THE FORTRESS

CHAPTER 6

A JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS

As the fortress at Chester was likely to have been an entirely a military post, rather than a Romano-British civilian settlement, it has been suggested that the Roman influence lasted only for as long as their actual presence in the area. Once the legionary’s were gone, the local population seemed to have simply reverted to their native languages and their tribal customs and soon forgot their former occupiers.

What is known is that within the former province there were a few isolated army units that remained in place and one or two of these would subsequently develop into independent kingdoms, ruled by the families of former imperial officers. The last known Roman commander was known by the western Britons as Coel Hen and is thought to be the origins for the nursery rhyme character that existed through to the present day, that of Old King Cole.

That doesn’t appear to be the case at Chester and it is just as likely that the fortress was governed by some sort of civilian administration for a relatively short period, which was able to maintain a degree of law and order over the settlement. However, it may be just as likely that the fortress remained as a military base under the control of the native British forces who had filled the void left by the Roman withdrawal. Either of these possible scenarios is supported in part by later archaeological evidence which tends to indicate an increased level of habitation and cultivation in areas immediately outside of the fortresses defensive walls, rather than inside them.

The centre of modern day Chester is littered with any number of historic buildings that help to completely conceal the settlements Dark Age history, the 500 years or so which marked the departure of the legions and the arrival of its later Norman occupiers. The very importance of the buildings themselves tends to inhibit any detailed exploration of these earlier periods of habitation and activity, resulting in gaps in our current knowledge regarding this period of English history. Post-Roman building, which is likely to have taken place alongside the main internal roads of the fortress were in all likelihood later covered over by the city’s world famous shopping rows, its churches and of course, its cathedral.

One fact that is known and is not in any way disputed was the continuing importance of the fortress site, both in terms of its geographical location and the security of its defenses. Both of these reasons would inevitable result in the city being fought over for centuries by the native Britons, marauding Scottish tribes, seaborne Vikings raiders and finally the Anglo Saxon people that would settled there. These continuing changes in ownership of the fortress site would only finally be resolved at the beginning of the 10th Century when it was finally incorporated into the British kingdom of King Alfred the Great.

Following the withdrawal of the Legions in the fifth century the native Britons seized control of much of the northwest region of England and sought to incorporate the whole area into their individual tribal homelands or kingdoms. At the time though, much of northern England was still under regular attack from seaborne Irish raiders and the Picts from further north, who ransacked the native settlements and carried away their livestock, food-stores and their treasures

British leaders such as Ambrosius Aurelianus and Vortigern are thought to have rallied the local tribes to oppose these raiders and the latter was said to have brought the Votadini tribe from Scotland in order to help protect the northwest region of Britain. Sources suggest that these forces under their leader Cunedda were actually based at the Chester fortress around the beginning of the 5th Century and were primarily employed as a local mercenary force to help protect both the city and its outlying areas. This tribe was formerly part of the Gododdin people from southern Scotland and as previously mentioned they would subsequently rule the Gwynedd region of Wales for the next 800 years.

Sometime around 428 AD these same tribal leaders are said to have requested the aid of the Saxon peoples who lived in continental Europe to help defend England against the various raiders that were attacking the country. Under the command of their leaders Hengest and Horsa, the Saxon forces landed in Kent and in return for land and supplies, set about expelling the Irish and northern raiders from the country. Having completed the task however, the Saxons were quick to capitalize on their gains and instead of returning home, they requested additional forces from their homeland and set about conquering the lands of their former employers. The native Britons who were unable to resist the onslaught of the Saxon invaders found themselves pushed westward and back into Shropshire, Cheshire and to the borders of Wales.

Around the same time in Britain, the Christian faith and its very interpretation was the subject of a great deal of controversy and dispute throughout much of the country. The Roman Emperor Constantine had converted to Christianity around 312 AD and later adopted it as the Imperial religion and it had continued to spread throughout the length and breadth of the empire from that time onward. In around 413 AD, Pelagius, a native of Roman Briton had dared to question the doctrine of “Original Sin” which was one of the founding principles of the Christian faith itself. His teachings were then later adopted by Agricola the son of the British Bishop Severianus, causing Pope Celestine I to send Germanus and Lupus to Britain in 428 AD to try and heal the divide within the English church that these heretical and blasphemous beliefs had caused.

