THE FORTRESS

CHAPTER 7

A CITY OF DEATH AND DIVINITY

The earldom of Mercia, the region to which Chester belonged was still held by Earl Edwin who had first been appointed by the late King Canute and a brother-in-law to the defeated King Harold. It was and continued to be regarded by him as his own personal fiefdom and in view of this and despite William’s military victory at Hasting’s, Earl Edwin was not inclined to bow easily to the new king’s authority. A number of contemporary reports have suggested that both Edwin and Morcar, his brother that held the earldom of Northumbria, had initially been prepared to accept William as their sovereign, but were later persuaded otherwise by the Norman leader’s actions and demands.

No doubt supported by a number of his tenant lords and neighboring landowners, it appears that Edwin hoped that William and his forces would eventually be defeated by one of the number of individual princes and regional leaders that were disputing the Norman leader’s right to rule England. The Welsh ruler of Gwynedd, Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, who was allied to Edwin and who had earlier supplied troops for Morcar’s seizure of Northumbria was one such leader who opposed William. He was reported to have supported the Saxon landowner Eadric Cild in Shropshire in his fight against the Norman Lord William Fitz Osborne who had already subjugated much of Herefordshire. In the two years following the Battle of Hasting’s the conquering French forces were thought to have met and defeated all those that had stood against them and in around 1068 they were finally able to turn their full attention to the northwest region of the country.

Because of their continued resistance to him and in order to perhaps make an example of them, which might show the utter futility of further defiance to other potential rebels, William and his forces devastated the region, seizing lands, burning crops, slaughtering livestock and dispossessing the people of their properties. As they occupied each area of the region, earlier fortifications were rebuilt and strengthened in order to fully control the lives of the local population. In a little over twelve months William’s forces were said to have crushed all opposition to his rule in the region and despite a last ditch attempt at resistance in 1069, which was thought to have been led by Edwin, Morcar and the Welsh ruler Bleddyn, by 1070 the Norman’s were reported to have been besieging the city of Chester itself.

Here too, he was unrelenting in his persecution of the rebellious lords, landowners and all of those that had stood against him. The city eventually fell to William’s forces and once it had, his army were said to have sacked its inner precincts and dismantled or destroyed its ancient defenses. In the surrounding countryside, Saxon Lords and landowners, such as Leofine and Leofwine were generally dispossessed at the cost of their lives, with their properties granted to leading members of the new Norman administration. The three main protagonists that had marshaled the local Saxon opposition to William were thought to have met entirely different fates. Bleddyn ap Cynfyn was said to have made peace with William, Edwin was reported to have been killed and his brother Morcar was held prisoner for the remainder of his life.   

Leofine or Leofing was said to have been a Saxon Freeman who held the manor of Saughall (Salhare) just outside of the city. His compatriot Leofwine was thought to have been a major landowner in Chester during the reign of Edward the Confessor and was said to have held title to lands in the Handbridge area of the city. An ancient chapel, dedicated to St James was reported to have existed close to the site of the modern day St Mary’s church in the township, which was also thought to be the location of the Earl’s Palace in Chester. This building was reported to have existed up until the 16^th Century, but was then subsequently abandoned and disappeared without trace.

William Mallbank was reported to have been the Lord of the Manor at Saughall (Salhare) following the Norman Conquest of Chester and to have succeeded the previous owner, the Saxon Freeman, Leofine. Only two thirds of the Manor was under the direct control of Mallbank himself, with the remaining third said to have been in the hands of the nearby St Werburgh’s Abbey. In around 1080, the 2^nd Norman Earl of Chester, Hugh Lupus, was thought to have ordered the construction of a motte and bailey castle at Shotwick which lay just to the east of the Saughall (Salhare) township. Lying on the eastern bank of the River Dee this defensive structure formed an important part of William’s plan to protect his newly conquered lands from the native Welsh Princes that at the time lay outside of his control.

With the city and the country fully secured, King William I was now able to focus his attention on other matters and within a year or so was to lead a mixed French and English force campaigning in France. The “Conqueror” would subsequently die, in the same fashion as he lived, as a warrior. On the 9^th September 1087 William I, Duke of Normandy and King of England died after succumbing to wounds that he had received at the French town of Mantes and was then succeeded by his second son William Rufus, who would later be crowned as King William II.

Chester had originally been left in the charge of one of William’s most trusted lieutenants Walter De Gherbaud who was appointed as the first Norman Earl of Chester. However Walter seems to have grown tired of the arduous campaigning in Britain and shortly afterwards returned to his properties in Normandy. It has also been suggested that Walter was possibly captured by his enemies on his return home and subsequently held prisoner, preventing his return to Britain and taking up the post as Earl of Chester.

Walter was then succeeded by one of William’s other relatives who was appointed as the second Earl of Chester, Hugh Lupus, who would later become known as Hugh “The Wolf” or Hugh “The Fat”. The latter name was possibly more appropriate for him, as most records would describe him, as being so fat, that he could hardly walk. He was also described as being a persistent womanizer, who fathered innumerable children, most of which would die in their infancy.

The son of Richard of Goz, Viscount of Avranches in Southwest Normandy, Hugh was reported to have inherited vast estates and wealth from his father and acted as counselor to the Conqueror, as well as providing ships for the actual Norman invasion of England. It has also been suggested that he did not fight at the Battle of Hastings, but was left at home in Normandy in order to secure the estates of those knights that were away fighting.

