710 King Ina of Wessex pushed the West Welsh beyond the Tone and
erected a castle at Taunton as a barrier against their return. The site
was subsequently fortified afresh by the Normans. (2) In 1497 Perkin
Warbeck, in his dash for the throne, seized the town, but fled in
terror at the approach of the Royal forces. (3) During the Civil War it
was alternately occupied by the Royalists and Parliamentarians, and in
1643 Blake successfully withstood here attacks from Hopton and Goring;
and the town was punished at the Restoration for this robust resistance
by the demolition of its fortifications and the loss of its charter.
(4) In 1685 the sentiments of the place were again enthusiastically
"agin the government," and Monmouth was accorded here a royal ovation
and was proclaimed king in the market-place. But this _coup de théâtre_
was only an introductory farce to the grim tragedy which followed. When
Monmouth's hopes of sovereignty were rudely shattered by the _mêlée_ at
Sedgemoor the town was handed over for pacification to the tender
mercies of Kirke and the brutal justice of Jeffreys. The rebels got
short shrift from both. Kirke, without preliminary inquiry, swung the
culprits from the sign-board of his lodgings, and Jeffreys' law was
notorious for its despatch. So numerous were the executions that Bishop
Ken complained to the king that "the whole diocese was tainted with
death." The name Tangier still attaches to the district where Kirke
penned his "lambs," and the old "White Hart" (now a shop) at the corner
of Fore Street marks the Colonel's own quarters. Jeffreys' lodgings
have been demolished, perhaps under the impression that nothing was
needed to keep alive the memory of the "Bloody Assize." The
ecclesiastical interests of Taunton were from early days associated
with the see of Winchester, and the establishment of a priory here
early in the 12th cent. was the see's acknowledgment of its
obligations. Nothing of this benefaction now remains but the monastic
barn near St James's Church.