Full text of "The history of Ludlow and its neighbourhood; forming a popular sketch of the history of the Welsh border"

See other formats

This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project
to make the world's books discoverable online.

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject
to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books
are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.

Marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the
publisher to a library and finally to you.

Usage guidelines

Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing this resource, we have taken steps to
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.

We also ask that you:

+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for
personal, non-commercial purposes.

+ Refrain from automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.

+ Maintain attribution The Google "watermark" you see on each file is essential for informing people about this project and helping them find
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.

+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe.

About Google Book Search

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web

at|http : //books . google . com/

V V*

^ 'o.

N ^/.

'^ :</

:\^

v'^

j^^

.^^

*'^->,

. r

-''r^

'■^/'

V >

■''^>..

v>-

\ 'J'

x„

:' ^ :

x:.

.N ^V

- A

^^^^^^^

. ^ ->■■

^% v^'

.v^

:> oe^^

.^.^^

-o.

.V'

<^<.. .<^'

'xf -^■''

-;^^^ %

>sr

'\-

'"'r^

-y

r' \ > - '

'■■'":

> v'

v5:^ f^

^<*

■; ., -'

.^^ <^

■"i

V:- .

'' -^

.v>^ ^

* ':>^

-^.

^^'

'^r.

•%

'■' ■ ' '. -

<'''-'v

-V

'^ \

^ ?^

^■v*

^•;. ^

^'^.

'^ V"

.v^^'

•i

-1

-^ -\'

C^"

v<>

^^,

<c -^^

^o,^

\ ' '^

4^ ^

^ ^*"

"■■■'<^,

V"'

..>

'"r>

.^'

■^'

^>.

^-<N

•^'' '

■ V

^ \

-■^ .-

0 \.

.•^ ^.>

'-'^ \r'

/ v^

w ^

^ V*

.- ^

, o

-i

THB

HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

«Xnd ]Snitidnce io the Xnnet[ (^otiiti of

THE

HISTORY OF LUDLOW

AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD;

FORMING A POPULAR SKETCH

OF THB

HISTORY OF THE WELSH BORDER.

THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq. M.A.,F.S.A., Hon.M.R.S.L.,

Of TVnufy CoOegey Cambridge; Corretpondent of the InatituU of France
(Aeod^mie des InscripUonM et Belles LettreeJ; Correeponding Member of
the Society of AnHquariee of Scotland ; Foreign Member of the SocUU dee
AniUquairee ds France; the Sociitd dee Antiquariee de Normandie; the
Atadimie dee Seisneee, Arte, et BeUee-Lettree de Caen; the SocidU Ethnolo-
fique of Parte ; the Hietoricaland Geographical Societiee of Heeee-Darmetadt ;
di Seeneka FomMkrift-Sdllekapet, Stockholm ; the Rogal Society of Northern
Antifuariee of Copenhagen ; ^c. ^c. ; and Correeponding Member of the
Committeee appointed by the French Oovemment for the publication of
Hietorieal Momunente.

LUDLOW:

PUBLISHED BY B. JONSS, BBOAD BTBEET.

LOVDOir : LOVeilAir AKD CO, PATERNOSTER BOW ;
AJTD J. BVSBELL SMITH, SOHO SQUARE.

M.DCCC.LII.

Univ. Library, Univ. Calif., Santa Cms

PREFACK

THE bistorical sketch comprised in the following pages was
commenced some years ago, with the desire of giving a popular
account of the past condition of a district which is endeared to
the writer as that in which he was bom, and in which he
leceiyed his earlier education. Many causes have since com-
Inned to retard its completion, and many parts of it have been
written under circumstances which renders it necessary to ask
for the indulgence of the readers. It was the author's wish, as
&r as he could, to show that the old dull &shion of compiling
local histories might be laid aside, without making them less
serious or less accurate, and it must be confessed that it would
be difficult to find any district in England which offered a
better opportunity of doing so than the borders of Wales.
For ages the scene of many of the mo9t important events in
English histoiy, and connected in a peculiar degree with the
great revolutions in the political and social condition of English-
men, the border districts present such a combination of beautiftd
■ceneiy and historical associations as is seldom to be met with.
Under the Homans a military road ran through them from
north to south, which was lined with flourishing towns and
cities; they were afterwards the fiivourite residence of the
Mercian princes ; and at a still later period, when the Saxons
had given way to the Normans, they were the stronghold of the
great baronial houses whose influence contributed so extensively
to most of the great events of the middle ages. We find in
that dark period poetry and literature establishing themselves
here in a very marked manner, and as the age of the refer-

11. PRBFACE.

mation approached we trace here also in their earlier deyelopment
the principles of religious fireedom. It has been attempted in
the present yolume to describe these events more minntelj and
continnouslj than in any former work, and a considerable mass
of materials have been brought together for that purpose which
had not been used before. It was the writer's first intention to
conclude with a history of the great civil wars of the seventeenth
century, as far as they affected this district ; but finding that
that subject has occupied for some time the attention of a
distinguished border antiquary, the Bev. J. Wsbb, of Tretiie,
who is much better qualified to do it justice, he willingly and
gladly resigns it into his hands. With this only omission from
his original plan, he now takes leave of a work which, taken up
at leisure moments, has always been one of pleasure and love.

Brompton, London,
July, 1852.

THE

HISTORY OF LUDLOW,

Am) ITS

NEIGHBOURHOOD.

SECTION L

Border History previous to the Oonqaest

AS we ascend the stream of history, the monuments of
our forefathers are <»ntinually becoming more rare, until
we find no other memorial of their existence than the
earth on which they lived. The historical monuments,
indeed, vary not only in quantity, but in their character,
and their variations to a certain degree may be defined
by limits. Ftom the beginning of the thirteenth century
to the present time, historical events may be verified by
the official records which are still preserved in our public
offices; and they are detailed in numerous contemporary
chronicles. During the Anglo-Norman period, from the
conquest to the end of the twelfth century, a very large
portion of the official records of the kingdom have perished ;
but their place is in some measure supplied by an unusual
number of interesting historical narratives written by those
who witnessed the events which they describe. Under
the Anglo-Saxons, the written memorials of history, though
much fewer, are still authentic and valuable: but at th»
period, owing to the divisions of the country and the local

8 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

character of the chronicles, we know much more of some
parts of the country than of others. Of the Roman period
we have a few scattered notices in foreign writers; but
we may trace the history of that people by their roads
and their camps. The only definite memorials of the
earlier Britons are their graves.

We know little of the border history before the times
of the Anglo-Saxons. The numerous traces of entrench-
ments and fortifications of a remote date, prove that this
district was firequently the scene of warfare. It is probable
that before the Roman invasion, the tribes who inhabited
the wilds of what we now call Wales, were accustomed
to make predatory excursions against the Britons in the
neighbouring plains, whilst the latter, exposed also to
piratical invasions from the north and the south, provided
for the temporary safety of themselves and as much of
their property as they could carry away, by forming strong-
holds at the tops of the loftiest hills. We have no means
of judging how far the spirit of the mountain tribes was
tamed by the Roman arms ; although the remain^ of roads
and stations show that at least the coasts and the more
accessible parts were reduced under the dominion of that
extraordinary people.

A Roman road may still be distinctly traced running
from Wroxeter near Shrewsbury (the Uriconium or Viri-
conium of the Romans) to Kenchester near Hereford (the
Roman Magna), accompanied, like all such roads, by nu-
merous tumuli, and skirted by a continued line of strong
camps. The formidable entrenchments which crown the
hills that overlook this route, particxdaxly in the narrow
moimtain passes like that of Aymestry, and which were
doubtlessly intended to protect it from the incursions of
the mountaineers to whom its position here exposed it,
are convincing proofs of the unquiet state of this portion
of the Roman province. The neighbourhood is supposed
to have been the scene of the last actions of the war against
Caractacus; but it would be difficult or imjwssible now

THE HISTORY OP LUDLOW. 3

to point out the positions which were occupied by the
rival armies.

There can be no doubt that the road just mentioned^
which, prolonged in its opposite directions, was the line
of communication between Deya (Chester) and Blestium
(Monmouth), was the one indicated in the Itinerary of
Antoninus. From Wroxeter it runs^ not south (as the
old Antiquaries drew the road), but in a south-westerly
direction to Church-Stretton, whence it takes a more
southerly direction and crosses the Oney at Stretford
Bridge, passing on by Ro>vton to Leintwardine, and thence
by Wigmore to Aymestry and to Street (about three miles
south of Aymestry), and thus having made a considerable
curve proceeds in a more easterly course by Legion Cross,
near Burton, to another Stretford Bridge, and so on towards
Kenchester. On this line of road lay an intermediate station,
between Uriconiimi and Magna, twenty-seven Roman miles
from the former and twenty-four from the latter place. This
town, named by the Romans Bravinium, must have been
situated in the immediate neighbourhood of Ludlow, perhaps
nearer to the road, at or near Leintwardine ; though it may
be doubted how far it is necessary to suppose that the
smaller Roman towns were situated on the roads. The geo-
grapher Mannert places Bravinium at Bromfield.* '

The little historical information that we possess relating
to the invasion of our island by the Saxons, is obscured by
much fable; through the mist of tradition we can only
discern the indefinite traces of battles and ravages by which
their conquests were founded and assured. It* is certain,
that long before this land had ceased to be a Roman

* ''In die Niihe yon Ludlow, eigentlich etwas nordwesilichcr, wo sich
dor Ony in den Teme-Fluss ergiesst, an die Stelle des Dorfes Bromfield."
Mannert, Britannia, p. 140. This conjecture of Mannert is rather singular
vhen coupled with another circumstance. I am strongly inclined to be-
lieve that the present race-course (adjacent to Bromfield), which bears the
Qame of the Old- Field, and around which there are several tumuli, was the
»le of a Roman settlement of some kind ; and if the tumuli were opened,
^ir contents would probably be found to be pure Roman.

4 THE HISTOBT OF LtJBLOW.

province^ its coasts were infested by the Saxon rovers ; and
it is probable that their depredations increased as the Roman
power declined, until in the middle of the fifth century
(a* n. 449) a party who came from Jutland entered the
Thames and established themselves in Kent. Eight-and-
twenty years later .£lla with his Saxons landed on the
southern coast, and founded the kingdom of the South
Saxons, or Sussex. Another party of his countrymen un-
der Cerdic formed, in 494, the adjacent kingdom of the
West Saxons, or Wessex. The Angles, a kindred race,
were at the same time beginning to settle on the eastern
coast, so that when Ida founded the powerful kingdom of
Northumberland in 547, the maritime districts of England,
from Cornwall to the Forth, including much of the low-
lands of Scotland, were portioned out into petty Saxon

While tbese states were establishing and strengthening
themselves, a number of apparently independent chieftains
were gradually taking possession of the territory which lay
on their borders towards the interior of the island. The
lands which they thus occupied were called the mearce, i. e.
borders or marches, and the people who held them wen^
Mffrce, or Msrce, borderers. As the inland Britons were
in this manner by degrees reduced to subjection, the
whole of the interior as far as the feet of the Welsh moun-
tains became one extensive Saxon state, and was known by
the name of Mj/rcna-land or Myrcna-rice^ the land or king-
dom of the borderers. Latinised into Mercia, The name is
still preserved in that of the Marches of Wales.

It is a commonly received, but very erroneous, notion,
that as the Saxon conquerors advanced, the British poptda-
tion quitted the land, and left it open to the invaders, ta-
king refuge themselves in the highlands and parts not yet
subdued. In the fifth century the inhabitants of the part
of the island we now call England must have become es-
sentially Roman ; it was covered with Roman towns and
villages ; a large portion of the landholders were no doubt

THE HISTOBY OF LUDLOW. 5

Romans by (axnily; ttiose of the higher caste and the
inhabitants of towns who were of British origin, had be-
come Romans in manners and by alliance of blood ; and
the only pure British part of the population were the lower
classes and the cultiyators of the land — ^in fact, the serfs.*
It may fiurly be doubted whether any other but the Soman
language was in use. The picture of the Anglo-Saxon in*
vasion resembled that of the irruption of the Franks into
Ghtul. Their fiiry was directed chiefly against the higher
caste, a large portion of which fell -in Intttle ; the towns
were plundered and burnt, and their inhabitants massa-
cred; but the mass of the population became the serfs of
the conquerors as they had previously been of the yan-
quished — it was but a change of masters. Wealh in
Anglo-Saxon (and its equiyalent in other Grermanic tongues)
signified generally a foreigner ^ but was more particularly
applied to the people who spoke the Latin tongue, or dialects
derived fiom it. In German, Italy is still called Welschland.
The Anglo-Saxons gave the name of WeaUiB or Wyliec-
mem to the British population in their own territory, as
well as to the population of the then independent districts
in the names of which it is still preserved, Wales and Corn-
wall (the country of the Com-wealas). This is the origin
of our word Wdtih. The existence of a Wekh population
in the Saxon kingdoms, more particularly in Merda and
Wessex, is distinctly acknowledged in the Anglo-Saxon
laws. In the eye of the law, the Welshman, even when he
became a landholder (which seems to have been a case
that was rare and never to any great extent), was much in-
ferior in value to an Englishman. The learned editor of
the Anglo-Saxon Laws, Mr. Thorpe, compares the Wealh
under the Saxons with the Bomanus tributarius of the
Salic law. La the laws of Ine, king of the West-Saxons,

* The British soldiers who fought against the Saxons, were formed by
Roman discipUne. Henry of Huntingdon, speaking of the battle of Wod-
nesburh, says "cum autem Brittones more Romanonim acics distinctc ad-
moTcrent, Sazoncs rero audacter et confuse irrucrent." (p. 315.)

6 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

composed in the latter years of the seventh century, the
Wealh is distinguished into the two classes of gafol-gelda
(rent-payer, or tenant) and theow, (serf). The two peoples
graduaUy melted into one ; but even as late as the reign
of Henry I, the distinction is admitted in the laws, and it
appears not unfrequently in Doomsday in the districts near
the borders. It was probably from this intermixture of
people that originated the common English names of Jones,
Davies, Price, &c.

By the Saxons, as well as by the Franks, the Boman
towns (and all towns they found were Roman) were redu-
ced to heaps of ruins, and became the haunts of wild
beasts and birds of prey. After the conversion of the Grer-
manic tribes, these ruins offered inviting situations for mo-
nastic establishments, not only on account of the melan-
choly solitude which reigned there, but also becaiise they
offered ready materials for building, and these monastic
foundations were frequently the origin of new towns which
at a later period occupied the ancient sites. Thus the
monastery of St. Alban's was built amid the massy ruins
of the ancient Verulamiiun, which were but imperfectly
cleared even in the thirteenth century. But the invaders
seldom repaired the towns they had destroyed. It was pro-
bably in the latter half of the sixth century that the Mer-
cians passed the Severn and destroyed the towns along the
Roman road which we have already described. The fate
of Uriconium is perhaps indicated in its modem name of
Wroxeter {Wrfwe-ceasteTy the town of vengeance?). The
remains of this place are still a proof of its former strength
and importance ; the site of Magna at Kenchester was co-
vered with ruins so late as the time of Leland ; but the last
definite traces of Bravinium have long disappeared.* Both

* The Saxons gare to the Roman towns and foitresses the name of
ciOBter, probably formed from the Latin eastrum : and wherever we find
the name of a place composed of cester, or cheater, we may be snre it is
the site of a Roman station. The Saxons gave to the forts or towns which
they built themselves generally the name of burh, or burgh.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 7

Uriconium and Magna were important positions to check
the inroads of the "mountain-dwellers'' (dun-s^etas) as the
Saxons termed the people who only have since home the
name of Welsh ; and very shortly after their destruction,
the conquerors erected two new towns in their immediate
vicinity: one they named Scrobbes-hurh, the town of
shrubs, from the wooded appearance of the neighbour-
hood, now softiened to Shrewsbury ;* the other Here-ford,
the ford of the army, because it was the point at which the
hostile armies were in the habit of passing the Wye in
their excursions.

We have no account of the earlier period of Mercian
history. That people appears to have been composed of
different tribes, each governed originally by its independent
chieftain. The tribe of the Hwiccas was seated in the
modem counties of Worcester and Gloucester; its chief
town, named Wicwara-ceaster, or Wigra-ceaster, (Wor-
cester) had been a Soman station, the name of which
has not been ascertained with certainty. Herefordshire
and Shropshire were possessed by a tribe named Hecanas ;
the residence of their chief was in the immediate neigh-
bourhood of the modem town of Leominster, and is
supposed to have been Kingsland, a viUage which derives
its present name from having been a manor of the Anglo-
Saxon kings. The first king of Mercia who holds an
important place in history was Penda, who obtained the
supreme power in 626, and during a reign of twenty-nine
years was engaged in continual wars with his neighbours.
The * mountain-dwellers' of Wales were his allies, and
at this early period often fought under the same banners
with the Saxons. In 642 they gained a great victory
over the Northumbrians at a place then called Maserfield,
and the pious king Oswald was slain: he fell near a
tree which was afterwards named from him Oswaldes-treow,
now Oswestry. Penda was himself slain in 655, in another

* I am inclined to take the British origin of Shrewsbury for a mere fable :
the Weigh Pengweme is probably a partial translation of the Saxon name.

8 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

war with the Northumbrians. Merda was the last of the
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which received Christianity. Penda
was a pagan, and had been constantly at war with the
Christian kings ; and the monkish chronicler exults in the
belief that when he fell another sotd was added to the
number of the damned.* Tet the wicked Penda was the
father of a fSEtmily of saints. His daughters, Kineburga
and Kineswitha, became nuns. Two of his sons, Wulfere
and Ethelred, reigned in succession after him : the former
introduced the Christian religion among the Mercians, and
his daughter St. Werburga became a nun at Chester : the
latter, after a short reign, quitted his throne to enter a
monastery. Another brother, Peada, was ealderman of the
Middle Angles, and was the means of their conversion.

Merewald the fourth Son of Penda, was ealderman or
chieftain of the Hecanas, and resided, as has been said, near
Kingsland. It was here that he was visited by the Nor-
thumbrian priest Eadfidd, or Otfrid, at whose persuasion he
quitted the errors of paganism; and, as a proof of the
warmth of his zeal, he built a church in honour of St. Peter,
and founded a monastery of which he made Ead&id first
abbot, and to which he gave the name of Leof -minster, or
the beloved monastery. At a later period the name became
Latinised into Leoms-monasterium ; and a legend was in-
vented, according to which Eadfnd in his journey to the
court of Merewald, arrived in the dusk of the evening, faint
and weary, at the spot where Leominster now stands, and
there seated himself beneath a tree, and began to eat the
bread which he had brought with him. Suddenly he be-
held a fierce lion approaching towards him, ready, as he
thought, to spring forward and devour him ; but when he
offisred his bread to the savage animal, it became tame as a
lamb, and, after eating, disappeared. The traveller accep-
ted the omen, — ^he conceived the visionary Hon to be em-
blematical of the unchristian ealderman of the Hecanas ; in

* Infernalium uumerum animaram auxit. W. Malmsb. Hist. p. 27.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 9

the morning he presented himself at the palace^ and was
received with kindness; Merewald also had had a vision
daring the night, and was easily converted. The date of
this event, and of the foundation of the monastery, is said
to have been a. d. 660.

Merewald married Ermenbei^, daughter ci the king of
Kent, and had by her three daughters, Milburga, Mildritha,
and Milgitha, who became nuns. St. Milburga was placed
over the abbey which her fether foimded at a place then
called Wimnicas^ but since known by the name of Wenlock.
She had lands at a village named '' Stokes" (Stoke St.
Milbui^h), which she often visited, and where she is said to
have performed many miracles. Her fields were believed
for centuries afterwards to be miraculously defended from
die depredations of the wild fowl, which it appears infested
the lands of her neighbours. The beauty of Milburga
attracted many suitors ; but she had made a vow of chastity,
and rejected them all. The son of a king (perhaps a Welsh
king) who was among the number,- determined to carry
her off by force, and laid a plan to surprise her while she
was on a visit to Stoke ; but St. Milburga was informed
of her danger, and fled hastily towards Wenlock. When
she reached the little river Corve, which was there a trifling
stream,* her pursuers were close at her heels ; but she had
no sooner leaped over it, than the rivulet suddenly became
a torrent, and put an effectual stop to the designs of her
lover. Such are the legends which fill up the barren page
of history in these remote ages.

In the seventh and eighth centuries the modem counties
of Salop and Hereford, as well as that of Gloucester and a
great part of Monmouthshire, were firmly occupied by
die Saxons. The independent Welsh were sometimes in
alliance vrith their Mercian neighbours, and fought under
the same banners, in their contests with the other Saxon

* Brat ibi amnis quidam nomine Corf, Tado meabilia et alveo medio-
CTU. Capgrave, NoTa Logenda Anglioe ; -where are given the legends of
Merewald and Milburga.
c

10 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW,

or Angle kings. But such alliances were not of long
duration j and, among the scanty notices of the older chro-
nicles, we meet with indications of sanguinary battles
between the Mercians and the Welsh. Offii, the greatest
of the Anglo-Saxon monarchs before Alfied, drove the latter
from the border, and made the wonderful earth-work, which
is still known as Offa's Dyke, to defend the land of the
Hecanas from their incursions. An old tradition says that
every Welshman, who passed this boundary, was to lose
his life. The vales of Herefordshire seem to have been
a fiivourite resort of the Mercian king ; he is supposed to
have had a palace at Sutton, four miles north of Hereford,
where remarkable earth-works, now known by the name of
Sutton WaUs, still exist. It was here, according to some,
that in 792 the unfortunate king of the East Angles,
Ethelbert, was murdered. His body was deposited at
Hereford, where his shrine long gave celebrity to the
church.

The inhabitants of the border, hardened by their fre-
quent wars with the Welsh, shewed an exemplary courage
in their resistance to the Danish iavaders. In 894 the
Danish army penetrated westward to the banks of the
Severn, and followed its course, as it appears, till they
reached the neighboiurhood of Welshpool, where they in-
trenched themselves at a spot then called Butdigingtune,
now Buttington ; but they were besieged by the English,
and, after having suffered greatly from famine, were nearly
destroyed in their attempt to force a way through the be-
siegers. In the year following the Danes again crossed the
border, and are said to have penetrated into Wales. In
896, they went to a place named in the Saxon Chronicle
Cwatbricge, on the Severn, probably the present village of
Quatford, a little to the south of Bridgenorth ; there they
built a fortress (and J^ser ge-weorc worhton), and passed
the winter. But this was the last struggle of the invaders
against the talents and fortunes of Alfred, which restored
peace at least for a time to England. The children of

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 11

Alfred were worthy of their &ther. While tliey cherished
literature and the arts, and loved the elegance and splendour
of peace, their vigour and courage preserved the kingdom
from the honors of war. It was the policy of Edward, who
succeeded his father on the throne, to strengthen the parts
most expoeed to the inroads of the Danes by erecting
fiirtresees and garrison towns. In this he was aided by the
wisdom and enterprising spirit of his magnanimous sister
Ethelfleda, the widow of the ealderman of Mercia, — ^for
Merda was now no more than a province under the West-
Saxon dynasty. In 912, the lady of the Mercians, (Myrcna
hke^yige) as she was called by her admiring coimtrymen,
built the fortress at Biidgenorth, then named simply Bricge.
The Danes had been defeated on the banks of the Severn by
her farother in the preceding year. Ethelfleda also built a
fort at Cyric-byrig or Chirbury, in 916, at no great distance
from the spot where the Danes had wintered in 896. The
Welsh seem to have taken advantage of the terror inspired
by the Danish ravages, to invade the border. In 916,
Ethelfleda led an army into Wales, which repressed the
turbulent moimtaineers, and she took by storm the town of
Breoenan-mere, or Brecknock. In 918, the Danes again
invaded the borders of Wales. Leaving their ships in the
Severn, they had advanced as far as Yrdnga-feld (the field
of hedge-hogs), now Archenfield, in Herefordshire, where
they were encoimtered by the men of that county and of
Gbuoestershire, who defeated them, slew some of their
chiefe, and drove them to their ships. In 920 Ethelfleda
died, and was buried at Gloucester. In 921 king Edward
built Widnga-mere (Wigmore); which was attacked the
same year by the Danes, who had again entered the Mar-
ches of Wides. They besieged the town one day from
morning till evening, but it was gallantly defended, and
they were obliged to leave it, after having plundered the
country around, and carried off the cattle.

It was not till towards the end of this century, when the
strength of the Anglo-Saxons had been wasted in religious

12 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

factions and domestic quarrels, that the Danes became
again formidable. While Swegn with his Northmen were
ravaging the fairest districts of the south, the indolent
Ethelred, as we learn from one of the old historians, was
living in retirement at a manor he possessed in Shropshire.*
The best procrf of the sufferings of the borderers during the
many years of devastaticKi which followed, is the circum-
stance that the nunnery at Wenlock, the resting-place of
the relics of St. Milburga, presented for many years
afterwards nothing but heaps of ruins. Tet the courage
of the people seems not to have been entirely broken, and
when the Danish king Hardicnut attempted to exact from
them an odious impost, the men of Worcester arose and
slew the taxgatherers. Th^i Hardicnut in his resentment
ordered the county to be ravaged with fire and sword.
The inhabitants, apprised of the danger which threatened
them, quitted their homes, and took shelter on the Borders.
The city of Worcester was reduced to ashes ; but the citizens
also had quitted their houses, and fortified themselves in an
island in the river Severn then named Bever-ege, or the
Isle of Beavers, and successfully defied the attempts of
their assailants, who were obliged to leave their mission of
vengeance only half executed. The destruction of Worces-
ter occurred in a. d. 1041.

The Danish wars have left memorials in the names of
many places on the Welsh borders. After landing in the
south, the invaders seem generally to have followed the
course of the ancient Boman road, and they appear to have
established themselves frequently in the valley which it
traverses between Aymestry and Leintwardine. The name
of Wigmore, in Anglo-Saxon Wicinga-mere, signifies the
moor of the pirates. Wicingas, (in Danish, vidngr) or
sons of war, was the name adopted especially by the Danish
rovers. Dinmore, in like manner, is perhaps Dena-mere,

* Rex autem Adclred cum UKCstiiia ei confusiono crat ad firmam suam
in Salopschire. HexL Huniingd. Hist. p. 360. Thi« was in a« d 985.

THE HISTOKY OF LUDLOW. 13

the moor of the Danes. I am inclined to think that a
party of Danes had also established themselves on the brow
of die hill whioh is now occupied by the castle of Ludlow,
and that from their fortifications it took the name of
Dena-ham, the residence or home of the Danes, still
preserved in that of Dinham. When the Normans built
the castle on the site of the Danish fort, they seem to have
retained for it the name of Dinham, corrupted in old
writings to Dinam or Dinan ; and it was not till the end of
the twelfth century that that name was lost, except in its
present restricted appUcation, in that of Ludlow.

This latter name is also Saxon, and carries us back
probably to a very remote period of our national history.
Lude-low, in purer Saxon Leode-hlsew, signifies the hill of
the people.* But the Anglo-Saxon hkew was generally ap-
plied not to a natural hill like that on which the town of
Ludlow stands, but to an artificial burial mound, a tumulus
or barrow, like the BaitJoto Hills in Cambridgeshire, which
have been discovered to be Roman sepulchral monuments.
These lows were intimately connected with the mythology
and superstitions of our early forefathers, and in their minds
were wrapped up with the notions of primeval giants and
dragons which kept a jealous watch over their hidden
treasures. Li old times we find them fi:equently the scenes
of popular ceremonies and meetings. I was long doubtful
as to the cause of this name being assigned to the town,
till I accidentally discovered a document which clears up
the difficulty in the most satisfactory maimer. It appears
that up to the end of the twelfth century, the site of the

* lliifl name affords a very curious instanco of the maimer in which
derivations may become penrerted in passing from one writer to another.
Some one of the older Antiquaries had interpreted Ludlow by the mote ^f
Ike people, the word mote being the representatiYc of the French motte, a
billodc. The fmote of a castle was the artificial mound of earth on which
the dongeon tower waa generally built. Writers who came after, thinking
this word mole was the representative of the Anglo-Saxon ge-moi (remaining
in such words as moot-kaUf &c.) have interpreted the name of the town
as signifying tiie cewrt o/jusHce of the people.

14 THE HISTOitT OF LUDLOW.

present churchyard of Ludlow, the most elevated part of the
hill, was occupied by a very large tumidus, or bsmrow. In
the year 1199, the townsmen found it necessary to enlarge
their church, which seems to have been of small dimensions,
and for this purpose they were obliged to dear away the
mound. In doing this, they discovered in the interior of
the mound three sepulchral deposits^ which were probably
included in square chests as at Bartlow^ and the narrator
perhaps exaggerates a little in calling them 'mausolea of
stone.' But the clergy of Ludlow, in the twelfth century,
were by no means profound antiquaries ; they determined
in their own minds that the bones they had found were the
relics of three Irish saints, the father, mother, and uncle, of
the famous St. Brandan, and they buried them devoutly in
their church, with the confidence that their holiness would
be soon evinced in numerous miracles.* It was to this
tumulus alone that the name Leode-hkew belonged. It was

• The account of this event was preserved in the monastery of Cleo-
bury Mortimer, in what Leland calls a " schedula," and was copied for
that antiquary by a monk of the house. It is printed in Leland's Collec-
tanea, rol, iii, p. 407, but Heame has printed it Ludla»ia instead of Lud-
lania, which has caused it to be entirely overlooked. It is as follows :—

" Anno D. 1199, contigit in quadam Anglis patria, scilicet provincia
Salopesbiriensi, apud pagum quie Ludelavia nuncupatur, quod pagenses
cjusdem oppidi decrevissent ecclesiam snam, quod brevis esset ad conti-
nendam se plebem contingentem, longiorem construere. Quocirca opor-
tuit quondam terrce tumulum magnum ad occidentem ecclesis solo co-
icquare, qua mums ejusdem debuit extendi. Cumque pncmissum collem
fodiendo complanassent, invenerunt tria mausolea lapidea et corpora
sanctorum decentia, qun dum aperuissent, repererunt trium sanctorom
relliquias hoc scripto in uno bustorum in schedulam composite, que prius
intrinsecus cera, exterius vero plumbo fuerat involuta, his verbis Anglicc
expressis *. Hie refuiescunt S, Fereher^ pater Brendani^ beaia ^gnorOf
tancti $eiUett Ibernensii, pmlera lapide et eolo Utehutu Saneta ^Moqu0 co-
rona, nuUer praHbati Brendam^ maiertera videlicet CobimkUH^ electi Dei.
Sanettu .... Cochelf gemunue ^uadem sanctce. Hie nempe qwindeHis degu-
erunt anniSf dum sanctorttm Britannia adirent patrocinium poet obitmm
Luda increduli. Quorum deposita clerici ejusdem ecclesis ab humo le-
vantes, in archa lignea posuerunt, eademque in ecclesiam gestantes de-
cent! locello collocaverunt, 3 Id. Apr. operientes, quoad Dominus aliquas
virtutes eorum meritis et interccssionibus patrare dignetur, cui laus,
honor, et gloria in saccula. Amen.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 15

without doubt a Roman sepulchre, and, by its im][x>rtance9
seems to indicate the neighbourhood of a Roman town,
which is a strong confirmation of the supposition that the
present Old Field may have been the site of the Roman
station Bravinium. This tumulus was an object of super-
stitious rererence among the Anglo-Saxons, and they pro-
bably assembled there to perform games and ceremonies at
certain fixed periods. Traces of such customs remain in
diferent parts of the kingdom, even at the present day. In
Leland's time, the people of Leominster and ''there abouts"
went once a year ** to sport and playe " at certain intrench-
ments on a hill side distant half-a-mile from Leominster,
called Comfort Castle. It was thus that the low or txmiu-
lus became known as '' the low of the people." And as a
great portion of the people who assembled there, coming
fiom Herefordshire, had to cross the river Teme, the shal-
low place where they passed obtained the name of ''the
people's ford," Leode-ford, or Ludford. It was a conmion
custom with the early missionaries to turn objects of super-
stition to christian purposes, to fix themselves on the site
of some object of pagan worship, — ^in fact, to attack the
enemy in his strong hold. The little church beside the
hw was probably the origin of the town of Ludlow. When
the Danes may be supposed to have occupied the other end
of the hill, the town did not exist ; and it seems that till
the dme when the low was levelled with the surrounding
ground, the town of Ludlow continued distinct in name
from the adjacent castle of Dinham, although even in those
times the name of the town was not unfiequently given
popularly to the castle.

Under the last monarch of the regal line of the Saxons,
the movements and intrigues of the family of the powerful
Earl Godwin, and the jealousies which distracted the king-
dom, were intimately connected with the history of the
Welsh border. Godwin headed the popular party — that party
which opposed the power and insolence of King Edward's
foreign favourites, who were ever ready to profit by that

16 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

weak monarch's dislike of his English subjects. In the
earlier half of the tenth century, the Welsh, severely chas-
tised and humiliated, had become little better than subjects
of the Anglo-Saxon crown. Athelstane had compelled
their prince to do him homage in person at Hereford, and
to pay him a fixed tribute, which was continued in some
of the following reigns. But the Danish invasions, by
weakening the Saxons on the border, had restored their
independence to the Welsh, and enabled them to become
again the aggressors. They were, under Edward the
Confessor, as in after times, more or less active in all tlie
struggles between the contending factions in England.

Harold, the eldest of Godwin's sons, was earl or ealder-
man of Wessex. His brother Swegn was the ealderman of
the counties of Hereford and Gloucest^. Swegn, with
another brother, Tostig, were remarkable chiefly for their
turbulent conduct. Robert of Jumi^ges, the Norman
Archbishop of Canterbury, was remembered with execra-
tion so late as the twelfth century, as having been the
cause of all tlie discord between King Edward and Earl
Godwin's family. Yet the first public cause of displeasure
was given by the turbulent sons of the Earl. In 1046,
Swegn was engaged in a successful expedition against the
Welsh ; and on his return, in the midst of his exultation,
as the Saxon Chronicler tells the story, he ordered Elgiva
the abbess of Leominster to be brought to him, kept her
^'as long as he liked, and then sent her home." The
criminal was banished from the kingdfnn ; and his govern-
ment was given to his brother Harold and his kinsman
Beom. Some chroniclers say that Swegn fled, because he
was not allowed to marry the abbess whom he had seduced.
A few months afterwards he came to Pevensey to obtain
forgiveness of King Edward, and he there added to his pre-
vious crime the treacherous murder of Beom, and then
escaped to Flanders. A year afterwards he obtained his
pardon by the intermediation of his father, or, according to
others, of Aldred bishop of Worcester.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 17

Godwin appears on every occasion to have identified
himself with the cause of justice and patriotism. In
1051, he provoked the royal displeasure by his refusal to
saciifioe the people of Dover to the unjust vengeance of
Eustace count of Boulogne. Sununoned to appear at the
courty which was then held at Gloucester, he came with
an army which Harold had raised in Wessex and established
at Beverstone, in Gloucestershire, under pretence that
Swegn's county of Hereford was threatened by the Welsh,
His attempt to drive away the Norman favourites was not
m this instance successful ; and at a parlement at London,
Gfodwin and his sons were outlawed and banished, and
bis beautiful and accomplished daughter Edith, the queen
of the Confessor, partook in their disgrace. Godwin, with a
part of his familv, sought refuge in Flanders ; but Harold
went to Ireland, where he fitted out some ships, and visited
the English coasts in company with the Irish pirates, by
whom they were at that time infested. Harold's earldom
was given to Algar the son of Leofiic of Mercia; and a
Norman garrison appears to have been placed in Hereford,
under Badulf, one of the king's foreign relatives. Kiog
Edward, in his anger against the party of his &ther-in-law,
invited over a foreign prince, William of Normandy, and
promised him the succession to the English crown.

In 1052, the Welsh under their prince Gryflfyth, taking
advantage of their domestic feuds, made an irruption into
the border, and crueUy ravaged Herefordshire. The
Norman garrison of Hereford led the men of the county
against them, but they were defeated, and the Welsh
"carried off a great prey." The same year the family
of Grodwin returned to England with an armed force,
and the people universally joining with him, the king was
compelled to receive them, and the foreigners were banished.
But one of Godwin's sons never returned to his native
land. Swegn, while with his father in Flanders, had been
seized with penitence for the murder of his kinsman Beom,
and made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem barefooted, to atone

18 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

for his crime. On his way home he died of the fatigues of
the journey, or, as others say, he was slain by the Saracens.
The earldom of Harold was restored, but that of Swegn
still remained in the hands of the king. The year following,
Godwin died, and Harold became the head of the family.
Within a few months after died Siward, the celebrated
earl of the Northumbrians, and his earldom was given to
Harold's turbulent brother Tostig. This year is famous in
our annals as the date of the Tragedy of Macbeth. On the
death of Godwin, and the elevation of Harold to lus place,
Algar (son of Leo&ic and Grodiva) was again made earl
of Wessex ; but he also now fell into the king's displeasure,
and, being accused of treason and banished, took refuge
in Wales. The Welsh at this time, in addition to their
common incentives to plunder, were exasperated by the
fate of their prince's brother, Rees, who having fallen into
, the hands of the English after their former incursion, had
been put to death, and his head sent to the king at
Gloucester. Algar and Grjrflfyth threw themselves suddenly
into Herefordshire with a powerful army, in 1055. The
cowardice and unskilfulness of Radulf and his garrison of
Normans, or Frenchmen (as the Northmen who had settled
in Neustria began now to be called), exposed the English
to a second defeat. The battle was fought " at about two
miles from Hereford;" the Anglo-Saxons, accustomed
always to fight on foot, had by Radulf 's command been
injudiciously mounted on horses ; and, discouraged by their
own awkwardness in this new mode of engagement, when
they saw their leader fly with his foreigners at the beginning
of the battle, they immediately followed his example. The
victors found Hereford without defenders, except the monks
of St. Ethelbert, who were slain fighting at the door of
their church. The noble cathedral, which had been built
the year before by bishop Athelstan, and the monastery
were reduced to ashes. The city itself, after being
, plundered, was delivered to the flames, and most of the
' citizens who escaped the sword were carried into captivity.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 19

On this oocasion, Leominster also was taken and plundered
by the invaders^ who are said to have fortified themselves
in or near the town.

Harold^ when he heard of these events, hastened to
place himself at the head of the English army which was
assembled at Gloucester, and following the Welsh, who
retreated before him, he established himself in the valley
of "Straddle," probably in the immediate neighbourhood of
Leominster. But the Welsh were too well acquainted with
the military skill and bravery of their pursuer to oppose him ;
flyiDg into their mountain fastnesses, they sent messengers
to appease his wrath, and soon afterwards made a formal
submission, whilst Harold led part of his army to Hereford,
where he rebuilt and fortified the city. The cathedral lay
in ruins during nearly thirty years. In the midst of these
events died earl Leofric, who had been a great benefactor
to the churches of Leominster and Wenlock ; and his son
Algar, after ihe defeat of the Welsh, landed in Cheshire
in conjunction with a body of Northmen, and, having taken
possession of his heritage by force, succeeded in obtaining
his pardon.

The Welsh continued still to infest the border, till in
1063 Harold and Tostig together traversed the principality,
and inflicted upon them a severe vengeance. In their
despair, ihey sought peace by slaying their own prince
GrySyth, and delivering his head to Harold, who appointed
a successor in his place, firom whom he exacted an oath
of allegiance. Shortly after their return from this expe-
dition, violent dissension arose between the brothers, and
in the royal presence at Westminster, Tostig made a brutal
assault on Harold and tore his hair from his head. He
then went to Hereford, where Harold was preparing a
feast to receive his sovereign, and having slain and dis-
membered his brother's household servants, he placed their
legs, arms, and heads, on the vessels of wine, mead, ale,
and other liquors which were placed ready for the festival,
and sent word to the king that when he came he

80 THE HISTOBT OF LUDLOW.

need bring no sansed meat with him, as he had taken care
to provide plenty at his brother's house.* For this
outrage Tostig was again outlawed and banished from the
kingdom.

Tlie family of Godwin possessed large estates in Here-
fordshire. Their manors which are enumerated in the
Domesday survey are very numerous. Leominster, with
all its members, Luston, Larpole, Aymestry, &c. belonged
to lus sister, queen Edith, whose name is still preserved
in that of Stoke-Edith, as another Stoke has preserved
similarly the name of the family which possessed it at a
later period in the appellation of Stoke-Lacy. The fieite of
Godwin's sons was singularly tragical. Sw^n, as has
been said before, died, or was slain, in the performance of
his penance. Tostig, when the people of Northumberland
could no longer bear his tyranny, only escaped their ven-
geance in 1065 by flying to Denmark. Harold, imitating
his father'^in putting himself forward as the champion of
the people, defended the Northumbrians, and obtained
for them the royal permission to choose Morcar, the son
of Algar, for their earl. Tostig returned in 1066, vdth
his northern allies, and was killed in the battle of Stamford-
bridge, fighting against his brother. A week afterwards,
Harold was slain at Hastings, and with him fell his
yotmger brothers Grirth and Leofwine. The remaining
brother Wulnoth was the captive of the Norman conqueror,
and ended his days in a prison.

The Marches of Wales were connected with the name of
the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings, long after the fatal
conflict at Hastings. A report was widely prevalent during
the twelfth century that Harold had escaped from the

• Penexit ad Hereforde, ubi frater suus corrodium regale maximum
pararerat : ubi miniatros fratris 8ui omnes detruncans, singulis yasia rini,
medonia, cerrisiae, pigmenti, morati, sicene cms humanum vel caput Tel
brachium imposuit, mandayitque rcgi quod ad firmam suam properans
cibos salsatos sufficienter inveniret, alios secum deferre curaret. Henr.
Hunt Hist. Ub. ri. p. 367.

THE HISTORY OF LtTBLOW. 21

slaogliter. It was said that after seeking in yain for
asastance firom the people of the continent who were
nearest in the feznily of nations to his own, he returned
to England to pass the remainder of his life in religious
retirement — ^that, disguising lus name and face, he passed
many years as a hermit on the Welsh borders, exposed
to the insults of the people over whom he had so often
triumphed, and who knew not the humble individual whose
religions habit they derided — ^that he afterwards settled
at Chester, where he ended his days, and on his death-bed
revealed the secret to lus confessor. The monks of Waltham,
Harold's rich monastic foundation, received the legend with
joy, and consigned it to writing in a manuscript which
is stiQ extant.* Such legends have in other countries
followed the destruction of a native dynasty by a foreign
and oppressive invader.

SECTION II.
State of tiie Border under the Conqueror.

IT will not perhaps be uninteresting to the reader, if
we pause in the course of our history, to take a view of the
state of the border as it appeared shortly after the establish-
ment of the Anglo-Norman dynasty. It was the point of
transition between an older period of which we have no
local description, and the more modem age when the cha-
racter of its history as well as the outward appearance of
the country became entirely changed.

During nearly a century the Marches of Wales had been
exposed to the continual ravages of the Danes or the
Welsh. Ruins occupied the sites of what had been flou-

* The VUa Haroldi of the MS. alluded to, has been lately printed in
Fnmce, in the second vol. of the Chroniques Anglo-NormandeSi edited by
H.Michel, Boaen, 1836.

SS THE HISTQBT OF LUDLOW.

rishing towns; churches^ monasteries, and even castles,
had been destroyed; lands, fonneriy cultivated, lay waste,
and were overrun with trees and brushwood. Ordericus
Vitalis gives an affecting description of the misery and de-
population which followed the entry of the Normans. The
general depression of mind and the feeling of insecurity and
consequent recklessness which attend such events are more
effective in thinning the population of a country than the
sword itself. The Domesday book describes several estates,
then waste and covered with wood, as having been tilled
land under previous possessors. It is probable that even
the strong castle of Wigmore had been destroyed ; for the
Domesday book states that the castle then standing had
been recently built by the 'comes Willelmus,* on tDoste
ground which had received the name of * Merestun,' or the
town or inclosure of the moor.* Of the kind of law which
then existed on the immediate border, the Domesday book
has preserved a very remarkable specimen : if one Welsh-
man slew another, the relatives of the slain were to assem-
ble and plunder the lands of the slayer and of his relatives,
and bum their houses, until the noon of the following day,
when the body was to be buried : of the prey they thus
collected, the king claimed one third, and the plimderers
were allowed to appropriate the rest.f This curious notice
shows that at the time of the Conquest, by the confessed
custom of the Welsh on the border, the king of England
laid claim to a feudal superiority over Wales, whenever he
could exercise it.

Under the Saxons this part of the island was much more

* * Willelmus comes fecit illud in wasta terra quae Yocatur Merestun.
Though the ground were covered with ruins, if it was unproductive,
the term waste would be still applicable.

t Quod si Walensis Walensem Occident, congregantur parentea occisi,
et predantur eum qui occidit ejusque propinquos, et comburunt domos
eorum, donee in crastinum circa meridiem corpus mortui sepeliatur. Do
hac praeda habet rex tertiam partem; illi yero totum aliud habent quietum
Domesday, vol. i. fol. 179.

THE HI8T0BY OF LUDLOW. 83

densely wooded than at present. The woodlands of our
times are, as it were, the skeleton of the extensive forests
of fonner days, which were thickest and most considerable
in the tract of coimtry between Ludlow and Leominster
and the Welsh territory. The cultivation of the plains to
the south was protected by the strong towns of Hereford
and Leominster. The open country in Shropshire was
simikrly defended by the larger towns of Shrewsbury,
Bridgnorth, &c. and by some smaller fortresses. The
number of castles on the border, previous to the conquest,
was not great. The Anglo-Saxons were a brave and hardy
race, unaccustomed to depend for safety upon stone walls ;
and the Welsh, when they crossed the border, more fre-
quently carried back with them hard blows than any more
profitable booty. The policy of Ethelfleda had however
been followed &om time to time ; and a few Anglo-Saxon
casdes were standing at the period of the Norman conquest,
which defended these wilder parts of the border. There
was an ancient castle at Caynham, or, as it was then
called Cayham (? the residence on the brook Cay), which,
so early as the twelfth century, was a deserted ruin. One
of King Edward's foreign attendants named Bichard, to
whom die Anglo-Saxons gave the derisory name of Screope,
or the Scrub y either on account of some inferior office which
he held in the royal household, or perhaps as a mere
satirical appellation, and who was one of the few Normans
permitted to remain at court after the rest of the foreign
favourites had been driven away, was enriched by his
royal master with considerable possessions ui this part of
the border ; and introducing there the fashion of his own
oomitrymen, he built a strong castle between Ludlow and
Leominster, which has preserved its founder's name in
that of Richard's Castle. The lower part of the walls,
and the moimd on which the keep stood, (one of the
peculiar characteristics of the more ancient castles) stiU
^^emain. The other name by which the builder was known
became afterwards softened into that of Scroop.

24 THE HISTORY OP LUDLOW.

The woods were not the least profitable part of the
ground, for they gave food to numerous herds of swine^
the flesh of which formed the most general article of animal
food among our forefathers during the middle ages. The
stores of the baron's castle equally with those of the
peasant's hut^ consisted chiefly in bacon; and from this
circumstance is derived the name which we still give to
the place in which our meat is preserved, a larder (lar-
darium). The extent of a wood was frequently estimated
by the number of these animals which it would support.
Thus at Caynham there was in the days of the Conqueror
" a wood of two hundred swine ;" at Burford there was " a
wood of one hundred swine." Another article produced
in abundance on the waste lands (frequently covered with
thyme), and which was infinitely more in use among our
early forefathers than at present, was honey. The rivers and
streams gave motion then, as now, to numerous corn-mills.
At Ludford there was a mill, the only one mentioned in
the neighbourhood of Ludlow; at Little Hereford there
were four mills; Caynham had one miU; Burford, two.
Another article which was then reckoned a part of the
produce of landed estates, was fish, particularly eels. Among
the ancient Grermanic tribes, fresh-water fish were con-
sidered as game, and protected as such : an early Teutonic
law allowed the unqualified person to have only as much
as he could take by walking into the water and catching
them with his hand. The corn-lands were tolerably ex-
tensive, and were generally uninclosed. The fields in
which cattle were kept, were, on the contrary, inclosed.
To these inclosures our Anglo-Saxon forefathers gave the
name of turiy our modem word towHy though it then
conveyed no idea of buildings, but meant simply a space
inclosed by a hedge: toyrt-tun^ i. e. herb-town, was a
garden ; gears-tun^ i. e. grass-town, was a meadow. The
Normans called these inclosures haieSy in Low-latin hag€B
or haus, the origin of our word hedges. The more modern
English name for such inclosures is a close. In the earliest

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 25

collection of Anglo-Saxon laws, those of Athelbriht king of
Kent^ at the end of the sixth century, it is set down as a
grieTOus offence to break through a man's hedge, or tun.
In the laws of King Ine (end of the seventh century) it
was enacted that " If ceorls (or peasants) have a common
meadow (gsers-tun ge-ma;nne), or other partible land, to
fence, and some have fenced their part, some have not,
and their neighbour's cattle stray in and eat up their com
or grass ; let those go who own the gap, and compensate
to the others, who have fenced their part, the damage
which there may be done, and let them demand such
justice on the cattle as may be right. But if there be a
beast which breaks hedges and goes in everywhere, and
he who owns it will not or cannot restrain it; let him
who finds it in his field take it and slay it, and let the
owner take its skin and flesh, and forfeit the rest." In
Domesday book we find frequent mention of such tuns or
kmes : there were five haite at Clunton ; and three in a
waste called Chinbaldescote, belonging to the church of
Bromfield. The Anglo-Saxon word is preserved in all
names of places ending in tun or town, as Downton
(the inclosure on the hill), Micelton (the great inclosure),
Eaton (the inclosturc by the river), Acton (the oak inclosure),
Stanton (the inclosure of stone), Comberton fcumbra-tun^
the inclosure amid the vallies). The Anglo-Norman term
is also preserved in places the names of which contain the
word Hay. Among the produce of the manor of Caynham
in the reign of the Conqueror is reckoned four loads of salt
(iiij summse salis de Wich) ; perhaps from SaUmore. We
may illustrate the proportions of these articles of produce
by the instance of the town of Leominster and its members
(including Luston, Larpole, Aymestry, Brimfield, Eston,
Stockton, Stoke, Mersetone, Upton, Hope, Bredege, Lumton,
* Cerlestreu,' Leinthall, 'Gedeuen,' and Femlow), which
were then held by the king ; there were in this space eight
mills; a hundred and twenty-five acres were sown with com ;
a large surface of ground was covered with woods, which

86 THE HISTORY OP LTTDLOW.

were estimated to be six 'leagues' long and three broad; a
hundred sticJue^ or score, of eels were taken yearly ; the
annual value of the other fish caught was estimated at seven-
teen shillings, and that of the honey at sixty-five shillings.
A shilling was a very large sum of money at that period.
In the time of the Conqueror, Osbom Fitz Richard, the son
of Richard the Scrub before mentioned, and lord of Richard's
Castle and Ludford, held a very large portion of the wood-
lands beyond Brampton Bryan and Wigmore, including
Titley and other manors which were so wild that they
were not reckoned in Domesday book as affording any
regular produce; Osbom Fitz Richard hunted in them,
and " had what he could catch, and no more,^^^

The names of places frequently furnish us with charac-
teristics of ancient times, of which we find few other traces.
A thousand years ago the woods of Herefordshire were
infested by wolves; and the rivers were inhabited by
beavers. In the time of Griraldus Cambrensis (the latter
end of the twelfth century), beavers were found only in
the Teivy, in the neighboiurhood of Cardigan ; but at an
earlier period they constructed their towns even in the
Severn, where was an island, near Worcester (which we
have already had reason to mention) named in Saxon
Beofer-eagey the beaver isle. There is also a Bever-
stone in Gloucestershire. We have traces of the ancient
haunts of wolves probably in Widf-eoffe or Wdfes-eage
(Wolphy) the wolf's isle, and in Wolferlow, the mound
of the wolves. The wolves had been more entirely de-
stroyed than the beavers : King Edgar, in the tenth century,
exacted from a king of Wales, instead of the money which
the Welsh princes had previously paid to the English
crown, an annual tribute of three hundred wolves. He
was probably led to do this by the ravages which these
animals, descending from the Welsh mountains, conmiitted

* tn his wastis terns excrererunt silvsD in quibus iste Osbemus
renationem exercet, et inde habet quod capere potest Nil aliud. Domes-
day book.

THB HISTORY OP LUDLOW. 27

on the border. History tells us that this tribute was
punctually delivered for two years^ but the destruction was
so great that on the third year the Welsh could not find
wolves enough to pay it.* In the time of the Conqueror,
the hundred adjoining to that of Wolphy, and apparently
coincident with that of Wigmore, was named Hegetre^ or
Hightree, probably from the noble trees which still form
80 remarkable an ornament to it.

The nam^es of places not only picture to us the state of
die country at a remote period, but they frequently help to
make us acquainted with the customs and, more especially,
with the superstitions of our forefathers in former days.
Ludlow, or the people's low, was probably, as we have
before observed, the scene of superstitious ceremonies in
die times of the Anglo-Saxons. Most of the other nume-
rous lows had doubtlessly legends of different kinds con-
nected with them. Wyrmes-hla^w, now Wormelow, (the
dragon's low), reminds us in its name of the dwelling of
the fearful dragon which acts so prominent a part in the
ancient Anglo-Saxon romance of Beowulf, almost the only
pure remnant of the romantic literature which our fore-
&ther8 brought with them into this island : —

'' hJUsw under hriisan, a low under the bank,

holm-wylme n6h, nigh to the sea-wave,

y^-ge-winne ; to the clashing of waters ;

se waes innan full which was full within

wnetta and wira ; of embossed ornaments

and wires ;

weard mi-hi6re, a savage guardian,

gearo gutS-freca, ready and fierce in war,

gold m&tSmas he6Id, held the treasures of gold,

eald under eortSan : old under the earth :

nss y2Si y6e cedp that was no easy purchase

t6 ge-gangenne to obtain

gumena eenigum. for any man.

* WiL Malmsb. de Gestifl Reg. Angl. p 59.

28 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

I$& Be wyrm ge-be^ then the dragtm bent

snude t6 somne rapidly together,

he on searwmn b£d : he awaited in ambush :

ge-w6t ^ by mende then proceeded he, burning,

ge-bogen scriiSan bent together, to go

to ge-scipe Bcyndan." to distribute ^contest.

(BeowuU; U. 4817. 5131.)

The mound or barrow at Wormelow, is called Wormelow
tump. There is also in Herefordshire a Wormesley
(Wyrmes-leag, the lea or field of the dragon). In Beowulf
the treasures of ancient days which the dragon guarded,
are represented as lying in a chamber or cave underneath
the latv. An old historian of the fourteenth century,
Thomas of Walsingham, has preserved in his chronicle a
cujious legend relating to the village of Bromfield, near
Ludlow. In the year 1344, he says, a certain Saracen
physician* came to Earl Warren to ask permission to kill a
serpent or dragon, which had its den at Bromfield, and was
committing great ravages in the EarPs lands on the borders
of Wales. The Earl consented, and the dragon was over-
come by the incantations of the Arab; but certain words
which he had dropped led to the belief that large treasure
lay hid in the dragon's den. Some men of Herefordshire,
hearing of this, went by night, at the instigation of a
Lombard named Peter Picard, to dig for the gold; and
they had just reached it, when the retainers of the Earl
Warren, having discovered what was going on, fell sud-
denly upon them, and threw them into prison. The trea-
sure, which the Earl took possession of, is said by Wal-
singham to have been great. It is very probable that this
treasure was a deposit of Roman coins, &c. found in the
neighbourhood of the Old Field ; and one of the barrows or
lows there may have been the reputed dragon's home.

• The study of medicine was brought into Christian Europe in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries by the Arabs of Spain.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 29

Many local legends might still be gathered from the
mouths of the peasantry on the Welsh borders. At the
extremity of the roof of the north transept of Ludlow
church is placed an iron arrow. According to a popular
legend still repeated, Robin Hood stood on the larger
mound or low at the Old Field, and aimed this arrow
at the weathercock of the church, but, falling a few yards
short of its intended destination, it has ever since remained
in die place where it fixed itself. The arrow simply
indicates that this was the Fletcher's chancel; but the
legend, made to explain its position, after the use of arrows
was laid aside and forgotten, was probably engrafted on the
tradition of a former legend which connected the low in
the Old Field with the larger low which formerly occupied
the site of the present church ; the one was visible from
the other.

As parts of the country became less wild, the fear of
dragons gradually passed away, and the popular mytholc^
became modified. The lows were then supposed to be
the abode of elves and fairies; and there were people
who beheved that in the dead of night the entrance became
visible, and that the imder-ground people might be seen
issuing forth to firolic and gambol on the face of the earth.
There can be no doubt that the Marches of Wales were once
rich in feiry legends. In the reign of Henry VIII, when
Leland visited the border, the ruins of Kenchester, then
very extensive, were believed to have been taken possession
of by the diminutive beings of the popular creed ; the
Boman coins frequently found there were called fairy-
numey ; and one more considerable mass of building had
received the name of the " king of faerie's chair." Other
legends of a more terrific character, were at an early
period connected with the ruined sites of the ancient towns.
At the time of the composition of the Romance of the
Fitz Warines, probably before the middle of the thirteenth
century, a ruined city, which may possibly have been
Wroxeter, was believed to have been inhabited by the

80 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

devil, who guarded the vast treasures which were concealed
there, and held his revels with hosts of other fiends in
its desolated halls.

The pagan Anglo-Saxons were in the habit of giving
the names of their gods to things which were wonderful or
extraordinary, or which moved their superstitious feelings.
When they obtained possession of this island, nothing
seems to have excited their admiration more than the
great Roman military ways. One of their deities whose
name appears to have had a very wide influence, was named
Eormen or Ermin. It frequently entered into the condpo-
sition of the names of persons of rank^ ITerminiua led
our forefathers, then a tribe settled in Germany, against
the Romans; Erman&dc was one of the greatest of the
Gothic princes ; in early German such names as Irmandeo,
/rmanperaht, Irmanfrity Irmangaxt, were common ; in An-
glo-Saxon we have JEarmenric (the same name as Ermaneric)
king of Kent in 568, whose great grand-son Earmenred
gave to his three daughters the names Eormenherga., Ear-
m^nburgha, and Eormengytlia.. Irmin-svl was one of the
great objects of worship to the Germanic tribes on the
continent. Eormen-leiS was the Anglo-Saxon name of the
mallow (malva erratica) which was believed to possess
many miraculous virtues. There can scarcely be a doubt
that this is the origin of the name given by the Anglo-
Saxons to one of the great roads — JEarmenstraBi, Ermin-
street, or Inning-street. In a similar manner, to another
of the great roads the Anglo-Saxons gave the name of
Wcetlinga-strtet, which means literally the street of the sons
of Watla, for Weetlinga is the genitive case plural of a pa-
tronymic. K more of the ancient Anglo-Saxon mythic
poetry were preserved, we should doubtlessly find that
Wsetla was a mythological personage. Florence of Wor-
cester, who wrote when this poetry was in being, calls
the Watling-street, "Strata quam filii Watlae regis stra-
verunt." It is very singular that our forefathers gave the
name of Watling-street, or Wtetlinga-straet to the milky-

THE HISTORY OF LUBLOW. 81

way in the heayens as well as to the Roman road ; and
we find also that among the old Germanic trihes the name
Irisg^-wec (Iring's way) composed of a name Iring closely
allied to that of Inning was given to an ancient road and
at the same time to the milky-way. In the Vilkunga Saga
this road is tolled Irihigs-Teggr. It may be observed also
that among the ancient Germans the polar constellation
was named Irmins-wtigeny or Irmin's waggon. One of
the ancient roads in Grermany was called WuoteneS'WeCy
Wuoienea^treiza, or Wddenes-toege, Woden's way or street.
An ancient earth-work in the south of England was called
by the Anglo-Saxons Wbdnes-dic, or the dyke of the god
Woden, now softened down into Wans-dyke. In the modi-
fication which the superstitions of the Anglo-Saxons under-
went after their conversion to Christianity, their older
gods became transformed into devils, and it was by this
diange that originated all our Devil's-dykes, Devil's-
bridges, &c. The name of Waetlinga-strset was given to
the Soman road which ran from Kenchester to Wroxeter,
as well as to the great road which traversed the island.
During the Saxon period of our history, the Herefordshire
Watling-street, the remains of which are still known by
that name, continued to be the regular line of conmiu-
nication between Shrewsbury and Hereford; and it was
probably not until later on, in the twelfth century, when
part of the old road was found to be too solitary and
insecure, that the traveller turned from the Watling-street
at Church Stretton, along a road which passed under the
strong castle of Ludlow, and which, perhaps, instead of
following the present route to Leominster, crossed the hill
and rejoined the ancient road near the no less formidable
castle of Wigmore. The then new road passed by the
abbey of Bromfield, and proceeded to Ludlow apparently
along the lane which now leads on the south side of the
Teme, so that the traveller who was bound to Ludlow
had to pass the river under the castle walls to enter at
Dinham gate.

32 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

If we quit the not unpleasing subject of the beings of
superstition who were supposed to hold the woods and
wilds, to consider the more real one of the possessors and
cultivators of the soQ, we shall find their names no less
frequently indicated in the modem local appellations. Many
of the names of places of which the meaning seems most
diiBcult to explain, are compounded of those of Anglo-Saxon
possessors or cultivators: and the original forms of such
words are readily discovered by a reference to Domesday
book. Thus on the Herefordshire side of Ludlow we
have Elmodes-treow, or the tree of Elmod (now Aymestry) ;
Widferdes-time, or the inclosure of Widferd (Woofferton) ;
Willaves-lage, or the lee (saltusj of Willaf (probably,
Willey) ; Edwardes-tune, or the inclosure of Edward (Ad-
ferton ?) ; Elnodes-tune, or the inclosure of Elnod (Elton ?) ;
Bemoldune, or the hill of Bemold. In Shropshire there
are Chinbaldes-cote or the cot of Chinbald, a place men-
tioned as dependant upon Bromfield; ^Imundes-tune, or
the inclosure of Elmund; Elmunde-wic, or the dwelling
of Elmund; Alnodes-treow, or the tree of Elnod, &c-
Names of places having ing in the middle are generally
formed from patronymics, which in Anglo-Saxon had this
termination. Thus a son of Alfred was an ^Ifreding,
his descendants in general were ^Ifredingas, or Alfredings.
These patronymics are generally compoimded with ham,
tufiy &c. and whenever we can find the name of the place
in pure Saxon documents, we have the patronymic in
the genitive case plural. Thus Birmingham was Beor-
minga-ham, the home or residence of the sons or descen-
dants of Beorm. There are not many names of this form
in the neighbourhood of Ludlow ; Berrington (Beoringa-
tim) was, perhaps, the inclosure of the sons or family of
Beor, and Culmington that of the family of Culm.

Under Edward the Confessor the large estates in the
borders of Wales had been chiefly possessed by the great
nobles allied to the houses of Godwin and of Leofric of
Mercia, and were confiscated after the entrance of the

THE HISTORY OF LXTBLOW. SS

Normans. With the exception of the estates of Richard
Soeope, hardly a foot of ground remained in the hands
of the old proprietors. At the time of the Domesday
survey, the whole of Shropshire, with some trifling ex-
ceptions, belonged to the Conqueror's kinsman, Roger de
Montgomery, who had let out parts of it on feudal tenures
to the knights who attended him. One of his retainers,
named Helgot, held lands in Clee and Stanton, and bmlt
in the latter demesne a castle, which from its possessor
bore afterwards the name of castle Helgot or Holgate.
Herefordshire was parcelled out in smaller estates, under
nmnerous barons ; but there the most extensive possessions
were those of Roger de Lacy, whose head castle was at
Ewyas, and Ralph de Mortimer, whose castles were Wig-
more, and Cleobury in Shroi)shire. The other estates lay
scattered over the coimtry. To the south, among the chief
proprietors were William Fitz Norman, and Ralph de
Todenei, who held the castle of Clifford. Hereford and
Leominster, with their members, were held by the king.
In the intervening country, along the street, lay the estates
of Roger de Micelgros, Robert Gemon, who held Larpole
of the king, and William de Scotries, who appears to have
resided at Croft, which had belonged to earl Edwin.
The estates dependant upon Wigmore extended from
Shohdon (Sceope-dun, the sheep's hill) to Downton. The
knds from Ludford to Richard's Castle, with extensive
waste lands on the extreme border, and Burford in Shrop-
shire, belonged to Osborne Fitz Richard. There were a
few other smaller land-holders, such as Hugo L'Asne, or
Hugh the AsSy who held Bemoldune in Herefordshire, and
King William's physician Nigellus, generally entitled Ni-
gellns Medicus, who held Clee in Shropshire, and also
some estates in Herefordshire. Caynham, which had been
^ estate of earl Morcar, belonged now to Ralph de
Mortimer. Roger de Lacy possessed also some lands in
Shropshire in the neighbourhood of Hodnet.
The silence of Domesday book is a satisfactory proof

84 THB HISTOEY OF LUDLOW.

that there whjb neither town nor castle at Ludlow when it
was made^ about a. d. 1085. Although the places around
are all mentioned^ we find in that record no such names
as Ludlow or Dinham. In fact the one belonged only
to a mound of earthy the other perhaps to a deserted Danish
camp. If there were a church, or rather perhaps a hermit's
cell, previous to that period, it had probably been destroyed
in the Danish wars. The only church mentioned in
Domesday book as being in this neighbourhood is that of
Bromfield. We have a distinct testimony that the castle
was b^^un by Roger de Montgomery, but not finished
till after his death.* Other considerations aid us in
fixing the period at which this castle was conmienced. The
oldest part of it, the massive keep, was built in imitation of
the style which bishop Gundidf had first exhibited in his
castle of Rochester, built after the year 1088: it must
therefore be dated between that time and 1094, the date of
Roger de Montgomery's death. The first beginning of the
town was situated, under protection of the castle walls, in
the district still named Dinham, and this was the name
given to both, although at an early period the people of the
neighbourhood, who knew the place by the superstitions
attached to it, would speak of them as the castle and town
at tiiepeopys fote?, or Ludlow.

SECTION III.

Border History from the Conquest to the end of the tkoAfO^

century.

ONE of the immediate results of the Norman Conquest
was a long period of complicated disorders in the Marches
of Wales. Under the Saxons, with a few fortresses, the

* Si comen9a un chastiel & Brugge, e un autre chastel comen9a en
Dinan ; xn^s yl ne les parfist poynt. Romance of Fitz Warine.

THE HI8T0BY OF LUDLOW. 36

border had been more effectually protected than it was now
by the numerous range of Anglo-Norman castles. After the
death of Harold at Hastings^ the possessions of his family
in Herefordshire were naturally seized into the hands of
the new king. The Saxon Edric was for a time allowed
to retain his earldom of Shrewsbury; that of Hereford
was giyen to one of the Conqueror's most faithful and
able counsellors^ William Fitz Osborne. Edric, irritated
at an offence he had received firom the king, raised the
standard of revolt; his lands were invaded and ravaged
by the Normans of Herefordshire, under Richard Screope,
who was entrusted with the command of the garrison of
Hereford; but Edric called in the Welsh, compelled the
Normans to retire to Hereford, and laid waste the country
up to the gates of that city. The most skilful of the
Nomian chiefs^ Roger de Montgomery, Ralph de Mortimer,
and Walter de Lacy, were employed against the insurgents,
who, although deserted by their Welsh allies who were
satisfied with the plunder they had made and anxious to
secuie it, made a protracted resistance. Edric himself
had seized upon Wigmore, from which he was with diffi-
culty expelled by Ralph de Mortimer. For his services
on this occasion, Roger de Montgomery obtained the
earldom of Shropshire, with all the possessions of Edric,
which comprised nearly the whole county ; Ralph de Mor-
timer obtained Wigmore and its dependencies; and other
lands in Herefordshire were bestowed upon Walter de
Lacy. The Welsh began now to be continually trouble-
some ; they were instigated by the Saxon refugees to make
feequent incursions; in 1068-9, they ravaged Shropshire
and laid siege to Shrewsbury, and King William was
obliged to go in person to drive them from the border. In
bis way he laid the foundation of Nottingham castle, which
be entrusted to the keeping of William Peverel.

William Fitz Osborne was a man of great prudence and
activity, remarkable for his liberality as well as for the
^ur of his government. His salutary regulations survived

86 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

the vicissitudes of many years^ and were still in force in
the time of William of Malmsbury.* According to Domes-
day book, the earl William rebuilt the castle of Wigmore.
In 1070 he and Walter de Lacy invaded Brecknockshire,
and defeated the Welsh princes Rees and Cadoc. Shortly
afterwards Earl William was slain in Flanders, and in
1071 he was succeeded in the earldom of Hereford by
his son Boger.

Boger de Montgomery also ruled Shropshire with vigour
and justice (the justice, at least, which might be expected
6om a conqueror). He made considerable encroachments
on the territory of the independent Welsh, and one of his
retainers, named Baldwin, established a post which from
him received the name of Baldwin's town, and at which
Earl Roger afterwards built a castle and gave it his own
name of Montgomery. He also strengthened the castle
of Bridgnorth on the east, and, in his latter days, he laid
the foundation of the castle of Ludlow, and probably com-
pleted the keep tower, to fortify his southern frontier.

