Ine was neither the son nor the father of a king, but in his laws he left a lasting legacy in England.
In 688 AD, Caedwalla, the King of Wessex, abdicated his throne in order to make a pilgrimage to Rome where he died. At this period of English history, there were no hard and fast rules for succession, and any member of the royal family who possessed drive and ability could make a claim on the crown. After Caedwalla, the kingship passed to his grandson, Ine, even though Ine’s father, Cenred was alive and active. Although Cenred seems to have supported his son and acted as one of his trusted advisers, Ine spent much of his regin struggling to maintain his crown against numerous other claimants.
Ine ruled Wessex for thirty-seven years, and though it is impossible to form any kind of full chronology of his reign, it is possible to pick out several important events.
The first of these was the support of the consolidation of the churches within Wessex. Ine created a new bishopric at Shelborne, and it is during his reign that the first evidence exists for West Saxon synods (church meetings). The oldest evidence for such a meeting says that it met at Ine’s urging.
Also during his reign, Ine issued the first known set of Saxon laws outside the kingdom of Kent. These laws have been passed down to the modern world because they were included as the basis for the later and more famous laws of King Alfred the Great. These “laws” were more than a list of offences and punishments, but were an attempt to codify, define, and organize a system whereby a king and his underlings could govern the people. It is an important moment in English history as it is the first written attempt to redefine the idea of kingship from a mere military leader who dominated over a people to an active ruler wielding executive power in attempt to bring organization to his kingdom.
Despite his church and governmental reforms, the reign of Ine actually saw the influence of Wessex diminish and lose control over subject kingdoms to the south, although it is likely that during this time, dominion was established over Devon.
After a long reign, Ine abdicated his throne in 726 so that he too could make the pilgrimage to Rome, like his grandfather had done nearly forty years before. Bede, writing many years later, would comment that Ine “commended his kingdom to younger men”.
Ine had no known heir, and the kingdom of Wessex passed to one Athelheard, whose relation to Ine, if any, is unknown.
Primary information for this article was obtained from Anglo-Saxon England, Frank Stenton, Oxford University Press , 1971.
