supreme in the kingdom; but his arms were turned chiefly against Sussex, Kent, and the Isle of Wight.
Ina's long reign (688-726) raised Wessex to an unexampled height: but, though he did much for its consolidation, we cannot be sure that he carried its frontier far to the west. In 710 the Chronicle says: 'Ina and Nunna his kinsman fought with Geraint the king of the Welsh '. It has sometimes been assumed that the conquest of Somerset was now completed, but this is unlikely. The rich lands round Taunton were indeed protected by a fortress erected about this time; but under 722 we read: 'Æthelburg the queen destroyed Tantun which Ina had built'. The immediate cause of this was the revolt of Ealdbriht, who may have made common cause with the Welsh. But a fortress so far advanced—if we suppose this to have been the frontier line—might be an actual source of danger, if it could not be strongly held.
It is Ina's glory that in his famous code of laws he dealt out justice to the conquered Britons of the lands he ruled. Their ancient monastery rose to new glory under his fostering care. Gifts of land enriched it, and the king built the Great Church of SS. Peter and Paul, east of the venerable wooden shrine which still treasured the memories of the past.[1] Glastonbury necessarily came under English abbots with the Benedictine rule; but it never ceased to be a centre of Celtic pilgrimage, and as a temple of reconciliation it must have played no small part in the blending of the two races. Under Ina the great Wessex diocese was divided, and Aldhelm, the learned abbot of Malmesbury, who had corresponded with K. Geraint on the debated subject of the date of Easter, became the first bishop of the new diocese 'west of Selwood'. He may have helped to keep the peace during his episcopate (705-9), for we note that it was in 710 that Ina had to call his kinsman Nunna, ruler of the South Saxons, to his aid to meet the forces of Geraint. Under Aldhelm's guidance Ina is said to have built the first church at Wells, where he is commemorated as founder, even as his splendid gifts to the neighbouring abbey gained him the less merited title of the founder of Glastonbury.
When Ina retired to die at Rome, his successor was Æthelheard (726-40). Already the growing power of Mercia had begun to threaten Wessex. Ceolred, the Mercian king, had fought with Ina himself at Woddesbeorge (or Wodnesbeorge) in 715: but the next year Ceolred died. He was succeeded by Æthelbald, who reigned
- ↑ In one of the genealogies in Tib. B. 5 we read of K. Ina: 'He getimbrade pæt beorhte mynster æt glæstinga byrig ': see further on this note The Saxon Bishops of Wells, p. 14, n. 2.
