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.
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 skirmish between the two forces took place on the Mendips near Chewton. Waller's main army was posted at Bath; and the Royalists, advancing by way of Wells and Frome, had another skirmish near Claverton. They kept E. of Bath and reached Marshfield in Gloucestershire, 5 m. N. of the city. Then on July 5 Waller gave battle on Lansdowne Hill, and was forced to retire back to Bath, abandoning a quantity of arms and stores; but the triumph of the victors was clouded by the loss of Sir Bevil Grenville, who was killed in the fight. (The monument to him on the site of the encounter was erected in 1720.) The next year the king's cause in Somerset was less prosperous, for Taunton was lost, and repelled all the efforts of Colonel Wyndham, Governor of Bridgwater, to recover it. In 1645 the siege of Taunton was undertaken by Goring. The town was defended by Blake, who vowed (it is said) that he would eat his boots before he would surrender it, but he was saved from that extremity by Fairfax. On the approach of the latter Goring drew off from Taunton, and fixed his quarters at Langport, where he was attacked and defeated. This success on the part of Fairfax not only saved Taunton, but enabled him to besiege Bridgwater, which was defended by Wyndham with little resolution, and fell on July 23, within a fortnight of Goring's defeat at Langport. Fairfax also took Nunney Castle; and as in 1646 Dunster, the last place in Somerset supporting the king, also submitted, the entire county passed into the hands of the Parliament. Dunster was defended by another Wyndham, but he offered a much more prolonged resistance than his brother at Bridgwater, and withstood the besiegers for 160 days. After the execution of the king the small rising in favour of Charles II., under Colonel Penruddock and Sir Joseph Wagstaff, was crushed near Chard in 1655.
In the reign of James II. Somerset was the soil upon which was fought the last battle that has taken place in England. In 1680, the Duke of Monmouth, in the course of a tour through the county, greatly ingratiated himself with its people; and at Whitelackington held a great reception under a gigantic chestnut tree, which was standing as recently as 1897, when it was unfortunately blown down. When in 1685 Charles II. died, and Monmouth made his attempt to disturb the succession of James, it was to Somerset that he looked for support. After landing at Lyme, he entered the county at Chard, and passing through Ilminster, was proclaimed king at Taunton and Bridgwater. From the latter town (where he had stayed at the castle), he started on his luckless campaign, which was wholly confined within the borders of Somerset. He proceeded through Glastonbury (where some of his troops bivouacked in the Abbey), Wells, and Shepton Mallet, intending to attack Bristol, but at Keynsham he turned aside on finding the city defended by the Duke of Beaufort. He threatened Bath, but it refused to surrender; and he thereupon retired to Norton St Philip, intending to enter Wilts. There he had a skirmish with the advanced guard of the royal forces which had marched from London to meet him; and shirking a more general engagement, he withdrew to Frome. The townspeople of Frome, like those of Taunton and Bridgwater, gave him their sympathy, but nothing else; and disappointed at the lack of support, and wearied with his march along miry roads in drenching rain, he abandoned the advance into Wiltshire. A report that a rising in his favour had taken place at Axbridge decided him to return to Bridgwater. On the way he again passed through Wells, where some of his men tore the lead from the Cathedral roof to make bullets, and inflicted other damage on the building. Soon after his arrival at Bridgwater, the royalist general, Feversham, with about 4000 troops, reached Weston Zoyland from Somerton, disposing some of his forces at the neighbouring villages of Middlezoy and Chedzoy. As the royal troops were said to be in a state of disorder, Monmouth, who had about 6000 men, very badly armed, determined to attack him by night; and late on Sunday, July 5, he started from Bridgwater under cover of darkness. But in the passage of some of the "rhines" which cut up the [ Sedgemoor ] plain a mismanaged pistol gave the alarm; and in the engagement that followed his ill-equipped followers, though they fought bravely, had little chance against the regulars, and more than 1000 of them fell on the field. The battle had a sad sequel for Somerset. James knew no clemency; and Jeffreys' bloody assize left a crimson trail across the country, which even time found some difficulty in obliterating. Macaulay estimates that the number of the rebels hanged by Jeffreys was 320, and though the assize extended into Hampshire, Dorset, and Devon, most of its victims were Somerset folk. A certain poetic justice may perhaps be discerned in the fact that when, in 1688, the Prince of Orange drove James from his throne, his march took him through Somerset, and he had a skirmish with the royal troops at Wincanton. In connection with Somerset's share in the events of James's reign, it deserves to be mentioned that Bishop Ken, of Bath and Wells, was among the seven prelates who presented the famous petition against the king's Declaration of Indulgence.
The ecclesiastical history of Somerset may be briefly related. When Cenwealh of Wessex (who had been converted to Christianity by the King of East Anglia) established the bishopric of Winchester, such parts of Somerset as belonged to the West-Saxon kingdom were included in that see. Ina divided his augmented territories between two bishoprics, Winchester and Sherborne, the latter including Somerset, with Wilts, Berks, and Dorset. The first Bishop of Sherborne was Aldhelm (705), who only filled the see for four years, dying at Doulting in 709. Ina also founded Wells, but as a collegiate church of secular canons, not as the cathedral of a diocese. It was not until 909 that Somerset had a bishop all to itself, who was styled the Bishop of the Somersaetas, with his seat at Wells (the first appointed being Aethelm.) In 1088, in accordance with the policy of removing bishoprics from localities of little importance, the see was transferred from Wells to Bath, the bishop (John de Villula) at the same time becoming the abbot of the monastery. In 1192 Bishop Savaric procured for the see the rich abbey of Glastonbury, and became its abbot; and he and his immediate successor, Joceline, the builder of the W. front of Wells, were styled Bishops of Bath and Glastonbury. In 1224, however, another change was made, and the bishop took his title from Bath and Wells, as he has done ever since. Up to the Reformation the title was justified, both the monks of Bath and the canons of Wells taking part in episcopal elections; but, with the suppression of its monastery, Bath naturally lost this distinction.
Of religious houses Somerset possessed a fair proportion. The chief were Glastonbury, Bath, Bruton, Dunster, Muchelney, Stogursey (which were Benedictine), Cleeve, Barlynch (Cistercian), Hinton, Witham (Carthusian), Taunton, Woodspring, Stavordale (Augustinian), Montacute (Cluniac). The Templars had a preceptory at Templecombe, and the Knights of St John had establishments at Bridgwater and Mynchin Buckland (near Durston).