Osthryth of Bardney

Saint Osthryth of Bardney, the Right-⁠Believing (Osthryth) was queen of the Mercians, wife of King Æthelred and daughter of King Oswiu of Northumbria and his second wife Eanflæd. She was murdered in 697 by Mercian nobles, for reasons that the sources do not explain: historians mention the hostility between Mercians and Northumbrians, revenge for her sister's alleged involvement in Peada's murder, or the suspicion that she wished to detach the kingdom of the Hwicce from Mercian overlordship.

Æthelred and Osthryth loved and favoured Bardney Abbey in Lincolnshire. She placed there the bones of her uncle Saint Oswald of Northumbria and helped to promote his cult; many years later she persuaded Oswald's widow Cyneburh to take the veil. She had to face conflicts of loyalty: in 679 her brother Ecgfrith fought against Æthelred, and their brother Ælfwine was killed. Osthryth was buried at Bardney; she was probably the mother of Ceolred, king of Mercia from 709 to 716. She is a saint of the undivided Church, honoured locally.