with growing might from 716 to 757. The new king of Wessex, Æthelheard, had trouble at the outset with a rival named Oswald, who however died in 730. Then in 733 Æthelbald descended on him, forced his way far west and 'harried Somerton'. Cuthred succeeded Æthelheard in 740, and we are told that he 'fought boldly' with Æthelbald: and again in 752 'he fought at Beorgfeorda against Æthelbald, king of the Mercians, and put him to flight'. The next year he fought with the Welsh, but whether Taunton was now rebuilt we cannot tell. The Glastonbury lands never extended beyond West Monkton, which lies just outside it to the north-east: but it is significant that in the future the rich township of Taunton fell not to Glastonbury, but to the lordly bishopric of Winchester.
Æthelbald's successor was the great Offa, who ruled Mercia for thirty-nine years, and held paramount sway over the whole of England. So Wessex till the days of Egbert had to submit to the Mercian overlordship.
We now return to our abbots. The next abbot is Coengisl (c. 72944). Here we have again the testimony of the Boniface correspondence; but we get his name only, and no clear indication of his date.[1] We must therefore turn back to the charters. William of Malmesbury found a charter by which K. Æthelheard granted to Abbot Coengisl land at Pouholt in 729. The form of the charter as we have it is suspicious, but its statements may be provisionally accepted.[2] We also find 'Cynegysli abbatis' in the attestation of a charter of K. Æthelheard. by which in 737 he confirms Q. Fridogyda's gift of land at Taunton to the church of Winchester.[3] This charter would be of historical importance if we could trust it. But it comes to us from a most suspicious source, the great Winchester chartulary, which is almost unrivalled as a collection of discreditable forgeries. The most we can say, therefore, is that the names of the witnesses may have come from a genuine charter of the date in question.
Next to Coengisl William of Malmesbury places Abbot Tumbert.[4] He found him in a charter of K. Cuthred, granting three hides at Ure in 745. This charter we have not now got. He found him again in the much manipulated charter of the lady Lulla, granting Baltonsborough.[5] Once more he found him in a charter by which Æthelbald, the Mercian king grants four hides in two places, Jecesig[6] and