It was reported that Germanus of Auxerre had led an army of orthodox British Christians to victory over a force of Pelagian heretics at Maes Garmon near Mold in around 429 AD. A related Chester legend has it that a man called Gormundus, a “Roman Cap’tayne”, had built a set of fortifications at Heronbridge, a former Roman site just outside the fortress at Chester and beat the “Saxons” in a major battle. This is notable for the fact that Germanus the agent of Pope Celestine I had indeed been a Roman military officer prior to his entering the priesthood and is likely to be the “Gormundus” noted in the legendary tale.

It would be tempting to believe that this event, real or not, somehow connects the two major disputes of the period and may well have occurred in the region of the former legionary fortress at Chester. Historical records do suggest that the native British tribes were eventually forced out of Shropshire and into Cheshire by the Saxon incomers who had occupied much of southern Britain, which might lend weight to this supposedly legendary story.

An alternative interpretation of these events might be possible, if one assumes that the “Saxons” referred to in the legend were actually the inhabitants of Chester, rather than an outside force. There is a suggestion that in the last years of the Roman occupation, the regular legionary units at Chester were actually reinforced by foreign auxiliaries from the continent, some of whom actually originated from the Saxony region. The discovery of small dwellings, with timber walls, thatched roofs and sunken floors, found at Chester appear to be similar to those found in Germanic settlements on the continent and might further support this hypothesis.

The fortress at Chester was said to have been held by the local native Britons from the time of the Roman departure in 407 AD through to 607 AD when it was wrested from the Welsh rulers of Powys, by the king of Northumbria, Aethelfrith. Brief details of these events were noted in the much later Saxon Chronicles which have since been attributed to the ninth century and were known to have often reported from a highly questionable Saxon perspective.

Brochfael was reputed to be a war band leader from Powys, who was said to have tried to defend the city of Chester from the Northumbrian army of King Aethelfrith. However, it was reported that Brochfael’s forces were subsequently defeated and the Welsh leader only just managed to escape the battle with a small band of his followers. Selyf ap Cynan, who was said to be the son of the Welsh ruler Cynan Garwen (Cynan White Shanks) from the Royal house of Powys was one notable individual who was reported to have been killed during this battle.

Early and modern day excavations at Heronbridge have revealed the remains of 20 or more burials that are thought to be battle casualties from this “Battle of Chester” and which may well have included members of the Votadini people who had previously been in attendance at the Chester fortress. Legend has it that the Northumbrian army slaughtered some 200 monks from the monastery at Bangor Isycoed as they prayed for a British victory. The Northumbrian king was reported to have said of the monks; “Whether they bear arms or not, they fight against us by crying to their God”.

Chester was also thought to be the seat for the British Church Synod from around 600 AD and would have included the church based at the nearby village of Eccleston. Aethelfrith was thought to be fulfilling a prophesy uttered by Augustine which said – “If the Welsh will not have peace with us, then they will perish at the hands of the Saxons”

Some time after this “Battle of Chester” it was reported that a number of native British princes gathered their forces and marched on the city and in their turn defeated Aethelfrith, forcing him to retire to his native Northumbria. In around 617 AD Aethelfrith himself was reported to have been killed whilst fighting the East Angles, who following their victory, took over large parts of the country.

The Welsh leader Cadwan or Cadfan was reported to have been the son of Iago ap Beli, the king of Gwynedd from 599 through to 613. Cadfan was also recorded as being the father of Cadwallon ap Cadfan the ruler of Gwynedd who would become one of the most notable and important figures in mid 7th Century Britain. Cadfan was recorded on a memorial stone at Llangadwaladr on Anglesey as “King Cadfan, the wisest and most renowned of all kings”, suggesting that his power base was actually centered on the island.