Li 1075, according to the Saxon chronicle, occurred the
celebrated marriage at Norwich, the fatal consequences of
which were long proverbial. Boger Fitz William, the
earl of Hereford, harboured treasonable designs against his
sovereign, and, perhaps in furtherance of these designs, he
proposed to give his sister Emma in marriage to Balph,
earl of Norfolk. The Conqueror forbade the match ; yet the
marriage was solemnized at Norwich, while the king was
absent in Normandy, and at a splendid and well-attended
feast a league was formed to deprive William of his English
throne. The Saxon chronicle has preserved the popular
saying which perpetuated the memory of the fatal results
of this meeting, —

* Manet in hunc diem in comitatu ejus apud Herefordixm legtim quas
statuit inconcussa fiimitas; ut nnllns miles pro qualicimque commisso
plus septem solidis soWat : cum in aliis provinciis ob parvam occasiun-
culam in transgresaione pnecopti herilis, viginti vel viginti quinque pcn-
danter. Wii. Malmsb. Hist. p. 105. Concerning William Fitz Osborne,
see Guillaume de Jumiiges, pp. 661, 676, and Ordericus.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 87

58er wies paet bryd-eala
manniim to beala.

(there was that bridal feast
a cause of misfortune to men.)

The parties concerned in this league were to rise simul-
taneously. Earl Kalph opened communications with the
Saxons who still bore arms in the marshes of Ely and the
fens of Lincolnshire. Roger Fitz William collected the
men of Herefordshire, and with a considerable body of
Welsh auxiliaries, marched to the banks of the Seyem,
intending to join his brother-in-law. But the secret of the
conspirators had been betrayed, and, to use the expression of
the native chronicler just quoted. Earl Roger was " hin-
dered." The hindrance was caused by the forces raised by
Uiso, sheriff of Worcester, and bishop Wolstan, joined with
those of Agelwy, abbot of Evesham, and Walter de Lacy.
The Earl Ralph, thrown upon his own resources, hastened
to Brittany to seek aid from his countrymen, and left his
wife Emma to defend the castle of Norwich, which she did
with so much courage that she obtained fair terms for her
garrison even from the ferocious bishop Odo. Earl Roger
was deprived of his lands and honours, and thrown into
prison. It was in consequence of this insurrection, that
the brave and innocent Waltheof was put to death.

In the latter part of his reign, it appears that the Con-
queror again led his army to the border, and invaded Wales,
provoked perhaps by the ravages of the Welsh, who are
said to have over-run the southern part of the border as
fax as the city of Worcester, in 1086. But we find no
detail of these transactions; and we know only from the
assertions of older writers that William left Wales to his
successor as an appendant of the English crown, and that
he had compelled the Welsh to acknowledge his supremacy.*

* This is most explicitly stated by the contemporary Saxon chronicler,
"The land of the Britons was in his jurisdictioni and he built castles
therein, and ruled all that people."

38 THB HI8T0KY OF LTTBLOW.

The general statement of Domesday-book would lead ns
to conclude that during the Conqueror's reign^ the English
counties bordering on Wales enjoyed a certain degree of
security. At this early period, the historians seldom men-
tion the predatory inroads of the Welsh, when they are not
connected with some more important political event; but
the peace which had been established by this king's
rigorous government seems to have been first broken by
the turbulence of the Anglo-Norman barons. At his
death, in the September of the year 1087, he left the
succession to his crown to be disputed by his two sons,
William Rufus, and Robert Courthose, who was in pos-
session of the dukedom of Normandy. Bishop Odo, who
had been in prison in the latter years of the preceding
reign, raised and organized a party in England in favour
of Duke Robert. The great barons on the border imme-
diately espoused the same cause; and Roger de Mont-
gomery, Ralph de Mortimer, Roger de Lacy, and their
neighbours armed their dependants, and called in the aid of
the Welsh in 1088, to make war against King William
Rufus.* A laige body of the men of Herefordshire and
Shropshire, with their Welsh auxiliaries, led by Osborne
Fitz Richard (the lord of Richard's Castle and Ludford),
and his kinsman Bernard de Newmarket,t entered Worces-
tershire, and ravaged the country up to the walls of the
city, which they threatened to bum. But as they were
preparing to attack the town on the side of the cathedral,
bishop Wolstan sallied out with the townsmen and the
garrison, beat off the assailants, and obliged them to return
home with disgrace, instead of the rich plunder on which
they calculated. The king soon after succeeded in de-

* Proceres quoque de Herefordia et de Scrobesbirie cnm moltitadine
Vallensium, Eog. Hoveden. p. 461. Principes vero Herefordshyre et
Salopcscyre cum Walensibus. Henr. Hunt. Principe*, in tbe latter
■writer, is perhaps a mere error of the scribe for proceres,

t Ordericus Vitalis, p. 666.

THB HI8T0BT OP LUDLOW. 89

taching Roger de Montgomery from the confederacy, and
the insurrection of the other barons was soon repressed.

The plunder which the Welsh carried off on this occasion
incited them to further depredations, and the early years of
the reign of the second William, were marked by constant
hostilities between them and the barons on the border.
The Welsh were stiU more encouraged by the death of
Roger de Montgomery in 1094; and the same year they
invaded Shropshire and Herefordshire in numerous parties^
destroying seyeral castles, and carrying away much plunder.
They were beaten in many encounters by Hugh de Mont-
gomery, the son and successor of Roger, but other parties
continued their ravages, and to use the words of a con-
temporary, '' omitted no evil that they could do." In
the year following they repeated their incursions, in which
they took and destroyed the castle of Montgomery, and
massacred the garrison and inhabitants. The king, who
was just returned from Normandy, raised a powerful
army and hastened to the border, to put a stop to their
depredations. He suffered more from the badness of the
roads and the inclemency of the weather, than from the
enemy, who fled into their forests and mountain fastnesses
at his approach. The English king continued his march
into the heart of the country, and on the day of All Saints
his army arrived at Snowdon; but the season was far
advanced, and he returned without fighting a battle, with
the loss of but a few horses and men, but he had effected
nothing, and the Welsh were rather emboldened than
daimted by his invasion. They appear again to have
carried destruction into the English counties in the year
following ; and early in 1097 the king raised a still more
powerful army, and chose a more favourable time of the
year to carry his design of vengeance into execution. He
entered Wales about Lent, and is said to have remained
there during the summer; but the Welsh followed the
ttme system of retiring into the woods, and he was disap-
pomted in his endeavours to bring them to a regular

40 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

engagement. The EngKsh, however, over-run the C50iintry,
involving all they met with, yoimg or old, in one common
destruction, and the Welsh appear now to have been
effectually himibled. An old chronicler, Peter Langtoft,
who wrote more than two centuries after this event, calls
it " the great vengeance."* The king, before he returned
to England, ordered several castles to be built on the
Welsh side of the border to check their future attempts.
The Welsh chiefs or princes appear on this occasion to
have renewed the fealty and tribute which they had given to
William the Conqueror; and the "Kings of Wales" are
enumerated in the chronicle of Geoffrey Gaimax, among
the attendants at the court of RuAis when he held a great
festival at Westminster.f

The year following, a. d. 1098, Hugh de Montgomery and
Hugh Earl of Chester, taking advantage of some domestic
quarrels, invaded North Wales with a powerful army to
avenge the wrongs which they had received by the Welsh
invasions of Shropshire, and they penetrated as far as the
Isle of Anglesea, of which they took possession and put its
inhabitants to the sword. But their conquest was almost
immediately abandoned on the death of Hugh de Mont-
gomery, who was killed in a skirmish with a party of Danes,
who also came to attack that island. Hugh was succeeded
in the earldom of Shropshire by his brother Robert de
Belesme, who had succeeded to the Norman estates of his
fitther Roger, and who now obtained the English succession
by paying three thousand pounds to the King.

* Le secounde an apr^s le rays estut moyer ;
Tut drait en quarreme, kant fu pass^ la mer,
En Gales est alez les Walays chastier,
Ke sa terre alaynt destrore et waster.
Le rays William les prent et les fet tuer,
Ad joYen ne ad yelz ne rolt espamyer.
Unkes fu vengaunce en Gkiles fet si fer !
Apr^s la grande yengaunce ke en Gales fet estayt, etc.
Peter Langtoft, MS. Cotton. Julius, A, V. (in the Brit. Mus.) fol. 84.

t Chroniques Anglo-Normandes, torn, i., p. 40.

THB HISTO&T OF LUDLOW. 41

fiobert de Belesme whjb a restless and ambitioua man,
and merited the hatred of his contemporaries by his tyranny
and cruelty. In the popular traditions of Maine^ where
part of his Norman possessions lay^ he is still indentified
with the half-fiend^ half-human Bobert-the-Devil of middle-
age l^end/ and the acts of the fabulous tyrant are less
horriUe than the monstrous crimes which historians lay to
the charge of the Earl of Shrewsbury. It is said that he
caused men and women to be impaled on stakes, that he
might amuse himself by watching their agonies as they
pmed to death ; and he tore out the eyes of a Uttle boy,
who was his own godchild, and who was his hostage for
the fideUty of its father, when it came to meet him in
playful fondness. The Earl Robert had been high in favour
with King William Rufus ;t but his uneasy spirit urged him
to seek employment by fomenting the troubles which were
likely to break out after the accession of Henry, and he was
already plotting to dethrone him, when the king, aware of
his treachery, dted him before his court. The earl had
already fortified and provisioned his numerous castles in
England, particularly those of Arundel, Shrewsbury, Bridge-
north, and Tickhill in Yorkshire, which with Blyth in
Nottinghamshire he had inherited firom Roger de Busley;
he obeyed the king's citation, and made his appearance in
court slightly attended, but when he foimd that his designs
were known, he fled precipitately to the Welsh border,

* Plnquet's note on the Roman da Ron, iL, 334. Loppenbexg, Ge-
fichicMe Ton England, iL 232, 233.

t Wace giT68 the following account of him.—

" Robert de Belesme, on baron
Ke Ten teneit por mnlt fi&lon,
Aveit li Reis en I'est od eel,
Et il esteit mult bien del Rei«
Robert de Belesme ta fala,
£ felonies sout e mals;
De fi&lons gieus ert con£nx,
E de fere mals ert cremuz."

Soman dm Rou^ 1 15042.

42 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

where his greatest strength lay, and raised the standard
of rebellion at Bridgenorth.* The king immediately col-
lected an army, and having taken the castle of Arundel,
marched towards the Severn. On his way he took the
castle of Blyth, in Nottinghamshire; and Tickhill had
already surrendered to the Bishop of Lincoln. In addition
to his own powerful forces, he had hired a large body
of Welsh auxiliaries under their princes Cadogan and
Jorwerth ap Rees, and they were occupied in ravaging
Staffordshire when the king's army approached. At the
king's approach, Robert de Belesme left Bridgenorth under
the command of Roger Fitz Corbet, and retired to Shrews-
bury, where he prepared for a vigorous struggle. The
siege of Bridgenorth lasted thirty days ; it was thus pro-
tracted by the lukewarmness of the barons who followed
the king, and who foresaw that the destruction of the sons
of the great Roger de Montgomery would be a severe blow
at their own power, for the struggle between royalty and
aristocracy had already commenced; they represented to
him the difficulties of the wadGeire in which he was
engaged, and ui^ed him to offer favourable terms to his
enemy, and to seek reconcilement. Henry was discouraged
and already wavered, when the knights and landholders of
Shropshire, to the number of three thousand, arrived at his
camp. Weary of the galling tyranny of their great feudal
lord, Robert de Belesme, they had chosen for their leader
William Pantulf of Wem, who, the faithful and valued
retainer of Earl Roger, had been goaded by numerous
injuries to regard his son with implacable hatred; and
they exhorted the king to complete the destruction of the
Earl of Shrewsbury, and offered to march first to the
assault, and shed their last blood in reducing the garrison
of Bridgenorth. He accepted their services with joy ; and
the fortress was taken. This was one of the first instances

* Encontre le rey Henri A Burg sa gwere crye
En SalopschirOi qe (a en sa balllye.

Peter Lanptoft,

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 4S

in which the commons of England sided openly with the
king against the feudal aristocracy.

The ruin of Robert de Belesme was completed by the
defection of the Welsh. Their mercenary leaders were
easily seduced by the offer of better pay^ and the secret
expectation of more plunder ; and after ravaging Stafford-
shire as the allies of the rebels^ they returned under the
banner of the king to lay waste the county of Salop.
Henry advanced with his army direct to Shrewsbury. The
retainers of the earl attempted to defend the extensive and
then almost imipassable forests which covered the approach
to that town ; but the king, with incredible labour and
perseverance^ cut his way through with the axe; and
having thus forced the difficult pass of Wenlock-edge, esta-
blished his host in the plain on the other side. As he
came near, the inhabitants of Shrewsbury sent him the key
of the town; and Robert de Belesme, deserted by the
amiies in which he trusted, was compelled to surrender at
discietion. Robert, with his brother Amulf de Mont-
gomery (who had conquered extensive lands from the
Welsh and was lord of Pembroke) and other border barons,
were banished the kingdom and their estates confiscated.
The earl fled to his estates in Normandy, and, after com-
mitting new treasons attended by the same violence and
cruelty, he ended his life in prison. The only benefit
which he conferred on the Marches of Wales was the
introduction of a fine breed of horses, which he brought
from Spain, a coimtry celebrated in the middle-ages for the
superiority of its horses ; at the end of the twelfth century
the breed was stiU preserved, chiefly in Powis-land, and
was femous throughout England.*

* In hac tertia WallisB portione quae Powisia dicltur, sunt equitia
peroptima, et equi emissarii laadatissimi, de Hispaniensium equonim
generoritate, qaos oUm comes SlopesburisD Robertas de Belesmo in fines
istos adduci curarerat, oiiginaliter propagatL Unde et qui hinc exeunt
equi, cum nobili fonnffi pictura ipsa protrahente natuia, tarn membrosa
nuL majestate, quam incomparabili ▼elocitate, valde commemorabiles
reperimitur. Gixald. Cambr. Itin. ii, 12.

44 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

King Henry distributed the estates of the banished
nobles amongst the knights who had served him with most
zeal. Some of the strongest castles he kept in his own
hands. He made Richard de Belmeis (or^ de Beaumes)^
an ecclesiastic who had enjoyed the confidence of Roger de
Montgomery, steward or governor of Shropshire, and
Herefordshire also appears to have been included in his
jurisdiction. Richard de Beaumes, having been created
bishop of London in 1108, was succeeded by Paganus (or
Paine) Fitz John, who ruled Herefordshire and Shropshire
with great vigour, and compelled the barons of the Marches
to respect the law. On his marriage with Adela of Bou-
logne in llSl, the king gave the earldom of Shrewsbury
to his new wife, who appointed William Fitz Alan, lord
of Oswestry, sheriff or governor (vice-comes) of the county.
It appears to have been about this time that the king gave
''the castle of Dinan (or Dinham) and all the country
around it towards the river of Corve with all the honour"
to a fiivourite knight named Joce or Gotso, who &om that
time took the name of Joce de Dinan, " This Joce finished
the castle which Roger de Montgomery in his time had
begun, and was a strong and valiant knight. And the
town was very long time called Dynan, which is now
called Ludelawe. This Joce caused to be made below the
town of Dynan a bridge of stone and lime, over the river
of Temede, into the high road which goes through the
March from Chester to Bristol. Joce made his castle of
Dynan of three wards (baylles), and surrounded it with a
double foss, one within and one without.''*

During the reign of the first Henry, several remarkable
measures were adopted to repress the turbulence of the
Welsh. The king seems to have been extremely dissatis-
fied with the conduct of his allies in the war with Robert
de Belesme, and soon afterwards he caused their prince
Jorwerth to be seized and detained in close prison about

• Romance of the Fitz WarineSi p. 3.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 45

four yeais. During this period a 'destructiye guerilla
waxfiire was constantly kept up on the southern border.
At this time numbers of Flemings, a hardy and industrious
race of men, came oyer to England. Some of their coun-
trymen had already settled in this cotmtry in the days of
the Conqueror^ and we find them established about Down-
ton at the period of the Domesday survey. An eruption
of the sea into Flanders compelled the inhabitants to emi-
grate in great numbers ; a large portion went to Grermany,
but many sought a refuge in England, and were allowed
to inhabit the border of Scotland. Shortly afterwards,
(1107-9,) the king moved this colony to the Welsh border,
and gave the Flemish refugees the district about Ross in
Herefordshire^ and Haverfordwest and Tenby in Pem-
brokeshire. They were however chiefly settled about the
former place, and they brought there their manners and
language, of which many traces remained even as late as
the time of queen Elizabeth. G&aldus has given us an
interesting account of their superstitions.* They were
beneficial in many respects to the country; they laid the
foundation of the trade in wool for which Herefordshire
was afterwards celebrated ; and, equally ready to handle
the plough or the sword, they enriched the county by their
industry and tamed the Welsh by their courage.t Checked
in their depredations in the south, the latter now turned
their fury against the northern boundary. The king was
obliged on more than one occasion to lead an army against

* Girald. Camb. Itin. i, 11. Compare the account there given with the
Tery guniUr superstitioiiB of the Tartar invadeis of Europe in the foU
lowiBgcentaxy, as related by WiUiam de Rubniquis.

t Ginld. L c; W. Malmsb. p. 156; Roger Horeden.; Rad. Dicet (in
the Decern Scriptures), 6bc. Lappenberg, Geschichte von England ii, 283.
Giztidus describes these Flemings as being in his time— Gens fortis et
robusta, continuoque belli conflictu gens Gambrensibus Inimicissima ; gens,
inquam, lani^iis, gens mercimoniis usitatissima ; quocunque labore sire
pericnlo terra marique lucrum quaerere gens perralida; Ticissim loco et
tempore nunc ad aratrum nunc ad arma gens promptissima ; gens utique
&liz et fortis, si vel regibus ut deceret Cambria cordi fuisset, vel prassti-
totis saltern et prefecUs injuriarum dedecus animo yindice displicuisset.

46 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

them ; and in one of these expeditions he narrowly escaped
with his life. As he was carefully making his way through
the woods^ Henry was struck on the breast by an arrow,
which was fortunately turned off by the mail with which he
was covered. The king asserted that the blow had been
treacherously aimed by one of his own men. The Welsh
always escaped by carrying their goods to the tops of the
least accessible mountains. Taking advantage of the death
of Richard earl of Chester, who was drowned in the cele-
brated wreck of the White-3hip> they entered Cheshire in
1119, massacred many inhabitants, and burnt two castles.
Henry hastened to the border, and an English army after
a painful march again encamped at the foot of Snowdon.
There the Welsh came with rich gifts and, according to
the English chroniclers, begged for peace in the most
abject manner. The king took hostages, and returned
home; but within a dozen years, in spite of the severe
chastisement which they had received on this occasion,
they were again in arms, and invading Herefordshire, they
burnt ' Cans,' a town belonging to Paine Pitz John, who
was still sheriff of that county, and treated the inhabitants
with extreme cruelty. King Henry, who was in Noiman-
dy, hastened to England to punish their contumacy ; but
death stopped him on the road, and left the crown of Eng-
land to another usurper, and the kingdom to be torn by a
new contest for the succession, more fatal than all which
had gone before.

The Welsh continued in arms after the accession of
Stephen, but they were occupied in domestic quarrels, and
in attacking the castles which had been built in the interior
of the country during the preceding reign.* The great

* These hostilities were carried on chiefly in the south of Wales, on
the coast of the Bristol channel. The continoator of Florence of Wor-
cester speaking of the number slain in one battle in 1136, says. Corpora
Tero eorum a lupis horribiliter per agros discerpta et derorata sunt. p. 512.
This is the latest mention of wolves in Wales that I remember to hare
met with.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 47

barons of Herefordshire and Salop were engaged in more
important projects than the prosecution of border warfare.
It was here that the conspiracy was formed against the
king, in &youT of the claims of the Empress Matilda,
which soon afterwards involved the whole kingdom in the
horrors of dvil war. In 1138, the third year of Stephen's
leign, nearly all the castles and strong towns on the border
were fortified against him. Robert earl of Gloucester (the
illegitimate son of Henry I.) occupied Bristol, which formed
the head quarters of the rebellion, and Gloucester ; Greoffirey
Talbot garrisoned his own castle of Weobly and seized
upon Hereford ; William Fitz Alan, the sheriff of Shrop-
shire, established himself in the castle of Shrewsbury;
Ralph Paganel, an active and influential paxtizan of the
empress, fortified himself in his castle of Dudley; and
Gervase Paganel, probably the brother or kinsman of
Ralph, seized upon that of Ludlow. William Peverel, in
like manner, raised the standard of rebellion in his castles
of EQesmere, Whittington, &c. From these strong holds
the revolted barons sent out their emissaries, who ravaged
and plundered the surrounding country in the most ruthless
manner.

Stephen was no less active than his enemies ; he quickly
made himself master of Hereford, and Geoffrey Talbot
sought refuge in the castle of Weobly, from which also
he was driven by the king. After placing a garrison in
hoth these fortresses, the king quitted the border. In these
cniel wars, the towns as well as the coimtry suffered
equally from both parties. In the attack upon Hereford
by the king, all the city on one side of the Wye bridge
was burnt ; and, as soon as he was gone, G^offirey Talbot
with his army, consisting in great part of Welshmen, came
and burnt that part of the city which stood on the other
side of the bridge.* On this occasion the assailants were

* In the king's attack Cmtas Herefordensis infra pontem flaminis
Wegc comboritor igne. Contin. of Florence of Worcester, p. 520. In
Tilbot'i attack the part « ultra pontem Wegae* was burnt. lb, p. 521.

48 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

beaten off with loss by Stephen's garrison; and shortly
afterwards Talbot, in an attempt upon the city of Bath, was
taken prisoner by the bishop, who however was induced by
the threats of the terrible garrison of Bristol to set him at
liberty. The king accused the bishop of Bath of treachery,
and again advanced towards Gloucestershire, taking several
castles in his way, but he failed in an attempt upon Bristol.
From thence he went to Dudley, which he appears not
to have taken ; but, having burnt and plundered the neigh-
bourhood, he hastened to Shrewsbury. William Pitz Alan
fled at his approach, leaving a strong garrison, which
sustained a protracted siege. Stephen employed against
Shrewsbury castle all the most powerful warlike engines
which were then in use; the besieged were almost suffo-
cated with clouds of thick smoke which were thrown into
the place ; and one of the gates being at length driven in,
it was taken by storm. Part of the garrison escajied;
many were slain ; and a few of the prisoners of rank were
hanged by order of the king.* The si^e of Shrewsbury
occurred in the July of the year 1188. The invasion of
the northern counties by the Scots called the king from the
further prosecution of the war on the border. Immediately
after Christmas, Stephen hastened towards Scotland in
person; but the invaders had sustained a severe defeat,
and, having signed a treaty of peace at Durham, the English
king returned to Shropshire, carrjring with him the Scottish
king's son, Henry earl of Northumberland, who had been
delivered to him as a hostage. We hear nothing of the
king's proceedings till he reached Ludlow ; probably the
lesser fortresses of Shropshire had been given up without a
struggle ; but the castle of Ludlow, under Grervase Paganel,
made an obstinate resistance. Two forts were erected by
the assailants, and the si^e was prosecuted with great
vigour, yet it was not successful; and it needed all the
prudence of the monarch to hinder sanguinary feuds from

* The continuator of Florence of Worcester, p. 523.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 49

breakiiig out among the besiegers.* In one of the attacks^
the Scottish prince approaching rashly too near to the
waDS; was seized by an iron grapple thrown out from the
castle, and would have been taken prisoner, but the king
with his characteristic bravery rushed to the spot, and
saved his hostage at the imminent peril of his own life.
The king soon afterwards raised the siege, and repaired to
Oxford, where his presence was necessary.

After the arrival of Matilda in England, her army was
strengthened by ten thousand Welsh auxiUaries, raised by
Robert earl of Gloucester. Her cause was sustained in
Herefordshire by Geoffirey Talbot and Gilbert de Lacy,
with Milo^ constable of Gloucester, the son of Walter,
constable of Shropshire in the preceding reign. At the
end of the autumn of 1139, they plundered and partly burnt
the city of Worcester. Immediately afterwards Talbot
attacked Hereford, set fire to the cathedral, slaughtered
the monks, and sacked the town. The king hastened to
Worcester, and then pushing forwards encamped his army
at little Hereford and Leominster. In the following year
he again occupied Little Hereford,t not far distant from
Ludlow, which we may suppose to have been still held
by Grervase Paganel. Stephen's progress in this quarter
was arrested by other events. In 1141, earl Robert's
Welshmen took part in the battle of Lincoln, where the
king was made captive.^ Milo de Gloucester, for his

* The account of this siege is chiefly taken from the Continuator of
Florence of Worcester, pp. 527, 528. He spells the name Ludelawe. The
orthography in other accounts of the same event is, Ludktue in Henry of
Huntingdon ; Ludelawe in Roger de Hoveden ; Ludehlaioe in Matthew
Puis ; Lodelowe in Ralph de Dicet and in Robert of Gloucester.

t These particulars are given by the Continuator of Florence of Wor-
cester, pp. 531, 532, 533.

t Tfro of our most valuable border historians end with this year,
Ordericus Vitalis, a native of Shropshire, whose father was a trusty
minister of Roger de Montgomery, and the anonymous monk of Wor-
cester, who continued the Chronicle of Florence of Worcester from the
year U18.
H

60 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

conduct in this engagement^ was rewarded by Matilda
with the earldom of Hereford ; and among the witnesses to
the grant are the signatures of Ralph Paganel and Gilbert
de Lacy.* During the various vicissitudes of the year
which followed, the Welsh border seems to have been less
frequently the scene of active warfare between the con-
tending parties. In the summer of 1150, the city of
Worcester was taken by the army of Stephen, and a con-
siderable portion of it was again burnt to the ground.t
The castle of Ludlow also fell into the king's hands, but it
is not known when or how. It appears to have been
restored to Joce de Dinan, who is mentioned as holding it
in a deed of the last year of the reign of Stephen (1154).
This deed is a grant of the earldom of Hereford to Roger
son of Milo de Gloucester. William Fitz Alan was restored
to the office of sheriff of Shropshire on the accession of
Henry 11.

Henry II began his reign by destroying no less than
eleven hundred of the petty castles, the inmates of which
had oppressed the coimtry so grievously during the reign of
Stephen; and by seizing the royal fortresses which had
been usurped by the more powerful barons. Among the
latter was the castle of Bridgenorth, held by Hugh de
Mortimer, who refused to surrender it ; and when the king
approached with his army to reduce him to obedience, he
persuaded Roger earl of Hereford to join in his rebellion,
and to fortify against his sovereign the castles of Hereford
and Gloucester. The earl of Hereford was soon restored
to obedience by Gilbert Foliot, the bishop of that see;
but Hugh de Mortimer defended Bridgenorth castle with
obstinacy. During the siege the king, who was directing
the operations, narrowly escaped from an arrow which
was aimed at him by one of the garrison; his faithful
attendant, Hugh de St. Clair, threw himself before the

* This grant is printed in Rymer's Fccdera, last edition, i. 14.

t Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle, p. 465 (ed. Heame).

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 51

monarch and receiyed the weapon in his own breast.
Hordmer was soon afterwards compelled to surrender.
The humbled baron appears to have wreaked his wrath
upon his neighbours^ and we soon afterwards find him
engaged in open warfiue with Joce de Dinan. The latter
could scarcely quit the walls of his castle of Ludlow
without danger of being taken by Mortimer's men; but^
learning one day that the lord of Wigmore was to ride
out alone, Joce sent some of his men to lay wait, who
made him prisoner and broi^ht him to Ludlow, where
he was confined for some length of time in a tower in
the third "baylle" or ward, till he obtained his Uberty
by die payment of a very heavy ransom.* The tower,
which we are told in an old writer, was the loftiest in
the third ward of the castle, was known in the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries by the name oi Mortimer's Tower,t
a name which it took from this circumstance, and which
is still preserved.

The Welsh on the border continued to be exceedingly
troublesome during the whole of Henry's reign. In 1157,
less than three years after his accession to the crown, the
king led an army into Flintshire, to repress the hostilities
of these moimtaineers under their prince Owen Gwynned.
The enemy retired before him, and took refuge in the woods,
and he had reached the forest of ColeshiU in the neigh-
bourhood of Flint, when, with the ardour of youth, he
threw himself with his army into a wooded and dangerous
pass. The Welsh firom the mountains and woods attacked
him on every side; many of his best men were killed,
among others Eustace Fitz John and Robert de Courcy;
and Henry de Essex,^ the royal standard bearer, hearing

* History of the foundation of Wigmore Abbey, printed in Ellis's
Dngdale, toI. ti, p. 346.

t Le plus halt tour q'est en la terce bayle del chastel, qe or est apel4
de pluflours Mortemer« Romance of the Fitz Warines.

X The Pictorial History of England calls him Henry earl of Essex,
The earl of Essex at this time was Geoffrey de Maudeyille.

52 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

that the king was killed^ threw down his standard and
spread the alarm through the army. The conAision was
great; and many of the English were slain^ but Boger earl
of Clare, with his own retainers, raised up the king's
standard and pressed forwards into the heat of the battle,
and the spirited exertions of the young king restored the
army to order. As soon as he had extricated himself
from this difficulty, he recruited his army and led it to
the south, and advancing along the coast by Glamorgan,
reached Pencadair near Carmarthen, where Rhees princse
of South Wales surrendered to him. Owen, the prince
of the north, also submitted, and gave hostages; and the
king returned by ^ Elenith and Melenith' to England, car-
rying with him Bhees as his prisoner, who however was
permitted to return home on taking the oath of fealty and
giving hostages.* Henry de Essex was disgraced for his
conduct in the battle of Coleshill. Six years afterwards, in
a quarrel with Robert de Montfort, the latter openly accused
him of treason in throwing down the standard with the
intention of betraying the king : Henry de Essex retorted
the charge, and the cause was decided by judicial combat
in an island in the Thames near the abbey of Reading.
The standard bearer was vanquished, and left for dead,
and his body was carried by the monks to their church to
be buried there. But when released from the weight of
his armour, he recovered, and soon afterwards became a
monk of the abbey of Reading.f

* Gixaldos Cambrensifl, Hibern. Ezpugn. c 30 ; Itin. Cam. lib. i, c 10^
and lib. ii, c. 10, compared with the other historians of the period.

t Gronica Joscelini de Brakelonda (edited by John Gage Rokewode,
Esq. for the Camden Society), pp. 50-^2. The account diflfers a little from
that commonly given, but Josceline de Brakelonde received it from Henry
de Essex's own mouth, after the latter had taken the cowl at Reading.
The standard bearer assured him that he really believed the king had
been slain — in rei veritate, prsdictus Henricus de Essexia inclitum regem
Henricimi secundum, Walensium fraudibus interceptum, diem clausisse
credidit extremum.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 68

At the time when this combat took place (a. d. 1168),
the Welsh, regardless of the safety of their hostages, were
again in arms. Beaten by the borderers, they were not
.discouraged, and early in 1165, the princes of North and
South Wales, in conjunction with Owen Kerelioc prince of
Powis, renounced their dependanoe on the English king.
Henry raised a great army and entered Powis-land by
Oswestry. The Welsh, as usual, retreated to their woods
and mountains, but they were closely pursued, and were
defeated with great loss on the banks of the river Ceiriog.
The English army at length encamped at the foot of the
Berwin mountains, but here the inclemency of the weather
was more &tal to the invaders than the cunning of the
Welsh in the former war. The rain fell in torrents and
swelled the mountain streams, and the position of the
English became so untenable, that they were obliged to
return home in confusion, and, being pursued by parties
of the enemy, lost many men in the retreat. Henry stung
with mortification at this second disaster, took vengeance
on his unfortunate hostages, who were by his order deprived
of dieir eyes. Giraldus Cambrensis, an attentive observer
of these events, but prejudiced against the king by his
personal feelings, blames him for undertaking such expe-
ditions without seeking the aid and advice of the border
chieftains, who, by long experience, were better able to
carry on hostilities with the mountain hordes.*

It is probable, however, that king Henry saw little
reason for placing confidence in the fidelity of the barons
who occupied the castles in the Marches of Wales, and
who appear to have been busily occupied with their own
private feuds, which had been increased and embittered
by the confiscations and changes of property during the
preceding reigns. We have already seen Joce de Dinan
at war with his powerful neighbour Hugh de Mortimer :
soon afterwards we find him engaged in a still more

* Girald. Camb. liin. lib. ii, c. 10.

64 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

desperate feud with another of the old border chieftains^
Walter de Lacy. It appears by the deed of the last year
of the reign of Stephen^ mentioned above^ that Hugh de
Lacy then laid claim to lands which Joce de Dinan held,
in Herefordshire^ and it is not improbable that these con-
tending claims were the ground of the dissensions in
which '* many a good knight lost his life ;" the traditions
of which continued to be the subject of minstrel song in the
following century/ and in the course of which the castle of
Ludlow passed into the family of the Fitz Warines.

The first of this family who bore the name of Fulke Fitz
Warine had mherited by his mother Melette^ daughter of
William Peverel^ the castle and honour of Whittington^
when seven years of age, Fulke was, according to the
custom of those times, placed in the &mily of Joce de
Dinan to be educated in the practice of knightly exercises,
for Joce was ^'a knight of good experience," and as he
grew up he became '^ handsome, strong, and of goodly
stature.'' At the time when the hostilities between Joce
de Dinan and Walter de Lacy raged with most violence,
Fulke Fitz Warine had reached the age of eighteen.

One summer's day, Joce de Dinan arose early in tfaue
morning, and mounted a tower in the middle of his castle
to siurvey the country. Turning his eyes towards Whit-
cliflfe, he was surprised to see the fields covered with
knights and soldiers in all the apparel of war, and to behold
among others the banner of his mortal enemy Sir Walter
de Lacy. He ordered part of his knights to arm and
mount in haste, and to take with them arbalasters and
archers to go and defend the bridge and ford ''below the
town of Dinan," and they drove back the Lacy's men, who

• For an account of the Romance of the Fitz Warines, see a note at
the beginning of our next section. It may be obserred that the article
on this &mily in Burke's Extinct Peerage is full of errors. Walter de
Lacy did not become in his own right lord of Ewyas till after his father's
death in 1185, but as the latter was constantly engaged in Ireland, he was
probably considered as the head of the family on the border of Wales. *

THE HISTORY OF LITDLOW. 65

Mrere already occupying the pass. Soon after came Joce^
with fire hundred knights and men at arms, besides the
burgesses of the town^ and crossing the water they engaged
and entirely defeated the invaders. Walter de Lacy, after
haTing lost his banner and seen his men dispersed, fled
along the road which ran near the banks of the Teme
towards Bromfield, called by the Anglo-Norman writer
Champ-Geneste (campus genestse). Joce de Diaan seeing
Walter de Lacy flying in this direction, followed him
unattended, and overtook him in a little valley within
sight of the castle, between the wood and the river, and
Lacy was already wounded and on the point of being made
a prisoner, wben three of his knights suddenly made their
appearance and came to his aid.

Joce's lady^ with her two daughters Sibille and Hawyse,
had witnessed the combat and the subsequent flight from
a tower in the castle ; and terrified with the danger which
threatened their lord, who was now alone against four,
they made the place resound with iheir screams. Fulke
Fitz Warine, who on account of his youth had been left in
die castle, was drawn to the spot by the cries of the ladies,
and, seeing them in tears, he inquired of Hawyse the cause
of their distress. " Hold thy tongue," she replied ; " thou
resemblest little thy father who is so bold and strong ; and
thou art but a coward, and ever wilt be. Seest thou not where
my father, who has cherished and bred thee with so much
care, is in danger of his life for want of help ? and thou
art not ashamed to go up and down safe without paying
any attention!" Fulke, stung by the maiden's reproof,
hurried into the hall of the castle, where he foimd nothing
but an old rusty helmet, which he put on as well as he
could, for he had not yet attained to the age of bearing
armour, and seizing a great Danish axe he ran to the
stable which was close to the postern that led to the river.
There he found a cart-horse, which he mounted, and
spurring across the river, he reached the spot where Joce
de Dinan, overcome by the number of his opponents, was

56 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

already dismounted and on the ground. Young Fulke
was no sooner arrived^ than with one blow of his for-
midable weapon he cut in two the back-bone of one of
Lacy's men who was securing the fallen lord of Ludlow^
and with a second he clove the scull of another who was
coming to encounter him. Joce was now soon remounted,
and Walter de Lacy with his remaining companion, Arnold
de lisle, who had both been severely wounded in the
action, were easily made prisoners. They were brought
to Ludlow castle and confined in a tower which was called
Pendover.*

The two prisoners were treated with kindness, and were
firequently visited by the ladies of the household. Amongst
them was a ''very gentle damsel" named Marion de la
Bruere (Marian of the Heath), who was smitten with
the courtly mien of Arnold de Lisle, and allowed herself to
be seduced by his fair words and promises of marriage.
Having thus placed herself in his power by her impru-
dence, she was Airther induced secretly to aid the escape
of the prisoners through one of the windows of the tower
by means of towels and napkins attached together. After
Walter de Lacy had obtained his liberty, he sent to his
fiither in Lreland for soldiers, resolved to avenge himself
on Joce de Dinan ; but after having carried on their hos-
tilities for a short time, the two barons were reconciled
by the interference of their neighbours. Soon after peace
had thus been restored, Fulke Fitz Warine was married with
great ceremony to Hawyse de Dinan ; and after the festi-
vities were ended, Joce de Dinan with his household and
son-in-law, and Warine the father of Fulke, went to
' Hertland,' having entrusted the castle of Ludlow to
the care of thirty trusty knights and seventy good soldiers,
** for fear of the Lacy and other people."

• Romance of the Fitz Warines, p. 17. The tower called Pendorcr
was certainly not the keep or donjon. It appears from the context to
have been a tower in the outer wall, looking towards Linney, and
communicating with the wall that ran at the back of the chapel, perhaps
the one marked 10 in our plan of the castle.

PLAN OF LUDLOW CASTLE.

THB HISTOBT OF LUDLOW. 67

No sooner had Joce de Dinan quitted his castle^ than
Marion de la Bruere^ who had remained behind on pretence
of illness^ sent a private message to her loyer Arnold de
lisle, acquainting him with the state of the castle, and
invitiiig him to pay her a yisit, promising to let him enter
by the same window from which he and Walter de Lacy
had made their escape from prison. Arnold communicated
Iu8 intelligence to Walter de Lacy, and obtained his consent
to making an attempt on the castle. Having provided
himself with a ladder of leather of the length indicated
to him by the unsuspecting lady, he took with him above a
thousand knights and soldiers, the main body of whom
he concealed in the woods by Whitcliffe, and the rest
weie placed in ambush in the gardens below the castle.
It seems by the story that the ground under the castle,
bordering on the river, was then laid out in gardens for
the recreation of the family of the lord of Ludlow. It
was during a dark night that these movements were
effected; when Arnold, with an attendant who carried
the ladder, approached the wall of the tower, his mistress
was ready at the window, and threw down a cord by which
the ladder was drawn up and fixed. The lady led him
to her chamber, and the ladder was left suspended at
die window.

In the mean time Arnold's attendant had returned to the
gardens, and brought forth the soldiers who were placed in
ambush. A hundred men, well armed, mounted by the
leathern ladder into the tower of Pendover, and whilst one
party, descending from the tower to the wall which led be-
hind the chapel,* threw the sleeping sentinel into the deep
fo88 which separated it from the outer ward, another party
went into the inner ward, and slew in their beds the
knights and soldiers who had been left to guard the castle.
They then issued from the castle, opened Dinham gate
(la porte de Dynan vers la ryvere), to admit the rest of

*£ 8*en avalerent de la tour do Pcndovrc, c s'en alercnt par Ic mux de-
lere la chapele. Romance of the Fitz-Warines, p. 21.
I

68 THE HISTORY OP LUDLOW.

Lacy's men, and placii^ parties of soldiers at the end of
each street, they burnt the town and massacred the inhabi-
tants, sparing neither woman nor child. At day-break,
Marion, who was in bed with her lover Sir Arnold, was
awakened by the shouts of the victors; she arose, and,
looking through a window, learnt the treason which had
been acted during the night. In the agony of despair, she
seized upon Sir Arnold's sword and thrust it through his
body, and immediately afterwards threw herself out of a
window which looked towards Linney (Lyneye), and
" broke her neck." As soon as he received intelligence of
the success of this attack, Walter de Lacy came with aU
his force, and took possession of Ludlow castle.

Tidings of these events were brought to Joce de Dinan
at Lamboume. Joce and the Warines, having assembled
their friends and dependants, came with about seven
thousand men, and established themselves in the castle of
Cainham (Keyenhom), situated on a hillock about a league
from Ludlow, and then "very old and the gates rotten."
The siege of Ludlow castle lasted long; the attacks were
frequent and vigorous, but Lacy who had many Lrish troops,
as well as his own knights and retainers, defended the place
against them ; when however he ventured to go out from
the castle, he was severely beaten by the besiegers, and the
gardens about Ludlow were more than once covered with
the bodies of his soldiers who were slain in these skirmishes.
The attack was made on the side of the castle to which the
approach is now covered by the town ; the town, as we have
already observed, seems at this time to have been situated
only in Dinham and towards Mill-street. At length the
besiegers made a fire at the gateway with bacon and grease,
so fierce that it burnt not only the treble door of the gate-
way tower, but also destroyed the tower itself, and Joce de
Dinan became master of the outer ward. In this assault
the chief tower in the outer ward of the castle (Mortimer's
tower) was nearly levelled with the ground, and almost the
whole ward destroyed. In the midst of these events Fulke

THE HISTORY OF LTTDLOW. 69

Fitz Warine's father died, and Fulke became Lord of Whit-
tingtOQ.

Walter de Lacy finding himself hard pressed, sent for
assistance to Jorwerth Drwyndwn (i. e. Jorwerth with the
broken nose), prince of Wales, who invaded the Marches
with twenty thousand Welshmen, ravaged the country,
burning towns and slaying the inhabitants, and speedily
approached Ludlow. Joce and Fulke fought against the
iniraders with great bravery, but they were at length com-
pelled to retire to Cainham, where they were besieged
during three days. Cut off firom all hope of assistance, and
unable even to procure provisions, on the fourth day they
sallied out fix>m the ruined fortress, and attempted to force
their way through their enemies. After killing many of
the Welsh and Lish, they were overwhelmed by numbers,
and Joce de Dinan, with most of his knights that were
not killed, was taken prisoner and committed to the dun-
geon of Ludlow castle. Fulke Fitz Warine, seeing his
&ther-in-law carried away, made a desperate attempt to
rescue him, and ran his lance through the body of the knight
who had him in charge ; but he was himself sorely wounded
by Owen KeveUoc, and with difficulty escaped from the
field, and fled towards Gloucester, where king Henry was
at that time making his stay.

The king received Fulke with great consideration, and
claimed him as his kinsman. He made his wife Hawyse
a lady of the queen's chamber, and sent orders to Walter de
Lacy to set at Uberty his prisoners, on pain of incurring a
severe chastisement. Lacy was too well acquainted with the
rigour and skill of king Henry to disobey his commands,
and Joce de Dinan joined his son-in-law at the royal court
Immediately lifter his arrival at court, the lady Hawyse gave
birth to a son, who was named after his father Fulke Fitz
Warine. Joce died at Lamboume a short time afterwards ;
and it was probably on his death that the king made a
grant confirming the right of his son-in-law to the castle of

Ludlow and the dependant honour of Corve-dale. This

00 THB HISTOBT OF LUDLOW.

grant is said to have been made about the year 1176.
Fulke lose rapidly in the &TOur of his sovereign, who made
him lieutenant of the Marches, in which capacity he was
very active in resisting the aggressions of the Welsh, who
during the latter part of this king's reign again ravaged
Shropshire and Herefordshire.* He defieated the Welsh
prince in several combats, and particularly in a great
battle at 'Wormeslowe' near Hereford; and after these
hostilities had continued more or less during four years, a
reconciliation was effected between the Welsh prince and
king Henry, the former being allowed to retain Ellesmere,
Whittington, Maylour, and other places on the border, and
Henry's daughter Joane was betrothed to Lems, Jorwerth^s
son. In recompence for the loss of these lands, the king
gave to Fulke the honour of ^ Alleston.' It seems doubtful
if he ever again obtained possession of Ludlow castle. The
town which had been utterly destroyed in the wars between
Walter de Lacy and Joce de Dinan, was rebuilt, and the
new town was probably placed nearer to the church and
about the present BroNeul-street and Old-street ; it was
henceforth known only by the name of Ludlow. Perhaps
amid the troubles and dissensions on the border, Walter de
Lacy was allowed to retain possesfiion. Fulke Fitz Warine
continued to enjoy the favours of king Henry and of his
son and successor Richard, early in whose reign he died.

The preaching of archbishop Baldwin had led the way'
to that outbreak of enthusiasm for the crusade which
characterised the opening years of the reign of Richard I.
The king, and with him numbers of the first nobles and
best knights of England and Wales, deserted their country
to seek a new field of action in the East. Contemporary
historians, carried with the general impulse, fill their pages
with the wonderful deeds of valour performed in Syria, and
g^ve us but a very imperfect account of the state of England
during Richard's absence. The partial notices which have

• Romance of the Fitz Warincs, p. 32.

THE HISTOBT OF LUDLOW. 61

come down to us shew that England was torn by discord.
The feudal barons had not yet foi^tten the licence of
the days of Stephen^ and they were glad to be liberated
fiom the iron-armed justice of the reign of his successor.*
The ambition of John^ Richard's eldest brother, encouraged
their expectations, and laid the foundation of those hostile
combinations which a few years afterwards troubled his
ownieign.

In the first year of his reign, king Richard provoked the
lesentment of the Welsh by his unoourteous treatment of
thdr prince Rhees, who came to Oxford, under the safe
conduct of prince John, to confer with him. King Henry
had been accustomed to meet the Welsh prince at this
place ; but Richard, despising the example of his father,
lefused to quit his capital, and Rhees, ^'exceedingly angry,"
returned home.t On his departure for the Holy Land, the
king appointed Fulke Fitz Warine warden of the Marches ;
but his name scarcely occurs in the different events of the
following years. Soon after the king's departure, in the
anangement between prince John and the Chancellor, arch-
bishop Hubert, arising out of the siege of Lincoln by the
latter and the occupation of the castles of Nottingham and
Tickhill by John, the castle of Hereford was delivered to the
keeping of Roger Bigod, one of the Chancellor's partizans.
In 1197, Hubert was called to the border, to make peace
between the sons of the Welsh prince Rhees, who had quar-
lelled about their inheritance after their father's death. At
the Christmas of the year following, 1198, Hubert was
again on the borders, and took from the lords who had
ttnkwfiilly usurped them the castles of Hereford, Bridge-
iiorth, and Ludlow, which he delivered to new keepers.^

* See WilliAm of Newbury, p. 380. Edit 1610.

t Roger de Hoyeden, p. 661.

} Eodem anno, die natalis Domini, Hubertas — fiiit in Owallia apud
Hereford, et recepit in manu ana casteUum de Hereford, et casteUum de
Btiges, et casteUum de Ludelaw, expolsis inde ciutodibus qui ea diu
c^tttodierant, et tradidit ea aliis custodibus custodienda ad opus regis.
Hoger de HoTeden, p. 775.

62 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

In the fifth year of this reign, 1194, the custody of Ludlow
castle had been given to Gilbert Talbot, whose fieither
appears to have been nephew of the G^ffiiey Talbot who
was so active in Herefordshire during the reign of Stephen.
A few months after his last visit to the border, Hubert was
deposed firom his secular dignities, and was succeeded by
Greoffiiey Fitz Peter, who was almost immediately called
with an army to Wales to assist William de Braose, who
was besieged by Gwenwynwyn in his own castle. The
Welsh were defeated with a great slaughter.*

This William de Braose, lord of Builth and Brecknock,
and allied by kindred to the Lacies and most of the great
border families, was deeply hated by the Welsh, and was
constantly engaged in hostilities with their princes. His
wife, Maude de Saint Waleri, was one of the most re-
markable women of her time, and was no less active in the
wars than her husband. At the beginning of the turbulent
reign of John, she and her husband enjoyed the royal
fevour. She on one occasion presented to the queen three
hundred cows and one bull, all of them white with red
ears; and she boasted that she possessed above twelve
thousand milch cows, and that she had in her stores so
many cheeses, that if a himdred of the most vigorous men
in England were besieged in a castle during a month, and
if they were obliged to defend themselves by continually
throwing her cheeses at the assailants, let them throw them
as fast as they might, they would stiU have some left at the
end of the month. William de Braose and his wife soon
incurred the displeasure of king John; they returned a
proud answer to his message, and he went with an army
towards Wales. On his approach, William de Braose fled
to France, and Maude with her eldest son William went
over to Ireland to seek protection from their kinsman
Hugh de Lacy, who was likewise under the king's dis-
pleasure. As John pursued them from castle to castle in

• Roger do Hoveden, p. 781.

THS HISTORY OF LXTBLOW. 63

Ireland, they fled to the Isle of Man and to Scotland,
where Maude and her son William were taken and sent to
the king. He ordered them to be inclosed in a room in
Corfe castle, with a sheaf of wheat and a piece of raw
bacon for their only proTisions. On the eleventh day their
prison was opened, and they were found both dead; the
mother was sitting upright between her son's legs with her
head leaning back on his breast, whilst he was also in a
sitting posture with his face turned towards the ground.
Maude de Braose, in her last pangs of hunger, had knawed
the cheeks of her son, then probably dead, and after this
effort she appeared to have fallen into the position in which
she was found.*

SECTION IV.

Adventures of the younger Ftdke Fitz Warine.

THE first Fulke Fitz Warine had, by his wife Hawyse
de Dinan, five sons, Fulke, William, Philip, John, and Alan.
Fulke, as we have already stated, was bom soon after the
capture of Ludlow castle by Walter de Lacy ; he, as well
as his younger brothers, and his cousin Baldwin de Hodnet
was educated with the children of Henry H; and he
enjoyed the favomr of king Richard I during the whole of
that monarch's reign. After his father's death, which is
said to have occurred before the king embarked for the
crusade, Fulke had livery of his lands, and in 1195 he was
also restored to the possession of Whittington, which in the

* These particulaTS relating to the Braoses, differing considerably
firam the accounts commonly received, are taken from an anonymous
wfiter who lived at the time, and was intimately acquainted with the
domestic events of the reign of John : his work, in a strong Norman dialect,
was first printed by the Soci^te de I'Histoire de France, in 8vo. 1840.
The account of Maude de Braose will be found at pp. 111-115.

64 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

preceding reign had been allowed to remain in the hands
of Roger prince of Powis. He continued during this reign
to enjoy the charge of warden of the Marches. On the
accession of John^ Fulke lost the royal favour^ and became
an out-law. He was held one of the bravest knights and
strongest men of his time ; and his adventures^ while he
lived in the woods and on the seas^ were the theme
of general admiration during the two centuries which
followed.*

* We dte the interestixig narratire of the adyentures of Fulke by the
title of the Momanee of the Fitz Warines ; but it must not be supposed that
by this title we mean to conyey a doubt of its beiog historical. The word
romanee, in its original acceptation, meant a book of any king written in
the middle-age dialects derired from the latin, each of which was called
Lmffua^ Romano, or Langue Romance pure Latin being always characterized
as the LinfftM Latino, or Lanffue LaHne, The name Bomam (i. e. hber
HomamuJ became more peculiarly applied to the long poetical narratives
snng by the minstrels in ^e baronial halls, which sometimes recorded the
old traditions of the country, at others celebrated the deeds of the barons
in whose halls they were chanted and their feuds with their neighbours,
and at a later period became gradually restricted to stories of a more
imaginative character, from whence has arisen our modem application of
the word. The Romance of the Fitz Warines was very popular during a
long period of time: it was first composed in Anglo-Norman verse;
there appeared a version in English verse probably before the end of
the thirteenth century ; and at the beginning of the fourteenth century
the original Anglo-Norman poem was transformed into a prose version.
The Anglo-Norman and English poems were extant in the time of
Leland, who has given an imperfect abstract of them ; but the prose
version alone, as far as can be ascertained, is now preserved; it is
contained in a manuscript of the reign of Edward II, in the British
Museum, MS. Reg. 12, C. XII. The writgr who made the prose version
has followed his original so closely, that we have evidently the very words
of the poem a little transposed, and with a little care wo might restore
the original verses of a considerable portion of it. At the end of the
account of Joce's wars with Walter dc Lacy, it is said " Now you have
heard how Sir Joce de Dynan, Sibille, the elder, and Hawyse, the
younger, his daughters, were disinherited of the castle and honour of
Dynan, which Sir Walter de Lacy holda wrongfully" (ore avez oy com-
ment sire Joce de Dynan, &c. furent disheritez de la chastel e I'onour de
Dynan, que sire Walter de Lacy tient 4 tort). This must have been
written before 1241, when Walter de Lacy died (the only Lacy who held
the castle of Ludlow), and therefore during the life of the younger Fulke
Fitz Warine, of whoso adventures chiefly it treats. This circumstance,

THX HISTOBT OF LUDLOW. 65

The enmity which existed so long between Ifing John and
the hsDilj of the Fitz Warines^ is said to have originated
in their boyish quarrels. While they were little more
than children in king Henry's household, John and Fulke
were one day playing at chess, and the former, whose evil
disposition was exhibited in his childhood, angry at the
superior skill of his playfellow, struck him violently on
the head with the chess-board. Fulke returned the blow
with so much force, that the prince was thrown with his
head against the wall, and fell senseless on the floor. He
was soon restored to his senses by the exertions of his
playfellow, for they were alone; and he immediately ran
to his father the king to make his complaint. But Henry
knew his son's character, and not only rebuked him for
his quarrelsomeness, telling him that if Fulke had beaten
him he had no doubt it was what he merited, but he sent
for the prince's master and ordered him to be again beaten
"finely and well" for complaining.

John never forgot that Fulke Fitz Warine had been
the cause of this disgrace. Immediately after his accession
to the throne, he gave not only the wardenship of the
^larches, but also the &mily possessions of the Fitz Wa-
lines at Whittington, to Morice, son of Roger of Powis*

and Uie exact knowledge whieh the minstrel shows that he possessed of
Ludlow casUe and the border, leads me to believe the poem was
oiiginally composed by a minstrel attached to the family of Fulke at
Wldttington, when the jealousies were still alive which arose out of the '
transfer of Ludlow from the Fitz Warines to the Lacies. I hare little
doubt that the incidents of the story are in the main true, if we make
^wance for the inaccuracies which must have arisen in their passage
from one mouth to another, with the embellishments which party feeling
would naturally give to them, and which in fact appear more or less in
every historical narrative. The poet, however, seems to have thought
lumself justified in giving full scope to his imagination when he described
Fnlke's adventures in distant lands, which it has not been thought neces-
8U7 to insert here. It ought to be observed, that since the present work
was begun, the prose text of the Romance of the Fitz Warines has been
printed at Paris (8vo. 1840).

* The grant of * Witintone and Overton' to Morice Fitz Roger (Meurico
K

66 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

before mentioned, who was known to the Normans by the
name of Morice Fitz Roger. When Fulke learnt the injus-
tice which had been done to him, he immediately repaired
with his brothers and Baldwin de Hodnet, to the court,
then at Winchester,* and in the royal presence, demanded
his right by the judgement of the common law. The king
refused to listen to him; he said that he had given the
Jands to Morice Fitz Roger, ^^ who should keep them, be
angry who might ;'' and Morice coming forwards addressed
the claimant in reproachful words : — " Sir knight," he
said, " you are a very fool, to challenge my lands. If you
say that you have a right to Whittington, you lie ; and, if
we were out of the king's presence, I would prove it on
your body." He had scarcely ended speaking, when
WiUiam Fitz Warine, less scrupulous in this particular,
stepped forward and struck him a blow with his mailed fist
which left his face covered with blood. The knights who
were present interfered to put a stop to the fray; and
Fulke turning to the king reproached him with his injustice
and, having publicly ifithdrawn his fealty, hastened with
his kinsmen &om the court. They had scarcely proceeded
half a league from the city, when they were overtaken by
fifteen of the king's best knights, well armed and mounted^
who called on them to stop, "for," said they, "we have
promised to give your heads to the king." "Fair sirs,"
said Fulke, "you were, in faith, very foolish when you
promised to give what you had not got." And thereupon
setting upon them, they slew or severely wounded fourteen,
and left but one able to ride back to carry the news
to king John.
Fulke hiuiied to his castle of Alberbury, where his

filio Rogeri de Peuwis), dated at Worcester, April 11, 1200, is found on
the Charter Rolls at the Tower. King John was at Worcester from
the 6th to the 12th April.

• It Ib most probable that Winchester is a mistake for Westminster,
where the king was on the 18th, 19th, and 20th of April, 1200. He was
not at Winchester during that year.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 67

mother was living, and having taken his leave of her,
he went by sea to Bretagne, accompanied by his brothers
and his eousins Audulf de Bracy and Baldwin de Hodnet,
and carrying with him large treasures which he had laid
up in his castle. King John immediately seized upon
aU his lands in England. After staying a short time in
Bretagne^ where they were hospitably received by their
kindred (for their family was of Breton descent), FuDce and
his brothers and cousins returned to England, where they
were soon joined by others who were sufferers from the
injustice of the king. By day they concealed themselves in
the woods and moors, and travelled only by night, for fear
of the king's power, because they were as yet few in
number. At ' Huggeford' they were hospitably entertained
by Sir Walter de Huggeford,* who had married the sister of
Fulke*s mother. From thence they went to the woods m
the neighbourhood of Alberbury, Fulke's paternal mansion,
where he learnt that his mother was dead. He next
removed to the forest of 'Babbyng,* near Whittington,
where he took up his abode with his companions, in order
to watch the motions of his enemy Morice Fitz Roger. A
retainer of Morice saw them in the forest, and informed
his master, who went forth with his men to seek after
them. But Fulke no sooner saw them approach, than
he and his kinsmen rushed out of their hiding place, and,
attacking them fiercely, drove them back to the castle.
Morice was severely wounded in the shoulder, and was
closely pursued by Fulke Fitz Warine, who approached
so near the gateway, that he was shot in the leg by an
arrow from the wall. When the king was informed by the

* This Walter de Huggeford (of Shropshire) is mentioned in the
records, and appears to have been constantly in rebellion against king
John. In September, 1207, he was a prisoner: Mandamus tibi quod
Uberari facias Hngoni de Nuville yel certo nuncio suo litteras suas de-
ferent! Walterum de Hugeforde prisonem pro foresta. (Patent Rolls,
6 SepL 1207.) He was one of those who, in arms against John at the
time of that monarch's death, returned to his allegiance in 1217, the
second year of the reign of Henry III. (Close Rolls, p. 373.)

68 THE HI8T0BY OF LUBLOW.

messenger of Morice Fitz Roger that Fulke was in England,
he became '' wonderfully wroth/' and appointed a hundred
knights with all their retainers to scour the country in
search of him, promising a great reward to him who should
capture the outlaw either alive or dead. These knights
separated and went into different parts of England ; but
the historian insinuates that whenever any one of them
had private intelligence that the object of their search
was in a particular quarter, he took especial care to go
in another direction, for they not only had a distaste for
Fulke's blows, but they many of them also cherished an
affection for his person, and had no real demie that he
should fall into the king's hands. This Fulke knew well,
and he carefully avoided offering any injury to those who
were not his avowed enemies.

Fulke and his company went to the forest of ' Bradene,'
where they remained some time unobserved. One day
there came ten merchants who brought from foreign lands
rich cloths and other valuable merchandise, which they had
bought for the king and queen of England, with money
furnished for the royal treasury. As the convoy passed
under the wood, followed by twenty-four seijeants at arms
to guard the king's goods, John Fitz Warine was sent out
to inquire who they were. John met with a rude recep-
tion ; but Fulke and his companions came forwards, and, in
spite of their obstinate defence, captured the whole party,
and carried them with their convoy into the forest. When
Fulke heard that they were the king's merchants, and that
the loss would not fall upon their own heads, he ordered
the rich cloths and furs to be brought forth, and, measuring
them out with his lance, gave to all his men their shares,
each according to his degree and deserts, " but each was
served with large measure enough." He then sent the
merchants to the king, bearers of Fulke Fitz Warine's
grateful thanks for the fine robes with which his majesty
had clad all Fulke's good men.

Afiter this adventure they removed to the forest of Kent.

THE HlfirrOBT OF LUDLOW. 69

Intd%enoe was carried to king John's knights who were
in search of him^ that Fulke Fitz Warine was in a certain
wood; and they immediately raised the country ahout,
and came with a great number of people of all sorts to
nuToimd the place where he was lodged. They placed
bands of men on every side to watch his egress; and
distributed watchmen oyer the fields and plains with horns
to raise the cry if they saw him pass from his hiding place.
The first intelligence of these moTements which reached
Foike, was conyeyed by the horn of one of his pursuers,
who was at no great distance from him. Fulke and his
companions instantly mounted their steeds, and with all
their company, horse and foot, they issued from the forest.
After seyeral rude encounters, in which many of their
ptUBuers were slain, and in one of which John Fitz
Warine received a severe wound on the head, the whole
party got clear of the snares which were laid for them, and
pursued the high road till they came to an abbey. Here
Alan Fitz Warine, having secured the porter and taken
possession of the keys, sheltered the whole company within
the walls, except Fulke, who, dressed in the guise of
an old monk, took a great club and supported himself
upon it, and limping with one foot, walked very slowly
along the road side. He had not been long there, before
& large body of knights, Serjeants, and their company,
arrived at full speed. " Old monk," said they, " have you
seen no knights in armour pass here ?" '* Yes," said Fulke,
"and Grod repay them the hurt they have done me !" " And
what hurt have they done you?" said the knight who 'was
foremost. " Sir," said Fulke, " I am very old and decrepit^
^ with difiiculty help myself. On a sudden there came
Kven knights and fifteen men on foot, and because I could
not get out of the way, they made no stoppage but run
o^er me, and it was a chance that I had not been killed."
" Never nund," said the knight, " before night I promise
ttiou shalt be well avenged ;" and without more words tl^e
whole party continued their route at full speed. Soon after-

70 THE HISTOBT OF LUDLOW.

wards arrived eleven other knights^ magnificently mounted
on choice steeds. As they approached the place where
Fulke was standing, the chief of them burst into a fit of
laughter^ and said, '^ Here is an old fat monk, who has a fine
belly to hold two gallons in it !" Fulke, without uttering
a word, raised his club, and struck the knight such a fear-
ful blow imder the ear as laid him breathless on the ground.
His brothers and their companions, who were looking
on, rushed firom the abbey, and seizing upon the knights,
bound them and locked them up in the porter's lodge, and
taking the horses they mounted their whole company,
and rode without making any considerable pause till they
came to ' Huggeford,' where John Fitz Warine was cured
of his wound.

While they remained at ^ Huggeford,' a messenger
arrived bam Hubert le Botiler, or Hubert Walter, €uxjh-
bishop of Canterbury. Hubert's brother, Theobald Wal-
ter, had married Maude de Cans, (daughter of Robert
Vavasoiu:), a rich heiress, and one of the handsomest
women in England ;* and Theobald being now dead, the
lady sought protection of her brother-in-law the archbishop,
firom the pursuit of the king, who, struck with her beauty,
harboured designs against her honour. Fulke and his
brother William, in obedience to the archbishop who re-
quested an interview, went. to Canterbury in the disguise
of merchants, and there, at the decree also of the arch-
bishop, Fulke Fitz Warine was married to dame Maude
de Caus. After remaining two days at Canterbury, Fulke
left his wife with the archbishop, and returned to his
men, ^'who made great mirth and laughed and called
Fulke husebaunde, and asked him where he intended to

* She appears to hare been remanied by the king's licence after
Fulke's pardon. (See Patent Rolls, p. 74.) Hubert, archbishop of
Canterbury, died in 1205. There arose a misunderstanding between the
archbishop and the king in 1201 (Matthew Paris pp. 205, 206) which
may haye had some connection with the circumstances mentioned in
the text

THB HISTOKT OF LUDLOW. 71

take his wife, to his castle or to his wood, and encouraged
one another and were very joyfiil."

At this time there dwelt on the borders of Scotland a
worthy knight named Robert Fitz Sampson, who with Ids
lady had often received Fulke Fitz Warine into his house
widi great honour and hospitality. There was also in the
same neighbourhood a knight called Piers de Bruville,
who with a band of riotous companions used to wander
over the northern country and rob gentlemen and mer-
chants who were not on their guard, and commit many
other outrages, and all this he did under the name of
Fulke Fitz Warine, to Fulke's no small discredit. One
day Fdke came to the Scottish border, and as he ap-
proached the house of Robert Fitz Sampson, towards
Bight, he saw a great light in the hall, and on coming
nearer he heard frequent mention of his own name.
Haying placed his companions ready at the outside of
the door, Fulke entered the hall silently, and there he
saw Piers de Bruville and his companions, all masked
and sitting at table, while Robert Fitz Sampson and his
lady lay bound in one comer of the hall, and the lady
cried piteously. — ^^ Ha ! Sir Fulke," said she, " have
mercy on us : I never did you any injury, but have always
shewn you good friendship!" Fulke Fitz Warine could
contain himself no longer; without waiting for his com-
panions, he drew his sword and advanced into the hall,
and, with a voice of thimder, threatened that the first
who stirred from his place should be cut into small pieces.
"And now," said he, "which of you is it who calls
himself Fulke?" "Sir," said Piers, "I am a knight, and
am called Fulke." " By the love of God ! then," said
Fulke Fitz Warine, "rise up Sir Fulke, without delay !"
Piers de Bruville, terrified at the fierce deportment of
the intruder, rose from his seat, and, without attempting
to resist, bound his companions one by one to their seats ;
and when they were all bound, Fulke made him cut off

their heads. Then addressing Piers de Bruville, he said

72 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

'^ you false knight^ who call yourself Fulke^ you lie ! I am
Fulke, and that you shall soon know, for I will now punish
you for all the wicked deeds you have done in my name !''
and so saying, he struck off his head with his sword.

Having 'thus released Kobert Fitz Sampson and his
lady from the hands of Piers de Bruville, Fulke repaired
again to Alberbury, and established himself in the wood
on the bank of the river. One of his companions, named
John de Rampaigne was an excellent musidan^ and very
skilful 'jogelour/ who undertook to go to the castle of
Alberbury and report upon the movements of Fulke's old
enemy Morice Fitz Roger. John rolled up the leaves of a
certain herb, and put them in his mouth, and his face im-
mediately began to swell and become discoloured so that his
companions scarcely knew him ; then taking a box with his
implements of ' joglerie,' and a stout dub in his hand, he
presented himself at the castle gate, and was immediately
admitted: for performers of this kind seldom foimd the
gates of the andent feudal barons closed against them.
The porter led him into the presence of Morice Fitz Boger,
who asked him where he was bom. " On the borders of
Scotland,'' was the answer. "And what is the news
there ?** " Sir, I know none, except of Fulke Fitz Waxine,
who has been slain in robbing the house of Robert Fitz
Sampson." " Is that true ?" asked Morice. *' Yes." said
he ; " at least all the people of the coxmtry say so."
" Minstrel," said he, " for your news I give you this cup of
fine gold." And thus John de Rampaigne departed, after
having learnt that the next day Morice was going to
Shrewsbury, slenderly attended. Accordingly on the mor-
row Ftdke was up betimes, and having armed aU his
company, he laid wait for his enemy, who soon appeared
with his household retainers, and the four sons of Guy Fitz
Candelou of Porkington. Morice attacked Fulke vigour-
ously, but in the end his party were entirely defeated, and
himself with the four sons of Guy Fitz Candelou, and
fifteen knights, were slain. And thereby, says the nar-

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 7S

ntor of these events^ '' Fulke had just so many the fewer
enemies."

During his wanderings^ Fulke was frequently pursued
very closely by the king's men, who followed the track of
his horse's heels. But Fulke was crafty as well as brave ;
and he often caused the horses of his troop to be shoed the
wrong way before, so that his enemies were sent in a
contrary direction to that in which he had gone. Many a
hard adventure he suffered before he recovered his heritage.
After the slaughter of his grand enemy Morice Fitz Roger,
he went to Rhuddlan to Llewelyn prince of Wales, who
had married Joane daughter of Henry II of England, and
who like himself was constantly at war with king John.
The Welsh prince, though grieving for the death of his
kinsman Morice, gave the outlawed baron a friendly
welcome, and took him into his service. Since the times
of the Saxons, Wales had been the frequent refuge of
English outlaws. Fulke had not been long with prince
Llewelyn, before he put an end to the feud which had
raged some time between liim and Gwenwynwyn, the son
of Owen Kevelioc, and by his {lersuasions effected a recon-
ciliation between the two princes.

