Osric
- See Osric of Deira for the king who briefly ruled Deira in the 630s.
Osric was a king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the Hwicce, who ruled from at least 676 to 693, the dates of his surviving charters. Osric was probably a son of Eanhere, a previous King of the Hwicce, by
Osthryth, daughter of Oswiu of Northumbria. The only marriage recorded for Osthryth is that to Æthelred of Mercia, but an earlier marriage to Eanhere would explain why Osric and his brother Oswald are described as Æthelred's nepotes - usually translated as nephews or grandsons, but here probably meaning step-sons (Leland, Collectanea, vol. 1, p. 240). In 676 Osric granted lands to found a convent at Bath. Osric was buried at Gloucester; his remains now lie in a medieval tomb in the cathedral. In Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Osric is the name of a foolish courtier.
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