Chester

Where most cities in England have lost substantial parts, if not all of their city walls, Chester has managed to retain an almost complete circuit. The wall is an impressive construction and enables the walker to completely circumnavigate the city centre. But the wall we see today has been modified many times over the centuries and the modern wall walk was the work of the city corporation in the early 18th century in a bid to to create a promenade walk. Consequently all of the tower structures were cut through allowing the development of a wide and level pathway around the entire circuit. During the same period the Groves were enhanced as public walking space along the banks of the Dee beneath the walls. The “Recorder's Steps” being added in 1720 to link the two public spaces.

Chester has always been a frontier town and, until the 18th century, a port. In it's early history it stood at a point where three competing tribal areas met. In pre-roman times Chester was at the tip of the territory of the Cornovii with the Brigantes to the north-east and the Ordovices and Deceangli in Wales to the west. In the dark Ages it stood within of the kingdom of Mercia standing at the meeting points of the kingdoms of Northumberland to the north east and Powys and Gwynedd to the west. And again in the time of the Danelaw it stood at the apex of a triangle, within the Mercian earldom of England, The Viking Kingdom of Northumberland to the north-east and Gwynedd to the west.

The Roman walls surrounded the fort area on the sandstone rise overlooking the Dee. Built in the regulation Roman pattern with two main streets crossing, linking the four gates places midway along each wall, the Via Principalis and the Via Praetoria. Today the Via Principalis is followed by Eastgate and Watergate Streets. And the Via Praetoria, by Foregate and Upper Bridge Streets. The Roman wall occupied the north eastern two thirds of the present walled site. It's western side roughly following the route of St Martin's Way, which punctured the later walls in 1965, and it's southern border running along Pepper Street at the top of the steep incline that drops down towards the river. Sections of Roman Wall can be seen as the foundations of the later construction. A section can be seen in the length of wall that runs along the Kaleyard to the east of the Cathedral precinct.

The End of the Roman Empire

After what appears to have been unrest within Roman Britain, including mutinies by soldiers, in 367 attacks from opportunistic Picts, Hibernian Scotti (from Ireland) and Saxons grew in intensity, they managed to overrun much of the North with roving bands of raiders. Signs of fire have been found in Chester at around this time. It was over a year before order was restored and the invaders expelled. There followed a period of great prosperity in Roman Britain, but as the Roman era drew to a close Rome became reluctant to defend the outer reaches of it's empire, whilst beleaguered at home with internal and external strife and more attacks appeared from the Scots and Picts.

The Romano British, having enjoyed nearly 400 years of the Roman political and social structure, were left to defend themselves. The Roman way of life continued for a while but the old tribal make up of Britain resurfaced and the larger kingdoms that appeared under Anglo Saxon influence, like Mercia, Northumberland, East Anglia and Wessex were all conglomerations of smaller tribal factions, each with their own uneasy alliances and territorial jealousies. In some areas the increased insecurity led to a return to the old iron age hill forts. Many pre-Roman conquest fortifications were re-fortified.

These were times of great uncertainty, a time of changing loyalties, of former adversaries forming alliances against common threats, of power struggles and usurpations, of territorial expansion, of pillaging and slave taking. A time when weaknesses within borders led rapidly to attacks from outside. The Romano-British turned to mercenaries to help defend their land in internecine warfare left by the power vacuum. Under Vortigern they recruited Angles, Saxons and Jutes, willing migrants from the deprivation of their Germanic homeland in the lands between Denmark and Germany, under pressure from the Huns to their south. Lured by gifts of land in Kent and East Anglia. These Anglo-Saxons became established and sought territorial gains for themselves and over time the Angles formed the kingdoms of Mercia, East Anglia and Northumberland, the Jutes, Kent and the Saxons, Essex, Sussex, and Wessex. Each of the seven kingdoms vying for control of Southern Britain under the command of a bretwalda or over-king. A very unstable environment where small kingdoms, and clans within kingdoms fought with each other on a regular basis.

Little is known about Chester in this period. After the Roman departure the city may have been part of the kingdom of Powys. A battle between Powys and the armies of Aethelfrith of Northumbria took place near Chester in 616. Much of the eastern part of the kingdom of Powys was absorbed by Mercia in the 7th century. And the border possibly delineated by the Wat's Dyke that runs 40miles (64km) from the Severn in Shropshire to the Dee at Flint (The architect, date of construction and purpose of Wat's Dyke is hotly debated subject). A border that was to be pushed further west and further sealed by the building of a further dyke 180 miles (289km) long from The Severn Estuary to the Dee in 8th century by Offa, King of Mercia.