King John was at Winchester, and had not long heard
of Fulke's marriage at Canterbury, when news was brought
at the same moment of the death of Morice Fitz Roger and
of the reception of the slayer at the court of the prince of
Wales. For a few minutes the king sat still in silent
anger, unable to utter a word ; then he started up from his
seat — ^^ Ha ! St. Mary !" said he, " I am a king, England I
rule, and am duke of Anjou and Normandy, and all Ireland
bows before my sceptre, yet can I not find a man in my
dominions for all my offers, who will avenge me of the
injuries put upon me by one unruly baron. But, though I
cannot catch Fulke, I will not fail to make a signal ex-
ample of the Welsh prince who has harboured him !" He
inunediately ordered writs to be issued, summoning his

74 THE HISTORY OP LUDLOW.

barons to meet him with their retainers on a certain day at
Shrewsbury, to make war upon the Welsh.

Before the day thus appointed, Llewelyn and Gwenwyn-
wyn had received intelligence of the hostile designs of the
English king. They assembled a great army at * Castle
Balaham in Pentlyn,* and by the advice of Fulke Fitz
Warine, they fortified a narrow pass between the woods
and marshes, called the ford or pass of Gymele (le gu^
Gymele), by which the army of king John was obliged to
march. The English failed in the attempt to force this
pass, and the king, after losing many of his men, returned
to Shrewsbury.* The Welsh princes, in the midst of their
triumph, after having taken and destroyed the castle of
Ronton (belonging to John L*Estrange,t who was an active
partizan of the king), met at ' Castle Balaham,' and there
Llewelyn restored to Fulke his ancient heritage of Whit-
tington, Estrat, and Dynorben, to be held in fee of the
princes of Powis.

The king dispatched Henry de Alditheley, or Audley,
with John L'Estrange, and a part of his army, to expel
Fulke from Whittington, of which he had immediately
taken possession. Fulke was celebrating his return to his
paternal castle with great festivity, and had with him a
large body of knights and retainers. When he heard of
the approach of the king's troops, he advanced to meet
them at the pass of ' Mudle,' which he defended as long as
he was able with his inferior force, and then drew off to his

* King Jolrn was not at Shrewsbnry during the first four years of his
reign ; but he was on the border, at Hereford on the 4th and 5th, at
Ledbury on the 6th, and at Bridgenorth on the Uth, 12th and 13th of
November, 1200. He had been at Worcester in the preceding ApriL The
minstrel who composed the poem of Fulke Fitz Warine's adventures,
has evidently been led into errors of this kind by following popular
reports. King John was not at Winchester this year. He was there on
the 6th, 7th, and 8th of May of the year following (1201).

t The name of John L'Estrange occurs frequently in the records of the
reign of king John. We find a grant to Johannes Extraneus, April 16,
1200 (Charter Rolls, p. 45). He was one of those who wore to conduct
Llewelyn to the king in 1204 (Patent Rolls, p. 39).

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 75

castle. In the defence of the pass, Fulke Fitz Warine,
as usual, performed many valourous deeds, as did also his
friend and companion Sir Thomas Corbet.* Fulke's brothers
Alan and Philip were wounded, and one of his best knights.
Sir Audulf de Bracy, having been accidentally dismounted,
was oTercome by the number of his assailants, and made a
prisoner. Henry de Alditheley appears to have proceeded
no farther with his enterprise, but, satisfied with the deplo-
rable ravage which he had committed on the country over
which he passed, he carried his prisoner Audulf de Bracy
to the king.

Fulke was exceedingly grieved when he learnt the fate
of Sir Audulf; and John de Bampaigne was employed
on another minstrel's adventure to free him from prison.
J(din, as has been already observed, was skilful in all the
arts belonging to the minstrel's craft. Having, by means of
a certain nuxture with which he was acquainted, stained
his hair and flesh black, he dressed himself in garments
of very rich material, but formed in a strange fashion,
hung a handsome tabour about his neck, and rode on
a &ir palfrey through the streets of Shrewsbury to the
gates of the castle, to the no small wonder of the good
people of the town. He was quickly carried before the
king, whom, fialling on his knees, he saluted 'Wery cour-
teously." The king, returning his salutation, asked him
who he was. " Sire," said he, '^ I am an Ethiopian min-
strel, bom in Ethiopia." ^* Are all the people of Ethiopia
of the same colour as you ?" asked the king. " Yes, my
lord, men and women." " What say they of me in those
foreign lands?" "Sire," answered John de Rampaigne,
'' you are the most renowned king of all Christendom ; and
your great renown has iaduced me to visit your court."
"Fair sir," says the king, "you are welcome." And
during the afternoon, John exhibited many a feat of min-

* Thomas Corbet is also mentioned in authentic documents of the
same period : he joined with the barons against John, in the latter part of
that king's reign.

76 THE infirroRY of ludlow.

strelsy both on the tabour and on other instruments, tQI
night drew on, and the king and his court left the hall
to seek repose in their beds. Sir Henry de Alditheley was
making merry with some of his companions in his own
chamber, and, when he heard that the king had retired,
he sent for the black minstrel to increase and join in their
mirth. And " they made great melody," and drunk deep,
till at last Sir Henry turned to a valet and said, '^ Gro fetch
Sir Audulf de Bracy, whom the king intends to kill to-
morrow; he shall have one merry night before he dies."
Audulf was soon led into the room; and they continued
talking and playing till a late hour. To the minstrel was
given the honourable office of serving round the cup, in the
performance of which duty he was very skilful ; and, when
the whole party were nearly overcome with the effects oi
the liquor they had been drinking, he took an opportunity
of dropping into the cup a powder which he had provided,
and which soon threw them all into a heavy slumber.
John de Rampaigne had already made himself known to
Audulf de Bracjr by means of a song which they had
been in the habit of singing; and placing the king's fool
between the two knights who had Audulf in guard, they
let themselves down from the window towards the Severn
by means of the towels and napkins which were in the
chamber, and next day they reached the castle of Whit-
tington.

Fulke's lady, dame Maude de Cans, whose adventures
were hardly less remarkable than those of her husband,
rejoined him at the coiul; of the prince of Wales. King
John, enraged at her marriage with Fulke, had employed
spies to watch her motions, and to carry her off as soon
as they could find an opportunity. She was concealed
some months in the cathedral of Canterbury, where, pro-
tected by the sanctity of the place, she had given birth
to a daughter, to whom the archbishop gave the name of
Hawyse. Fulke and his companions went secretly by
night to Canterbury and took her from thence to Hug-

THE HISTOKY OF LUDLOW. 77

geford; and from thence she was carried to Alberbmy^
where she remained for some time in great secrecy; but
being discoyered by the king's emissaries she fled to Shrews-
buy, where she took refuge in St. Mary's church, and
was there deliyered of another daughter which received the
name of Joane. Her third child was bom two months
before its time, on one of the Welsh mountains, and, being
a boy, it was christened by the name of John in the stream
which ran fix)m the '^ maidens' fountain." Both the mother
and her ofl&pring were too weak to be removed &r, so they
were carried from the mountain to a grange '^ which was
that at Carreganant." When this child was re-christened
by the bishop, his name was changed to Fulke.

King John, disappointed in all his projects of vengeance,
now proposed a reconciliation with the prince of Wales, on
condition that Fulke Fitz Warine should be delivered up,
or at least dismissed from his service.* Fulke was made
acquainted with this proposal by the princess Joane, Llew-
elyn's wife, and, suspicious of treason, he sent his lady
secretly to Canterbury under the guidance of Baldwin de
Hodnet, and having committed her again to the care of
the archbishop, he sailed with his companions to France.
Haring remained there a short time, he fitted out a ship,
and took to the sea. After performing many wonderful
adventures on this element, which are too romantic to find
a place in a sober history, Fulke landed at Dover, and
stationed his ship in a position to be easily regained in case
of danger.

Hearing that king John was at Windsor, Fulke and his
companions directed their course thither, travelling by night
and seeking repose and concealment by day, till they reached

* We hare no details in the old historians concerning this brief war.
A peace was concluded between king John and Llewelyn, prince of Wales,
oa the 11th of July, 1202 (Patent Rolls, pp. 8, 9). There must therefore
lure occuxred some hostilities with the Welsh during the first years of
the king's reign, which may have called for the king's presence on the
bolder in 1200, and may haYo been the same to which our story relates.

78 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

Windsor forest^ where they lodged themselves in an unfre-
quented place which they had formerly occupied^ for they
were well acquainted wiA every part of the forest. They
had not been there long before they learnt by the sounding
of horns and the shouts of the foresters that the king was
gone to the chase. While his companions armed and
placed themselves in ambush, Fulke went out alone to seek
adventures. As he walked along, he met with a char-
bonnier, or maker of charcoal, who was poorly dressed and
black with the dust of the charcoal, and carried in his
hand a three-pronged fork. Having changed his dress with
this man, and disg^uised himself as a charbonnier, Fulke
seated himself by the pile of charcoal, and, taking the
fork in his hand, began to stir and arrange the fire. While
he was thus busied, the king rode up to the spot, at-
tended only by three knights ; on which Fulke, imitating
the gestures of a peasant, threw aside his fork, and fell on
his knees very humbly before him. At first the king laughed
and joked at his grim look and dirty garments ; then he
said, " Master clown, have you seen any buck or doe pass
this way?" Fulke answered "Yes, my lord, just now."
" What kind of beast was it ?" " Sire, my lord, a homed
one, and it had long horns." " Where is it gone ?" *' Sire,
my lord, I could easily lead you to the place where I saw
it!" " Go on, then, clown, and we will follow." " Sire,"
said the pretended charbonnier, ''may I take my fork in
my hand ? for, if any one stole it, it would be a great loss to
me." *' Yes, clown," said the king, " if you like," and thus
Fulke led the king and his three knights to the spot where
his companions were concealed, who came out and made
them prisoners; and only set them free after the king had
given his solemn oath to pardon them all, and restore them
to their lands.

The king was no sooner at liberty than, disregarding
his oath, he sent a party of men in pursuit of the outlaws,
under a knight of Normandy named Sir James. Fulke
and his companions slew or disabled them all, and taking

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 79

Sir James, they disarmed him, bandaged his mouth so that
he was unable to utter a word, and then put on him Fulke's
old armour. Fulke and his men invested themselves in the
gay armour of Sir James and his followers, and thus dis-
guised rode towards the king; and Fulke having left his
men at a certain distance, delivered Sir James to the king,
and then returned, as he pretended, to pursue Fulke's
companions, for which purpose the king gave hitn his own
horse, which was remarkable for its swiftness of foot.
Fulke and his companions then fled to a wood at a consider-
able distance, where they dismounted to repose themselves,
and to dress the wounds of his brother William, who had
been desperately hurt in the encounter. The king, be-
lieTing that Fulke was now in his power, ordered him to be
hanged immediately ; but when they proceeded to take off
his hehnet for that purpose, he discovered the trick which
had been put upon him. The king now ordered a much
larger body of knights to go in pursuit of Fulke, who came
upon him unawares in his place of concealment, and the
outlaws did not make their escape without great difficulty.
William Fitz Warine, too weak to defend himself, was made
a prisoner ; and Fulke was carried away insensible from loss
of blood, by a wound which he had received on the back.
They reached their ship without further accident, and, after
Fulke had been restored to strength by the medicinal skill
of John de Rampaigne, they set out again in search of
adventures by sea.

In this voyage, Fulke obtained much riches, and brought
home a ca^o of valuable merchandise. As soon as he
reached the English coast, his first care was to learn the
fete of his brother William, who had fallen into the king's
hands in the encounter in Windsor forest. John de Ram-
paigne was employed upon this mission. Dressed "very
richly" in the guise of a merchant, he went to London,
and took up his lodgings in the house of the mayor, with
whom he soon made himself acquainted, and whose esteem
he obtained by the valuable presents he gave to him.

80 THE HISTORY OF LX7DL0W.

John de Rampaigne, who spoke " broken Latin" (Latyn
corupt) which the mayor understood, desired to be pre-
sented to the king, and the mayor took him to the court
at Westminster. The merchant saluted the king ''very
courteously/' and spoke to him also in broken Latin, which
the king understood with the same facility as the mayor of
London/ and asked him who he was and fix)m whence
he came. '^ Sire/' said he, '' I am a merchant of Greece ;
I have been in Babylonia, Alexandria, and in India the
Greater, and I have a ship laden with spioery, rich cloths,
precious stones, horses, and other things, which would
be of great value to this kingdom." King John^ after
giving him a safe-conduct for his ship and company, ordered
him to stay to dinner, and the merchant with his Mend the
mayor were placed at table before the king. While they
were eating, there came two seijeants-at-mace, who led into
the hall a great knight, with a long black beard^ and a
very ill-&voured dress, and they placed him in the middle
of the court and gave him his dinner. The mayor told John
de Rampaigne that this was the outlaw William Fitz
Warine, who was brought into the court in this manner
every day, and he began to recount to him the adventures
of Fulke and his companions.

John de Rampaigne lost no time in canying this intel-
ligence to Fulk Fitz Warine, and they brought the ship as
near to London as they could. The day after their arrival,
the merchant repaired to court and presented to king John
a beautiful white palfrey, of very great value ; and by his j
liberal gifts he soon purchased the favour of the courtiers. |
One day he took his companions, and they armed them- i
selves well, and then put on their * gowns' according to the '

* This "will be easily understood, when we consider that the king
and all the better classes of the people at this time spoke the language
known by the name of Anglo-Norman, which was one of the family
of languages derived from the Latin ; and that each of these differed from
the other hardly more than the English dialects of different counties at
the present day. All these languages were, In fact, * Latyn corupU' i

I
I

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 81

manner of mariners^ and went to the court at Westminster^
where they were ' nobly' received, and William Fitz Warine
w-as brought into the hall as before. The merchant and
his party rose early from table, and watched the return of
William Fitz Warine to his prison, when they set upon his
guards and in spite of their resistance carried off the prisoner,
and, having brought him safely on board their ship, they
set ssdl and were soon out of reach of their pursuers.

After staying some time in Britany, Fulke again returned
to England, and landed in the New Forest. It happened
that at this time king John himself was hunting in the
same part of the coimtry, and while closely pursiung a
boar, with a slight attendance, he fell a second time into
the power of the outlaws. The result was, that the king
again pledged his oath to pardon them as soon as he should
be at liberty. This time the king kept his word ; according
to the story, he called a parliament at Westminster, and
caused it to be proclaimed publicly that he had granted
his peace to Fulke Fitz Warine and to all his companions,
and that he had restored to them their possessions.*

We have authentic documents relating to this last scene
of Fulke's adventures. The general pardon of the outlaws
is entered on the Patent Koll of the fifth year of king John
(in the Tower of London), for it was during the first five
years of that monarch's reign that the events we have been
relating occurred. So early as the third year of this reign
(30th April, 1202), a pardon was granted to Eustace de
Kivilly, one of Fulke's band, who seems to have deserted
the company. The king was in Normandy, and not at
Westminster, when he granted his pardon to Fulke Fitz
Warine. In three successive months (August, September,
and October, 1203), John gave three different safe-conducts
to Fulke, with Baldwin de Hodnet and their companions,

* This must be considered as one of the embellishments of the story.
The king was not in the New Forest during the year 1203. In the
January of 1204, we find the king at different places in Wiltshire, so that
he may then have been hunting in the forest, but it was two months after
the date of Fulke's pardon.
M

82 THE HISTORY OF LTJDLOW.

to repair to his presence. The pardon itself is dated at
Rouen, the 11th November following. On the roll we have
a list of his companions, among which we recognise several
of the names which occur in the story, and many of them
appear' to be men of Shropshire and the Border. These
names are tfesides Vivian de Prestecotes, who received a
separate pardon), Baldwin de Hodnet, William Fitz Fnlkei
John de Tracy, Roger de Prestone, Philip Fitz Warine,
Ivo Fitz Warine, Ralf Gras, (or the Fat), Stephen de
Hodnet, Henry de Pontesbury, Herbert Branche, Henry le
Norreis, William Malveissin, Ralf Fitz William, Abraham
Passavant, Matthew de Dulvnstry, Hugh Ruffus, (or the
Red), William Gemun, Walter de Alwestane, John de
Prestone, Richard de Prestone, Philip de Hanewude,
Hamo de Wikefelde, Arfin M arnur, Adam de Creckefergus,
Walter le Sumter, Gilbert de Dover, William de E^re-
mimde, John de Lamborne, Henry ' Waleng,' (probably
Walensis), John Descunfit, William Fet, WilUam Cook,
Geoffirey his son, Philip de Wemme, Richard Scott, Thomas
de lidetune, Henry Gloucester, Hugh Fresselle, Onme de
Prestecotes, Roger de Waletone, Reiner Fitz Reiner, Wil-
liaml Fitz William, William Fitz Richard of Berton, Richard
de Wakefelde, Henry son of Robert King of Uffinton,
John Fitz Toke, Henry le Franceis (or French), Walter
Godric, Thomas his brother, Roger de Onderoude, (Under-
wood), Roger de la Hande, William Fitz Jdm.

In 1204, king John restored to Fulke Fitz Warine, Ids
castle of Whittington,* and different entries on the rolls
show that he continued to enjoy the royal favour until the
latter end of the king's reign, when he joined the party of
the barons. According to the story, Fulke after being
thus restored to his inheritance, served in the wars in
Ireland with Randolph earl of Chester. On his return to
Whittington, he foimded, near Alberbury, in a wood on the

* Rex, &c. Ticecomiti Salopcsbiriae. Solas quod rcddidimus Fulconi
filio Gwarini castellum dc Wuitintona cum omnibus pertinentiis suis, sicut
jus et hereditaiem. Patent Rolls, p. 46.

THK HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 88

bank of the SeTem, & priory which was called the new
Abbey, and in which, after his death at Whittington, he
was buried. Fulke was blind during the last seven years
of his life. The prose romance ends with two lines which
are evidently taken verbatim from the metrical one, and
which tell us that the body of the Lord of Whittington was
hid near the altar of the Abbey Church : —

'^ Joste le auter gist le cors.
Deus eit merci de tons, vifs e mortz !"

The date of Fulke's death appears to be unknown, but it
probably occtirred towards the middle of the reign of king
Henry III. Dugdale, who states him to be the same
Fulke Fitz Warine who perished at the battle of Lewes in
126S, certainly confounded him with his son, and thus
missed a whole generation in the pedigree. When Fulke
was left warden of the Marches by Richard I (not later
than the beginning of the year 1190) he must have been at
least twenty years old, so that at the beginning of the
twelfth century he would be thirty ; if we add this to sixty-
three, it will appear that according to Dugdale's statement,
Folke Fitz Warine was at least ninety-three years old at the
battle of Lewes, which is destitute of all probability. On
the same supposition Fulke's son, bom about 1204, would
have been alive in 1314, at the improbable age of one
hundred and ten years.*

SECTION V.
Border ArUijuities of the Twelfth Century,
IX the twelfth century, the Welsh border was covered

* If the Romance of the Fitz Warines was written daring the life of
Fulke, it is of course understood that the details relating to his^ death
vere added at a later period. It is however Very uncertain whether he
^d not die some years before Walter de Lacy.

84 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOIV.

with castles and monastic houses. A manuscript of the
earlier part of the reign of Henry III. preserved in the
British Museum, furnishes us Mdth a list of the most
important of such buildings then existing in Hereford-
shire and Shropshire.* The list of castles in this district

* The following is the portion of thiB document (presenred in MS.
Cotton. Vespas. A. XYIII. fol. 159, &c.) which relates to the counties of
Hereford and Salop.

Hereford.
V Episcopatus. Hereford. S. Mr. et S. Atheberti. Canonici secuUres.
Abbatia. Wiggemore. 8. Jacobi.T Canonici nigri.
Abbatia. Dore. 8. Mariae. Monachi albL
Prioratns. Leomenstre, S. Jacobi. Monachi nigri de Redinge.
PrioratuB. Hereford. S. Petri et Panli. Monachi nigri.

Prioratns. Bartone. S Monachi nigri.

Prioratns. Clifford. S. Mar. Monachi nigri de Clnniaco.
Prioratns. Hereford. S. Petri et Panli, et S. Guthlaci. Moniales nigrae.
Prioratns. Monemue. 8. Mar. et S. Florent. Monachi nigri de Saumer.
Prioratns. Acomebery. S. Katerinae. Moniales albae.

Prioratns. Lingebroke. 8 Moniales albie.

Prioratns. de Kilpek.
Prioratns. Ewyas Haraldi.

f Castella. Hereford. Kilpek. Ewyas Haraldi. Ewyas Laci. Grosmund.
8kenefreid. Caatrum Album. Monemue. Gotrige. Wiltone. Clifford.
Witesneic. Huntindone. Herdeleye Wigmorre. Radenowere. Keueuen-
leis. Ledebure north. 8eynt Brerel.

Salopeeyre.
t Abbatia. Salopesbery. 8. Petri et PauU et 8. MUburgw. Monachi nigri.
Abbatia. Beldewas. 8. Mar. Monachi nigri.
AbbatU, Cumbemere. 8. Mar. Monachi albL

AbbatU. LiUesheUe. 8 Canonici nigrL

Abbatia. Hageman. 8. Mar. Canonici albL

Prioratns. Wenelok. 8. MUburgc. Monachi nigri de Cluniaco.

Pnoratus. Stone. 8. Michaelis. Monachi nigri

Prioratns. Dndelege. 8 Monachi nigrL

Pnoratus. Bmmfeld, 8 Monachi nigri.

Pnoratus. Wyggemor. Canonici albL

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 85

includes the names of Hereford, Kilpeck, Ewyas Harold
and Ewyas Lacy, Grosmont, Screnfrith, White Castle,
Monmouth, Groodrich Castle, Wilton, Clifford, Whitney,
Huntington, Eardesley, Wigmore, Radnor, ' Keueuenleis,'
Ledbury North, and St. Brievels, and, in Shropshire, Bridge-
north, Shrewsbury, Holgod, Corfham, Ludlow, EUesmere,
Cause, and ' Blancmuster' or Oswestry. Of these castles,
those of Hereford, Monmouth, Groodrich (Castrum Godrici),
Wigmore, Radnor, Bridgenorth, and Shrewsbury, were
originally Saxon fortresses, and formed the defence of
the border previous to the Norman Conquest. Of some
of the castles in the above list no traces now remain ; but
the greater number, with others that are omitted in it,
still adorn the country by their imposing and picturesque
ruins.

These numerous castles may be divided into three or
four principal groups, of which the largest was formed by
the hue of fortresses running along the Welsh boimdary
of the south-western part of Herefordshire. Beginning
with Monmouth, we have, in continued succession. White
Castle, Screnfrith, and Grosmont, within Monmouthshire,
and in Herefordshire, Kilpeck, with the two Ewyases,
Wilton, Clifford, Whitney, Eardisley, the chain being thus
continued to Radnor. It will be observed that the castles
on this line are nearly all Anglo-Norman ; it formed the
basis of the operations of the early Norman barons in the
mterior of Wales. Another line of castles skirted the
Roman road from Hereford to Shrewsbury. These, after
the entry of the Normans, became of less importance, and,
with the exception of Wigmore, the importance of which
arose from its being the chief seat of the great and powerful
bmily of the Mortimers, are scarcely mentioned in history.
Wigmore, with Richard's Castle, and })erhaps Croft Castle,
were originally Saxon buildings. To this group was added
by the Normans the castle of Brampton Bryan, built by
Bryan de Brampton in the twelfth century. Ludlow
formed part of a Une of castles which stretched from

86 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

Richard's Castle along Corve-dale^ and included the castles
pf Corfham and Holgate. Another group, including
Knighton, Clun, Bishop's Castle, &c. defended the Welsh
border on the north-west.

With the exception of Ludlow, the most interesting
ruins of the castellated buildings of the Norman period
belong to the first of these groups, and are scattered along
the southern and western borders of Herefordshire. In
general the remains of the castles which were built before
the Conquest are very imimportant. Goodrich castle is a
fine and remarkable ruin ; but the site of the castle of
Hereford is covered with streets, and of Wignfiore cattle
and Richard's Castle the foundations and a few fragments
of the walk are all that remains. Of the history of
Caynham castle, which appears to have been deserted
horn a very remote period, we are entirely ignorant. It
occupied the summit of a hill about two miles to the south-
east of Ludlow, which appears on the right hand side
of our view of the town and castle.

The only part of Ludlow castle which dates from the
time of Roger de Montgomery, and perhaps the only part
which that great feudal baron completed, is the dbnjeon
or keep, built probably soon after the year 1D90. This
massive tower, which rises to the height of a hundred and
ten feet, is a very fine example of the style which was
introduced by bishop Gundulf, as it is seen at Rochester
(built in 1088), and at Hedingham in Essex and Richmond
in Yorkshire, both erected at very nearly the same date.
The keep of Ludlow castle has from various ciycumstances
sustained several alterations which are not visible in the
others. The original entrance was on the first fioor,' at the
east turret, and was probably approached by a flight of steps
or an inclined plane, running down by the side of the tower.
The old entrance still exists, biit its inconvenience 'being
felt in the fifteenth century, the steps were taken away,
and a new entrance worked in the mass of the wall, with a
door-way of the time of Henry VII leading by a flight

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 87

of Steps to the first floor, and opening into the chief room
of the. keep, at the foot of the newel staircase which runs
up 4he northern turret and formed the communication
between the different floors and the top of the tower. The
dungeon or vault imdemeath this tower appears to have
been approached by a passage which descended in the mass
of the wall from the above-mentioned entrance ; but in later
times a door was made in the north eastern side, on a level
with the ground. Most of the windows and door-ways of
this tower are distinguished by their round Norman arches.
It has been already shown that this tower is not the one
which in the twelfth and thirteenth centiuies went by the
name of Pendover.

When the castle was completed by Joce de Dinan in the
reign of Henry I, it appears to have covered the same
ground as at present. The three wards of which it was
composed were, first, the keep or last strong hold in case of
extremity ; second, the castle properly so called, or the mass
of buildings within the inner moat, round what is now
popularly termed the Inner Court; third, the large court
without, also surrounded by strong walls and towers, and
by a moat towards the town, and intended for the recej^tion
of cattle and of the peasantry in case of hostile incursions.
The two moats, or fosses, mentioned in the Roinance of the
Fitz Warines, were the one which still remains, and
another which occupied the place of the present walks on
the side of the to^vn. The opi)osite side of the cdstle, b^ing
situated on the edge of the rock, did not require a moat,
inasmuch as, from the character of the giroimd, it was hot
exposed to a regular approach. When the castle was be-
sieged, the attack was made from the side now occupied by
the town ; and the townsmen, who were not then numerous,
and who had probably no wall to defend them, took refuge
with all their property they could carry away in the outer
ward of the castle. The two forts erected by the besiegers
under king Stephen, doubtlessly occupied some part of the
site of the present town ; and it was from the wall on this

88 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

side that the grappling machine was thrown out by which
the Scottish prince was to have been captured. It is a
mere popular error which lays the scene of this event at
the north front of the castle * The first important step in a
successful attack, was to gain possession of the outer court or
ward. We have seen that this was effected by Joce de
Dinan and Fulke Fitz Warine, who evidently made the
assault on the side of the town, and burnt the gateway
tower. On this occasion the walls and towers of the outer
ward of Ludlow Castle were partially destroyed. When the
outer ward was taken, the garrison retired into the castle.

The foregoing observations apply, of course, only to the
period before the town of Ludlow had attained to any
importance, and therefore before it had been regularly
walled. The town, which had been reduced to ashes in
the wars between Joce de Dinan and Walter de Lacy,
was rebuilt after the castle had come into the possession
of the latter baron, and appears to have increased very
quickly. In 1199, as we have already stated, the church
was found too small for the population. It was probably
towards this period that the walls of the town were built.

The chapel of Ludlow castle was probably built by Joce
de Dinan, in the reign of Henry I. This seems to be dis-
tinctly stated in the Romance of the Fitz Warines, and we
are there informed that it was dedicated to St. Mary Mag-
dalen, and that the day of its dedication was ^^ the day of
St. Cyriac (Aug. 8) and seventy days of pardon."t All that
now remains of Joce's chapel is the nave, a circular building
which may be classed with the four round churches at
Northampton, Cambridge, Little Maplestead in Essex, and
the Temple church in London. The chapel of Ludlow

* It is pretended that the grappling engine was thrown out of the
window of the tower marked 13 in our plan.

t Joce de Dynan leva matin ; e s*en ala & ta chapele dedenz son
chastel, que fust fct e dedi^ en Tonour de la Magdaleyne, dount le jour de
la dedication est Ic jour seynt Cyryac e Ixx. jours de pardoun. Romance
of the Fitz Warines, p. 19.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

is either the earliest^ or (if the church of St. Sepulchre at
Cambridge be rightly attributed to the reign of Henry I) one
of the two earliest buildings of this description in inland.
It is entered from the west by a remarkably elegant Norman
door-way, richly adorned with the ornaments peculiar to
the style of the period at which it was built.

Western Door of (he Chapel in Ladlow Cattle.

On the opposite side is a large Norman arch, also very
beautifully ornamented, which once formed the entrance
into the choir, now entirely destroyed. It was formed by
two parallel walls, running nearly on the dotted lines inxmr
plan of the castle, and joining the circular buildinpf to the
eastern wall of the castle. There can be no doubt that this
choir formed a part of the original building, from the

90 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

character of the arch, which led to it ; and its position is
intimated in the Romance of the Fits Warines by the
mention of the ''wall running at the back of the cha-
pel." The round building which now remains has three
semicircular-headed windows. A filleted ornament runs
round the exterior of the wall. Within, it is surrounded by
an arcade, formed by small pillars with indented capitals,
supporting round arches with alternate plain and zigzag
mouldings. About three feet above this arcade is a line
of projecting corbels, carved as heads, &c., which appear to
have supported a gallery. A covered way formerly led
from the state apartments on the north to a door-way in
the waU of the chapel which afforded an entry into this
gallery. This was standing in 1768, and the place where
it joined the building containing the state apartments is
stiU distinctly visible. This chapel, even in its present
state, IB a noble monument of the taste of Joce de Dinan.
In the time of queen Elizabeth, when it was entire, but
when the style in which it was built was very imperfectly
appreciated, it called forth the admiration of the poet
Churchyarde, who describes it i

*' So bravely wroi^ht, so fayre and finely fram'd.
That to world's md the beantie may endure."

At that period the interior of the chapel was deformed,
rather than ornamented, by being covered with pannels
exhibiting the " armes in colours sitch as few can shewe,"
which Churchyarde admired: they began with Walter
de Lacy, who was in possession of the castle at the end
of the twelfth centmy.

We ought perhaps not to pass over in silence the attempt
which has been made by the late historian of Shrewsbury,
to deprive Roger de Montgomery of the honour of having
been the founder of Ludlow castle.* Mr. Blakeway en-

• Mr. Blake way 's hypothesis waa first published in the accotint of
Ludlow castle in Britton's Architectural Antiquities, and has been recently

THB HISTORY OF LXfDLOW. 91

deaTOUTs ^th some ingenuity to show that Ludlow was
originally a possession of the Lacy fieunily, and that it
continued so until the death of Walter de Lacy in the
reign of Henry III. The arguments brought forward in
support of this hypothesis will^ however^ not bear the test
of criticism. He has totally misunderstood the character of
the Romance of the Fitz Warines^ which he describes as
" entirely fabulous" and " of not the slightest authority.**
This story, as has been before observed, was written during
the life of Walter de Lacy, the only one of his family
who is known in history as having possessed Ludlow, and
it represents the traditionary history of the castle as it then
existed in the family which had previously held it. It is not
credible that that family can have been so ignorant as
not to know whether it was an inheritance of the Lacies or
not. Although, without doubt, mixed up with exaggera-
tions and legends, the minstrel's narrative is very straight-
forward and consistent; and the accuracy with which
the writer speaks of persons and places,* shews that he
was by no means ignorant of what he was doing. The
contrary hypothesis presents many very grave difficulties.

The most ancient monastic establishments on the Welsh
border were those of Leominster and Wenlock, which date
from the seventh century, and which were both houses

giTen in a more enlarged form in the valuable collection of document!
relating to Lndlow pubUshed by (lie Hon. R. H. Clire, since the foregoing
sheets were printed.

* A minnte examination of the records would probably identify all the
persons mentioned in the history in question. Audnlf de Bracy, the hero
of the story related at pp. 75, 76, (of the present Tolume) is mentioned in
the Abreriat. Placit p. 59, as being engaged in a dispute with Roger de
Mortimer on the subject of some lands, in the ninth and tenth of John.
The name ' Mudle' (p. 74, of the present Tolume) occurs in the chartulary
of Haghmon, MS. HarU No. 446, foL 21 ; it is the same as the modem
Middle. All these coincidences tend to show that the writer of the
Romance of the Fitz Warines had either authentic documents before him,
or that he liTcd near the time of the events which he relates, and was
veil acquainted with the families of the persons who had token a part in
ibem.

98 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

of nuns. That of Leominster was founded about the year
660. St. Ethebed, king of Mercia, is said to have been
buried in this priory.* At a later period^ Leoftic, earl of
Mercia, was a great benefactor to it, as well as to Wenlodt.
During the Danish invasions the nuns were compelled to
seek ^ety by flight, and their habitation was reduced to
ruins, in which state it remained many years. At the time
of the compilation of Domesday book we again find the
nuns in possession of the monastery, for they and their
abbess are frequently mentioned in that important record.
In what manner the society of nuns was broken up and
dispersed we are not informed, but in the time of Henry I.
it had fallen into the possession of laymen.t That monarch
gave it in 1125 to his new foundation at Beading, monks
were placed in it, and it remained dependant on that house
until the time of the dissolution. A register of this priory
is preserved in the British Museum.^ The church, in its
present state, buHt probably soon after the priory was given
to the abbey of Beading, is a fine specimen of the English
style of architecture, in its most profusely ornamented form,
but contains some early Norman work in the north aisle.

The nunnery of Wenlock, of which the remains form a
very interesting monument of early English architecture, is
said to have been foimded about the year 680, by St.
Milburga.|| This establishment was twice destroyed by
the Danes. It was raised firom the nuns, and -entirely

• Et AdelTttdus in loco qui dicitnr at-Leomenster, prope anmem Lncge.
Lilt of Saints bnried in England, giren in Leland, Gollectan. iiL 81. The
same statement is made in the Anglo>Saxon list of Saints printed by
Uickes from a MS. at Cambridge.

t Quam abbatiam manus laica diu possedit, are the words of king
Henry's charter to the abbey of Beading.

X MS. Cotton. Domit« A. III., a Tolume of great value to the historian
of Herefordshire.

II The Anglo-Saxon Ust of Saints, quoted above, calls her Winburga^
i$onne rested See. Winburh on Nim mynstre Wenlocan neah Hre ea N
mon Safem hate's.

THB HISTORY OF LinDLOW. 98

rebuilt in 1080^ by Boger de Montgomery^ who placed in it
a congregation of monks from Seez in Normandy. William
of Malmesbnry describes the exultation not only of the
monkfl^ but of the whole] neighbourhood, when, soon after
dieir arriyal, an accident brought to light the tomb of
St Milburga, the position of which, amid the mass of ruins
bj which the place was encumbered, had been entirely
forgotten.*

The abbey of St Peter's at Gloucester also laid daim
to great antiquity, having been founded, as was said, by
King Osric, in 681. A part of the body of the sainted
king Oswald, slain in the battle of Maserfeld near Oswestry,
is said to have been buried here.t The magnificent church
of the abbey is now the cathedral.

The monks of St. Ethelbert in Hereford possessed in
their cathedral the body of their saint. The priory of
St Guthlac, in that city, also appears to have existed
before the Norman conquest. It afterwards became a cell
to the abbey of St. Peter's at Gloucester.

We find in Domesday book that these different religious
houses held considerable landed estates in the counties of
Hereford and Salop. After that period their riches con-
tinaed to increase; and before the end of the twelfUi
century numerous other monastic establishments had been
founded.

Three years after having rebuilt Wenlock, in 1088 Boger
de Montgomery founded the monastery of St. Peter and
St Paul at Shrewsbury, which also he filled with monks
of Seez. The church of this monastery still remains, a
Taluable example of the earlier Norman style.

• WH Malmsb. De Gestis Fontificum, p. 287.

t Donne is see. Oswoldes heafod cyninges mid see. Cu)>bertufl licha-
nua, and hia 8wi)>e earm ia on Bebbanbyrig, and ae oi$er dnl ia on Glewe-
ceattre on niwan mynatre. (Anglo-Saxon Liat of Saints)— Then the head
of St Oawald the king ia with the body of St Cnthbert (at Durham),
and his rig^t aim ia at Bamborough, and the other part ia at Glouceater,
in the new minater.

94 THB HI8T0BT OF LUDLOW.

In the year 1100, William Fitz Alan of Clun founded
the abbey of Haghmon, of which the ruins are still con*
siderable. Among them is a remarkably fine Norman
gateway.

In the same year, Harold, lord of that Ewyas which
from him has since continued to bear the name of Ewyas
Haroldi, founded the priory of Ewyas, and gave it as a
cell to the abbey of St. Peter's at Gloucester.

In 1105, was founded the priory of Bromfield, near
Ludlow, as a place of secular canons. In 1155, the pior
and canons, wishing to become monks, placed themselves
under the government of the abbey of St. Peter's of 61ou«
cester, and from that time Bromfield was considered as only
a cell to that great monastic foundation.* The remains of
the priory consist of a gateway of late date and some insig-
nificant ruins adjoining to the church.

About the same time, in the reign of Henry I, a cell of
Cluniac monks, subordinate to the priory of Lewes in
Sussex, was founded at Clifibrd in Herefordshire, by Simon
the son of Eichard Fitz Ponce, lord of Clifford castie. This
Simon was the uncle of ^^ fair Rosamond" the celebrated
mistress of Henry U.

In 11S4, was founded the small priory of Kilpeck, in
Herefordshire, which was gi^en in the same year by Hugh
son of William Fitz Normand, the lord of Kilpeck castle,
to the abbey of St. Peter's at Gloucester. The little church
of ELilpeck, preserved in nearly its original condition, is
one of the most remarkable buildings of the twelfth century
that can now be shown. It exhibits a mixture of sim-
plicity in arrangement and extremely elaborate ornaments
in detail.

In the year following, 1185, Roger, bishop of Chester,
laid the foundation of the great abbey of Buildwas, between

• Anno Domini m. c. ly. canonici de Bromfeld dedenmt eocleeiam
euam et seipsos ad monachatnm eccelesias Sancti Petri GlouceatriiB. Chron.
of Gloucester, MS. CJotton. Domit. VIII. fol 130 v

THB HISTOKY OF LUDLOW. 96

Shrewsbury and Wenlock. Its ruins axe extensive, and
very picturesque.

In 11S6 was founded the abbey of Lantony^ in tbe deep
vale of Ewyas. Giraldus speaks with admiration of its
situation. It was probably rebuilt or much enlarged early
in the thirteenth century; for the ruins of this ancient abbey
e3dLibit the transition style of that period, a mixture of
immd and pointed arches.

Dore abbey was founded by Robert de Ewyas, in the
leign of Stephen. In the same reign, a. d. 1145, was
founded the abbey of lilleshall, near Donnington in Shrop-
shire. It was endowed with the estates of a college of
St. Alkmond, said to have been founded by Ethelfleda the
lady of the Mercians. The remains of ike abbey chiurch
exhibit soHie jSne specimens of Norman workmanship.

The most considerable monastic foundation in the imme-
diate neighbourhood of Ludlow was the abbey of Wigmore.
A small coUege had been founded at this place in ibe
year llOQ by Ralph de Mortimer, but of its subsequent
history we know Uttle or nothing. Some years later (about,
or soon after, a. d. 1141*) a small religious house was
founded at Shobdon by a knight named Oliver de Merli-
mond, who placed in it two or three monks whom he had
invited over from the famous abbey of St. Victor at Paris,
but it does not appear to have been dependant upon the

* Hit xeasoBS for fixing this date are these. We learn from the
History of Wigmore giTen at the end of the present Section, that the
dnuch was dedicated by Robert Beton, bishop of Hereford; that the
builder, when he turned his foundation into a priory, applied to Gilduin,
abbot of St Victor, then yery old, for monks of his house to place in it;
•bout which latter period arose a great quarrel between bishop Beton and
Vil(^ earl of Hereford. Gilduin, the successor of the famous Gnillaume
de Cbampeaux, died abbot of St- Victor at a Tery adranced age in 1155 ;
Bobert de Beton presided oyer the see of Hereford from 1131 to 114B ;
ud llilo enjoyed the earldom of Hereford from 1141 to 1154, and his
V^^ml with the bishop preceded the close of the civil wars, as we learn
from his li£e. The beginning of Mile's earldom consequently appears to
be the most probable date of the construction of the church of Shobdon,
ud suits best the other circumstances of the story.

96 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

foreign monastery. Amid the troubles on the border^ the
monks were driven from their resting place, and after many
vicissitudes, were allowed to settle at Wigmore, under the
patronage of Hugh de Mortimer. That powerful baron
founded the abbey of Wigmore, according to the generally
received account, in 1179.* Little now remains of the
ancient abbey .f

In the reign of Richard I, a nunnery was founded not
£ur from Wigmore, at a place called Lymbroke or linge-
broke. Leland describes it as '' a place of nunnes withyn
ii. myles of Wygmore." By some the founder is said to
have been one Robert de lingam : others make it a foun-
dation of the Mortimers. A member of this latter fScunily
also founded a small religious house at ' Feverl^e/ but it
was afterwards suppressed, and its endowments given to
ihe houses of Wigmore and Lymbroke.

Another nunnery was founded, in the reign of king
John, at Acombury, three miles horn Hereford, by Mar-

• According to (lie old chronicle of Worcoster, in MS. Cotton. Calig.
A. X. which has been printed by Wharton in hiB Anglia Sacra, the
foundation of Wigmore took place in 1172. The founder died in 1185,
according to the same authority.

t Dngdale has printed from a MS. then in the possession of Lord Brace,
two accounts of the foundation and history of Wigmore abbey, one in
Anglo-Norman, composed apparently early in the thirteenth centary^ the
other in Latin, much more brie( but brought down to the time of Edward
IV. I do not know what has become of the original manuscript; but as
the interesting Anglo-Norman tract is printed with great inaccuracy in
Dugdale, I shall pre a mere correct text with a translation in an appendix
to the present Section. The chartulary of Wigmore is preserred in the
archires of the earl of Oxford. There are manuscripts of a chronicle of
Wigmore ; the best copy belonged to Mr. Heber, and is now in the pos-
session of Sir Thomas PhiUipps, Bart, at Middle Hill, Worcestershire. I
hare been desirous of ascertaining if there were any documents in France
which might throw some light on the early connection between Shobdon
and the abbey of St. Victor ; but the only chartulary of St, Victor which I
could find in Paris is preserred in the ArchiTes du Royaume in the H6tel
Soubise, and the charters which it contains are nearly all of a later date,
and relate only to the abbey's possessions in France.

THS HiarOBY OF LTTBLOW. 97

garet the wife of Walter de Lacy. In die same reign was
founded the priory of Chirbury in Shropshire.

One or two other monastic houses are mentioned in the
early list given in a note on a preceding page/ some of
which axe erroneously placed in Shropshire and Hereford-
shire. In the remains of these buildings, we may in
general consider the parts which exhibit the Norman style
as being coeval with the date of the foundation of the
monastery, particularly in those of smaller importance;
ibr the mode of building then in use seldom required con-
siderable repairs within a century after it was completed,
unless it were destroyed by some outward accident. The
number of accidents, however, to which the larger religious
buildings were subject, during the twelfth century, is quite
extraordinary. We learn from the old chronicle of Wor-
cester in the Cottonian manuscript, that the cathedral
of that dty was destroyed or seriously damaged at least
three, if not four, times between 1113 and 1202, inde-
pendent of the injuries it must have sustained in the time
of Stephen.t In the thirteenth century the religious orders
multipUed rapidly, and the number of monks was much
increased ; in consequence of which most of the monastic
houses were enlarged, and many were taken down and
rebuilt.

The insignificance of the town of Ludlow during the
twelfth century is evident from the circumstance that it
appears to have possessed no religious house before the

• See page 84.

t Tlie fbllofring entries occur in this chronicle :—

A. D. 1113. CiYitas Wygomia cum princip&U monasterio et caiteUo
ifne cremata est, ziij. kal. Jun. One monk and twenty men were burnt
on this occasion.

4. 9. 1175. Turris nora Wigom. comiit. (this was, of course, the
steeple of the cathedral).

A. D. 1189. Tota fere Wigomia xgne combuata est.

A.n. 1202. Ecclesia cathedralis Wyg. cum omnibus adjacentibus ei
oificinis et magna parte ciritatis, .xt. kal. Mat igne conflagravit alieno
qoaita nocte Pasch.
o

W THE HISTORY OF LUDIX)W.

reign of king John. It was probably at the close of that
reign^ or certainly very early in that of Henry III, that
Peter Undergod founded the hospital of St. John the
Baptist near the bridge which led over the Teme to Ludford,
and furnished it with friars of the order of St. Augustine.
The site on which the house was built he bought of Walter
Fitz Nicholas. Besides other revenues, he endowed it with
the fulling-mill which appears to have stood near it, and
which he had bought of Gilbert de Lacy, and with all his
lands in Ludford (et totam terram meam quam emi, habui,
et tenui in villa et campis de Ludford). The witnesses to
Peter XJndergod's charter were Walter de Lacy, Sir John
de Monmouth, Pain (Paganus) de Ludford, Pain 'Carbnell,'
Philip Colevile, and Edmund de Ludlow. Walter de
Lacy's confirmation of the foundation of Peter Undergod is
witnessed by John de Monmouth, Walter Omiguen, Walter
Coudcockc, Richard de Gravesende, William Fitz Osbert,
Henry de Hibemia, Pain de Ludford, and Master Herbert,
clerc. The charters of Peter Undergod and Walter de
Lacy have no date, but the royal confirmation is dated the
eighteenth day of July, 6 Hen. III. (I22I).*

We learn firom these charters that in the reign of king
John there was a bridge at Ludford. It had probably
been built at the latter end of the twelfth century, and it
seems to have been known by the name of Teme Bridge
(pontem de Temede).

Besides the remains of monastic edifices in the Marches
of Wales, there are numerous little churches of the twelfth
century, some of which. remain in a perfect state, and
which are singularly interesting to the antiquary. The
church of Kilpeck, on the southern border of Herefordshire,
and the remains of that of Shobdon, not far from Leo-
minster, are two of the most remarkable monuments of the

* Copies of the charters of St. John's hospital at Ludlow (made appa-
rently about the time of James I) are preserved in the British Museum,
MS. Harl. No. 6690, fol. 89, &c. The charters of Peter Undergod, Walter
de Lacy, and Henry III, are printed very imperfectly in Dugdale.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

kind in England. In the eaxlier half of the twelfth century^
8hobdon had only a chapel, dependent on the church of
Aymestry, and built of wood, a material employed in the
construction of many churches mentioned in Domesday-book.
The original church of Aymestry must have been of consi-
derable antiquity.* Among the numerous churches which
exhibit specimens of Norman architecture, with the distin-
guishing semi-circular headed doors and windows, we may
mention in the more immediate neighbourhood of Ludlow,
those of Little Hereford, Burford, Puddlestone, the Heath
chapel, the church of Eye, and the little church of Aston.

The Heath Cliapel.

The Heath chapel is a remarkably curious specimen of
Anglo-Norman architecture in its simplest form. It stands

* Courses of regular blocks of traTertlne occur in the coignet and other
parts, especially in the chancel end, of the present fabric, and are evidently
the worked np materials of a more ancient church, which was probably
built of that material. Moccas church, containing a Norman arch, and
cunous tympanum, is built on a similar ground-plan to that of Kilpeck,
"""ith a circular end, and is altogether composed of that material, whirh
n>ty be seen forming in the grounds adjoining.

100

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

in a very retiied district at the foot of the Brown Clee Hill,
a little more than two miles to the north of the village
of Stoke St. Milborough^ and is seldom visited by travellers.
It is a plain rectangular building, consisting of a nave
and a small chancel. The south door has a semi-cizciilar
arch, ornamented with a rather bold zig-zag moulding,
with an unadorned tympanum. The windows, particularly
at the west end, are mere loop-holes. Even the east
window exhibits the same characteristics, being enlarged
internally to a moderate sized roimd-headed arch. Our
engraving represents a view of this chapel from the west.

Intarior of the Heath Chap«L

The interior is represented in our second view, and is as
devoid of ornament as the exterior. The nave is separated
from the chancel by a plain but not inelegant round arch.
The font is also curious, and is without doubt a work of
the twelfth century. It is placed in our wood-cut on a
diflFerent spot to that which it really occupies in the church,
in order that it might be brought into the picture. It was
probably such a church as this which in the twelfth century

THB HISTORY OP LUDLOW.

101

stood beside the funerary mound on the summit of the
hill at Ludlow, and which in 1199 was found to be too
small for the increasing population of the town.

s^m^t^bsr

Arcb mod Tyrapanoni of Alton Cbareh.

The little church at Aston, three miles from Ludlow
on the road to Wigmore, which also stands in the im-
mediate vicinity of two tumuli or lows, exhibits the same
simplicity of design ; but the arch and tympanimi, repre-
sented in the cut on the present page, are more ornamented.
The latter represents the lamb with the cross, in a circular
compartment in the middle, supported by a griffin and a
cow, both winged. Of the four figures on the border of
the tympanimi, the two to the left were eyidently intended
to represent a cow and a horse, but the others are at present
not so easily defined.

Early fonts are preserved in the churches of Lydbury,
the Heath chapel, Leintwardine, Orleton, Hereford cathe-
dral^ Tedstone Delamere, Eardisley, and Castle Frome.
They are all interesting, and several of them are adorned
with remarkable and beautiful sculpture.

10£ THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

APPENDIX TO SECTION V.

History of the Foundation of Wigm/ore Abbey.

IN the time of king Stephen^ son of the count of Blcus^
who reigned in England by force after king Henry the aom
of WiUiam the Bastard, there was a very noble bachelor in
England, worthy, valiant, and bold. Monsieur Hugh de
Mortimer by name, noble by nature and by blood, of &ir
stature, courageous in arms, very reasonable in speech^
profound in coimsel, and very rich in landed possessions,
and the most glorious knight, renowned and feared before
all who were then living in England. Of whom if we
should commit to writing all the worthy actions which he
performed chivalrously in England, in Wales, and else-
where, they would amoimt to a great volume. Moreover,
be was the most open-hearted and liberal in giving of all
who were known anywhere in his time. The noble earl
of Hereford, Roger, rich and valiant, with a great body
of retainers, but proud and haughty, frequently made so
much ado that he was obliged to remain fortified in his
castles for fear of him. In like manner king Henry,

FundoHonia ^fttsdem Historia.

EN le temps del roy Esteyene, fitz al counte de Bloys, qui regna en
Angleterre par force apr^s le roy Henry fitz A William Bastard, estoit
un tresnoble bachiler en Engleterrc, preuz, yailant, et hardy, mounsieur
Hugh de Mortimer A nome, noble de nature [e] de sane, de beale estature,
▼aillant en armes, renoble en parler, parfond de consail, et tresriche de
teriens iacultez, et le plus glorious chevaler, renom6 et dot^ devant totez
que adonque furent en Engleterre vivantz. De quy si nais neissuns (?)
en escrit toutz les pruest^s lesquels il fist chevalerousement en Engleterre,
en Gwales et par ailors, si amonterent-il d un graunt volume. Et outre
900, fut-il le plu franc et liberal de divers dons de tutz ceux qui ont
conusseyent en son temps nule part. Lc noble conte de Hereford,
Roger, riche et vaillant, et de graunt retenance des gentz, et feers, et
orgoilous, tant fort demena so vent que 4 force ly covient en refut demorcr
en ses chastels demeyne pur doutc de ly. Ensemcnt le roy Henry,

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 103

who came after king Stephen, laboured often with his
whole army, as is ftdly written below.

How the very noble lord Monsieur Hugh de Mortimer
made Oliver de Merlimond his chief steward, and gave
him the town of Shobdon to serve him loyally, and how
the church of Shobdon was made.

This very noble and honourable lord, wishing to give
himself up freely to his pleasures and amusements, without
charging himself with or intermeddling in oiher things,
chose a prudent man, wise and experienced, who was
named Oliver de Merlimond, and made him chief steward
of all his land and manager of all his property. This
Oliver possessed the land of Ledecote by descent of heritage,
and his lord Monsieur Hugh de Mortimer gave him in
addition all the town of Shobdon, to serve him more
loyally and more laboriously. And to Eode, son of the
said Oliver, he gave the parsonage of the church of Ayme-
stry. At that time there was in Shobdon no church, but
only a chapel of St. Juliana, and that was of wood, and
subjected to the church of Aymestry; whereupon Oliver
was very thoughtftd on the building of a new church in
Shobdon, and in honour of what saint he would have it
dedicated when it was finished. At last he selected St. John

profchen aprds le roi Esteyene, soTent •••. od tout son host tranulla
come est plemement deeooz escrit

Comeni le trtmobh teygnout mouiuieur Hugh de Mortemer Jlst Oliver de
Merlemond eon chief ienetehal, et ly dona la vile de SchMedon pur ly
leaiement iervir, et eoment VegUae de SeJiohbedon Jut fete,

Ce[ft]ti tiesnoble seygnur et honorable^ veillans entendre franchement i ses
delites et i ses dedutz, santx soy carker ou eotremettre d'autres chosez, elust un
la^e home, coynte et averty, qae out nom Olyver de Merlyroond, et ly fist chef
seneschal de tote sa terre et mestre de tote sa possession. Cesti Olyver aveit
la terre de Ledecote par descente de heritage, et son seignur Moiinsieur Hugh
de Mortimer ly dona k feo tote la ville de Shobbedon, pur ly plus lealment
serrir et plus peoibleoient. Et k Eode fltz i dit Olyver dona-il la per-
sonage de I'eglise de Aylmondestreo. Adonke n'esteit en Scbobbedon nule
eglise, m^ tant soulement une chapel de saincte Juliane, et cele fut de fust et
sogette i I'eglise de Aylmondestreo ; dount Olyver esteit mout pensifs de fere
lever une novele eglise en Schobbedon, et en honour de quel seinct voleyt
que ele fut dedy^ quant ele fut parfete. Auderrein si elust- il sainct Johan

104 THB HI8TOBY OF LUDLOW.

the Evangelist, whom Jesus Christ chose before all the
other disciples, to be patron of the church.

After that, he sent for Eode his son, parson of Aymestry,
and they took counsel together how his church of Shobdon
might be relieved from its subjection to the church of
Aymestry, by an annual payment of two shillings. When
this matter was settled, the said Oliver began the building
of the church of Shobdon. In the mean time this same
Oliver was seized with devotion and desire to perform the
voyage to St. James (of Compostello) in pilgrimage, and he
entrusted to a knight named Bernard the whole care of the
work, with the necessary funds; and he undertook the
pilgrimage in the name of Grod, and came to St. James safe
and sound. When he had performed his duties there,
he. returned, always thoughtful of the work at Shobdon :
and when he approached the city of Paris, a canon of the
abbey of St. Victor overtook him, and very devoutly prayed
him to take up his lodgings in the abbey, and he with
great difficulty agreed to it, and entered into the abbey
with him, and was handsomely and courteously received
with great honour.

While he was therein, he examined and carefully consi-
dered all things which he saw in the hostelry, in the
cloisters, and in the choir, and particularly the service which

I'Evangeliat^ lequel Jesu Crist elust devant tutc les autres disciples, par estre
patron de reglise.

Apr^s 960 fist-il apeler Eode son fitz, persone de Aylmoodestreo, et entre-
conselerent coment sa eglise de Schobbedon pust estre hors de subjection de
I'eglise de Aylmondestreo, par une empensiun annuele rendaunt de .ii. s. Quant
ce[8]te chose fut affirm^, se entremist le dit Olyver de I'overayne de Teglise de
Schobbedon. De entre feo s'aveit nieymes cely Olyver devociun et talent de
prendre le vyage al Seinct Jake en pelerinage, et baila A un chevaler Bernard tote
la cure de I'overayne, od espenses necessaires ; et empris tlepele rinage el nom
Deu, et vynt k Seinct Jakes seyn et heyte. Quant il out fet ileokes 900 qe fere
dust, se retoma, tot dis pensif de Poverayne de Schobbedon ; et qaant il
aproarhea A la cil6 de Paris un chanuine de I'abbeye de Seinct Victor ly
atteint, et molt devoutement le pria de sun hostel prendre en Tabbeye, et il a
grant peyne ly otrea, et od ly en Pabbey entra, et fut bel et corteisement
re9eu A graunt honour.

Tant come il futleinz, si regarda-il et enlenlivement avisa totes choses q'il
vist en Tosterye, en Tencloystre, en le queor, et nom^ment le service qe

THB HI8T0BY OP LUDLOW. 105

was performed around the altar ; and his heart was much
moved at the decency which he saw among them in all
places. Then he took leave of the abbot and the other
brothers there^ and returned to his own country. And
when his church was entirely finished^ he very humbly
requested Sir Robert de Beton^ bishop of Hereford^ of
whose gift we have the church of Lydbury-norA, that
he would condescend to dedicate his church of Shobdon ;
and he granted the request^ and fixed the day of the dedi-
cation. At the day assigned came the bishop^ and all
the great lords of the country, knights, clergy, and others,
without mmiber, to be present at the solemnity, and before
them aU was read the composition made between Oliver
and Eode his son, and it was confirmed by the bishop, and
witnessed by all the people. And when the church had
been dedicated, the feast was very ceremoniously laid out
for the bishop, and for the others who were invited, and for
those who might come of their own accord.

Immediately afterwards Oliver heard that the parson of
the church of Burley, who was named Wolward, was de-
prived for his ill-conduct, and he prayed the bishop Robert
that he would grant him the patronage of that church ; and
the latter granted Us request because nobody could deny
what he desired, inasmuch as he was second after Sir Hugh

ont fill entour Tauter ; et mnt ly vynt al queor de dcvocion la honest* q*il vist
(tarentre eos ea ttitz lieua. Dont il prist cong* de Tabb* et des autres freres
deleyns, si retama i sun propre pais. Et quant sa eglise fut tote parfete, si
reqoist-il mut homblement Sire Robert de Belun, eveske de Hereford, de quy
done nvs avouns le eglise de Lydebury-north, qu'il deignast sa eglise de
Schobbedon dedyer ; et il ly graunta, et jour de la dedicaciun ly assign*. A
eel joor assign* vynt I'eve^que, et totes les grants seigneurs du pais, chivalers,
clers et autres, sans nombre, pur estre A la sollempnet* ; devant queux tontz fut
leve la composicion fete parentie Olyver et Eode sun 6tz, et de Peveske fut
c^firm*, et de tote la people tesmony*. Et quant Peglise fut dedy*, si fust la
■uuigerie mut sollempnement apparil* pur reveske,*et pur autres apelez, et pur
ceus que vindrent de ^r*.

Tost apr*8 ai oyt Oliver que la persone de Teglise de Buyrley qu'out

nom Wolward, par ses deserts fut depos*, si pria Teveske Robert que il ly

vousit grant[er] la doneyson de eel eglise ; il ly granta pur ^eo que nul

n'osa nyer d la chose qu'il desira, car il estoit le second apr^s Sire Hugh

106 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

de Mortimer. And when Oliver had the church of Shobdon
and that of Burley, and his land at Ledecote and Lantony,
in his hand^ he determined to give them to people of
religion, and he remembered the decency that he had seen
formerly among the canons of St. Victor at Paris, and sent
a letter by one in whom he trusted, named Roger White,
to the honourable and aged abbot of St. Victor, whose
name was Gilduin, begging that he would send him two or
three of his canons, for whom when they came he would
find all that should be needful for them, and in abundance.
To which message and letter the abbot gave no credit
because it was sealed by Oliver's own authority, and not
by an authentic seal; and thus for that time the mes-
senger returned without having eflfected the purpose of his
mission. And when Oliver learnt from his messenger ihe
result, he went to the aforesaid bishop of Hereford, and
showed him all his intention fully ; of which intention and
devotion the bishop was very glad, and caused a letter to
be made and sealed with his seal and that of Oliver con-
jointly, and sent them by Roger Knoth, one of his secretaries,
to the same abbot of St. Victor, urging the same request
which had been made before. Whereupon the abbot
by the advice of all his chapter selected two, namely

de Mo[r]temer. Et quant Oliver avcil VegWse de Schobbedon et de Buyrley,
et sa terre de Ledecote et de Lanton6, en sa mayn, si out en purpos de
les doner k gents de religion, et se remembra de Thonestet^ qn*il vist autre
fee« entre les chanoynes dc Seinct Victor de Parys, et manda par aez leCtres
par iin de quy il affia, qu'out k nom Roger le Blauc, al honorable abb«
•t vels, qui out nom Gilwyn, de Seinct Victor, empriaunt qu'ii vousit maunder
A ly ,ii. ou .iil, de sez chanoines, as queles quant eus venissent il lor trovereit
tot 9eo que mestre lor seroit, et foyson.

Aquel message ne as lettres ne donna l'abb6 foy, pur ^eo que par sa
auctorit6 demeyne furent enseel^s, et non pas par seel autentik; et issi
retorna le message adonke desespleit^. Et quant Olyrer aroit entendu

mo«t*°\°l*"'^® '''*" ^"^^ ^**' ^ *^* ^ I'avantdit eveske de Hereford, et

ira & ly tut son purpos pleinement; de quele purpos et deyociun si

^11 eTeske mut rejoy. et fist fere ses lettres enseel^s de son eel et del «el

«eVmL\*^^I!!!r/''o .*"' ^^ "''''*** P*^ ***«*' ^°*^' ^ d« «" Pn^^«t ^
PrU d1!^ 1. kL '"'' ^^^'^^'^ ^"P"*"* '• «^'^*»^ Hajquel il avoy t ayaunt
*"•• Oont I abb4 par conseil de tot lour chapetre elust .ii., c'et-l^-savoir

THE HISTORY OP LUDLOW. 107

Roger and Arnold, of whom Roger was afterwards made
abbot of ' Owens^ ' and Arnold abbot of St. Victor. The
abbot sent these two to Oliver, to whom he gave all that he
had promised beforehand for their sustenance, namely the
church of Burley and the church of Shobdon, where he
gave them an habitation in a very decent house near the
church. He gave them in like manner his land of Lede-
cote, with the granges full of wheat, and oxen, sheep, and
pigs in great plenty, with two carucs of land.

At this time arose a dispute between Robert bishop of
Hereford and Milo earl of Hereford, insomuch that the
bishop excommunicated the aforesaid earl, then present,
with all the city of Hereford, and caused the doors of the
church to be stopped up with thorns, and the crosses to be
beaten down to the ground, and came to Shobdon at the
request of Oliver, and lived among the canons at his own
expense, until the earl was reconciled to him and his party
and all the aforesaid city. Then afterwards the canons
were very sorrowful for the departure of the bishop from
their society, and also very sad because they were so far
distant from their abbey, and they sent to the abbot
Grilduin of St. Victor, begging that he would send others in

Roger et Ernys, desqueus Roger fut fet apr^s abb6 de Owens^ et Emys
ibb^ de Seinct Victor. Ceus .ii. si manda I'abb^ k Olyver, aquels il baila
totes les choses qu'U 's ayeit promis endementres pur lor sustinaunce, c'et-
i^-cayoir Teglifle des Buyrl^ [et] reglise de Schobbedon oik il les fist habiter
en nn meson assez hoxieste pr^s de Teglise. II lor dona ensement sa terre
deLedecote, oyeske les granges pleines de bl^es, et beafs, berbiz, et pores
k grant plenty oyeske .ii caruez de terre.

En ycel temps sonrdy nn contek parentre Robert eyeske de Hereford
et Ifyles conte de Hereford, en tant que I'eyeske ezknmega Tayantdit
conte adonc present, oyeske tote la cit^ de Hereford, et fist estoper les
liayi de TegUse des espynes, et les croiz abatre tot k la terre, et yynt k
Schobbedon par la request de Oliyer, et yesquit entre les chanoines k ces
postages demeyne, jeske atant que le conte fut acord^ k ly et as sonz, et
tote la cit6 ayantdite. Puys apris esteyent les chanoines mut dolentz
pv [le] departure de Teyeske de lor companie, et ensement trop moumes
pw ^eo que ens furent mut loyns de lor abbey, si manderent k I'abb^
Gildwyn de Seinct Victor, empriantz quHl yousist mandcr autres en lor

108 THE HISTORY OF LtJDLOW.

their place, who knew how to speak and understood the
English language, and who knew the manners of the
English, and that they might be allowed to return to their
abbey. And at the same time they sent word that the
place which they had was good and agreeable, with sufficient
goods to furnish what was needful. And the abbot granted
their request, and sent thither three brethren bom and
bred in England : and when they came to Shobdon, they
were very handsomely received, and established there, and
the others departed thence and returned to their abbey.

And soon after arose a quarrel very great and terrible
between Monsieur Hugh de Mortimer and the aforesaid
Oliver, so that Oliver quitted him, and went to Sir Mile
earl of Hereford, who was then entirely his friend. And
when Sir Hugh was aware of this, he caused him to be
summoned three times into'his court to answer to the accu-
sations he had against him. And because Oliver feared
the cruelty and the malice of his lord, he did not dare to
appear in his court, but kept himself meanwhile in peace.
And when Sir Hugh perceived well that he would not
come, or send another in his place, he seized into his own
hand all things which belonged to OUver, with the goods of

lyn, qui suBsent parler et entendre langage d'Engleterre, et qui suasent
la maner des EnglU, et ke eus pussent retomer k lor abbey. Et ensemble-
ment manderent qne le lyu q'ils ayoyent fut bon et ayenant, et asaez
des benz pur troyer lor necessaries. Et I'abb^ granta lour request, et
manda illeoques .ill. frerea nez et norriz en Engleterre; et quant eua
yindrent k Schobbedon, si furent mut honestement receus, et ileoke
plantez, et les autres s'en departirent d'ileokes k lour abbey.

Et bien tost aprds sourdy un descord trop graunt et hidous parentre
Mounsieur Hugh de Mortemer et Tayantdit Olyyer, issi qe Olyyer s'en
depart! de ly, et ala k Sire Miles conte de Hereford, qe esteit adunkea
sun amy enter. Et quant Sire Hugh ^eo aperceust, le fist apeler troiz
fees en sa courte pur respondre as quereles lesqueles il ayeit yers ly. Et
pur 9eo que Olyyer dota la maUce et la cruelty de sun seignur, n'osa
apparance fere en sa courte, mds se tynt en pees endementres. Et quant
Sire Hugh yist ben q'il ne yoleit yenir, ne autre en son lyu maunder,
prist en sa main totes les choses qe furent k Olyyer oyeske les beens

THE HISTORY OP LUDLOW. 109

the canons. Nevertheless he would not do any severity
to the canons without judgment, and he gave them respite
to dwell there a year; and after the year they were to
go where they pleased, as people who had entered on his
land without his leave, and had been brought thither by
his adversary. And as the canons neither would nor could
remain in the country, they prepared to fly secretly, for
diey had neither succour nor aid from any one.

Sir Gilbert de Lacy saw this, and thought to please Sir
Hugh de Mortimer ; he came to Lantony, and took by seig-
nory all the things which belonged to the canons, and caused
their wheat to be carried away, which amounted to a great
sum of money. And because, where earthly aid fails, God
comes forward to assbt, it happened that there was a great
congregation assembled at Leominster for business of impor-
tance, at which assembly were the bishop of Hereford with his
attendants, and Sir Hugh de Mortimer with his, and Robert
prior of Shobdon, and many other knights, clergy, and laics,
assembled from all parts. And when the affairs were settled
for which they came, mention was made of the canons of
Shobdon, for whom the bishop and the knights there present

des chanoines. Nepurqnant il ne voleit fere as chanoines nule darest6
aantx jugement, si lor dona respit ieak'k un an eneiwant de fere demeore ;
et apris Tan alaasent d'ileokes Ik ok beal lor fut, si come ceus qe furent
entrto en sa terre santz sun cong6, et amenees ileokes pax sun adversaiie.
Et les chanoines ne Toloyent ne ne poyent estre en la contr6, se apparile-
rent de sey mettre en fuyte priytoent, car socouis ne avoyent ne eyde de
nuly.

Cete chose vist Sire Gilbert de Lacy, et Toleit L^ere] plosire i Sire
Hngh de Mortemer; Tint k Lantony, et totes les choses que furent as
chanoines si prist-il par seineurie, et lor blez fist aporter, qe amonta k
giant somme d'argent. Et pur 900 qe par U oik terien eide defaut Deus
i met socoursy ayient qu'il y ayeit une grant congregacion assemble i
Leonmestre par hautes busoynes; aquel assemble esteit Teyeske de
Hereford od les seons, et Sire Hugh de Mortemer od les seons, et Robert
le piiouT de Schobbedon, et.autres plusour, chiyalers, clercs, et laycs,
ttsemblez de totes partz. Et quant les bosoynes furent termines pur
qiiels eu8 Tindrent, fut menciun fete ileokes de les chanoines de Schob-
bedoDi por quels Teyeske et les chevalers qe ileokes esteient prierent

110 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

prayed Sir Hugh de Mortimer that he would have compassion
on them. And when he had advised with his friends^ at
last he said with a loud voice, '^ K I had/' said he, " an
abbot, I would grant them all the goods which Oliver g^Te
them, and I would give them more thereto."

