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.

During the Great Rebellion in the 17th cent. Somerset was the field of
many important operations. At the outbreak of war in August 1642, the
royal cause was maintained by the Marquis of Hertford, who was
supported by Lord Powlett, Sir Ralph Hopton, Sir John Stawell, and
other leading gentlemen of the county. But the sympathies of the yeomen
and manufacturers were with the Parliament, and Hertford had to
withdraw from Wells, where he had taken up his position, to Sherborne.
In 1643, however, the king's Cornish army entered Somerset, and was
joined by the Marquis and Prince Maurice at Chard; and the Royalists
then rapidly became masters of Taunton, Bridgwater, and Dunster. To
oppose them, Sir William Waller was despatched to the West, and a
cavalry skirm