Battle of Bedcanford

The annal describing the battle reads "Her Cuþwulf feaht wiþ Bretwalas æt Bedcan forda.

& þy ilcan geare he gefor" ("This year Cuthwulf fought with the Britons at Bedford and took four towns, Limbury, Aylesbury, Benson and Eynsham.

[4] In 1881, John Richard Green's Guest-inspired The Making of England claimed that Cuthwulf was the son of Cynric, portrayed by the Chronicle as the founder of the West-Saxon dynasty, and argued that the four towns controlled the north bank of the Thames river from the Chilterns to the Cotswolds—roughly coinciding with the traditional counties of Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

[5] As archaeological evidence grew more extensive during the twentieth century and historians came to view the whole of south-eastern Britain as being culturally Anglo-Saxon already in the fifth century, they attempted to fit the annal into their understanding by positing that the area had come under Anglo-Saxon rule, been lost again following a resurgence in British power around 500, and reconquered in 571.

This does not in itself disprove that the sites were captured in 571, but does give a plausible reason why later West Saxon kings may also have wished to promote the idea that they held them by right of conquest.