Medieval Hereford — History of Hereford

Henry I

Widemarsh Gate in the late 18th century. In 1582 Thomas Church, a dyer, was given permission to cut a doorway through the city wall near the gate in order to use the water in the town ditch.

The evidence regarding the status of Hereford in the early 12th century is ambiguous. Local government can hardly be said to have begun in any recognisable form, yet some sort of communal identity seems to have existed. In the reign of Henry I (1100–1135) a leading local noble, Payne fitz John issued a writ addressed to 'the reeve of Hereford, whoever he may be, and to all the burghers of Hereford, French and English'.

Although Payne's writ suggests that Earl William's policy of encouraging French immigrants had been successful, 'Franci et Angli' (French and English) was the standard official term of address to people in Norman England. There is no evidence that the town itself, as opposed to the castle, could have been defended at this time. On the contrary, the monk-historian William of Malmesbury visited the town in about 1125 and commented that Hereford was 'not large, but from the ruins of broken ditches seemed once to have been something great'.

The Anarchy

Site of Widemarsh Gate today — Widemarsh Gate now. Thomas Church's doorway is in the centre of the photograph.

When, after the death of Henry I, the succession was disputed between Stephen and Matilda, a civil war, known as 'The Anarchy' ensued during which it was said 'God and his angels slept'. The uncertainty about the succession caused by Henry's death had encouraged the Welsh to revolt and Payne fitz John was killed in battle against them. The Norman occupation of Wales came under threat and several castles fell.

Disaffected by Stephen's inability to support the marches, Geoffrey Talbot declared for Matilda. In early 1138 he garrisoned the castle at Hereford on her behalf. There were at the time no substantial defensive works around the town itself. King Stephen appeared in person and spent four or five weeks besieging the castle. During the siege the town 'below the bridge of the Wye' was burnt down — presumably the area around the castle. Geoffrey surrendered and was allowed to depart with his forces. As they left they burnt the suburb south of the river. Stephen's followers garrisoned the castle.

In 1139 Miles of Gloucester defected to Matilda, and he and Geoffrey Talbot marched on Hereford and, in turn, besieged Stephen's followers in the castle. They used the newly rebuilt cathedral as a fort, placing catapults on the tower. To the horror of the inhabitants they dug trenches through the burial ground, mixing the bodies of the long and recent dead with the earth as they raised their siege-works.

Although the castle was clearly strong, the town of Hereford itself had remained undefended since 1066. Sometime after the anarchy a new defensive circuit consisting of a gravel bank was constructed to enclose the old town, the new market place and many of the inner burgage plots. This circuit left the burgage plots furthest from the market place outside the defences, and defined them, for the first time, as suburbs.

Henry II and Fair Rosamund

When Matilda's son, Henry II came to the throne of England on Stephen's death, Hereford was on the fringes of an Angevin empire which stretched from the Pyrenees to the Scottish border. Henry, or more accurately Henri, 'Plantagenet' (1154–89) was entirely French and spent two thirds of his reign in his French domains. Paris was surrounded on three sides by his territories. He created the post of Justiciar to run England in his absences. On his death he was buried at Fontevrault Abbey in Anjou, where later his wife Eleanor and his third son Richard (the 'Lionheart') would join him.

Henry's best known connection with English affairs is his instigation of the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. However, his association with Herefordshire was to provide troubadours with more romantic material. Clifford Castle in the west of the county was the birth-place of Rosamund Clifford. Known as the 'Fair' Rosamond, she was considered the beauty of her age, and became the king's mistress.

Hereford's 'University'

In the mid 12th century the civilising influence of the Arabs was beginning to be felt in Western Europe. Many English scholars went to Paris to study. However, although Paris was pre-eminent in theology, for some the new scientific learning available in the territories of the Islamic rulers was more attractive. A synthesis of Greek and Indian astronomy was made by fifth and sixth century Persians. The Persian Empire fell to the armies of Islam in the 7th century. In the 9th century Arab scholars in Baghdad were producing books of astronomy and mathematics which ultimately would reach Western Europe and inspire what is often called the '12th century renaissance'.

