Tudors & Stuarts — History of Hereford

Owain Glyn Dŵr

Hall of the Hereford Vicars Choral — The late 14th century hall of the Hereford Vicars Choral. This was outside the walled precinct of the cathedral. There was always a danger that the clergymen would be mugged on their way to church.

A last Welsh threat arose when Owain Glyn Dŵr was proclaimed Prince of Wales and took up arms against the newly installed Henry IV. In the battle of Bryn Glâs (or Pilleth to the English) in 1402 a large force of English under Edmund Mortimer, consisting mainly of the Herefordshire levy, were heavily defeated by a Welsh army led by Owain. Owain moved on to make his headquarters at Leominster. The defeat caused consternation at Henry IV's court and steps were quickly taken to limit the damage by improving defences at Clifford, Brecon and elsewhere.

The defeat of Owain's allies Henry Percy (Hotspur) and Douglas at Shrewsbury in July 1403 did not remove the threat further south. On the afternoon of the 3rd September, Richard Kingston, the sometime Dean of Windsor and archdeacon of Hereford, writing at Hereford 'in very great haste' reported that a Welsh force had entered the County. King Henry appeared with an army at Hereford on 11th September. Henry marched into Wales but, lacking the means to supply his army, returned to Hereford in October.

Owain was undefeated and in early August 1405 was joined by a French army, which landed at Milford Haven. The English mustered at Hereford on 29th August but no battle was joined.

A medieval gaming die found in Hereford — A medieval gaming die found during archaeological excavations in Hereford.

When Henry V succeeded to the English throne in March 1415 he wanted an end to the Welsh problem. Henry offered Owain a pardon but no answer was ever received. Glyn Dŵr's death is not recorded nor is his burying place, but it is considered a strong possibility that he died at the house of his daughter, Alys Scudamore, at Monnington in the Golden Valley.

Owen Tudor

On 2nd February 1461, during the Wars of the Roses, a Lancastrian force, including Bretons and Frenchmen, was intercepted and defeated by the Yorkist Edward, Earl of March at the Battle of Mortimer's Cross, 25 kilometres north-west of Hereford. One of the Lancastrian leaders, Owen Tudor, was captured and taken into Hereford. Owen was a high-ranking nobleman — he had married Catherine of France, the widow of Henry V.

Legend tells that it was at the forerunner of the Green Dragon Hotel in Broad Street that Edward stayed with his prisoner after the battle. The next day Owen was taken out to be beheaded in the market place (High Town). At first Owen was unable to believe that he would be executed — but when the collar of his red velvet doublet was ripped off he accepted his fate saying "that head shall lie on the block that was wont to lie on Queen Catherine's lap".

Owen was called 'the handsomest man in England', which might have inspired what followed. His head was placed on the market cross where a madwoman combed his hair and washed the blood from his face. She lit more than a hundred candles, which she placed around the cross. Owen's body was afterwards buried in a chapel of the Greyfriars priory just outside the town.

Owen Tudor was the great-grandfather of Henry VIII. Edward (later King Edward IV) was himself Henry's grandfather. Edward was back in Hereford that September, by now the battle of Towton had been fought and he was King of England.

Henry VII

The Bye Gate from the east — The Bye Gate, Hereford — one of the principal entrances to the medieval walled city.

Edward IV died in April 1483. A few months later his brother, Richard of Gloucester (Richard III) seized the throne and placed Edward's young sons — the 'Princes in the Tower' — in confinement. The Duke of Buckingham, at first Richard's strong supporter, rebelled and joined a local nobleman, Walter Devereux, at his castle at Weobley in Herefordshire. Marching south, Buckingham was deserted by his army, captured and executed. His son, Edward, was smuggled into Hereford by Elizabeth Delabeare and hidden there until safer times.

In 1485, Henry Tudor passed through Leominster on his way to victory at Bosworth and claiming the kingdom as Henry VII. In 1486 Henry visited Hereford during a tour of his new kingdom. In 1493 a council was set up for Henry's eldest son, Arthur, prince of Wales. When Arthur died in 1502 the council continued to exist and evolved into the council of the Marches, exercising jurisdiction over north and south Wales and the counties of Shropshire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Cheshire and Flint.

In 1536 the administration of Wales was re-organised. It was at this time that the border between Herefordshire and Wales took more or less its present form, assimilating the Welsh territory of Ewyas Lacy and other independent Marcher lordships — Clifford, Eardisley, Wigmore and others.

Henry VIII

John Speed's Plan of Hereford — John Speed's early 17th century plan of Hereford, showing the walled city and its gates.

Henry VIII's split with Rome was not popular in Herefordshire. During 1536 the northern English movement in opposition to the policy, the Pilgrimage of Grace, found sympathy in the county and several people were imprisoned in the castle. Roman sympathy remained strong during the reign of Elizabeth I, and the local law enforcement authorities were constantly being reprimanded by central government for their leniency.

Herefordshire was fairly lawless in the second half of the 16th century. In June 1571 the people of Bromyard rioted against their lord, the bishop of Hereford. In 1581 there were more murders committed in the shire than any two 'thereabouts or in all Wales'. The authorities knew whom to blame — the Roman Catholics. In December 1588, the year of the Armada, the sheriff was strictly ordered to lock up Catholic recusants and to no longer permit them to be 'free prisoners'.