His son Cadwallon ap Cadfan was said to have succeeded to the throne of Gwynedd in around 625 and was reported to have been besieged on the isle of Anglesey by Earl Edwin, heir to the kingdom of Deira, who had earlier defeated the king of Northumbria, Aethelfrith. Eventually Cadwallon was forced to abandon the isle of Anglesey and retreat across the Irish Sea to Ireland in around 627. However, having finally allied himself with Penda, the Mercian king, Cadwallon later met and defeated Edwin and was subsequently crowned as King of the Britons (Welsh) at Chester sometime around 630 AD.

Earl Edwin was later said to have been killed at the Battle of Hatfield Chase and his Northumbrian lands were thought to have been seized by the Welsh ruler Cadwallon, acting in conjunction with his Mercian ally Penda and Edwin’s successors Osric and Eanfrith both killed. However, Osric was then succeeded by his brother Oswald, who met and defeated Cadwallon at the Battle Heavenfield in 635, during which the Welsh king was reported to have died.

The fortress was thought to have changed hands many times throughout the next two hundred years or so. In 869 AD, Aethelred the king of Mercia was thought to have dedicated a church to St John in the city. Located outside of the south eastern defenses of the fortress, close to the site of the former Roman amphitheatre, this ecclesiastical centre was granted extensive lands and privileges by the monarch. At some time prior to 1102, this church would become the Cathedral for the then Norman city, but it would be an unlucky building, suffering at least four collapses and standing today in a fairly ruinous state, with its many past glories forgotten with the passage of time.

King Wulfhere was the King of Mercia, married to Ermenlide and whose daughter Werburga was later canonized as St Werburgh and whose remains were interred at Chester’s St Peter’s and St Paul’s Saxon church. Werburga had forsaken worldly goods and entered the monastery at Ely, where her aunt, Aethelthryth or Audrey was the Abbess. She later controlled a number of convents and was reported to have died at Trentham, and later interred at the convent at Hanbury.

Directly descended from King Egbert’s bloodline, Aethelred was reported to have ordered the construction of St John’s church at Chester as the result of a dream. Legend has it, that the king who was an uncle to Werburga, later St Werbugh, was visiting his niece at her Abbey in the city. While there he was said to have had a dream or vision, which instructed him to build a church where he would see a white hind. Having instructed his entourage to search the area for such a beast, a white hind was said to have been seen at the spot where the church was eventually built.

There has been much heated debate over the actual age of St John’s church, with some suggesting that the building dates from around 689 AD, a full 150 years or so before the reign of Ethelred. Others believe that its first construction does indeed date from around the mid 9th Century and was built on the orders of the Saxon king, regardless of the legend that has been associated with its first building.

It isn’t clear whether or not the city reverted back into Welsh ownership or if it was overtaken by some other force in the following hundred years or so. What is known though is that a church dedicated to the memory of the Irish saint Bridget was founded by King Offa in around 797 AD close to the site of the later St Michael’s church, which today houses the Chester Heritage Centre. Offa was the King of Mercia around 757, who was responsible for the construction of “Offa’s Dyke” which marked the boundary between England and Wales and replaced the earlier “Wat’s Dyke”. This later structure ran from Chester in the north, through to Bristol in the south.

Throughout the period of the 5^th and 6^th Centuries the western provinces of Britain were regularly swept by plague and famine which was thought to have decimated the local population and restricted both economic and civil development. The permanent recording of such events was minimal and had it not been for the a Welsh priest called Gildas in the sixth century and the Venerable Bede in the eighth century, then even less of the islands history from these periods would exist today. Latin literature and language survived the fall of the Roman Empire and helped form the basis of many of the modern European languages that exist today. It continued to represent a common thread between the emerging nation states and allowed the well educated and professional classes that remained to communicate across borders and boundaries.

At the same time, skill levels amongst the general working population were thought to have declined in both the manufacturing and construction trades since the end of the Roman period. Non-basic items such as glass and ceramics lacked markets and building techniques which had been common during the occupation were forgotten by or simply unknown to the later generations of artisans. It always was and continues to be a common practice for people to reuse and recycle materials from disused and derelict buildings and it would be fair to assume that this was the case at Chester. In the three centuries following the departure of the Romans, it would seem likely that at least some of the fortresses internal stone buildings would have been taken away for use in other projects or just cleared away to allow the land to be reused for general agricultural use or for small-scale domestic habitation.