As Earl of Chester, Hugh was also appointed as the Sword Bearer of England, which entitled him to carry the sword of St Edward, often called the “Curtana” or “Sword of Mercy” at State occasions. The sword is said to be inscribed on the hilt with “Hugo Comes Cestriae” which translates as “Hugh, our brother at Chester” and is today held in the care of the British Museum.

At the time of his receiving the Earldom of Chester, he was still a relatively young man, with some records suggesting he was only in his early 20’s. The office gifted to him by William made Hugh the largest landowner in England after the time of the conquest and his rights as Earl were equal to those of the king himself within the region. He was held responsible for the governing and security of the kingdom in the northwest of England and it was under his rule that a network of forts were built to protect the Cheshire region from the Princes of North Wales and other Irish raiders. These motte and bailey type castles were built at Dodleston, Shotwick, Shocklach, Aldford, Oldcastle and Malpas and were in addition to those constructed at both Chester and Beeston.

Said to have been an early success for Hugh, was the capture of the Welsh prince Gruffydd ap Cynan in around 1081. He was said to have succeeded to the rule of North Wales, following the death of Trahaern ap Caradog, who had recovered the kingdom from an earlier Welsh ruler Gruffudd ap Cynan ap Iago. The unfortunate prisoner was said to have been held in chains for ten years or more at both the convenience and for the amusement of the Earl and his company. It was little wonder that Hugh was so despised by the Welsh people and their leaders. Because of the capture of Gruffudd ap Cynan, Hugh Lupus was able to fully exploit the power vacuum that his imprisonment had caused and his Norman Lords were able to seize great tracts of lands within North Wales and bring them under their direct control. Gruffudd’s successor in Wales during his captivity was thought to have been Rhys ap Tewder, who was said to have met with William in 1086 and signed an agreement with the king, which left him with control of much of Wales whilst accepting William as his overlord.    

To aid him in his control and day to day governance of the earldom, Hugh was known to have been supported by a number of under-tenants or lieutenants, who held both lands and rights of domain within the northwest region. The most important and influential of these was Robert of Rhuddlan, who was the son of Humphrey of Tilleul, the man charged with erecting the temporary fortress at Hastings which had aided William’s forces in their first vital battle on English soil. Robert himself was said to have been a favorite of the late English king Edward the Confessor and around 1073 was reported to have built a castle at Rhuddlan which would be so instrumental in the pacification of the Welsh Princes and their people. Robert was said to have been the Norman lord responsible for capturing the Welsh Prince Gruffudd ap Cynan in 1081 and had been in fairly regular conflict with various Welsh Princes for a number of years. He was said to have supported Gruffudd ap Cynan ap Iago in his dispute with Trahaern ap Caradog around 1075, but having helped Gruffudd found himself being attacked by his former ally and had his castle at Rhuddlan burnt and seriously damaged.

Legend tells us, that sometime around 1088, Robert was said to have been staying at a smaller fort located near Deganwy in North Wales. A band of raiders were reported to have attacked lands in the nearby area and Robert had gone out to deal with them, without having first properly prepared his own protection. Initially wounded by an arrow or bolt fired from some distance, it was said that the Welsh raiders then set about him and decapitated him, before carrying his head away as a trophy. His remains were said to have been recovered by his friends and later carried to Chester, where he was buried at the Abbey of St Werburgh’s.

Some two years before his “reported” death however, Robert along with the other Norman lords would have been busy making arrangements for the assessment and recording of land ownership within England. The resulting Domesday Book remains as a permanent legacy of the Norman period and was the means by which landowners and citizen alike were assessed for tribute to the Crown. The list had to include every animal, holding or asset held within a particular area, in order that its liability to the king could be properly assessed, demanded and paid

Robert le Montalt was reported to have been granted Mold by Earl Hugh to hold against his enemies. The town itself was in a vitally important location, commanding as it did a vitally strategic approach to the city of Chester from North Wales. Robert was reported to have constructed a castle on the hill in the centre of the town, which commanded the surrounding roads and countryside. Despite its rugged construction, it failed to survive indefinitely and around 1147 was said to have been captured by the forces of the Welsh leader Olwain Gwynnedd and subsequently destroyed.

Shortly after the death of William the Conqueror and possibly around the time that Gruffudd ap Cynan was captured by Robert of Rhuddlan in 1081 large parts of the border area between England and Wales were taken under the control of a number of Norman knights. Huge tracts of both Gwynedd and Powys were thought to have been seized by the likes of Roger of Montgomery the Earl of Shrewsbury, Roger de Lacy and Ralph Mortimer. They were then said to have come into dispute with William Rufus (William II) who, rather than settle matters, was reported to have left England with a number of his leading knights and left the dispute to simmer. When he did finally return to England in around 1095, he found that these land seizures had led to a series of Welsh rebellions and uprisings which were said to have lasted for a further two years.

Between 1094 and 1097 a native Welsh leader Cadwgan ap Cynan had led a determined resistance to the annexation of the Welsh border lands which had been seized by the previously mentioned Norman landowners. However, towards the end of 1097 these rounds of rebellion were beginning to wane and a sort of uneasy peace was starting to settle around the region. Then, Welsh unrest in the area was once again re-ignited following the reappearance of Gruffudd ap Cynan, who was thought to have escaped his captivity at Chester Castle some three years later. Whether or not his escape had been just pure good fortune or was a deliberate act on the part of his Norman captors isn’t entirely clear, but some historians have speculated that Gruffudd was purposely released in order to undermine the power and influence of his successor, Cadwgan.          