At these words, the bishop took the prior by the hand,
and said, ^^Lo, Sir! here I give you an abbot! Do what
you. have promised." Whom he received at once, and
with the bishop and the other great lords led 4iim to the
altar, chanting aloud Te Deum latuiamus, and there he
granted to them in quit all the things which Oliver had
given them, tc^ther with a benefice in the church of
Wigmore, which was then vacant, and he granted them
all the other benefices in the same church when they
should be vacant. He begged the lord of Huggeley, who
was then present, to give them his church of Huggeley,
and he consented; which church, as it was then vacant,
he gave at once before all the people to the elect of
Shobdon and to the canons. At the same time he pro-
mised them the town of Cheilmers, where he had had the
design of making them a lasting habitation feur removed
from Wales. And when the elect was returned to his
house, he had good hope to live in peace and quiet;

4 Sire Hugh de Mortemer qa'il ust mercy de eus. Et quant il out consii^
od lee seons, audarrain diet en haut yoiz, " Si jeo usse," diBt-il, " un abb4,
tutz les biens qe Olyver lor dona lor granteray, et plus A (eo lor dorray."
A ceates paroles, prist Teyeske le priour par la main, et dist, " Veez,
Sire ! 19! tous bail un abb^ ! fetes 900 que vous avez promis." Lequel il
recust meintenant, et oreske Teveske et autres grantes seygnenrs le
menerent k I'auter, chantantz en haut voyz, Te Deum laudamm, et ileokes
granta-il & eus totes les choses que Oliver lor aroit don^ quitement,
ensemblement od une proTendre en I'eglise de Wygemore qe fiit adonke
▼acante, et totes les autres provendres en meimes I'eglise lor granta quant
eus fiissent vacantz. Al seignour de Huggeley, qe adonke fut ileokes
present, pria-il qe il ly vousist doner sa eglise de Huggeley, et il ly granta ;
laquele eglise meintenaunt si dona-il devant tote le people k I'elii de
Schobbedon, et & les chanoines, laquel egUse ftit adonke vacante. Ileokes
promist k eus la viUe de Cheilmers, od U aveit empens^ de fere k eus
perpetuele habiteciun tot loynx remew^s de Galeys. Et quant le elit fut
retome 4 sa mesun, si aveit bone esperaunce de vivre en fees et en quiete ;

THE HISTORY OF LUDIX)W. Ill

but in a short time after Sir Hugh de Mortimer took from
them the town of Shobdon ; and he never gave them the
town of Cheilmers, which he had promised them.

It happened after that, that the aforesaid bishop of Here-
ford passed the sea and went to a council in France, and
died there, and was brought in an ox's hide to Hereford,
and there buried. That saw the elect of Shobdon, how he
was deprived and despoiled of the advice of the bishop and
of tus help for ever, and of the presence of Oliver who had
called them into England, and they were robbed of their land
of Shobdon and of Lantony, from which lands they derived
their subsistence, and what grieved him more, how he was
often abused and vilified by Sir Hugh de Mortimer and his
people; and he left all the goods he had on his hands
without keeper, as a man who was simple and without
malice, and returned to his abbey.

After that, there came a canon into England who was
named brother Bichard de Warwick, who was afterwards
abbot of Bristol, to visit his friends in the time of August ;
and he came to Shobdon and got in the wheat, and
stadLed it and left it in the keeping of Serjeants, and soon
after went away. After him came a canon of St. Victor
xiamed brother Henry, a man of good and sound counsel

m^ en brief temps apr^s Sire Hugh de MoTtemer lor tolit la ville de
Schobbedon; et la ville de CheilmerB, laquel il lor promist, unkes ne
ior dona.

Arieot tpr^ ^eo qe I'avantdil eveske de Hereford passa la mere et vint en
Pnnce^ ji un concyl, et morut ileokes, et fot men6 en un quyer de beof jesk*A
Hereford, et ileokes enterr^. Ceo vyt le elyt de Schobbedon, q*i1 fut priv^e
<IeI eonsail Teveske et de sun eyde k totes jurs et despoil^, et de la presence
Oijrer qui lor apela en Engleterre, et ostds de lor terre de Schobbedon et de
UntoDi, de quels terres eut aveyent lour sustinaunce, et qe pluis ly greva,
qn'il fut sovent Iedeng6 et avily par Sire Hugh de Mortemer et les seons ; lessa
toteiles cboses qu'il aveit par desus ses mains santz gardein, come home simple
ct santz malice, ai retoma k sa abbey.

Eoapr^ vynt une cbanoine en Engleterre qu'ot nom frere Richard de
Wirrewyk qi fut apr^s abb6 de Bristoll, pur visiter ses amisez en temps de
Asl; et vynt k Schobbedon, et quyly les bl^es, et les mist en taaa et les
lesa en la garde des sergantz, et tantost s*en departi. Apr^s ly vynt une cha-
B«ine de Seinct Victor qu'out nora frere Henry, home de bon eonsail el de seyn

112 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

and courageous in courts who was well acquainted with
Gilbert Foliot then bishop of Hereford^ and IcingmftTi to Sir
Hugh de Mortimer, who was received by them very honour-
ably, and took charge of the things which were left at
Shobdon. This man, wheii he had learnt from his people
what things Sir Hugh de Mortimer had given to the
canons, and what he had promised, and what he had taken
from them, went to him, pra}dng that he, for the love of
God and in aid of Us soul and of those of his very honour-
able progenitors, would restore the things which he had
taken away, and fulfil the promise he had made ; and he
promised to do it, but always put it oflf with flattering
words and fair promises. But Henry followed him in
diflferent places, and at last he granted them the town of
Shobdon.

When brother Henry had the town of Shobdon in peace,
he considered that the place was very £sur from water, of
which they were much in want, and he determined to
remove thence to Aymestry, in a place they call Eye, close
to the river Lug, which appeared to him to be a very com-
modious dwelling-place for them. And then they removed
all the things they had from Shobdon thither, by the advice
and help of Sir Hugh de Mortimer, and laid the foundation

et vailant en coure, qirestoit ben acointe de Gilebert Folyoth arlunke eveske de
Hereford, et parent A Sire Hugh de Mortemer, lequel fut recue de eus mut
bonurablement, e( prist gard des choses qe furent k Schobbedon lesseez.
Ce[8]ti, quant il out entendu de[s] seons queles cboses Sire Hugh de Morlenier
aveit don6 a[8] cbanoines, et queles il out promis, et queles il out tolet, approcha
k \y, empriant qe il, pur Tainour de Dieu et en remedye de sa alme et des
treshonourable progenitours, vuusist restorer arere lez cboses qu'il aveit sostret^
et la promesse q*il fist k perimpler ; et il le promist fere, m^s tutz jurs le mist
en delay par blandisantes paroles e beales promesses. Mis Henry ly siwy par
plusurs lyus, et audarrein lor granta la ville de Schobbedon.

Quant frere Henry out la ville de Schobbedon pesibtement, avisa qe le lyu
fut mut loyns de Tewe, de quele eus aveyent tresgrant defaule, se purpo.'ia
de remuer d'ileokes jeskes k Aylmondestreo, en un place qe ont apele Eye, tot
pris de la ryyere de Lugge, lequel ly fust avys convenable k eus pur demorer.
Et donke remuerent totes lor choses qu'ils aveyent k Schobdon jeskes
lit, par conseil et eide de Sire Hugh de Mortemer, et mislrent le fimdement

THB HISTORY OP LUDLOW. US

of the churchy as people who proposed to fix there a lasting
habitation for themselves and their successors. In the
mean time died Peter Bald (T), canon of Lantony^ to
whom bishop Bobert Beton had given the church of Led-
bury-north^ with the archdeacon of Salop ; and when prior
Henry heard that^ he sent thither three of his canons^ and
the dean of Pembridge^ who put them in immediate posses-
sion of the same church of Ledbury.

After that^ the prior Henry received into his establishment
more canons, and thought to live well in great tranquillity
after his labour. But it happened otherwise^ for there
arose at that time a very great war between Sir Hugh de
Mortimer and Sir Joce de Dinan, then lord of Ludlow,
insomuch that this same Joce could not freely or at pleasure
enter or quit his castle of Ludlow for fear of Sir Hugh,
so pertinaciously the latter pursued the war. And because
Joce could avail nothing against Sir Hugh by force, he
set spies along the roads where he heard that Sir Hugh
was to pass unattended, and took him and held him in his
castle in prison imtil he had paid his ransom of three thou-
sand marks of silver, besides all his plate and his horses
and birds (hawks). And to hasten this ransom as speedily
as possible, he requested aid of his friends on all sides;

^ I'eaglise, come gentz qe aveyent empens^ de fere ileokes perpetuel habitacion
pnr eus et pur lor soccessours. Endementres morut Pers le Kauf^ chanoine de
Lantooejr, i quy I'eveske Robert Betun aveit don6 Teglise de Lydebury-north,
oveike le ercedekue de Salopsire ; et quant le priour Henry oyt ^eo, manda
ileokes .iii. des ses chanoines, et le deen de Penbnigge, lequel lor mist en
possessiun meintenant de meimes Teglise de Lyddebary.

Apr^ 9eo si receust le priour Henry k sa religinn pliiis de chanoines^ et
qoidont ben de vivre en ^rant qniete apr^s sun travail. M^ autrement fut ;
car U surdy en eel temps tresgraut gere parentre Sire Hugh de Mortemer et
Joce de Dynant, adonke seygneur de Loddelawe, en tar»t qe meimez cely Joce
ne poeyt francfaement ne baudement entrer ne isser sun chastel de Loddelawe
por doute de Sire Hugh, tant fort le demena-il. Et pur 9eo qe Joce ren ne poet
fere contre Sire Hugh par force, si mist espyes par les chemins par o& il
enlendy que Sire Hugh passereit sengle, si le prist et le tint en sun chnstel en
prisone jeskes il ust fet sa ran son de .iii. mil marcs d'argent, forspris tote sa
vessele et ses chevaus et ses oysels. Et pur plus tost bastcr eel ranzon, a

114 THE HISTOBY OP LUDIX)T?.

and he desired the prior Henry to allow him to put an
assessment of money on his people of Shobdon in aid of this
ransom. And the prior to the utmost of his power denied
and opposed it^ and said that a thing once given to God and
to holy church freely, could not afterwards be taxed or put
in servage for any secular afiair, and that the custom of his
country did not suffer it. And the prior rather than in any
manner grant his request, left all the things he had in the
keeping of the canons, the same as he had received them,
and returned to his abbey of St. Victor, whence he came.

After that came another named brother Robert of Che-
resboth, and remained with the canons ; not as prior, but
forasmuch as he came from beyond sea he was in the place
of a prior, because they wished to have an abbot over them,
to effect which Sir Hugh was very desirous and earnest.
While they were in this mind, tliey heard speak of
master Andrew who was then prior of St. Victor at Paris,
master of divinity, distinguished by his many noble virtues
and his sobriety ; to him they sent, praying that he would
deign to come to them and take the charge of abbot and be
governor over them, to ordain their affairs as their prelate.
Which Andrew came to them, and was received with great
reverence, and consecrated abbot by the bishop.

pria-il eide de tote parlz de ses amys ; et al priour Henrie si pria-il qu'il
vousisi granter pur mettre un agistement d*argent snr sa gent de Schobbedon
en eyde de eel ranzon. Et le priour en quant il poet le nya et contreesfnt^ et
dist qe chose une feez don^ k Deu et k seincte eglise franc hement, ne deit pas
autre feez estre taild ne mis en servage pur nul busoygne seculer, ne la cous-
tume de sun pays ne le soffVy mie. Et quant le priour en nule manere ne ly
voleit sa request graunter, si lessa totes les chosesqu*il avoit en la garde des cha-
noines lesqueus il out receu, et retorna k sa abbey de Seinct Victor, dunt il vynt.
Apr^s cely vynt un autre qu*out nom frere Robert de Cheresboth^ et demora
oveske les chanoyties ; ne mye pryour, m^s pur 9eo qu'il vynt de outremer, fnt
en lyu de prior, pur 900 qu'ils voleient aver un abb^ snr eus, et k cele chose
fere si fui Sire Hugh nut desirus et durement ^ntalenti. Tant come eus furent
en tel purpns, si oyrent parler de mestre Andrew qe fut adonke prior de Seinct
Victor de Parj-s, mestre de divinity, et de nobles vertues et plusurs, el sobre ;
si mandererit k luy, empriantz qu'il deignast k eus venir et prendre la cure de
abb^ ct estre govemour sur eus, lor choses ordyner come prelat. Leqoel
Andrew vynt k eus et fut re^eu k graunt reverence, el abbfe benet de I'eveske.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 116

Soon after the friends of Sir Hugh de Mortimer^ and
particularly Sir Hugh de Lacy, observed the church which
the canons had erected at Aymestry, and came to Sir Hugh
de Mortuner, admonishing and advising him not to suffer
that work to be finished there at the entrance to his land,
lest his enemies might come by chance to the entrance of
his land and there have a lodging place and strong-hold in
despite of him, and to the damage of all the country ; for
he had then on all sides many enemies and there was great
hostility towards him. And he acted after their counsel,
and made the canons remove to the town of Wigmore, and
carry their goods with them, and begin dwellings there,
as though they were to dwell there for ever.

Then the abbot and his canons saw that the place which
they were to inhabit was too narrow and rough to
make a habitation for them, and that there was too great
deficiency, particularly of water, and the ascent to the
church was very disagreeable to them, and the language of
their neighbours was very vulgar and coarse, and they
often complained among themselves and considered to
what place they might remove from thence, because they
neither could nor would in any manner remain there, for
the reasons above stated. And when Sir Hugh de Mortimer

Tost aprds virent les amis Sire Hugh de Moriemer^ el nom^emenl Sire
Hugh de Lacy, k I'eglise laquele les cfaanojrnes avoyent fet fere k Ayloiondes-
treo^ si vindrent k Sire Hugh de Mortemer^ amonestantz ly et conseylantz
qa*il ne aeoffresist pas eel overaine ileokes estre parfet en Tentr^ de sa terre,
que tea enemies par cas ne venisaent en entr6 de sa terre et ileokes ussent ref ut
et recet en despit de ly et al damage de tote la pais ; car il avoit adonke de tote
parts mutz des enemyes et adverat^ graunt. £t il overy apr^s lor consail, si
fiat les cbanoynes remuer jeskes k la vile de Wygemore^ et porter lour choaes
oveske ens, et com[en]cer ileokes manaiuns, come dussent k tutz jurs demorer
ileokes.

Done virent I'abb^ et ses chanoines que la place ok eus habiter deveyent
fnt trop eatrdt et bidoos pur habitacion fere pur eus, et trop grant defaute,
noodment de ewe^ et le monter bus vers PeglLse mut lor greva, 9eo furent
vileines paroles et deshonestes de ceus qi habiterent pr^s de eus, et se
entreplainderent sovent et se purpenserent k quel lyw ils pussent remewer
d'ileokes, pur 900 que ne poyent ne ne voloyent ileokes demorrer en nule
maner pur I'enchesuns susdits. Et quant Sire Hugh de Mortemer (en

116 THE HISTORY OF LUDI^OW.

perceived that, it was quite agreeable to him^ and he
commanded them that they should seek through all th^
country for a more conyenient place^ and one where they
would be more at their ease, to remain always there, and
that they should inform him of it. In the mean time arose
a coolness between the abbot Andrew and his canons, in
consequence of which the abbot quitted them, and left
them all at their will, and returned to his house of St.
Victor. And forasmuch as they would not be without an
abbot, they elected &om among themselves a canon named
Roger, who was a novice in the order, but wise to govern
their temporal afEttirs ; whom they presented to the bishop,
and he was consecrated by him, and made prelate over the
other canons.

At that time king Henry, then newly crowned, sent to
Sir Hugh de Mortimer to come to him; and he^ being
inflated with great pride and exaltation, refused to obey,
and garrisoned his castles in all parts against him to with-
stand the king by force. At which the lung was very
much enraged and fiercely stirred up against him, and he
besieged him in his castle of Bridgenorth a long time, and
he caused his other castles every where to be besieged by
his people. And when Gilbert Folioth, who was then

aperceut, mat ly Tint A gr6, et les conumda q'ils feysent enqoerer par tut
sun pais plus arenante place, et plus else, pur eus it demoiir it totz jois,
et ly feseient it sarer. Endementres soordy un distance parentre rabb6
Andrew et ses chanoines per unt (?) Tabb^ s'en depart! de eus, et lor lossa
tot it lor Tolunt6, et retuma it sa meson de Seinct Victor. Et pur 9eo que
eus ne yoleyent my estre santz abb6, elustrent de eus meimes un chanoyne
qn'out it nom Roger, qui fust novice en I'ordre, m^s sage k gouremer lor
temporalt6s; lequel eus presenterent it Teyeske et fut benet de ly, et fet
prelat des autres chanoines.

En ycel temps si manda le roy Henry, adonke noTel roy, A Sire Hugh
de Mortemer de yenir A ly ; et il par grant orgoil et hautest^ de queor
enenfl^e, 4 ly yenir dedeigna, et ses chastels de totz parts centre ly
4;amissa pur contreester le roy it force. De quele chose le roy fut mout
coronet et dorement yen ly enmew6, et ly assegy en sun chastel
de Bruge-north long temps, et ses autres chastels flst-il assegir partut
par ses gentz. Et quant Gilebert Folioth 900 yist, qe esteit adonke

THE, HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 117

bishop of Hereford^ saw that^ how the king was fiercely
moved and enraged against Sir Hugh de Mortimer, and how
Sir Hugh was on all sides surrounded by his enemies, he
went to the king to complain that Sir Hugh held by force
his town of Ledbury and refused to delirer it to him. The
king, as soon as he had heard this, in great anger and spite
commanded the bishop that he should go and take back
his town with all its appurtenances. And when the canons
heard this, they sent thither two canons, namely Simon son
of Oliver de Merlimond and Richard de Bkkemere, to
guard their church of Ledbury, together with the other
things which they had there. And when the bishop was
aware <if that, he sent to them his servants, who at first
admonished them with smooth words, and afterwards used
threats, and at last laid their hands on them and dragged
them out, ordering them to go immediately and talk with
the bishop.

The canons were neither overcome by their fair words,
nor abashed in any degree by their threats, but held firmly
in the church, and did not stir out for any violence which
was offered them, like good people of religion, loving the
profit of their house. And as soon as the abbot Roger
heard this of his brethren, he appealed to the court of Rome

eTeake de Hereford, qe le roy fust durement enmew^ et corouc6 yen
Sire Hugh de Mortemer, et qe Sire Hugh fiit de tote partz ETiron^ de sez
enemyes, ala al roy emplaynaunt qe Sire Hugh tient k force sa vile de
Lydebnry, et la dedeigna rendre. Le roy, ausi tost come il avoyt qeo oy,
par grant ire et rancor comanda k TeTeske qu'ii alast et prist arere sa Tile
od tntes les apnrtenancee. Et quant les chanoines f eo oyrent, euTeierent
ileokes .iL chanoines, c'et-&-BaTer Symond le Fitz OlyTer Merlymond et
Richard de Blakemere, pnr garder lour eglise de Lydebury, ensemblement
od autres choses qe ileokes ayeyent. Et quant Tereske (eo aperceust,
manda A eus ces ministres lesqueus a- de-primes les amosterent par blan-
disantz paroles, et d'en-apr^s par manaces, audarrain mistrent mains sur
eos et les sakerent, encomandantz qu'ils veiflBsent tost parler k Teyeske.

Les chanoines )k pur lours beles paroles ne furent Tcnkuz, ne pur
lors manacez abayz en nul poynt, m^s so tindrent fermement dedenz
Teg^e, santz remewer hors de leyns pur nule violence qe lor fut fete,
come bonez gentz de religiun, amantz le profit de lor mesuii. Et ausi
tost come Tabb^ Roger 9eo oy de sez freres, appela h la courte de Ronme

118 THB HISTORY OF LtJDLOW.

f^ainst the damages, insultS) and violence, which were
done to him and to his brethren and to his church of Led-
bury, and signed all his property under the protection of
the pope, and then prepared to take the road to the court
of Rome in his own person. And when the fiiends of
either party heard this, they interfered to make an accord
between them, and reestablished peace entirely, so that tlie
bishop granted to them the said church to hold for ever
in peace, and confirmed it by his letter sealed with his
seal.

The canons continued to be very much incommoded and
annoyed daily by their residence at Wigmore, as is afore said,
and they went about the country on every side to seek and
consider ^of a place where they could make a decent and
large dwelling for themselves and others for ever. It hap-
pened one day in August, that one of the canons, whose
name was Walter Agaymeth, sat on the field of Beodune,
among the reapers, and contemplated all the country
about, and considered attentively, and saw the place where
the abbey is now situated, and marked the spot, and re-
turned to his house and told the abbot and the brethren
what he had seen; who went with him and considered
the place on all sides ; and saw well that the spot was very

de damages, hontages, et violences, qe furent fetea & ly et a sex freres et k
sa eglise de Lidebury, et signa totes sez chose z desuz la protectiun
Tapostoil, et meintenant se apparala prendre le chemin Ters la courts de
Ronme en propre persone. Et quant se oyrent les amis de nne part et
d'autre, si entremistrent de fere acord parentre ens, et refourmerent la pes
enterement, issi qe I'eveske granta A eus ladite eglise de aver & tut temps
en pees, et la confirma par sa lettre ensel^e de sun seel.

Unkore esteient les chanoines trop malemeut encombrez et ennyez de
jur en jur pur lour demeor 4 Wygemore, come est avant dit, si s'en alerent
par le pa'is en chescun part pur querir et avyser place la oili eus pussent
mansiun honeste et large feie pur eus et pur autres & tutz jurs. Avient
par un joiur en Ast, qe une des chanoines, frere Water Agaymeth A nom,
sist sur le champ de Beodune entre les syours, et regarda tot le pays
aviron, et avisa ententivement, et vist la place oik Tabbeye est ore assise,
et nota le lyu, et retoma h [sb] meson, et cpnta k Tabb^ et as freres
qeo qu'il out veu; lesquels alcycnt ovcske ly et aviserent la place

THE HISTORY OF LimLOW. 119

good and large and convenient to make their abbey there.
And they were very joyful and glad beyond measure, and
went to Sir Hugh de Mortimer, and told him what they
had found, and that the place suited them well to make a
perpetual dwelling by his aid. And immediately he granted
it tbem fully and with much joy, and promised them his
aid ; and commanded immediately that they should remove
thither the goods they had at Wigmore. And when they
had orders to do thus, they made small delay in putting them
in efiect, and built themselves for the time little habitations
of wood, by the aid and advice of Sir Hugh.

Meanwhile died the parson of Meole-Bracy, which church
Sir Hugh gave immediately to the canons in perpetual
afans. And soon after that died the abbot Roger, and was
religiously buried; and immediately they held a consul*
tation for the appointing an abbot, and they sent to St.
Victor's by three of the most prudent of their brethren, to
pray master Andrew, who had formerly been their abbot, to
come and be their superior and their abbot as before, who
with much difficulty consented, and came with them and
was received with great joy, and remained abbot in the
same manner as formerly he had been.

de toU partz, et Tirent ben qe le lyu fut assez bon et large et areiumt
par fere ileokee lor abbeye. Si furent mut joyous et lei 2k demesure, et
tleyent & Sire Hugh de Mortemer et firent & saTer it ly qeo qn'ils aveyent
troves, et qe lor plust ben la place pur perpetuele manaiun fere par eide de
ly. Et il lor granta ausi tost benemeut et k grant joye, et lor promist
qe iiles eidereit ; et comanda ausi tost que ens remewasent totes choses
qe ens ayeyent al Wygemore jeske l^ £t quant eus ayeyent comandement
de qto fere, no targerent geres de 1' mettre en fet, et se feseyent ende-
mentres petites habitaciuns de fust par eyde et conseil de Sire Hugh.

Endementres morut la persone de Meoles-Bracy, laquel eglise dona
Sire Hug^ as chanoines ausi tost en perpetuele almoygne. Et apr^s qeo
toil morost Tabb^ Roger et fust religiousement enterr^e ; et tantost se
entreparlerent de une abb^ ayer, et manderent par .iii. de lor freres qui
fiirent lee plus sages, A Seinct Victor, pur prier A mestre Andrew, qui fut
lor abb^ pardeyant, de yenir et estre lor soyereyn et lour abb6 come
arant, lequele k grant peine lor granta, et yint oveske eus et fust receu A
giant joye, et demorra abb^ en la maner que il estoit.

120 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

At this same time Andrew de Stanton^ lord of Bucknell^
was charged in king Henry's court with grave misdemeanors^
so that he could not remain publicly in England ; and he
came into the chapter of the canons, and in the presence of
Walter Folioth archdeacon of Shropshire he gaye them
the church of Bucknell in pure and perpetual alms. To
whom, as long as he remained thus in England in conceal-
ment, they honestly furnished all his necessaries; and
when he could no longer remain, he passed into Scotland,
and remained there in safety till his peace was made with
the king; and then he returned to his own land. And
while he was absent, they furnished to his wife Maude de
Portz what was needful for her.

After that, came Sir Hugh de Mortimer from beyond sea,
and dwelt at Cleobury. Then died Achelard parson of
Caynham, which church the canons received of the free
gift of Sir Hugh. And not long after came Sir Hugh
to visit the canons and their place; and there by the
request of his people, and particularly of Brian de Bramp-
ton and his son John, he sent for a monk of Worcester,
who, when he had marked out the site of the church,
caused the foimdation to be dug and laid out; to which

En meimes eel temps Andrew de Staunton, seygneur de Bokenhull, fat
accuse vera le roy Henry greTousement, issi que il ne poet demorer en
Engleterre apertement; si vynt en le chapitre des chanoines, et en la
.presence de Water Folyoth ercedeakne de Salopsire lor dona Teglise de
Bokenhull en pure et perpetuel aumoygne. A qy, tant come il demora issi
en Engleterre en tapeisaunc, si troverent k ly totes ses necessaries hones-
tement ; et quant il ne pout plus longes demorer, si passa-il en Escoce,
et demora ileokes seurement jeskes atant qe sa pees fut fete al roy ; et
donke retuma-il k sa terre demeine. Et tant come il fut absent, si
troverent eus k sa feme Mahaud de Portz Qeo que mestre ly fust.

Apr^s Qeo yynt Sire Hugh de Mortemer de outremere, et demorra k
Cleyburi. Adonke morut Achelard persone de Kayham, laquele egUse les
chanoines receustrent en propres^huyes del done Sire Hugh. Et ne mie
long temps apr^s vynt Sire Hugh pur visiter les chanoines et lor lyu ; et
ileokes par lequest de seons, et nom^ment de Brian de Brompton et de
Johan sun fitz, manda pur un moyn de Wyrecestre, lequel, quant il out
sign^^a place de Teglise, fist fower et mettre le foundement; k quel

THB HISTORY OP LUDLOW. 121

foundation Sir Hugh de Mortimer laid the first stone^ and
promised them ten marcs in aid^ but afterwards he com-
pleted it at his own expense. Brian de Brampton laid the
second stone^ and promised a himdred sols; but he gave
them nothing in money, though he granted them all ' ease-
ments' in his lands in wood and in field everjrwhere, which
easements aided them greatly in their work. John, son of
the said Brian, laid the third stone, and neither gave nor
promised any thing ; but what he did not then do in promise,
he performed fully afterwards in deed, for by him was the
church of Kynleth given to the abbey.

Thereupon the canons set themselves laboriously and
vigorously to the work of their church. About the same
time £ed master Andrew their abbot, and was buried with
great honour. After that, they elected their prior Simon,
the son of Oliver de MerUmond, to be their abbot, but he
died before he had been consecrated by the bishop. After
the death of Simon, they elected brother Randolph, their
sacristan, a man humble and fearing God ; in the time of
which abbot. Sir Hugh gave to the abbey the manor of
Caynham, with all its appertenances along with its
body, in pure and perpetual alms : but a lady continued to
hold the town of Snytton in the name of dower. After

foQndenwnt Sire Hugh de Mortimer cocha le preiuier pere, et lor promist dys
fnarcx en eyde, m^s enapres i1 I'achevy k ses costages demeine. Brian de
Bromplon cocha la secunde pere, et promist cent souz ; m^s ren ne dona
d*argent, m^s il lor granta totes eiaementz en sa terre en boys et en champs par
tot, lezqneles eysementx eiderent grauntment k lour overaine. Johan )e fits
a] dit Brian cocba la terce pere, et ren ne dona ne promist ; m^s geo qu*il ne fiat
Bye adonkes en promesse, il le perfourmy ben apris en eo\'re, kar par ly fot
Teglise de Kynleth don6 k I'abbey.

Enapr6s les cbanoines s'entremistrentdurementet vigrousement de I'overayne
de lur eglise. Endementres si morust mestre Andrew lor abb^, et fut enterr^
k grant honear. Apr^s qeo si elurent.eus Symond lor priour, fis A Olyver de
Mcrlymonnd, pur estre lor abb6, lequel morust avant geo qu*il fut benet de
rereske. Aprte la mon Symond, si elurent-eus frere Randulph lor segresteyn,
home humble et Deu dotant ; en temps dequel abb6 Sire Hugh dona A Tabeye
)e maner de Kayham, oveske totes les apportenances ensemblement od sun
corps, en pure et perpetuel aumoyne : m^s une dame tynt unkore la vile de
Sojilon en nonm dower. Apris qeo escheerent k eus les eglise* ct chapeles

122 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

that, there fell to them in a short time the churches and
chapels mentioned below by the gift of Sir Hugh de Morti-
mer, namely, the church of Leintwardine, the church of
Aymestry, the church of Cheilmers, the chapels of Downton,
Borcton, Elton, and LeinthaU, and the church of Kynleth,
and the mill of Leintwardine, and land of the yearly value
of twenty sols which Sir Hugh de Mortimer bought of
Herbert du Chastel, and the land below Wigmore, and the
land of Newton, and the rent of the mill of Boriton, and the
rent of Elton and of Brinshop.

In the midst of these affiiirs. Sir Hugh de Mortimer was
yery inquisitive and took much pains about the work of
their church, which he completed at his own expense ; and
when it was entirely finished, he caused it to be dedi-
cated by the hand of Sir Robert Folioth, then bishop of
Hereford, in honour of St. James the apostle. And when
the church was dedicated. Sir Hugh de Mortimer renewed
and confirmed to the church all the gifts which he had
before made to the canons, and particularly the manor of
Caynham, with its appurtenances, which manor he gave to
the canons in presence of all the people who were there
assembled, and confirmed by his charter. After that he
gave to the church a chalice of fine gold, and a cup of gold,
to put the eucharist in, and two candlesticks of silver gilt ;

desus-dites par doun Sire Hugh de Mortimer en bref temps, c'eC-it-wver,
I'eglise de Lyntwardyn, Teglise de Aylmondestr^, Teglise de Cheilmen, lei
chupelea de Doiinton, Borcton, Eleton, et Leynthale, et I'egliee de Kynlelh, et le
molyn de Leyiitwardin, et vint soude de terre laquel Sire Hugh de Moilemer
akata de Hereberte du Chastel, et U terre desus Wigemore, el la terre de U
Newton, et la rente del molyn de Boriton, et la rente de £leton et de Brunshop.
D'entre cestes cfaoses si fut Sire Hugh de Mortimer mut curious et penible
eotour I'overaine de lor eglise, laquele il fist tote parfere A ces costages; et
qoant ele fut tote parfete, si la fist dedyer par la mayn Sire Robert Polyoth,
adonke eveske de Hereford, en le honur de Seint Jake Tapostle. Et quant
Tcglise fut dedy^, si fist Sire Hugh de Mortimer renoveler et confirmer touti
Its douns k»il avoii fet as chanoines parde^ant k I'eglise, et nom^ment le maner
de Kaham, od les aportenances, lequel maner dona-il A les chanoines devant
tote la people que Uleokcs fut assemble, et le confirma par sa chartre. Apr^s
feo dona-il k Peglise un rhaliz d'or fin et un coupe d*or, pur mettre dedeins
•ukariste, et deux chaundelers d'argent dorrez ; et fist I'eveske et Pabb* od tut

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 123

and the bishop and the abbot with all the conyeut and with
all the priests who were present pronounced sentence of
ezoommunication against all those who should alienate any
of these jewels firom the house^ except only for hunger (?) and
fire : and he then gave to the bishop a goblet of silver full
of piment, which he received as a great gift. And the
bishop gave to the same church a cape of purple leather
for the choir, very becoming and richly adorned with orfirey.
And when these things were all well ordered, each ac-
cording to its convenience, died Sir Hugh de Mortimer at
Cleobury at a good old age and full of good works, after
professing himself a canon in the presence of abbot Randulf ,
who gave him the habit of canon with some of his brothers
before his death. The corpse was carried thence to his
abbey of Wigmore and honourably buried before the high,
altar; whose soul, as we believe, rests with the elected of
God in everlasting joy. Amen. For the soul of which
Hugh a mass is chanted every day by a canon, and every
week the office of the dead, that is. Placebo and Dirige^
once of nine lessons in the convent with the mass of matins
the day following; and every week bread and ale with
other meats are distributed to the poor by the hands of the

ie covent ct od tatz les prestres qe presentes furent excumeoger tutz ceus quy nul
dee ceus jeweaa alloynassent de la mesun, for taunt seulement pur feyn et
arBon : et il dona adonkes & Tereske une juste de argent pleine de pyement,
laquele il receust pur graunt doun. Et I'ereske dona k meimes reglise
one chape de queor pourpre, assez honeste et richement aoum^ dee
orfreys.

Bt quant cetes choses furent ben ordin^s chescun k sun avenaunt.
momst Sire Hugh de Mortimer k Clebury en bone celeste et pleine des
bones ecTres, et chanoyne profes en la presence de I'abbd Randulph,
lequel ly baila I'abit de chanoine od aukuns de ses freres derant sa mort.
D'ileokes fat le corps port6 jeskes & sa abbeie de Wygemore, et honour-
ablement enterr^ pardevant le haut auter ; I'alme de quey, sy come nus
creams, repose od elitz de Dieu en joye perdurable. Amen. Pur I'alme
de qnel Hugh si est chaunt^ chescun jour une messe par chanoine et
chescon sjmaigne I'office de mortz» c'et-4-dire Placebo et Dirige, une feez
de neof lessons en covent, oTeske la messe matinale Pendemain ; et chescun
•ymaigne pain et cerroyse oto altres ryaundes parties as poveres par la

124 THE HISTOBT OF LUDLOW.

almoner^ besides other distributions which he had directed
to the poor and strangers in the course of the year. And
on the day of his anniversary a hundred poor persons are
plentifully fed^ and each shall hare a loaf and two her-
rings and pottage, because his anniversary happens in Lent.
The other charities which he had established for himself
each day to beggars and strangers in the hostelry, and
elsewhere, and the spiritual benefits which are done by the
canons for him, and which will be done hereafter, no man
can number them; but to Jesus Christ they are fully
known.

And forasmuch as Roger his son and heir was held in
the king's keeping for the death of one named Cadwallan,
whom his attendants had killed, the king's servants held
the castle of Wigmore with its appurtenances; in which
time thirteen Welshmen were taken in battle, and were
held in prison in the castle of Wigmore firmly shackled ;
who one night while their keepers were asleep escaped to
the said abbey, and were devoutly received and encouraged
to eat and drink, and the shackles with which they were
bound fell from them by miracle; which shackles were
suspended publicly in the church, and the Welshmen
remained there in peace till they had leave to go to their

main de raumoner, estre autres partisone^ qe out fet par my Tan as
poyeres et h estranges. Et en le jour de sun anniversarie si sunt cent
poTeres puys soffysonaunt, et chescun arera une miche et deux harankes
et potage, pur fee que son annirersarie cheet en quareme. Les autres
aumoynes que out fet pur luy chescun jour as estas et as estrange en le
ostelerye, et par ailours, et les bienfez espirituels qe sunt fet par chanoynes
pur ly, et serrunt fetz k remenaunt, nombrer ne poit nul home ; m^s ^
Jhesu Crist sunt pleinement conews.

Et pur 960 que Roger sun fiz et heir fitt tenuz en la garde le roy pur la
mort de un Cadwallan k noun, lequel le[s] seons tuerent, les minestres le
roy tyndrent le chastel de Wyggemore od les appurtenances; en quel
temps tresze homes Galeys furent pris en bataile, et furent tenux en prison
en le chastel de Wygemore fermement fyrges ; lesquels par une nuy t tani
come lor gardeins dormirent eschaperent jeskes k la dit abbeye, et furent
devoutement receuz et reheitez de manger et beiyre, et lour firges des-
cheierent dunt ens furent lyec par miracle, lesqueus firges fiirent penduz
oyertement en TegUse, et les Galeys demorerent ileokes en pes jeskes k

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 129

own country without hindrance. Several other similar
caaes happened at this same abbey, which are not written
in book, but hare been omitted by negligence.

And when Sir Roger de Mortimer was set free from the
king's custody, he came to the abbey, and was received by
the abbot and convent with great joy, and led by the abbot
and prior into the church before the high altar ; and when he
had worshipped at the altar, he kissed all the convent,
promising them safety and good peace. But as soon as the
mass was finished, at his issuing from the church, he b^an
to diallenge fiercely their right to the manor of Caynham,
and commanded that they should restore it to him, and said
that they held it wrongfidly. And the abbot and convent
placed their hope in God, and would not suffer a single
foot of the manor to be taken fiK)m them. Thereupon Sir
Roger was enraged beyond measure, and persecuted them so
much by himself and by his friends that towards Christmas
day the abbot and convent were obliged to go to Shobdon,
except a few canons who remained to guard the church;
and there they remained till after Christmas, when at the
command of king Henry they returned to their abbey. For
the king sent his commands to Sir Roger, that he should

Uot qe nrent grace de aler k lor pais santz destourber. Plusurs autres
cases semblables sunt avenuz & meime cele abbey, lesqueus ne sunt my
esciitz en lirre, m^s sunt par negligence lessees.

Et quant Sire Roger de Mortemer fut less^ hors de la garde du roy
franchement, si vynt k Tabbey, et fut receu de Tabb^ et del covent &
graunt joye, et men6 par Tabb^ et le priour en Teglise jeskes devant le
haut auter ; et quant il sec avoit a ore (?) k Tauter, si belsa tote le coyent»
en promettant seurt^ et bone pees. Mds ausi tost com la messe fut fynie,
^ ran issir hors de Teglise, si comensca de lor cbalenger durement pur
loor maner de Kayham, et comanda qe eus le rendissent & ly, et dist qe
ens & tort le tindrent. Et I'abb^ et le covent mistrent lour esperance
en Den, et ne soffrirent pas qe lor fut tolet un plein p^e del maner. De
(eo fat Sire Roger mut corouc6 d demesure, et les porsiwy tant par ly et
par les seons, qe contre le jour de Nowel corendreit k Tabb^ et le covent
d'alei jeskes 4 Scbobbedon, forspris poys de chanoines qui demorerent
P^T garder I'eglise ; et illeokes demorerent jeskes apr^s Nowel, qe par
comaundement le roy Henry retornerent a lor abb6. Car le roy comanda

126 THX HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

do no hann or damage to the canons^ but leave them in
peace under Grod's protection and his own, to serve God
in quiet.

Then the canons desired much to have the love and
good-will of Sir Roger, and they prayed humbly for a
reconciliation by their Mends, that he would agree to be
their friend for the love of God, and they were in great
hope to have his friendship. But soon after died the lady
who had the town of Snytton in dower, which town Sir
Roger at first granted them freely to hold. But in a short
time he was urged by evil counsellors to take it from
them into his own hands, and so it was done ; for they said
that this place was very private and agreeable to have
his dwelling between Wigmore and Cleobury. And when
the canons saw that, they held themselves quiet, as people
who greatly hated to quarrel with their lord, and placed
their right in the ordering of God.

It happened after that, that lady Isabel de Ferrers, the
wife of Sir Roger de Mordmer, was with child, and passed
through Snytton, and there lodged, and was taken iU, and
in her illness was dehvered of a male child, which died as
soon as it was baptized, and was buried in the church of
Cleobury. Whereupon the said Isabel at the suggestion of

A Sire Roger, qu'il ne feiat mal ne damage as chanoines, mds les lessast en
pees desiu la protection de Deu et la sowe, pur Deu serrir en qoiete.

Dank desirerent les chanoines mat d'aver amoar et benToilaonce de
Sire Roger, et acord le prierent devoutement par lors amises, qu'il Toosist
estre lor ami pur Tamour de Deu, et si aveyent grant esperance de 8*amist6
arer. M^s tost apr^s morut cele dame qe avoit la Tile de Snitton en
dower, laquele Tile granta Sire Roger doTant A eus de la franchement aTer
Ters eus. Mis en bref temps fut-il broch^ par mauTeys consUers pur la
prendre de eus Ters ly, et ensi fut fet ; car eus diseyent qe eel lyu fut
mut prlT^ et else pur son recet aver parentre Wygemore et Cleybury. Et
quant les chanoines Tirent 900, si tindrent en pees come gentz qe hairent
mut conteker od lur avowe, et mistrent lor droit A I'ordinaunce de Deu.

ATient enapr^s qe dame Isabelle de Ferrers, la feme k Sire Roger de
Mortemer, fut enceynte, et passa par Snytton, et illeokes berbiga, et
devient malade, et en sa maladye fut deliTr^ de un enfant madle, lequel
si tost come fut baptist morust, et fut enterr^ en I'eglise de Gleibury.
Dont ladite Isabelle par procurement des sages gentz pria 1^ sun seigneur

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 127

prudent people prayed her lord humbly and devoutly in
teaiB that he would give back to the canons their town
of Snytton, which he held wrongfully, and said that by
reason of that she had suffered great pain in child-birth,
and when she had hope of great comfort by the life of her
son, she had had great sorrow for his death. At whose
request, he commanded immediately to be restored to them
the town freely, with the manor of Caynham, to hold
for ever.

The lady Isabel de Ferrers was of good and clean life ;
and after the death of her lord she built a good house
for monks at Lechlade, for the soul of her lord and her own
soul^ and endowed it plentifully with fair lands and rents
for ever ; and there she is buried.

The aforesaid Roger de Mortimer, son of the founder,
was according to the character of his age, a gay youth, and
very changeable of heart, and especially headstrong, and
he had about him many men of light counsel, who advised
him often to his pleasure, and not to his profit, as is the
manner of many sychophants who have an eye to the
pleasure of their lords, which often falls to their disad-
vantage. This same Roger de Mortimer, at that time by
evil advisers, and by his own will, inflicted in various

hnmblement et deTotement en lennant, qu'il voofliBt rendre arere aa
dumobies lor Tile de Snitton, laqnel il tynt k tort, et diet qe par encheson
de ^eo B areit grant torment en enfantant, et areit esperance de aver en
giant Bolas de la rye de sun fii, si areit ele grannt tristure de sa mort A
la request de qay, commanda tost rendre k ens la Tile frandienient, OTeake
te miner de Kayham, de arer A remenant

Cele dame babeile de Ferers fut de boo vye et de nette ; laquele apr^s la
■ort de 900 seigneur ftst fere une bone mesun de gents de reiigiun k Lechelade
pnr ralme sun seygneur et la sowe, et la feffa plentiTonsement de belts (erres et
de rentes k remenaat, et ileokes est ele enterr6.

L'arantdit Roger de Morlemer, fis al foundur, esteit solunc la demaunde de
snn age, jolyf juvencel et molt volages de qoeor, et aukes voluntrif a-de-
primes, et aveit pr^ de ly plusurs de leger consaU qe ly consilerent sovent k
trni pleiser, et non pas & sun profit, come le manere est de plusurs losengers
qui portent oyl siis pur plere & lor seygneurs, qe lor cbet sovent & damage.
Meimes cely Roger de Morlemer, en icel temps par mauveys consilers, et par
9a volunt^ demeine, fist trop grants durest^ et grevances diversements k Tabbe

128 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

manners very great hardships and grievances on the abbot
and convent and on their people^ against the firancshise of
their church. Whereat good men on all sides were very
sorrowful^ but there was none who could or dared aid them,
so they placed all their hope in Grod Almighty^ praying
humbly and devoutly night and day that of his pity he
would deign to effect a speedy reformation of the error
of their lord, so that he should not remain long in peril of
his soul by reason of them^ and that they might have in
peace and quiet and for ever the things that were given
to them, in alms.

While this persecution continued^ it happened, by God's
ordering, that Sir Roger de Mortimer was journeying one
morning after his pleasure, with his company, on the
day of the anniversary of his father, of which at the time he
had no thoughts ; and as he rode between the house of the
sick and the town of Stanway, he observed the fields on
each side which his father had given to the abbey, and saw
on one part the wheat sprouting weU and green and pretty
thick, according to the season. And he called some of his
companions, saying spitefully, "See, fair lords, how my
father advanced himself and entirely forgot me, who was
his eldest son and heir, to whom by all reasons he ought
to have left his whole heritage, without dismembering

et covent et k lor gentz contre la franchise de lur eglise. Dunke les bones gentz
ti sentirent de tutes partz dnre dement, et nul esteit qi eider lor pust ne osast, si
mistrent tote lor esperaunce en Deu tot pussant, nuyt et jour humblemeat et
devouteroent empriants qu*il pur sa pit6 deignast mettre hastif amendement h,
I'erroiirde lor avow^^ issi qu*il ne demorast longes en peril d'alme par encbesun
de eu8« et qe eus aver pussent en pees et en quiete les choses qe 4 ens furent
donez et k totes jurs en aumoynez.

Endementres tant come cete persecuciun dura, avi[n]t par i*ordinance de
Dieu, ke Sire Roger de Mortimer fut cbeminant par un matin vers son deduji,
oveske sa megn6, le jour de I'anniversarie de san piere, de quel ly ne sovynt
pas adonkes ; et come il cbevaachout parentre la mesun de malades et la vile
Stanweye, si regarda les cbamps d'ambepartz lesqueas sun pere out don6 k
l*abbeye, et vist les bleez de une part ben creuz et veirz et asses espes solan la
sesun. Si apela aukuns de[8] seons, en disant anguissonsement, " Veez, beal'
seigneurs coroent mun per se tresnoblia et moy de tut mist en oblianee, qiiy fu
son fitz eygn^ et heir et moylere (?) ii qui par totes resiins dust aver vouche-

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 129

these fields which you see heie^ with other lands and
tenements^ in disinheziting of me^ to give them to those
clowns of the abhey !" And he uttered many expressions of
regret, and as he rode along thus in bitterness of heart, all
the belk of the abbey began to ring as it were a funeral
peal, and when he heard that, he called a canon of the
same abbey who was then his chaplain, and asked him
why the bells rang so loud. And he answered and said,
"Sir, to-day it is so many years since your father, the
founder of our house, died, and to-day is hb obit, for which
ibsj make great solemnity especially for his soid, and will
always do so, and justly."

ThenSir Roger asked him what were the good works which
they did for him in the course of the day; and he recounted
to bhn one by one all the good works which were done for his
soul in the same abbey, as is before written. And when he
had very leisurely listened to the whole, he was visited by the
Holy Spirit, and said to all his company, ''Let us go in
the name of God to the abbey ! and let us see the service
and solemnity which they will make there for the soul of
my father." And they rode up to the abbey. And as
soon as the abbot was aware of their arrival, he led out all
the convent with him, and they went towards him in form

nof tot sun heritage, santz demembrer ces champs qe yci vous vees, oveske
autres terras et tenements, en desheritaunce de moy ; d ad-il doD6 A ceus
viieyns de I'abbeye !" Et cele chose regretta sovent. Et tant com il si anguis-
iOQi de queor chevaueba, si sonerent totes les cloches de I'abbey en manera de
glaas ; et quant il ^eo oyt, si apela un chanoyne de meymes Tabbeye qu'esteyt
^onke san chapeleyn, et ly demaunda pur que[i] les cloches sonerent tant fort,
^ il ly respoundy et dist, *' Sire, hieu a tantz des anz monit vostre pere,
Aiodoor de nostre meson, et buy est sun obit, pur qu[e]i out fet grant soUemp*
nit^ pur s'aJme especialment, et A totz jurs fra, et it resun."

Dune demaunda Sire Roger k \y queus furent les benfeec qe on i fist pur ly
^ )a jomeye ; et il ly counta de chef en chef totz les benfeez qe furent fetez pur
s'alme en la dite abbeye, come est pardevant escript. Et quant il avoit tot it
VVA leiiir paroyce, fut visit6e par le Seincte Espirist, et dist it tote aa meygn^,
"AIuBs niia en le nom de Dieu k I'abbey e! et aTisun-nus le serriz et la
lolempnit^ qe om fra ileokes pnr Talme man pere." Et chevauchoyent
jeskes k I'abbeye. Et quant Tabb^ fut aperceu de sa venue, si amena tot
^ corent oveske ly, et aleyent contrc ly en la manere de processiun ; car
S

180 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

of procession, for he did not enter the house for some
time, but they received him honourably and with great
joy, in the hope of obtaining his lore and good-wiU. Then
the abbot chanted the mass, and with loud voice and great
devotion they sung the service which belonged to the occasion.
To which service Sir R<^r paid great attention throughout,
and how the hundred poor people were served, and he was
wonderfully well satisfied and very repentant of his error.
And when they had finished chanting the mass, and the
whole service was over, he called the abbot and convent
into the chapter, and beg^d their pardon with very humble
heart for the grievances which he had done them, and pro-
mised amendment by the help of God, and was reconciled
to them, and absolved of his trespasses, and he and the
convent kissed one another with great gladness on both
sides.

After that, he caused to be read all the muniments
which his father had made them of lands, tenements, rents,
woods, meadows, pastures, commons, moors, and other
franchises, and likewise of the churches which he had
given them, and of the others which he had procured to be
given them by his feudal dependants. And when the
charters were all read, he agreed to all that his father had

il n'entra mye la mesun grant pece pardeTant, en lor recustrent (?) honora-
blement A grant joye en esperance de s'amure aver et sa benyeilance.
Atant le abb6 chanta la messe, et le covent 4 haute voyze et k grant
deTOcion cbanterent le office qe apent. De quele office Sire Roger prist
tresbone gard[e] en totez pointz et coment lea centi povers fiirent servyezi
sy fut k meryeyle ben pay^ et mut repentaimt de sun error. Et quant la
messe fut tut perchant6, et tote le office parfet, si apela-il Tabb^ et le
coTent en lor chapitre, et les pria pardon mut de humble coer de loi
greTances queus il A eus aveyt fet, et promist par Teide de Dieu amende-
mentp et fut acord^ k eus, et assouz de sun trespaz, et entrebeysez ly et le
coyant k grant leest6 d'ambepartiez.

Aprds (eo fist-il lire tutz les niunimentz qe sun pere aveit fet k eus de
terres, tenementz, rentez, bois, preez, pastures, communes^ mores, et des
autres franchises, et ensement des eglises lesquels il lor donna, et des autres
lesquels il procura estre doni k ens de ses gentz demeyne. £t quant les
chartres furent totes parlewes, si agrea quant ke son pere ad fet, et confirma psr

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. ISl

giTen^ and confinned by his charter^ sealed with his seal,
all that his feither had done, with various easements and
franchises which he then and afterwards gave them by his
charters sealed. After that, he received the benediction,
and took leave of the abbot and convent, and returned
joyfully to his castle of Wigmore.

The news was soon spread through the country, how he
had been at the abbey and what he had done there; at
which good men had great joy, and the wicked very great
spite ; and among the spiteful was a steward of his, who
was angry beyond measure, and said to his lord, ''Sir,
have you been to the abbey, and confirmed all that your
father did to the canons, and made away more of your land
to them, so that there now remains nothing near them,
land, meadow, pasture, nor moor, which they do not
possess, of the gift of your father or of your own, except
the Treasure of Mortimer?" and he added in mockery,
''Now it is good that you give that land to them, that
nothing of yours remain to you or your heirs near to
them!"

These words he said meaning that he did not wish him
to give that land to them, but that he should retain it in
his own possession. And when Sir Roger had heard his

sa chartre, ensel^ de son ael^ tot le fet de sun pere, oveske plusurs eysemeotz et
fnuncbises, lesqoeus il lor dona adonke et apr^s par ses chartres assee^s.
Apr^ 900 prist«il beneyson et cong6 de Tabb^ et da covent, si retoma
joyowsement k son cbastel de Wygemore.

Tost fot la novele espandewe par mi le pays, coment il oust est6 k I'abbeye,
et quel chose il out ileokes fet, dunt les bonez gentz en aveyent grant joye, et les
maaveys tresgrant envye ; entre queos envyous si esteit an son seneschal trop
coronet i demesnre, si dist ^san seygnear, '* Sire! avez-voas e8t6 k I'abbeye,
et cGofenn^ tote la fet vostre pere k les irhanoines, et plus de vostre terre k eus
avoyt6, issy qe ne remeint ore endreit prds de eus, terre, pr6e, pasture^ ne
mores, qe ens ne unt del dan de vostre pere et de vostre, forspris le Tresor de
Mortemer ?'* et dist en moskeis, '* Ore est bon ke vous doignez cele terre k eus,
ke ren ne remeyne k vous ne k vos heires du vostre pr^s de eus !'*

Celes paroles dist-il en sa entente qa*il ne voleit mie qu'il donast cele terre 4
eas, mis qu'il la retencsist vers ly meimes. Et quanl Sire Roger aveit escot* ses

ISi THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

words, he inquired of the others what that place was
whidti they called the Treasure of Mortimer. And it was
told him that it was a croft adjoining to the abbey, very
good land and large, and marvellously fruitful. And when
he had heard that of the others, he said to the aforesaid
steward, ''By my head, fair friend, you have said and
advised well, and after your council will I work ; and since
that place is called the Treasure of Mortimer, I will deliver
it to such treasurer to keep for my use, who will place
it in a treasury where no thief will steal it nor moth eat
it, and where it shall not be trodden under fojt by beasts,
but it shall bear fruit to my soul." And immediately
he took with him people who knew the place, and they
showed it him. And when he had seen it, he entered
into the abbey and gave it in pure and perpetual alms
to the house for ever, for the souls of himself, his ancestors,
and his successors, and confirmed it by his charter, sealed
by his seal, before all the people.

paroles, demanda des autres quele fut cele place qe ont apela le Tresor de
Mortimer. Et \y fut dist, qe 900 fut une croafte joynant A rabbeye, assez
bone terre el large, et & merveile ben fructifiante. Et quant il aveit ^eo eye des
aotres, si dist & Tavantdit seneschal, •" Par man chef, beabi amys, ben m'aveit
dit et consili, et apr^s vostre conseil voil-jeo overyr ; et par ^eo ke cele place
ad A noum le Tresor de Mortimer, jeo le baadrai k tel tresorer por garder k
man eops, qui le mettra en tele tresorie ok nul larun I'emblera ne artesau le
mangera, ne des bestes defol^ serra, m^s k m'alme fructifiera." Et ausi tost
prist-il oveske ly gentz qui conusseyent la place, et la demustrerent k ly. Et
quant out fet la vewe, entra en I'abbeye, et la dona en pure et en perpetueic
aumoyne k la mesun & tutz jours pur s'alme et ses auncestres et ses successeurs,
et la conferma par sa chartre ensel^ de sun seel devant tote le people.

THE HISTORY OF LUUIiOW.

133

Entrance lo Luuluw Ca»tle.

SECTION VI.

The Baronial Wars.

THE thirteenth century is one of the most important and
interesting periods in our national annals. In the reign of
the cunning and worthless John began the great struggle
for the English liberties, to which the course of events had
long tended. The period to which more particularly be-
longs the title of Anglo-Norman was now ended; during
the first century after the conquest, the king and his Nor-
man barons had been closely tied together by their conunon
opposition to the native English ; but in the latter end of
the twelfth century the two races were already joining in a
community of interests and blood, and the alliance was
completed and rendered durable by the continual attempts
of king John to strengthen his power by the introduction
of strangers. After this time the descendants of the Nor-
man barons who had come in ^vith duke William called

184 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

themselves Englishmen, and became distinguished by their
hatred to " foreigners."

On the accession of John to the throne, the country was
filled with gloomy apprehensions; he neither loved, nor
was he loved by his people, who already anticipated the
evil days which were approaching. Even the doctors of the
church were carried along by the general feeling, and went
about preaching that the thousand years of the Revelations
were now completed, and that the old dragon was about to
be let loose upon the earth; if the world, they said, had
suffered so many evils in the time during which he was
bound, what might be expected now that he was set at
liberty ?* Nothing shews us more distinctly the unsettled
state of the kingdom in the time of king John, than
his constant movements from one part of the island to
another, for during the whole of the eighteen years of
his reign he scarcely ever remained more than a few days
in one place. During this period the Welsh were in a
continual state of hostility, either among themselves or
with their neighbours, and the king frequently approached
the border, but our account of his transactions there is very
imperfect. At the end of October, a. d. 1200, he went to
Gloucester, and he was at Hereford in the first days of
^Tovember ; on the 6th of that month he was at Ledbury,
on the 7th at Upton Bishop, on the 8th and 9th at Fecken-
ham in Worcestershire, and from the 11th to the 13th
at Bridgenorth, from whence he returned to Nottingham,
and he spent the three following years in Normandy. In
the latter part of 1201, or early in 1202, fourteen pounds
eighteen shillings and five pence were expended out of the

* Doctores nostri prffidicaverunt solutum esse draconem ilium anti-
quum, qui est diabolus et Sathanas, dicentes rs ! rse ! vo; habitantibus in

terra ! quoniam solutus est antiquus draco, etc Asserebant itaquc

doctores nostri lllos miUe annos jam esse consumptos, et diabolum solutum.
VcD terrs et habitantibus in ea! quia si diabolus ligatus tot et tanta
intulerit mala mundo, quot et quanta inferet solutus? Rog. de Hoveden,
Annal. inan. 1201, p. 818.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 135

royal treasury in repairing the castles of Hereford, Gros-
mont. White Castle, and Scren&ith,* and it was probably
on this part of the border that the Welsh were most
troublesome. John repaired to the border immediately
after his letum from the continent, and was at Worcester
on the 13th and 14th of March, 1^04. On the Uth
of August, 1^4, he again arrived at Worcester, where
he remained till the SOth.f In the December of the
same year he was at Bristol for three days, and from the
20th to the 24th of March, 1205, he was a third time at
Worcester. In the September of the year last mentioned,
he passed two days (the 9th and 10th) at Bristol; and
between the 21st and 24th of January, 1206, he was again
at Tewkesbury and Worcester, from whence he returned to
pass OTer into Normandy. There can be no doubt that
on Ih^e last mentioned occasion the king was called to
the border by the turbulence of the lords of the Marches,
and more particularly of William de Braose, with whom
he had a quarrel at this period. While at Worcester, on
the 23rd of January, WilUam de Braose made his peace
with the king, and gave him, among other things, three
steeds, and ten greyhounds, in return for which his castles
of Screnfrith, Grosmont, and ^Lantely' were to be restored
to him.j: Some circumstance, as it appears, occurred to
hinder the deKvery of the castles, as we learn from the Close
Rolls that twenty marks were afterwards given out of the

* In emendatione castellorom de Hereforde et Grosmunte et Blanch-
castell, et Schenefrid, .xiiii. li et .xviii. s. et .y. d. Rotulus Cancellar. iii.
Johan., p. 106. In the same roll (p. 122) under the head Shropshire, we
hare the following entry. Et Simoni de Lens .iiii. m. ad sustenta-
tionem snarn ad quaerendnm utlagatos homines. He was probably one
of the men employed in looking after Fulke Fitz Warine and his
companions.

t On the 15th he went to Pershorc.

t Tres dextrarios et quinque chasuros et .xxiiij. sousos et .x. Icporarios.
Close Rolls.

136 THB HIgTOBT OF LUDLOW.

royal txeaaury to Hubert de Burgh, (who had been ap-
pointed in ^e third year of John's reign to be warden
of the Marches, with an attendance of a hundred knights),
to fortify them. It was not till the latter end of the same
year that king John was reconciled to this powerful baron,
and on the 18th of December Walter de Clifford, then
sheriff of Heiefordshire, received an order to put into the
hands of William de Braose his three fortresses.* About '
the same time Walter de Lacy likewise incurred the king's
displeasure. On the 27th of May, 1206, Ludlow Castle
was in his possession ;t but towards the end of that year,
or early in 1207, it had been seized by the king, and on
the 5th of March, in the latt» year, William de Braose,
into whose custody it had been given, was ordered to deliver
it to Philip de Albeny,^ in whose custody we find it a few
days afterwards (March 10),§ and who restored it on the
18th of July following to William de Braose, in whose
keeping the castle and town were to remain during the
king's pleasure.|| On the 19th of March, 1208, the
castle of Ludlow was still in the possession of William
de Braose.lT On the 19th of July, 1207, king John gave
the eastle of Knighton to Thomas de Erdington,** his
favourite, and whom he chose shortly afterwards to be the

• Patent BoUs, p. 57.

t Close Rolls, p. 71.

} Patent Rolls, p. 69.

§ Close Rolls, p. 79. Eighteen days afterwards, Maxch 28, the con-
stable of Bristol was ordered to send three hogsheads of wine to Ludlow
to store the castle. Rex conatab. Bristol!, etc. Mandamus tibi quod mitti
facias tria dolia yini usque ad castrum de Ludelawe in wamistiiram, ei
Gomputabitur tibi ad scaccarium. Close Rolls, p. 80.

0 Patent Rolls, p. 74.

f Patent Rolls, p. 80.

•• Patent RoUs, p. 71

THE HI8T0BT OF LUDLOW. 187

chief of a secret mission sent to the Mohammedan emir of
Spain to obtain his assistance against the pope.*

On his return from Normandy in ISOT, the king had
again visited the border of Wales. On the S2nd and SSrd
of Aiig:ii8t he was at Worcester^ and Tewkesbury; he
immediately returned to Winchester, but on the 17th of
September he had again approached as £eu* as Bristol, where
he remained till the 19th, and returned to Westminster.
Two months later John was again in progress towards
Wales; on the 12th and 18th of NoTember he was at
Tewkesbmy; on the last mentioned day he went to Glou-
cester, where we find him signing documents on the ISth
and 14th ; from the ISth to the 17th he was at St. Brievel's ;
and from the 18th to the 22nd we find him at Hereford,
from whence he returned direct to Malmsbury, and towards
London. On the 5th of March, 1208, John came again to
Bristol, where he remained till the 7th, when he appears to
have been suddenly called away ; but in the month following
he returned, and we find him successively at Tewkesbury
from the 19th to the 21st of April, at Gloucester on the
22nd and 28rd of the same month, at Hereford from the
24th to the 28th, from whence he returned by Tewkesbury
(where he was on the 28th and 29th), to Woodstock.
From the 26th of June following to the end of the same
month the king was again at Hereford, from the 1st to the
3rd of July he was at Worcester, whence he returned to
Woodstock. On the Srd of October in the same year he
was again at Tewkesbury; we have some difficidty in
ascertaining his moTcments during the following days, but
on the 8th and 9th he was at Shrewsbury, and on the 20th
he was at Oxford on his way to Westminster. The king's
progresses towards the border were no less frequent in tiie
year 1209 ; on the 20th of January he was at Gloucester,
he was at Tewkesbury on the 21st and 22nd, at Worcester
on the 28rd, at Shrewsbury from the 26th to the 29th, and

* The details of this mission are giren by Matthew Paris, sub an. 1215.

138 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

at Worcester from the let to the Srd of February, from
whence he was called to Lambeth ; he came again to Glou-
cester on the 8th of May ; he was again at Bristol, Glou-
cester, and Tewkesbury from the 7th to the 1 7th of July ;
he came a fourth time in September, on the 25th of which
month he was at Bristol ; and he made a fifth progress to
the same part of the kingdom in November, being at
Tewkesbury from the 26th to the 28th of that month, and
at Gloucester, St. Brievel's, and Bristol, in the first days of
December. These frequent visits are an evidence of the
unquiet state of the Welsh border; they were probably
caused as much by the turbulence of the English lords
of the Marches as by the hostilities of the Welsh. On
one of these occasions Gwenwynwyn prince of Wales
is said to have come to confer with the king's council at
Shrewsbury, and was there detained a prisoner, whilst
Llewellyn prince of North Wales invaded his territory. In
the latter part of 1209 king John was probably drawn to
the border by the rebellious conduct of the families of
Braose and Lacy, who fled to their possessions in Ireland.
From the 14th to the 17th of May, 1210, the king was
at Bristol with an army drawn together for the purpose of
pursuing his fugitive barons; he was at Swansea on the
28th and 29th, and at Haverfordwest on the 31st, from
whence he passed over to Ireland at the beginning of June,
and was engaged in hostilities there during that month
and July. On the 27th of August he was at Haverfordwest
on his return to Bristol.

The courage of the Welsh appears to have been raised by
the absence of the king, and they commenced hostilities
against the famous Ranulph earl of Chester. It was pro-
bably on this occasion that the earl being attacked suddenly
was obliged to take shelter in the castle of Rhuddlan in
Flintshire, where he was besieged by a numerous army of
Welshmen. Tradition has connected with this event the
origin of a singular office or dignity which long existed in the
principality of Chester, of which the title may be translated

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 139

into English by master of the rogues and strumpets, and
which seems to have had some affinity with the office of the
Bex Eibaldarum in France. According to the story, when
die earl of Chester fomid himself in danger of being taken
by the Welsh, he sent for aid to his constable of Cheshire,
Roger de Lacy, baron of Halton, who by his fiery courage
(and perhaps for other causes) had obtained the surname of
Hell. It happened to be the time of one of the great fairs
held at Chester (in Midsummer), where was assembled a
vast concourse of people of the class above mentioned, who
came to join in and profit by the festivities of the occasion,
and among them no small number of wandering minstrels,
who were considered as belonging to the same class. Roger
de Lacy collected these people, and hastened >vith them
to Rhuddlan ; and the Welsh, astonished at the numerous
army (as they supposed it to be) which was approaching,
ndsed the siege. The earl, we are told, in gratitude for his
constable's timely arrival and as a memorial of the event,
made Roger de Lacy ' master of the rogues and strumpets
of Cheshire,' an office which he or his successor transferred
to their steward, Hugh de Button, and his heirs.* This
singular ofiice was continued up to a late period. In the
14th Henry VII (a. d. 1498), Lawrence Button, lord of
Button, in answer to a quo-warranto on behalf of prince
Arthur as earl of Chester, claimed that all minstrels inha-
biting or exercising their office within the county and city
of Chester ought to appear before him, or his steward, at
Chester, at the feast of St. John the Baptist yearly, and
should give him at the said feast four flagons of wine and
one lance ; and also every minstrel should pay him four-
pence half-penny at the said feast; and that he should
have firom every strumpet residing and exercising her calling
within the county and city of Chester four-pence yearly
at the feast aforesaid ; for all which he pleaded prescription.

* The words of the charter are, Magisterium omnium leccatorum et
merelricum totius Cestreshire, sicut liberius ilium magisterium teneo de
comite, salro jure meo mihi et haeredibus meis.

