General_History_of_Herefordshire_in_the_Middle

At the beginning of the second millennium, in the days of King Ethelred (The Unready, 978-1016), Hereford had become one of the principal centres of Saxon England.

Evidence suggests that there could well have been a market in Hereford as early as 958.

However, the county itself was not referred to as Herefordshire, until the reign of Canute (1016-1035) In these early days, the area in the south-west of the county was called Archenfield, which was predominately Welsh in its customs, laws and place-names. The River Wye was considered the boundary even after King Aethelstan exacted tribute from the Welsh kings at Hereford.

In the Domesday Book Hereford was listed as one of just sixteen shire towns ranking as cities. The market has always been an important source of income, another being the pilgrim industry associated with the Cathedral and the shrines of Saint Ethelbert and Saint Thomas Cantilupe.

During the early part of the 11^th Century the Godwin family were dominant in the county. In fact Harold Godwinsson (King of England, defeated and killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066) had been Earl of Hereford and had held several manors and large tracts of land in the county. His land and that of other Saxon landowners was shared among several Norman knights, thus rewarded for their support of William.

After the Conquest, William the Conqueror promoted his friend William fitzOsbern to Earl of Hereford in 1069 and put him in charge of much of the border territory between Chepstow and Ludlow. Many motte and bailey castles were built here, in fact there are 122 known sites in Herefordshire, more than in any other English county. This buffer zone between England and Wales, often called the Marches, was ruled by several powerful families, called the Marcher Lords: the Mortimers, Bohuns, Clares and Marshalls.

The king had granted them all the land they could conquer, so it was in their interest to keep the border warfare going. The Marches continued to be fought over till well into the 15^th Century, when the ascent of the Tudor dynasty put a stop to the on-going rivalries of the Welsh and English.

In 1349 and again in 1362 the Black Death reached Herefordshire and wiped out a large proportion of the population.

During the Wars of the Roses, Henry’s ancestor, Owen Tudor was brought to Hereford after his capture at the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross (near Leominster) (1461) and executed. His head was exhibited on the top step of the High Cross at the west-end of High Town and lit by 100 candles. (The spot of his execution is marked by a plaque in the pavement in front of Marks and Spencer).

Some historians believe that with Hereford’s loss of its frontier role, it also lost status and some of its economic significance. When Hereford’s religious authorities declined to support Henry VIII’ s "reformation", he had the fulling and corn mills on the Wye destroyed, which led to further economic problems, as both the wool and corn trades were severely affected.