Aelthred, the Mercian King from 675-704, is said to have founded the church of St John outside the walls in the late 7th century. Which would suggest that the city was still of some importance. To the Mercian's it would have been their only western shored port and provided trading opportunities with Ireland and along the western coast of Britain.

Viking Raiders

Into this unstable melting pot, out of Scandinavia from the late 8th century onwards came increasing forays from Viking Raiders. These sometimes brutal ravagings of coastal and inland settlements were committed by disparate bands of opportunist adventurers from Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Initially hit and run raids in search of treasure and slaves, their visitations were often destructive and left swathes of people living in fear. Some would pay the raiders instead of being attacked, a form of extortion known later as Danegeld. Later raids became settlements and by the middle of the 9th century East Anglia and Northumbria had fallen to the new invading force. The weak ruling dynasties were removed and puppet regimes created in their place. At this time the remains and shrine of St Werburga, that had been in the church at Hanbury (Staffordshire), were moved to the church of St Peter and St Paul, within the protective walls of Chester. In 874 King Burgred of Mercia abdicated and was replaced by the Viking puppet Ceolwulf.

The West Saxons of Wessex having paid off the Norsemen enjoyed a brief respite until in 877 the Vikings returned. Wessex, ruled by Alfred the Great, had spent this time rallying it's forces and building defences. The Vikings were defeated and the ensuing peace was built upon the partition of England. The Vikings ruling the North and East Anglia under Danelaw and the West Saxons the western side of the line. Aethelred was given the title Earl of Mercia and to cement the ties, married to Alfred's sister Aethelfleda. All of what had been the eastern part of Mercia became part of the Danelaw.

Chester, now back in the Anglo Saxon world, within the the kingdom of Mercia, the border with the Danelaw meeting the Mersey at Runcorn some 25 miles to the east, was still the chief port of the west coast. It sat on a trade route between York and the Norse Viking port of Dublin on Ireland's east coast. Dublin had been a Norse city since 841 and had become the principal port of the Irish sea and one of the wealthiest of Viking towns. There had been considerable assimilation between the Viking invaders and the native Hibernians. Possibly in an attempt to secure this trade route the Vikings occupied Chester in 893. The Saxons under Alfred laid siege to the ensconced Vikings and laid waste to the land around the city walls. Two days later the besieged Vikings were starved out of their newly acquired port.

Viking Wirral

In 902 the Kings of Brena and Leinster, in Ireland, evicted the Norse Hibernians from their Dublin stronghold. They had never managed to conquer the island in the same way that the Danes had in Britain. These evicted Norse made their way across the Irish Sea. Whilst most settled along the Cumbrian coast others, with their King, Ingimund, after negotiation with the Mercians under Aetelfleda were allowed to settle on Wirral to the North West of Chester, then a land of wastes, on condition they did not attack Chester.

A few years later, however, the Norsemen had outgrown the confines of their settlement and were again raiding and seeking expansion. In 905 they unsuccessfully attacked and besieged Chester. Allegedly driven off when beehives were tipped on them from the city walls.

As a result in 907 a Saxon burh or fort was established, the Roman walls rebuilt and extended out towards the river to the south and to the west. Making the river the main defensive structure to the south and the west. The river at that time sweeping around the Roodee to flow northwards on a line to the east of it's current course (along the line of the current west wall. The Water Tower which stands at the end of a spur of wall from Bonewaldesthorne's Tower at this corner would have had it's feet in the river when it was built in the middle ages). There followed a period of building forts or burhs from North Wales to Manchester in defence of Chester. The iron age hill fort at Eddisbury, near Delamere was refortified.

The Anglo-Saxon system of government, built around the newly introduced burh's was designed around the needs of warfare. It raised funds for military action and raised soldiers for military service. It was the means by which huge punitive amounts could be raised to pay off the Vikings during the reign of Ethelread the Unready. Associated with the was the creation of local mints, creating coinage was a good way of controlling trade and raising funds. Chester's mint was particularly active until reforms took place in the reign of Edgar in 970.