No doubt some sort of immediate retribution had been wrought on the local population for Robert of Rhuddlan’s death, but it was thought to be a full 10 years before Earl Hugh attempted any serious military advance into the province. In around 1098, Lupus and the 2^nd Earl of Shrewsbury, Hugh of Montgomery, were said to have launched a major military campaign into Wales to reclaim the lands of Gwynnedd from the Welsh Princes Gruffydd ap Cynan and Cadwgan ap Cynan. The Norman Earls were thought to have been aided in their military campaign by Owain ab Tewder, a leading Welsh landowner who held extensive lands and assets in and around Chester, which he was keen to retain should the conflict go against his fellow Welshmen. Fortunately for Tewder, things did not go that well for Gruffudd and Cadwgan and the Welsh Princes were eventually forced back onto the Isle of Anglesey and when that was besieged, were finally forced to withdraw to Ireland in order to escape the Norman Earls and their troops.

Despite the Welsh leader’s abandonment of their native lands, the two Norman Earls were not able to consolidate their gains immediately, which resulted in a military vacuum being created. Hugh’s future plans for the region were thrown into turmoil, when a Norwegian fleet under their leader Magnus Barefoot unexpectedly arrived in the area and began attacking the Norman forces. It has been suggested that the Viking fleet had ostensibly been in the area to subdue a rogue Viking leader that was holding control of the Isle of Man, but having become aware of the conflict on Anglesey had decided to involve himself in the dispute. Hugh Lupus’ ally, Hugh of Montgomery was reported to have been killed during one of the many skirmishes with Barefoot’s forces and Lupus himself was forced to withdraw from the region.

Following the Norman retreat from Wales, Gruffydd and Cadwgan were able to return from Ireland and recover their lands virtually unopposed. Legend suggests that rather than launch any new campaigns against the Welsh and risk a similar result, Lupus came to an agreement with Gruffydd and Cadwgan, which allowed the Welsh leader’s to hold title to their native lands, in return for recognizing the Earl’s overall authority. Despite this formal agreement with Gruffydd and Cadwgan, Hugh seems to have been largely despised by the majority of his Welsh subjects and was known by many as Hugh “Vawr”, (The Fat), a reflection and criticism of his great size and corpulence. As part of the treaty which was agreed in 1099, Cadwgan was said to have been given the Welsh regions of Powys and Ceredigion and Gruffudd was granted parts of Gwynedd, as well as the Isle of Anglesey.          

Back at Chester and in order to enlarge and repopulate the city, Hugh was reported to have created 3 Asylums in and around the city, where criminals and wanted men could live without fear of the law. Hoole Heath, Over Marsh near Farndon and Rudheath near Middlewich were said to have been re-populated by these outlaws, making Cheshire one of the most colorful and dangerous places in the country. These asylums were thought to have existed for nearly 600 years and were only finally abolished in the reign of James I.

When he died in 1101, Hugh Lupus was said to have been a member of the Abbey community for three days prior to his demise. His remains were initially interred beneath the Chapter House of the Abbey, although it has been suggested that his body was removed at a later date and relocated in another part of the building. 

Hugh’s legitimate heir, born to him and his wife Ermentrude, was his son Richard who inherited the title at 7 years of age in around 1101 when his father, the second Earl died. He was reported to have been educated in France and raised along with the children of the monarch, Henry I and was very a much a favorite of the royal family. However, Richard was later thought drowned, along with the king’s son Prince William, in the White Ship (“Candida Navis”) which foundered on 6^th December 1120. Richard’s wife, Maud, who was the daughter of Earl Stephen of Blois and Adela, a daughter of William the Conqueror, was also drowned in the disaster.

At around the same time that Hugh Lupus passed away, a Norman noble, Richard Pincerna was said to have gifted the church of St Olave’s to the city Abbey of St Werburgh. This relatively small church was reported to have been dedicated to King Olaf Haroldson the Norwegian monarch who was killed at the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030, fighting against King Cnut of England and Denmark. He later became a cult Christian figure in his homeland and a large number of foreign churches were known to have been dedicated to his memory. The church in Chester was thought to have been built by members of the large Scandinavian community which had existed in the city from around the beginning of the 8^th Century.

Thought to have been always a highly impoverished church, throughout its history it only just managed to eke out a meager existence in Chester. In 1393 it was temporarily amalgamated with the much larger parish of St Mary’s, which stood alongside Chester’s historic castle, but by the end of the English Civil War, along with much of the city it was said to have been in a fairly ruinous condition and as a result was effectively closed down for the next 100 years or so.

It was only from around 1750 that the church was said to have been reinstated as a city parish in its own right, but this only lasted through to around 1840, when the parish of St Olave’s ceased to exist within Chester. In the same year, the church building was closed as a place of worship and its parish turned over to the nearby church St Michael’s.  

Even today the Norman’s Domesday Book continues to offer an almost complete list of every community in existence at that particular time in Britain, which is a source of great interest to both student and historian alike. There are two interesting facts that are illustrated in this regional record. The first is that the Wirral peninsula was at that time regarded as being part of Cheshire, with large areas of the region held by the ill-fated Robert of Rhuddlan who was reported to have died shortly after its completion.

