The importance of Somerset during the reign of the Saxon kings who
succeeded Alfred is evidenced by the many noteworthy incidents that are
connected with its chief city, Bath, and its great abbey of
Glastonbury. It was at Bath that King Edgar was crowned in 973; and at
the same place at a later date (1013) the Danish king, Sweyn, received
the submission of the western thegns. At Glastonbury were buried three
of the Saxon kings, Edmund (son of Edward the Elder), Edgar, and Edmund
Ironside. Here too was born Dunstan, who was so prominent an
ecclesiastic in the reigns of the first Edmund and five of his
successors. He was made abbot of the abbey by Edmund, and, after
becoming Archbishop of Canterbury, was buried at Glastonbury (988). Two
other Somerset men who filled the see of Canterbury during the Saxon
period were Ethelgar and Alphege.
Under the Plantagenets the history of the county was not very eventful,
though some localities suffered severely in the disturbances of the
Norman period. In William Rufus' reign it was the scene of several of
the movements directed against the king in favour of his brother
Robert. The powerful baron-bishop, Geoffrey of Coutances, with his
nephew Robert of Mowbray, after seizing Bristol, burnt Bath, but was
unsuccessful in the siege of Ilchester (1088). On the death of Henry I.
Somerset favoured the claims of Matilda, and the castles at Cary, E.
Harptree, and Dunster were held by their owners for her against
Stephen, to the no small discomfort of their respective neighbourhoods.
Castle Cary and Harptree were taken by Stephen, but he seems to have
regarded Dunster (defended by William of Mohun) as impregnable.
In Tudor times Somerset witnessed the attempt made on the throne by
Perkin Warbeck in 1497, who was supported by Lord Audley of Nether
Stowey and other Somerset gentlemen. The pretender advanced from
Devonshire to seize Taunton; but when Henry VII. entered Somerset,
passing in his progress through Bath, Wells (where he stayed with the
Dean), and Glastonbury, to Taunton, Warbeck lost heart and fled. When
captured and brought into Henry's presence he was spared; but the
king's clemency did not extend to his supporter Lord Audley, who was
executed on Tower Hill.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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