There is evidence of Norse-Hibernian settlement within Chester itself. Until the building of the Grosvenor Bridge in 19th century there had been a church dedicated to St Bridget (an early 6th century Irish saint also associated with the Norse church at West Kirby, Wirral) where the new bridge approach road was built to the city centre. And today St Olave's church still stands in Lower Bridge Street although it dates from the middle of the 11th century founded shortly after the saints death in 1030. Both were founded by the Scandinavian community in Chester.

In 912 the Wirral Norse again attacked Chester but were repulsed and by 919 the Norsemen settled in Britain had again occupied Dublin and taken control of York, the main centre of the Danelaw. The Norse adventure in Ireland was not to come to an end until the Battle of Clontaff in 1014.

The rise of Saxon Wessex

Aethelfleda died in 918. “Lady of the Mercians”, she had ruled over Mercia after her husbands death at the Battle of Tettenhall against a Viking army from the north and a shipborne raid along the River Seven by Vikings from Brittany in 910. The crown of Mercia, intended for Aelwynn daughter of Aethefleda (Mercian tradition allowed the inheritance of the crown by the eldest daughter), was seized by King Edwin the Elder, son of Alfred, thereby bringing Mercia under Wessex's direct rule. By 920 after further raids and battle East Anglia, Essex, Northumbria and Strathclyde accepted Edwin as King.

The prospect of rule by Wessex was as abhorrent to the Mercians as the idea of rule by the Vikings. In 901 there had been an attempt at Mercian independence by Aethelred and Aethelfleda. After bringing eastern Mercia back under Anglo-Saxon control in 918 Edwin may have undertaken the reorganisation of western Mercia into shires. This was achieved without addressing the traditional tribal boundaries. Perhaps as a consequence of this in 924 men of Mercia and Chester, with Welsh support rebelled against their West Saxon ruler. Mercians and Welsh occupied Chester. Edward took and re-garrisoned the city before dying shortly afterwards in Farndon 8 miles/12km south of Chester.

About a year later Athelstan, the illegitimate but eldest son of Edward who had spent most of his life in the court of Aethelfleda in Mercia, was crowned King. He was not the designated heir to the thrown and the delay in his succession does suggest some disquiet on the part of the nobles and the church. Athelstan seized the opportunity offered by unrest in the Danelaw world to conquer most of Britain. Between 927 and 928 he managed to subdue the North and secured submission from all of the Kings, before defeating the Kings of Wales, and exacting a huge yearly tribute from them for his trouble.

But this was an uneasy piece built on conquest, submission and paid for by high taxation on the conquered Kingdoms. In 934 the King of the Scots, Constantine, failed to pay tribute and was soundly dealt with. In 937, however, Constantine arranged an alliance of the aggrieved Celtic and Norse Kingdoms to rid themselves of the Anglo Saxon burden for good.

We will pay them back for the 404 years

News of this must have reached Athelstan through Chester from the Welsh centres of Gwynedd and Powys. The forces came together in Northumberland and ravaged the land south of the Humber.

Towards the end of the year a decisive battle saw the defeat of Olaf III, Viking King of Dublin, with Constantine, King of Scotland, and Owain King of Strathclyde. At a place known as Brunanburh which some historians identify as Bromborough on the Wirral 7 miles/11km north-west of Chester. Athelstan was declared bretwalda by his former adversaries and claimed the title of “King of Britain”. The victory at Brunanburh was celebrated as a national triumph.

However these victories brought stability for a short time. Athelstan's death in 939 and the succession of his brother Edmund led to renewed unrest and instability. Northumberland squeezed between the Anglo-Saxon might to the south and the Scots to the North. Harried by raids by brigands from Scotland and Ireland. Northumberland again struck out and there was renewed fighting between the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse of Northumberland. This entire period is one of internal and external threat for the Northumbrian kingdom put down with increasing violence and destruction by the English. Eadred, who succeeded his brother Edmund after he was murdered by a previously exiled thief in 946, burned down towns and destroyed the minster at Ripon as a terror campaign designed to stop the Norse of York adopting Eric, son of Harald (Eric the Red) as their King. Eventually the pressure succeeded and Eric, betrayed by former allies was killed at Stainmore. The end of Northumbrian ambition.

