HWICCE  , one of the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon

Britain . Its exact dimensions are unknown; they probably coincided with those of the old diocese of Worcester, the early bishops of which bore the title " Episcopus Hwicciorum." It would there-fore include Worcestershire, Gloucestershire except the Forest of Dean, the southern half of Warwickshire, and the neighbour-hood of Bath . The name Hwicce survives in Wychwood in Oxfordshire and Whichford in Warwickshire . These districts, or at all events the southern portion of them, were according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, s.a . 577, originally conquered by the West Saxons under Ceawlin . In later times, however, the kingdom of the Hwicce appears to have been always subject to Mercian supremacy, and possibly it was separated from Wessex in the time of Edwin . The first kings of whom we read were two brothers, Eanhere and Eanfrith, probably contemporaries of Wulfhere . They were followed by a king named Osric, a contemporary of /Ethelred, and he by a king Oshere . Oshere had three sons who reigned after him, lEthelheard, AEtbelweard and 1Ethelric . The two last named appear to have been reigning in the year 706 . At the beginning of Offa's reign we again find the kingdom ruled by three brothers, named Eanberht, Uhtred and Aldred, the two latter of whom lived until about 780 . After them the title of king seems to have been given up .

Their successor lEthelmund, who was killed in a

campaign against Wessex in 802, is described only as an earl . The district remained in possession of the rulers of Mercia until the fall of that kingdom . Together with the rest of English Mercia it submitted to King Alfred about 877–883 under Earl IEthelred, who possibly himself belonged to the Hwicce . No genealogy or list of kings has been preserved, and we do not know whether the dynasty was connected with that of Wessex or Mercia . See Bede, Historia eccles . (edited by C . Plummer) iv . 13 (Oxford, 1896) ; W. de G . Birch, Cartularium Saxonicum, 43, 51, 76, 85, 116, 117, 122, 163, 187, 232, 233, 238 (Oxford, 1885-1889) . (F . G . M .