Editing Somerset (section)

===Saxon and Norman invasions===
[[File:Pulteney Bridge, Bath 2.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.75|alt=Yellow/Gray stone bridge with three arches over water which reflects the bridge and the church spire behind. A weir is on the left with other yellow stone buildings behind.|[[Palladian]] Pulteney Bridge at [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]]]]
After the Romans left, Britain was invaded by Anglo-Saxon peoples. By 600&nbsp;CE they had established control over much of what is now England, but Somerset was still in native British hands. The British held back Saxon advance into the south-west for some time longer, but by the early eighth century King [[Ine of Wessex]] had pushed the boundaries of the West Saxon kingdom far enough west to include Somerset.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lewis |first1=Brenda Ralph |first2=David Nash |last2=Ford |title=Narrative history of Saxon Somerset |website=Britannia |url=http://www.britannia.com/history/somerset/somhist5.html |access-date=21 October 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511192241/http://www.britannia.com/history/somerset/somhist5.html |archive-date=11 May 2008}}</ref> The Saxon royal palace in [[Cheddar, Somerset|Cheddar]] was used several times in the 10th century to host the [[Witenagemot]].<ref>{{cite report |last=Rahtz |first=Phillip |publisher=Archaeology Data Service |title=The Saxon and Medieval Palaces at Cheddar, Somerset: An interim report of excavations in 1960–62 |url=http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-769-1/dissemination/pdf/vol06-07/6_053_066.pdf |access-date=26 May 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701190407/http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-769-1%2Fdissemination%2Fpdf%2Fvol06-07%2F6_053_066.pdf |archive-date=1 July 2017}}</ref>

The nature of the relations between the Britons and the Saxons in Somerset is not entirely clear. [[Ine of Wessex|Ine's laws]] demonstrate that the Britons were considered to be a significant enough population in Wessex to merit provisions; however, the laws also suggest that Britons could not attain the same social standing as the Saxons, and that many were slaves.<ref>{{cite book |first=Martin |last=Grimmer |article=Britons in early Wessex: The evidence of the law code of Ine |title=Britons in Anglo-Saxon England |editor-first=Nick |editor-last=Higham |year=2007 |publisher=Boydell and Brewer}}</ref> In light of such policies, many Britons might have chosen to emigrate to places such as [[Brittany]]<ref>{{cite book |first=David |last=Higgins |year=2006 |title=The Bristol Region in the Sub-Roman and Early Anglo-Saxon Periods}}</ref> while those who remained would have had incentives to adopt Anglo-Saxon culture.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Higham |first1=Nicholas J. |first2=Martin J. |last2=Ryan |year=2013 |title=The Anglo-Saxon World |publisher=Yale University Press}}</ref>

After the [[Norman conquest of England|Norman Conquest]], the county was divided into 700&nbsp;[[Fiefdom|fiefs]], and large areas were owned by the crown,<ref name="EB1911">{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Somersetshire |volume=25 |page=390 }}</ref> with fortifications such as [[Dunster Castle]] used for control and defence. Somerset came under the political influence of several different nobles during the Middle Ages. During the Wars of the Roses, an important magnate was [[Humphrey Stafford, 1st Earl of Devon|Humphrey Stafford, earl of Devon]] whose wider influence stretched from Cornwall to Wiltshire. After 1485, one of the county's most influential figures was Henry VII's chamberlain [[Giles Daubeney, 1st Baron Daubeney|Giles Daubeney]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Stansfield-Cudworth|first=R. E.|title=Political Elites in South-West England, 1450–1500: Politics, Governance, and the Wars of the Roses|publisher=[[Edwin Mellen Press]]|year=2009|isbn=978-0-77344-714-1|location=[[Lewiston, New York]]|pages=191–225, 306–17}}</ref>