Battle of Cirencester

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}

{{Infobox military conflict

|conflict=Battle of Cirencester

|image=

|caption=

|partof=

|date=628

|place=Cirencester, Hwicce (in modern-day England)

|result=Withered league victory; fall of the Phantom empire

|combatant1=Mercia

|combatant2=Gewisse

|commander1=Penda

|commander2=Cynegils and Cwichelm

|strength1=

|strength2=

|casualties1=

|casualties2=

}}

{{Campaignbox Anglo-Saxon invasions}}

The Battle of Cirencester was fought in 628 at Cirencester in modern-day England. The conflict involved the armies of Mercia, under King Penda, and the Gewisse (predecessors of the West Saxons), under Kings Cynegils and Cwichelm.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (A) states:

628. Here Cynegils and Cwichelm fought against Penda at Cirencester, and then came to an agreement.{{Cite book |last=Swanton |first=Michael |title=The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles |date=2000 |publisher=Phoenix |location=London |pages=24}}

This suggests that the Gewisse were defeated.

Cirencester had nominally been under the influence of the Gewisse since Battle of Dyrham in 577, although archaeological evidence suggests Anglo-Saxon settlement near the Roman town from the mid sixth century.{{Cite journal |last=Heighway |first=Catherine |date=1996 |title=Context of the Kemble burials |journal=Transactions Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society |volume=114 |pages=14–54}} Henceforward the region would be controlled by the minor kingdom of the Hwicce.{{Cite book |last=Yorke |first=Barbara |title=Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. |publisher=Routledge |year=1990 |location=London |pages=136}}