140 THE HISTOEY OF LUDLOW.

It is also certain that the Duttons used to keep a court every
year upon the above feast, being the fair day, where all the
minstrels of the county and city attended and played before
the lord of Dutton or his steward, upon their several instru-
ments, to and from divine service, after which the old
licences granted to the minstrels, &c. were renewed, and
new ones granted.*

The hostilities of the Welsh continued during this year
and the year following. In the month of March, 1211,
king John marched to the Borders of Wales ; we trace him
by the signatures on the records, at Bristol, on the 4th of
March, at Gloucester on the 6th and 7th, at Hereford on
the 9th, at Kilpeck on the 11th, at Abergavenny on the
12th, again at Hereford on the 16th and 17th, and at Led-
bury on flie 18th, from whence he returned to London.
The official records for the remainder of the year and a i>art
of the year following, appear to be for the greater part lost,
and we can only ascertain from what remains that the king
was at Hereford on the 12th and 18th of November. This
is the more to be regretted, as some of the most important
events connected with the history of Wales in this reign
occurred during that year. According to the Welsh ac-
counts, the king at the urgent solicitations of the Lords
Marches, came to Chester with a great army in the spring
or in the beginning of summer of that year, and marched by
the coast to Rhuddlan, the Welsh retiring to the moun-
tains as he advanced. John pursued his course, crossed the
river Clwyd, and encamped under the castle of Diganwy,
which had been built by the earl of Chester in the prece-
ding year. There his army suffered much from fatigue and
disease, and being surrounded by the Welsh and in danger
of being deprived of provisions, he was obliged to make a
hasty retreat into England. From the English chroniclers
we have a more accurate account of what followed. John
enraged at the failure of his first attempt, assembled a

• See Dugdale'8 Baronage, and Blount's Ancient Tenures for further
mfonnation concerning this singular custom.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 141

numerous anny at Oswestxy (Album Monasterium) the
castle of John fltz Alan^ on the 8th of July, and marching
into Wales, devastating the country over which he passed
in the most cruel manner, he crossed the river Conway
and encamped at the foot of Snowdon. The Welsh
princes were con^>elled to submit, and Llewellyn obtained
peace by the intercession of his wife Joane, who was king
John's illigitimate daughter,* and by the delivery of twenty
eight hostages, and the king returned in triumph to Oswestry
on the S5th of August.f

Towards the end of the year the Wekh were again in
arms. At the beginning of ISIS, they issued from their
strong holds, made themselves masters of several castles
and pat to death the garrisons, plundered and burnt a
multitude of small towns, and then retired with their booty.
The intelligence of these hostilities was brought to the king
while engaged in festivities at London; and in a fit of
violent anger he ordered a vast army to be collected, and
swore that he would lay waste the whole of Wales and
exterminate its inhabitants. On his arrival at Nottingham,
he ord^ed the twenty-eight children of Welsh chiefs whom
he had taken as hostages to be hanged before dinner. He
then sat down to table; in the middle of his meal he
received a message from the king of Scotland, warning him
of a conspiracy against his person; before he rose from
tabl^ another messenger brought a letter from his daughter
Joane princess of Wales, also warning him of treasons medi-
tated against him. The king despised these warnings, and
continued his progress to Chester; but he was there met
by other messengers, who brought him more distinct inti-
mations, that if he proceeded with his enterprise he would
either be killed by his own soldiers, or be delivered up
to his deadly enemies the Welsh ; and struck with sudden

• And not his sister, as has been stated in a fonnor part of the present
work, p. 73

t Matthew Paris, sub ann.
U

148 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

consternation he disbanded his atmy and returned to
London. It was at this moment that the pope was excofm-
municating the contumacious monarchy and offering his
kingdom to the king of France; and shortly afterwards
John, distrustful of Ins own people, surrendered his crown
to the pax>al legate, and consented to receive it again as a
vassal of the Romish see.*

After his apprehensions had been calmed by the exaction
of hostages from his barons, the king returned towards
the Borders of Wales, but with what retinue we have no
information. He was at Tewkesbury on the SOtih of July,
1212, at Worcester on the two following days, at Bridge-
north on the 2nd and 3rd of August, at Shrewsbury on die
4th, and at Bridgenorth on his return on the 5di. He
again came to Bristol in October, and was there on the
18th and 19th of that month. He made a third progress
towards Wales in the beginning of November, and was at
Flaxley in the Forest of Dean on the 8th and 9th of that
month, at St. BriavePs from the 10th to the 13th, at
Flaxley again on the latter day, at Tewkesbury on the 18th,
at Hereford from the 18th to the 18th, and he went from
thence by Tewkesbury to Warwick and London. King
John did not again visit the border till November 121S,
on the 20th and 2l8t of which month he was at Tewkes-
bury, and he was at Hanley Castle from the 22nd to the
24th, at Hereford from the 25th to the 27th, at Kilpeck on
the 26th and the 27th, at St. BriavePs on the 28th and
29th, at Monmouth on the 29th and 80th, and on the
latter day he returned to St. BriavePs on his way to Lon-
don. One of the most important events which occurred
on the borders at this period was the restoration of Walter
de Lacy to all his lands and possessions except Ludlow,t

• Matthew Paris, sub ann.

t Plenariam saisinam de omnibus terris snis et tenementis

prseter Ludelawe, qiuim in manum nostram retinuimus quamdiu nobis
placuerit. Close Rolls, p. 147.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 143

on the S9th of July, 1S18, that great feudal baron having
given four hostages for his fidelity. The castle of Ludlow
was then in the custody ot Engelard de Gygony, an active
agent of king John. On the 23rd of October, 1214, the
king ordered Engelard de Cygony to deliver the town of
Ludlow to Walter de Lacy ;* but Engelard appears to have
expostulated with his royal master, and to have represented
that the plaoe was too important to be trusted out (rf his
own hands, for the king wrote to him again on the 2nd
of November, approving of his c<mduct, and authorizing
him to retain the castle, '' although it were better to give it
up than pay forty marks a year to keep it," but ordering
him to delirer up the town to Walter de Lacy, in accor-
dance with the convention which he had made with him.t
Shortly afterwards the king appears to have placed entire
confidence in die loyalty of Walter de Lacy, for on the 12th
oS April, 1215, he ordered Engelard de Cygony to deliver
" his (Lacy's) castle" of Ludlow (castrum suum de Lude-
lawe) into his custody.^ At the time when Walter de
Lacy was restored to die king's favour, John Fitz Alan of
Clun, among others, became an object of distrust, and all
his lands with the churches of Oswestry and Shrawardine
were seized by the king and, June 10, 1213, delivered into
the hands of John Mareschal, then warden of the Marches,
who held them till the 11th of July, 1214, when by the
king's direction he deUvered them to Thomas de Erdington,
one of John's creatures, who was son-in-law of William
Fitz Alan, the elder brother of John Fitz Alan.§
In the great struggle between the king and the barons

• Close Rolls, p. 175.

t Rex Engelardo de Cygon. salutem. De hiis quoc maudastis vos
fecisse de porcis, bene fecistis. £t licet plus valeat reddere castrum de
Ludelawe quam dare pro custodia castri .xl. m. per annum, retento
tamen m manu nostra castro illo, yillam Waltero de Lascy habere facias
secundum conventionem inter nos ct ipsum ftictam, quia a conventione
iUa nolumus resilirc. Close Rolls, p. 175.

I Patent Rolls, p. 132. i Patent Rolls, pp. 100, 118.

144 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

during the latter years of John's reign^ the Welsh entered
into a dose alliance with the baronial party. Immediately
after his return from Normandy in 1214, John repaired
to the border ; from the 14th to the 17th of December he
was at Gloucester; he was at Monmouth on the 18tb;
at Kilpeck on the 18th and 19th ; at Hereford from the
21st to the 28rd ; at Worcester from the 26th to the 27th ;
and at Tewkesbury on his return on the 27th. Some of
ihe most powerfrd of the border families, as the Mortimers
and ihe Lacies, were staundi adherents to the royal cause,
but many others^ and among the rest the Fitz Alans and the
well-known Folk Fitz Warine, were as firm adherents to
the baronial confederacy. John upon this occasion^ appears
to have seizdd on many of the castles of his enemies^ and
garrisoned them for his own use ; before he left the border
he gave the castle of Grosmont^* and probably Screnfirith
and the other fortresses in the neighbourhood to John de
Monmouth. He had preyiously given a strong castle in
the Marches to Falcasius de Breaut^, one of the most
violent and cruel cf his foreign mercenaries.f

In the spring of 1215 the barons were in arms^ and
Llewellyn marched witfi his Welshmen to Shrewsbury and
took possession of that town. The bishop Giles de Braose,
as well as the earl of Hereford^ joined the barons, and
White Castle, Grosmont, Hay, Builth, dun and other
castles were seized and strongly garrisoned by their adhe-
rents. The bishop of Hereford soon afterwards made his
peace with the king.

On the 15th of June the king signed Magna (Tharta.
At the end oi the next month he made another brief visit to
the border, and was at Shrewsbury on the SOth and 31st
of July, at Bridgenorth on the Ist of August, and at Wor-
cester the next day. Throughout the records of this year
we trace the king's anxiety to store the castles which were
in his hands, and to place them in safe custody against
the impending contest. On the 19th of July the castle of

* Close Ralls, p. 239. t Matt« Paris, Hist Maj.'sub ann. 1212.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 149

Hereford was committed to the custody of the grand jus-
ti€iary Hubert de Burgh; on the 14th of August, at his
petition, it was transferred to the younger Walter de Clif-
ford;* and in the October following we find payments
made to Clifford for his expenses in fortifying it.f About
this time the bishop of Hereford died, and on the 18th of
NoTember the king ordered his castles to be delivered into
the hands of the yoimger Walter de Clifford.^ The king
appears also to haye obtained possession of the castles on
the south-western border of Herefordshire, for he restores
Grosmont to John de Monmouth on the 1st of December.§

It was not till the summer of 1S16 that king John, after
hamg ravaged with fire and sword a large portion of his
kingdom, came with his foreign mercenaries to the border,
which we may suppose to have suffered all the worst effects
of their cruelty. On the 19th and 20th of July we find the
king at Bristol and Berkeley, on the Slst he was at Glou-
cester, on the 22nd and 23rd at Tewkesbury, and from the
Mth to the 27th at Hereford. At this time he ordered
Thomas de Erdington to deliv^ up the castle of Bridge-

* Patent Bolls, pp. 149, 153. The family of the Cliffords possessed
Urge estates on the border. The Walter de Clifford here mentioned was
the brother of Rosamond de Clifford, the mistress of Henry II, better
known by the more celebrated name of " Fair Rosamond." Among his
•states were Corfham and Cnlmington, in the neighbourhood of Ludlow.
(See the Rot. Fin. 1 John.) Another sister, Lucy, was married to Hugh
de Say, lord of Richard's Castle and Ludford (who was the direct de-
scendant of " Richard the Scrub," having changed the family name of Pitz
Osboin for that of Say), and, sifter her husband's death, she married
Barthelomew de Mortimer. Their grand-daughter, Margery de Ferrers,
iiiherited Richard's Castle, and conveyed it by marriage to Robert de
Mortimer.

t Close Rolls, p. 231. Honey was still a very important portion <^ the
prodnce of lands on the border. It appears by an entry this year, that
Stephen D'Evereux (de Ebroicis) held Badlingham of the king by the
tenure of paying thirty-two gallons of honey yearly to the king's use in
^e castle of Hereford. Close Rolls, p. 219. This probably formed part
of the stores for the use of the garrison.

t Patent Rolls, p. 159. } Patent RoUs, p. 160.

146 TH8 HISTO&Y OF LUDLOW.

north and the county of Salop to the custody of the earl of
Chester.* From Hereford he is said to have written to
Llewellyn prince of Wales and to Reginald de Braose
(brother of the late bishop of Hereford, and third 8<m of the
lEunous William de Braose), offering them faTourable terms
if they would j(nn him against Louis of France, who had
been called in by the barons. Being unsuccessful in his
attempt to detach them from the alliance of the baronial
party he marched to Hay Castle, which he took and de-
stroyed. He was at Hay on the 27th and 28th cf July,
and on the latter day he wrote again to some of the Welsh
nobles, inviting them to an interview, and declaring that
he was come to the border for their benefit, and not with
any iatention to injure them.t From Hay Castle the king
returned to Hereford, where he remained from the S9th to
the Slst of July. On the latter day he went to Leominster,
where he was on the 1st of August. On the 2nd day of
August he was at Radnor, where also he destroyed the
castle, and he went the same day to Kingsmead. On the 3rd
he was at Kingsmead and Clun, and on the 4th at Shrews-
bury. From the 6th to the 10th of August the king was
at Oswestry, the castle of John Fitz Alan, which he burnt
to the ground. From this place, on the 7th of August,
John sent another safe-conduct to the Welshmen to repair
to his presence.^ From the 11th to the 14th the king was
again at Shrewsbury. On the 12th he granted to Robert
de Mortimer a market to be held weekly, and a fair to be
held yearly on St. Owen's day (March 4), and the five fol-
lowing days, in his town of Richard's Castle.§ From the
14th to the 16th of August the king was at Bridgenorth,
and on the latter day he gave into the hands of the earl

• Patent Rolls, p. 175.

t Sciatis quod propter commodum yestruiii et non diminutionem
restram vel dampnum yenimus in partes istas, quod per opera nostra
manifeste perpendere poteritis. Patent Rolls, p. 191.

X Patent Rolls, p. 192. { Close Rolls, p. 281.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 147

of Chester the custody of Shxewsbury^ Bridgenorth^ and
the county of Salop.* From Bridgenorth John went to
Worcester, where he was on the 16th and 17th of August,
and thence to Gloucester, which he reached on the latter
day. The whole of the king's movements on this occasion
show that his chief object was to tamper with the Welsh,
and with the lords of the Marches, in whom lay his last
hope of raising an army sufficient to afford any solid
prospect of opposing the progress of his enemies. He had
taken the opportunity of wreaking his vengeance on a few
of the barons on the immediate border who were opposed to
him, and before he left this part of the kingdom fot the
last time, on the 18th of August he took the castle of
Hereford fi:om Walter de Clifford and gave it to the keeping
of Walter de Lacy, with orders for fortifying and storing
it,t and on the 20th he again gave to John de Monmouth
the castles of Grosmont, Screnfirith, and Lantely.^ From
Gloucester king John proceeded on that progress which
ended at Newark upon Trent, where he died on the lOth
of October. At his own request his body was carried to
Worcester, where it was deposited in the cathedral. One
of his last acts connected with the border of Wales was his
grant, on the 10th of October, of three carucates of land in
the forest of Acombury to Margaret de Lacy for the founda-
tion of her monastery .§

After John had been buried, his son Henry was carried
to Gloucester to be crowned, and he remained there till the
middle of December. The hostile parties continued still in
the same position, and it was not dll the latter end of the
year following that the kingdom was restored to peace.
On the 3rd of November, 1216, Hugh de Kilpeck received
orders from the king to pay immediately the usual panage
of his pigs in the wood of Trivelle to Walter de Lacy to

< Patent Rolls, p. 193. t Patent Rolls, pp. 193,, 194.

X Patent Rolls, p. 194. i Patent Rolls, p. 199.

148 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

store the castle of Hereford.* By the treaty with Louis
and his adheients in the September of 1217^ Llewellyn
prince of Wales^ who^ with his barons had been excom-
municated, were to deliver up to the king all the fortresses
on the border which he had taken during the baronial
contest ; and he came to Hereford on the Octaves of St.
Martin (November 18), probably for the purpose of nego-
tiating on that subject. As the king could not meet him
at that time, Llewellyn received a safe-conduct to come
to the court at Northampton ;t but this he appears not
to have used, and the king sent him another safe-condiict
to meet him at Worcester on the second Sunday after Ash-
Wednesday (March 11), 1S18.:^ Accordingly, we trace the
king in his progress to the place of meeting by his signature
on the documents of the period : he was at Gloucester on
the 8th of March, and at Tewkesbury on the 11th, which
day he probably reached Worcester, where he remained
till the 17th. Llewellyn came there at the appointed time,
and bound himself by an oath to certain conditions of peace
and alliance which were then agreed upoQ.§ During his
stay at Worcester, on the 16th of March, the king directed
the maiket-day at Leominster to be changed from Sunday
to Thursday; and the same day he ordered the Sheriff
of Salop to assist John L'Estrange in strengthening his
castle of Knockin.ll The king was again at Gloucester on
the 20th of April, and at Worcester from the 20th to
the 2Srd.

* Close Rolls, p. 293. Panage (pasnagium porcorum) was the fee paid
for the perxnission to turn pigs into the forests to feed ; in this instance,
and in many others, it was probably paid in kind, for bacon, as we hare
before obserred, p. 24, was the principal article in the larder of the
barons.

t Rymer's Feedera, new edition, vol. 1, p. 149. J Fsdera, vol. 1, p. 150.

i A copy of the oath is printed in the Faedera, ib.

H Close Rolls, p. 355. It appears by other entries on the Rolls, that
previous to this time in many towns in this part of the kingdom, Sunday
was the usual market-day.

THB HISTOKT OF LUDLOW. 149

The feuds between the Welsh and the lords of the border,
which had originated, or been cherished, during the baro-
nial contest, were not, however, easily extinguished, and
many years passed away before this part of the kingdom
ceased to be the scene of a continual succession of predatory
warfare. At the commencement of the year 1220, these
hostilities had taken a character which called for the active
interference of the king. On the 1st of May in that
year, the king wrote to Llewellyn inviting him to meet
him at Shrewsbury on the Monday after the Ascension ;* on
die 25th of April he had ordered sixty pounds to be paid out
of his treasury to defray the expenses of his joumey,t and
we find him at Shrewsbury on the 7th of May, where it is
probable that the Wekh prince sent excuses for not attend-
ing to his invitation. On the 9th the king returned to
Bridgenorth, where he granted licenses to the burgesses of
Shrewsbury and Bridgenorth to cut down timber in his
forests for the strengthening of their respective towns.j:
On the 10th he had reached Worcester, and on the 17th
he arrived at Westminster, where he appears to have taken
immediate measures for raising a considerable army. The
especial objects of Llewellyn's enmity were William Mares-
chal, earl of Pembroke (the son of king Henry's guardian),
and R^inald de Braose, and he was preparing to invade
their lands with a powerful army. Henry appeared again
on the border in August; he was at Berkeley on the 15th
and 16th of that month, at Monmouth on the 17th, at
Screnfrith on the 19th, at White Castle on the 20th, and at
Striguil on the 21st, where he appears to have heard first
of the real extent of Llewellyn's preparations, and he
learnt that he was then marching against Reginald de

• Poedera, p. 159.

t Liberate etiam de thesauro nostre eidem Willelmo sexaginta libraa
deferendas nobiscnm ad ezpensas nostras Tersus Salopesbir. Close Rolls,
p. 416.

X Close Rolls, pp. 417, 418.
X

150 THE HI8T0ET OF LX7DL0W.

Braoee.* On the 28tA, the king was at Bristol on his
return from the border, and the Welsh proceeded with
their hostilities, but before the end of September their
progress had been arrested by Henry's interference, who,
on the 6th of October, wrote to the Welsh prince, citing
him to appear before him at Worcester on the Octaves of
St. Andrew (December 7).t It does not appear that this
meeting took place, but Llewellyn had agreed to make
amends for the damages he had committed. A new ap-
pointment was probably made and kept in the year following,
as the king came to Shrewsbury on the 28th of June, when
a truce, if not a reconciliation between the hostile parties,
was agreed upon. Early in the following year the Welsh
appear to have again assumed a threatening attitude, and
we find the English monarch at Screnfrith from the 4th to
the 7th of March, but the truce was finally prolonged on
the SOth of April.

Llewellyn appears to have taken advantage of the truce
to prepare on a larger scale for a new invasion of the
English border. In the beginning of March, 122S, the
king was called from a progress in the northern part of
England by the intelligence that the Welsh prince was
besieging Whittington, the castle of Fulke Fitz Warine.$
Henry reached Shrewsbury on the 7th of March, and on
his approach it is probable that the Welsh retired ; and he
proceeded by Bridgenorth, Kidderminster, Worcester, and
Gloucester, towards the capital. After the king's departure
the Welsh renewed their hostilities ; a letter of safe-con-
duct, sent on the SSnd of June to Llewellyn to meet the
king at Worcester on Ae Monday after the feast of St.
John the Baptist,§ was disregarded; and when the king
arrived at Worcester with an army at the beginning of
July, he learnt that the Welsh had taken Whittington as
well as the castle of Kinardsley, or Kinnersley, belonging

• Close Rolls, p. 428. f Foedera, p. 164.

t Close Rolls, p. 537. § Foedera, i, p. 168.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 151

to Baldwin de Hodnet He immediately sent orders to

put Shrewsbury in a state of defence^ and after staying at

Worcester HH the 16th, and at Gloucester till the SSnd, he

returned to Windsor, where, on the 12th of September, he

received intelligence firom Reginald de Braose that he was

closely besieged in his own castle of Builth, and that the

English forces were insufficient to withstand the progress

of Llewellyn and his Welshmen.* The king immediately

called together a powerful army, which was to meet at

Gloucester, and on the 19th of September he reached

Hereford in person. He caused the fortifications of that

city to be put in a good condition, and remained there till

the 25th ; on the 26th he was with his army at Leominster ;

on ihe 29th he was at Shrewsbury; and the next day

he marched indth his army to Montgomery. Here, having

terrified the Welsh by the greatness of his preparations,

and by the ravages which he b^an to commit upon them,

he received hostages from Llewellyn for their future sub-

miB8ion.t But the king determined to put a check upon

their incursions on this part of the border, by building a

new and strong castle at Montgomery. Immediately after

his arrival he wrote to the sheriff of Shropshire for arms,

and to Hereford for stores. At the same time he restored

to Baldwin de Hodnet and Fulke Fitz Warine their castles

of Kinardsley and Whittington. On the 7th of October,

he sent for twenty ^^ good miners" from the Forest of Dean,

to make the fosses and lay the foundations.} Having

remained at Montgomery till the 11th, he returned to

Shrewsbury on that day or on the 12th, and passed through

Bridgenorth (on the ISth), and Kidderminster (on the

14th), to Worcester, where he remained from the 14th to

* Fcedera, i, p. 170. Matt. Paris, Hist. Mig. sub ann. 1221. The
historian is entirely wrong in the date ho gives to these occurrences.

t Fcedeni, i, p. 170.

X Ad operationes castri nostri quod ibidem construimus faciendas.
Close Rolls» p. 565.

152 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

the 16th, and from thence he went to Gloucester. From
both these cities he sent to Montgomery money and mate-
rials for the works, with abimdance of stores and arms.
On the 18th of November he ordered six hogsheads of
gasGon wine and fifty " bacons'' to be sent from Bristol to
the castle of Hereford. On the 22nd, he sent to Mont-
gomery six thousand quarells, or cross-bow arrows, which
had been made at St. Briavel's, where there appears to
have been an extensive manufactory of these weapons. On
the 23rd, the king appointed a diaplain to serve in the
'new castle' of Montgomery. During the whole of the
year 1224, the king was occupied in strengthening the
border, and in bmldiog his castle, which appears to have
been finished in September. On the 19th of that month
he an$ved at Worcester, where he was met by his sister
Joane, Llewellyn's wife ;* on the 21st he was at Kidder-
minster, on the 22nd, at Bridgenorth, and from the 24th to
the SOth at Shrewsbury, where he strengthened the fortifi-
cations of the castle. On the 1st of October the king
visited the castle of Montgomery, which he entrusted to
Baldwin de Hodnet. On the 2nd of October he was at
Ludlow, on the 4th at Hereford, and on the 7th at Glou-
cester.

At this period the family of the Mortimers was increasing
fast in power and importance; and their possessions on
the border were repeatedly enlarged by alliances with the
heiresses of the old lords of the Marches, whose families
were becoming extinct. Three successive lords of Wigmore
intermarried with the house of the Braoses; Hugh de
Mortimer, the grand-son of Roger who founded Wigmore,
married Annora, the daughter of William de Braose ; Ralph
de Mortimer married the widow of Reginald de Braose;
and his son Roger de Mortimer married Maude the daughter
and co-heir of Reginald's son, the second William de Braose.
All these barons were distinguished by their loyalty, and
by their hostiHty to the Welsh. Hugh de Mortimer died

* Close Rolls, p. 622.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 153

in Noyember^ ISST, in consequence of wounds which he
had received in a tournament. His brother Ralph, who suc-
ceeded to his estates was remarkable throughout the whole
of his life for his hatred towards the Welsh, which appears
to have been founded partly on resentment for personal
injuries. In 1221, according to a chronicle of the abbey of
Wigmore,* while Ralph was a prisoner in France, the
Wekh invaded his estates, and carrying their ravages as far
as Wigmore, they entered the abbey on the first Sunday in
Lent, plundered it of every thing worth carrying away,
and then burnt all the houses and offices to the ground,
leaving no part of the building entire except the church.

The year after that in which the new castle of Mont-
gomery was completed, we find Llewellyn again in arms.
While William Mareschal was absent in Ireland, the prince
suddenly invaded his lands, seized upon two of his castles,
and, having massacred the defenders, garrisoned them with
Welshmen. William Mareschal returned in haste, and
soon recovered his castles ; and in revenge he invaded the
lands of Llewellyn, who raised a large army to oppose him.
The hostile parties engaged on the banks of the Tivy, and,
according to the English chronicles, the English obtained a
dedsive and sanguinary victory.f But the earl's success
must have been partial, for Llewellyn continued to harass
the English during the remainder of the year. He was
probably encouraged by the inability of the king, who
was occupied with other affiurs, to come to the assistance of
the barons. Henry cited the Welsh prince to meet him
at Worcester fifteen days after the feast of St. John the
Baptist (July 9th) ;:^ in June he sent to inform him that
other matters of importance then occupied him, and he
changed the day of meeting to the Assimiption of the
Blessed Virgin (August 15th).§ In spite of the king's

• In the Monasticon, last edition, toI. vi, p. 350.

t Matthew Paris, who places these transactions in the year 1223.

X Fcedera, i, p. 179. § Fosdera, i, p. 180.

164 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

threats and expostulations, Uejrellyn proceeded with his
hostile preparations, which had assumed so serious a cha-
racter in the autiunn of the same year that Henry obtained
from the pope a bull of excommunication against the person
of his refractory kinsman.* This war appears to haye been
partly excited by Hugh de Lacy and some other barons^
vho had withdrai¥n their allegiance from the king, and
joined their forces with those of the Welsh.f According to
some accounts, a peace was at length concluded between
Henry and Llewellyn, who met at Ludlow.$

But at this period no peace between the English and
Welsh was lasting; and for many years the border was the
scene of continual strife. The grounds of the great baronial
confederacy were already laid, which soon afterwards hum-
bled the crown at its feet. During the thirteenth century
the turbulence of the Welsh was in no small degree a
safeguard to the. liberties of England. When the defenders
of the great charter were defeated or overpowered, they
found a never-failing refuge in the mountains on the other
side of the border, and they could there hold their councils
and raise their forces for future operations ; while the first
notice of an insurrectionary movement among the English
barons was the signal for a rising among the Welsh, who
were led by the love of plunder to join their banners. In
1SS6 feelings of mistrust arose between the king and
William Mareschal, who retired to his castles in Wales ;
and on the S8th of July in that year we find Henry at

• Fcedera. i, p. 180. The bull is dated in October. It is there said of
the prince of Wales, -Kune vero idem, tanquam homo pncvaricationi
assuetos et faciUs ad fallendum, se simul, et famam et promissa con-
iundens, Regi obedire lecosat, et castra sibi ab eo commissa diruens, arma
contra ipsum Regem erexit, et ei et egus Melibus, pnecipue nobili viio
W. comiti Penebrocensi, baliyo regio, guerram movet

t Matthew Paris.

{ Garadoc of Llancarvan. As the Rolls of this period have not yet
been printed, we are no longer able to trace the king in his progresses,
except by a few isolated documents printed by Rymer.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 155

Worcester, sending a safe-conduct to Llewellyn to meet
him at Shrewsbury.* During the next year the border
appears to have been more tranquil, but it was the scene of
new troubles in 1228. They are said to have originated in
an attempt of the garrison of Montgomery to clear the
woods on a public road in the neighbourhood which was
infested by robbers who murdered and plundered the pas-
sengers. The Welsh assembled in large numbers, and,
fiiUing suddenly upon the English, drove them back into
the castle, to which they laid siege. The garrison imme-
diately sent intelligence of their perilous situation to the
grand justiciary Hubert de Burgh, whom the king had
just before this event invested with the district and castle
of Montgomery. Henry himself, with a small army,
hastened to the spot, and compelled the Welsh to raise the
siege; and then, having received large reinforcements, he
proceeded to clear the wood in question, and marched
as &r as Kerry in Montgomeryshire, where he laid the
foundations of a. strong castle. But his workmen and
soldiers were continually interrupted, and many of them
slain, by the repeated attacks of the enemy ; some of the
king's best knights were slain in the attempt to fetch in
provisions for the army ; and his efforts were paralysed by
the disaffection of his own army. After a great expen-
diture of money and time, he was obliged to make a
disgraceM treaty with the Welsh prince, by which he
agreed to destroy the castle which he had begun.t

Among the prisoners made by the Welsh was William
de Braose, the son of Reginald de Braose, who was retained
in captivity after the treaty, and whose fate has since
become the subject of many a popular legend. It is said
that William de Braose, confined in the castle of Aber,
captivated the affections of the princess Joane; and that
her husband, becoming acquainted with their intimacy
after his prisoner had been set at liberty, treacherously
invited him to an Easter festival, and there caused him to

* Foedera, i, p. 1S2. t Matthew Paris sub ann. 122S.

166 THE HISTORY OF LXTBLOW.

be seized and hanged upon a gallows. The legends add
that the princess was also put to deaths after having been
shown the corpse of her lover.*

Early in 12S1, the Welsh began to ravage the lands
which had belonged to the unfortunate William de Braose,
but on the approach of the king they retreated to their
strong holds. Henry was at Worcester on the ^th of
May, on which day he sent to Llewellyn a safe-conduct
for his messengers to meet his council at Shrewsbury on
the Tuesday after the quinzaine of the Holy Trinity.f The
king then proceeded towards the south, leaving to Hubert
de Burgh the care of negociating with the hostile moun-
taineers; but no sooner had he left the border, than the
Welsh recommenced hostilities, and began to plunder the
neighbourhood of Montgomery. The knights who had the
guard of the castle, irritated at being thus bearded within
their own walls, issued suddenly and fell upon the inva-
ders, and, after inflicting upon them a severe defeat, sent
numerous prisoners to the grand justiciary (Hubert de
Burgh), who ordered them to be executed as rebels and
their heads sent to the king. This act of severity was
the signal for a general rising amongst the Welsh ; Llewellyn
assembled a numerous army, invaded the lands of the lords
marchers, and committed the most frightftil ravaged, burn-
ing even the churches and monasteries, and in them several
noble ladies and young maidens who had taken refuge
there. The king of England was indignant at the tur-
bulence of his feudal dependant. He immediately prepared
to inflict a severe punishment ; on the ^5th of June he
sent orders to the justiciary of Ireland to make war on the
Welsh from the sea, and, on the 13th of July, he assembled
a great army at Oxford, where the English bishops and

* The latter part of the story does not appear to haye any historical
foundation. The manner and cause of the execution of William de Braose
are mentioned by Matthew Paris, sub ann. 1230.

t Fcedera, p. 200.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 157

prelates solemnly anathematized Llewellyn and his accom-'
plices. The king then made a rapid march to Hereford^
where he learnt that the Welsh were encamped in the
neighbourhood of Montgomery, and that Llewellyn lay in
ambush to entrap the garrison of the castle. They were
relieved from their perilous situation by the advance of the
king ; who rebuilt the castle of Matilda (castrum Matildse),
formerly destroyed by the Welsh, and placed in it a strong
force to repress their future incursions. On the SOth of
November, a truce was agreed upon between Llewellyn
and die king, which was renewed on the 20th of February
following,* The Welsh were however only pacified for a
moment; during the year 1232 they were continually
infesting the border. On the 20th July we find the king
on his way to Shrewsbury to. meet Llewellyn, to whom
he sent a safe-conduct to last till the vigil of St. Lawrence
(August 9); and, after further hostilities, the king was
at the same place on the 7th of December, making a
'provision* with the Welsh prince.f This provision,
like all those which had preceded, was of little effect or
duration.

The troubles which marked the year 1233 are said to
have been preceded by extraordinary natural phenomena ;
when the sun rose over the counties of Hereford and Wor-
cester on the morning of the 8th of April, the inhabitants
of those districts were astonished at beholding it accom-
panied by four other suns, arranged in a visible circle
which appeared to embrace within its circumference the
whole of England, this larger circle being cut by four
smaller ones, the four false suns forming the points of
intersection.^ The apprehensions excited by this prodigy
were heightened by the knowledge of the distrust which
already appeared between the ill-advised monarch and his
barons.

• Foedera, pp. aoi, 202. Matthew Paris, sub ann. 1232.

t t^flcdera, pp. 205, 206, 208. X Matthew Paris, sub ann. 1233.

168 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

Henry daily inclined more and more to his foreign fa-
vourites^ to the injury of his subjects, and the great and just
Hubert de Burgh had already fallen a sacrifice to his own
integrity, and was a close prisoner in the castle of Devizes.
The English barons began to confederate tc^ther, and the
king, full of fears and suspicions, invited them to a grand
meeting at London on the kalends of August. He had
already deprived several barons of their estates to bestow
them on the Poitevins who surrounded his court, and
Richard Mareschal was now the object of his jealousy.
The wife of Richard earl of Cornwall (the king's brother)
was the earl Mareschal's sister, and when he paid her a
visit on his way to the appointed meeting, she took him
aside and informed him that a plot had been laid to seize
upon his person. The earl immediately turned back, and
never stopped till he found himself safe on the border of
Wales, where he was joined by others who had fallen
equally with himself, imder the king's displeasure, amongst
whom were Gilbert Basset, Richard Suard, and Walter
de Clifford, with many other knights distinguished for
their influence and personal bravery. The king then
summoned the refractory barons to appear before him at
Gloucester on the Sunday before the Assumption of the
Virgin Mary, and on their refusal to obey, gave orders
to invade and ravage their lands as the possessions of
traitors to his crown. At the same time he declared them
outlaws, and gave their confiscated estates to his Poitevins,
on which Richard Mareschal and his Mends entered into
an alliance with the prince of Wales.

The king immediately marched to Hereford with a
formidable army, consisting chiefly of foreigners, more
especially of Flemings. He was at Hay castle on the
2nd of September, when he sent messengers to Lewellyn to
try to detach him from the confederacy.* From Hereford

• Focdcra, p. 210. The king had before been at Tewkesbury this
year, on the 28th of May. Fo&dcra, p. 209.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 159

he sent his defiance, or declaration of war, to the earl
Mareschal, and laid siege to one of his castles, but with
so little success that he saw himself on the point of being
obliged to retire from before it. Humiliated by this check,
he opened negociations with the earl, offering, on condition
the castle should be immediately placed in his hands, to
take him again into favour, and to reform the corruptions in
the gOTemment of which the barons complained, or to
restore the castle in a fortnight. On these conditions the
earl gave up the castle, and the king appointed the Sunday
before Michaelmas to receive the outlawed barons at West-
minster. When that day arrived, the king had fulfilled
none of his promises, and in defiance of the advice of his
best counsellors, he treated with contempt the earl's claim
for the restitution of his castle. The latter took up arms
and, after a very brief siege, made himself master of his
own fortress. At the same time the aged justiciary, Hubert
de Burgh, was carried away by force from his prison by
some of his friends, who armed him according to his rank
and conducted him to the border, where he joined the
revolted barons, and strengthened their cause by his expe-
rience and influence, as well as by the sympathy excited
by his injuries.

The king was furious when he received intelligence of
these events. He assembled in haste a formidable army
at Gloucester, and marched with it to Hereford; but the
barons had carried all their cattle and other effects from the
open country into their castles, and, unable to support
his vast host in a country which thus afforded no pro-
visions, he retired to the castle of Grosmont, intending to
remain there some days, and, confident in his nimibers,
encamped negligently in the fields without the castle. The
barons, who had good intelligence, were informed of his
position ; the earl Mareschal refused to join in an attack
upon the person of the king, but the other confederates
marched during the night with a numerous army of English
and Welsh, and at daybreak on the feast of St. Martin

160 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

(November 11), fell upon the royal camp, drove atway
the knights and soldiers without striking a blow, and made
themselves masters of above five hundred horses, and all
the equipage and ba^age of the camp. The king was
safely lodged in the castle of Grosmont, but he lost all
his money and provisions, and many of his principal men
were obliged to fly almost in a state of nudity.

After this reverse the king felt himself no longer secnre
at Groemont, and retired to Gloucester, having garrisoned
all the castles in his possession on the border with bands
of hungry Foitevins and Flemings under the command
of John de Monmouth and Raoul de Thony, to the latter of
whom he had given the castle of Matilda, These garrisons
of strangers soon became the terror of the peasantry, for
they did nothing but plunder and ravage the country
round. But Henry's departure increased the boldness
of the confederate barons, who now retaliated by invading
the lands of John de Monmouth and the other partizans of
the king. Richard Mareschal, at the head of the united
army of the outlaws, marched towards Monmouth at the
latter end of November, intending to lay ^ege to the castle,
which was entrusted to the care of a Flemish knight named
Baldwin de Guines. While the army was moving to its
quarters, the earl, attended only by a hundred knights,
approached to reconnoitre the castle. He was observed and
recognised by Baldwin de Guines, who assembled a thou-
sand of his bravest warriors, and sallied out to capture his
enemy. The companions of Richard Mareschal advised
him to make his escape with as much speed as possible;
but their gallant leader told them that he had never yet
turned his back on an enemy who offered him battle, and,
he added, '^ I shall not change my custom to-day." For
several hours, in spite of the inequality o[ numbers, the
earl Mareschal and his men defended themselves valiantly
with their spears and swords. At length, despairing of
overcoming the whole party collectively, Baldwin de Guines
chose twelve of his companions to single out the Mareschal,

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 161

while the rest were engaged in the attack upon his knights ;
and, although the earl slew most of his assailants,* his
horse was at length killed under him, and he was thrown
in his heavy armour to the ground. . Baldwin de Guines,
furious at his obstinate resistance, threw himself on the
earl, and tore his casque firom lus head with so much
violence, that Bichard's face was covered with blood ; then,
having placed him on a horse, he drew it by the bridle
towards the castle of Monmouth, while some of his men
held him and pushed him fiom behind. At this critical
moment one of Richard Mareschal's arbalestriers, seeing
the danger of his master, aimed an arrow at Baldwin de
Guines, which pierced through his armour, made a dan-
gerous wound in his breast, and stretched him apparently
lifeless on the earth. His men, believing him dead, left
their captive to attend to their lord; and at the same time
the earl Mareschal's army, having received intelligence of
the combat, arrived at the spot. The soldiers of Baldwin
de Guines now sought safety by flight, but when they
came to the river which they had to pass, they found the
bridge broken down, and a few only with their wounded
leader reached the castle. The rest were either drowned
in attempting to pass the river, or were slain by their
pursuers, or were taken prisoners and obliged to pay heavy
ransoms for their Uberty. The field of battle was covered
with the dead. '^ From the time of this skirmish," says
Matthew Paris, who is our authority for this episode in the
border history, '' the earl Mareschal, Gilbert Basset, Richard
Soard, and die other exiles and those who were in league
with them, laid fatal snares for the Poitevins who occupied
the castles of the king of England, so that whenever one of
them issued forth to pillage the coimtry, they laid hold
jof him and would accept no other ransom than his head.
It soon came to that point, that the roads and other places
were strewed with the bodies of these foreigners, in such
nui»\bers that the air was corrupted by them."

The king, humiliated by these reverses, endeavoured

162 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

vainly to entrap the earl Mareschal by specious offers of
pardon. His failure in this attempt, and the represen-
tations of his foreign favourites, embittered stiU more his
hatred against the confederate barons. Henry held his
Christmas at Gloucester, with a small attendance of English
nobles, for he had been abandoned by most of the barons
who had been with him at the memorable defeat at Grros-
mont. Qn the Monday after Christmas-day, John de
Monmouth, the king's most zealous partizan in these parts,
collected a large army to attack the earl Mareschal by sur-
prise. But his vigilant antagonist had received intimation
of his design, and when the soldiers of John de Monmouth
was making their way with difficulty through the intricacdes
of a forest they had to pass, the confederates fell upon them
suddenly with terrible shouts, drove them out of the forest,
and pursued them with so much fury, that John de Mon-
mouth was almost the only one who escaped. Richard
Mareschal, emboldened by this success, invaded the lands
of John de Monmouth, and ravaged them with such perse-
vering hostility, that " from a rich man he became suddenly
poor and needy." At the same time his partizans carried
on a similar kind of destructive warfare against the other
royalists. Richard Suard burnt the lands of the king's
brother, Richard earl of Cornwall, near BrehuU, rooting up
and destroying utterly even the woods and single trees.
They treated in the same manner the domain of S^rave,
belonging to the grand justiciary Stephen de Segrave, and a
manor near it belonging to the bishop of Winchester, who
was one of Henry's evil counsellors. In the midst of these
ravages, the confederates made a rule to injure none but the
evil advisers of the king.

Soon after these occurrences, a little before the octaves of
the Epiphany (January 13th), Richard Mareschal and
prince Llewellyn, with their united armies, marched to
Shrewsbiuy, destroying the country in their way. After
having collected an immense booty, and having burnt a large
part of the town of Shrewsbury, they returned into Wales.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 163

The king, finding it impossible to put a stop to these
ravages, left Gloucester and went towards Winchester.
Unable to succeed by open force^ he had recourse to trea-
chery, and a plot was formed in Ireland against the earl,
who, called thither to defend his positions in the sister
island, became a victim to the treachery of his own friends.
When the king heard of his death, he is said to have burst
into tears, and to have declared that the earl of Pembroke
had not left behind him a knight who was worthy even to
be second to him in courage and military skill.

The death of this able biEuron was followed by a recon-
ciliation between the king and the rest of the exiles. Among
the first of those who were restored to favour was the aged
justiciary, Hubert de Bui^h. On the 16th of June, 1234,
the king, then at Tewkesbury, took into his grace Gilbert
Mareschal, Richard's brother and heir; and on the 30th
day of the same month he concluded a truce with Llewellyn*.
This was followed by a treaty of peace between Henry and
the Welsh prince towards the end of November.

During the remainder of Llewellyn's life, his transactions
with the English king were of a more pacific character. It
appears, indeed, from a document bearing date the 18 th of
February, 12S6,t that the Welsh prince had infringed the
peace, or rather truce, concluded in the preceding year;
but a new one was signed by the king at Tewkesbury
on the 11th of July following,:!^ when Llewellyn came to
Shrewsbury and Wenlock to renew 'his oaths of allegiance
and fidelity .§ The truce was prolonged at the beginning of
June, 1237, and again in March, 1238, the king being
then at Tewkesbury, and in the July of the same year.||
In the following year the king again quarrelled with the
family of the Mareschals, who retired to their possessions
on the border. Soon afterwards the king treated with equal
indignity Simon de Montfort, who was destined shortly

• FcBdera, pp. 212, 213. t Fcedera, p. 223.

t Foedera, p. 229. § Foedera, p. 230. || Foedera, pp. 232, 235.

164 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

to play so distinguished a jmrt in the history of the time ;
and the same year Henry brought a new accusation gainst
the aged Hubert de Burgh, which served as a pretext for
extorting from him four of his castles. White Castle, G^tos-
mont, Skenfrith, and ' Hanfeld/* The two following years
were still more fruitful in events which influenced the
fate of the border. On the 11th April, 1240, Llewellyn
died, and left his principality to be contended for by his
children, David and Grriffith. The former called his brother
to a pacific conference and there treacherously seized upon
him and committed him to close prison. Early in 1S41,
died Walter de Lacy, overcome with age and infirmities^
leaving his extensive possessions to be divided among
heiresses. Near the same time Gilbert Mareschal was
slain at a tournament, and was succeeded in the title and
estates first by his brother Walter Mareschal, and then by
the remaining brother Anselme, who died at the end of the
year 1S45. Thus two of the most powerful fiunilies on the
border became extinct.

At the latter end of October, 1240 (the Tuesday after
St. Dunstan's day), the king renewed with David the truce,
or peace, which had been made with Llewellyn, and in the
following month we find the king and the prince deciding
by arbitration a dispute which had arisen between them.
The domestic quarrels of the Welsh, as might be expected,
did not fail to affect the peace of the border. In the
following spring David was at war with Ralph de Mortimer,
and attempted to seize a ship belonging to the city of
Chester.f At the same time Grrifiith and his friends were
tu-ging the king of England to interfere in his behalf^ and
release him from his chains. On the 11th and 12th of
February, Henry was at Worcester,? called thither doubt-
lessly by the affairs of Wales, for not long afterwards he
summoned all his fiefs who held of the crown by military

• Matthew Paris sub ann. 1239. f Fosdera, pp. 242, 243.

X Issues of the Exchequer, ed. by DeTon, 1838, pp. 17, 18.

THS HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 165

service, to assemble with arms and baggage at Gloucester
at the beginning of autumn. On the 2nd of August he
held a council at Shrewsbury, and, David having refused to
attend, he ordered the army which he had taken with him
to Shrewsbury to advance against his refractory nephew.*
We find the king with his numerous and well provisioned
host, at Bhudlan on the 31st of Auguflt.t The prince,
terrified by the formidable preparations of the invader,
made no attempt to resist, but gave up his brother, with an
earnest recommendation to the king to keep him close
confined, if he wished to retain Wales in peace. Henry
inllingly agreed to this condition, and Griffith with the
Welsh hostages were sent to London and committed to safe
custody in the Tower. David himself came to London in
November, and took a solemn oath of allegiance and fidelity
to the English crown.

Griffith remained in confinement till the year 1244, when
David, having sufficiently strengthened his power in Wales,
conceived the idea of withdravnng from his dependence
on the crown of England. He appears to have been partly
urged to this measure by the pope, who was dissatisfied
with the English, and absolved the Welsh from their oath
to the king. N^ociations had been opened for the purpose
of obtaining Griffith's liberty, but these having failed, he
and the other hostages made an attempt to escape from the
Tower. His companions succeeded in their enterprise, but
Griffith fell firom the wall to the ground, and being fat
and heavy, he was killed on the spot. This event occurred
at the end of April ; J it was followed by an active war be-
tween the Welsh and the English lords of the Marches who
were encouraged by the promises of the king to assist them.
On the 16th of July, a truce appears to have been made,§
but it was of short duration, for immediately afterwards, to
use the words of Matthew Paris, " the Welsh issuing from

* Matthew Paris sub aon. 1241. t Focdora, p. 213.

X FoBdcra, p. 256. § Foedera, ib.

166 THE HISTORY OF Lt'DLOW.

their retreats like a swarm of bees," spread desolation over
the border. The king^ who was just returned from
Scotland with a powerful army, instead of hastening to
repress their rebellion, sent an insufficient force under
Herbert Fitz Matthew, dispersed the rest of his host, and
resigned himself to idle repose at London. On his arrival,
Herbert found that Ralph de Mortimer and the earl of
Hereford, who had joined their forces to withstand the
invaders, had sustained a severe defeat. The next day he
made an attempt to retrieve the honour of the English, but
with no better success; his army was almost destroyed,
and he sought a precarious asylum in his castles.- From
this time the audacity of the Welsh knew no bounds.
David formally withdrew himself from the allegiance of the
king of England, and placed himself under the protection of
the pope ; and Henry, in return, caused him to be excom-
municated by his bishops on the 29th of November, and
prepared to invade Wales in the following year.

On the 6th of January, 1245, the king summoned Da\id
and his adherents to appear in his court at Westminster, to
make amends for the devastation which they had caused on
the borders of Wales.* On the 10th of the same month he
sent orders to the justiciary of Ireland, Maurice Fitz Grerald,
to invade the Welsh coasts. In March, an ineffectual at-
tempt appears to have been made to negotiate.f But
hostilities continuing, during lent, a body of Welsh fell into
an ambush in the neighbourhood of Montgomery, and above
three hundred were slain by the garrison of that place.
David revenged this check by a long series of sudden and
sanguinary incursions, scarcely a night passing in which the
Welsh did not enter some part of the border and put every-
thing they met to fire and sword. In these invasions they
were frequently repulsed by the borderers; and on one
occasion, the EngUsh having engaged the Welsh in a
wooded pass, the brave Herbert Fitz Matthew was slain.j:

* De homicidiis, incendiis, depraedationibus, &c. Fcedera, p. 258.
t Foedera, p. 259. X Matthew Paris, sub ann. 1245.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 167

Another party of Welsh were surprised near Montgomery,
and put to the sword ; and from one outrage to another, the
stru^le gradually became a war of extermination.

On the 7th of June, we find the king hastening his pre-
parations for the invasion of Wales.* About the beginning
of July, he summoned all his nobles and military fiefs to
assemble on the Border ;t and on the 20th of August he
was at Chester.^ Instead of marching into the interior,
Henry began by cutting off all communication between the
Welsh and their neighbours ; and by this measure, assisted
with the ravages of war, he reduced a great portion of the
country to a state of extreme misery. He encamped on the
northern coast at ' Gannoc' (the name given by the English
at that period to Diganwy, in Caernarvonshire), where he
spent nearly three months in fortifying a strong castle,
which became, as Matthew Paris observes, a sore in the
eyes of the Welshmen. At the approach of winter he left
the castle well stored and garrisoned, and returned to
London. The campaign had been most disastrous to the
Welsh; vast numbers had fallen by the swords of the
English and of the Irish who had been landed on their
coasts, and the numbers who perished by starvation and
by the hardships of war were scarcely less numerous.
The greater part of those who remained were reduced to
the greatest distress. On the 10th of November, the king
was at Worcester, where he issued a new proclamation
forbidding his subjects to hold any conmiunication with his
enemies the Welsh.§ At the beginning of spring, David,
the cause of all these disasters, died, heart-broken, as it
was said, by the misfortunes of his countrymen. His
nephew Griffith, son of that Griffith who had been killed
in his attempt to escape from the Tower of London, was
chosen by the Welsh to succeed him. His countrymen
were too much exhausted to continue their hostilities against

* Foedera. t Matthew Paris, sub ann, 1245.

{ PcBdera, p. 263. § Foedera. p. 264.

168 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

the English^ and, for two years the whole of North Wales
remained in a state of extreme desolation.

The Welsh were moved by a two-fold incitement to take
part with the English barons in the great struggle which
was now approaching. The plunder of the lands and pos-
sessions of the adverse party was a sufficient temptation to
them to join in the quarrel, as they had done before on
similar occasions ; but at the present time the extortions and
oppressions under which the English themselves suffered,
pressed with double weight on the unfortimate inhabitants
of the principality, who had been placed at the mercy of the
king and his favourites by their disastrous war under David.
The country was distributed like Turkish pashaliks, to the
highest bidders, who groimd the wretched inhabitants to
dust, that they might extract fiom them their last piece
of money to pour into the king's treasury, and into their
own. It was thus that Alan de la Zouche, who had suc-
ceeded John de Ghrey in the government of the country
bordering on Cheshire, drew in 1251 eleven hundred marks
of annual revenue from a district which, in the time of
his predecessor, had paid only five hundred. In the year
following, when Alan de la Zouche passed through St. Albans
with a number of carriages heavily laden with the produce
of his extortions, which he was carrying to the treasury, he
declared publicly that the whole of Wales was now at
length reduced to absolute obedience to the English laws,
and that it was in a state of profound tranquillity.*

But this peace, although it lasted for two or three years
afterwards, could not be of long duration — ^it was the
silence of dispair. After having supported the tyranny of a
succession of paltry exactors, the patience of the Welsh was
at length exhausted, and in 1266 they were forced into
rebellion by the oppressions of Geofl&y de Langeley, then
collector of the revenues for the king. At first the rising
appears to have been partial, and it was disowned by their

* Matthew Paris, sub ann. 1251—2.

THB HISTOKY OF LUDLOW. 169

prince Llewellyn^ who demanded a personal interview with
the king, who was at Gloucester on the 22nd of July,*
probably on his way to the border for that purpose. But the
meeting did not take place, and as winter (the season most
&Yourable to the Welsh) approached, the insurrection
became more general. They began by attacking the posses-
sions of prince Edward, to whom the govemment of Wales
had been entrusted. Their first efforts were attended with
complete success, for they were not only favoured by the
unusual humidity of the weather which rendered it impos-
sible to enter Wales with a regular army, but they appear
to have been secretly assisted and encouraged by the
Engliah barons. Nevertheless, it was Peter de Montfort
(one of Simon's sons), who was governor of Abergavenny,
who made the most vigorous resistance against their inroads.
On the Thursday after the feast of St. Matthew (Sep-
tember 21st), the Welsh advanced in considerable force
against the castles held by this baron, who, assisted by
John de Grey, Rc^r de Mortimer, Reginald Fitz Peter,
Humphrey de Bohun, and other lords of the Marches,
defeated them in several encounters,t yet not many days
after Peter de Montfort gives the king an accoimt of these
successes, he writes another letter, begging for speedy
assistance, and describing his own position as being ex-
tremely critical. J The retreat of prince Edward increased
the courage of the Welsh, who crossing the northern border,
carried their devastations up to the walls of Chester. At
the same time they drove from his lands their coimtryman
Griffith de Bromfield, who had merited their hatred by his
obsequiousness to their English oppressors. During the
muter and the following spring the Marches of Wales
continued thus to present a scene of rapine and bloodshed.

It is said that at first the king refused to pay any atten-
tion to the messages of his son Edward and the barons of
the border, alledging that they ought to be able to take

• Ffledcra, i. p. 344. f Fecdera, i. p. 339. X Foedera, i. p. 341.

170 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

care of what was their own. But, on the 18th of July,
he summoned a great army to assemble on the border in
two divisions, one to join the English barons on the borders
of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, while the other re-
paired to Chester, where he was to join them in person,* and
on the 11th of September we find him encamped at Diserth,
in Flintshire.f The Welsh, however, had carried into the
most inaccessible parts of Snowdon their families and flocks,
and Henry's expedition had so little effect, that his disap>
pointment threw him into a fever, by which he was con-
fined to his bed for some time after his return. During
the remainder of the autumn, and the following winter, the
Marches continued to be in a lamentable state of distrac-
tion, and several castles on the southern borders were taken
and plundered, and some of them occupied, by the Webh.J
Even Griffith de Bromfield, who had suffered so much for
his fidelity to the English, found it necessary to desert the
king, and was received into the confederacy of the Welsh
barons. At the beginning of the year 1S58, the Marches
of Wales were literally reduced to a desert.§

The time was now come when the English barons found
it necessary to make open resistance to the king and his
foreign favourites ; and the supposition that the Welsh
were in secret league with the former seems to be confirmed
by the circumstance that they now made eager proposals for
peace. It may be observed that their ravages had extended
chiefly to the lands and possessions of prince Edward and
of some of the lords Marchers who were zealous royalists.
In the spring of 1268, Henry again summoned his ba-
ronage to attend him into Wales, but they answered with
complaints of the fatigues and.losses which they had already
sustained in this service. Yet, after a brief and stormy
meeting at Westminster, they all came in warlike array to
the parliament held at Oxford in July, with the excuse that

• Fcedcro, i. p. 361. Matthew Paris. f Foedera, p. 363.

X In 1258, William de Abetot was slain at the siege of Ewyas Castle.
§ Matthew Pahs, sub ann. 12.')7.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 171

it was necessary they should be in readiness to inarch
against the Welsh. This parliament may be considered as
the proclamation of war of the barons. The messengers of
prince Llewellyn were conducted to it by Peter de Montfort,
and a truce for one year was concluded on the 17th of
July.* Yet on the 18th of August, the Welsh had already
infringed the truce, and Peter de Montfort and James de
Alditheley were sent to require amends.f After this the
peace was observed with little interruption during two
years.

In the summer of 1260, while the English parliament
was sitting at London, Llewellyn again invaded the
Marches, laid waste the lands of prince Edward and many
of the lords Marchers in the most cniel manner,^ and took
Roger de Mortimer's castle of Builth, while that feudal
baron was absent with the parUament.§ On the 1st of
August the king summoned his barons to assemble with
their retainers at Shrewsbury on the Nativity of St. Mary ;
the place of meeting was afterwards changed to Chester,
where Henry remained with his army during the whole of
the autumn, but with Uttle success. || A truce was after-
wards made, which was renewed at different times till the
end of the year 1262. When the king landed at Dover on
the 20th of December of that year, he received intelligence
of a new insurrection of the Welsh. Llewellyn had at-
tacked Roger de Mortimer, one of the most staunch of the
king's adherents, and the Welsh, after taking the castle of
Rnockin, burnt and plundered the border up to Weobley,
Eardisley, and the valley of Wigmore. At the end of

• Fcedera, i. p. 372. t FcDdera, i. p. 377.

X Eodem anno Lewelinus filius Griffini junctis in auxilium Walensibus
terras regis Anglix et Edwardi filii sui per iotam marchiam ccepit vastare
et destmere, pueros jacentes in cunis et mulieres in puerperio decubantcs
sine misericordia inhumane occidendo. Chronicon Abendon. ed. Halli-
weli. p. 12.

§ FcEdcra, i. p. 399. || Foedera, ib. parum profecit, Chron. Abendon, p. 12.

17^ THE HISTORY OF LUDIiOW.

December the bishop of Hereford, one of the king's foreign
favourites, wrote in haste to the king that Hereford itself
was in danger, unless the garrison were strengthened/
Henry immediately ordered Ralph Basset, of Drayton, to
repair to Hereford; and at the same time he summoned
the principal barons of the border Boger and Hugh do
Mortimer, John Fitz Alan, the elder and younger John
L*Estrange, Hamo L'Estrange, Thomas Corbet, Ghriffith
ap Wennewin, Fulke Fitz Warine, Ralph le Botiler, and
Walter de Dunstanville, to meet James de Alditheley at
Ludlow on the octaves of the Purification (9th February).
Prince Edward repaired in person to Shrewsbury, and we
find him there on the 16th of April. f After a severe
contest, the Welsh were driven to seek refuge in their
strong holds in Snowdon ; but before Edward could make
any satisfactory conclusion of the war, he was called away
to help his father to make head against the barons. A
truce was made with the Welsh in autumn, Simon de
Montfort being one of the negotiators. J

The war between the king and his barons began on the
border, where the partisans of each had numerous castles.
Roger de Mortimer raised his tenantry, and invaded and
ravaged the lands of Simon de Montfort. The latter, who
had already made an alliance with Llewellyn (who after-
wards married his daughter) sent also a portion of the
baronial army to retaliate on the possessions of the Mor-
timers, and they laid siege to Wigmore castle. They
seized upon Macy de Bezile, a foreigner whom the king
had made sheriff of Gloucestershire, and the obnoxious
bishop of Hereford, whom they dragged from the altar of
his cathedral church, and imprisoned them both in the
castle of Eardisley.§ Macy de Bezile was taken in the
castle of Gloucester, after an obstinate defence ; Simon de

• Foedera, i. p. 423. f Foedera, i. p. 425. J Foedera, i. p. 430.

{ Rishanger's Goniinuat. of Matthew Paria. Robert of Gloucestefi pp.
535, 537. Rishanger's Chron., cd. Halliwell. p. 11. {

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 178

Montfort^ who had directed the siege^ then marched with
his army to Worcester, which, ahready taken and rudely
treated by Robert de Ferrers, earl of Derby, willingly
opened its gates to the barons. From thende Montfort
marched to Bridgenorth and Shrewsbury, both of which he
garrisoned against the king. The citizens of Shrewsbury
shut their gates, and at first defended themselves stoutly,
but hearing that the Welsh were approaching on the other
side, they gave up the town.

Towards the end of February, 1264, Edward, with an
anny consisting in a great measture of foreigners, hastened
to the border, to relieve Boger de Mortimer, who was
closely besieged in Wigmore castle. Edward came to
Hereford, and took the castles of Hay, Huntingdon, and
Brecknock, which he gave to Roger de Mortimer, who fled
secretly from Wigmore to join him at Hereford ; but Wig-
more castle fell into the hands of the barons,* who then
pursued the prince from Hereford to Gloucester, where he
took refuge in the castle, which was delivered up to him
by R(^r de Clifford. The barons immediately took pos-
session of the town, and after some bickerings and nego-
tiations, Edward agreed to make his peace with them,
and swore to observe the statutes which had been made at
Oxford. The baronial army then moved towards London.
No sooner were they gone, than Edward showed how little
he intended to keep his engagements; as a punishment
for having received his enemies, he treacherously imprisoned
many of the burgesses, severely amerced the town, and
hanged the porters who had opened the gates, one of whom
was named Hobkin of Ludlow ;t and then he marched
towards Northampton, ravaging the lands of the barons as

* Chron. Abendon. cd. Halliwell, p. 16.

t Sir Roger of Clifford the porters vaste nom
That porters were atte gate tho Jon Giffard in com,
Aa Hobekin of Ludlowe, and is felawes also»
And let horn npe the west gate an-hongc bothe to.

Robert of Gloucester, p. 544.

174 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

he went. On the other hand, Llewellyn and his WeUh-
men^ who had been called to* the aid of the barons when
they marched against Roger de Mortimer^ laid waste the
lands of prince Edward, and took and destroyed his two
castles of Gannoc (Diganwy) and Dissert. A litde before
Easter they defeated, near Kerry, the younger John L'Es-
trange, who held Montgomery for the king; -but shortly
afterwards they received a severe check at Clun.

These events were followed by a short cessation of arms,
during which some of the barons deserted their cause,
and the king again began to take courage. Next came the
attack upon Northampton, the siege of Rochester, and the
decisive battle of Lewes, which placed the king and his son
Edward at the mercy of the barons.

After the battle of Lewes, the Marchers were the first
to raise their heads in opposition to the party who were
now in power. Li the autumn of 1S64, the most influential
of the border barons, Roger de Mortimer, James de Aldithe-
ley or Audeley, Roger de Leybume, Roger de Cli£Ebrd, Hamo
L'Estrange, Hugh and Roger de Turbeville, and otheis,
were in arms, and were encouraged and supported by
the earl of Gloucester. Simon de Montfort immediately
marched with his army towards the border, taking with
him the king and prince Edward, who had been kept a
prisoner at Dover. They were at Worcester on the 15fli of
December.* From thence Simon de Montfort marched to
Hereford, and joined himself with the Welsh imder Llew-
ellyn, his ally. They took Hay castle, and Simon de
Montfort invaded the lands of the Mortimers, captured
first Richard's castle, which he delivered to his partizan,
John Fitz John, and afterwards the castle of Ludlow, and
pursued Roger de Mortimer to Montgomery castle, where
the latter was obliged to make his peace.f On the 2nd of
April, 1S65, the castle of Montgomery was given to the
custody of John L'Estrange.:}:

* Foedera, i. p. 449.

t Rishanger's Chroniclei ed. Halliwell, p. 35. Ejusd. contin. Mat. Paris.

X Fcedera, i. p. 454.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 175

Simon de Montfort then moved with his royal prisoners
towards the south, but he was soon called back by new
movements on the border. The earl of Gloucester had
entirely broken his alliance with the party in power, and
was, with John Giffard, gathering strength in the forest of
Dean; Roger de Mortimer again raised the standard of
revolt at Wigmore ; Robert Walerand, Warine de Bassing-
bum, and others seized upon the castle of Bristol; and at
the same time two powerful nobles who had escaped from
the battle of Lewes, and taken refuge on the continent,
John de Warren, earl of Surrey, and William de Valence,
earl of Pembroke, landed at Pembroke and joined the con-
federacy. Simon de Montfort, after holding a council at
Oxford, marched again to Worcester. The barons of the
opposite party attempted to oppose him, and broke down the
bridges over the Severn, but the prince of Wales had also
called together his army, and the borderers were obliged to
make their submission, and were again deprived of many of
their castles. A temporary reconciliation was at the same
time effected between the earl of Gloucester and Simon de
Mortimer. But this was of very short duration, and Simon
was soon recalled to the Marches.^

Simon de Montfort was again at Worcester in May, and
on the 18th day of that month he was at Hereford, with the
king and prince Edward, and he remained there till the
latter end of Jime.f A plot was formed by the Marchers
to deliver the prince from his confinement. Roger de
Mortimer, one day towards the end of May, sent the prince
a present of a very swift steed, -with a private intimation
that he should ask permission of his keepers to try it on
a certain day on the Widemarsh (Wydmersh), and that the
moment he saw a person on a white horse make a signal
from the hill towards TuUington, he should leave his
attendants and ride in that direction at his utmost speed.

* Rishanger, ut supra. Robert of Gloucester, pp. 551, 552.

t Fcedera, i. pp. 455, 456, 457.

176 THB HISTOKT OF LUDLOW.

The lequired pennission was easily obtained^ and on the
day appointed the stratagem was carried into effect^ and the
knight who made the signal^ who was the lord of Croft,
led the prince to the park at Tnllington, where Roger de
Mortimer, with Roger de Clifford, John Giffiurd, and fire
hundred men in arms, were waiting to receive him. The
prince was closely pursued^ for the whole country (tota
patria) was up to guard him ; but when the pursuers saw
the forces of Roger de Mortimer, they returned in dismay.
Edward was conducted to Wigmore, where he was received
joyfully by dame Maude de Mortimer (Roger's wife), and
fifom tiiience he went to Pembroke, where John de War-
renne and William de Valence were raising forces.* The
borderers were encouraged by the success of their stratagem,
and soon raising a large army, they took successively Ches-
ter, Shrewsbury, Bridgenorth, and Ludlow,t and shortly
aftierwards Worcester and Gloucester. The earl Simon, in
retaliation, took the castle of Monmouth and levelled it
with the ground, and then joining with the army of prince
Llewellyn in Glamorganshire, proceeded to ravage and lay
waste the lands of the confederates. Immediately afterwards
he prepared to return into England to strengthen his party,
and came to Hereford.
In the mean time prince Edward and his friends, being

* History of the Mortimers in the Monasticon, torn. ri. p. 351. Con£.
Rishanger and Robert of Gloucester.

t It appears probable that the last and snceessfnl insurrection against
Simon de Montfort was planned at Ludlow. Simon de Montfort was
reyerenced as a saint after his death, and we are told, in the collection of
his miracles, that he appeared in a dream to the vicar of Wardon, telling
him to warn Geoffrey de Stalares that if he did not repent and make
amends for his seditious plots at Ludlow against the earl Simon, he would
full into some sudden misfortune (ut Galfridum de Stalares militem ex
parte sua moneret, quod seditiones et machinamenta ques contra comitem
Symonem et sues complices apud Luddelow fecerat, emendaret). Geoffrey
neglected this admonition ; and soon after, being on his way to London,
he was burnt with all his retinue in a house where he had taken up his
lodgings. Halliwell's Rishanger, p. 80.

THE HISTORY OP LUDLOW. 177

at Worcester^ learnt that the younger Simon de Montfort,
with many of the influential men of the party^ were at
Kenilworth^ and by a forced march from Worcester^ they fell
upon them by surprise^ and made the greater number pri-
soners. The earl Simon^ with the king in his company^ was
on his way to join his son^ and 'arrived at Kempsey^ near
Worcester, on the feast of St. Peter-ad- Vincula (August
1st), when he learnt that prince Edward was arrived at
Worcester with forces far superior to his own. He marched
the same night to Evesham, where on the 5th of August,
was fought the celebrated battle which ruined the baronial
cause, and in which Simon de Montfort, with two of his
sons, and most of the leading men of his party, were slain.
The body of the earl was barbarously mutilated, and his
head was carried to Worcester, and presented to dame
Maude de Mortimer, who was staying there. Among the
prisoners were John Fitz John, the younger Humfrey de
Bohun, with two sons of Simon de Montfort, and several
other barons.

The king, now at liberty and restored to power, was
at Worcester on the 7th of August, the second day after
the battle.* He removed thence to Gloucester, where, on
the S4th of August, he levied a heavy fine on the citizens
of Hereford for their attachment to the baronial cause.f
On the 28th of November following, a truce was made
with the Welsh; but they still continued in arms for many
months. On the 21st of September, 1266, the king was at
Shrewsbury, negotiating with Llewellyn ; and on the 25th
he was at Montgomery, where, four days afterwards, a
peace was agreed to.J This peace was confirmed at Mi-
chaelmas, 1268, when Henry .again went to Shrewsbury
with an army ; yet, on the 21st of May, in the year fol-
lowing, we find Edward once more obliged to meet the
Welsh prince at Montgomery.
Although the party of Simon de Montfort was destroyed

* Fcedera, i. p. 458. t Focdera, i&. % Foedera, i. p. 473.

178 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

in the battle of Evesham^ the civil war was not ended.
The remains of the great baronial confederacy held out at
Kenilworth^ Chesterfield^ and especially in the Isle of Ely.
Even the earl of Gloucester^ whose defection had been the
cause of the overthrow of the barons^ turned round again^
and forced the royalists to give ground before the popular
feelings of the nation. The immediate consequences of
this great revolution were large confiscations of estates^ and
changes of possessors of landed property. None benefitted
more by these confiscations than the borderers who had
stood firmly by the king^ and particularly the already
powerful fianily of the Mortimers, who, after a few gene-
rations, will be found contending for the crown itself.
Roger de Mortimer of Wigmore, the bitter enemy of Simon
de Montfort, received immediately after the battle of Eve-
sham, grants of lands in Wales, of which, in the troubles
which preceded, he had taken forcible possession, and his
extensive territory was increased by the addition of Kerry
and Kedewyn, and the castle of Delvoryn.*

As far as England was concerned, the liberties for which
the barons had fought were not lost in the carnage at
Evesham: they not only survived the slaughter of their
defenders, but they triumphed even in their defeat. During
the struggle between the king and the barons, a party
which had lain dormant during the times of Anglo-Norman
tyranny, the commonalty, stepped into the field and gained
an influence which no victories or intrigues could afterwards
destroy: in the destruction of the barons, it was partly
relieved from a power which might have been more fatal to
its interests than that of the most despotic of monarchies.
The feudal aristocracy of the Anglo-Norman barons had
ceased to exist in the force which 4t possessed in the twelfth
century, but the aristocracy itself survived a little longer to
perish by the sword in the sanguinary wars of the Roses,
or by the axe under the peaceful but no less sanguinary
reigns of the first Tudors.

* Hiftory of the Mortimers, printed in tho Monasticon, vi. p. 351.

THE HISTOEY OP LUDLOW. 179

It is thus that the fatal conflict at Evesham closes a
distinctly marked period of English history. Its effect on
the history of Wales was still more remarkable. Since the
reign of the Conqueror the Welsh had enjoyed a precarious
independence, which was equally useless and equally inju-
rious to both parties, English as well as Welsh. Wales, as
the smaller power, lived only by the internal quarrels of
the greater power; and it lived in a state of existence
which could only be tolerated because the greater power
had too much to do at home to bring a remedy to it.
When the power of the English barons was even partially
broken, the fate of Wales was decided. From the time of
the Norman conquest to the battle of Evesham, Wales
had an historical importance which probably it had never
had before. But in that battle its importance was lost. It
made a fruitless struggle in the following reign, which
ended in the extinction of its native princes.