Knowledge of Arab sciences had reached Hereford by the end of the 11th century. Robert of Lorraine, Bishop from 1075 to 1096, was the author of works on the abacus (then newly introduced to England), astronomy and the calendar, but it was in the late 12th century that Hereford became one of the foremost schools (we would now call them universities) in England.

Grammar, logic, rhetoric (the trivium) and arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy (the quadrivium) could be studied in the town. Apart from these 'liberal arts', other subjects were canon and civil law, theology, astrology and geomancy. The Bishop of Hereford from 1186 to 1199, William de Vere, was a scholar who encouraged the new scientific knowledge coming from the Arabic world. Roger Infans — Roger of Hereford — adapted Arabic astronomical tables for the meridian of Hereford in 1178 and among his other books was Iudicia Astronomie, a book on astrology.

Literature, if not actually taught, was certainly practised, and another Hereford scholar, Simon du Fresne, was a poet of distinction in both French and Latin. Another figure active in Hereford at the time was Walter Map, a Herefordshire man of Welsh descent who studied in Paris and is possibly the originator of the sections of the Arthurian Romances dealing with Sir Lancelot.

Whether 12th century schools such as Hereford survived to become later medieval universities was often a matter of chance. The oldest Christian university in Europe, Bologna, was founded in 1088. Paris was founded in about 1150 and Oxford in 1167. The Hereford school was probably in decline by the time Cambridge was founded in 1209. Hereford did not survive as a place of higher education; nonetheless, for a while it was one of the foremost educational establishments in England.

The First City Charter

In 1189 Henry II died and was succeeded by Richard I. Richard immediately set off on the Third Crusade. No less French than his father, in the ten years Richard 'Coeur de Lion' was king of England he spent less than six months in the country. He showed no interest in England whatsoever other than as a means to raise money for military expeditions.

One result of this need for money was the granting, for a price, of charters to English towns. It was against this background that in 1190 Hereford obtained its charter and became a legally self-governing community with a bailiff (later mayor) chosen by the citizens. The King's Fee was now within the jurisdiction of this new corporate body but much of the town remained within the church's fee. This led to conflicts between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, which lasted for centuries and occasionally led to physical violence.

King John

Bird's-eye view of Hereford Castle — An imaginary bird's-eye view of Hereford Castle.

Richard died 6th April 1199, of wounds he received in a skirmish at Chalus in Aquitaine. His younger brother John lost the vast French lands his father and brother had held; by midsummer 1204, of those territories, the Channel Islands were all that was left to him.

In 1201 Llewellyn ap Iorwerth (Llewellyn the Great), prince of Gwynedd swore an oath of allegiance to John. In 1210 John, nervous of Llewellyn's apparent ambitions, invaded his son-in-law's principality. In 1212, with John in conflict with the Pope and with his barons, Llewellyn recaptured his lost lands and in 1215 seized Shrewsbury.

He allied with the English barons in forcing John's signature of Magna Carta in 1215 in which the Welsh land laws were specifically recognised and three legal systems were identified — English law, the Welsh law of Pura Wallia, and the law of the Marches — Marchia Wallie.

The war between King John and his barons led to a French army landing at Thanet in 1216. John retreated to the Welsh borders where he had allies and where Engelard of Cigone had spent large amounts of money on fortifications at Bristol and Hereford. After John's death the threat was alleviated by the defeat of the French and their English allies at the Battle of Lincoln in May 1217. John is buried in Worcester Cathedral.

Llewellyn the Great

At Aberdyfi in 1216 the other Welsh princes paid homage to Llewellyn who was now effectively ruler of all of Wales that was not controlled by the Marcher Lords. The Welsh border remained unstable during the reign of John's son Henry III. Llewellyn's campaigns gained him further territory and a number of castles, including Carmarthen and Cardigan.

