Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Oswulf (d.1067)
OSWULF or OSULF (d. 1067), earl of Bernicia, was son of Eadwulf or Eadulf, earl of Bernicia, slain by Siward in 1041. Eadulf was brother and successor of Ealdred or Aldred, and a younger son of Uchtred (d. 1016), son of Waltheof [see under Oslac]. After the death of Eadulf, which must have taken place when his son Oswulf was a child, his murderer Siward was earl of the whole of Northumbria. When Morcar [q. v.] succeeded Tostig, the son of Godwin [q. v.], as earl of Northumbria in 1065, he put Oswulf, who is described as being then a young man, to rule over Bernicia, making him earl of the district north of the Tyne. In February 1067 the conqueror dispossessed Oswulf, and granted the earldom to Copsi or Copsige [q. v.], who drove Oswulf out. Oswulf took to the woods, where he suffered hunger, and gathered to himself a band of broken men. Five weeks later, on 12 March, he attacked Copsi as he was feasting at Newburn in Northumberland, set fire to the church in which Copsi had taken refuge, and slew him with his own hands as he attempted to come out. The following autumn a roober slew Oswulf with a spear. Oswulf's earldom was given to Gospatric [q. v.]
[Symeon of Durham's Hist. Regum, c. 159 ap. Opp. ii. 198 (Rolls Ser.); Freeman's Norman Conquest, i. 588, iv. 76, 107, 133.]