CHESTER WRITER

E-BOOKS, BOOKS & Manuscripts

Introduction

If you ask most people about Chester’s extensive history, undoubtedly most will make mention of the city’s Roman past, including its unique circuit of defensive walls, parts of which were first laid down by the soldiers of the 20^th Legion Valeria Victrix. Much has already been written and recorded about the history of these historic ramparts, which even today continue to mark out the limits of the Roman’s legionary fortress, which later became the centre of modern day Chester.

Most people also know that 600 years after this strategically important military base had finally been abandoned by its Roman founders, much of these same formidable sandstone defenses were recorded to have been rebuilt, refortified and extended on the orders of the Mercian leader Aethelflaeda, the daughter of Alfred the Great and sister to Alfred’s royal successor Edward the Elder. It is she, who has been entirely credited with enlarging the “city of the legions” and essentially creating the basis for the modern city that remains with us today.

Although much of Chester’s later medieval and middle age wealth and importance was founded on these earlier phases of both Roman and Anglo Saxon military activity, it’s significance is also due in no small part to the city’s later settlement by the Norman forces of William the Conqueror and the Plantagenet kings of England, all of whom were involved in ongoing and bitter border disputes with the native peoples of North Wales. Central to these often extensive, expensive and sometimes incredibly vicious confrontations was the medieval castle, a highly effective defensive position which could also be used for offensive operations against the enemy and when the fighting was over, remained in place as an instrument of both civil subjugation and military enforcement.....(continued)

The Anglo Saxon Period

Marking the so-called “Dark Age” period of English history, the centuries between the final exodus of the Roman legions and the later arrival of Duke William’s Norman conquerors, was a time when most buildings were generally constructed of timber and left few if any indications of their ever having existed.

The obvious lack of structural evidence for early Anglo Saxon buildings is not simply because they were of particularly poor quality or hurriedly built. Rather, it is because most Anglo Saxon architecture of the period singularly failed to survive the rigorously damp and destructive climate of northwest Britain and the regularly occurring house and settlement fires, which were a common symptom of such timber-based housing technology.  It is also perhaps worth remembering, that during this period much of mainland Britain was being subjected to regular military raids, both by the forces of competing Anglo Saxon kingdoms and the much more feared Vikings, each of which would regularly burn and pillage English settlements in their quest for land, loot or glory.    

Most private or common buildings of this period would have been timber framed structures with walls made of mud or wattle and daub, which were highly combustible and unlikely to survive for an extended period of time. The newly emerging churches and monasteries of Anglo Saxon England however, were far more likely to be built of stone, often re-using stone and materials from earlier derelict or dilapidated Roman buildings. These new ecclesiastical centres would often have been approved and funded by regional monarchs or noblemen, who were seeking spiritual forgiveness in the afterlife, by paying for the construction of religious houses in this one. The provision of these much needed financial endowments or gifts of land allowed such monastic houses to employ the very best professional masons, carpenters, etc, to build their Abbey’s and Churches, a factor which allowed such buildings to survive intact, often for hundreds of years.....(continued)

The Norman Period

As with the earlier Roman legionary fortress, Chester’s Norman and later medieval castles would prove to have a pivotal effect on both the military and political events of northwest Britain and North Wales from the time of the 2^nd Earl of Chester, Hugh ‘Lupus’ D’Avranches. Although Duke William himself was reported to have ordered the first castle built at Chester and his trusted lieutenant Walter de Gerbod was initially granted control of the Earldom to “hold by the sword”, ultimately it was his successor, Earl Hugh, who would impose widespread Norman rule on the region. 

Immediately following their capture of the city, the forces of Duke William, were thought to have set about rebuilding and refortifying the precincts of the Anglo Saxon fortress built by Aethelflaeda and securing its vitally important river port and docks. Throughout much of England, the preferred method of control and security employed by the incoming Norman forces was the raising of military castles and strongholds, from where local settlements and their surrounding regions could be administered, both politically and militarily. It has even been reported that the French forces that first landed at Pevensey in England had brought with them a small number of prefabricated timber castles with which to defend themselves from the native forces of King Harold at Hastings.....(continued)

The Plantagenet Period

Although the demise of the Norman D’Avranches family, who had ruled Chester since 1070, was thought to have had no real or dramatic impact in the short term administration or military control of the city, the king Henry III, was eager to demonstrate and ensure that the Crown’s final adoption of the previously semi autonomous Palatinate, did not result in even more local dissention or be the cause of any further rebellions. Rather, Henry was keen to be regarded as the natural and obvious successor to the Norman Earl’s and in particular to the 7^th Earl, Ranulph Blundeville, who had become such a noted and influential figure, not only in Cheshire, but throughout the whole of the country. The king was reported to have made a payment of £3 a year to St Werburgh’s Abbey in the city, to provide a Chaplain to pray for the late Earl’s everlasting soul and Ranulph’s Charters, guaranteeing the rights of the people, merchants and their guilds were reaffirmed by the king. Even the 7^th Earls own charities within the city were thought to have been adopted and funded by the king; such was Henry’s determination to link himself to his predecessor.    

The early stone built Flag and Agricola Towers, along with the castle’s inner bailey area were all thought to have been improved on the orders of the monarch Henry III, who had provisionally taken control of the Earldom, following the death of John “the Scot” Canmore in 1237. On his death King Henry was reported to have appointed 3 commissioners to oversee and administer the vacated Palatinate, until such time as the County and Earldom were legally annexed to the Crown. The 3 administrators or “castellans” were recorded to be Hugh le Despencer, Stephen de Seagrave and Henry de Aldithley.....(continued)

The Post Medieval Period

In a document attributed to the reign of Henry VII, one of the flanking towers at Chester Castle was reported to have been identified as “Maysham’s Tower” and has been linked to the then Judiciary of Chester, Thomas Maysham. This particular tower was said to have been located in the castle’s lower bailey and lay close to the city’s Exchequer building which was within the outer ward of the castle.

Although not a definitive date, the end of the 14^th and beginning of the 15^th centuries could be regarded as the period which fundamentally marked the beginning of the end for the medieval castle in Britain. These were the years that saw the arrival and widespread use of gunpowder and its associated weaponry, the new armaments which could easily circumvent or simply destroy the previously impassable curtain walls and their massive flanking towers. It marked the point in time where such static defences were generally accepted to be virtually obsolete, not only because the castle’s impressive walls could be bypassed by larger and larger cannonballs, but the sheer explosive power of the gunpowder meant that no length of wall or heavy castle gate could be relied upon to stand against an attacking enemy who happened to have cannons at their disposal. The result of these technological advances meant that few if any new castles were built and those that were already in existence were altered and refortified to take account of this new threat. In many castle’s, parts of their battlements or individual flanking towers were altered and adapted to house these new weapons, so offering the defending garrison the opportunity to “fight fire with fire”.....(continued)