The West-Saxons thus became masters of the whole district which now bears the name of Somerset.

The conquest of Sussex and of Kent on his eastern border made Ine master of all Britain south of the Thames, and his repulse of a new Mercian king Ceolred in a bloody encounter at Wanborough in 715 seemed to establish the threefold division of the English race between three realms of almost equal power.

But able as Ine was to hold Mercia at bay, he was unable to hush the civil strife that was the curse of Wessex, and a wild legend tells the story of the disgust which drove him from the world.

He had feasted royally at one of his country houses, and on the morrow, as he rode from it, his queen bade him turn back thither.

The king returned to find his house stripped of curtains and vessels, and foul with refuse and the dung of cattle, while in the royal bed where he had slept with AEthelburh rested a sow with her farrow of pigs.