Where evidence of human habitation has been found, both inside and outside of the forts defenses, it suggests a relatively modest level of habitation and cultivation. A number of sites have been discovered, all of which indicate isolated pockets of ploughed land and meager buildings constructed with simple timbers and covered with thatched roofs. One of these sites, which was located behind the western frontages of Lower Bridge Street, close to the river, suggested that there had been limited use of the land, followed by a period of abandonment and then a further period of use. Such irregular use of the land surrounding the former fortress may support the contention, that its peoples partially abandoned the city and were soon dispersed to other parts of the region, until such time as the city became much more economically active and secure. This may in part be true, but it seems highly unlikely that a total abandonment of the fortress would have taken place, given that it would have offered shelter and a fair degree of security within its walls. Local springs and wells would have also provided the inhabitants with fresh water and the nearby River Dee would have represented an ideal food source.

In addition to all these local benefits and resources, the river itself offered much in terms of trading and of course transportation. Chester was still ideally located to benefit from the continuing trade between the ports of Britain, Ireland and continental Europe. The Lead and Silver mines of Flintshire, so heavily exploited by the Roman Empire were still producing their precious metals and Chester was the obvious place from which to export such material.

It is entirely plausible therefore, that in these uncertain and turbulent years, a proportion of the civilian population actually moved into the surrounding areas which bordered the river and which would later develop into the suburban communities of Handbridge, Saltney and Blacon. It was here that they could found their settlements, safe in the knowledge that the fortress defenses remained nearby should the area become insecure.  

It is entirely likely that Chester survived the withdrawal of the Romans and the subsequent centuries of wars and disputes, with a much reduced civilian population that managed to co-exist with whatever military force happened to be in power at that particular moment. Given the nature of the fortresses inner precincts at the time of the Roman departure, it seems unlikely that any resident force or population would be willing or indeed able to make wholesale changes to either the shape or fabric of the base itself, given their limited skills, knowledge and manpower. The remains of the legionary bath houses, the Praetentura apparently resisted all civil development up until the early 1960’s and was only finally removed when it was attacked with modern machinery The apparent lack of evidentiary materials for this period may just as likely be caused by the city’s inhabitants occupying a much smaller area of the fortress which has thus far escaped identification. It is also a possibility that extensive restructuring and building in later centuries has completely removed or destroyed many of these Dark Age materials.

Following its inclusion into the Kingdom of Mercia in the middle of the 9^th Century and the foundation of the growing Christian religious orders in both the 8^th and 9^th Centuries, Chester enjoyed a period of steady development and growth for the best part of a hundred years or so. The growth of its churches and monasteries, coupled with its economic resurgence as a result of its international trading, all combined to enhance the influence, reputation and prosperity of the former Roman fortress. This success however, had not gone unnoticed and towards the end of the 9^th century the city was regarded as a prime target for the greedy ambitions of the much feared Vikings.

Ingimund, was the leader of a band of Norse-Irish people that had been expelled from the Dublin area of Ireland and landed in Wales around 860 seeking a place to settle. The Welsh tribes were less than welcoming however and it was reported that the sons of the great Welsh leader Rhodri Mawr drove Ingimund and his people from their lands. Merfyn ap Rhodri, a son of the late Welsh ruler was recorded to have died around this time and it has been speculated that he was killed during the expulsion of these same Irish settlers. It appears that the refugees then approached the Saxon leader Aethelflaeda who was based at Chester and requested the gift of lands where they might finally settle and build a community. It has been suggested that Ingimond and his people were granted lands around the Heronbridge area, the site of the former Roman settlement and where there does appear to be evidence of Viking-like construction. Other accounts however seem to suggest that Ingimond and his followers were actually granted lands on the Wirral peninsula, to the north of Chester, but no definitive evidence either way has come to light which might fully settle the matter.