Secondly, the Domesday Book indicates that the vast majority of lands were not only held by Hugh Lupus himself, but also by the Bishop of Chester and the monks from the Abbey of St Werburgh’s. These records support the idea that the main religious centers within Chester had become extremely powerful and wealthy under both the Saxons Lords and their Norman successors. It was a situation that would only finally be altered some five hundred years later when the church chose to directly oppose the wishes of a reigning monarch, a decision that would eventually cost them much of their accumulated power and wealth.

The canons that ran the early Saxon Minster of St Werburgh are recorded to have held substantial lands in and around the city of Chester and particularly at Saigton, a few miles outside the city limits. Under the later Benedictine monks, these lands would be turned into a thousand acre park which provided both food and cereal crops for the brothers at the Abbey. The markets and fairs held within the city limits, one at Abbey Gate close to the current Town Hall square and the other at the High Cross, would have also provided the opportunity to sell any excess products to the local population and so generate extra income for the Abbey’s coffers. The monk’s ownership of the park at Saigton was said to have lasted for over five hundred years, until the dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII. Around 1249 the monks were reported to have fortified their Grange at Saigton in order to defend the building and its lands from bands of marauding Welshmen and in 1490 its gatehouse was rebuilt and marked with the image of a black dog, along with the motto “Advance Boldly”. 

Originally granted their charter in 1092 by Earl Hugh, the Abbey of St Weburgh replaced the earlier Saxon monastery which had itself been dedicated to the same Saint. Hugh requested that the Abbey pray for him and his family after their deaths and its foundation was so important to him that he invited Anselm of Bec to witness the granting of the charter, the man who would later become the Archbishop of Canterbury.  From around 1093 to 1116 there was an extensive program of church building and religious dedication throughout much of England, with most church services conducted in either French or Latin which was required by the Crown.

Richard of Bec was the first recorded Abbot of Chester’s new Norman Abbey and had been appointed by Anselm of Bec, who had been invited to witness the Abbey’s foundation charter by Hugh Lupus, the second Norman Earl of Chester. Richard held office between 1093 and 1116 and on his death was interred in the Abbey. It was during Richard’s tenure that the construction of the replacement Norman Abbey was begun, enclosing the earlier Saxon church, which was later largely demolished. The Presbytery, the North and South Transepts of the Abbey were the first sections to be built and by the time of Richard’s death in 1116 were thought to have been largely completed.

Abbot William was appointed as head of the Abbey in 1121 and on his own death in 1140 was buried within its precincts and alongside his predecessor, Richard of Bec, the first Abbot. During his tenure as Abbot, the monks living accommodations at the Abbey were constructed and by around 1129 the Chapter House had been completed. The Abbey’s Cloisters and Refectory were also thought to have been started during the period, although their construction was undertaken in a series of managed stages. At the time of Abbot William’s death, the Abbey’s northwest tower was also thought to have been completed.

Abbot Ralph was the Abbot of St Werburgh’s Norman Abbey from 1141 to 1151 and was thought to have supervised the construction of the two west towers as well as the Abbey’s western façade. He was followed to the office by Robert Fitz Nigel, who was the Abbot from 1157 to 1174 and thought to have overseen a phase of remedial construction work at the Abbey, which were undertaken to correct earlier mistakes. St Anselm’s church, which was the Abbot’s private Chapel, was also said to have been built during his tenure.

Abbot Geoffrey was the head of Chester’s Norman Abbey from 1194 through to 1208 and it was during his tenure that the choir was said to have been started and the Saxon bell tower replaced. It was also reported that the earlier Presbytery and Transepts were also replaced and a new entrance to and from the cloisters was constructed.  Lucian was reported to have been a 12^th Century monk at Chester’s Norman Abbey, who was thought to have been educated at the nearby Collegiate church of St John the Baptist in the city. Much of his work seems to have been undertaken during the tenure of Abbot Geoffrey.

Hugh Grylle was the Abbot of St Werburgh’s Abbey from 1208 to 1226 and was responsible for the completion of the Abbey’s choir and bell tower. His next project was the completion of the Nave, which was thought to be incomplete by the time he took office. He oversaw the demolition of the earlier Saxon Nave and its replacement with a new English Style of architecture. Upon his death on 7^th May 1226, Abbot Hugh was buried in the Chapter House, at the feet of Abbot Geoffrey, his predecessor.

His successor, William Marmion was the Abbot of St Werburgh’s from 1226 to 1228 and it appears that there was a lull in the building activity at the Abbey because his tenure as Abbot was a relatively short one. He in turn was succeeded by Walter de Pinchbeck, who was the Abbot of St Werburgh’s Norman Abbey from 1228 to 1240 and was thought to have initiated the reconstruction of the Monastery at the Abbey sometime after 1230.

The Abbots of St Werburgh were granted equal rights to that of Earl Hugh himself. The Abbots Court would deal with both secular and religious matters, with trial by fire, water and combat being employed to resolve such cases. Those found guilty of a serious or capital offence would have their punishment carried out by the Abbots Officers, including their execution if appropriate. Even following the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16^th Century, these courts continued to try cases and dispense their own brand of spiritual justice through the Bishops or Consistory courts.

