The location of the Battle at Bedford, on the River Ouse and far to the east of the four towns that were captured, has been the source of debate for scholars. There is ample archaeological evidence of early Saxon and Anglian presence in the Midlands, and historians generally have interpreted Gildas's "De Excidio" as implying that the Britons had lost control of this area by the mid-sixth century. One possible explanation is that this annal records a reconquest of land that was lost to the Britons in the campaigns ending in the Battle of Badon.