John Leland

The new Vicars Choral — The later quarters of the Vicars Choral in the cathedral close, Hereford.

The city seems to have remained fairly prosperous in the 16th century. In the 1530s John Leland found good walls around the town and describes pleasant suburbs. The distance between the Wye Bridge and the easternmost point of the castle, almost the whole width of the city, he describes as being a bow shot.

We do not know where Leland stayed when he visited the town but we know what sort of prices he would have paid in a local inn. Prices in inns were regulated — in 1555 the mayor ordered that ale should cost no more than one penny (0.4 new pence) for three pints and that lodgings, with a meal consisting of two dishes of boiled meat and one of roasted, should cost no more than 4 pence.

The Civil War Begins

St Owen's Gate, Hereford, in the late 18th century — from the inside. The county magazine was stored here in the time of the Civil War.

As the dispute between King Charles I and parliament intensified, Herefordshire remained a deeply conservative county and royalists greatly outnumbered the supporters of parliament. There were eight members of parliament representing the county at that time — two members for the county, and two each for the boroughs of Hereford, Leominster and Weobley.

Parliament appointed the Earl of Essex lieutenant of Herefordshire but his authority was ignored. The county magazine, in St Owen's Gate in the city was seized and the leading local Royalist, Lord Scudamore, collected materials of war at his seat at Holme Lacy.

Church Street, Hereford. Once called Cabbage Lane, this had been the site of the vegetable market. The name was often gentrified to Capuchin Lane as early as the 18th century.

Essex occupied Worcester on 24th September 1642 and dispatched a force of just 900 horsemen to Hereford. In a panic the mayor surrendered the city and two days later parliamentary infantry arrived to form a permanent garrison. With resources overstretched the occupation proved too difficult to maintain and on 14th December parliamentary troops left the city. Hereford reverted to the royalists.

The opportunity to organise the city's defences was missed however and in April 1643 the Parliamentary commander William Waller marched north from Gloucester and easily occupied Hereford. Leading local Royalists including Lord Scudamore and Fitzwilliam Coningsby were captured. Waller occupied Leominster but was forced to withdraw from the county, marching out of Hereford on 20th May. Again, Hereford reverted to the Royalists, who began to reorganise the local defences.

Brilliana Harley

The only parliamentary stronghold remaining in the county was Robert Harley's castle at Brampton Bryan. On 26th July the Royalists laid siege to it. For seven weeks the siege continued and the village of Brampton Bryan was reduced to rubble. The garrison, commanded by Harley's capable wife Brilliana, held out. The Royalists gave up the siege but Brilliana, exhausted, died shortly after.

Brampton Bryan remained a problem for the Royalists and they returned in Spring 1644. After three weeks of resistance the garrison surrendered on 17th April and the castle was completely destroyed.

The Parliamentarians at Gloucester grew stronger and they occupied the Herefordshire town of Ledbury in April, levying money from the countryside and raiding as far as the gates of Hereford. Prince Rupert's advance drove them from Ledbury but shortly afterwards they occupied Ross-on-Wye for a week.

The Siege of Hereford

The Bye Gate in the 18th century. The gate would shortly be demolished but the left side would remain as the city prison.

The 'Clubmen' were opposed to the demands made upon the country to pay for the war. About 15,000 of the discontented appeared before the gates of Hereford. This time the town gates remained shut.

On the 18th June 1645 King Charles arrived in Hereford. He attempted to raise more troops in the county but these just deserted as soon as they could. Charles left for Raglan on 30th after raising money in the area.

Site of the Bye Gate today — The site of the Bye Gate today. The 'Kerry' stands on the site of an earlier pub called the 'Pack Horse' which is visible through the gateway in the previous illustration.

Meanwhile a Scottish army in the service of Parliament was moving south. On 22nd July they stormed the Royalist position at Canon Frome and killed almost the entire garrison. Turning south they laid siege to Hereford on 31st July. The commander of the Hereford garrison had plenty of time to prepare. The houses of the suburbs were dismantled and the trees of the surrounding orchards chopped down.

The siege was hard-fought. The Scots' guns played on the city and shells were used as well as solid shot. Over 200 years later, workmen discovered an unexploded Scottish shell as a butcher's shop in Union Street was being demolished. Two of the city's churches — St Owen's and St Martin's — were destroyed in the siege.

On 1st September, just as the final assault was being prepared, news reached the besiegers that the king was approaching with a relieving force. The Scots army withdrew towards Gloucester and Charles entered the Bye Gate of the city on 4th September. The siege was commemorated by the addition of a border to the city coat of arms consisting of ten Scottish flags of St Andrew, white crosses on a blue background, representing the ten divisions of the Scottish army.

Colonel Birch

Hereford from the west in 1721. Behind the bridge can be seen the mound from which the keep of the castle had recently been removed. Friars gate is on the left.

In December 1645 Hereford was captured again for Parliament by means of a trick. Colonel Birch disguised some soldiers as workmen breaking the ice in the ditch at the Bye Gate. He hid a small force in the ruins of St Guthlac's Priory. While the disguised soldiers grappled with the guards, the group from the priory charged up to, and through, the Bye Gate. Birch was made governor of the city and in the whole county only Goodrich Castle remained in Royalist hands.