The summary execution of prisoners for any number of crimes was a common feature of the English judicial system for hundreds of years. In Chester, as with most other towns and cities people were found guilty on the most spurious of evidence and paid for it with their lives. Religious intolerance, the belief in witchcraft and sorcery, along with regular criminality all helped to condemn the poor, the mentally ill and the badly thought of to the hangman’s noose or to the stake. Such was the power of the religious zealots that even the failure to attend church regularly could often lead to people being imprisoned and vilified by the rest of the community.

These religious courts were operating at the same time that the monks of the Abbey were feasting on the game that they had caught in the forests of Delamere where they were granted rights by the Norman Earls of Chester. Instead of being dressed in plain material which was functional, records suggest that these men of God were often attired in the very best apparel and with all the fashionable accessories of the age. The scraps from their well laden tables were not given to the poor of the parish, but were generally fed to the hounds and terriers that accompanied them on their regular hunting trips. It was little wonder perhaps that Henry VIII would later look at these religious houses and wonder about their true merit.

From the date of its Norman foundation the physical fabric of the Abbey was continually rebuilt and extended around the original Saxon monastery that it had replaced. As each replacement section of the later Abbey was built, the corresponding area of the Saxon building was demolished and by about 1211 much of this work had been successfully completed. The Lady Chapel itself was begun in around 1265 and from 1350 onward a new phase of building was undertaken which would last until Tudor times. The cloisters were finally completed at the beginning of the sixteenth century, barely ten years before much of the property was seized by the Crown.

From the time of the city’s final capitulation to William in 1070, its defenses were gradually rebuilt and refortified along similar lines to the original Saxon settlement. The earthwork defenses of Aethelflaeda, which were located on the top of sloping ground in the south western section of the settlement, overlooking the river and harbor, were rebuilt and strengthened by the Normans. In the next few decades these earth and timber fortifications would eventually be replaced with walls of hard sandstone much of which was quarried and transported from the nearby Alvanley Cliffs in Cheshire. The resulting motte and bailey Norman castle would offer the city protection for the next several hundred years and help to protect and pacify the whole of North Wales and Cheshire from the threat of invasion and rebellion.

By the end of the 12^th Century much of the castle and the city’s defenses were generally completed and Chester was thought to be one of the most heavily defended cities in Britain at that time. The Agricola Tower, the gatehouse to the Inner Bailey is all that remains intact today and houses a chapel dedicated to St Mary de Castro (St Mary of the Castle). The wooden tower that stood on top of the motte, or mound, was replaced by a later square stone tower which would eventually become known as the Flag Tower. Some time after its first construction, an outer bailey was added to the castle, which although initially surrounded by a timber palisade, would be replaced with an extremely high stone curtain wall in 1246.  To the north of the castle itself, a great hall, later to be called the Shire Hall was constructed. This first hall was used as both a meeting place and as a court and was thought to have been built in around 1247. Replaced in around 1570, the building was reported have stood on the site of the modern day Crown Court building.

Outside of the city’s defensive perimeter and lying between the castle and the river, in what is now the modern day area of the Little Roodee was the site of the city’s leather industries. A highly lucrative industry, it was also one of the most unpleasant and explains why it was located on the periphery of the city. As well as the site close to the castle, later archaeological excavations have also found evidence of the industry in the eastern sector of the suburbs, near to the present day Foregate Street in Chester

The leather industries which lay outside of the castle were thought to represent the “lighter” leather crafts, including leather dressing and glove-making. These, along with the much “heavier” leather crafts were thought to have been in existence since Saxon times and in medieval England such industries were a vital part of the local commercial economy and were common in most large towns and cities. The existence of glove-makers in this particular area is reaffirmed by the presence of the glover-stone which lay outside the precincts of the castle’s outer bailey. In later years this stone was known to have marked the boundary between the Crown and City authorities and was where convicted felons who had been tried by the Crown or its representatives would be passed over to the city officers for sentencing to be carried out. From here, prisoners might be taken by cart, through the city streets to Boughton and the site of the Public Gallows where they would be dispatched by the city Sheriffs or public executioner. Alternatively, other more fortunate felons might be whipped through the streets of Chester or placed in the city’s stocks which stood at the High Cross and subjected to the punishments or entertainments of the passing crowds.     

Thought to have been originally constructed towards the end of the 11^th Century, the Dee Weir was built to power the water wheels of the newly emerging Dee Mills. This mill dam is thought to be the oldest of its type in the country and was constructed during the rule of the 2^nd Norman Earl, Hugh Lupus. Everyone, but the monks of St Werburgh’s was compelled to bring their corn to be ground at the mills and the fees charged represented an extra form of revenue for the Earl and for the Crown. By the end of the 17^th Century, there were thought to have been eleven water wheels operating on the Dee and have been blamed in part for the later silting of the River Dee, by restricting the actual flow and natural scouring action of the river. 

The 12^th Century was extremely eventful both for the city and its citizens. Earl Hugh Lupus died in 1101 and was then succeeded by his son Richard, whose own rule appears to have been a relatively short one. Richard died in the White Ship disaster of 1120 and was later succeeded by Ranulph de Meschines or Randal I, who had originally held the title of Earl of Carlisle, but decided to exchange his holdings for the more profitable and powerful titles that the Earldom of Chester offered.