Having peacefully settled the area for a number of years, it then appears that Ingimund and his people began to cast an envious eye on the apparently wealthy city of Chester which lay nearby and began to plan for its capture. He was reported to have colluded with other leaders to demand the surrender of the city under the threat of force, but unfortunately for Ingimund and his comrades, Aethelflaeda had heard rumors regarding the planned raid and ensured that the city’s forces and defenses were substantially strengthened before any raid could actually take place.      

York was captured by the Danish invaders in around 867 AD and within the next ten years they had managed to overrun much of the Mercian kingdom, including the Midlands and East Anglia. The north western part of the kingdom though remained relatively unscathed by the troubles, including the vitally important seaport and fortress at Chester. Around 893 AD however, the Danish army finally turned its full attention to the city and after having marched across the country from Essex seems to have easily taken Chester from its Saxon defenders. Within the city’s defenses, there was known to be a small Norse community who traded there and it has long been suspected that members of this community were instrumental in allowing the Danish army access to the city.

Records in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle for the period describe the city as “Waste” Chester, which implies the city was partially deserted or derelict as a result of the Viking incursion. However, some historians suggest that this description is purely the result of a corruption of the word for “West” Cheshire and that in reality the city remained in relatively good order. A Mercian mint was known to have existed in the northwest of England in around 890 AD and it was reported to have been sited at Chester, which would not have happened if the city had been deemed to be economically unsound or insecure.

The Danish raiders were thought to have held the city for the winter months only and then deserted the fortress in the early part of 894 AD, after being starved into submission by the local Anglo-Saxon forces, who had removed or destroyed all the available food stores from the immediate area. It has also been suggested that the local Anglo Saxon forces around Chester were supplemented by a large number of Welsh troops provided by the ruler of Gwynedd, Anarawd ap Rhodri, the third son of the late great Welsh king Rhodri Mawr. When Anarawd died in around 916, he was reported to have been buried as King of the Britons (Welsh) according to the Welsh Chronicles and was then succeeded by his two sons who took control of much of the North Wales region.

A direct result of this major incursion was the building of a defensive network within the Saxon kingdom that would ultimately protect all of its towns and cities from the Danish army and at the same time totally isolate the Norse invaders. Alfred, the young King of Wessex and later Mercia, was said to have developed a series of defensive settlements or burhs that would help secure the borders of his kingdom. To further counter the threat which came from the nearby Wirral peninsula and the Danes that were based in Ireland, Alfred was said to have agreed a treaty with their leaders, which guaranteed them land to settle in return for a continued peace.

To help finally neutralize the threat from both the east and the north, a refortification of the Kingdom’s northerly border at the River Mersey was undertaken and the old hill-fort at Eddisbury to the east of Chester was rebuilt and strengthened. The defenses of the fortress itself were rebuilt and extended, so that they would now fully enclose both the southern and western areas of the city which had grown up outside of the original compound since Roman times.

The northern defenses of the fortress were extended further westward until they met the banks of the river. In modern day Chester this represents the length of the city walls between the later Morgan’s Mount, past Pemberton’s Parlour and terminating close to what is the site of the later Water Tower. This extension to the original defenses effectively secured the whole of the western flank of the buhr, simply by employing the river as an additional natural barrier to any invading force.

A defensive palisade was thought to have run south from the northern wall, incorporating the modern day areas of Black Friars, Nicholas Street, City Walls Road and Linenhall Place. It then continued on, past the south west corner of the fortress walls towards the river and enveloping the area of the Saxon earthwork defenses, later the Norman Castle, which in turn was itself replaced by the modern day Chester Castle and County Hall. Much of the land which now lay within the city’s western defenses was open and undeveloped and was generally used as small scale agricultural plots by the local inhabitants. The ruins of the former Roman buildings, which had once existed outside of the main fortress and continued to stand in these areas, were almost certainly demolished around this time and their materials reused for other local construction projects.

