Oswy

Anglo-Saxon king. He became king of Bernicia (one of the two divisions of Northumbria) on the death of his brother Oswald 641 and defeated and killed King Penda of Mercia 655. As King of Northumbria 655–70 he gained supremacy over all Mercia, the South Angles, East Angles, and East Saxons, as well as many Britons and Scots, He presided at the Synod of Whitby 664.

Oswy (612–670)

King of Northumbria. He succeeded to the kingdom of Bernicia on the death of his brother, St Oswald, in 642. His early attempts to reunite the kingdom of Deira, by this time virtually a Mercian province, and Bernicia failed. In 654 Penda, King of Mercia, determined to conquer Oswy, and in a battle against overwhelming odds at an unidentified place called Winwaed in west Yorkshire, Penda was killed. Oswy was temporarily overlord of Mercia and southern England, but in 657 Mercia threw off his rule. For the rest of his reign he was simply king of Northumbria.

Oswy was a champion of Christianity and a patron of learning and the church.