Hereford 1055

1055 AD - The Norman-educated Edward (the Confessor) is king. Hereford's defences have been extended to enclose St Guthlac's monastery. Edward's nephew, Ralph, is now Earl of Hereford. Bishop Aethelstan has built a new stone cathedral.
Aelfgar's and Gruffydd ap Llewelyn's force of Vikings and Welsh have defeated Ralph's Normans and English and have entered the town, which is starting to burn.

Edward the Confessor

When King Edward 'the Confessor' arrived from exile in Normandy in 1042 he brought the beginnings of a new mainland European system to England. His nephew Ralph was created Earl of Hereford in 1052 and Norman nobles Richard Scrope and Osbern Pentecost built castles in what is now Herefordshire. Castles were unknown in England and represented the power of a noble family and a military elite rather than the defence of a community as in the traditional Anglo-Saxon system.

Hereford Sacked

Earl Ralph was accompanied by a body of Norman-French and attempted to turn the county militia into a mounted force on the continental pattern, but without much success. In 1055 Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, King of Gwynedd and Powys, led a Welsh army towards Hereford. With him was Aelfgar, the outlawed Earl of East Anglia and son of Godifu - the 'Lady Godiva' of naked horse-riding fame. Aelfgar led a force of eighteen ships companies of Vikings that he had recruited in Ireland. Ralph led his force of Normans and English to meet them. In the battle that followed Ralph was decisively beaten and the Welsh, with their Viking allies entered and burnt the town of Hereford. Gruffydd returned home in triumph and laden with booty.

The combined militias of England were put under the command of Harold Godwinson who forced the Welsh back into the Black Mountains, west of Hereford, while he camped in the Golden Valley beneath. The stalemate was utilised by Harold to rebuild the defences of the town of Hereford.

The shock of the events of 1055 may have had a terminal effect on the Bishop of Hereford, Aethelstan, who died early in 1056 and was succeeded by Harold's chaplain, Leofgar. This rash prelate did not wait for help in moving against Gruffydd and moved up the Wye Valley into Wales. On 16th June 1056 he found Gruffydd near Glasbury-on-Wye. In the action which followed Bishop Leofgar, the Sheriff of Hereford, priests, and several leading citizens were killed.

St Cuthbert's Church, Holme Lacy. In the reign of Edward the Confessor Hamme was one of a large number of manors held unjustly by Earl, later briefly King, Harold. Harold's father, Godwin, was notorious for stealing the church's property, leading his wife to threaten to starve herself to death rather eat the food so acquired.

Repulsed, but not defeated, by the English, Gruffydd seized Glamorgan, expelling its ruler, Cadwgan ap Meurig, and for the first time Wales was unified under a single king. On 5th August 1063 Gruffydd was murdered in Snowdonia and his unified kingdom disintegrated.

King Harold II

Harold Godwinson was soon to have other problems than that of the Welsh. In 1066 King Edward the Confessor died with no clear successor. Three claimants to the English throne, Harold Hardrada King of Norway, Duke William of Normandy and Harold himself, were to settle the issue in battle. Godwinson defeated and killed Hardrada at Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire. A rapid march south took him to Senlac near Hastings where after a close-fought battle, Harold was killed and the Norman-French duke William 'the Conqueror', became King of England.

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