right in putting 'Kemgisel' (i. e. Coengisl) in 729, it is clearly possible to find a place for Wealhstod just before that date.
William of Malmesbury does not recognise Wealhstod, but he gives us two other abbots between Beorhwald and Coengils. The first is Albert, or Aldbeorth, whom he places in 712, on the ground of a charter by which Bishop Forthere gives one hide at Bledenhithe on the river Æsca (Axe), at a small island and at the church of St Martin (i.e. Martineseye).[1] The indiction given in the charter is the first; which points rather to 718 or 723. The charter has features which suggest genuineness: unfortunately only a late and imperfect copy of it exists, though it was still preserved in 1247.
The other abbot is Echfrid, or Ætfrith.[2] The name comes from the grant of a hide of land with a fishery on the Axe, given by K. Ina in 719. This we cannot further trace, unless perchance it be the same as a charter, still preserved in 1247, by which K. Ina gives 'land at the foot of Munedup ': but that is ascribed to the time of Abbot Beorhwald.[3]
We can, if we will, find a place for the three abbots—Aldbeorht, Ætfrith, and Wealhstod—especially if the last of the three was only in office for a brief period before his removal to Hereford c. 729.
We must now take another glance at the political conditions of Wessex. We saw that in 658 Coenwalch drove the West Welsh as far as the Parrett, and that thus Glastonbury fell into his hands. It does not follow that the whole of Somerset east of the Parrett was at once occupied and held by the English: indeed the failure of Glastonbury to retain Brerit Knoll suggests that at any rate the district near the sea was still debated territory. The death of Coenwalch was followed, as we have said, by a period of unsettlement (672-85), in which the kingdom was more or less divided among several members of the royal stock, Centwine however achieving a pre-eminence in 676. No progress westwards was made until 682, when, as the Chronicle tells us, 'Centwine drove the Britons to the sea'. This vague expression suggests that the coast-line east of the Quantocks was henceforth in English hands: Centwine's grant of land near Quantock-wood (West Monkton) indicates an advance at least to this point.[4] Then in 685 the vigorous Caedwalla made himself
- ↑ De Antiq., p. 53; B. C. S. 128. The charter looks genuine: it is short and somewhat ungrammatical: but the signature is abbreviated and the year of the Incarnation is appended. It is a grant to the abbot himself with power of disposal: the only other instance of this among the copies preserved to us is K. Coenwalch's grant of Ferramere to Abbot Beorhtwald (B. C. S. 25).
- ↑ De Antiq., p. 53.
- ↑ J. of G., p. 375.
- ↑ B. C. S. 62, a late form: dated Indict, 10, i.e. 682.
