There is no doubt that the death of the wise
and peacemaking Aldhelm of Sherborne let the smouldering enmity
loose afresh, with the result of setting Gerent in motion against
his powerful neighbour. Ina's victory was decisive, Gerent being
the last king of the West Welsh named in the chronicles, and we
hear of little further trouble from the West until A.D. 835, when
the Cornish joined with a new-come fleet of Danes in an
unsuccessful raid on Wessex.
Ina's new policy with the conquered Welsh is historic and well
known. Even in the will of King Alfred, two hundred years later,
some of the best towns in west Somerset and Dorset are spoken of as
"Among the Welsh kin," and there is yet full evidence, in both
dialect and physique, of strongly marked British descent among the
population west of the Parrett.
There is growing evidence that very early settlements of Northmen,
either Norse or Danish, or both, contemporary with the well-known
occupation of towns, and even districts, on the opposite shores of
South Wales, existed on the northern coast of Somerset and Devon.
Both races are named by the Welsh and Irish chroniclers in their
accounts of the expulsion of these settlers from Wales in A.D. 795,
and the name of the old west country port of Watchet being claimed
as of Norse origin, I have not hesitated to place the Norsemen
there.
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