At the Battle of Ceri in 1228, Llewellyn gained total victory over de Burgh, and the wounded William de Broase the Younger was taken prisoner. When in 1230 William was found in Llewellyn's bed-chamber with 'King John's daughter, the prince's wife' he had transgressed the bounds of permissible behaviour. He was hanged.

In 1231 Llewellyn burned the towns of Baldwin's Castle, Radnor, Hay, and Brecon, 'and he destroyed the castles to the ground'. Llewellyn remained a danger to his enemies in Wales and the March until his death in April 1240.

Llewellyn ap Gruffydd

The Castle Pool — The only part of the moat of Hereford Castle remaining. The garden of the Castle House Hotel is on the northern edge of the pool and the Castle Green on the southern.

In 1256 Llewellyn ap Gruffydd moved against English property in north Wales. During the next year he subdued most of the other Welsh princes and defeated an English force near Carmarthen. At an assembly of princes in 1258 he assumed the title of Prince of Wales. Against this continuing background of unrest the castle at Hereford was rebuilt. It became one of the largest in England, of a similar size to Windsor. The earthen rampart around the town was replaced by a stone wall and at this time the suburbs of Hereford appear to have reached their fullest medieval extent.

Simon de Montfort

Hereford in 1265 AD — 1265 — An earthen bank was erected around the city in the 1140s. It has now largely been replaced in stone and will soon be put to its first test. Hereford supports Simon de Montfort against Henry III. In November, Simon's enemy, Roger Mortimer, will attack the city and burn down its suburbs. The walls will stand.

It was not against the Welsh that Hereford's new defences were to be tested. Henry III negotiated a series of truces with Llewellyn while he manoeuvred to free himself of the control of his barons, led by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. In May 1264 Simon was victorious at the Battle of Lewes and Henry and his son Prince Edward became his prisoners. Hereford took Simon's side in the affair and on 10th November 1264, Simon's bitterest enemy, Roger Mortimer of nearby Wigmore Castle, moved against the city.

The outlying hamlets of Lower Bullingham, Putson, Hinton, Tupsley, Widemarsh and Huntington were pillaged and that night the priory of St Guthlac's was despoiled. That night too, the inhabitants pulled down houses outside the walls which might have concealed the enemy.

18th century view of Hereford — 18th century view showing the eastern walls of Hereford and the spires of the cathedral, All Saints and St Peter's. The cathedral spire was removed at the end of the century.

The following morning the assault on the city began in earnest, but by now, although not complete, the defences were of sufficient strength to repel the attackers and the army had to content itself with ravaging the suburbs. Having burnt down the houses outside the Bye Gate in Bishop's Street (Commercial Road), the attackers withdrew.

In January 1265 Simon summoned his famous parliament to Westminster, which included two knights from each shire and two burgesses from each borough. On the 6th May 1265 he arrived in Hereford with Henry and Edward as his prisoners in all but name.

The Blackfriars ruins in Hereford — The ruins of the Dominican Priory at Hereford. The 'Black Friars' or Friars Preachers first arrived in Hereford in the 13th century and moved to this site in the early 14th century. Their church was dedicated in the presence of Edward I, the Black Prince, and three archbishops.

It was a dangerous move. On the 28th, as the result of a conspiracy, Prince Edward escaped from his escorts while riding on the outskirts of the town. He galloped to the Mortimer stronghold at Wigmore and thence to Ludlow and was soon in the field at the head of a loyalist army. In late June, Simon moved the court to Monmouth, but prevented from crossing the estuary to Bristol, returned to Hereford. From there he marched east to the Severn, and having forded it, was defeated and killed by Edward at Evesham on 4th August. The leading citizens of Hereford were summoned to court and the city was fined five hundred marks for their support of Simon.

Hereford at this time had a wealthy Jewish community. De Montfort was no friend to the Jews, and some were expelled from their houses in Hereford in order that these should be given to citizens whose own houses outside the walls had been pulled down to improve the city's defences.