Osulf I of Bamburgh

Osulf
The peninsula of Bamburgh, with the modern castle
Born	unknown
Died	between 954 and 963
Cause of death	Lynching
Resting place	unknown
Known for	Betraying Erik Bloodaxe and being the first recorded High-Reeve of Bamburgh
Title	High-Reeve of Bamburgh Ealdorman of York
Parent(s)	unknown

Osulf (fl. 946—54) was high-reeve of Bamburgh and ruler of Northumbria. Sometimes called "earl", he is more surely the first recorded high-reeve of Bamburgh and the man who, after assisting in the death of its last independent ruler Erik Bloodaxe, administered the York-based Kingdom of Northumbria when it was taken over by the Wessex-based King Eadred of England in 954.

Osulf appears at least 5 times in witness lists for charters, some of which may be genuine, in the years 946, 949, and 950. In 946 and 949 he witnessed charters as "high reeve" In 949 he witnessed an Evesham grant as well as a grant by King Eadred to Canterbury Cathedral as dux. And in 950 an Osulf Bebbanburg is alleged to have witnessed as Eorl.

He is the first man specifically designated "high-reeve" of Bamburgh. High-reeve is Old English heah-gerefa, which Alfred Smyth thought was influenced by the Scottish word mormaer, which possibly has the same meaning ("High Steward"). Judging by the North People's Law, a high-reeve was not the same as an ealdorman (dux), having only half an ealdorman's wergild.

Osulf's origins are unclear. A genealogy in the text De Northumbria post Britannos, recording the ancestry of Waltheof Earl of Northampton (and, briefly, Northumbria), suggests that Osulf was the son of Eadulf of Bamburgh, the ′King of the Northern English′ who died in 913. Richard Fletcher and David Rollason thought he might be the Osulf Dux who had witnessed charters further south in the 930s, which if true would extend Osulf's floruit back to 934.