Ranulph de Ghernon or Randal II succeeded to the title of 5^th Earl of Chester following the death of Ranulph de Meschines in 1128 and became a pivotal figure during the reign of King Stephen. De Ghernon strongly disapproved of the king’s decision to grant the Earldom of Carlisle to Henry, the son of David, the king of Scotland. Responding to the king’s decision, Ranulph chose to support the cause of the Empress Mathilda, who was in dispute with Stephen and was the aunt of Ranulph’s wife.

During this turbulent period, when the Norman dynasty was in almost total turmoil, the rulers of North Wales were busily enlarging and rebuilding their kingdoms. The two sons of Gruffudd ap Cynan had taken over the day-to-day control of their fathers kingdom and being aware of the fractious nature of the Norman position raised a rebellion in the region, which saw numerous Norman settlements burnt and destroyed. In 1137 Gruffudd himself was reported to have died and his sons Owain ap Gruffudd and Cadwaladwr ap Gruffudd succeeded him as joint rulers of the kingdom.

At the Battle of Lincoln, De Ghernon and his forces helped to capture the king, an act that would not soon be forgotten by the monarch. Following a settlement between Mathilda and Stephen, it seemed that the kingdom had fallen back into some sort of peace and harmony. However, when Ranulph visited the king in around 1146 seeking assistance in battling Welsh rebels, he was immediately arrested and held captive until he offered certain guarantees to the monarch. It was during the Earls enforced absence that forces of Owain ap Gruffudd (Owain Gwynedd) were said to have captured the vitally important Welsh border town of Mold.

In 1150 Owain Gwynedd once again came into conflict with Earl Ranulph after De Ghernon had allied himself with Madog ap Maredudd, the ruler of Powys who was in dispute with Owain. The warring parties were reported to have met at Coleshill, a battle that Owain Gwynedd was said to have won. It was also around the same time that Gwynedd was thought to have imprisoned his own son Cynan and seriously injured another relative called Cunedda. Finally, in order to consolidate his position within the region he was also said to have displaced his younger brother Cadwaladwr from power and forced him into exile in England.  

Earl Ranulph De Ghernon was recorded as having died in 1153, with some reporters saying from poison. Whatever the cause, by the time he departed his life, he was thought to be one of the most powerful men in the country and holding title to around one-third of all lands in the kingdom. The following year, in 1154, a new king succeeded to the throne of England, Mathilda’s son Henry II took the crown with a grim determination to re-establish royal control over England as well as the troublesome region of Wales.

Hugh Kevelioc or Hugh II was the 6^th Norman Earl of Chester, who held the office from 1153 and 1181 and was the son of Earl Randal II (Ranulph de Gernons). His surname was thought to derive from Cyveliok in Merionethshire, Wales and in 1147 Hugh was reported to have married the daughter of Simon, Count of Monmouth and Evreux. As the kings representative at Chester, Hugh would have been directly involved with Henry’s military campaign against Owain Gwynedd which was launched in 1157 and included a number of exiled Welsh noblemen, including Owain’s ousted brother Cadwaladwr. Despite his formidable force, Henry was unable to decisively beat Gwynedd and was thought to have only reached Rhuddlan Castle, before his advance was completely stalled. Resigned to not defeating the Welsh ruler militarily, Henry eventually settled for a peace treaty between the two parties and guaranteed Owain Gwynedd’s position, provided that the Welsh Prince accepted Henry’s status as his overlord. Owain was also required to reinstate his estranged brother Cadwaladwr and return the lands and titles that had previously belonged to him.

Despite this enforced settlement and in common with his father, Earl Hugh II was in almost continuous conflict with the Welsh and around 1170 was reported to have killed a “multitude” of Welsh men at the Bridge of Baldert. Following this battle, legend suggests that the Earl built a mound at Boughton with the decapitated heads of his enemies. When he died at Staffordshire in 1181, Hugh was succeeded by a relative, Ranulph III of Whitchurch, who was also known as Randal Blundeville. 

Ranulph or Randal Blundeville was the 7^th Norman Earl of Chester who was thought to be responsible for the construction of Beeston Castle in Cheshire. He also founded the hospital of St John the Baptist outside the city’s Northgate, which occupied the site of the modern day Bluecoat School. This hospital was reported to have been established for the sick and “silly” people of Chester and perhaps illustrates that the Earl Randal recognized that “madness” within a person was indeed a mental illness, rather than some sort of divine curse. When Henry II died in 1189 he was succeeded by Richard I who was later designated as the “Lionheart” and who English history continues to remember so fondly.

Reported to have taken part in the Crusades of Richard against the Saracens, Earl Randal was said to have been involved with the capture of Dalmietta, shortly before returning home to England in around 1220. Randal was recorded as having fought at the Battle of Lincoln, where the forces of Louis VII were said to have been extremely disparaging about his lack of physical stature. It was an insult that they would ultimately be forced to regret, as Randal’s unrivalled military instincts and skills subsequently led to their being defeated.

Blundeville was renowned as a well educated and pragmatic individual who was also an astute politician. He was so popular, that Bards and Poets were reported to have written songs and poems in his honor throughout England. Holding the title of Earl of Chester for over 50 years, Randal was a counselor to 4 separate English monarchs, including Henry II, Richard I, King John and Henry III.

Shortly before his death in 1232, he vehemently opposed the final king’s demand for monies to offset his debts incurred as a result of his military campaigns. Randal also refused to pay a Papal Tax, known as “Peter’s Pence” that was being imposed on the country and threatened dire consequences on any Tax Collector that tried to collect the charge within his jurisdiction.

