Oswald was king ofEast Anglia, present-dayEngland in the 870s after the death ofEdmund the Martyr. No textual evidence of his reign is known, but coins inscribed with his name are known.

Evidence suggests that during the period between the death of Edmund and the return ofGuthrum to East Anglia in 880, Oswald andÆthelred ruled the East Angles asclient kings. It is possible that the East Anglian aristocracy had been almost, but not entirely, extinguished by theViking attacks that resulted in Edmund's death, and that in the years when Oswald, Æthelred and Guthrum successively ruled the kingdom, there was a period of opposition or defiance against the Danish leadership.^[2] The Vikings ruled the East Angles from the accession of Oswald until 920, when East Anglia was incorporated into thekingdom of England, following the defeat of the Danes byEdward the Elder.^[3]

The existence of Oswald is known solely because of his coins.^[4] Coins and silverbullion were used throughout this period, when the Vikings continued the Anglo-Saxon tradition of producing silverpennies, although at a reduced rate. Eight coins are known from the reigns of Æthelred and Oswald, whereas over 200 coins are known to have been made by themoneyers of Oswald's predecessor, Edmund.^[5]

A few coins bearing Oswald's name were found in theCuerdale Hoard. The coins can be dated from the 870s to the 900s, following the death of Edmund. One coin, produced by a moneyer whose name startedBeor..., is of the temple type; another has analpha, a common East Anglian design.^[6]

• Bates, David; Liddiard, Robert (2015).East Anglia and its North Sea World in the Middle Ages. Martlesham: The Boydell Press.ISBN 978-17832-7-036-1.
• Blackburn, Mark; Grierson, Philip (1986).Mediaeval European Coinage: Volume 1 The Early Middle Ages (5th-10th Centuries). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Lapidge, M.; et al., eds. (1999)."Kings of the East Angles".The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. London: Blackwell. pp. 508–509.ISBN 978-0-6312-2492-1.
• Pestell, Tim (2004).Landscapes of Monastic Foundation: The Establishment of Religious Houses c.650–1200. Woodbridge: Boydell Press.ISBN 1-84383-062-0.

• Anglo-Saxon warriors
• East Anglian monarchs
• 9th-century English monarchs

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