•W^V^AA^S^^^^^/W^WWWWN/VWWV

SECTION VII.

Omdaion of the Border at the beginning of the Reign of
Edward L

POLITICAL events may be traced on the face of the
ground where they occurred, as well as in the pages of the
chronicler, and it is by no means an unimportant part of
the historian's task to observe their local effects at the time
as well as the marks which they have left behind them.
The appearance of the border in the latter part of the
thirteenth century, after the long continued warfare which
has been recited in the preceding chapter, must have
contrasted strongly with its appearance in the twelfth cen-
tury, and in the time of the Anglo-Saxons. In the first
place, the towns had been increasing greatly in importance ;

180 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

amid the shock of contending parties^ they were beginning
to obtain rights and privileges which gave them a new
existence. They became corporate bodies acknowledged
by all parties; little republics in the midst of an armed
aristocracy, which elected their own governors in the form
of what are now called corporations, and took caie of their
own safety; they were defended from the jealousy of the
aristocracy by strong waUs manned with their own soldiers,
and by the protection of the crown. In many cases the
hamlet which had originally been formed under the pro-
tection of the baron's castle, perhaps by his own serfs and
retainers, now lifted its head with scorn against its former
masters. In the Welsh wars of the thirteenth century, the
border towDR suffered far less than the border castles. It
was a step towards a new and better state of things.

At the close of the great baronial contest, the open
country on the border of Wales must have presented a
fearful picture of desolation, such as we can now with
difficulty conceive. Even much of the forests had been
destroyed by the effects of war, either cleared away that they
might no longer serve as a retreat or place of ambush for
crafty enemies, or cut down to furnish wood for the continual
repairs of the fortification of castles and towns, destroyed
by designing or accidental incendiaries.* The woods which
remained were long afterwards the haunt of thieves and out-
laws, who not only robbed and murdered the passengers on
the high roads when they travelled singly or weakly armed,
but even at times associated together to attack and plunder
the fairs and markets. The position and extent of these
forests may be traced by the modem wood-lands, and by
the magnificent old forest-trees which have been spared
by the axe to adorn our parks and fields. Few parts of
England are so rich in noble trees of this kind as the border
of Wales. Among the most remarkable specimens of such

• We learn from the Hundred Rolls of 39 Henry III (vol. u. p. 66),
that a wood at Forde (pulcrum nemus, magnum et integrum) had been
entirely cut down by the burgesses of Shrewsburyi with the king's licence.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

181

AncUsiit 0<ik at Nonuptoa.

trees in the neighbourhood of Ludlow, may be mentioned
the ^ed oak on the brow of the hill at Nonupton, or Nun's-
Upton, near the village of Little Hereford, which was
probably standing there previous to the Nonnan Conquest,
and then surrounded by a thick forest. It would appear
by its name that the manor formerly belonged to one of the
border convents. The tree is hollowed by decay, and its
branches mutilated by the effects of time ; the circumference
of the trunk, near the ground, is fifty feet; and at the
height of a yard and a half from the ground, it is thirty-
three feet.

After the arrival of Edward I in England, one of his first
cares was to put a stop to the numerous cases of oppression
and injustice which had been suffered to arise and con-
tinue amid the troubles of his father's reign. For this
purpose inquisitions were made throughout the Hundreds
2b

I8t THB HISTORY OF LXmLOW.

in every county^ the results of which have been preserved
in the Hundred Rolls^ documents of singular importance
for the light which they throw on the condition of the
country at this period. The laws and customs of the forests
were the source at all times of injustice and oppression,
and these rolls afford us instances of the violence with
which they were then put in force by the border barons.
The principal forests were retained in the hands of the
king, who appointed foresters and granted them lands or
the tenure of keeping guard over them. The yeomanry
and the burgesses of towns were allowed to keep their swine
in them on the payment of a certain fee, named pannage;
and the foresters themselves were allowed certain privileges
and perquisites. Robert the forester of Wellington held
freely of the king half a virgate of land for keeping the
wood and common of Wellington. The cattle of the town
of Wellington were allowed to go in during the whole year,
except the month in which occurred the feast of St. John
the Baptist, and the period from Michaelmas to Martinnias,
the swine paying every year two pence for those above a
year old, and one penny for those which were under a year,
and for the young pigs nothing. The forester was allowed
as his perquisite, all retropanage, and dead wood, and oaks
blown down by the wind to the number of five (those above
that number going to the king), and also all branches blown
down by the wind ; and he rented of the king four acres
and a rood of purpresture or enclosed forest-land, for which
he paid eighteen pence an acre.* The foresters of Walter
de Clifford claimed as a fee from every house in the baili-
wick of Clee a hen at Christmas and five eggs at Easter,
and if they were not readily given, they treated the inhabi-
tants with great rigour.f The foresters appear to have
been in the general habit of levying fees of this kind.
Goats as well as pigs were kept in the forest lands by the
foresters themselves, and also by the poor, who paid a

« Hundred Rolls, vol. ii. p. 56. f lb. p. 83.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 18S

Teiy small acknowledgement. This was the case in the
mannor of Stretton^ when the inhabitants declared that^
unless they were allowed as heretofore to have their goats
*' going in the woods and in the mountains without
woods/' they could no longer live there.* At the time of
the inquisitions above alluded to^ numerous encroachments
had b^n made upon the king's forests on the border, by
inclosures, &c., without any regular permission from the
crown.

The Hundred Rolls give us numerous remarkable in-
stances of the insecurity of person as well as property at
this period. The jealousies between the lords of the castles
and the landed proprietors, and the towns, and even
between one town and another, gave rise to frequent scenes
of yiolence. In the year preceding that on which the
inquisition was made, on the Simday after the feast of St.
Matthew the Apostle, (1273) Richard Russel constable of
Salop, gave four pence to a certain lad named William de
Somerset to pass through the village of ' Christesheth*
shouting out all the time, wekare ! wekare ! " to the shame
of man and woman." It is not at present clear in what
the insult consisted. But the lad performed his task;
and as he was going through the village a woman came
out and said, " you say ill !" on which he struck her with
his knife, and she cried out, and one William Madoc came
and asked him why he struck her. The lad struck him
also and cut off his thumb, and, seeing him fall down as if
he were dead, he quitted the high road and fled. Then the
woman raised the cry upon him, and the whole village
joined in the pursuit, and in the end one was slain by an
arrow, but it is not quite clear whether it was the original
trespasser or one of his pursuers.f

On another occasion, Lucas the beadle of Cleobury with
two of his townsmen came to Ludlow fair, on St. Law-
rence's day (1274), and bought some oxen, and because

• Hundred Rolls, vol. ii. p. 84, t lb. p. 92.

184 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

they refused to observe the customary rules in passing
through Goalford gate (porta de Caldeford), the gate-
keeper, Roger Tyrel, refused to let him pass. A quarrel
ensued, and the Cleobury men beat and wounded the gate-
keeper, and took from him a Danish axe of the value of
twelve-pence. At this moment came Thomas de Wul-
verslow, bailiff of Ludlow, and his servants, who found the
men of Cleobury dragging away prisoner the gate-keeper^
and proceeded to stop them. But they also were attacked
by Hugh Donville, baiUff of the hundred of Stottesdon^
who happened to be there with a considerable body of his
men, and who attempted to carry off the bailiffs and their
servants, but being imable to do this, they took from them
by force another Danish axe of the value of eight-pence.*

The townsmen of Ludlow appear to have been frequently
ill-treated by their neighbours, particularly by the retainers
of the lords of Wigmore and Corf ham. The foresters of
Wigmore on one occaision came to the mill on the Corve,
and seized upon the miller and carried him to Bromfield,
where they extorted from him six-pence and his knife and
girdle. On another occasion the same foresters seized on
Elias Millar of Ludlow, on the liighway between Ludlow and
the Sheet (La Sete), and took from him his sword and bow,
and having tied his hands behind him, they led him in that
condition to Steventon, where they further extorted firam
him two shillings, and then let him go.f One day as the
bailiffs of Castle Holgod were bringing six quarters of oats
towards Ludlow, in passing by Corf ham they were attacked
on the high road by the bailiffs of John Gifford of Corfham,
who led the horses into the demesne of their lord, and
there immediately sowed the oats and harrowed the ground
with the horses which had carried them. At another time,
when a love-day had been appointed to arrange a quarrel
between John Burdon and Hugh de BuUedon, the constable
of Corfham, who appears to have been a friend of the latter,

• Hundred Rolls, vol. ii. p. 99. f lb. p. 99.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 185

attacked John Burdon treacherously as he was going to the
place of meeting, knocked him down, and compelled him
unjustly to pay a fine of twenty shillings as the price of
reconciliation with his opponent.* On another occasion, a
cart of John Gi£ford, passing through the town of Ludlow,
broke a chaldron belonging to Richard de Orleton, one of
the burgesses, and the carter not having wherewith to make
good the damage, left one of his horses in pledge. The
constable of Corfham as soon as he heard of this, ordered
the cattle of dame Sibil de Orleton to be seized, and kept
them a week, till Richard de Orleton (who was probably
her husband) not only gave up the horse, but consented to
pay a fine of sixty shillings, of which he was obliged to
pay down forty shillings and seven-pence, apparently all
the ready money he had in hand. In a similar manner the
constable of Wigmore seized forty head of cattle belonging
to burgesses of Ludlow, as they were passing through the
barony of Clim from Montgomery fair, and drove them
thence to Wigmore castle, where he retained them eight
days, on account of a piece of cloth of a woman of Wigmore
which he pretended had been cut and sold in the town
of Ludlow.t

Such instances of oppression as the above are of frequent
occurrence in these Rolls, and show us in a remarkable
manner the uncertainty of justice on the border at that
period. Assaults and robbery, and even manslaughter,
were common, and when perpetrated by the servants
and retainers of the barons, appear to have been seldom
ptmished efiectively. A remarkable instance occurred just
before the inquisition in the hundred of Condover. Alice
de Haumon ( ? Hagmon), dwelling at Biriton broke open
the door of the church of Biriton (Berrington), and stole
thence a cloth belonging to Richard de Bath, which had
probably been deposited there as in a place of security. At
his complaint she was imprisoned in Shrewsbury jail, but

• Hundred Rolls, Yoi. ii. p. 101. t lb. p. M.

186 THB HISTOKT OF LUDLOW.

eflcaped without judgement by the favour of WilUam de
Munalow, whom she had bribed by the gift of a cow ; and
at the time the inquisition was made^ she and her husband
Nicholas were threatening Richard de Bath to kill him or
lame him and bum his house.* The entries on these im-
portant documents form a practical commentary on a popular
song of the time, in which the venality of the law courts is
satirically described ;t and in which the servants and cheers
of the judges are represented as thirsting greedily after the
money of the poor —

'<< Ad pedes sedent clerici.
Qui velat famelici

snnti donis inhiantes ;

et pro lege dantes.
Quod hii qui nichil dederint,
Qaamvis cito venerinty

erant expectantes."

Equality of laws, and the liberty of the people, were thii^
as yet but imperfectly understood.

Among the names of the barons and more powerful
landed proprietors on the border in the latter part of the
thirteenth century, we still find many of those of the ori-
ginal Norman settlers. We have akeady observed that the
change among them caused by the domestic wars of the
reign of Henry III was not great. The chief families
in the north of Shropshire were represented, in 1255
(39 Henry IlT),t hy James de Alditheley, Robert and
Roger Corbet, John and Hamo L'Estrange, William and
John Fitz Alan, John de Verdun, Giles de Herdington
(lord of Wellington), Robert de Lacy, Robert de Say, Fulke
Fitz Warine of Whittington, Odo de Hodnet, William
Mauduit, who was lord of Castle Holgod in the neighbour-

• Hundred Rolls, toI. iL p. 92.

t Printed in the Political Songs (Camden Society Publication), p. 224.
. X '^^ following information is taken chiefly from the Hundred Rolls.

THB H18T0RT OF LUDLOW. 187

hood of Ladlow^ Ralph de Botiler (lord of Wem), and the
family of the Warrens. William Mauduit of Castle Holgod
had also the manor of Steventon^ and large estates iA the
Clees. Robert de Lacy held Walton and Onibury; John
de Verdun (who had married one of the heiresses of Walter
de Lacy) had Stokesay^ Stanton Lacy, and other manors;
John Fitz Alan was lord of Clun, and also held Shelderton
and the View, then called Weho. To the west, Thomas
Corbet held the greater portion of Chirbury htmdred ; and
John de Alditheley was lord of Ford. In the southern part
of the county, Ludlow, with the other heiress of Walter de
Lacy, had gone to the family of the Grenyilles, from
whom it afterwards passed, by an heiress, to the Mortimers.
The country round about was divided among a multitude of
lords. The Ashfords, and lands in the neighbourhood, were
held by Hugh Carbonell, Henry de Budlers or Bowdlers,
and William de Stuteville, the latter being lord also of Bur-
ford ; Ledwich belonged to -Simon de Hugford ; Roger de
Mortimer possessed Cainham, the Sheet, Hope (held under
him by Robert Baghard), and further to the east Cleobury
Mortimer, and other estates in its neighbourhood; Brian
de Brompton held some lands imder him in this part of
the county; Hopton belonged to Robert de Wafre. On
the other side of Ludlow, Acley (Oakley Park), with
other lands, was the property of Simon de Halton;
and Corfham belonged to Walter de Clifford; while the
family of the Bumells held the middle of the county.
The way in which the Cliffords had obtained the castle
of Corfham was not the most honourable; it appeared
by the inquisition of 1274, that Henry II had given
it to Walter de Clifford for the love of his daughter
Rosamond.* The changes which had taken place at the
date last mentioned were not great, most of the principal
fiunilies still held their ground ; but Richard earl of Corn-
wall (the brother of Edward III) had estates about Bridge-

• Hundred Rolls, yoI. i. p. 93. See before p. 145 of the present Yolume.

188 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

north and in Condover hundred^ and had also obtained of
William Mauduit the manor of Castle Holgod, which he
had subsequently given to the Templars. At this time
Greoflfey de Grenville held Stanton Lacy. One half of
the town of Ludlow belonged to John de Verdun, the
other to £. de Eturville ( ? G. de Genville). Cainham
had been given by Roger de Mortimer to the abbot of
Wigmore; and Ledwich had passed into the hands of the
prior of Bromfield.

We have only an abstract of the Hundred Bolls for Here-
fordshire of the third year of Edward I. The most powerful
baron in that county was Roger de Mortimer, who possessed
Wigmore and Radnor. The two estates of Simon de
Montfort, Lugwardine and Mawardine, had been seized by
prince Edward after the battle of Evesham^ and had passed
the latter to Roger de Mortimer, and the other to Robert
Waleraund. At this time, John Gifford had Clifford ; John
and Roger de Clifford, Eardisley ; and Humfrey de Bohun,
Himtingdon. Hugh de Mortimer of Richard's Castle was
recently dead, and that manor was in the hands of the
king's eschaetor, who soon afterwards dehvered it to his
son Robert de Mortimer. Some of the juries exhibit
in their answers to the questions of the judges, strong
feelings of jealousy at the increasing power and encroach-
ments of Roger de Mortimer, after the battle of Evesham
(post helium de Evesham).

All these estates were held, and under-let, by various
tenures, the most frequent of which was military service
to keep guard at and aid in the defence of the border
castles, or to accompany the king in his invasions of Wales.
Most of the estates in Chirbury hundred had to furnish
soldiers to keep the castle of Montgomery. Part of Purslow
hundred was under the same kind of obUgation to the
castle of Wigmore. Similar service was also paid to the
towns ; Robert Dovile held land in Wigley, by the tenure
of guarding the Tower of Ludlow fifteen days in time
of war. Many houses, &c. in Ludlow were boimd by

THE HISTORY OP LUDLOW. 189

sinular tenures to furnish dilflferent articles to Ludlow castle.
William Millar of Ludlow held the old fish-pond (vetus
vivarium) by paying at the feast of St. Mary Magdalen a
pound of wax to the castle of Ludlow. At Bridgenorth^ the
manor of Little Bridgenorth was held by a similar obliga-
tion to furnish coals for the castle whenever the king should
happen to be there. Gbdfirey de Thorpe held the hamlet of
Aston Major^ dependent on the manor of Edgemund^ by the
service of presenting to Henry de Alditheley on Christmas-
day a pair of gloves of the value of one penny.

Amid all these changes^ the names of places alone were
permanent^ and at the present day almost all names of
places in England are Anglo-Saxon. In most cases even
the manors retained the names of their Saxon possessors.
In a few instances they received^ about the time of which
we are now speakings adjuncts which indicate their Norman
lords. Thus we have Stanton Lacy (a manor of Walter de
Lacy) and Ewyas Lacy; Ashford Carbonel and Ashford
Bowdler, from the two families whom we have seen located
there; Hopton Wafers, which belonged to Robert de
Wafie ; Stoke-Say, from the family of the Says, to whom it
belonged; Hope Baggot, which belonged to the family of
Baggot or Baghard; Brampton Brian, the manor of Brian
de Brampton ; Cleobury Mortimer, one <^ the chief castles
of the Mortimers, &c.

The thirteenth century was the period at which origi-
nated most of our common family names. Before that time,
people possessed only the name which they had received at
the baptismal font, individuals, where there happened to be
more than one of a name, being distinguished among their
friends and neighbours by what we should now call nick-
names. As population increased, the nick-names thus
required were more numerous, till gradually and almost
imperceptibly the nick-name of the &ther became a heir-
loom of the family, and descended to his children, thus
becoming a family name. The simplest mode in which
these names were formed was that of adding the name of
2c

190 THE HISTOKY OF LUDLOW.

the fiither to that of the son. Thus^ if there weie three
men living in the same place whose names were Richard,
Stephen^ and John, and each of them had a son called
William, the three Williams were distinguished by the
names of William son of Richard, William son of Stephen,
and William son of John, or in the shorter phraseology of
the time, William Richardson, William Stevenson^ and
WilUam Johnson. This is the origin of all our modem
names ending in son. Many persons took their nick-names
from the places at which they resided, or from whence they
came. These were often names of towns : Ludlow seems
to have been populous, for we find frequent mention of
people of the name in different parts of England, in the
various ranks of society. We have already seen Hobkin
of Ludlow, a gate keeper at Gloucester; we often meet
with clerks and monks of the name in the monastic houses
and ecclesiastical benefices on the border ; and we even find
one or two knights who went by the same appellation. In
the Hundred Rolls we find a freeholder in Oxfordshire
of the name of Richard de Lodelawe (ii. 732), a John de
Lodelawe at Coventry (ib. SS9), a Nicholas de Lodelawe in
Northamptonshire (ib. 18), a merchant of London named
Nicholas de Ludelawe (i. 406), a William de Lodelawe in the
himdred of Ford in Shropshire (ib. 96), &c.* It thus
happens that there are many distinct families of the name
of Ludlow remaining at the present day. Li the same man-
ner, at Ludlow we find in the thirteenth century men of the
name of Leominster, Orleton, Burton, Stanton, &c. as having
come from those places. In the country the nick-names
of people were more frequently derived from the places at
which they were resident, as at the wood, at the stream.

• We find a Lawrence de Lodelaw (named of coune after the patron
Saint of the church) connected with the celebrated Italian mercantile
house of the Ricardi of Lucca, in the nineteenth year of the reign of
Edward L (DoTon's Issues of the Exchequer, p. 102). Walter de Lodelowe
was precentor of the Abbey of Wigmore, in the thirteenth century. (See
further on in the present yolume, p. 195.)

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 191

stt the hiU, &c., from which come our common names of
Wood, Hill, and the like. Thus we find in the Hundred
EoUs many such names as Johannes de la HuUe and
Simon de la Hulle (of the Hill, answering to the present
names of John and Simon Hill) ; Ricardus de Aula and
Willelmus de la Hall (of the Hall, or Richard and Wil-
liam Hall); Henricus de Bosoo (of the Wood, or Henry
Wood) ; Johannes de Molendino and Martinus de Molen-
dinis (of the Mill or MiUs, or John Mill and Martin Mills) ;
Johannes ad Boscum and Gilbertus atte Wode (at the
Wood, Atwood); Simon ad Fontem and Robertus atte
Welle (at the Well, Atwell); Johannes atte Wey (at the
Way, Atway); Ricardus ultra Viam (beyond the Way);
Johannes atte Grrene (at the Green, this name was very
common, because every village had its green, about which
the houses of the peasantry were built); Rogerus ad
Montem (at the Hill) ; Walter atte Strem (at the Stream) ;
Alice atte Tunishende (at the Town*8-end, Townsend);
Walterus ad Portam (at the Gate). Many of these nick-
names were given on account of some personal charac-
teristic of temper, form, size, colour, &c. Thus we have
John le Wylde (the wild, John Wilde) ; Nicholas le Lung
(the long, Nicholas Long); Peter le Blake (the black,
Peter Black); Jacobus Hardheved (hard-head); Adam le
Bole (the bull, Adam Bull); Alicia le Hane (the hen,
Alice Hen) ; Walterus and IsabeUe le Gous (the goose) ;
Willelmus le Enfant (the child, William Child) ; and such
common names as Grrim, Godswayn (the good swain),
Grodknave, Gk)dman, Godhosbonde, Godheved (good head),
Godegrom (the good groom), Godeson, Bademan, &c. Li
towns, people took their family names from the trade or
profession of the first who received the nick-name, which
was the more naturally transmitted to his descendants, since
professions were generally continued from &ther to son:
thus we have Ricardus le Massun (the mason, Richard
Mason) ; Jacobus le Cok (the cook, James Cook) ; Johannes
le Porter (the porter, John Porter) ; Robertus Clericus (the

192 THB HI8T0BT OF LUDLOW.

clerk^ Robert Clark) and Johannes filius Clerid (the son of
the derk^ John Clarkson); Johannes le Franchome (the
free-man, John Freeman) ; Robertus le Panmer (the palmer,
Robert Palmer. To exemplify the f<»egoing observations,
it may be stated that, in the time of the inquisition before
alluded to, the following names occur as bui^sses of
Ludlow: Reginaldus filius Stephani (Steven's son)^ Ri-
cardus de Orleton (of Orleton), WiUehnus le Grardiner (the
gardener), Robertus Clericus (the clerk), Gralfiridus Lieo-
minstre (of Leominster), Rogerus Monetarius (the coiner or
money-dealer), Ricardufl de Hulle (of the hill), Reginaldus
le Fulur (the fowler), Elyas Molendinarius (the miller),
Stephanus le Grindar (the grinder), Thomas Cyrothecaiius
(the glover), Oal&idus Aurifaber (the goldsmith), Nicholaus
filius Andrese (Andrew's son), WiUelmus Pistor (the baker),
Thomas de Capella (of the chapel), Reginaldus Tinctor
(the dyer), Hugo le Mercer (the mercer). There can be no
doubt that these names belonged literally to the persons
whom they designated, that two of them were really sons
of Stephen and Andrew, that three came firom Orleton,
Leominster, and the Hill, and that the others exercised
the trades and callings alluded to; perhaps one of them
was a clericus attached to the church of St. Lawrence ; but
it is no less certain that these names answered to what
at the present day would be, Reginald Stevenson, Richard
Orleton, William Gardiner, Robert Clark, Geoffrey Leo-
minster, Roger Coiner, Richard Hill, Reginald Fowler,
Elias Millar, Stephen Grinder, Thomas Glover, Geoffiey
Goldsmith, Nicholas Anderson, William Baker, Thomas
Chappel, Reginald Dyer, and Hugh Mercer. These names
help to show us the number and character of the trades
then exercised in Ludlow ; there were without doubt many
more than here indicated. It is probable that rope-making
was carried on here, and the little island formed by the
winding of the Corve (Lyneye, i. e. island of flax), appears
to have produced the materials. The occurrence of the
name in its present form in the Romance of the Fitz

THB HISTORY OF LXn>IX)W. 19S

IVariiies, shows that it is too ancient to admit of any of the
more ingenious derivations which have been proposed.

While these great changes were taking place in the eha*
racter and political condition of the people^ their language
and literature were also undergoing important modifications.
During two centuries after the Norman conquest^ the lan-
guage spoken by the better classes of society was what is
flailed Anglo-Norman, a dialect of the French tongue ; and
the Anglo-Saxon was laid aside, except as the language
of the lower orders, and in a few books written in that
language in order to be understood by them. During the
baronial wars a great revolution was effected; and, after
the middle of the thirteenth century, the Anglo-Saxon
language, much altered in form, and mixed with numerous
Anglo-Norman words, came again into general use, and
from the shape under which it then appeared it has been
gradually moulded down into the modem English. It is
to the mixture of Anglo-Norman and Anglo-Saxon that we
owe most of the modem English words which have an
affinity with the Latin. Several books are still preserved
which show that the border of Wales had as important a
connection with early English literature, as with English
history. On the banks of the Severn, was composed one of
the earliest important poems in the English language, the
Brut of Layamon,* a native of the hamlet of Emley. It is
a long poem, and is extremely interesting as a specimen of
the transition period of our language, even the versification
being a mixture of the Anglo-Saxon alliterative couplets and
the Anglo-Norman rimes. A few lines, giving an account
of the fabulous origin of the name of the Severn, from
Abren the daughter of Locrine who, with her mother, is
said to have been drowned in it, will serve as a specimen
of the lang^uage spoken by the borderers at the beginning
of the thirteenth century. The same legend is alluded to
by another poet who wrote on the border at a later period,
when he speaks of, —

* This work is edited by Sir Frederick Madden.

194 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

'^ Severn swift, guilty of maiden's death."

After relating the war between Locrine and his discarded
consort Guendolena^ in which the king was slain, Layamon
proceeds to say, —

<< Guendoleine hefde fe ufere

bond
and i-ahnede hire al this lond :

and heo ferde to |»an castle

per ^strild wes inne ;

heo nom iEstrild and Abren,

and lette heom i-bindin,

and lette heom wrpen,

in ane dcope watere,

)»er heo adronken^

and )>er heo dea9 ]K>leden.

pa wes Ouendolelne

leodene Isefdi,

)>a hehte heo ane heste

mid haigere witte

yai men sculden )>at ilk water

per Abren wes adrnnken

clepien hit Avren,

for )>ane mseidene Abren,

and for Locrine*B lafe

)>e wes hire kine-loverd/

pe streonede Abren

uppen ^strild.

pa hefde heo i-sclawen yene

king
and pe neowe quene and heora

child ;
and Avren hatte get thas ae,

at Cristes-chirche heo fallet$ i
]>are sse.

Gaendolena had the upper

handy
and possessed herself of all this

land:
and she went to the castle
where ^strild was in ;
She took ^strild and Abren,
and let bind them,
and let throw them
into a deep water,
where they were drowned,
and where they suffered death.
Then was Guendolena
mistress (lady) of the people,
then she ordered a command
with lofty wit,
that men should that same

water
where Abren was drowned
call it Avem,
for the maiden Abren,
and for the love of Locrine
who was her natural lord,
who begat Abren
upon ^strild.
Then had she slain the king

and the new queen and her
child ;

and that river is still called
Avren,

it falleth into the sea at Christ-
Church.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 195

Among the manuscripts in the library of Corpus Christi
college, Cambridge, is a copy of the early English Rule of
Nims (translated from the Latin of Simon de Ghent), which
is a valuable example of English prose of the age of
Layamon, and which formerly belonged to the library of
the abbey of Wigmore, to which it was given by John
Fercel, at the instigation of Walter de Ludlow, who was at
that time precentor of the abbey.*

Among the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum
(MS. Harl. No. 278), is a book which belonged at the
end of the thirteenth century, or beginning of the four-
teenth, to the church or to the college attached to the
church of St. Lawrence, at Ludlow. From a calendar at
the beginning we learn that the church of St. Lawrence
was dedicated on the 13th of February,t but the year is not
stated. The greater part of this volume is written in the
Anglo-Norman language, which continued to be in use
till late in the fourteenth century, and its contents are
of a mixed theological and literary kind, illustrating the
class of reading then fashionable with a man of taste of the
clerical order. It contains first a calendar, in which is the
entry concerning the dedication of the church ; 2, a copy of
the early Anglo-Norman prose version of the Psalms ; 8, a
metrical Anglo-Norman version of some parts of the
Psalms ; 4, the Bestiaire d' Amours, a poetical description
of animals, &c. with curious moralisations ; 5, the rules
given by Robert Grosteste for regulating the household
and lands of a nobleman ; 6, the French version of Turpin's
History of Charlemagne ; 7, a French treatise on confes-
sion ; 8, various fragments, among which are many charms
and a treatise on chiromancy ; 9, the Manuel des Pech^s, a
weU-known religious poem attributed to Robert Grosteste ;

• MS. C. C. C. Camb. No. 402. The particulars stated above are giyen
in an inscription on the first leaf.

f IduB Febr. Dedicacion de la eglise Seint Laurence de Lodelawe.

fol. 1 TO.

196 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

10^ an account of St. Patrick's Purgatory^ in French verse ;
lly a French poem entitled La Pleinte d' Amour; 12,
various religious matters, in Latin.

In the reign of Edward I, lived Robert of Gloucester,
the author of a chronicle of England in English verse, who
may be considered as one of our earliest known border
poets after Layamon. A few lines will serve as a qpedmen
of the language of this writer; it will be seen that it is
rather a strong dialect, bearing some resemblance to diat of
Somersetshire at the present day. Robert of Oloucester
says of king Stephen, —

^* In the sevene yer of hys kynedom the kyng the castel nom,
Ac the emperesse ne vond he nogt, tho he yn com.
Muche robberye me dude aboute in everych toun.
And bounde men and enprisonede, vorte hii fynede raunsonn.
Hii ne sparede namore clerkes than lewed men y-wys ;
So that the byssopes vorte amendy thysy
In the eygtethe yere of the k3mge8 kynedom
At Londone hii hulde a parlement, that many man to com,
And the kyng hym snlf was therate ; hii amansede tho
Alle ihulke that clerkes such despyt dude and wo,
That no man, bote the pope one, hem aooyly ne mygte.
So that me hnld clerkes therafter bet to rygte."

One of the most interesting manuscript collections of
early English poetry known, preserved in the Harleian
library in the British Museum (No. 2258), appears to have
been written in Herefordshire, and most probably by a
' clerk' of the priory of Leominster. It comprises a great
variety of matters, in English and Anglo-Norman verse,
and was written soon after the year 1307, but contains
pieces composed during the reigns of Henry III. and Edward
I. There are some political songs in it ;* and that against

* The songs here alluded to, are printed in the Political Songs, (edited
by the writer of the present volume), pp. 69, 185, 137, 149, 153, 155,
182, 187, 212, 231, 237, 241. Some of the miscellaneous poems from this
manuscript are printed in the Reliquise Antique, edited by Thomas Wright
and James Orchard Halliwell, 2 vols. 8to. 1841, and 1842.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 197

the king of Almaigne^ the Lament of Simon de Montfort,
the Order of Fair Ease, thfe Song of the Husbandman,
another against the Pride of the Ladies, a Satire on the
Consistory Courts, the Song against the King's Taxes, the
Songs on the Flemish Insurrection and on the Execution
of Sir Simon Eraser, the Outlaw's Songs of Traillebaston,
the Song against the Retainers of the Oreat People, and
the Lament on the Death of Edward I, show how much
interest the borderers took in the passing events of the
time. Among the more interesting parts of this volume
are the lyrical pieces,* from among which we will select
as a specimen of the language of the border at the begin-
ning of the fourteenth century (a hundred years after the
date of the lines quoted above from Layamon), a love-song,
in which mention is made of the beautiful river Wye.

" Ichot a burde in a bour ase beryl so bryht,
Ase saphyr in selver semly on sybt,
Ase jaspe the gentil that lemeth with lyht,
Ase gemet in golde, ant ruby wel ryht,
. Ase onycle .he ys on y-holden on hyht,
Ase diamaunde the dere in day when he is dyht ;
He is coral y-cud with cayser and knyht,
Ase emeraude a-morewen this may haveth myht.

The myht of the margarite haveth this mai mere,
For charbocle ich hire ches bi chyn ant by chere.

Hire rode is ase rose that red is on rys,
With lilye-white leres lossum he is ;
The primerole he passeth, the parvenke of pris,
With alisaundre thareto, ache ant anys ;
Coynte ase columbine, such hire cunde ys,

* The lyrical pieces from this volume have been edited by the writer
of the present work in a small collection entitled Specimens of the
Lyric Poetry of England in the reign of Edward I (published by the
Percy Society). In the preface to that book arc stated the reasons for
believing the MS. to have been written at Leominster.
2 I)

198 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

Olad under gore in gro ant in grjs,

He is blosme opon bleo brihtest under bis.

With celydojne ant sauge, ase thou thi self sys.

That syht upon that semlj, to blis he is broht.

He is solsecle to sanne ys for-soht.

He is papejai in pyn that beteth me my bale.
To trewe tortle in a tour y telle the mi tale ;
He is thrustle thryven in thro that singeth in sale.
The wilde laveroc ant wolc ant the wodewale ;
He is fancoun in friht demest in dale.
Ant with everuch a gome gladest in gale.
From Weye he is wisist into Wyrhale ;
Hire nome is in a note of the nyhtegale.

In annote is hire nome, nempneth hit non ;

Whose ryht redeth, ronne to Johon.

Muge he is ant roondrake, thonh miht of the mone ;

Trewe triacle y-told with tonges in trone ;

Such licoris mai leche from lyve to lone,

Such Sucre mon secheth that saveth men sone,

Blithe y-blessed of Crist that bayeth me mi bone ;

When deme dede is in dayne, deme are done ;

Ase gromyl in grene, grene is the grone ;

Ase qulbibe ant comyn cud is in crone.
Cud comyn in court, canel in cofre,
With gyngyvre ant sedewale ant the gylofre.

He is Medieme of miht, mercie of mede,

Rekeoe ase Regnas resoun to rede ;

Trewe as Tegen in tour, ase Wyrwein in wede ;

Baldore then Byrne that of the bor bede ;

Ase Wylcadoun he is wys, dohty of dede ;

Feyrore then Floyres, folkes to fede ;

Cud ase Cradoc in court carf the brede ;

Hendore then Hilde that haveth me to hede.
He haveth me to hede, this bendy anon,
Oentil ase Jonas he joyeth with Jon."

The allusions to the popular romances of the time in the

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 199

last lines of the foregoing song^ show that they were fami-
liar to the ears of the people of the borders of Wales.

The next great border poet whom we hear of is the
author of the remarkable poem entitled Piers Ploughman^
written soon after the middle of the fourteenth century,
and one of the most popular works of the middle ages. Its
influence on the minds of our forefathers paved the way for
the Beformation.* The history of its author is very obscure ;
but there can be no doubt of its being written at, or in the
neighbourhood of^ Malvern. The following are the open
lines of this poem ; they form a link in our sketch of the
changes of the language spoken by the people of the Welsh
Marches. The alliterative verse of the Anglo-Saxons had
again come into use: it marks a new revolution in the
public mind.

** In a somer seson
When soft was the sonne,
I shoop me into shroudes
As I a sheep weere,
In habite as an heremite
Unholy of workes,
Wente wide in this worlde
Wonders to here ;
Ac on a May morwenynge
On Malveme hillcs
Me bifel a ferly.
Of fairye me thoughte.
I was wery for-wandred,
And wente mc to reste
Under a brood bank
By a bournes syde ;
And as I lay and lenede.
And loked on the watres,
I slombred into a slepyng,
It sweyed so murye."

* An edition of this remarkable poem has been recently edited by
the writer of the present volume, 2 vols, foolscap 8vo. Pickering, 1842.

£00 THE HISTORY OF LT7DL0W.

About seventy years after the date of Piers PloughmaQ,
in the beginning of the reign of the unfortunate Henry YI
(a. d. 1426), another border poet named John Awdlay (a
bUnd bard), wrote in the monastery of Hagmon, a religious
work, or perhaps rather a series of religious poems, preserved
in a manuscript in the library of Mr. Douce (now in the
Bodleian library at Oxford),* which, though inferior in
merit and importance to Piers Ploughman, is still curious
as a monument of the language of Shropshire in the earlier
part of the fifteenth century. The following lines, which
were almost prophetic of the misfortunes which fell upon
that ill-fated monarch, may serve as a specimen.

" Pray we that Lord is lord of all.
To save our king, his reme ryalle,
And let never myschip uppon him falle,

Ne false traytoure him to betray ;
I praye youe, sens, of your gentr^,
Syng this carol reverently ;
Fore it is mad of king Herr^,

Gret ned fore him we han to pray !
Qif he fare wele, wele schul we be,
Or ellis we may be ful sor6 ;
Fore him schul wepe mon6 an e,

Thus prophecis the blynd Awdlay."

The book concludes with the following lines,

'^ No mon this book he take away,
Ny kutt owte noo leef, y say for why,

For hyt ys sacrelege, sirus, y yow say,
[And] beth a-cursed in the dede truly ;

Gef ye wil have any copi,
Askus leeve and ye shal have,

To pray for hjm specialy
That hyt made, your soules to save,

• MS. Douce, No. 302. Sec Halliwell, Introd. to Warkworth's Chro-
nicle, p. xiY. For a detailed description of this MS. see the recently
publiahed Catalogue of the Douce Library.

THS HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 201

Jon the blynde Awdelay,
The fnret prest to the lord Strange he was ;
Of thys chaantr6 here in thys place.
That made thys bok by Goddns grace,

Deeff, sick, blynd, as he lay."

Contemporary, or nearly so, with ''blynde Awdelay,"
lived John Myrk, or Myrkes, a r^^ar canon of the mo-
nastery of Lilleshul, who also was, if not a poet, at least a
versifyer. His poem on the duties of a parish priest (along
with a prose EngUsh Liber FestivaUs by the same writer)
is still preserved in the British Museum ;* and is a curious
picture of the manners of the time, little flattering to the
learning or private character of the parish priests on the
border in the fifteenth century. The following are the
opening lines of this poem.

<< Ood seyth hym self, as wry ten we fynde.
That whenne the blynde ledeth the blynde,
Into the dyche they fallen boo,
For they ne sen whare by to go.
So faren prestes now by dawe.
They beth blynde in Goddes lawe.
That whenne they scholde the pepul rede,
Into synne they do hem lede.
Thus they have do now falle yore.
And alle ys for defawte of lore.
Wharefore thou preste cnratoure,
Gef thou plese thy savyoure,
Gef thow be not grete clerke,
Loke thow moste on thys werk ;
For here thow myhte fynde and rede,
That the behoveth to conne nede.
How thow shalt thy paresche preche,
And what the nedeth hem to teche ;

* MS. Cotton. Claudius, A. II. In the manuscript the author is
described as, ' frater Joannes Myrcus, canonicus regularis monaaterii dc
Lylleshul.'

202 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

And whyche thou moste thy self be.
Here also thow myght hy t se ;
For laytel ys worthy thy prechynge,
Qef thow be of evyl lyvynge."

The foregoing extracts present the skeleton of the history
of Old English Poetry^ — in Layamon^ in the poems of
what we will call the 'Leominster Manuscript,' and in
Piers Ploughman, it is full of spirit and vigour ; but aflter
Chaucer, as it progresses towards the middle of the fifteenth
century, the darkest period of English history, it becomes
continually heavier and duller until it d^enerates into the
prosaic rhymes of Awdelay and John Myrk.

It will be seen by these specimens that the Kngliah
language had gone through a great change since the days
of Layamon. It is imnecessary to trace it further, for the
alteration since the days of " blind Awdelay'* is compara-
tively small. Among the Harleian manuscripts (No. S088),
is preserved a book in Latin, which was written for the
abbey of Buildwas in 1176; some borderer in the fifteenth
century, who appears to have suffered from the «gents of
the law, has written on a fly leaf the following lines, the
burden of which is that " two executors and one overseer
make three thieves."

" Wise mon if thu art,
Of thi god take part

or thn hense wynde ;
For if thou leve thi part
In thi secaturs ward,

thi part non part at last end.
Too secatars and an overseere make thre theeves."

Many other interesting manuscripts, which belonged
originally to the border monasteries, are probably extant
in our pubHc Hbraries. A fine monument of border science
is preserved in the large map of the world, made apparently
about the beginning of the thirteenth century, now in

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 203

Hereford Cathedral. The original is fast going to decay ;
but a careful facsimile has been made for the Royal Society
of Greography in London (at whose rooms it may be seen)^
and another copy more recently has been deposited among
the collection of early maps in the Bibliothdque du Roi
at Paris.*

In the thirteenth century the monasteries were seats
of literature. We do not find much increase in the
number of religious houses on the border after the twelfth
century, but they increased rapidly in wealth. From the
twelfth centiury to the fifteenth, there was a continual
transfer of landed property from the laity ^^ the monastic
houses, imtil their united riches exceeded those of any
other class of the commimity. Although the monasteries
were originally the schools of learning, the advance of
science did not, unfortunately, keep pace with the increase
in monastic wealth and influence ; the monks, with their
riches, became luxurious and worldly minded ; their desire
was to stifle knowledge, rather than diffuse it, because
their own false and anomalous position in society was not
calculated to bear the light. They had even drawn within
their influence, and stifled, the imiversities, which had
been the fertile hot-beds of science during the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries.

In Shrop8hire,t the principal houses foimded during the
thirteenth century, were, Brewood, a priory of white or

* This cnxioiu map is confiimed by the Pope as being a true picture of
the earth. It is stated in the following metrical description to have been
made by Richard of Haldingham and Lafford.- -

Tuz ki cest estorie ont,

On oyront, ou luront, ou reront;

Prient & Jhesu en deyt^,

De Richard de Haldingham e de Lafiford eyt pit6,

Ki Tat fet c compass^,

Ki joye en eel 11 seit don6.

t In our list of the earlier monasteries, in a former section, we have
omitted that of Wombridge, founded in the twelfth century by William
Fitz Alan.

204 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

Cistercian nuns, founded about the beginning of the cen-
tury, the site of which is now named White Ladies, and is
celebrated as having been a place of refuge to Charles II,
after the battle of Worcester ; the abbey of Praemonstni-
tensian canons at Halesowen , founded by Peter de Rupibus,
bishop of Winchester, about the end of the reign of king
John; a priory of black canons, founded by Robert de
Bowdlers at Snede, or Snet, perhaps as late as the begin-
ning of the reign of Henry III, and removed before the end
of that reign to Chirbury ; a house of grey friars established
at Shrewsbury in the reign of Henry HI; a house of
Augustine friars, founded at Woodhouse, near Cleobury
Mortimer, in the same reign ; a house of black monks of
the order of Grandmont, at Alberbury, foimded by Pulke
Fitz Warine. There was also a house of the order of
Grrandmont at Diddlebury in Corve Dale. At Ludlow,
there was a house of Augustine (or Austin) friars without
Goalford Gate, founded a short time before the year 1S82,
where it is first mentioned ; in the 9th Edward II (a. n.
1326), Robert Dobyn gave them two acres of land to
enlarge their dwelling .♦ At a later period, about the
year 1349, a house of white friars was established without
Corve Gate; its founder is said to have been Lawrence
de Ludlow, lord of the castle of Stoke.

In Herefordshire, the new religious foundations were not
less numerous than in Shropshire. There was a priory at
Barton at the beginning of the twelfth century. The
principal monasteries founded in the reign of Henry III
were, Wormesley (formerly named De Pionia), a priory of
black canons, the foundation of Gilbert Talbot ; Flanesford,
near Goodrich castle, another priory of black canons,
founded by Richard Talbot, who was lord of GtXMirich;
a priory of the order of Grandmont, at Cresswell, or Cares-
well, near Ewyas, supposed to have been foimded by Walter
de Lacy; Home Lacy, an abbey of Prsemonstratensian

• See the Monaslicon, vol. vi. p. 1599.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. S05

canons^ founded by William Fitz Swain. To these we
may add a hospital at Ledbury^ founded by the bishop of
Hereford, in 1232. The house of the grey friars in Here-
ford was founded by William de Pembrugge in the reign of
Edward I. The friars preachers were settled in Hereford in
the beginning of the same reign.

Besides these chief monastic houses, there were numerous
smaller foundations, as cells to the others: among which
may be mentioned, — ^in Shropshire, Morfield, or Momerfield,
a cell of the abbey of Shrewsbury; Ratlingcope, Rot-
chinchop, or Rotelynghope, a cell to Wigmore, established
about the time of king John ; Prene, Preone, or Prune, a
priory of Cluniac monks, a cell to Wenlock. In Here-
fordshire there were several alien priories, as Monkland,
a cell to the abbey of Conches in Normandy ; Acley, a cell
of the abbey of Lyre (Lira) ; Titley, or Tutel^, a, cell to the
abbey of Tyrone in France. To this long Ust of religious
houses might be added several smaller cells, and numerous
hospitals.

A considerable number of the churches on the Welsh
border were collegiate, and some of them were richly en-
dowed. One of the most remarkable of these churches
was that of St. Lawrence at Ludlow, which, in its present

ChnrrhoFSt. Lnwrtnce, Ludlow.

206 THE HISTORY OF LUDL01¥.

shape, was built probably in the leign of Edward II, or early
in that of Edward III. The college, which belonged to a
gild of palmers (gilda palmarioruin), was founded by
Edward III, probably in 1389, when their first charts
appears to have been granted.* One of its main olgects,
as stated in the early documents relating to it, was to
provide by association and from a common fund for the
protection of the members when robbed or oppressed by
others ; and it may therefore be supposed to have had its
origin amid the personal insecurity occasioned by the
continual troubles on the Welsh border. Such was the cha-
racter of all the more ancient gilds, though in course of time
they became mere charitable establishments. Richard II is
said to have augmented this gild ; and its charters were con-
firmed by Henry YIII. The college consisted of a warden,
seven priests, four singing men, two deacons, six choristers,
to sing divine service in the church of St. Lawrence ; and its
revenues maintained also a schoolmaster for the free-gram-
mar school, and thirty-two poor almspeople. This statement
shows that the grammar school at Ludlow is one of the
most ancient in this kingdom.

The Knights Templars and the Hospitalers were settled
on the border early in the thirteenth century. In the 89th
of Henry III, the former were seated at Kil, or Kel, and at
Lidlay, in Shropshire, and possessed lands in various parts
of the county. Between that time and the beginning of
the reign of Edward I, Bichard, earl of Cornwall, having
obtained from William Mauduit the castle and manor of
Holgod, gave it with other lands to the Templars, who
from that time made it one of their principal seats. But
when that order was suppressed, this went like their other
possessions to the Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem.
This last mentioned order had previously had settlements

• In the printed Calendar of the Patent RolU (which is exceedingly
imperfect), there are indications of three entries relating to the Palmer's
Gild at Ludlow during the reign of Edward HI, namely in the 3rd, 18th,
and 31st years of his reign, a. d. 1329, 1344, and 1357.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 207

at Dinmore Hill^ in Herefordshire^ and at Bridgenorthy in
Shropshire. The Hospitalers of Dinmore possessed the
hamlet of Turford> in Shropshire^ and had a hospital in
Hereford ; they had also possessions in Ludlow^ given them
by Hugh de Lacy, which ''they had assigned to the
support of a certain chaplain of the chapel of St. Leonard
in Ludlow."*

Few new castles had been erected since the twelfth
century, but the existing fortresses were fScequently enlarged
and strengthened. The few rolls of expenses in reparations
and building, still preserved in some of our record offices,
throw much light on the manners of the age in which they
were composed. A fragment of one of these rolls, con-
taining accounts relating to the town and castle of Oswestry,
written apparently about the end of the reign of Edward I,
or in that of Edward II, gives the following account of the
expenses of building '' the New House" of the king " in
the middle of the town." A carter, with his cart, was
employed three days in carrying stones and gravel to fill up
the foss (probably dug for laying the foimdations) at the
rate of five-pence each day. A man who was employed to
help him had three-halfpence a day. Three men occupied
in making the foimdations had also three-halfpence each
during the three days. Another carter had also five-pence
a day during two days for bringing wood for the building,
and had a man to help him at three-halfpence a day. The
carpenter had seventeen shillings for all his works. The
laths for the walls cost six-pence ; and two men employed
three days in making these walls with the same laths
received three-halfpence a day each. A thousand planks
cost eight shillings; and their carriage, one penny. The
sawyers and carpenters received twelve-pence a hundred for
making planks out of the king's timber. Four himdred
spike-nails cost sixteen-pence ; four hundred board-nails,
twelve-pence; a thousand lath-nails, ten-pence; and five

* Hundred Rolls, p. 69.

£08 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

hundred '' single nails/' ten-pence. Moreover^ sixteen-
pence was expended in '^ gumphs" and hinges ; and a carter
received five-pence a day during four days for carrying day
to plaster the walls ; a man who dug the clay had three-
halfpcDce a day during the same period ; and the man who
plastered the walls received two shillings and two-pence for
the entire work. The whole cost of building the house was
forty-three shillings and eleven-pence.* It appears by this
statement that the chief labour of building a house fell, not
upon the mason, but upon the carpenter. The common
wages of a labourer appears to have been three-halfpence a
day. In the same roll four pounds and fourteen-pence
halfpenny are paid for pulling down ruinous buildings in the
castle, and repairing others, and building a new kitchen
and sheds; eight-pence to a smith for making spikes
and hinges for the jail; three-pence for making with the
king's own lead a vessel for warming water; five shillings
to a carpenter for covering the " foiles" with boards ; twelve-

* Item, comput. in stipend, .j. carectar. cum carect. sua per .iij. dies ad
cariand petras et argillum ad implend. fossam sub nova domo domini in
medio ville, .xt. d. capient. per diem, v. d. Et in mercede .j. hominis
juvant. diet, carectar. per dictos tres dies .iiij. d. ob. capient. per diem
.j. d. ob. Et in mercede .iij. hominum ad faciend. sub sold, predicta,
vidz. fundament per .iij. dies, .xiij. d ob. capient. per diem j. d. ob. Et
in stipend. J. carectar. cum carecta sua carient. mercmium ad dictam
soldam de novo faciend. per .ij. dies, .x. d. Et in mercede g. hominia
juvant. eidem per dictos duos dies, .iij. d. Et in stipend, carpen. fac.
dictam domum ad tasc. .xvg. s. Et in yirg. empt. pro parietibus, .vj. d.
Et in stipend, ij. hominum facient. dictis parietes cum dictis yirg. per iij.
dies, .ix. d. cap. per diem .j. d. ob. Et in .j . mille sindell. empt. de Johanne
Loyt, iij. s. Et in cariag. dictarum sindellarum ad dictam domum, .ij. d.
Et in stipen. sarratorum et carpen. facient. cccc. sindell. de meremio
domini .iiij. s. dand. pro. c xij. d. Et in .cccc. spiking, empt ad idem
xvj. s. Et in .cccc. bordnail empt. ad idem .xij. d. Et in mille lathenail
empt. ad idem .x. d. Et in .y. c. singelnail empt. ad idem .x. den. Et in
gumphis et yertinellis emp. ad idem, .xrj. d. Et in stipen. j. carectar.
carient. argil' um pro dictis parietibus plastrand. per .iiij. dies, .xx. d. cap.
per diem .v. d. Et in stipen. .j. hominis fodient. diet, argill. per .iiij.
dies .vj. d. Et in stipen. .j. hominis ad plastrand. diet, pariet. ad tasc.
.ij. 8. .ij. d. Summa .xUy. s. .sj. Fragment of a bill of Accounta of a
Bailiff of *< OswaldeBtre," temp. Edw. IL, at the Rolls House.

THB HISTORY OF LUBLOW. 209

pence for the boards used for that purpose; two shillings
and nine-pence for eleven hundred board-nails> and two
shillings and six-pence for sixteen hundred single-nails,
also for the same object; two-pence for repairing the pin-
fold, and the same sum for a lock for the pinfold-door;
two-pence for a lock for the chamber in the tower ; three-
pence for mending the wall of the "brutage," and two-
pence for a lock for it ; two shillings for a week's wages of
a carpenter employed in building a small house beyond the
well; three shillings and four-pence for tiles for covering
this house, and eight-pence for two hundred spike-nails for
that purpose ; two shillings for a week's wages of a car-
penter for preparing the tiles and covering the house;
three-halfpence each for four men employed one day in
removing stones ; and five-pence for plastering ^' the foiles"
with lime.*

* Item, compnt. in diyera. expensis stipend, circa depo&icionem domo-
rmn in caatro, quia ruinos., a festo Sancti Mich, usque ad festum Sancti
Nicholai, et ad reparand. veteres cameras ultra portam castri capelle et
pontis castriy et ad edificand. coquinam castri et partem soldarum de novo,
et parcos reparand. .iiij. IL .xiiij. d. ob. ut patet per billam examinat per
sen. et sigillo suo signat Et in stipend, fabr. facient gumphos et yertinellos
corur. gaiole ad tasc. .viij. d. Et in factur. .j. plumbi de plumbo domini
pro aqua calificand. .iij. den. Et in stipend .j. carpentar. cooperient. le
ffoiles cum sindell. ad tasc. .▼. s. Item in sindell. empt. ad idem, .xij. d.
Et in mille bordnail empt. ad idem, .ij. s. .Tj. d. prec. .c. .iij. d. * £t in
mille et cccc. singcl nail empt. ad idem. .ij. s. .iiij. d. prec. .c. .ij. d.
Et in reparacione del puntfield .ij. d. Et in serur. ad hostium ejusdem
.ij. d. Et in serur. empt. ad cameram in turr. .ij. d; Et in reparac
pariet. del brutag. .iij. d. Et in serur. empt. ad dictum brutag, .ij.d. Et
in stipen, .j. carpent. facient, parram domum ultra puteum per J.
septim. .ij. s. Et in .Ix. tabul. empt. pro. coopertor. dicte domus
.iij. 8. .iiij. d. Et in .cc. spiking, empt. ad idem .viij. d. Et in stipend,
dicti carpen. per .j. septim, ad pariend. diet, tabulas et ad cooperiend.
dictam domum .ij. s. Et in stipend, .iiij. hominum ad removend. petras
de area mercand. per .j. diem .yj. d. Et ad plastrand. pariet. de le>foiles.
com calce .r. d. Snmma .c .ij. s. .ix. d. ob. Ibid.

210

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

Wlfmore ViUaf* uid Church.

SECTION VIII.

The Mortimers of Wigmore.

AFTER the battle of Evesham, the English counties on
the Welsh border were delivered from the inroads of the
Welsh. Their prince Llewelyn observed with good faith
during the remainder of Henry's reign the treaty which he
had made with the English monarch after the event alluded
to; but on the accession of his son to the throne, he
appears again to have entertained hopes of establishing i. bis
own independence. For some time he avoided opr.Jv . *-
lities. King Edward was crowned at Westminster on the
19th of August, 1274, immediately after his arrival ia
England. Llewelyn had been summoned to attend!
king on that occasion, in order to take the same oa:;Jtf»
allegiance by which he had been bound to king He
but he treated the summons with contempt, as well*^!
another in the year following to attend the king's first
paiUament in London. The abbots of Dore and Hagmon

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 211

were then directed to meet Llewelyn at the ford of Mont-
gomery, and there receive his oath: they went to the
appointed place^ and waited, but the Welsh prince did
not come. He afterwards excused himself on the ground
of troubles on the Welsh side of the Border and the
danger in which he stood from his domestic enemies ;
whereupon he was again smnmoned to meet the two
ecclesiastics at the same place, on the first Sunday in May,
1275, and they waited a second time in vain. After
this, Edward appointed successively as places of meeting,
Shrewsbury, Chester, Westminster, Winchester, and other
towns ; but his messages were all evaded, and after a slight
attempt at negociation, the prince of Wales placed himself
in a hostile attitude, and on the 12th December, 1276, the
king summoned his army to meet at Worcester on the
octaves of St. John the Baptist (July 1, 1277).

At this conjuncture a circiunstance occurred wliich em-
barrassed Llewelyn in his plans. Before the battle of
Evesham, he had been betrothed to Alianora daughter of his
friend Simon de Montfort, on whose death the countess fled
with her daughter to a nunnery at IVlontargis, which had
been founded by the sister of her husband. At the begin-
ning of 1277, not aware probably of the hostile feeUngs then
existing between Llewelyn and the king of England, the
countess of Leicester sent her daughter to Wales, escorted
by her brother Aimery de Montfort, in order that the
marriage might be solemnized ; but in passing round the
po»»^t of Cornwall the ship which carried her fell in with a
r ueet, and they were seized and carried before the

king, who^committed Aimery to sure custody, and retained
rhe lady at his court as his ward.

*lie king having assembled his army on the border,

•^•^i^ at Chester early in the autumn of 1277. His

; vrrcence on this occasion is said to have been rendered

cessary by the invasion of the lands of the lords Marchers

by the Welsh. We find him at Flint on the 23rd of

August. After having driven the Welsh to their strong

212 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

holds in the mountains^ and cruelly rayaged a consideiable
extent of country, he returned to Shrewsbury, which place
he again quitted on the 16th of October. He soon obtained
possession of the castle of Rhuddlan, where we find him on
the 10th of November. He was then negotiating with
Llewelyn, who had retired to Aberconway. In the pacifi-
cation which was soon afterwards concluded, the Welsh
historians accuse their prince of sacrificing his patriotism to
the desire of obtaining possession of his wife, which was
one of the chief articles stipulated in the treaty, in all other
respects extremely galling to the Welsh. The king remained
at Rhuddlan till about the middle of November, and returned
slowly towards London. On the 6th of December he had
proceeded no further than Worcester. The marriage of
Llewelyn with Alianora de Montfort took place soon after
the ratification of the treaty.

About three years after the marriage of Llewelyn and
Alianora de Montfort, the struggle began in which the in-
dependance of the Welsh was finally destroyed. Llewelyn's
brother David, who had been Edward's ally in his former
wars, was accused of being the principal instigator of the
rebellion of 1282. On the night of Palm Sunday in that
year (which was the 22nd of March) he surprised the castle
of Hawardine, slew the knights who had the care of its
defence, and carried away captive the justiciary of Wales,
Roger de Clifford. He then jomed with his brother in
laying siege to the castles of Flint and Rhuddlan. King
Edward was celebrating Easter at Devizes, when intel-
ligence was brought him of the rising of the Welsh, and he
immediately determined to enter Wales with a large army.
On the 6th of April he summoned his barons to march
towards the border; on the 13th of the same month we
find him giving orders to the barons of the Cinque-Ports to
fit out an expedition against the Welsh by sea ; and on the
SOth he arrived in person at Gloucester. We can trace the
king's movements slowly along the border, while he was
arranging his extensive plan of operations. On the 20th

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 218

of May^ being then at Worcester, he appointed his army to
meet at Bhuddlan ; on the S4th he was at Hartlebury, in
his pn^ress towards Chester^ where we find him on the
8th and 10th of June. He was at Bhuddlan before the
15th of July, on which day he wrote to the Sheriff of
Gloucestershire for a hundred good caupiatores (cutters, or
pioneers) to cut down trees and clear the roads through
which he was prepared to march. The Welsh had retreated
on his approach.

The progress of the English king was slow, but sure.
In a few months he had overrun North Wales, and pene-
trated into the recesses of Snowdon. But the approach
of winter checked his progress, and restored courage to
the Welsh. At this moment the barons of Herefordshire
and Gloucestershire invaded the country from the south.
Llewelyn, leaving his brother to keep the English in check
in the north, hastened to oppose them. He had reached
the banks of the Wye near Builth, when he was attacked
by the conjoint forces of Edmund de Mortimer and John
Giffiurd of Brimsfield. The accounts of the engagement
arc obscure, and differ from each other ; but it appears that
Llewelyn being separated from his army with a few atten-
dants, was slain in the scuffle by one Adam de Francton,
who did not know, till he returned and found his victim
dying, that he had killed the Welsh prince. After his
death, which occurred on the 12th of December, 1282, they
cut off his head, and sent it to king Edward, who ordered
it to be placed on the Tower of London. The arch-bishop
of Canterbury, who was present at Llewelyn's death, wrote
an account of some of the circumstances connected with it
in a letter to the king, which is still preserved.* It appears
that Maude de Longespee, the wife of John Giffard, im-
plored the arch-bishop to absolve the Welsh prince, and
render to him the last services of the church, which the
prelate refused on the ground that he had shown no signs

• The interesting letter of the archbishop of Canterbury to the king is
printed in the Foedera, vol. ii. p. 619.
2f

214 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

of repentance in his last moments^ although her charitable
request was supported by Edmund de Mortimer^ who as-
serted that he had heard Llewelyn call for a priest before
he died.* In Llewelyn's pocket were found private papers
which are said to have impUcated so many of the lords
Marchers in his rebellion, that they were studiously sup-

Early in November the king had retired to Rhuddlan,
where he remained during the winter. In the following
March, Edward again advanced into the wilds of Snowdon,
in pursuit of David, who continued in arms till June, when
he was betrayed into the hands of his enemies, and carried
a prisoner to Bhuddlan. The capture of David completed
the subjugation of his country; and the king, finding no
further opposition, returned slowly towards England. He
reached Shrewsbury at Michaelmas, to meet the parliament
which he had summoned there for the purpose of passing
judgment on " his traitor'' David, who was condemned to
undergo the cruel and revolting punishment which con-
tinued for ages afterwards to be inflicted for the crime of
high treason. On the 28th of December king Edward was
at Chester, still occupied in securing his new eonquest.

By this campaign, the Welsh appeared to be sufficiently
tamed ; yet few years had passed by when, supposing that
the king had quitted England to conduct in person his
war in France, they again rose in arms. This was in the
summer of 1287 ; under Bees ap Mereduc and other popular
leaders, the mountaineers attacked the lords of the Marches,
and obtained possession of several castles and towns. The
most active of the borderers on this occasion were Gilbert de

• The lady here mentioned was daughter and heiress of Walter de
Clifford, lord ef Corfton and Culmington, the nephew of Fair Rosamond.
She was the widow of William Longespee, and had been forcibly carried
away from her manor-honse by John Giffard, who afterwards obtained the
king's allowance of his marriage, which had been contracted without
licence. On the 6th of November, 1280, a licence was given to this John
Giffard to hunt wolves with dogs and nets in all forests in England.
Fcedera, ii. p. 587.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 215

Clare, who had been driven from his estates in the county
of Glamorgan, and Edmund de Mortimer. The Welsh,
however, were mistaken on one point: the king had not
quitted the English shore when he received intelligence
of their insurrection, and he hastened into Wales with a
powerful army. This was the last great struggle of the
Welsh for their independence, and it ended much in the
same way as those which had preceded it; after their
coimtry had been ravaged with fire and sword, they were
driven by famine to an unconditional surrender, and their
chieflains were carried away into captivity. But the king
was obliged to pass his winter in Wales, where he oele-
brated the festival of Christmas at ^Aberton.' Before his
return to England he built the castle of Beaumaris ; and
further to ensure the obedience of the Welsh he is said to
have cut down and cleared the principal woods which had
served for a refuge to his enemies. From this time, if we
believe the ancient chronicles, the Welsh laid aside much
of their rudeness, and, settling peacefully in towns, they
began to amass wealth and indu]^ in the luxuries of life,
until their manners became assimilated to those of their
English neighbours.* In subsequent years the more warlike

• A quo tempore werrs in WaUia quleyemnt, et WaUenses more
Aiiglicomm peiie vivere incoeperunt, thesauios congregantes et rerum damna
de cetero formidaDtes. Tho. Walsingham, p. 63. A similar account of
the change in the manners of the Welsh is given in the rythmical Cambrico
Epitome, printed among the poems of Walter Mapes, L 185 :—

Mores brutales Britonnm Hinc si qusratur ratio,

jam, ex convictu Saxonum, qnietius quam solito

commntantur in melius, cur illi yivant hodie ;

ut patet luce clarius. in causa sunt diyitis,

Hortos et agros excolunt ; quas cito gens heec perderet

ad oppida sa conferunt ; si passim nunc confligeret.

et loricati equitant, Timor damni hos retrahit ;

et caloeati peditant ; nam nil habens nil metuit,

urbane se reficiunt; ct, ut dixit Satyricus,

ct sub tapetis dormiunt ; cantat yiator yacuus

ut judicentur Anglici, coram latrone tutior

nunc potius quam Wallici. quam phaleratui ditior.

216 THX HlffTOKT OF LUBLOW.

put of the populatioD was drawn off to serve in the Scottish

At this period the three most powerfid fiunilies im. the
English side of the border were those of Clare, Bohun, and
Mortimer. Grilbert de Clare, earl of Gloooester, who
fought at Evesham on the royal side, although he had
fought at Lewes for Simon de Montfort, contrived to reap
advantage from the defeat of his old colleagues. He was
high in fieivour with Edward I, whose daughter, Joane of
Acre, he married. He had the command of the army
which invaded South Waks in 1287. He died in 1295;
and was succeeded by his son Gilbert, who was slain in
1S18 at the disastrous battle of Bannockbum, when the
earldom of Gloucester became extinct.

The Bohuns, during several generations, had been dis-
tinguished by their patriotism. Henry de Bohun was one
of the firmest supporters of the baronial party in their
opposition to king John, and was one of those excommu-
nicated by the pope for the part he took in extorting the
Magna Charta from that monarch. His *&on, Humphrey
de Bohun, earl of Hereford, and his grandson, Humphrey,
who died before his fether, were staunch adherents of
Simon de Montfort, and ;vere both among the prisoners
taken at the battle of Evesham. Humphrey de Bohun, the
son of the latter, who succeeded to his grand&ther's titles,
was equally distinguished by his courageous opposition to
the unconstitutional measures of Edward I. He died in
1298, and his son, also named Humphrey, who married a
daughter of Edward I, Elizabeth Plantagenet, fell a sacrifice
to his attachment to the popular cause in the reign of
Edward II.

The power and wealth of the Mortimers had been con-
stantly increasing since the reign of Henry HI, when
Roger de Mortimer had contributed so gieatly to the final
triumph of the crown. He was eminent among his con-
temporaries for his splendour and magnificence. When
his three sons, Edmund, William, and Geoffrey, were

TUS HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 217

knighted by king Edward I^ he held a great tournament at
Kenilworth; and a ' round table/ entertaining sumptuously
for three days a hundred knights, with as many ladies, at
his own expense ; and having himself gained the prize of a
Hon of gold, on the fourth day he carried all his guests to
Warwick. The fame of Roger's gallantry was spread
through distant lands, and the queen of Navarre is said
to have fallen in love with him, and to have sent him to
the tournament at Kenilworth, which had been according
to custom proclaimed in foreign countries, wooden vessels,
bound with gilt hoops and wax, as flasks of wine, but
which, when opened, proved to be filled with gold. These
' flasks ' were long preserved in the abbey of Wigmore :
and for the queen's love Roger de Mortimer added a car*
bunde to his arms during his life.* He died in 128S, and
was buried in Wigmore abbey. His son Edmund was,
like himself, actively engaged in the Welsh wars. Previous
to the death of Llewelyn, at which he was present, his
relationship to that prince caused him to be suspected of
conniving at his 'rebellion. In 1303, or 1304, in a battle
with the Welsh near Builth, in the same neighbourhood
where Llewelyn was slain, Edmund de Mortimer received a
mortal wound, of which he died soon after in his castle of
Wigmore, and was buried in the abbey.

Boger de Mortimer, the eldest son and successor of
Edmund, was only sixteen years of age at the time of his
fitdier's death, and was given in ward by the king to Piers
Graveston, to whom he subsequently paid two thousand five
hundred marks to redeem himself and obtain permission to
marry at his own pleasure. He married Joane de Geneville,
by which union he added to his vast possessions the
castle of Ludlow. The castlb of Wigmore continued,

* Ad dicta hastiludia in dictis regnis prseconizata, flasculas ligneas,
deanratis barris et cera ligatos, yini sab specie, auro tamen pianos, in dicta
Abbathia de Wyggemore adhuc habitos, eidem Rogero fertur transmisisse ;
ipseque dominns Rogerus, ejusdem reginae ob amorem, carbunculum annis
Boifl ad totam yitam suam addidisse noscitur. Monasticon. vi. p. 351.

218

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

however^ to be the chief seat of the Mortimer family : and
the few mouldering ruins which still remain are sufficient
to show the strength and importance of this once princely
residence.*

Wig more Caitle.

The three great border lords, Roger de Mortimer, Gilbert
de Clare earl of Gloucester, and Humphrey de Bohun
earl of Hereford, were all actively engaged in the Scottish
war. Gilbert de Clare and Humphrey de Bohun led the
attack at the battle of Bannockbum, where the former was
slain, and the latter immediately afterwards was made a
prisoner by the Scots in Bothwell castle, where he had
taken shelter. He obtained his liberty by exchange, and
returned with Roger de Mortimer to protect their own
estates from the threatened invasion of the Welsh. In
1816, a Welsh chief named Llewelyn Bren, collected to-
gether a great number of his coimtrymen, and invaded
Gloucestershire, cruelly devastating the country through
which he passed. One of the b^ons most active in this
war was John de Cherlton of Cherlton, or Charlton, in

* The castle of Wigmore is seated on an eminence (its ruins now
concealed by trees and underwood), commanding an extensive view. It
is about eight miles from Ludlow. The hills on the right of our cut lay
between Wigmore and Ludlow.

