop at Hexham, strengthening his ties with the prelates of the Church. In 786, to improve the morals of clergy and nobles, a synod was held at Finchale, attended by the papal legate, Bishop George of Ostia.

On 23 September 788 he was killed, probably at Chesters, a Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall, by the ealdorman Sicga. According to tradition, the place of his murder was marked by an unusual light that came down from heaven. His body was laid in the church of Saint Andrew of Hexham Abbey, where he was venerated as a saint.

Because his sons were young, the throne passed to his cousin Osred II, son of King Alhred and of Osgifu, daughter of Eadberht. The family of Ælfwald fared harshly: his son Bearn had been burned alive in 780 at Seletun by Osbald, who would himself later become king, and his other two sons, Ælf and Ælfwine, were killed in 791 on the orders of King Æthelred, who had returned to the throne.