c.670-c.790. The kings of the Hwicce, dependents of the Mercians
For a hundred years or so, in the late 7th and 8th centuries, there are references to a ruling family of the Hwicce, the dominant people in the area of Worcester. It is clear from these references that the Hwicce were themselves under the domination (or the protection) of the more powerful kings of Mercia, and it may be that they owe their control of the area to a strategic alliance with the Mercians -- but only the fact of the relationship emerges clearly from the sources. Most of the references are in charters, which give us not the beginnings and ends of their reigns, but the information that they were in power in the year that the charter was drafted. Since it would be awkward to present this in the general chronological framework, the references are gathered here instead.
In a discussion of the conversion of the South Saxons in 680/1 (HE, iv.23), Bede notes that the South Saxon queen, Eabe, had been baptized in her own province of the Hwicce, and that she was the daughter of Eanfrith the brother of Eanhere, who were both Christians, as were their people. The reference to "their people" (and the fact that Eanfrith's daughter became a queen elsewhere) are taken to suggest that Eanhere, and possibly also Eanfrith, ruled the Hwicce. There is no evidence as to when they ruled, but the lack of reference to them in the documentary sources from the 670s or later may suggest that their rule should be placed back in the 660s.
The first Hwiccian king mentioned in his own right is Osric, who appears in the 670s, and is a sub-king of the Mercians Wulfhere (658-675) and Æthelred (675-704). Bede calls him king in a reference which cannot be precisely dated (HE, iv.23), but must be several years after the arrival of Theodore in 668, so perhaps the late 670s. He is called the subregulus (sub-king) of Wulfhere of Mercia in a charter of 672?674 (S 1165), and in a charter of 676 (S 51), he grants an estate as king, but the grant is counter-signed by Æthelred of Mercia. In another charter, of about 680 (S 70), Æthelred of Mercia grants land to Osric and Oswald, whom he calls "my two servants of noble family in the province of the Hwicce". (Though S 70 may not be entirely genuine, the status granted to Osric is similar to that seen in the more clearly authentic documents.)
The next Hwiccian king known from the sources is Oshere, who appears in a charter of 680 and another of the 690s, and seems to be under the overlordship of Æthelred of Mercia. In 680 (S 52) he makes a grant as king, with the permission of Æthelred. In 693?696 (S 53) he makes another grant as king, with no clear reference to Æthelred of Mercia, but in the historical preamble of a charter of 736/7 (S 1429), he is called sub-king of the Hwicce and a retainer of Æthelred.
Sons of Oshere are in charge of the Hwicce in the first half of the 8th century, under the overlordship of Æthelbald of Mercia (716-57). A charter ostensibly of 706 (S 54), by which Æthelweard sub-king, son of Oshere former king of the Hwicce, grants land with the permission of Coenred of Mercia (704-9), is probably not genuine, but the same information recurs in genuine charters. In a charter from 716?737, Æthelric, the retainer of Æthelbald of Mercia, is called the son of Oshere the former king of the Hwicce. In the famous Ismere charter of 736 (S 89), this Æthelric is again called the sub-king and retainer of Æthelbald. In a charter of 737?740, Osred, a member of the royal family of the Hwicce, is called an official (minister) of Æthelbald. The Hwiccians were not alone under Æthelbald's dominion: Bede notes that in his day (in 731) all of the southern kingdoms were subject to Æthelbald of Mercia.
The last known rulers of the Hwicce are the brothers Eanberht, Uhtred and Ealdred, who appear in the third quarter of the 8th century under the overlordship of Offa of Mercia (757-96). In 757 (S 55), Eanberht, regulus (ruler) of the Hwicce, makes a grant which is counter-signed by Offa. In 759 (S 56), Eanberht, Uhtred and Ealdred, make a grant with the permission of Offa, and Offa's signature appears above those of the brothers. Four more charters of the 760s and 770s are cast in similar terms (S 57-9, 63). In a charter of 778 (S 113), Offa grants land to Ealdred, whom he calls "my sub-king, namely ealdorman (dux) of his own people of the Hwicce".
By the 790s, Offa is granting land in the kingdom of the Hwicce with no reference to his sub-kings (S 139 of 793?796), and there are no further references to Eanberht, Uhtred or Ealdred. The chapter on the separate sub-kingdom of the Hwicce seems to have ended.
It may have had one more flicker of life in 802, when the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes that the ealdorman Æthelmund rode from the province of the Hwicce into Wessex, where he was repulsed by Weohstan, the ealdorman of Wiltshire. However, if this Æthelmund is correctly identified with the Æthelmund of charters of the 790s, he seems more likely to have been a Mercian official, taking opportunistic advantage of the death of the West Saxon king, than the last hope of an independent Hwicce. (On all this, see Sims-Williams, pp.33-9.)
P. Sims-Williams, Religion and Literature in Western England, 600-800, Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England, 3 (Cambridge: 1990)