Ceawlin

Ceawlin (d. c.593), king of the West Saxons (560-91). Ceawlin, who began to reign in 560, fought against the Britons. At the battle of Dyrham in 577 he is reported to have defeated three kings and to have taken Gloucester, Cirencester, and Bath, thus separating Britons in the south-west from those north of the Bristol channel. Dissatisfaction may have produced another king or subking, Ceol, in 591, and in 592, after a defeat at Wodnesbeorh, Ceawlin was expelled. He ‘perished’ the following year. Bede listed him as the second bretwalda.