The defenses then continued eastward, a little north of the line of the river and past the developing business communities which were starting to establish themselves in the south of the settlement. This southern wall then continued to run on to a meeting with the original eastern defenses of the Roman fortress, which had themselves been extended southward towards the river. It seems likely that these extensions to the northern and eastern defenses and the relocation of the western and southern defenses were constructed using part or all of the materials from the original Roman fortress. Both the western and southern walls of the former Roman defensive compound are known to have disappeared at some point in time and it therefore seems reasonable to assume that this was due to a later extension of the defenses by its then Saxon inhabitants.

The construction of such formidable defenses would have taken a considerable period of time and despite their being generally credited to Aethelflaeda in 907 AD; it seems likely that the continued protection of the city was undertaken on a fairly long term basis. The fact that the raiders of 893 AD are thought to have required help from a “fifth columnist” who had helped these Danish attackers to gain entry into the city, suggests that the site itself was adequately defended during the period, further supporting the notion of a defensive palisade being in place before that time.

The Saxon Chronicles record that Chester was rebuilt by 907 AD but this may only reflects the final phase of the reconstruction work which was undertaken as a direct result of the earlier incursion. King Alfred, the actual architect of the buhr system was dead by 899 AD and this work appears to have been continued by his successor Edward the Elder. It now seems far more likely that the development of these defenses was the result of continuous upgrading, which had started with the Danish invasion of York in 867 AD some forty years earlier.

Around 875 AD the earthly remains of St Werburgh were brought to Chester, in order to protect them from the Danish army that had invaded the country and her final resting place soon became a place of pilgrimage for many Christians. The daughter of King Wulfhere and a niece to King Aethelred, she had devoted her life to the founding and development of convents throughout the kingdom of Mercia. She died at Hanbury in around 690 AD and was initially buried within the precincts of the convent that was located there. When her remains were removed to Chester, they were re-interred in the church of St Peter and St Paul’s in the city centre. The church itself was enlarged and re-dedicated to St Werburgh by Aethelflaeda, Lady of the Mercians in around 907 AD. A new church was constructed within the city, above the remains of the Roman Principia building and was itself re-dedicated to St Peter. A little over 200 years later, the second Norman Earl, Hugh Lupus who ruled Cheshire would devote an Abbey to the memory of St Werburgh, which would later become the city’s magnificent Cathedral.

Later relationships between the inhabitants of Chester and those that lived on the Welsh side of the border were not always so agreeable however and around 916 Aethelflaeda was said to have attacked the Welsh kingdom of Brycheiniog as a warning to its ruler Tewder ab Elise. Idwal Foel, the ruler of Gwynedd from 916 to 942 was reported to have organized a revolt at Chester in 924 in an act of defiance against the English monarch Edward the Elder. In 925 Edwards successor, Athelstan, made peace with the leaders of the Welsh tribes including Hywel Dda and Owain, the king of Gwent and together they would meet and defeat a Danish force at Bromborough on the Wirral peninsula in around 937 AD.

Aethelflaeda, the Mercian Queen and daughter of the late king Alfred, was reported to have died in 922 AD at Tamworth. She is known to have been vital to the security of her kingdom and was instrumental in the rebuilding and refortification of many towns and cities throughout the whole of Mercia and Wessex. Some seventeen years after her death, Britain would receive a new name from the kings of Wessex, Engla Land, a title that would survive for over a thousand years and remains with us today.

The fifty years of relative peace that had passed by, was finally ended in around 965 AD when a new wave of incursions by the Danes began. They established their bases on the Wirral and throughout the period of the next twenty years or so would devastate much of the Cheshire area. However, Chester was obviously fairly safe from the menace of these invaders, as the then king Edgar, was reported to have visited the city by sea around 972 AD. Nominated as “The Peaceable” the Anglo Saxon monarch was reported to have visited Chester in order to receive tribute from the 8 subordinate kings or Reguli that were subject to him and to build alliances with rulers whose lands bordered the Irish Sea, where many of the Viking raids originated from.