Throughout his time as Earl, his main military opponent was the Welsh Prince, Llewellyn ap Iorwerth, who ruled the Gwynedd region of North Wales. The son of Iorwerth Drwynchwn, who was a son of the notable Welsh ruler Owain Gwynedd, Llewellyn was thought to have spent his formative years in the border region of Wales, following his mother’s remarriage to a Norman Marcher lord. Around 1190 he was reported to have launched his bid for control of the still divided Gwynedd region of Wales and by 1201 was thought to have captured the remaining northwest part of the kingdom, following the death of its ruler Gruffudd ap Owain. Later the same year Llewellyn was said to have reached an agreement with the English monarch King John, which allowed him to keep almost of his gains. He was also thought to have cemented this new political arrangement with England by agreeing to marry John’s illegitimate daughter Joanna and as part of the settlement was said to have received Ellesmere in Shropshire as part of his new wife’s dowry.

Regardless of these new relationships, dealings between Llewellyn, the Crown and its agents in the region continued to be highly fraught affairs. Earl Randal’s decision to rebuild Deganwy Castle was just one instance which provoked a response from Llewellyn, who saw the position as a direct threat to his rule and ordered his forces to attack the castle and ravage the nearby Norman settlements. Finally the English king’s patience ran out and in 1211 John was said to have ordered his Knights and subject Welsh Lords to meet with him at Chester, from where they would launch a military campaign against Llewellyn in order to finally bring him to heel. Such was the level of threat posed by the Welsh leader, that John’s military force was thought to have included two former allies of Llewellyn, Hywel ap Gruffudd ap Cynan and Madog ap Gruffudd Maelor, both of whom regarded their former ally as a direct threat to their own positions. Faced with such an enormous force, Llewellyn’s troops were no match for the English army and in a relatively short time he had been forced back into the wilderness of Snowdonia. Besieged in this inaccessible and mountainous region of Wales, within twelve months Llewellyn had been forced to come to terms with the king. However, such was the severity of the penalties that were levied against Llewellyn and his allies that by the following year they were once again in open rebellion with the king.

Throughout much of England, King John’s reign was a period of regular disputes between the monarch and a number of his leading noblemen, which were often to do with the arbitrary nature of royal rule and the monarch’s right to reward or punish individual landowners on the basis of a personal whim. At the same time that the Welsh ruler Llewellyn and his allies were once again rebelling against the king, John also had to deal with a number of English Baron’s disputing his rights and powers, which prevented him from quelling this second Welsh rebellion. Llewellyn was not slow to exploit the king’s difficulties, so that by 1215 he and his allies were said to have regained most of the assets and lands which John had taken from them three years earlier. By 1216 the Welsh Prince was regarded as the pre-eminent ruler in Wales and following the death of King John in the same year, he was the Welsh leader that the new English King, Henry III met with in 1218, in order to bring about a settlement.        

Having agreed terms with one another the two warring sides began a period of relative peace and even Llewellyn and Earl Randal Blundeville at Chester eventually settled into an uneasy relationship of distrust but mutual respect of one another. With one eye to the future perhaps, both leaders arranged a match between Randal’s nephew John and Llewellyn’s daughter, Elen which was designed to cement and formalize this new found friendship. Another of Llewellyn’s daughter’s was also betrothed to a Marcher Lord, William de Lacey, who held lands in the Welsh Marches and in Ireland.

Despite this later cordiality between the two former protagonists, things had not always been so friendly between the two men or their followers. Legend relates that Earl Randal was besieged at Rhuddlan Castle by the forces of Prince Llewellyn and could not escape from the residence. Realizing his predicament, he urgently sent a messenger back to Chester, informing his constable Roger de Lacy that he was trapped and needed help. De Lacy was said to have rushed to the city’s marketplace, where a fair was taking place and rallied local men to come to their Earl’s rescue. A good number of those that answered the call were either extremely drunk or were simply minstrels entertaining the crowds in the city. Regardless of this, De Lacy assembled his army of “musical irregulars” and marched out of the city and began their long journey towards the besieged castle at Rhuddlan and their Lord that was trapped there.

The Welsh force that had trapped Blundeville inside the castle heard the approaching relief force and given the noise they were making, assumed it was a much larger band of men than their own and quickly dispersed, lifting the siege on the castle. Randal was able to return to the city at the head of his victorious “army” and immediately granted the fairs numerous privileges by way of thanks. To his constable Roger de Lacy, he granted the custody and licensing of the city’s minstrels, a right that was later passed to the Dutton family.

Although De Lacy was recorded to have famously saved the Earl of Chester, history might better remember the constable for his admirable defense of the French fortress Chateau Gaillard, deemed by many at the time to be virtually impregnable. The Chateau was a stronghold of Richard the Lionheart, which was attacked by the forces of King Philip II of France in around 1203.

The defensive structure had been built on the orders of Richard I in order to protect his holdings as the Duke of Normandy and was reported to have been substantially completed by 1198, around 12 months after it had first been started. Unfortunately Richard died before the castle was finished and his successor King John was thought to have ordered a number of alterations to the building which would later prove to be fateful for the Chateau and its defenders. His addition of an extra toilet and a Chapel window would later offer King Philip’s troops a way past the Chateau’s impenetrable defenses, allowing them to lower the Castle’s drawbridge and permitting the main body of Philip’s army to enter the Chateau’s inner precincts. The defenders were caught totally unaware by the surprise attack and most of the Castle’s English garrison was subsequently massacred by their French adversaries.

