The Gewisse (Old English: [jeˈwisːe] ye-WEES-se; Latin: Geuissæ) were a tribe or ruling clan of the Anglo-Saxons.
[6]The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle presents an eponymous ancestor figure, named Giwis,[7] which is an example of non-historical founding myths.
Professor Earle suggested that it was transferred from Winchester to Canterbury when the monks at the latter place were endeavouring to repair the losses in their library caused by the fire of 1067 (Plummer, p. xxv note).
[10] The early Saxon myths say that the Gewisse captured Searobyrig (Old Sarum) in 552 AD and Beranbyrig (Barbury Castle) from the Britons in 556.
[12] The Gewisse killed the three sons of Sæbert of Essex around 620, defeated the Britons at the Battle of Peonnum in 660, and by 676 had sufficient control over what is now Hampshire to establish a see at Winchester.
[13] The conquests by the royal house of Gewisse in the 7th and 8th centuries led to the establishment of the Kingdom of Wessex,[14] and Bede treated the two names as interchangeable.
Barbara Yorke has suggested that it was Cædwalla's conquest of the Jutish province and the South Saxons that led to the need for a new title to distinguish the expanded realm from its predecessor.
[15] However, as there are no surviving documents to indicate how these people described themselves, the most that can be said is that by the time Bede was writing (early 8th century), the phrase "West Saxons" had come into use by scholars.