Legend has it, that these eight Reguli rowed him up river from the site of Edgar’s Field in Handbridge to the ancient church of St John’s on the opposite bank of the River Dee. While the other monarch’s rowed, Edgar was said to have steered the boats rudder, indicating his right to steer the “ship of state” perhaps? Once at St John’s these subordinates were required to swear a sacred oath of allegiance to Edgar, before once more rowing the king back down the river, to the journey’s starting point.

The subordinate kings were reported to have included; Kenneth, the King of Scotland, Malcolm, the King of Cumberland, Maccus, the King of Anglesey, Dunmael, king of Strathclyde, Siferth and Hywel, Princes of Wales Iago, King of Venedotia and finally Nichil, the King of Westmoreland all of whom obeyed the summons to attend King Edgar. Iago ab Idwal, the sole ruler of Gwynedd (Venedotia) was later forced to share his kingdom with his nephew Hywel ab Ieuaf and as a result was said to have entered into a plot with a band of Viking raiders in 974. However, things did not work out as Iago expected and he was thought to have been kidnapped by his former employees in 979 and never seen again.

In 976 AD there was a great famine in England, which would have some effect on the city, despite the wealth that many of its inhabitants had accumulated in the past decades. Then in 980 AD a further tragedy struck the fortress when it was raided by the Danish forces from the Wirral who plundered the wealth of the city and left it in some disarray.

Despite these troubles and setbacks though, Chester remained a vital geographical location for the trade and defense of the kingdom. In 1000 AD, the king Aethelred II sailed his navy to and from the city in support of his army that was campaigning in Cumberland at that time. The monarchs unfortunate designation as “the unready” appears to have been well deserved and he seems to have lacked the skill and vision of many of his forebears throughout his life. His failure to control events, both inside and outside of his kingdom, would ultimately have dire consequences for the future of the country, both in the short and long term.

The Danes, under their king Sveyn Forkbeard, landed in England in 1003 and began their conquest of the country. Within a decade large swathes of land were under his control and its native people were subject to his rule. By the time of his death in 1014, Sveyn had subjugated much of England and it was one of his sons Canute that finally ascended to the throne in 1017 and his brother Harald became the king of Denmark at the same time. The period between his father’s death and Canute’s actual succession were turbulent years, with opposing groups wreaking havoc throughout the whole of England. Chester was recorded to have been attacked and then plundered by marauding Northumbrian forces in around 1016, an event that does seem to have been fairly typical of the time.

The new king Canute tried to consolidate his position in England by marrying Emma who had been Queen to the late Saxon King Aethelred II. During his reign, Canute also became King of both Denmark and Norway and during his often regular absences in Scandinavia; he used powerful English and Danish earls to assist in the government of the country. To help in this process, he split England into four separate earldoms, Northumbria, Wessex, East Anglia and Mercia and arranged that each one should be ruled with common government and laws.  At the time Chester was governed by Earl Edwin from around 1030 to 1066 when the forces of William of Normandy finally conquered the country.

Earl Edwin was the grandson of Leofric of Mercia and was appointed by the Danish born King Cnut to control the Mercia region of his English kingdom. Along with his brother Morcar, the Earl of the Northumbrians, they remained in control of these lands throughout the period leading up to the Norman conquest of England and were instrumental in leading and coordinating Saxon opposition to William’s invasion of the country.

The brothers were also said to have offered their protection to King Harold’s widow, Ealdgyth, who was their sister. Following William’s later “Harrying of the North”, which saw the northern regions subjugated by the French invaders, Earl Edwin was reported to have been assassinated by his own men and his brother Morcar was captured and imprisoned by William the Conqueror.

It is worth noting that Harold’s widow Ealdgyth had previously been married to the ruler of Gwynedd, Gruffudd ap Llewellyn ap Seisyll who had been an ally of Ealdgyth’s late grandfather, Earl Leofric of Mercia. With his lands under threat from rival noblemen and the emerging kingdom of Wessex, Leofric had turned to his nearest neighbor, Gruffudd, in order to build military and political alliances which might guarantee the security of his lands and the inheritance of his family. As part of this alliance his grand-daughter Ealdgyth was betrothed to the Welsh ruler in around 1057, further strengthening the bond between the two families.