The continued importance of Chester is demonstrated by the fact that in 973 Edgar nephew of Athelstan summoned eight of his sub kings to Chester, following his coronation in Bath, to swear fielty to the new bretwalda. It is said that they rowed him in a boat along the Dee from his palace to St John's church.

Edgar had succeeded his brother Eadwig, youngest son of Edmund I, in 959 and this “coronation” marked a celebration of his reign. In it he was anointed head of the “Anglo Saxon Empire”.

Ethelred the Unready

In 975 Edgar died leaving his succession in a confused state. Having married more than once there were now two rival claims to the thrown. Factions fought over the succession and the control opf the country. In this same period crops failed and people starved. The eldest son Edward chosen as King in 976 was murdered in 978 by supporters of Ethelred his half brother. Ethelred was made king at the age of ten. Into the confusion of a state run by a faction of nobles and church men sailed another wave of Vikings bent on plundering the wealth of Britain. Chester was sacked in 980 by Danish raiders. Three Anglo-Saxon coin hoards found in Chester date from this period. Over the next twenty years increasingly ruthless attacks were made, designed to reek terror and extort increasing amounts of Danegeld.

There was general panic amongst the English, troops deserted, nobles who opposed Ethelred were killed and in 1007 Ethelred ordered the massacre of all Danes living in England. More defensive burhs were built and again old iron age hill forts refortified. By now the amounts of Danegeld paid to relieve the land of attacks was becoming a burden on the church and the nobles. Women and the poor were being sold to the Vikings, there was a general fear of the breakdown of the social fabric of the country. By 1010 the Danish hoards had overrun much of south-east England and East Anglia. Ethelred's health was failing and by 1015 many of his nobles had thrown in their lot with the Danish invaders including Eadric Streona, Ealdorman of Mercia, who held Chester as his centre of power. He was Ethelred's leading adviser and had advocated paying Danegeld rather than opposing the attacks with force and who had arranged the removal of Ethelred's opponents.

With Ethelred's death in 1016 the council in London promoted Edmund his son as King. The bishops and nobles of Wessex elected the Norse leader Canute, King. Chester, having refused to raise an army to fight against the Danes was sacked by an army led by Edmund and Uhtred of Bamburgh, ealdorman of Northumberland.

Canute

There followed a series of battles between the English under Edmund and the Danish army of Canute. Seeing Edmund gain the upper hand and Canute turn to pillaging Mercia for supplies to sustain his army, Eadric Streona again swapped allegiance and added his Mercian army to that of Edmund. At the height of the final battle at Ashingdon north of Southend Eadric again desserted the English ranks. The result was the destruction of Edmund's army and Canute agreed to the partition of Britain in the same mold as before. But Edmund was to be dead within a month and Canute was made King of England in 1018. As recompense the now vanquished England had to pay the largest installment of Danegeld and in 1017 Eadric Streona was killed at Canutes orders.

To seal his reign Canute married Ethelred's widow in 1017, In 1018 at the death of his brother Harald, Canute succeeded to the Danish throne, so combining the thrones of Denmark and England, later to add the thrown of Norway to the list. In recognition of his contribution to Canutes success against a Danish rebellion he gave the Earldom of Wessex to Godwin who's son was later to become King Harold. The earldom of Mercia, after Eadric Streona's assasination was given to Leofric. These two earldoms being the two most powerful lordships of the land. It was Leofric who repaired and extended St John's church in Chester to make it the Minster of West Mercia. Canute was to restore all of the churches that had been desecrated in the Viking wars.

The end of Norse rule and the coming of the Normans

The crown returned to the Saxon descendants of Alfred the Great on the death of Harthacnut. Canutes legitimate son who had died childless in 1042, having succeeded the usurper, Harold Harefoot, his illegitimate brother, to the thrown in 1018. In 1041 the nobles and the church had invited Harthacanut's half brother, Edward, the son of his mother's previous marriage to Ethelred the Unready, back from exile in Normandy. He was subsequently crowned King Edward (the Confessor).

The relationship between Edward and his most powerful earl's was not an easy one. Godwin and his sons were exiled in 1051 to return with armed force and internal support. And a similar event took place with Aelfgar Earl of Mercia in 1055. There was continuing disquiet at the growth of Norman influence within the court and both the Earls of Wessex and Mercia extended their powerbases.

Edwards experiences in Normandy and the rise of Godwin's son Harold Godwinson, to greater influence in the land was ultimately to lead to the Norman invasion.