Hwicce is a kingdom in the Heptarchy period of Anglo-Saxon England.
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle the kingdom was established in 577, after the Battle of Deorham.
After 628 the kingdom becomes a client or sub-kingdom of Mercia as a result of the Battle of Cirencester.It was assessed at 7000 hides in the Tribal Hidage, giving it a similar sized economy to the kingdoms of Essex and Sussex.
The exact boundaries of their kingdom are uncertain, though it is likely that they coincided with those of the old Diocese of Worcester, founded in 679–80, the early bishops of which bore the title Episcopus Hwicciorum.
The kingdom would therefore have included Worcestershire except the northwestern tip, Gloucestershire except the Forest of Dean, the southwestern half of Warwickshire, the neighbourhood of Bath north of the Avon, plus small parts of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and north-west Wiltshire.
Various historians and archaeologists have examined the Hwicce Kingdom, including Della Hooke and Stephen J. Yeates in his book The Tribe of Witches (2008).
