Oda of Canterbury - Bishop of Ramsbury

Bishop of Ramsbury

Oda was consecrated Bishop of Ramsbury sometime between 909 and 927, not to Wilton as stated by both William of Malmesbury and the Life. The appointment was most likely made by King Æthelstan, and the first securely attested mention in documents of the new bishop occurs in 928, when he is a witness to royal charters as bishop. According to the late tenth-century chronicler, Richer of Rheims, in 936 Æthelstan sent Oda to France to arrange the return to the throne of France of King Louis IV. Louis was Æthelstan's nephew and had been in exile in England for a number of years. However, this story is not related in any contemporary records. Oda was said to have fought alongside Æthelstan at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937. It was at this battle that Oda is said to have miraculously provided a sword to the king when the king's own sword slipped out of its scabbard. A Ramsey chronicle records that in the 1170s, the sword was still preserved in the royal treasury, although the chronicler carefully states the story "as is said" rather than as fact. There are no contemporary records of Oda's appearance at the battle. In 940, Oda arranged a truce between Olaf III Guthfrithson, king of Dublin and York, and Edmund I, king of England.