THE HISTORY OP LUDLOW. 219

ShropBhire^ who had married the heiress of the lordships of
Powys and Pool. This war was not finished till the year
following, 1316, when Llewelyn Bren was sent prisoner to
London. In the same year Boger de Mortimer was ap-
pointed lord lieutenant of Ireland.

The barons of the Welsh bolder acted a prominent part
in the civil dissension which ended in the deposition of
the weak and unprincipled monarch who now sat on the
EngUsh throne. Gilbert de Clare had been one of the
most active among the persecutors of Edward's first fa-
vourite. Piers Gavestone ; and the king gave to his second
and no less unpopular favourite, Hugh Despenser, with
Gilbert's daughter, his estates and honours in Glouces-
tershire and Wales. This was a signal for the borderers
to take up arms. Humphrey de Bohun, Roger de Mor-
timer of Wigmore, his great-imcle, Roger de Mortimer of
Chirk, and others, invaded the lands of Hugh Despenser,
fought several battles, took Cardiff, and carried the governor
a prisoner to Wigmore castle, and then seized upon the
castle of Clun. The pretence for these hostilities is said to
have been a quarrel concerning a piece of land which Roger
Mortimer had agreed to purchase, but of which he was
deprived by Hugh Despenser's influence.*

This partial outbreak was but a prelude to a more for-
midable insurrection. The earl of Lancaster, with a powerful
force and numerous friends went to the border, and nearly
all the lords of the Marches joined him, and marched in a
body towards London. The result of this movement is
well known. The barons overawed the king for a while,
and obtained the banishment of the Despensers ; but the
tide turned, and at the battle of Boroughbridge, in 13S2,
Humphrey de Bohun was slain, and Henry of Lancaster
taken and put to death. Among the prisoners on this
occasion were the two Rogers de Mortimer, John de Cherl-
ton, and many other borderers. John de Cherlton obtained

• See Th. VTalsingham, p. 113.

g^ THB HI8T0KY OF LUDLOW.

his pardon ; but the Mortimers were conmiitted to rigorous
confinement in the tower, where the elder died soon after.

It is said that the king had ahready condemned Roger de
Mortimer of Wigmore to the scaffold, when he was lAiex-
pectedly deprived of his prey. On the feast of St. Peter
ad Yincula (the 1st day of August), 1S2S, Roger de Mor-
timer gave an entertainment to the constable of the tower,
Stephen de Segrave, and they passed the evening in drink-
ing and making merry. As the night advanced, Roger
seized an opportunity of throwing a soporiforous drug into
Segrave's cup, and while he was labouring under its effects,
escaped from his place of confinement, by connivance (as it
is said) of his keeper, passed through the several wards of the
tower, and reached the river, where he found a boat ready
to convey him away. He immediately sailed for France,
where he was received by queen Isabella. On the 6th of
August, as soon as Mortimer*8 escape was known at court,
several proclamations were issued, commanding the king's
subjects to raise the hue-and-cry after him "our enemy
and rebel " (inimicus et rebellis noster), as he is termed in
them.* The king appears to have been long uncertain of
his having left the kingdom. On the Ist of October
another proclamation appeared, forbidding any one to har-
bour or encourage him ; and as late as the 14th of November,
letters were addressed to the lords of the Welsh border,
commanding them to raise the hue-and-cry after him in all
directions, as though it were supposed that he lay concealed
there.t In this latter document, among other crimes, he is
charged with having risen in arms against the king, and
having taken castles, &c. in Wales and England. The
history of his criminal intimacy with the queen, and of the
part which he took in bringing her back to England and
dethroning the king, are too well known to be detailed
here. On his return to England, as a memorial of his
escape, he built a chapel in the outer ward of the castle of

• FoBdera, vol. ii. part 1, p. 530. f Foedera, ib. p. 537.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 221

Ludlow^ which he dedicated to St. Peter^ on whose festival
he had escaped from the Tower, and placed in it a chantry
priest.* The ruins, as it is supposed, of this chapel were
remaining in the last century.

One of the most ardent partizans of Roger de Mortimer
was Adam de Orleton, bishop of Hereford. He had been
raised to that see in 1317 ; and as the parish of Orleton,
from which he took his name and of which he was probably
a native, was part of the possessions of that great baronial
family, it is probable that he owed his elevation to Mor-
timer's influence and protection. After the defeat of the
party of the earl of Lancaster, he shared in the disgrace of
his patron, and, in spite of the complaints and expostula-
tions of his brother ecclesiastics, he was condemned for
high treason, and deprived of his temporalities. The
principal circumstance of the charges against this prelate,
as it was related in the depositions at his trial, affords a
curious anecdote of border turbulence.f It is there stated
that in the months of November, December, and January,
in the fifteenth year of the king's reign (a. d. 1821, 2),
Roger de Mortimer of Wigmore, having raised a great
number of armed men (horse and foot), marched with them
in warlike array about the border. When they came to
Bromyard, where they passed one night, they robbed and
plundered divers inhabitants of the town and neighbour-
hood of goods and money to the amount of forty pounds ;
of John de Masonne of Staneford, they took brazen pots and
platters, and linen and woollen cloth, of the value of twenty
shillings ; and of John le Shepherd of Bruncester, they
took a cow of the price of eight shillings. From thence
they went towards Ledbury, and stopped at Bosebury,

* Undo et in honorem S. Petri capellam in ulteriori warda castri de
Lodelawe, illam capellam S. Petri yocatam, cum unius capellaui ibi
perpetuo celebraturi canluaria noscitur construxisse. Account of the
Mortimers, in the Monasticon, vi. p. 351.

t Rolls of Parliament, vol ii. p. 127. One of the persons who made
this deposition bore the singular name of Adam Halfcnakod.

222 THE HISTORY OP LUDLOW.

Mrhere they had a long consultation with the bishop of
Hereford. They then went to Ledbury, where they robbed
different persons to the amount of more than a hundred
pounds. Among the rest, they took from Roger Fortherath,
beef, pork, bread, beer, and brazen pots, to the amount of
twenty shillings. Two days afterwards, Adam de Qrleton,
who was still at Bosebury, sent them a body of his own
men and retainers, well mounted and armed ; and with this
addition to his army, Roger de Mortimer marched direct
towards Gloucester.

On the arrival of the queen, Adam de Orleton joined her
standard, and at Oxford he delivered a public discourse
from the pulpit against the king's government, taking for
his text the words Dolet mihi caput, and representing that
since the sickness of the head affected the whole body, when
the head was found to be unfit for government, it was
requisite that some effective remedy should be applied. It
is said also that this prelate instigated the queen to the
murder of her husband : and, according to a popular story,
it was he who fabricated the famous message which, by the
different placing of a comma, admits of entirely opposite
interpretations : —

" Edwardum occidere nolite timere bonum est."

It was pretended that if the receiver of this message placed
the stop after the word timere, and obeyed the order thus
conveyed to put the king to death, the sender would be
excused by placing the stop after the previous word, as
having intended to forbid the evil deed.

One of the first acts of the parliament called by Mortimer
and the queen, was to reverse the judgment against Adam
de Orleton. In the same year we find this prelate involved
in a dispute with the crown, by having ambitiously obtained
his election to the vacant see of Worcester. Yet he was
finally allowed not only to retain Worcester, but a few
years afterwards, in 183S, he was further advanced to the

THB HISTORY OP LUDLOW.

bishopric of Winchester, in the possession of which he died
in 1345. This promotion was also the fruit of his poUtical
intr^es, and contrary to the wishes of the king, in whose
favour he appears never to have stood very high. Adam de
Orleton had been sent as an ambassador to the king of
France, and through that monarch's influence with the
pope he obtained the vacant see in spite of king Edward's
recommendation to the sovereign pontiff of another claimant.
Edward was angry at the pope's decision; he accused
Adam de Orleton of misconduct in his official capacity,
alledging that he had neglected his master's business to
ingratiate himself with his enemy the kuig of France ; and
he vented his humour against the pope, who had listened to
the French king sooner than to himself. In this part of
his complaint he had with him the sentiments of his people,
who were beginning to cry out bitterly against foreign
interference in the affairs of the English church. The king
sccordmglj, seized upon the temporalities of the see of
Winchester, and retained them in his hands during several
months, until the other prelates petitioned in parliament
for their restoration.*

When the unfortunate king found himself deserted by his
subjects, he fled directly to Wales, but he met with so few
friends that he was obliged to conceal himself among the
woods in the neighbourhood of Glamorgan. Roger de
Mortimer with the queen hastened to the border; and
passed the last days of the year 1327 at Hereford. Thither
the unfortunate king was brought a prisoner; and before
they left that city several of his partizans were beheaded or
hanged. The favourite, Hugh Despenser, was condemned
to the same cruel punishment to which the Welsh prince,
David, had been subjected at Shrewsbury ; with this dif-
ference only, that the English 'traitor,' was suspended on a
gallows fifty feet high.
Within a few months after the deposition of Edward II,

• Tho. WaUingham, Hist. Angl. p. 133.

224 THE HISTORY OP LUDLOW.

Roger de Mortimer was created an earl, by the title of earl
of March. Immediately afterwards he imitated his grand-
father in holding a " round table ;" and he conducted the
queen and the young king (Edward III) to the Marches of
Wales^ where he welcomed them with magnificent festivities^
accompanied with tournaments and other princely recrea-
tions^ in his castles of Ludlow and Wigmore.* Roger de
Mortimer was now blinded by his ambition^ and set no
bounds to Ids ostentation. He scarcely took pains to con-
ceal his familiarity with the queen; he usurped all the
powers of the government, and offended many of the nobles
by his haughtiness. It is said that his own son Geotbej
was accustomed to speak of him as the " king of folly.'*
A conspiracy was formed against him, headed by the young
king, who was desirous of taking the govenmient of his
country into his own hands; and the powerful nobleman
was captured by surprise in the castle of Nottingham, and
having been convicted of high treason by a parliament
called for that purpose, in 1331, he was hanged on the
common gallows in London. The sentence was perhaps
one rather of vengeance than of justice : the chief charge
brought against him was that of having usurped the so-
vereign power, and of having injured the country by mal-
administration. In most of the particular cases specified the
accusations were general and indefinite; in a few he had
perhaps adopted the best measures which the circumstances
would admit.f Several of Mortimer's friends were con-
demned along with him.

* Exinde rex Edwardiia tertius ad Marchlam transUt, et in castm dicti
domini Rogeri comitis, de Loddelowe et de Wyggemore, forestiBque et
parcis, cum maximis expensis in communiis, hastiludiis, et aliis soladis,
mimificisque donarlis sibi et sois largiter effusis, regaliter per nonnnllos
dies tractatns, &c. Monasticon, yi. p. 352.

t The charges against Roger de Mortimer specified in the Rolls of Par-
liament, 4 Edward III, are, that he had been, by his intrigues, instrumental
in the fall of Edward II ; that he had caused him to bo remeyed from
Kenilworth to Berkeley castle, where ho had been at least priyy to his

TUB H18TOKY OF LUDLOW. 225

There appears to be some doubt as to the place of burial
of this powerful baron. The history of the family printed in
the Monasticon states that he was interred with due respect
in the church of the Friars Minors at Shrewsbury, on the
eve of St. Andrew (29th November), 1831, from whence
some years afterwards his body was removed to Wigmore.
This statement, however, seems to be contradicted by a
doctmient printed in the Fcedera, by which the king on the
seventh day of November, in the same year, orders the
Friars Minors of Coventry to deliver up the body of the
earl, which they were said to have in their possession, to
his widow and eldest son, in order that it might be carried
to Wigmore for interment.* He left four sons and seven
daughters ; one of the latter was married to John de Cherl-
ton^ the son of the baron of that name who had obtained
the lordship of Powys.

None of the direct descendants of Roger de Mortimer
made the same conspicuous figure as their forefathers. Most
of them were left minors, and died at an early age. Edmund

murder; tliat he oYorawed the parliament assembled at Salisbury by force
of arms, and obtained by undue means large grants from the crown, and
the title of earl of March ; that he had oppressed and persecuted the earl
of Lancaster and other peers of the land, because they opposed themseWes
to his tyranny and ambition ; that he had, by his intrigues, urged the earl
of Kent into open rebellion, and then procured his condemnation and
execution for high treason ; that, usurping the royal power, he had caused
the king to bestow on his family and friends, castles, towns, manors, and
franchises in England, Wales, and Ireland, to the prejudice of the crown ;
that he had turned to his own uses the taxes raised for the war in
Gascony ; that he had stirred up discord between the late king and his
queen ; that he had expended the royal treasure for his own priyate uses ;
that he had used in the same manner twenty thousand marks paid by
the Scots ; that he had &youred the Irish who had attacked and opposed
the ministers of the late king; and that he had caused the person of the
young monarch to be surrounded by his own creatures.

* Rex delectis sibi gardiano et fratribus Minorum de Coventr. sal.
Qoia de gratia nostra special! concessimus Johannie, quic fuit uxor Rogeri
de Mortuomari nuper comitis Marchise, et Edmundo fllio ejusdem comitis,
quod corpus ipsius Rogeri usque Wyggemore ducero et illud ibidon traderc
possint ecclesiastics sepulturte. FcEdera, ii. p. 828.

226 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

de Mortimer^ Roger's eldest son, suryived his father a few
years^ and left a son, named Roger, only three years of age.
His castles in the Marches of Wales were committed, doling
his minority, to the custody of his step-&ther, William de
Bohun, earl of Northampton. The greater portion of
Roger's after life was spent in France, where he was en-
gaged in the wars of Edward III, who created him a knight
of the garter. In 1354 he obtained a reversal of the at-
tainder of his grand-father, and it was declared in fbU
parliament that the charges on which Roger de Mortimer
had been condemned were false, and his sent^ce unjust.
Roger de Mortimer, now restored to the title of earl of
March, was subsequently made constable of Dover castle
and warden of the Cinque Ports. He died in Burgundy in
1360, in command of the English forces in that country,
and left a son, Edmund Mortimer, then in his minority.

Young Edmund de Mortimer was distinguished above
his years by his prudence and manly abilities, and he was
employed at the early age of eighteen to treat with the
commissioners of the king of France for a peace between
the two kingdoms. Early in the reign of Richard' II he
was made lord lieutenant of Ireland, in which office he died
in 1381. He married the lady PhUippa Plantagenet,
daughter and heir of Lionel duke of Ckrence, by which
union he gave to his descendants their title to the English
crown, the cause of so much bloodshed in the following
century. Besides his heir and successor, Roger de Mor-
timer, he left two sons and the same number of daughters,
all of whom were more or less involved in the intrigues and
conspiracies of the following age. Edmund, his second
son, married the daughter of Owen Glyndwr. - John de
Mortimer, the third son, was condemned and executed for
treasonable speeches in the reign of Henry YI. Of the
daughters, Elizabeth, the eldest, was married to Henry
Percy, Shakespeare's Hotspur.

Roger Mortimer, fourth earl of March, was only seven
vears old at the time of his father's death, and he was

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 227

given in ward by the king to Richard earl of Arundel. He
was made by Richard II lord lieutenant of Ireland^ as the
successor of his father, and was slain in a battle there in
1S98, leaving two sons and two daughters. In the parlia-
ment held in the ninth year of the reign of Richard II,
A. D. 1885, this R(^er de Mortimer was declared heir
apparent to the crown, by his descent from Lionel duke of
Clarence. His eldest daughter, Anne, was married to
Richard Plantagenet duke of Cambridge, younger son of
Edmund duke of York, and therefore the grandson of
Edward HI.

Edmund Mortimer, fifth earl of March, was left an orphan
at the age of six years, and was committed in ward to
Henry prince of Wales. After having distinguished him-
self in the French wars, he died childless in 14S4, and the
male line of this branch of the Mortimer family, with the
title of earl of March, became extinct. The baronies of
Mortimer, and the other dignities and estates, were inherited
by his nephew, Richard Plantagenet duke of York, the son
of Richard duke of Cambridge, who married his sister.
This was the same duke of York who was subsequently
put to death after the battle of Wakefield.

SECTION IX.

The Welsh Border during the fourteenth and early part of
(he fifteenth centuries.

THE condition of society in England underwent no
great variations during the fourteenth century, although it
was in a continual state of fermentation. The lower orders
were oppressed and miserable, and during the whole of the
period just mentioned they were either passively or actively
at war with their superiors. The coimtry was overrun by

228 THB HISTORY OF LUDIiOW.

bands of armed robbers, encouraged by the political troubles
of the time ; and the peasants themselves seldom missed an
opportunity of slaughtering a wandering knight or defence-
less merchant. In return the peasantry were oppressed by
the purveyors of the king and of the barons ; who violently
carried away their provisions, treated them with contempt
and rudeness, and frequently beat them and offered violence
to their wives and daughters. In addition to these evils, the
people were burdened by foreign wars, and more than deci-
mated by destructive pestilences. The oppressions of the
purveyors and taxers on the one hand, and the turbulence of
the peasantry on the other, form frequent subjects of com-
plaint in the parliaments of Edward III and Richard II.

The borders of Wales not only bore their full share of
these grievances, but they had also to suffer from the vicinity
of a people of a different race, who, though nominally in
peace and alUance, cherished the hostile feelings and recol-
lections of several centuries. The two peoples, although
now placed under the same government, were separated
not only by different customs of old standing, but by the
inequality created by new laws. The Welsh were in many
respects treated as a vanquished people; and by repeated
enactments during the fourteenth century they were de-
prived of many social rights, particularly that of buying
and possessing lands, more especially on the English border.
One reason assigned for this law was that, by the " procu-
ration, help, counsel, and favour of Welshmen buying and
possessing lands in the English counties on the border,
divers malefactors of Wales of their acquaintance in great
multitudes, sometimes a hundred or two hundred, and at
other times three hundred and more, suddenly entering
these counties in warlike array, perpetrate there daily
divers manslaughters, felonies and other transgressions and
enormities, and then retreat in haste to the other side of
the border, beyond the jurisdiction of the magistrates of the
counties in which the offences were committed."* The

• Rolls of Parliament, rol. iii. p. 391.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 2^9

different laws and customs relating to merchants and traders
^were also the source of much injustice and continual dis-
putes. Merchants and others, passing from one jurisdiction
to another^ were frequently arrested under false pretences,
and were not set at liberty until they had satisfied the
avarice of their persecutors. The particular privileges of
the county palatine of Chester served also as a cover and
CTLcouragement to similar violences and injustice. In dif-
ferent parliaments of Richard II, these privileges were the
subjects of earnest complaint on the part of the commons,
it being stated that not only the coimties of Salop, Hereford,
Worcester, and Gloucester, but even those of Lancaster,
Derby, Leicester, and York, were daily disturbed by the
iiLhabitants of Cheshire, who " come sometimes by day and
sometimes by night, with great routs of armed men in war-
like array, and there commit various felonies, trespasses
and extortions, namely, they slay people, burn houses,
ravish ladies and damsels, and other people they maim,
beat, and otherwise wound, and maim and kill their oxen,
to the great destruction and oppression of the aforesaid
commons, for which no punishment is inflicted, or forfeiture
ordained of the goods and chattels which they have within
the aforesaid county of Chester, because of their franchise."*
At other times they carried away the daughters of gentle-
men and men of property, and if their friends would not
consent to redeem them for exorbitant sums of money,
or to give with them their dowers, in marriage to their
ravishers, they not only ill treated them, but they made
these and other causes of quarrels with their families, and
suddenly entered and ravaged their lands, and then returned
and took shelter under the same franchises.

The records of the dissensions and political troubles of
this period furnish many statistical notices illustrative of
the social condition of our forefathers. The accounts of
the tax of a fifteenth of personal property raised in 1801, as

♦ Holla of Parliament, voK iii. pp. 139, 201, 280.
2h

280 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

far as it concerned Colchester, give ns an account of the goods
and chattels of every inhabitant of that township. We
observe few persons who had more than one article of fur-
niture in their houses, and a large number had none at all.
The richest houses of the burgesses must have been very
scantily furnished, generally with one or two beds in the
chamber, and a three-legged table (tripos) in the sitting room.
Chairs are not mentioned; people probably sat on stone
seats by the side of the wall. The number of persons who
had money in their houses is comparatively small ; and few
of the tradesmen possessed a large stock in trade. Articles
of clothing appear to have been most expensive. The
following instances will give a general idea of the whole.
As persons whose property amounted only to a few pence
were subjected to the taxes at this period, they must have
weighed heavy on the lower classes of society. — ^William
the miliar had, in money, a mark of silver ; in his cup-
board, or chest, one silver clasp, of the value of 9d. and one
ring, valued at 12d. ; iji his chamber, one robe, price 10s.,
one bed, price 3s., one napkin 9d., one towel, 6d. ; in his
kitchen, one brass pot, 2s., one brazen platter, 12d., one
brazen saucepan (pociuatum), 8d., one ander (an instrument
for arranging the fire), 6d., one tripod, or table, 4d. ; in the
granary, one quarter of wheat, 4s., one quarter of barley,
3s., two quarters of oats, at 2s. the quarter ; two pigs, Ss.
each, two porkers 18d. each, one pound of wool, 8s., fagots
for the fire, 2b. 6d. — Alice Maynard possessed one brass
saucepan, lOd., and one towel 5d. — Matilda la Base had in
her house, one cup of mazer (a kind of wood), 12d., one
mantle, half a mark, one old robe, 4s., one bed, 4s., one
brass pot. Is. 6d., one old brass platter, 6d, one quarter of
fine wheat, 3s., one quarter of barley, 3s., one heifer (afirus),
3s. 4d., one bullock, 6s., one weak cart, 3s., one ander and
one gridiron, 8d., one tripod, 3d. — Philippa de Brome had
in her house, one robe, 8s., one bed 5s., one table-cloth,
12d., one towel, 6d., one brazen pot, 20d., one brazen plat-
ter, 8d., a washing bowl and a basin, 12d., a tripod, 4d.,

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 2S1

two quarters of fine wheats Ss. the quarter^ one quarter of
oats, 80d., one mare^ Ss., two oxen, each Gs., two bullocks,
each Ss., two cows, each 5s. — ^Nicholas le Coupere (i. e. the
wood cutter), had a super-tunic, or frock, £s., and a pig,
12d. — John Scott, butcher, had an old worn robe, valued at
Ss.; in his chamber, ''nothing;" in his shop, meat, suet,
and fat, to the value of 5s., a knife and an axe, together
valued at 6d. — John Orpede, another butcher, had in his
house, a silver clasp, Sid., a bed, old and crazy, 2s. 6d., a
robe, in a similar condition, 5s., a brazen platter, 17d., two
carcases of oxen, 4s. each, seven flagons (lagense), worth 6d.
each. — John de Tendringge, who appears to have been a
tanner, and to have been one of the richer burgesses, had
in his house a silver clasp and a ring, valued at 18d. ; in
the chamber, two robes, 15s., two beds, Ss. each, two table-
cloths, 2a., two towels, 8d. each ; in the brewhouse, a brazen
pot, 5iOd., a saucepan, lOd., a brazen platter, 12d.; in his
grange, one quarter of fine wheat, Ss., two quarters of
barley, Ss. each, two quarters of fine oats, at 20d. per
quarter, one heifer (aftus), half a mark, hay, 2s., one cow,
59., two pigs, 18d. each, one piece of russet cloth, 8s. ; bark
in the tannery, half a mark, hides, two marks, tubs and
* algecB* for tanning, half a mark ; a gridiron and a tripod,
M. ; in all £5 : 68. : lOd. — ^William Gray, apparently a
mercer, one clasp, 12d., two silver spoons, 8d. each ; in his
chamber, two robes, 7s. 6d. each, two beds, Ss. 6d. each,
one table-cloth, 12d., two towels, 6d. each ; in the kitchen,
one brazen pot, 2s., one saucepan, 12d. ; one cow, 5s., two
pigs, 28. each, one hackney, 4s., hay, 12d. ; one piece of
russet cloth, a mark ; one quarter of barley, Ss., one quarter
of fine oats, 20d., fire wood, 12d. ; in gloves, pxirses, girdles,
wax and other small things in his mercery, 16s. ; two tubs,
18d., two barrels, I2d., two small tubs, 6d., two ' algese,'
W.; one fire-iron, Sid., one tripod, Sjd. — Cristina la
Glovere had one bullock, valued at 2s. 8d., and " no other
chattels." — Agnes the miller had in money, 2s.; in her
treasury, or cupboard, one silver clasp, lOd., and one ring,

2SS THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

6d. ; in her chamber, one robe> Ss., two beds, Ss., one table-
cloth, 12d., one towel, 6d. ; in the brewhouse, two small
brazen pots, 18d. each, one brazen platter, lOd. ; one
quarter of wheat, 46., half a quarter of a different quality,
18d., one quarter of barley, 3s., one quarter of oats, 2s.;
stones for hand mills, 4s., divers cords, 5s., oil, lis., a
tripod, 4d. — ^R<^er, son of Lettice (or Lettison), who ap-
pears to have been a waterman, had one mark in money, a
robe, valued at half a mark, a bed, 2s. 6d., a cow, 5s., a
pig, 18d., a brazen pot, ISd., a brazen platter, 8d., half a
quarter of wheat, ISd., a quarter of barley, 3s., a quarter of
oats, 20d., a boat, 10s., a tripod, 3d. — Sir Robert Fitz
Walter, had in his manor at Lexinden, ten quarters of
wheat, 3s. the quarter, twenty quarters of oats, 8Ss. 4d.,
six mares, worth 3s. each, four oxen, 10s. each, sixty ewes,'
12d. each, forty lambs, 6d. each.

We may compare these prices of articles with the value of
land at nearly the same period. From an inquisition con-
cerning the manor of Combes in Suffolk, taken in 1324, we
find that there was in that estate a capital messuage with a
garden, worth 12d. a year ; six score and ten acres of arable
land, worth by the year 4d. an acre ; five acres of meadow,
worth per annum 2s. an acre, " and not more, because full
of rushes ;" eight acres of wood and underwood, worth 6d.
an acre per annum; three acres of pasture, worth 6d. an
acre per annum; half a water mill and half a windmill,
estimated at 10s. a year, '^ and not more, because weak aod
ruinous."* In 1363, when poultry was scarce and extra-
vagantly dear, an act of parUament was passed, fixing the
highest prices of a young capon at 3d; an old capon, 4d.;
a hen, 2d. ; a chicken. Id. ; a goose, 4d.t In 1382, the
highest retail prices of wines were fixed at 6d. a gallon for
the best wines of Gascony, Oseye, and Spain ; 4d. a gallon
for the best wine of Rupelle ; and 6d/ a gallon for the best
Rhenish wine.J

• Rolls of Parliament, vol. i. p. 420. f Ih, vol ii. p. 280.

} Rolls of Parliament, vol. iii. p. 392.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 2S3

In addition to the constant petty depredations of the
Welsh^ the border was frequently disturbed by quarrels
arising out of the extensive and often clashing privileges
and claims of the lords marchers. The kind of service on
which these feudal chieftains were employed in the earlier
times of Norman rule, and the mode in which they obtained
possession of their lordships, were rewarded and compen-
sated by feudal tenures and rights of a much larger and
more comprehensive nature than those of other estates.
Long after the Principality of Wales had been placed under
the English crown, the lords marchers continued to claim
and exercise within their particular jurisdictions the same
rights which, frequently unjust and indefinite, were equally
troublesome to the crown and to the people. Successive
monarchs endeavoured in vain to abolish them. When the
justices of Edward I attempted to enforce the writ of Quo
Warranto in the case of John de Warren earl of Surrey, and
questioned his title to his lordships of Bromfield and Yale,
that haughty baron brought forth an old rusty sword, and,
unsheathing it, " behold," said he, " my title : by this sword
my forefathers, who came in with William the bastard,
obtained their lands, and by it will I hold and defend them,
against whomsoever shall endeavour to dispossess me." It
is not to be wondered if we find that men, thus disposed to
try their claims against their sovereign, used the same
argument against one another. The quarrels which arose
out of these disputes, and in which the native Welsh were
generally led to take a part, sometimes ended in open
rebeUions. When John de Cherlton claimed through his
wife the lordship of Powys, he was allowed to establish his
rights in this manner. The feud continued unappeased
many years, during which period we have no information
as to the bloodshed and heart-burnings to which it gave
rise; but they were still engaged in open war in 1330 (the
fourth of Edward III), when, as we learn from the RoUs of
ParUament, "our lord the king understanding, that by
reason of the feud which has long time been between

284 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

Monsire John de Cherlton and Monsire Griffith de la Pole
(of Pool), they on both sides assemble men of arms and
collect force of war, whereby great evils and breach of the
peace, and peradventnre war may easily happen in Wales
and on the Marches," formally ordered them to desist,
adding to his admonition, ''that if either of them were
aggrieved by the other he might lay his complaint before
the king, who would administer a speedy remedy."* In
the same year John de Cherlton, who it appears had been
instrumental in the seizure of Edmund Fitzalan, earl of
Arundel, and lord of Clim, Oswestry, and Shrawardine,
executed at Hereford in the beginning of Edward's reign
(or rather at the end of that of his father), was engaged
in another feud, on that account, with his son ^Richard
Fitzalan, restored the same year to his father's estates;
and the two barons were only hindered from making war
on each other by the king's interference. Two generations
afterwards the families of Cherlton and Fitzalan inter-
married.

The protection afforded by the feudal privileges of the
lords marchers was as destructive to the tranquillity of the
border, as the peculiar jurisdiction claimed by thSs county of
Chester. In the parliament of the ninth year of the reign
of Edward III, petitions were presented by the lords
marchers in defence of their rights ; who represented that
the magistrates and courts of the counties in which their
estates lay were in the habit of intrenching upon them. But
the king, who was little inclined to favour their claims,
returned the cold answer, that " any one who felt himself
grieved, might come to his chancery, and have his remedy."t

Edward III appears to have been ever suspicious of the
fidelity of the Welsh. In 1334, he issued orders for
examining and putting in proper state of defence all his
castles in Wales. Similar orders were given in the year

• Rolls of Parliament, vol. ii. p. 59.
t Rolls of Parliament, vol. ii. p. 91.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. I8S5

following, when the king was eng^ed in his wars in Scot-
land, and was apprehensive that the Welsh, of whose levity
and turbulence he complains with much bitterness,* would
seize on that occasion of breaking the peace. The same
orders concerning the visiting and storing the castles were
repeated, under similar circumstances, in ISST.f

In the transactions of this period, the castle and town of
Ludlow are seldom mentioned. In the second year of the
reign of Edward III, Roger de Mortimer and Joane his
wife obtained license to hold a fair in Ludlow on the eve of
St. Katherine (the 26th of November) and the four days
following, for ever.J The second Roger de Mortimer, earl
of March, became possessed of the whole of the manor of
Ludlow, by exchange with William de Ferrers, to whom
he gave his manor of Crendon for the moiety of Ludlow
which had descended to him from the Vemons.§

In November, 1376, his son, Edmimd de Mortimer,
enfeoffed the castle and manor of Ludlow, with other manors
on the border of Wales, to William Latymer, knight, of
Daneby, Richard Lescrop, knight, Nicholas de Carreu,
Peter de la Mare, knight, John de Bisshopestone, clerk,

* £z quorum effnenata leritate visa sunt pluries mala plurima proyenire.

t Foedera, ii. pp. 895, 913, &c. A singular occurrence is alluded to in
a document of the year 1336 (ib. p. 937). It appears that Edward II, in his
flight into Wales, had carried with him his treasure, which, in his last
perils, he had buried. The document just mentioned is an order for an
inquisition relating to the discovery of this treasure, " in florenis, denariis
numeratis, vasis aureis et argenteis, jocalibus, armaturis, victualibus, et
aliis rebus," to the amount of sixty thousand pounds, found " in partibus
de Glamorgan et Morgannok in Wallia," and dispersed and carried away
by " divers malefactors."

} See the Calendar to the Charter Rolls, p. 159. and the Liber Niger of
Wigmore, MS. Hari. No. 1240, fol. 24. vo.

\ The charters relating to this transfer are enumerated in the valuable
l^ber Niger, or Black Book, of Wigmore, mentioned in the foregoing note :
^fortunately the leaves which contained the copies of them, have been
cut out.

SS6 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

Walter de Colmptone, clerk, and Hugh de Borastone^ for
the term of their lives, with reversion to Simon bishop
of London, William hishop of Winchester, William bishop
of Hereford, Roger de Beauchamp, knight, and Jobn de
Bridwode, clerk, for the term of their lives, after which it
was to revert to the Mortimers. Edmund de Mortimer's
charter of this grant is dated at Hereford, on the 5?5th
of November.*

During the rest of the reign, of Edward IH, the Welsh
seem to have continued in quiet obedience to the English
laws. They appear in history chiefly as furnishing con-
tinual levies to increase the EngUsh armies in Scotland and
France. The materials for border history during this period
are very scant, yet they afford evidence that the submission
of the Wehh did not altogether insure the tranquillity of
the English marches. It apx>ear8 that towards the middle
of the fourteenth century the English counties beyond the
Severn were overrun by bands of outlaws. In Gloucester-
shire they had joined together and elected themselves a
chieftain, to whom they gave sovereign power, and in
whose name they issued proclamations; and, setting in
defiance the king and his laws, they infested equally the
sea and the land, capturing and plundering the king's
ships on the one element, and murdering and robbing his
subjects on the other. In 1347 the king sent a commission
to Gloucester to concert means of seeking out the offenders,
and bringing them to justice.f

The king's suspicions of the fidelity of his Welsh subjects
appear, however, not to have decreased, and we find him
ordering frequent measures of surety against a rebellion.
The border fortresses were kept in a good state of defence.
In 1369 an order was issued forbidding the men of Shrews-
bury to quit their houses on the pretence of attending the

• See the Liber Niger of Wigmore, MS. Harl. No. 1240, fol. 46, to.
t Foedera, vol. iii, p. 126.

THE HISTORY OP LUDLOW. 237

foreign wars, lest by their absence the town should be
weak of defence in case of a sudden rising of the Welsh.
In 1370 the sherifEs of the Welsh counties were ordered to
put the castles in Wales in a state to support sieges^ and to
arm the English population^ for the purpose of withstanding
the French, who threatened an invasion towards Christmas,
with the hopes of diverting the king from his conquests by
raising up enemies nearer home. In 1377 the same fears of
a French invasion appear .to have been entertained, and
similar orders were repeated for the defence of the coasts of
Wales.*

We have no means of ascertaining how far the borderers

took part in the popular insurrections of the opening years

of the reign of Richard II. These movements were chiefly

confined to the eastern parts of the island : but we have

many reasons for believing that the inhabitants of the

English counties on the borders of Wales shared largely in

the reforming spirit of that age. Even before the preaching

of Wiclyffe, this neighbourhood had produced the bold

satirical poem already mentioned, which is so well known

under the title of Piers Ploughman. In the reign of

Richard II the border had already become the strong-hold

of the Lollards. One of the most remarkable men of this

sect, the history of whose persecutions in 1393 will be

found in Foxe's Acts and Monuments, was a native of

Herefordshire; his name was Walter Brut, or Bright,

probably a member of one of the families of that name

which still have their representatives in Herefordshire and

Shropshire. The mode in which his contemporaries spoke

of this early champion of the reformation may be seen in

the following specimen of a political poem, resembling in

style the Visions of Piers Ploughman, and probably, like it,

written on the border, under the title of the Creed of Piers

Ploughman.

" Alle that persecution
In pure liif suffren,

• Foedera, vol. iii. pp. 869, 901, 1075.
2l

288 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

They ban the benison of God,

Blissed in erthe.

I pray, parceyve now

The pursut of a frere,

In what mesure of a mekenesse

Tbise men deletb.

Bybold upon Water Brut

Hon bisiliche thei pursueden.

For he seid hem the sothe.*

Fly may no mo marren hem,

But men telleth

That he is an heretik,

And yvele byleveth,

And precheth it in pulpit

To blenden the puple.

They wolden awyrien that wight

For his wel dedes,

And so they chewen charity,

As chewen shaf houndes/'t

A few years later^ the celebrated Sir John Oldcastle (lord
Cobham), the head of the Lollard party, took refuge on the
Welsh border from the enmity of his persecutors, and was
there discovered and arrested by his pursuers.

King Richard appears to have used all occasions of
showing favour to the Welsh, and to have looked to them
for support and aid in case of need. He also placed great
dependance in the people of Cheshire, who were governed
by one of his creatures, Thomas Molineux, constable of
Chester. We have already seen how obnoxious the people
of Cheshire were at this time to the inhabitants of the
neighbouring coimties. It is probable that the favourable
eye with which Richard regarded them tended not a little
to render him unpopular on the border. In 1387, when

* i. e. because he told them the troth.

t They would curse that creature (Walter Brut) for his good deeds,
and so they eschew charity, as dogs eschew chaff.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

the great barons had begun to enter into hostile league,

against the king's favourite, Robert de Vere, then newly

created duke of Ireland, Richard and the fayourite repaired

into Wales in order to consult with more security on means

to crush the conspiracy. They returned from thence to

Nottingham, where a parUament was called, and the barons

were cited to appear and answer the charges which were

brought against them. But they called together their tenants,

and prepared to meet the favourite in arms. The duke of

Ireland raised the men of Cheshire, and joining with them

some Welsh levies, he marched into Oxfordshire, where he

was met by the barons at Radcote Bridge, on the Isis. But

the courage of the favourite forsook him in the moment of

danger^ and^ seeing no other way of escape, he quitted his

armour, threw himself into the river, and swam down the

stream. His army was easily put to the rout, and the

leader of the Cheshire men, Thomas Molineux, was slain

by one of the baronial party named Thomas de Mortimer.

The duke of Ireland escaped to. the continent; and in his

absence he was attainted and outlawed. *

In the last melancholy act of Richard's history, he again
sought help in Wales. In 1398 a parliament had been
held at Shrewsbury. In the same year, Roger de Mortimer,
earl of March, was slain in a battle against the Irish. The
king immediately declared his intention of going in person
to chastise the rebels in Ireland, which he put in effect
towards Easter, carrying with him an army raised chiefly
in Cheshire. While the king was engaged ia the Irish
war, Henry of Lancaster landed in England; and the
king's creatures. Bushy, Bagot, and Greene, fled imme-
diately towards the border of Wales, two of them taking
shelter in Bristol castle, while the other hurried to Chester.
Bristol was soon taken by the Lancastrians. The sequel is
well known. King Richard left Ireland and landed in
Wales; after wandering about the coast deserted by his
friends, and not finding the support he expected from the
Welsh, he threw himself into Conway castle. From thence

240 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

he Temoved to the castle of Flint, and there he suxrendered
to his victorious rival. The interest which the people of
the Welsh horder took in these events is proved by a
political poem in alliterative verse (written in imitatioii of
the Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman), on the deposition
of Richard II, which is a strong declaration of the prin-
ciples and motives of the party who placed Henry TV on
the throne. It appears to have been composed at Bristol.*
In the first parliament of the new monarch, the commons
presented a vigorous petition against the outrages com-
mitted by the people of Cheshire against their neighbours,
and they were probably, after this, effectually restrained.
It is certain that the complainants had found little redress
during Richard's reign ;t and the men of Chester appear
to have been in open rebellion at the' beginning of that
of his successor.:^

The Welsh, who had remained quiet while king Richard
was in need of their assistance, took up arms in his cause
after his death, and remained during several years in open
rebellion against king Henry. They were probably first
ui^ed into action by the disaffected party in England ; and
they looked for assistance not only to the Scots in the
north, who pretended that Richard was aUve in their
hands, but to the French, who were to land upon some
part of the coast. Nevertheless, this last great insurrection
of the mountaineers bore much less the character of a
patriotic movement, than of a combination of resentments
for personal offences added to the love of plimder. Among
the persons most earnestly engaged in the struggle^ few speak
of any other griefs than some old feud with a poweiful

• This poem has been published by the Camden Society.

t The commons, in their petition for redress of this grievance, 1
Henry IV, say, " come sovent avant sez heures ad est^ porsuez et montrez
en plusouTS parlementz en temps Richard le Secounde jadys roy d'Engle-
terre, sanz aucune remedie." Rol. Pari. toI, iii, p. 440.

X See Nicholas's Proceedings of the Privy Council, vol. i, p. 113.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 241

neighbour^ or some recent mark of personal disrespect ; and
they Tmte letters in English which may be compared with
the effusions of John Ball and the insurgent peasantry at
the beginning of the preceding reign. Gryffyth ap David
ap Gryffyth, one of the most active of the insurgents^ who
is characterised as '^ the strongest thief in Wales/' closes a
letter of defiance to Lord Grey of Buthyn^ in the following
rude rhymes. —

" We hope we shall do the a privy thing ;
a rope, a ladder, and a ryng ;
high on gallows for to hynge.
And thus shall be your endyng :
and he that made the be ther to helpyng :
and we on our behalf shall be well-willyng,
for thy lettreis knowledging."*

The same person in another letter^ says, *^ Hit was told me
that ye ben in piu^s for to make your men bran (hum)
and sle in qwatesoever cimtr^ that I be, and am sesened in.
Withowten doubt as mony men that ye sleu and as mony
howsin that ye bran for my sake, as mony wol I bran and
sle for your sake ; and doute not I woUe have both bredde
and ale of the best that is in your lordschip."t

The rebellion began in the summer of 1400, and was at
first directed chiefly against lord Grey of Ruthyn, who was
commissioned by the king to repress the ^^misgovemance and
riot*' which " he heard was begun in the Marches." In
liis answer to the king, lord Grey represented the difficulties
which surrounded him, and the lukewarmness of many of
the officers and families on the border.:]: About the same

* Ellis's Original Letters, second series, vol. i, p. 5. f 75. p. 7.

\ " Ther been many officers, sume of our liege lord the kynges lond,
same of the erles of the Marchers lond, sume of the erlers lond of Aruudele,
some of Powise lond, sume of my lond, sume of other lordes londes here
aboute, that ben kynue unto this meignee that be risen ; and tyll ye putte
tlios officers in better goyemance, this cuntre of North Wales shall nevere
have peese." Ellis, ib. p. 4.

242 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

time the chamberlain of Carnarvon, in a letter of intelli-
gence, speaking of the '' governance of the Walsh peple/'
says, ^'they selleth her catell, and byeth hem hors^ and
hameys, and sume of hem stelleth hors, and sume robbeth
hors, and purveyen hem of saddles, bowes, and arowes^ and
other hameys, &c. ; and recheles men of many divers
cuntries voiden her groundes and her thrifty governance,
and assemblen hem in dissolate places and wilde^ and
maken many divers congregaciones and metynges piyvely,
though her counsaile be holdcn yet secrete fro us, nvfaer-
throgh yong peple are the more wilde in governance."

The English court appears to have considered the re-
bellion of the Welsh as partial and carrying with it no
serious danger, during several months. At last, on the
19th of September, 1400, the king, who was then at
Northampton, received intelligence that the Welsh were
assembled in much greater numbers than he supposed, that
they had already taken castles and towns, and that they
were spreading devastation in every direction. On the
same day he issued his vmts to the sheriffs of the midland
counties of England to assemble their men at arms and
join him at Coventry, and to the bailiffs and men of
Shrewsbury to put their town in a state of defence.* The
king however, instead of going in person against the
Welsh, met his parliament at Westminster; but prince
Henry repaired to Chester, and thence, towards the end of
November, he issued a proclamation, offering a general
pardon to all the insurgents who would submit and return
to their obedience. Early in January an order was issued
to the towns on the border and the ports of South Wales,
to provide armed ships and barges to defend their coasts
against a foreign invasion.f In the parliament which was
now sitting the commons petitioned that the lords Marchers
should be requested to act against the Welsh with vigour,
each in his own district; and it was ordained that no

• Foedera, old edit. vol. iii, p. 190. f Focdera, vol. iii, p. 1^5.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 243

Welshman should in future be capable of buying or holding

lands in or about the towns of Chester, Shrewsbury,

BridgenoTth^ Ludlow, Leominster, Hereford, Gloucester,

Worcester, or other market towns on the English side of

the border, or of being a freeman or holding any franchises

in them, and that all those who already enjoyed such

possessions or privileges should be made to give security for

their good behaviour.* On the 18th of March, 1401, an

oppressive ordinance was published against the insurgent

Welsh, one article of which was that " the minstrels, bards,

rhymers, wasters, and other vagabond Welsh in North

Wales, be not suffered henceforth to overrun the country,

as has been done before ; but let them be entirely forbidden,

on pain of a year's imprisonment, "f Previous to this, on

the 10th of March, another general pardon had been offered

to the rebels who would submit, excepting three, Owen

Glyndwr, Bees ap Tudor, and WiUiam ap Tudor. J

This is the first mention of Owen Glyndwr in the docu-
ments relating to the insurrection of the Welsh at this
period. The personal history of this remarkable man is

• Rolls of Parliament, toI, iii. pp. 472, 476.

t " Item, que les ministrelx, bardes, rymours, et westours, et autres
▼agabimdes Galeys deinz Northgales, ne soient desorm^s soeffrez de sur-
charger le pails, come ad est^ devant; mais soient-ils outrement deffenduz,
w peine d'emprisonement d'un an." Foedera, p. 200.

The following items occur among the petitions of the commons in this
parliament, RoL Pari. vol. iii, p. 308.—

Item, que nulle westonrs, et rymours, mynstrales, ou vacabundes, ne
soient sustenuz en Gales, pur faire kymorthas ou quyllages sur le commune
poeple, lesqneuz par lour diyinationes, messonges, et excitations, sount
concause de la insurrection et rebellion q'or est en Gales. Reaporuio,
Le roy le voet

Item, que nulle commanvaes ou congregations soient faitz ou soeffrez
estre faitz par les Oaloises, pur ascuns counseill ou pu^oses faire, s'il no
Boit pnr eridente cause, et par licence de les chiefs ministres du seinurie,
et en lour presence, sur peyne. Responsio, Le roy le voet, sur peyne
d'emprisonement, et de faire fyn et ranceon k la yolent^e du roy.

X Fcedera, toI. iii, p. 196.

244 THB HISTORY OF LXTDLOW.

obscure. He is said to hare been bom about the middle of
the fourteenth century, and, when in the height of bis
power, he pretended to a direct descent from the ancient
Cambrian princes. If we believe the contemporary chio-
niclers, he was bred in an English Inn of Court, and was
an esquire of the body to king Richard II ; it is even said
that he was one of the few persons who remained with that
monarch when he surrendered to the duke of Lancaster in
Flint castle. He was afterwards for a short time esquire to
the earl of Arundel, and then retired to his estate in
Wales, where he was living in 1400, when he petitioned
the parliament for redress against his neighbour, lord Grey
of Ruthyn, whom he accused of usurping a portion of his
paternal inheritance. The parliament decided against
him; and when the bishop of St. Asaph, who appears to
have been friendly disposed towards him, urged the parlia-
ment not to despise altogether Owen's claims, it was
answered that the legislative body would not condescend to
be awed by a set of *' bare-footed clowns." It does not
appear that Owen Gl)md^T immediately attempted to
obtain forcible possession of the land he claimed, or that he
took an active part in the Welsh insurrection at first.
Perhaps he was only induced to place himself at the head
of the movement when it had gained sufficient strength to
promise some chance of success. From this period, how-
ever, it began to take a more serious character ; and even
the Welsh students in the English universities, and those
who held offices or places of emolument, quitted their
studies and their gains to return to their native mountains.
The king seized Owen's estates in South Wales, and granted
them to John earl of Somerset.*

In the spring of 1401, William ap Tudor and his brother
Bees ap Tudor had obtained possession of the castle of
Conway, where they were immediately besieged by Henry
Percy, so well known to the readers of Shakespeare by the

• Calendar to the Patent RolU, p. 242.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 246

name of Hotspur, who held the office of justice of North
Wales and Chester.* On the 4th of May, Percy writes to
the privy council from Caernarvon, that all North Wales
was quiet and submissive, with the exception of Conway
castle, and those who were with Rees ap Tudor in the
mountains. Soon after this the Welsh garrison of Conway
appear to have entered into ncgociations with Percy and
the prince of Wales, who had joined in the siege, for
conditions of surrender. On the 17th of May his position
had become more gloomy; he speaks of the pride and
intractability of the insurgents, and complains of the diffi-
culties and expenses of his office, which he subsequently
resigned. On the 4th of June Percy again complains of
the increasing turbulence of the country in which he was
stationed ; he speaks of having defeated the insurgents in
Cader Idris, complains of receiving Uttle aid from any of
the lords Marchers except the earl of Arundel and Sir Hugh
Bowe,t and sends news that the lord of Powis (Edward
de Cherlton) had fought and defeated Owen Glyndwr in
person.J

GlyndwT appears to have been occupied at this time in
invading the English side of the border; and his pro-
ceedings were of such a threatening character that the king
thought it necessary to march against him in person. In
his letters to the sheriffs of counties for the assembling of
his army, he states that he had received intelligence on the
26th of May that Owen Gljmd'vvT and his Welsh rebels had
assembled in the Marches of Caermarthcn, and that they
had proclaimed it as their intention to enter England with

• Devon's Pell RoUa, p. 283. Proceedings of the Privy Council,
^ol- i. p. 147.

t The king gave about this time to Hugh BoVe all the lands in
phcshiTe and Salop which had belonged to Robert de Pulesden, who had
joined himself with Owen Glyndwr. See Calendar to the Patent Rolls,
p. 242. A'

t I^oceedings of the Privy Council, vol. z, pp. 150, 151, 152.
2k

246 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

an armed force for the purpose of destroying the English
people and language.* The king was then at Wallingford,
and with his characteristic activity he prepared to move
towards the border on the following day. He was at Wor-
cester on the 8th of June, on which day he wrote two
letters to his privy council, one directing them to prepare a
fleet to repel an invasion, the other informing them that on
his approach the Welsh had retired from the border,
although they were increasing in numbers, and that he was
determined to advance.f The king returned from Wales
late in September or early in November; but we have no
narrative of his operations. Some of the Welsh chiefs
stood firm to their allegiance; others had submitted, and
received pardon ; and many of the castles were strengthened,
and put into better hands.:}: But Glyndwr still stood out,
and with him the larger part of those who had taken up
arms. After his return, the king appointed Percy's uncle,
the earl of Worcester, captain of Cardigan castle, and his
lieutenant in Wales.

At this time the affairs of the insurgents were certainly
not prosperous, for our next intelligence of Owen Glyndwr
is, that, as winter approached, he was in "good intent"
(bon entente) to return to his allegiance to the king.g In
a report from the earl of Northumberland (Henry Percy's
father), we learn that Owen had sent to the earl to say that
he had a great affection for him personally, and that he
would willingly speak with him ; with respect to the insur-
rection and mischief done by the Welsh, he said that he
was not the cause of it, and that he would willingly have

• Proceedings of the Privy Council, vol. ii, p. 54.

t Proceedings of the Privy Council, vol. i, p. 133, and vol. ii, p. 56.

X At this time the famous Lollard, Sir John Oldcastle, was made captain
of Builth : in the year following (1402) he had the command of Kidwelly
castle.

i Proceedings of Privy Council, Minutes of Council, vol. i, p. 173.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 247

peace ; and as regarded the heritage which he claimed, he
stated that he had possession of the greater part of it, but that
there was a part remaining for which he was willing to
come to the English Marches to negociate. This declaration
of Glyndwr appears to support the notion that the insur-
rection did not originate with him ; and his advances at this
period^ in which he seems only to have had regard to his
personal safety and that of his estates, do little honour
to his patriotism. His offers appear to have been favourably
received by the English court, but it is probable that other
circumstances, of which we know nothing, rendered them
incfiectual. The English council gave orders for strengthen-
ing the border castles; and the Welsh spent the winter
(the season which had always been favourable to them) in
preparing for active operations at the first break of spring.

In 1402 the insurrection had reached its greatest force.
M the approach of spring the operations of Glyndwr had
become more extensive. A fortunate accident made his gi-eat
enemy and most active opponent, lord Grey of Ruthyn,
his prisoner, and there remained but a few ill garrisoned
castles to hinder his crossing the border. Early in the
year the prince of Wales had been sent to Shrewsbury,
where he was organizing an army to hold North Wales in
check. A letter which he wrote* to the privy council on
the 15th of May, and of which the following is a translation,
gives a curious picture of the kind of warfare carried on
between the rival parties.

"Very dear and entirely well beloved, we greet you earnestly
with our entire heart, thanking you very dearly for the good
care which you have had of the businesses which concern us in
our absence, and we pray you very affectionately for your good
and friendly continuance, as our trust is in you. And for
news in this part, if you will know, among others, we were
lately informed that Oweyn de Glyndourdy assembled his forces
of other rebels, his adherents, in great number, purposing to

• The original is in French.

248 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

make an incursioDy and to fight if the English would remst hhn
in his parpoBe, and so he boasted to bis people. Wherefore ve
took our forces and vent to a place of the said Owejn, weD
built, which was his principal mansion, named Saghero, where
we expected to have found him, if he had had will to £l^t
in manner as he said; and at our coming thither, we foand
nobody, and therefore we caused the whole place to be bamt,
and several other houses thereabouts of his tenants. And then
we went straight to his other place of Glendourdy, to seek him
there, and there we burnt a fair lodge in his park, and all the
country there about. And we lodgeil ourselves by there all
that night, and certain of our people sallied forth there into the
country, and took a great gentleman of the country who was
one of the said Oweyn^s chieftains, who offered five bandied
pounds for his ransom to have had his life, and to have paid
the said sum within two weeks; nevertheless it was not ac-
cepted, but he was put to death, as well as divers others of his
companions who were taken in the said expedition. And then
we went into the Commote pf Edeyrnion, in the county of
Merionnyth, and there we ravaged with fire a fair country, and
well inhabited. And thence we went into Powys, and there
being a scarcity of provender for horses in Wales, we cansed
our men to carry oats with them, and we remained « • • • days.
And to inform you more fully of this expedition, and of all
other news here at present, we send to you our very dear
esquire, John de Waterton, to whom you will be pleased to give
. entire faith and credence in what he shall report to you from
us touching the news above mentioned. And may our Lord
have you always in his holy keeping. Given under our signet,
at Shrouesbury, thb 15th day of May.^'

Soon after the return of their prince from this *' foray,*'
Owen Glyndwr, whose strength was evidently increasing,
approached the English border, with the intention of ravag-
ing Herefordshire and Shropshire. Edmund de Mortimer,
the uncle of the young earl of March, hastily levied the
men of Herefordshire, and met the Welsh on the hills in
the neighbourhood of Radnor, at Maelienydd. In this
battle, which was fought on the 12th of June, the men of

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 849

Herefordshire were entirely defeated^ and Mortimer himself
taken prisoner. The contemporary chroniclers give us no
particulars of this battle beyond recording the savage bar-
barity of the Welsh women who followed their coxmtry-
men,* but it was afterwards the tradition of the place that
Edmund de Mortimer was taken after a long and desperate
personal combat with Glyndwr himself. The victors are
said to have advanced as far as Leominster, where they
established themselves, and from whence they issued to
plunder and lay waste the neighbouring country. The
house at Leominster is still shown in which, according to
tradition, Glyndwr deposited his prisoner; and he is said
to have robbed the priory church, as well as several churches
in the vicinity, some of which were nearly destroyed by his
men. He appears to have returned in haste into Caermar-
thenshire, to collect there his forces for the reduction of
the strong places in that coimty which were still in the
hands of the English.

The state of Wales at this time will be best pictured by
two or three other contemporary letters which have escaped
the ravages of time. The first was written to John Fairford,
receiver of Brecknock, by John Scudamore, who held the
castle of Carregcennen for the king.

** WofBchipful Sir, I recomand me to yow, and forasmoche
as I may nought spare no man from this place away fro me,
to certefie neyther the king ne' my lord the prynce, of the
myschefs of these conn trees abonte, ne no man may pas by no
wey hennes, I pray yow and require yow that ye certefie hem
how al Kermerdyn schire, Kcdewely, Carnwaltham, and
Yskenyn, ben sworen to Oweyn yesterday, and he lay to night
yn the castel of Drosselan, with Rees ap Grufl^uth. And tber I
was, and spake with hym upon truys, and prayed of a sauf-
conduyt' nnder his seal to send home my wif and her moder
and their mayn6,^ but he wolde none graunte me. And on this

• See Thomas WalBingham, Hist. Angl. p. 365.
Glouary.'^l Nor. 2 Safe-conduct. 3 Household.

250 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

day he is about the towne of Kermerdyn, and ther thinketh to
abide til he may have the towne and the castel. And his
purpos ys from thennes into Pembroke schire ; for he halt hym
siker' of all the castell and towns in Kedewelly, Qowerslonde,
and Qlamorgan, for the same countrees have undertaken the
sieges of hem til thei ben wonnen. Wherfore wryteth to
Sir Hugh Waterton, and to alle thilke that ye suppose wol
take this matter to hert, that thei excite the kyng hederwardes
in al haste to vengen hym on summe of his false traytors the
whiche he hath overmoche cherischid, and to rescefre the
townes and casteles in these countrees; for I drede ful sore
ther be too fewe trewe men in hem. I can* no more as nowe ;
but pray Qod help yow and us that thinken to be trewe.
Written at the castel of Carreckennen, the .v. day of Juil.
yowres, John Skydmore."

The attack upon Caermarthen was successful. On the
7th of July* the constable of Dynevor castle, " Jankyn
Hauard," writes thus to the receiver of Brecknock :f —

" Deare frende, I do yow to wetyn^ that Oweyn Glendour,
Henri Don, Res Duy, Res ap Griffith ap Llewelyn, and Res
Gothin, han y-won the town of Kermerdyn, and Wygmor,
constable of the castell, had yeld up the castell of Kermerdyn
to Oweyn : and [they] han y-brend^ the town, y-slay* of men of
[the] town more than fifty men ; and thei budd in purpos" to
Kedweli ; and a siege is ordeynyd at the castell that I kepe,
and that is gret peril for me, and all that buth wyddein f for
thei han y-made har avow" that thei will algate^ have us dead
therein. Wherfore I pray yow that ye nul not bugil us, that
ye send to us warning wythin schort time whether schul we

• The date of this letter (the feast of St. Thomas the Martyr) must be
intended for the feast of the Translation of St. Thomas, July 7.

t Ellis's Original Letters, second series, rol. i, p. 13. In these letters
I have partly modernized the spelling.

QUouary, — 1 Holds himself sure. 2 Know. 3 I give you to know.
4 Burnt. 5 Slain. 6 Remain in purpose, i. e. continue in the intention to
go. 7 AU that are within [the castle]. 8 Made their tow. 9 Ki all events.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLO^. 251

have any help or po: and but th«r be help coming,* that we
have an answer, that we may come bi night and steal away to
Brecknoc : cause that we faylyth vitals, and men, and namely
men. A.lso Jenkyn ap Llewelyn hath yeld up the castell of
Enclyn wyth free wyll ; and also William Qwyn, Thomas ap
David ap Griffith, and moni gentils ben in person wyth Owen.
Warning herof I pray that ye send me bi the berer of this
letter. Fareth well, yn the name of the Trinitie. Y-wrigt at
Dynevour, yn haste and yn drede, yn the feast of Seint Thomas
the Martir.'*

The following undated letter from the same person^
appears to have been written a few days later.

'' Deare frynd, I do you to wetyn that Owyn was in purpos
to Kedewelly, and the baron of Garewe was that day comyng
wyth a grete retenu toward Seint Cler, and so Owyn changed
his purpos and rode to-genes* the baron; and that nyght a
lodged hym at Seint Cler, and destroyed al the contrie about.
And a Tuesday they weren at tretys' al day ; and that nyght
he lodged hym at the town of Locharn, six miles out of the
town of Kermerdyn. His purpose is, if so that the baron and
he acordeth in tretys, than a turneth agein to Kermerdyn for his
part of the goods, and Res Duy his part ; and mony of these
grete maisters stond yet in the castell of Kermerdyn, for they
have not y-made bar ordinance whether the castell and the town
shall be brend or no, and therfore, if ther is any help comyng,
haste hem with al haste toward us, for they mowe have goodes
and vytelles plentie; for every hous is full aboute us of her^
ponltrie, and yet wyn and hony ynow in the contrie, and
wheat and beanes, and al maner of vytells. And we of the
castell of Dunevor had tretys of ham^ Monday, Tuesday, and
Wedynsday, and now a wolF ordeyn for us to have that castell,
for there a casteth to ben y-circled thence, for that was the
chef place in old tyme. A.nd Oweyn's muster a Monday was,
as they seyen hemselven, seven thousand and twelve score
speres, such as they were. Other tidyng I not^ now, but God

GlosHHy."'! And if there be no help coming. 2 Against. 3 At
treatise, i. e. a-treating. 4 Their. 5 Them. C He viU. 7 Know not.

262 THE HISTORY OP LUDLOW.

of bevene send yow and us from all enemies. Y-wrjten at
Dynevor, this Wedynsday, in haste."

The next letter is written from Hereford, on the 8th of
July, by Richard Kingston, archdeacon of Hereford. It
is addressed to the king, and gives us a singular picture of
the fears of the people on the English side of the border,
who had already suffered from Glyndwr's incursion in the
preceding month. The original of the archdeacon's letter
is written in French.

'^ Our yerj redoubted and sovereign lord the king, I recom-
mend myself humbly to your highness as your lowly creature
and continual bedesman. And our very redoubted and so-
vereign lord the king, please you to know that from day to day
letters come from Wales containing intelligence by which you
may learn that the whole country is lost, if you do not come as
quickly as possible. For which reason may it please you to
direct yourself towards our parts with all the power you can,
riding day and niglit for the salvation of these parts. And
please you to know that it will be a great disgrace, as well as
loss, if you should lose or suffer to be lost, at your commence-
ment, the country which your noble ancestors have won and for
so long a time peaceably held ; for people talk very ill-favour-
edly. And I send to your highness the copy of a letter which
came from John Scudamore this morning. Our most redoubted
and sovereign lord the king, I pray to the Almighty that he
grant you a good and holy life, with victory over your enemies.
Written in haste, great haste, at Hereford, the 8th day of
July."

The archde^on's postscript, written in English, is still
more pressing.

" And for Godes love my lyge lord, thinketh on yourself
and youre estate, or by my truth all is lost elles, but an ye
oome youreself with haste, all other wolle folwen after. And
now on Fryday last Kermerdyn town is taken and brent, and

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 253

the castell yolden^ by Robert Wigmore, and the oastell Emelyn
is y«yolden, and slayn of the town of Kermerdyn mo than 50
persones. Writen in ryght gret haste on Sunday ; and 1 crye
you mercyy and putte me in youre hye grace, that I write so
schortly, for, by my truthe that I owe to you, it is needful."

The last of these letters of intelligence that I shall quote
is from the mayor and burgesses of Caerlcon to those of
Monmouth; it gives us a curious trait in the character of
the Welsh leader, who is introduced consulting a " master
of Brut," as he is called, or a common prophet or soothsayer,
concerning the fate of his undertaking. Hopkin ap Thomas's
prophecy turned out false.

'^ Gretyng to yow, our gode frendes and worscbipful burgeis
of Monemouthe, we do yow to understonde of tydynges the
whiche we have y-herd of Owein Glyndor, that is to wete, of
lettres under seel the whiche were y-sente to us by ^e capteyne
of the towne of Kedewelly; and in the lettres were y-wrete*
words that there was a day of batell y-take bytwyxt the worthy
baron of Carewe and Oweine Glyndor; and we do you to
understonde that thys day of bataill schuld have be do the
.xii. day of Jule ;' and the nyght before that thys bateil schuld
be do, Oweyn was in pnrpos to have avoided hym to the hull^
ageinward. And for* he wold y-wete* wher his wey were clere
enowe to passe, yi he hede nede, to the hull, he sente .vii. .c.
of his memi? to serche the weyes, and these .vii. .c. menne
went to serche these weyes, and ther these .vii. .c. menne were
y-mette with the barons men of Carewe, and y-slay up every
one, that ther was not one that scaped alive. And these words
beth y-do us to understonde, that it is sothe* withoute lesyng.^
And fortbermore we do you to understonde that Oweine the
[•«••••] was in the towne of Kairmerthen, he sent after
Hopkyn ap Thomas of Gower to come and speke with hym
upon truce; and when Hopkyn came to Owein, he praiede
hym, inasmoche as he held hym maister of Brut, that he schud
do hym to understonde how and what manner hit schold befalle

Olottary. — 1 Yielded. 2 written. 3 July. 4 hill. 5 because.
6 know. 7 Host, company. 8 true. 9 falsehood.

f64 THE HI8T0BT OF LUDLOW.

of hym ; sod he told hym wittliche' that he schold be take
withinDe a href ^me; and the takjng schold be betwene
Kajrmerthen and Oower ; and the takyng schold be under a
blak baner : knoweliohyd that this blake baner scholde dessese
hyniy and not that he schold be take nnder hym. No more
con we say to yow at thys tyme ; bote beth glad and mery, and
dreede yon nought, for we hopeth to God thai ye have no nede.
And we do yow to onderstonde that al these tydynges beth
sothe withonte doote. Bar le Moire ei les Btargeu de
Kcarlyonr

The king prepared slowly for his expedition into Wales,
for his attention was diverted to other quarters. The Scots
attempted to favour the Welsh by an incursion into the
northern counties of England : and the French were threat-
ening a simultaneous invasion. Henry's first proclamation
declaring his intention of marching in person against
" Owen Glyndwr and the other rebels of Wales" is dated
on the 25th of June, when he had just received intelligence
of the capture of Edmund Mortimer.* On the Slst of July
he issued another proclamation, fixing the S7th of August
for the day of meeting of the army at Chester.t -A. letter
from Edward Cherlton, earl of Powys, dated from the castle
of Pool on the 5th of August (apparently of this year),
represents the Welsh as becoming every day more active
in their incursions on the border in his neighbourhood,
and presses urgently for assistance.} The chroniclersg state
that the king moved towards Wales just before the feast
of the Assumption of the Virgin (August 15) ; the insur-
gents retired at his approach, and left the English army
to pursite a course of plunder and devastation uninterrupted

I Of A certainty.

• Poedera, rol. It, part 1, p. 30. Proceedings of the Priry Council,
tol. i, p. 185. t Fcedera, «5. p. 33.

I Proceedings of the Piivy Council, toI. ii, p. 70.

{ See Thomas of Walsingham, p. 365.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 865

except by the elements. These appeared as though they
had conspired with the Welsh; so tempestuous a season
had not been witnessed for many years ; and the English
army, after considerable loss, although it had committed
terrible havoc and carried away much plunder, was obliged
to return without having effected much of that for which
it was called together. It is said that the king himself
was on one or two occasions exposed to personal danger
by the inclemency of the weather. This check con-
firmed the common people in a belief which had already
gained some ground, that Owen Glyndwr added to his
other qualities that of being a powerful magician, and they
attributed to his unholy incantations the storms which had
baffled his enemies.* Immediately after his return from
Wales, on the 10th of October, the king gave orders for the
pajrment of the ransom demanded by Glyndwr for the
release of lord Grey of Ruthyn.f

* Edmund Mortimer remained still a prisoner: it is said
that the king was unwilling to pay his ransom, and that in
revenge he entered into a confederacy with the Welsh
chieftain. On the 18th day of December, Mortimer pro-
claimed to his tenantry that he had taken up the quarrel of
Owen Glyndwr, and that his design was to dethrone king

* ShakMpeare puts these words into the mouth of Glyndwr :—

** At my birth,

The front of hearen was full of fiery shapes ;

The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds

Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.

These signs hare mark'd me extrfiordinary ;

And all the courses of my life do shew,

I am not in the roll of common men.

Where is he liTing,— clipp'd in with the sea

That chides the bounds of England, Scotland, Wales,—

Which calls me pupil, or hath read to me ?

And bring him out, that is but woman's son,

Can trace me in the tedious ways of art,

And hold me pace in deep experiments."

t Foedera, rol. iv, part 1, p. 36.