However, sometime around 1063 Harold Godwinsson the ruler of Wessex, attacked Gruffudd’s lands and laid waste to his stronghold at Rhuddlan. In an often bitter campaign the Welsh ruler was forced back into the interior of his homeland and with little hope of a Welsh victory his own forces turned against him and killed him. Harold was later reported to have taken Gruffudd’s widow Ealdgyth as his wife, thereby securing a relationship with the northern kingdom of Mercia and received the submission from Gruffudd’s successor in Gwynedd.

Such were his close ties with his new wife’s family that Harold was reported to have deliberately put them before his own brother in at least one particular instance. Morcar, the brother of Ealdgyth was said to have dispossessed Harold’s brother Tostig of the earldom of Northumbria, an act that does not appear to have upset or been objected to by his new brother-in-law. It has also been stated that Earl Morcar was aided in his Northumbrian campaign by troops supplied by the new ruler of Gwynedd, Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, the same monarch who had made submission to Tostig’s brother Harold.  

When he died in 1035 Canute was buried at Winchester Cathedral and his death in that year coincided with the loss of Duke Robert of Normandy, father to an illegitimate son who would subsequently succeeded him to the Norman throne. This young boy who was known as William the Bastard, would some thirty years later invade England and impose his rule on these islands through brute force and sheer terror

Following his fathers death, Canute’s first son Harald I (Harald Harefoot) succeeded to the English throne, but was to die some five years later in 1040. He was then followed to the throne by his step-brother, Harthcnut, who reigned for an even shorter period and died in 1042, effectively ending the Danish rights to the English throne. Harthcnut was succeeded by a Saxon prince, Edward the Confessor, who was the son of Edmund Ironside, who King Canute had defeated in 1016 to take the English throne. Edmund himself was the son of King Aethelred II, a direct descendant of the Saxon bloodline that had ruled England for centuries and related by blood to the Norman dynasty that now controlled the lands across the channel.

In the year 1066, Edward the Confessor, the Saxon King of England died without an heir to succeed him and Harold Godwinson of Wessex immediately proclaimed himself King Harold II. The lands in Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia were then claimed by Canute’s successor in Denmark, King Sveyn II, but these same lands were also claimed by Harald “the ruthless” Hardrada in Norway and by William, Duke of Normandy, the illegitimate son of the late Robert of Normandy.

Later that year, Harald Hardrada of Norway, set sail for England to settle his claim on these lands and was met at Stamford Bridge by the forces led by Harold Godwinson, who subsequently defeated the Norwegian invaders. It has also been reported that Hardrada’s forces included Harold Godwinsson’s brother Tostig, who had a personal score to settle, having earlier been excluded from Northumbria by Earl Morcar acting with the connivance of Harold himself. The kings two brothers-in-law were thought to have been absent from the Battle of Stamford Bridge and the later fateful Battle of Hastings, having been required to remain at home and secure their respective earldoms in the north of the country.

William, Duke of Normandy sailed to Britain at about the same time and because Harold II was busily occupied in settling the terms for the withdrawal of the surviving Norwegian army, he was able to land and establish his Norman forces at the port of Hastings. Having regrouped his army, Harold Godwinson was then forced to march his men over 200 miles to meet this new threat to his authority and to his entitlement to rule England. Having raced across country to meet this new enemy, Harold was subsequently defeated by the forces of William, the Duke of Normandy, close to their landing site. Following the death of Harold and the complete defeat of the native English forces the young Norman Duke soon received his new designation as William the Conqueror, who would later be crowned as King William I of England.

Despite his emphatic victory at Hastings, William was not immediately accepted by the native population of England and as with previous invaders he found his occupation was strongly resisted in many parts of the country. Over the coming years he would initiate a reign of terror and a culture of control, in which the fortress at Chester would play a vital part. The ruins of its Roman defenses and buildings would be swept away; its military and strategic importance would be increased and it would later come to achieve national status as one of the most important cities in England.

(Next Chapter)

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