The Captain of Chateau Gaillard, Roger De Lacy and a number of other nobles were thought to have escaped their troops fate and had been held hostage by the French monarch until such time as a ransom was paid to secure their release. Records suggest that Earl Randal of Chester was the man who met the cost of freeing De Lacy from his captivity, at a cost of £1000, with some £200 of the ransom being met by the English monarch, John, who had inadvertently brought about the disaster.     

Ralph Dutton was the son-in-law of Roger de Lacy, who was said to have played a large part in the rescue of Randal Blundeville, being the main reason why so many Chester men joined the rescuing force, as he was so well thought of by the local citizens. He was said to have organized the unruly band of minstrels and performers into some kind of military formation that might make the Welsh besiegers believe that a large English force was on its way to confront them.  

Ultimately, the Dutton family inherited the rights granted to De Lacy as a result of his rescue of the 7^th Earl. These rights entitled the family to regulate and charge admission to the city’s minstrel’s guilds and companies. They also led the annual pageant and parades, when the company received the blessing of the church. The Dutton family’s authority over the minstrel’s companies was thought to have been in force right up until the reign of George III.

Blundeville was recorded to have died at Wallingford in Berkshire in 1232 and having no male heirs of his own, was then succeeded by his sister’s son John. Randal was said to have been married twice. He was reported to have divorced his first wife, Constance and then later married Clemence, the daughter of William de Fougere.

John (the) Scot was the 8^th and final Norman Earl of Chester and legend suggests that he was the last Norman Earl to carry the “Curtana” or “Sword of Mercy”, when the monarch Henry III married his future Queen, Eleanor. He was known to have held the title from 1232 to 1237 and died without a male heir to succeed him. There is a suggestion that he was actually poisoned by his wife, Elen, the daughter of Llewellyn ap Iorwerth, the Welsh Prince who had so violently opposed English rule of his homeland throughout much of his reign.

On the Welsh side of the border, Llewellyn ap Iorwerth was reported to have died in 1240, leaving his legitimate heir Dafydd ap Llewellyn as ruler of his fathers extensive kingdom. The young Prince’s mother was Joanna, the illegitimate daughter of the late monarch King John who Llewellyn had wed in around 1205 and which made Dafydd a cousin to the reigning English monarch Henry III. However, as was perhaps typical of the time, Dafydd’s inheritance was challenged by his illegitimate older half brother, Gruffudd, who Llewellyn had fathered by one of his many mistresses. Despite this, Henry III had previously agreed with Llewellyn in 1222 that he would officially recognize Dafydd as his legal heir on the Welsh ruler’s death. In spite of these assurances however, when Llewellyn died in 1240 Henry reneged on his word and chose to only recognize Dafydd as ruler of Gwynedd and not the other lands and territories previously held by his father.

By 1241, Henry and Dafydd were in open dispute with one another and the English king was said to have used the imprisonment of the Welsh Prince’s older half brother Gruffudd as the pretext for invading the kingdom of Gwynedd later the same year. Although he would claim to be protecting the rights and inheritance of Dafydd’s older sibling, in reality Henry was implementing a plan which would finally remove the semi-independence of the Welsh rulers and put much of Wales under the control of the English Crown.

Perhaps almost inevitably, Dafydd was forced into submission by his cousin Henry, who stripped the young Welsh prince of his assets and lands outside of Gwynedd and also took into his royal care the counter-claimant for Dafydd’s lands, his half brother Grufudd. Ostensibly he claimed to be holding the illegitimate prince in order to restore him to his elevated position, but in reality was holding Gruffudd as a hostage to guarantee Dafydd’s future good behavior and more importantly to remove him as a future threat to his own long term plans for Wales.

As part of the agreement which was forced on Dafydd, Henry insisted that should the young prince die without legitimate issue, then the region of Gwynedd would automatically revert to the English Crown.

Gruffudd ap Llewellyn was thought to have been held as a hostage by Henry until 1244, when he was reported to have been killed, having fallen from a tower as he tried to escape from his incarceration. His younger half brother, Dafydd, was said to have died two years later in 1246, having been in dispute with Henry for a full five years and at the time of his death was reported to have had no legitimate heirs to succeed him. This effectively handed Gwynedd to the English Crown and put the region under the control of the monarch Henry III. However, the new English ruler of Gwynedd had apparently forgotten that Gruffudd ap Llewellyn had fathered 4 sons before his untimely death and it was the second of these heirs, Llewellyn ap Gruffudd who would ultimately come to challenge Henry and his son Edward for dominion over the lands of Gwynedd.

Following the death of the 8^th and final Norman Earl, John Scot, without a legitimate heir, the Earldom of Chester was said to have reverted to the Crown and to the eldest son of the English monarch, beginning with Henry III who awarded the title to his son, the then Prince Edward The former Lodge building located in Chester’s Grosvenor Park continues to display a permanently carved record for 7 of the 8 Norman Earls that ruled Chester. This record however, does not include the first holder of the title, Walter de Gherbaud, who was presumably omitted because he failed to take up the title or role as the 1^st Norman Earl of Chester.

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