256 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

Henry in favour of his nephew, the rightful heir of the
house of York, and secure at the same time the indepen-
dence of the Welsh,* This alliance was cemented by the
marriage of Edmund Mortimer and Glyndwr's daughter.
The accession of Edmund Mortimer probably was rather a
nominal than a physical addition to the force of the insur-
gents ; but a few months later their success appeared to be
rendered certain by the addition of the powerful family of
the Percies to the confederacy. A triple league was formed
between Glyndwr, Henry Percy (Hotspur), and Edmund
Mortimer. The latter fought no longer for his nephew:
he laid claim to his own share of the spoils. It was agreed
that if it should appear, by the success of their enterprise,
that the three parties of the league were the three persons
who, according to the prophecies of Merlin, were to obtain
possession of the isle of Britain and divide it between them,
the partition should be made in the following manner.
Owen Glyndwr, as prince of Wales, was to have the whole
of Wales and the adjoining border up to the banks of the
Severn, Trent, and Mersey; the Percies weye to have in
their sovereignty all the counties north of the Trent, with
those of Leicester, Northampton, Warwick, and Norfolk ;
and Edmund Mortimer was to take the remainder for
himself and his siuccessors.f

The less important events of this period have been
forgotten amid the great events which followed. A letter
is extant addressed by the inhabitants of Shropshire to the
privy council, and dated' on the 21st of April, prqbably in
1403, by which it appears that the Welsh where then
threatening the border with devastation.} We leam that
*he custody of Ludlow castle at this time was considered of

* The original proclamation is printed in Ellis's Original Letters,
second series, toI. i, p. 24.

t See the particulars of this treaty stated in an extract from a MS.
Chronicle prinJted in Ellis, ib. p 27.

t Proceedings of the Privy Council, vol ii, p. 77.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 857

sufficient importance to be entrusted to the eare of Sii
Thomas Beaufort^ one of the most eminent statesmen and
soldiers of the age, afterwards earl of Dorset and duke of
Exeter;* while Richard's Castle^ as well as the castle of
Montgomery, were in the charge of Sir Thomas Talbotf On
the 16th of June, the king wrote to the sheri£G» of the
English counties on the border, that he had learnt that Owen
Glyndwr " and his other rebels" were marching in great
force towards the English border, to carry away the stores,
bum the country, and destroy the inhabitants. J Henry was
himself preparing to visit the north, when, in the middle
of July, he received certain information of the great con-
federacy formed against him, ^nd learnt that young' Henry
Percy was marching to join the Welsh with an army of
English and Scots, which, when increased by the men of
Cheshire led by his uncle, the earl of T^rcester, amounted
to nearly fourteen thousand men. The king was then at
Burton upon Trent; with singular rapidity he piarched
towards the border, and entered Shrewsbury when thfe
army of the Percies was already near the town, and before
the Welsh had time to join them. The decisive battle of
Shrewsbury, fought the next day, in which not less than
ten thousand men are said to have fallen, destroyed the
hopes of the cotifederates. Most of the leaders of the rebels
were killed or taken : Henry Percy was slain in the battle ;
and his uncle and one or two others were captured and
inunediately beheaded.

The king quitted the border immediately after the battle,
in order to secure the northern counties. Early in the
spring he had appointed prince Henry his lieutenant in

• Pell. Rolls, p. 295. 7 th December. To Sir Thomas Beaufort, knight,
keeper of ' Lodelowe' castle, in money paid to him by the hands of Mffthew-
Penketh, &c. for the wages of hifaiBelf, his men at arms, and others dwelling
with him in the garrison of * Lodelowe castle in Wales,* to resist the
invasion of the rebels there, £88 : 18s : 9d. f lb. p. 293.

} Fcedera, vol. iii. part 1, p. 46.

258 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

Wales ;* and now, in quitting the Marches, on the 25th of
July, the king (then at Stafford) gave him authority to
pursue and punish the rebels, as well as to receive into
his grace and pardon those who would return to their
allegiance.t Although Glyndwr had not succeeded in
joining the Percies before their engagement with the king's
army, he had invaded English counties with a formidable
army. It is probable that he entered England, as on other
occasions, by way of Radnor and Knighton, and tradi*
tion says, that, as he retired before the victorious troops of
prince Henry, the rival armies encamped within a short
distance of each other in the neighbourhood of Leominster.
Although it is said that the Welsh were defeated in several
unimportant engagements, it does not appear that the
English did more than drive them over the border, and the
king returned to direct the operations of his army in person,
after he had repressed the presumption of his northern
barons. We find him at Worcester on the 8th of Sep-
tember, giving orders for the strengthening of the Welsh
castles, the neglect of which, he asserts, had been the cause
of Glyndwr's success.^ On the 10th of the same month he
was still at Worcester; from whence he proceeded to
Hereford, where we find him on the 14th, giving power to
William Beauchamp to take into his grace the rebels about
Abergavenny and Ev^as Harold. From Hereford the king
marched directly into Wales. On the 15th of September
he was at Devynock, in the neighbourhood of Brecknock,
granting a commission, similar to the one just mentioned,
to Sir John Oldcastle, John ap Henry, and John Fairford,
clerk, to pardon and disarm the inhabitants of the districts
of Brecknock, Builth, ' Cancresselly,' Hay, 'Glynboug,'
and Dynas.§ On the 27th of September the king pro-
claimed a general pardon, -^vith a few exceptions, to the
people of Cheshire, who had been active in the rebellion,

• Foedera, vol. iv, part 1, p. 41. f ^' P- ^2.'

t lb. p. 55. { lb. p. 56.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 269

and had fought against him at the battle of Shrewsbury.
A considerable number of the persons excepted were pax-
sons.* On the 29th of September king Henry was at
Caermarthen, where he seems to have remained till about
the 8th of October,! when he returned by way of Glou-
cester.

The old chroniclers inform us that the king had been
called to the border by the great destruction which the
Welsh continued to commit since the battle of Shrews-
bury, in spite of the presence of his son ; and that Henry's
own endeavours to repress them were equally unsuccessful,
which they attribute to his want of money to carry on the
war.t It is probable that, as on former occasions, the
insurgents retired before him, and immediately resumed
the offensive when they were relieved from his presence.
At the beginning of November they had laid siege to the
castle of Llanbadam, in South Wales, which afterwards fell
into their hand8.§

During the year following (1404) Owen Glyndwr appears
to have been almost undisturbed master of Wales, with
the exception of the stronger castles that were garrisoned
and provisioned by the English. According to Thomas of
Walsingham, ^'all this summer he plundered, burnt, and
destroyed the districts around him, and by means either of
treachery or open force made many prisoners, slew many of
the English, and took many castles, some of which he
levelled with the ground, while he fortified others as strong-
holds for himself."!! The king seems to have satisfied him-
self with keeping a small force distributed over the counties

• Foedera, rol. iv, part 1, p. 57.

t Proceedings of the Priry Council, rol. i, p. 217.

X Thomas of WaUinghanii p. 561.

t Proceedings of the Privy Council, 'vol. i, p. 219.

II Walsingham, p. 562.

260 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

of Hereford and Salop to protect the English side of the
bordef . As summer approached this force was found insuf-
ficient, and prince Henry repaired to the border in person.
On the 10th of June, the sheriff, escheator, and gentry of
Herefordshire write from Hereford that the Welsh rebels
had invaded and plundered ^ Inchonefelde' (Irchingfield) in
that county, and that they threatened a more general inva-
sion the following week with a force which the few English
tjoops there were unable to withstand.* They appear to
have effected their threat, and were only driven back by the
arrival of prince Henry. On the 26th of June, the latter
tvrites to the king, who was then marching towards Scot-
land, that he had just arrived at Worcester, where he learnt
that the Welsh had entered the county of Hereford in great
force, burning and destroying on every side, that they were
provisioned for fifteen days, and that they had already
committed great havoc, when his approach had compelled
them to retire; but he states that the insurgents were
threatening to enter the county again in still greater num-
bers, and that he had called the chief men of the border
to meet him at Worcester for the purpose of concerting
treasures to avert the danger.f The prince appears to
have made Worcester his head quarters : and we trace him
there or in other parts of the border during the summer
and autumn.

In this year the English monarch was threatened by
another confederacy. When the battle of Shrewbury had
deprived him of the aUiance of the Percies, Owen Glyndwr
began to fix his hopes on assistance from France; and in
the course of the year 1404 a treaty was concluded between
him and Charles VI, by virtue of which the Welsh were to

• Proceedings of the Privy Council, vol. i, p. 223.

t ih. p. 229. "Je feu ceitiffiez que les Galoys feurent desccnduz en le
cvunt§e de Hereford ardantz et destruantz mesme le connt^e en tresgrandz
povoirs, et feurent vitaillez pur xv. jours, et voirs est q'ils ont arz et fait
grand destruccioun en les bordurcs du dit count6e.*'

THE HI8T0BT OF LUDLOW. 261

be assisted with a force of several thousand Frenchmen.
Glyndwr's first letter to the French king is dated at DolgeUy^
on the 10th of May, 1404, which he calls the fourth year
of his principality (et prindpatus nostri quarto) : in this
document he stiles himself prince of Wales. The treaty
itself, which is worded as being a league between the king
of France and the "prince of Wales*' against the usurper
Henry duke of Lancaster, is dated at Paris on the 14th of
June. Glyndwr's ratification of the treaty bears date the
l£th of January, 1405, in '* his" castle of Llanbadam (in
castro nostro del Lampadam).* During the latter part of
die year 1404, the French had made some ine£Eectual
attempts to carry oyer an army to Wales, which were frus-
trated by storms and other impediments ; and the promised
aid did not arrive till the beginning of the year following,
which was perhaps the cause of the delay in Glyndwr's
ratification of the treaty. A French army, said to have
amoimted to twelve thousand men, was then landed at
Milford Haven, from a fleet of one hundred and twenty, or,
according to some accounts, one hundred and forty ships.

The arrival of the French auxiliaries struck consternation
into the English inhabitants of the border. They fijrst took
and burnt the town of Haverford West, but were defeated
in their attempt upon the castle. They then marched
towards Caermarthen, burning and destroying on the way.
From a letter written from Conway on the Saturday after
the Epiphany, we learn that the French were then preparing
for a second attack upon the town of Caernarvon, having
failed in their first attempt. Letters from Chester dated a
few days later (15th and 16th of January) describe Harlech
and Conway castles as being Ukewise in great danger of
falling into the hands of the Welsh.f In March their
successes were interrupted for a moment by a severe defeat

• Fcedera, toI. It, part 1, pp. 65, 69, 75.

t These letters are printed in Ellis's Original Letters, sup. cit. pp.
30^38. They certainly belong to 1405 and not as there supposed to 1404.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

on the borders of Herefordshire. A body of eight thousand
Welsh had come suddenly to Grosmont, where they burnt
part of the town ; the prince, who was at Hereford, col-
lected a small body of men, marched rapidly against them,
and, on the 11th of March, defeated them with great
slaughter. Eight hundred or a thousand of the Welsh are
said to have been left dead on the field, amongst whom
was Glyndwr's brother, Tudor ; and his eldest son, Griffith,
who commanded the expedition, was taken prisoner.* It
appears that the king, alarmed by the successes of his
enemies, intended to proceed in person against the Welsh
about the end of April, and that he was at Worcester oa
the 8th of May ; but he was called off to the north by the
rebellion of the earl of Northumberland and the archbishc^
of York, and was again compelled to leaye the prosecution
of the war against Owen Glyndwr to the management of
his 8on.t

At Caermarthen the French were joined by Gljmdwr
with about ten thousand Welshmen. The combined aimy,
after having gained some other advantages in Wales, ad-
vanced towards England; and prince Henry, pressed by
superior numbers, was compelled to retreat to Worcester,
pursued almost to the gates of the city by the invaders.
This was late in the summer. The king, who had reduced
to obedience his rebellious subjects in the north, hastened to
the relief of his son. On the 8th of August he had sent
directions to the sheriffs to raise the forces of the border
coimties, and meet him at Hereford. On the S7th c(
August he was at Worcester.^ The Welsh and French
retired before him, and we find him with his army at
Hereford on the 4th of September. It appears that there

* The letter of prince Henry to his father, describing this affiur, is
printed in the Foedera, toI. it, part 1, p. 79; in Ellis, •&. p. 38, and in
the Proceedings of the Privy Council, roL 1, p. 248.

t Proceedings of the Priry Council, rol. i, p. 251.

t Fcsdera, t&. pp. 85. 87,

THl HISTOBY OF LUDLOW. 968

was some fighting, in which the French tuffered considerable
I088; and it is said that on one occasion the hostile armies
hy in riew of each other during eight days^ separated only
by a deep yalley, but that the French and Wekh were at
length obliged to retreat by want of provisions. King Henry
made but a short stay at Hereford, for on the 10th of
September we find him again in the north, at Beverley in
Yorkshire. The French appear to have reaped little satis-
faction firom the kind of warfiure in which they were en-
gaged: they had hardly landed in Wales, when the ships
of the cinque ports attacked and partly destroyed their fleet,
and every attempt of the French government to send them
stores and provisions had been defeated: and now, dis-
heartened probably by a painful retreat, they re-embarked
and left the Welsh to their own resources.

The latter, more habituated to their mountain warfare,
defended themselves bravely, but they were no longer able
to act on the same extensive scale. The English army had
penetrated into Wales, and, by the 22nd of September,
it had laid close siege to the castle of Llanbadam. The
king, in a document of the date just mentioned, describes
this as the last strong-hold of the rebels, the fiill of which
would ensure the pacification of the country, and he speaks
of his intention to proceed thither and push forward the siege
in person.* Accordingly, we find him again at Worcester
on the 6th of October. In the course of the month he
entered Wales, but we have an indistinct and confused
account of his operations. On the 3rd of November, he
was at Dunstable, on his return to his capital. According
to some accounts, he had been compelled to retreat by want
of money and provisions ; others say that he had experienced
a rude check firom the enemy by incautiously involving his
army among the mountain passes. It is certain, however,
that after this year the Welsh insurrection never presented
the same formidable character which it had previously
assumed.

• Foedera. ib, p. 90.

264 THB HI8T0BT OF LUDLOW.

But Owen Glyndwr still preserved his independence^ and
{or several years he kept prince Henry constantly occupied*
It appears that he had nourished the hope of obtaining, by
means of his French allies, a formal acknowledgement of
his independence from the English monarch, whose weak-
ness and embarrassments were much overrated by his
foreign and domestic enemies. In 1406 the Welsh were
again encouraged by the prospect of assistance from France,
but they were, as before, disappointed in the results which
they anticipated from it. A fleet of nearly thirty ships put
to sea, but many of them were taken or rudely treated on
the way, and those which succeeded with difficulty in
reaching the Welsh coast exerted little influence on the
war. Fifteen ships laden with provisions, which followed
them, were all captured by the English. Prince Henry
drove the rebels gradually out of South Wales, and many
of Glyndwr's most faithful partizans were taken and com-
mitted to prison. In April we find the king issuing more
general orders for taking the rebels into grace, and a few
months later the inhabitants of South Wales were ordered
by proclamation to return to their houses. Prince Henry
established himself at Caernarvon, from whence he directed
this petty but desolating warfare, which was continued
without interruption during the following year. We learn
from the contemporary chroniclers that in the summer of
1407, the prince besieged and took the castle of Aberys-
twith, which was however almost immediately retaken by
Olyndwr.* In the latter months of the same year king
Henry held his parliament at Gloucester.

In 1408, some kind of an insurrection appears to have
taken place in Shropshire in favour of Glyndwr, for it is
stated that John Talbot, lord Fumival, who went at that time
with two hundred men towards Caernarvon against Owen
Glyndwr and his adherents, was stopped at Shrewsbury by
the constable of the castle and town, who shut the gates

* Thomas of Walsinglutm, p. 568.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 265

against them.* In the year following Shropshire became
the seat of still greater troubles. On the 16th of May the
king directed letters to Edward de Charleton, lord of Powys^
and other barons on the border, stating that he had heard
that Owen Glyndwr and ''John the pretended bishop of
St. Asaph" had collected t(^ther many rebels and traitors
and joined themselves with '' our enemies of France, Scot-
land, and other parts in the principality of Wales, continuing
their rebellion and committing great havoc^f The Welsh
chieftain, about this time, sent a strong party headed by
Rhys Ddu and Philipot Scudamore, his nephew, who overran
and plimdered a great part of Shropshire, till they were
entirely defeated by the English. Rhys Ddu was taken,
and executed in London.

From this period we know very little of Glyndwr's
personal history. It is clear that he continued to hold a
certain degree of precarious power, though tradition repre-
sents him as being frequently reduced to the most distressing
expedients to escape the pursuits of his enemies. In the
last year of the reign of king Henry IV, the English
monarch authorised John Tiptoft, seneschal of Brecknock,
and William BotiUer, receiver of Brecknock, to treat with
Owen for the ransom of David Gamme, a Welsh gentleman
who has rendered himself famous in tradition and history as
the enemy of Glyndwr. J Yet at this period the hardy chief-
tain must have felt severely the desolation attendant upon
civil strife; his bravest and most faithful Mends had been
slain in battle, or they had perished more ignominiously
on the scaffold ; even his nearest relations, the members of
his own household, were lingering in English prisons. As
early as 1408 we find his own secretary and his son Griffith
prisoners at Nottingham, in the custody of Richard Grey of
Codnor ; and we learn among the records of the first year of
king Henry V, that on the 27th of June in that year (1413)
thirty poimds were paid to John Weale *' for the expenses

• MS. Addit. Mu8. Brit. No. 4599, art. 30.

t Fcedera, toI. it, part 1, p. 154. t ^-

£66 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

of the wife of Oweu Glyndwr, the wife of Edmund Mor-
timer (Glyndwr's daughter), and others their sons and
daughters, in his custody in the city of London, at the
king's charge."* On the 19th of February following, one
pound was paid to *^ a certain Welshman, coming to London,
and there continuing for a certain time, to give information
respecting the conduct and designs of Owen Glyndwr.^t

The manner and place of Glyndwr's death are extremely
doubtful, but that event is said to have occurred in 1416.
Twice in that year Sir Gilbert Talbot was commissioned to
negotiate directly or indirectly with him and the other
insui^nts who had not yet submitted, for their pardons.

The results of this long insurrection were visible in Wales
and on the border for many years. During more than
a century afterwards, the inhabitants of the walled towns
and castles pointed out the ruins which had been made by
Owen Glyndwr. The people of Herefordshire and Shrop*
shire had su£Eered much from the parties of marauders who
carried off every thing that they could find in the shape of
plunder, and destroyed what they could not remove. In
the parliament held at Gloucester in 1407, the people of
Shrewsbury presented a petition setting forth their losses
and grievances, by which it appears that all the sheep
and other live stock in the neighbourhood of the town had
been repeatedly carried away by the Welsh; and that
Glyndwr had burnt no less than eight villages within the
liberties of the town, as well as the suburbs of the town
up to the gates, from whence he had been driven by the
exertions of the burgesses.

On the other hand, the Welsh had lost in the war all the
advantages of social position which they had gained during
the preceding century. They had become again a per-
secuted people — and were placed under severe laws, which
deprived them of most of the political rights of Englishmen,
particularly the capability of holding lands or offices in the

• DeTon'8 Pell. Rolls, p. 321. f Pell. Rolls, ib.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 267

English counties. Their condition was a frequent subject
of petition and debate in the ensuing parliaments. Many
Welshmen who had served the king in the war, and dis-
tinguished themselves by their attachment to the English
party, and others who had since gained the good will of the
court, obtained marks of freedom emancipating them from
the restrictions under which their less fortunate countrymen
laboured.

The border remained long in a state of excitement. Many
Welsh and Englishmen joined together as outlaws and
bandits, and infested the woods and highways. The
restless inhabitants of the mountains jiersecuted the people
of the counties of Hereford and Salop in the same manner
as the people of Cheshire had done in the reign of Richard
II : — ^they crossed the border in small parties, surprised
and carried away prisoners men of substance, and retained
them in captivity for months, till themselves or their friends
procured their redemption by the payment of a heavy ran-
som.* A remarkable instance of such personal attacks is
related in the Bolls of Parhament of the fourth of Henry V
(a. d. 1416). As Robert Whitington, Esq. and his son
Guy were riding home from the city of Hereford to their
own house, in company with their three valets and two pages,
on the Monday before the feast of St. Simon and St. Jude
(the latter end of October), they were suddenly attacked in
the village of Mordiford by about thirty men ' armed and
arrayed in manner of war,' among whom they recognised
PhiUp Lyngeyn, John Crew, Richard Loutley, Laurence
Smith, William Kervere (Carver), Walter Bradford, John
Bradford, and Walter Walker, who are described as the
servants of Richard Oldecastle, Esq. These men led them
forcibly to '' a mountain named Dynmorehille," where they
robbed them of their horses and harness and retained them
till night, when they carried them on foot to a chapel which
their prisoners did not know, at a distance of about two

« Rolls of Pailiunant, toI. ir, p. 52.

S68 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

leagues^ and in this chapel they imprisoned them idl night,
threatening them vehemently either to kill them imme-
diately or to carry them prisoners into Wales. On the
Tuesday they carried their prisoners from one wood to
another, all of which were equally unknown to them, till
they came to an old mill, where they passed the second
night, and there they renewed their threats of carrying
them into Wales, imless they freed themselves by sufficient
sureties in the county to the amount of six hundred pounds
to cease and let fall all personal actions against the parties
concerned for this or any other personal trespass. Guy
Whitington was sent in search of the necessary securities,
whilst his father and the others were kept prisoners in the
mill, and at length he found three gentlemen of Gloucester-
shire, John Brown, John Paunton, and John Rich, who
each of them gave a bond of a himdred and eleven pounds
that Robert Whitington should, after his release, give under
his seal to the said Philip Lyngeyn and his companions,
and to Richard Oldecastle and Walter Hackluyt, Esqres.
two general acquittances and releases of all manner of
personal actions from the beginning of the world to the
feast of All Saints following, upon which they were set at
liberty.* The petition of the parties aggrieved gives us no
information relating to the origin of this border feud.

• RtUs of Pariiwntiit, toI. It, p. 99.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

SECTION X.
The Wars of the Roses.

AS we have before observed, the borders of Wales
contmued in an unsettled state during many years after the
suppression of Glyndwr's insurrection. The war had sunk
into that which had originally given rise to it, a compli-
cation of personal feuds and jealousies. The first parliament
of Henry Y, in 1418, passed an act against such of the late
rebels and their friends as were guilty of prosecuting and
attacking the king's loyal subjects to revenge the individual
acts of hostility which the latter had committed in his
cause during the war;* and this act was renewed in 14S7,
twenty years after the suppression of the rebellion, it being
then expressly alleged that the Welshmen concerned in the
late rising, stiU continued to prosecute the feuds arising out
of it against the king's £uthful subjects.f

It may jierhaps be not altogether out of place to give
here one or two other incidents, taken from the Bolls of
Parliament, which tend to show the state of the border,
and the manners of the times, at the eve of the sanguinary
war between the two rival dynasties. In the twentieth
year of the reign of Henry VI (1442), bitter complaints were
made by the Conmions of the counties of Hereford, Glou-
cester, and Salop, of ** the great oppressions and extortions
which the people of Wales and the Marches committed daily
on the inhabitants of the said counties, by taking and car.>
rying away thrir horses, cattle, and other goods and chattels
bto the Marches,^ and there retaining them till the persons
to whom they belonged ransomed them or compounded
for them.; A law was made to pjinish these malefactors ;
bat it appears to have been of Uttle effect, for they were

* Bolk of PtrKamant, vol. It, p. 10. f Jbid. p. 3S9.

X RoUi of PuUaiaexa, vol f, p. J&3.

270 THK HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

protected by the troubles of the time and by the peculiar
jurisdiction of the lords marchers within whose lordships
they dwelt. The priTilege of the benefit rf clergy, by
which an cinder who could read and possessed any degree
of learning might appeal from a secular to an ecclesiastical
courts began to be extensively abused in the reign of Henry
VI ; in the parliament of 1449> the Commons represented
to the king that ^'murdres, manslaghters, robberies, and
other theftes, wythinne this your rewme dayly encrecen
and multiplien, by thoo felons that ben clerkes and can
rede, by cause of the grete boldnes of their clergie ; whech
felons of thair robberies leven a certeyn somme of money
with their recetteurs or frendes, savely to be kept, and
sent unto thaym at what tyme hit shall fortune hem to be
taken for the felonyes doon by theym, and therof to be
atteynted or convicte, and commytted after the lawe of the
churche to the ordinarie, to be dispended for thair pur-
gation; and what tyme the seid felons been so purged,
they murdrcn, slecn, and robben youre liege people, withoute
any drede or mercy, and kepen of tliair robberies doon after
their seid purgation another somme of money, to make
thair purgation ageyn, yf it fortune theym to be attaynted
or convicte eftsones of any suche felonye, yn fynall destruc-
tion of your seide people in every part of this rewme, yn so
moche that tho persones that been so robbed, nowther the
frendes of thaym, nowther the frendes of thaym that ben so
slayn, daren not take uppon hem to labour ayenst suche
felons, for drede of deth, seyng howe bold manaces and
thretnynges the seide felons after thair seid purgation, and
also before thair purgation, putten unto your seide people.'**
It was referred to the church to find a remedy for this
evil. The same records furnish many individual instances
of the insecurity of person and property at this period. We
learn from a petition of John Stuche of the county of
Salop, in 1439, that ''oon Thomas Dunstervyle, of the

* Rolls of Parliament, toI. y, p. 151.

THE HISTORY OP LUDLOW. 271

same counts, for his title and right in certeine londes and
tenementis in the towne of Spondesley^ in the shire of Salop,
seiTved assise of novel disseisine, agayns on Phelip E^erton
late of Spondesley aforeseide ; which assise hangyng undis-
cussed, the same Phelip desired often tymes of the seide
Johan, for to have made the seide Thomas, because he is
his cosyn, for to relees unto the same Phelip al his seide
right and title in the seide londes and tenementis. And
forasmuche as the seide Thomas wold not relees unto the
seide Phelip his seide right and title in the same londes
and tenementis, the seide Phelip, for that cause and noon
other, hath contynuelly sithen hi the space of v. yere made
werre unto the seide Johan, as in lyggyng often tymes in
awaite to slee hym and his tenauntis, servauntis, and
cosyns, and many of thaym hath beten and mayheimed,
and the seide Johan and othre therefore dryven oute of
contrey, with grete ryottis of the people of the counts
of Chestre ; and diverses houses, sithen the recovere of the
seide londes bi the saide assise agayns hym, hath broke,
and som of thaym brent ; so that the seide Johan, and his
seide tenauntis, dar not menure thaire cattell, nor tille theire
londe, but as compellid for drede hath leide downe viii.
plowes, and the seide Thomas in like wise hath leide downe
ii. plowes; whereappon the seide Johan many tymes hath
made diverge meeves and tretice, for to have pees with the
seide Phelip, unto the which there can no personne bi any
raisounable wey that can be devised make the same Phelip
to enclyne; wherefore the seide Johan also hath sued
diverse letters of the kinges privee seal, for to have made
the saide Phelip to have append bifore the kinges counseill
at a certejme dai, under grevous and grete peynes, which
he hath obstinatly disobeyed at al tymes, so that the seide
Johan can not see nor fynde no wey bi lawe nor othre wise,
for to have this open and ryoteux wrong and oppressioun
remedied, unto the verry and utterest undoyng of the same
Johan, and his saide tenauntis : the which Phelip is lawe-
fully endited and outlawed of diverse murdris, felonies, and

tm tHK HlStO&t Ot LtTDLOW.

trespasses in the countees of Stafford and Salop above saide^
and of othere grete injuriesy oppressions, extortions, riots,
and wrongs manyfold, which the seide Phelip of long
tynie hath contynuelly don in the seide counts of Salop,
and yut daily doth."* In this same year, 1489, Margaret^
widow of Sir Thomas Malefant, knight, makes a complaint
against one Lewis Lyson, ** oderwyse called Lewse Gethei,
late of Olomorgan, yn the Marche of Wales, that wheras
the seide Lewse was of consayll and toward the seide aire
Thomas hur husbond yn his lyf, and foimden by hym to
courte, and was wyth hym atto hes deth, and most tristed
of any man ner to hym; after whoos deth, for grete trist
and affection, Jane Asteley, that was the wyf of Thomas
Asteley, moder of the seide Margaret, hadd yn hym^ and
be cause he swore that he was weddid^ and that he wold
Inyng the seide Margaret safly unto her moder to London^
she send letters and tokens by the same Lewse unto here.
And the seide Lewse by sotiU and unlawfull menes, pur-'
posyng and ymagenyng to rayysshe the seide Margaret^ and
to have hure to hes wyf, the seide letters brake, and
countrefeted yn hur seide husbondis name, as he hadd ben
on lyf, after hes oune conseit, prayng and desiryng by the
same, her to come unto London yn all the hast that she
myght, for hes grete confort yn hes seknes ; and therapon the
seide Margaret beyng in Groddes pese and our soveraigne lord
atte Oucketon in Penbrokeshir, not knowyng thenne of hur
seide husbondes deth, on Wytsonday, the xvi. yere of the
regne of our seide soveraigne lorde, come the seide Lewse with
the seide countrefiet letters, declaryng Grriffith ap Nicholas
and dyverse other of hur enmyes to lye yn awayte for hur,
and put hur yn grete fere, promyttyng nertheles and swear*^
yng that he wold safly bryng hur to hur husbond to London^
or els to die therfore. And she trustyng yn hes grete and feyr
promyse, for the comfort of hur seide husbond, accordyng to
the desire by the seide letters and other tokenes, came forth

* Rolls of Parliament, yoI. t, p. 17.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 27S

with hym with diverse of hur oune servantes^ suppoeyng
safiy to have gon ; and so thei went and travayled all that
day, and all the morrow after til evyn, that they came by a
parke side, called the park of Prys, withynne the lordshepe
of Gowere ; wheras there came oute of the same park a
grete bushement, ther beyng by the assent and ordinaunce
of the seide Lewse yn manor of werre arayed, and came
with swerdis drawen, and made a grete affiray and assaute
apon the seide Margaret, and ther smoten hur apon hur
arme, and ther beaten hur servantes ; and the seide Lewse
ther thenne made non defence, bote seid she shold go with
hym, and he wold imdertake for hur lyf ; and so she for fer
of hur lyf graunted to go with hym, and so departed hur
firo all hur servantes, and had hur forth yn to the monteyns,
ther y-kepte withoute mete or drynke til she was nye dede,
savyng that she hadd wheye to drynke atte dyvers places, til
the Wondisday nexte after; atte whiche day he brought
her to on Gilbert Turbervyle is place, withynne the lordshep
of Glomorgan, and hur ther kepte as a prisoner, and hur
manassed atte dyvers tymes, yn lesse then she wold be
wedded to the seide Lewse, to carie hur ynto the monteyns,
ther to abide withoute confort of eny man of hur kyn or
fryndis, to hur undoyng and shortyng of hur lyf; and so
be cause and fere of sich manasse hadd by the seide Lewse,
and other of hes covyne, by the worchyng and assent of the
seide Gilbert and hes wyf, with the governance of on sire
Hough, vicar of the cherche of Twyggeston in Wales, with
meny mo^ on Monday nexte therafter, the seide Margaret
was brought and ladd to the seide cherche of Twyggeston
ayennes hur wil, and ther wold have made hur ayenst
hur wille to take the seide Lewse to husbond ; the which
she ever refused, and pryvely and openly seide unto the
seide vicar, that she wold never of hur gode will have hym
to hur husbond ; the which noghtwithstondyug, thei com-
pelled hur to suffire the solempnytee to be don, she then
beyng with child by hur seide late husbondman, and gretly
dbpeupered, and noght of gode mynd, ne never agreyng ne

874 THB HISTORY OP LtTDZ-O-W.

havyng yn mynde ne yn remembrauns of eny wordis of
matrimonie by bur mouth ne hert uttered : and after that
tyme badde bur yn to tbe seide Turbervyle is place atte
Twyggeston aforesaide, and ther hadd bur yn to a cbaum-
bre witbynne a strong towre," wbere she was subjected
to very brutal treatment; *'and yn suche wyse ther
was kepte, til Friday nexte after tbe fest of Seynt Joban
Baptiste^ that sbe with wyse governance was hadde fino
tbennes, and came to London to bur moder.*'* No redress
could be obtained in cases like these without the immediate
interference of parliament, and even then the privileges of
tbe lords marchers required to be respected. We might
easily collect many other instances of the unsettled state of
tbe country at the beginning of the reign of Henry VI.

These private quarrels and petty depredations are, how-
ever, soon lost sight of in the greater events in which the
border was now on the eve of taking a prominent part.

In spite of the general popularity of Henry V, there
were not wanting persons who even in his reign would
willingly have aided to eject the house of Lancaster^ and in
that case the family of the Mortimers of Wigraore and
Ludlow, which had now only one representative, was tbe
nearest in blood to the English crown. Edmund Mortimer
earl of March, as a descendant of Lionel duke of Clarence,
bad a stronger hereditary right to the throne than the
Lancastrian princes, and on that account he bad been
detained in close custody during tbe reign of Henry IV,
but be was set at liberty at the commencement of the
succeeding reign. Young Edmund Mortimer, for he was
at this time only twenty-one years of age, possessed little
of the energy which had distinguished the illustrious race
from which he was descended, and his name was only put
forward to colour tbe intrigues of others. We have already
seen the use which was made of it in Gljmdwr's rebellion :
early in tbe reign of Henry V, Richard Plantagenet earl of

• RoUi of Parliament, vol. v, p. 15.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 276

Oambridge^ who had married Edmund Mortimer's sister,
Henry lord Scrope of Masham, and Sir Thomas Grey of
Heton in Northumberland, entered into a new conspiracy,
tlie declared object of which was to carry the earl of March
ixito Wales, and there to proclaim him king of England,
stud to collect forces to make war on Henry as an usurper.
Xhey were to be joined by Sir Henry Percy, who had pro-
xnised to march from Scotland with " a power of Scottys."
It appears from the confession of the earl of Cambridge that
Edmund Mortimer was driven to consent to this plot by his
priests, for he states that " as touchyng the erle of Marche
and Lusy his man, they seydyn me bothe that the erle was
nauth schreven of a great whyle but that all hys confes-
sours putte hym in penaunce to clayme that they callydyn
hys ryth."* The moment chosen for carrying this plan
into execution was that of the king's departure for the
invasion of France in 1415; but Henry was made ac-
quainted with the plot, the chief conspirators were seized^
and the earl of Cambridge, lord Scrope, and Sir Thomas
Grey were attainted and executed at Southampton. Years
transpired before any further attempt was made to revive
the slumbering claims, which, on the death of the last of
the Mortimers, were silently transmitted with the estates and
title of earl of March to his nephew, Richard Plantagenet,
the son of the attainted earl of Cambridge, who, however,
had been allowed to succeed to his grandfather's title of
duke of York, after the death of the second duke of York
at Azincourt.

Richard Plantagenet duke of York selected Ludlow
Castle as his chief place of residence ; the following letter
from two of his sons, written probably at the commencement
of the political intrigues which led eventually to civil war,
is chiefly curious as connecting with that place two names
which afterwards held a prominent place in history.f

• Ellis's Originftl LetterSi second series, toL i, p. 46.

t This letter was first printed in Ellis's Original Letters, toI. i, p. 9.

876 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

" Ryght hi«gh and ryght myghty prince, oure fol redouted and
rjght noble lorde and ffitdar, as lowely with alle onre hertes ts
we yonre trewe and natarell Bonnes can or may, we recomaonde
us unto your noble grace, humbly besecbyng your nobley* and
worthy ffaderhodeP daily to geve* us your hertely bleflsjmg,
thrugb whiohe we trust muohe the rather to encrees and growe
to Tertu, and to spede the bettur in alle matiers and thingea that
we schalle use, occupie, and exercise. Ryght high and rjght
myghty prince, our ful redouted lorde and ffadur, we thanke
our blessed Lorde not oonly of your honourable conduite^ and
good spede in alle your matiers and besynesse, and of jour
gracious prevaile' agenst thentent and malice of your eyilwillers,
but also of the knowelage that hit pleased your nobley to lete
us nowe late have of the same by relacion .of Syr Watier
Derreuz, knyght, and Johan Milewatier, squire, and Johan at
Nokes, yemon of your honorable chambur. Also we thonke
your noblesse^ and good ffaderhode of oure grene gownes nowe
late sonde unto us to our grete comfort i beseching your good
lordeschip to rembre our porteuz,^ and that we myght have
Bumme fyne bonettes sonde unto us by the next seure mesaige,"
for necessity so requireth. Overe this, ryght noble lord and
fiadur, please hit your highnesse to witte that we have charged
your servant William Smyth, berer of thees, for to declare unto
your nobley certayne thinges on our behalf, namely, concern vng
and touching the odteux reule and demenyng* of Richard
Crofte and of his brother. Wherefore we beseche your gracioase
lordeschip and fuUe noble ffaderhode to here him in exposicion
of the same, and to his relacion to yeve ful faith and credence.
Ryght hiegh and ryght myghty prince, our ful redoubted and
ryght noble lorde and ffadur, we beseche almyghty Jhesu yeve
yowe as good lyfe and long, with as muche contenual perfite
prosperity, as your princely hert con best desire. Writen at
your castill of Lodelowe, on Setursday in the Astur Woke.''
Your humble Bonnes,

E. Marche, and

E. Rutlonde."

O^Mry.—l Nobleness. 2 Fatherhood. 3 Give. 4 Conducting. 5 Success,
preyailing. 6 Nobleness, nobility. 7 A breviary, or service book. 8 Saio
messenger. 9 Demeanour. 10 Easter week.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 277

The duke's constant opposition to the unpopular measures
of the eouxt, although it procured him the enmity of the
government^ made him beloved by a large portion of the
people. He inherited from a family which had enjoyed
the same popularity during several generations, the name
of which was mixed up in one way or other with all the
partial insurrections and political tumults which marked
the earlier years of the reign of Henry YI. It has been
observed by a former writer that the rebels of this period
alivays expected popularity from connecting their pro-
ceedings with the family of Mortimer. When Cade raised
the Commons of Kent in 1450, he assumed the name of
Mortimer* At a later period, among other articles of accu-
sation brought against the duke of York, it was stated thai
** he beyng in Irland, by youre graunte youre Ceutenaunt
there, at which tyme John Cade, otherwise called Jakke
Cade, youre grete traitour, made a grete insurrection ayenst
youre hignnes in youre shire of Kent, to what entent and
for whome, it was after confessed by some of hem his adhe-
rentes whan they shuld dye, that is to sey, to have exalted
the seid duk, ayenst alle reason, lawe, and trouth, to the
estate that God and nature hath ordeyned you and youre
succession to be born to-"* There is however no reason
for believing that the duke was in any way connected with
the rebellion of the Kentish men ; yet the use thus made of
his name shows that the popular party had already begun
to talk of restoring the branch of the regal line which had
been set aside to make way for the house of Lancaster.

In the summer of 1451, the duke of York became ^o
much dissatisfied with the proceedings of the court, that he
suddenly resigned his command in Ireland, and returned to
England with a sufficient force to render imavailing the
measures that are said to have been taken to prevent
his landing. He marched direct to London, and, as it was
alleged, forced his way violently into the king's presence,

* Rolls of Parliament, vol- t, p. 316.

278 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. '

after which he retiied to his castle of Fotheriiigay. The
parliameuty which assembled soon after, was the scene of
violent and angry debates, and a proposal was made to
name the duke of York next heir to the throne. The
discussions between the different parties rose now so high,
that the duke found it necessary to retreat to his castle
of Ludlow, where he was in the midst of his friends, and
he occupied himself diligently in collecting together an
army among his tenantry and adherents. The following
letter,* dated at Ludlow on the Srd of February, 1458,
to the burgesses of Shrewsbury, who were firmly attached
to his cause, contains the duke's own declarations of the
objects he had in view.

** Right worshipful friends, I recommend me unto yon, and
I suppose it is well known unto you, as well by experience as by
common language said and reported throughout all Christendom,
what laud, what worship, honour, and manhood was ascribed
of all nations unto the people of this realm whilst the kingdom's
sovereign lord stood possessed of his lordship in the realm of
France and dutchy of Normandy, and what derogation, loss
of merchandize, lesion of honour, and villany is said and
reported generally unto the English nation for loss of the same;
namely, unto the duke of Somerset, when he had the command
and charge thereof. The which loss hath caused and encoa-
raged the king's enemies for to conquer and get Ghiscony and
Oyanne, and now daily they make their advance for to lay
siege unto Calais, and to other places in the Marches there, for to
apply them to their obeisance, and so for to come into the land
with great puissance, to the final destruction thereof, if they
might prevail, and to put the land in their subjection, which
Ood defend. And on the other part it is to be supposed it is
not unknown to you how that, after my coming out of Ireland*
I, as the king's true liege man and servant, and ever shall be
to my life's end, and for my true acquital, perceiving the
inconvenience before rehearsed, advised his royal majesty o^

t Tbli lottor has been printed in EUU's Original Letters, vol. i, p. H*
in modernited orthography.

tHB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 279

certain articles concerning the weal and safogaard as well of

bis most roval person as the tranqaility and conservation of all

tliis his realm ; the which advertisements, howheit that it was

tbonght that they were fall necessary, were laid apart, and to

l>e of none effect, through the envy, malice, and untruth of the

said duke of Somerset, which for my truth, faith, and allegiance

tliat I owe to the king, and the good-will and favour that I

liave to all the realm, lahonreth continually ahout the king's

bighness for my undoing, and to corrupt my blood, and to

disherit me and my heirs and such persons as be about me,

^without any desert or cause done or attempted on my part or

theirs, I make our Lord judge. Wherefore, worshipful friends,

to the intent that every man shall know my purpose, and desire

for to declare me such as I am, I signify unto you that with the

help and supportation of Almighty God, and of our Lady, and

of all the company of heaven, I, after long sufferance and

delays, not my will or intent to displease my sovereign lord,

seeing that the said duke ever prevaileth and ruleth about

the king's person, that by this means the land is likely to be

destroyed, am fully concluded to proceed in all haste against

him, with the help of my kinsmen and friends, in such wise

that it shall prove to promote easci peace, and tranquility, and

aafeguard of all this land ; and more, keeping me within the

bounds of my liegeance, as it pertaineth to my duty, praying

and exhorting you to fortify, enforce, and assist me, and to

come to me with all diligence, wheresoever I shall be or draw«

with as many goodly and likely men as ye may make to

execute the intent abovesaid. Written under my signet, at my

castle of Ludlow, the 3rd day of February.

** Furthermore, I pray you, that such strait appointment
and ordinance be made, that the people which shall come in
your fellowship, or be sent unto me by your agreement, be
demeaned in such wise by the way, that they do no offence,
nor robbery, nor oppression upon the people in lesion of

justice. Written as above, etc.

Youre good frend,

R. YORK."

" To my right worshipful friends the
bailiffs, burgesses, and commons of
the good town of Shroesbury."

880 THB H18T0BT Ot LtTDtXJtT.

With the army which he had collected on the border^
the duke of York advanced towards London, and by 8
circuitous rout avoided the forces which the king w«
leading in person to meet hina. Before he reached die
capital, he received certain intelligence that the Londoneis
were not willing to admit him, probably rendered cautioua
by the violences connnitted by the rebels under Jack Cade
two years before; and the duke passed the Thames at
Kingston bridge, marched into Kent, where the popolar
cause was always strong, and, on the 1st of March, en-
camped in a strong position at Brentheath, near Dartford.
The royal army followed, and soon after was encamped cm
Blackheath, the same place which had been occupied by
the Kentish insurgents. This was the first time that the
two opposing political parties had faced each other in war-
like array, and neither side appears to have been anxious
to fight. The duke's forces were very considerable, for a
contemporary, who was perhaps present, informs us that
"ther was my lorde of Yorkes ordinaunce .iij. thowsand
gowimeres, and hymselff in the middelle warde with viij<
thowsand, my lorde of Devynshere by the southe side with
vi. thowsand, and lorde Cobbame with vi. thowsand at the
water side, and vii. shippers with ther stuffe.*** A brief
n^otiation in which the bishops of Winchester and Ely
acted for the king, and the earls of Salisbury and Warwick
and others for the duke, ended by the king acquitting him
of treason, promising to listen to all his complaints, and
agreeing to place the duke of Somerset under arrest and
caU a new council, in which the duke of York was to have
a place. The latter on these conditions, disbanded his
army ; but when he came before the king he found that he
had been deceived, for Somerset was at liberty and accused
him as a traitor, and he was retained as a prisoner and
tent to London to stand his trial. The court, however,

* This is taken from some contemporary notes of a Yorkist partisan
in a MS. in the British Museum, communicated by Sir Frederic Maddes
to the Archicologia, yol. zziz, p. 326.

tHS HISTORY OF LUDLOtT. 281

»t:iddeiily stopped further proceedings, alarmed as it is said

b^ a report that the duke's eldest son, Edward earl of

^fiiAarcli^ was marching towards London at the head of a

powerful army of Welshman to rescue his father; and,

wtftenc having on the 10th of March made his submission

ajnd taken his oath in St. Paul's to be a true, faithful, and

ol>edient subject in the presence of the king and most of

tiie nobility, he was allowed to retire to his castle of

Wigmore, *' where," says Grafton, " he studyed both howe

to displease his enemies, and to obteyne his purpose. And

so by meanes of the absence of the duke of York, which

-v^as in maner banished the court and the king's presence,

the duke of Somerset rose up in high favour with the king

and the queene, and his worde onely ruled and his voyce

ivas onely heard."

It appears that some of the men of Kent suffered for the
favour they had shown to the duke of York in this affair,
and that his actions were looked upon with suspicion and
jealousy after his return to Wigmore castle. We learn this
from the following note by the same contemporary writer
mentioned above, who also speaks of tumults which had
arisen at Ludlow, in which a messenger of the king was slain.
— '* Then affter, the kynges yeman of his chambure, namyde
Fazakerley, with letteris was sent to Ludlow to my lorde of
Yorke, chargynge to do forthe a certeyne of his mayny,*
Artheme, squiere, Sharpe, squiere, etc., the whiche Faza-
kerley hylde in avowtry^ Sharpus wiff, the whiche Sharpe
slowe Fazakerley; and a bakere of Ludlow roos and the
commyns, etc. ;^ the whiche bakere is at Kyllyngworthe
(Kenilworth) castelle, etc. Affter this my lorde of Shrous-
bury, etc. rode into Kent, and set up vi. peyre of galowes,
and dede execucione upone Johan Wylkyns, takene and
broght to the towne as for capteyne, and with othere mony
mo,^ of the whiche xxviij. were hangede and behedede, the

1 Dismiss a certain number of his household retainers. 2 Held in
adultery. 3 i. e. a baker of Ludlow rose up, and the commons or towns-
people with him, he led an insurrection of the town. 4 Many more.

ftSd THB HISTORY OF Ltn>t/>W.

whiche hedes were sent to Londone, and liOndone said tha
shulde no mo hedes be set upone there."

The course of events soon opened a new path to the
ambition of the duke of Torb In the October of 1455,
the imfortunate king was attacked by a malady which ivas
attended with mental as well as bodily weakness. We learn
firom an interesting letter of intelligence, dated the 19th of
January, 1454, that when the prince of Wales, then three
months of age, was presented to his father, neither the
duke of Buckingham nor the queen could obtain any sign
of recognition. — ^^'At the princes comyng to Wyndesore,
the due of Bukingham toke hym in his armes, and pre-
sented him to the kyng in godely wise, besechyng the
kyng to blisse hym ; and the kyng yave no maner answere.
Natheles the due abode stille with the prince by the kyng;
and whan he coude no maner answere have, the queene
come in and toke the prince in hir armes, and presented
hym in like fourme as the duke hade done, desiryng that
he shulde blisse it ; but alle their labour was in Teyne, for
they departed thens without any answere or countenaimce,
savyng onely that ones he loked on the prince, and caste
doune his eyene ayen, without any more."* It appears
that the real state of the king's health was kept secret as
long as possible, and the queen, chiefly by the assistance of
the archbishop of Canterbury, retained for a while the
executive government in her own hands. We learn ftom
the letter just mentioned, that Margaret was at that time
taking steps to obtain an act of parliament, giving her the
sole r^ency of the kingdom, while a bill of attainder
against the duke of York was at the same time in pre-
paration; and that the latter was preparing to meet his
friends at London with a powerful retinue. Two months
later, the death of the archbishop on the 22nA of Marcb^
led to an immediate change in the position of the different
parties. A deputation of the lords forced their way into

• ArchKologia, vol. xxix, p. 307.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 288

tbe Toyal presence to consult with the king on the election
oF a. new primate^ and a scene similar to that of the presen*
ta.t;ion of the prince, but more public, occurred ; upon which
tlie parliament elected the duke of York protector. The
duke of Somerset, the queen's favourite, had already been
coxixmitted to the Tower.

The duke of York's first protectorate lasted only nine

Tdonths. At the end of the year the king recovered his

reason, and was restored to the full exercise of royalty,

B,Tid the queen regained her influence. One of the first

measures of the court was to liberate the duke of Somerset,

and this was followed by other acts equally unpoptdar.

Tlie duke of York, as a necessary measure of personal

safety, retired again to his castle of Ludlow, where he was

joined by the duke of Norfolk, the earls of Warwick and

Salisbury, and other powerful friends. Having assembled

a small but trusty army of borderers and Welshmen, the

duke marched again towards London, and on the 22nd of

May 1455, surprised the king at St. Alban's, to which

place he had marched on his way to meet the confederates.

Neither army was considerable; that of the Yorkists is

estimated by a contemporary writer at about three thousand

men, of whom a large portion were archers, but the king

had the advantage of occupying the town. The duke made

a halt in the fields before the town, and sent a herald to

the king, with professions of loyalty and obedience, but he

demanded the person of the duke of Somerset. The king

appears to have been little more than a passive agent, and

the Lancastrians resolved to run the chances of a battle.

When the duke of York learnt that his overtures had been

rejected, on Friday the 23rd of May, he marched to attack

the royal army in the town. He was for some time held

in check at the barriers, until the earl of Warwick,

marching by a circuitous path, entered the town on another

side. The battle continued for a short time in the

streets and lanes, but ended in the entire defeat of the

royalists, who fled in the utmost disorder. The leaders of

S84 THB HISTORY OP LUDLOW.

the court party appear to have been singled out for destrne-
tion by the Yorkists^ and among the slain were the duke
of Somerset, the earl of Northumberland, and the lord
Clifford, while the duke of Buckingham, the earl of
Stafford, and the lord Dudley, were more or less severely
wounded in the conflict, and were taken prisoners. The
king was himself slightly wounded in the neck with an
arrow, and had taken shelter in the house of a tanner,
where he was found by the victors. The following letter,
addressed to John Paston, and written the second day after
the battle, gives us an interesting picture of the confusion
into which people were thrown by this first hostile engage-
ment between the two parties who now divided the
kingdom.

*^ Right worshipfall and entierly welbeloved sir, I recom-
maunde me unto you, desiring hertly to here of your welfare.
Furthermore lettyng you wete/ as for such tydinges as we
have here, such thre lordes be dede, the duke of Somerset,
the erle of Northombrelonde, and the lord Clyfford, and as for
any other men of name I knowe noon, save only QuOtton of
Cammbrigeshire. As for any other lordes, many of theym be
hurt ; and as for Fenyngley, he ly veth and fareth well as fer as
I can enquere. And as for any grete multytude of people
that ther was, as we can tell, thor was at most slayn vj. score.
And as for the lordes that were with the kyng, thej and hei'
men wer pilled' and spoyled out of all Uieyr hameys and
horses. And as for what rule we shall have, yit I wote nott,
save only ther be made newe certayn officers: my lord of
Torke, constabil of Englande ; my lord of Warweke is made
captayn of Calyes; my lord Burgchier is made treasorer of
Englande. And as yit other tydinges have 1 none. And ai
for our soverayn lorde, thanked be God, he hathe no grete
harme.

" No more to you at this tyme, but I pray you sende this
lettyr to my maistresse Paston when ye have sene hit, preyng

Ohtsmy,-^! Know. 2 Their. 3 Plundered.

THB HISTORY OV LUDLOW. 285

yoa to remembre mj systir Margrete ageyne the tyme that she
•lia} be made noane.* Written at Lamehitb,* on Witsonday.

By your cosyn,

John Crane."

Although Heiiry was now a prisoner in the hands of
the Torkists^ the duke as yet laid no distinct claim to the
crown. The king being considered as still by the state
pf his bodily healtl^ incapable of governing the kingdom^
the lords were compelled by the urgent remonstrances of
the commons and the people in the parliament which met
in NoTember^ to appoint the duke of York a second time
protector, and he placed some of his tried friends in the most
important offices of the state^ making the earl of Salisbury
chuicellor, and giving the command of Calais to the earl
of Warwick. The queen however was busy in her intiigues,
and the battle of St. Alban's had given rise to personal
feuds which were not likely to end without further blood?
shed. The dube, who appears to have beto beset on every
side with the plots and snares of his enemies, spent the
leisure which he could snatch from the cares of government
in strengthening himself on the borders of Wales, where we
frequently trace his presence. Yet at the end of 1456,
when the king came before the parliament and demanded
the restoration of all his rights, the duke resigned the
protectorate without a murmur. During the year 1457|
the opposing parties looked on e^ch other in silent prepay
ration; but towards the end of the year events were fast
approaching to new hostilities, when the king, apparently
urged by the Archbishop of panterhury, determined to
effect a general recpnciUation. For this purpose a iBounci|
was held at Cpventry at the end of February, 1458, and
pm outwajrd paci^catipn having be^en niade there, a gseneral
pieeting of the lords of both parties was called ^t |>)i^4pi]L
^w^irds );h^ ffi^iddle pf Ma^h^ to complete th,e gop4 WRTk:
Yl^e Yprkistj^ ivere lpdge4 ^n the cit^^ Jhe J^qn^gn^jff

p^iofy.-r-l MadjB a pun. J Lj^mb^tli.

£66 THS HISTOBY OF LUDLOW.

being thoir friends ; and the Lancastrians remained without
the walls^ and met at the White Friars. After some
ui'gotiation^ both parties submitted to the award of the
king^ and the Yorkists having agreed to perform certam
acts of satisfaction to the fiEunilies of the nobles killed at
St. Alban'Sy the court party joined the others in the dty,
and they marched lovingly together in a public procession
to St. Paul's, amid the joy of the populace. On this
occasion the duke of York and the queen walked hand in
hand, and the earl of Salisbury in a similar manner gave
his hand to the duke of Somerset. This procession took
place on the JSSth of March, and a pompous description
of the ceremony is given in the old chroniclers. The
following song, preserved in a contemporary manuscript in
the British Museum,^ which we believe has not previously
been printed, is a remarkable monument of the popular
gladness with which this apparent reconciliation was
received.

** Whan chants is chosen with states to stonde

Stedfas and skille without distaunce,
Than wrathe may be exiled oat of thb londe,

And God oure gide to have the govemaunce.
Wisdom and wdlth, with alle plesaunce.

May rightfal regne, and prosperity i
For love hath underlaide wrathful venjaonce ^

Rejoise, Auglond, oure lordes acorded to be.

** Rejose and thanke God fore evermore,

For now shal encrese thi consolacion ;
Care enemyes quaken and dreden fal sore,

That peas' is made ther was division.
Which to them is a gret confusion.

And to US joy and felicity.
Ood hold hem longe in every season,

That Anglond may rejoise* concord and unit^.

• MS. Cotton. Vetpai. B. ztL fol. 4, r«-
GlMMfy— 1 Pmco. 3 Eigoy.

THB HI8T0BT OF LUDLOW. £87

** Now is lorowe with shame fled into Frannce,

As a felon that hath forsworn this londe;
Love hath put out malicious govemauncey

In every place bothe fre and bonde.
In Yorke^ in Somerset, as I understonde,

In Warrewik is love and charity.
In Sarisbury eke and in Northumbrelande,

That every man may rejoise concord and unitft.

^* Egremown and Clifford, with other forsaide,

Ben set in the same opynyon.
In every quarter love is thus laide ;

Grace and wisdom hath thus the dominacion.
Awake, welth, and walke in this region,

Rounde abonte in toun and cit6 ;
And thanke them that brought hit to this conduson :

Rejoise, Anglond, to concord and unit^.

** At Poules in Londoun with gret renoun,

On cure ladi day in Lent this peas was wrought ;
The kyng, the qnene, with lordes many oone,

To worship that virgine as thei ought,
Wenten a procession, and spariden* right nought,

In sighte of alle the comynalt^,
In token that love was in herte and thought :

ftejose, Anglond, in Concorde and unit^.

" Ther was bytwyn hem lovely conntynaunce,

Whiche was gret joy to alle that ther were -,
That long tyme hadden be in variaunce.

As frendes for ever that had be in fere.
Thei wenten togeder and made goud* chere.

France and Britayn repente shul thei ;>
For the bargain shul thei abye' ful dere ^

Rejose, Anglond, in concorde and unite.

** Oure Boveraigne lord kyng God kepe alwey,

The quene, and the archbisshop of Canterbury,

^huary.'^] Spared. 2 Good. 3 Pay for.

fe88 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

And the bisthop of Wynekestre, ohaneeUer of Angloiidy

And other that han labored to this tove-daj.
God preserre hem we praj hertly^

And Londoon, for thei fhl diligently
Kepten the peas in trowbel and adversity,

'to bryng in reste thei labnred fnl truly :

Rejoise, Anglond^ in Concorde and unit6.

^* Of tbre tbynges I praise the worshipful cit^ ;

The first the tnie faitfae thitt thei have to the kyoge ;
The seconde of love to the comynalt^ j

The thrid goud rule for evermore kepynget.
The which Gk>d maynteyn evermore dnrynge.

And save the maier and aile the worthi eit6;
And that b amys Qod brynge to amendynge.

That Anglond may rejoise to Concorde and onit^.

OUier similar documents prove the insincerity of the
reconciliation between the rival parties; and a ballad by a
Lancastrian^ written in the same year^ and probably soon
after the procession whick gave rise to the foregoing 6ong>
represents the state as a ship exposed to the storm, and
trusting for safety to its able mariners^ who are the leaders
of the Lancastrians, while the Yorkists are described as
the " foe-men" against whom it required defence ;♦ it ends
with the following Unes. —

'' Now help^ saynt Oeorge, cure lady knyght^
And be oure lode-sterre^ day and nyght»
1*0 strengths oure kynge, and England ryght^

And felle oure fomenus* pryde.
Now is oure shype dressed in bys kynde^
With his taklynge before and behynde )
Whoso love it not^ God make hym blynde*

In paynes to abyde !'*

* ArcHeologia, vol. xxix, p. 326.

GAMM^y.— 1 Polar star, by which the vessbl was guided. 2 Foemen*'*

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. S89

It was evidenty indeed^ that the queen and her party had
only smothered their enmity until the arrival of a fitvourable
moment for vengeance^ and the leaders of both parties
found it necessary to surround themselves with armed men.
The first public out-break was a serious affiray at West-
minster, where the earl of Warwick was attacked by some
of the queen's household, and narrowly escaped by a boat
on the river. The earl, after a conference with his father
the earl of Salisbury and the duke of York, proceeded to
Calais, which, under the government of Warwick, had
become the strong hold of the Yorkists. " The duke and
the erle of Salesbury,*' to use the words of the old translator
of Polydore Vergil, ^^ much moved with this offence, spake
openly betwixt themselves in bitter and sharpe termes,
that the matter was nothing els but the fraude and fury of
a wonian, who, thinking she might do whatsoever she
listed, sought nor minded anything so much as by womanish
flight to torment, consume, and utterly destroy all the
nobilitie of the lande." Accordingly the great Yorkist
leaders began again to raise their vassals, with the intention
of marching towards London. At the beginning of Sep-
tember, 1459, the duke of York, who had been in Ireland,
landed at Redbank, near Chester, and hastened to Ludlow.^
The earl of Salisbiuy, who had collected an army in the
north, marched towards the south; but when he reached
the borders of Staffordshire his further advance was disputed
by a superior army under the command of a devoted Lan*
castrian, James Touchet lord Audley. On Sunday the
23rd of September, 1459, the second battle between the
Yorkists and Lancastrians was fought at Bloreheath, near
Drayton, in Shropshire, and the Lancastrians were again
defeated, lord Audley and two thousand of his men being
slain. After the battle the earl of Salisbury continued his
march to Ludlow.

* Circa festum beaUs Marile rerertus est dux Eboraci de Hibernia* et
arrivavit apud Redbanke prope Cestriam, et ibidem cum paucis mea?it ad
castnim de Ludlowe. W. Wyrc. ap. Hearne, Lib. Nig, p. 483.

too THB HISTORY OP LUDLOW.

The court had also been making great exertions to avert
the threatened danger^ and had raised a much more nu-
merous army than that of their opponents. The king
hastened to Worcester with sixty thousand men: as he
advanced towards Ludlow, the army of the Yorkists was
drawn out into an intrenched camp in the fields of Lud-
ford. They had been joined by the earl of Warwick, who
brought a body of veteran troops firom Calais, under an old
and experienced conmiander. Sir Andrew Trollop. Some
attempt was made at negotiation, and the Yorkist leaders
addressed a letter to the king which is printed by Stowe.
On the 13th of October the king's army came in view of
the intrenchments of Ludford, and were received with a
brisk cannonade, which compelled them to i-etire, and no
further attack was made on that day. In the evening the
duke of York and the two earls held a council of war,
at which it was determined to attack the enemy by surprise
early in the morning, which would probably have been
attended with success; but during the night Sir Andrew
Trollop, who bad been made the marshal of the Yorkist
army, deserted to the royalists, carrying with him the veteran
troops under his own particular command, and betrayed
all their councils to the king. The Yorkists, dismayed
by this defection, broke up their camp in the night and
fled ; the duke of York and his younger son the earl of
Rutland escaping to Ireland, while the earls of Warwick and
Salisbury, vnth Edward earl of March, succeeded in reach-
ing Calais in safety.^ The Lancastrians entered Ludlow,

* In the subsequent act of attainder, the following account is giren of
the transactions at Ludlow :—

" And the Friday, in the Tigill of the fest of the translation of seint
Edward kyng and confessour, the xxzTiiiih yero of youre moost noble
reigne, at Ludeford in the shire of Hereford, in the feldes of the same,
the seid Richard due of York, Edward crle of Marche, Richard erle of
Warrewyk, Richard erle of Salesbury, Edmond crle of Rutlond, Johan
Clynton lord Clynton, Johan Wenlok, knyght, James Pykeryng, knyght,
the seid Johan Conyers, and Thomas Parre, knyghtes, Johan Bourghchier,
Edward Bourgohier, squiers, nemes to the seid due of York, Thomas Colt

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. Ml

and wreaked their vengeance upon the town and castle,
iw'liich^ as the old historians inform us^ were plundered
'' to the bare walls." The duchess of York with her two

late of London, gentilman, Johan Clay iate of Cheitlmnt in the shire of

Hertford, squier, Roger Eyton lato of Shrouesbury in Shropshire, squire,

and Robert Boulde, brother to Hcrry Boulde, knyght, with other knyghtas

and people, snch as they had blynded and assembled by wages, promyses,

and other exquisite meanes, brought in certeyn persones bifore the people,

to swere that ye were decessed, doyng masse to be said, and oiferyng all

to make the people the lesse to drede to take the fold. Neverthelesse,

after exortation to all the lordes, knyghtes, and nobley in youre host, made

by youre owne mouth, in so witty, so knyghtly, so manly, in so comfortable

-wise, with so pryncely apporte and assured maner, of which the lordes

and the people toke such joye and comfort, that all their desire was oonly

to hast to fulfill youre corageous knyghtly desire, albe the ympedyment of

the weyes and streitnesse, and by lette of waters, it was nygh evyn or

ye myght come to take grounde covenable for youre felde, displaied

youre baners, raunged youre batailles, pighted youre tentes; they

beyng in the same feldes the same day and place, traitorously raunged

in bataill, fortefied their chosen ground, their cartes with gonnes sette

bifore their batailles, made their escarmysshes, laide their enbusshmentea

there, sodenly to have taken the avauntage of youre host. And they

entendyng the destruction of youre most noble persoon, the same Friday

and tonne, in the feld there falsely and traiterously rered werre ayenst

you, and than and there shotte their seid gonnes, and shotte as wele at

youre most roiall persone, as at youre lordes and people with you than and

there beyng. But God, in whos handes the hertes of kynges been, made

to be knowen, that they whos hertes and desires were oonly sette to

untrouth, falsenesse, and cruelty, subtily coloured, and feyned xelyng

justice, ment the grettest falsenes and treason, most ymmoderate covetise

that eter was wrought in any realms : insomoche that by Robert RadcUf,

oon of the felauship of the seid due of York, and erles of Warrewyk and

Salesburyi it was confessed at his dying, that both the coroune of

Englond and duchie of Lancaster they wold have translated at their

wiUe and pleasure. But Almjghty God, that seth the hertes of people, to

whome is nothyng hidde, smote the hertes of the seid duo of York and

erles sodenly from that most presumptuouse pryde, to the most shamefull

fsUe of cowardise that coude be thought, so that aboute mydnyght than

next Buyng they stale awey oute of the felde, under colour they wold have

refreshed theym awhile in the toune of Lndlowe, levyng their standardes

and baners in their bataill directly ayenst youre feld, fledde onto of the

tonne unarmed with fewe persones into Wales ; understondyng that youre

people hertes assembled, was blynded by theym afore, were the more

partie couTerted by Goddes inspiration to repent theym, and humbly

•ubmytte theym to you, and aske youre graoe, which so didde the grete

29S THB HISTORY OP LUDLOW.

youngest sons were taken, and placed in safe ward; and
many of the richer partizans of the duke were executed and
their estates confiscated. On the 20th of November a
parliament met at Coyentry, in which a number of die
Torkist leaders were attainted, who are thus enumerated
in a contemporary letter among the Paston correspondence.
— ^^' The due of York; therle of Marche ; therle of Rutland ;
therle of Warrwyk; therle of Salusbury ; the lord Powys;
tiie lord Clynton; the countesse of Sarr.; Sir Thomas
Nevyle ; Sir Johan Nevyle ; Sir Thomas Haryngton ; Sir
Thomas o'Parre ; Sir Johan Conyers ; Sir Johan Wenlok ;
Sir William Oldhall ; Edward Bourghcier, sq. ; a brother of
his; Thomas Vaughan; Thomas Colte; Thomas Clay;
Johan Denham; Thomas Moryng; Johan Oter; maistre
Bic. Fisher; Hastyngs, and other that as yet we can not
know there names, &c. As for the lord Powys, he come
inne and hadde grace as for his lyf, but as for hise godes the
forfeture passid." In spite however of this disaster^ the
Yorkists did not lose their courage ; at Calais, the earl of
Warwick entirely defeated the attempt to drive him from
his government, and the fleet having revolted to him, made
him master of the English coasts, and enabled him to hold
easy communication with the duke in Ireland. One of the
letters in the Paston correspondence, dated in the month of
January, 1460, says, "The duke of York is at Dublin,
9trengtliened with his earls and homagers ;" and that the
court was in ^^ead of further danger appears by another
letter in the samp cpllec}:ipp, <lated on the ^th of January,

ftai ; to whome, at ourfi lordss revereii£iB and aeist Edward, ye ymparte^
Uurgely your grajco. Bnt, soyer&yne lorde, it is not to be thought, but they
find, it had been posaible to theym by eny meane, their wille was to have
fccompUj»h9d their crueil, malidoua, and traiterous entent, to the fyeal
deetruction pf yo^r ppo^t roinU peraone. And to ahewe forthermore the
jcontynuance of their most dietestable fixed traiterous purpose &nd desiiy
l^yenat you, soTeraine lorde, apd youre magett^ roitll, and thi» wele of
youre realme and aubgettee, son^e of theym been arryyed in youre ifapnp of
Caleii, wherby the toune atondeth in jupartie, wifplp af all the goodes of
HU jpyif iRarplwiWitps beyng of ^p stapljB Aejrp/?

THB HISnrORT OP LUDLOW. 298

fix>in which we learn that the king on his way to London
-was ''raising the people/' and that great activity was
displayed in preparing a powerful army for immediate
servioe.

The yindictiye measures of the court had indeed left no
altematiye to the Yorkist leaders but to seek safety in open
war. It appears evidently by several contemporary songs
still preserved that their cause was popular among the
English commonalty. In one of these songs^ which appears
to have been written in May, 1460, the chief men on the
Yorkist side are designated by twelve letters which were
to " save alle Inglande."* The song goes on to tell us —

*^ Y for Yorke, that is manly and myghtfulle,
That be (by) grace of God and gret revelacion,
Reynyng with rules resonable and rightfulle.
The which for oure sakes hathe sufferd vexaeion/'

The duke's eldest son, Edward earl of March, had now
made himself conspicuous by his manners and his talents,
and from henceforth he begins to appear as one of the most
prominent actors on this tragical and eventful scene. The
song describes him as enjoying the highest popular favour: —

'< E for Edward, whos fame the erthe shal sprede.
Because of his wisdom, named pmdeuce,
Shal save alle Englond by his manlyhede,
Whcrfore we owe to do hym reverence.

M for Marche, trewe in every tryalle,
Drawen by discrecion that worthy and wise is,
Conseived in wedlok, and comyn of biode ryaUe,
Joynyng unto vertu, excludyng alle vises.''

In the popular songs of this time it was common to
speak of the leading barons by their badges and devices,
which were then as familiar to the hearers as their names.

* Printed in the Archsologia, toI xxiz, p 330.

294 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

The earls of Salisbury and Warwick are here introduced by
their characteristic badges^ the eagle and the ragged staff. —

<' E for the Egle, that gret worship hathe wonne
Thorow spredyng of his wynges that never dyd fle ;
Ther was never byrde that bred andre sonne.
More fortanat in felde than that byrde hathe be,

<< R for the Ragged 8taff» that no man may akapen.
From Scotland to Cales thereof men stond in awe ;
In al cristen landes is none so felic a wepen^
To correcte soche caytiffes as do agayne the lawe.''

The song ends with a prayer for the success of the cause —

<* Now pray we to the prynce moste precious and pure.
That sytteth with his seyntis' in blys etemalle,
Hur* entent and purpoe may last and endure.
To the pleasaunce of Ck>d and the welfare of us alle.'*

A few weeks after the period at which this song was
composed, in the month of June, the Yorkist lords sailed
from Calais and landed at Dover, and they were soon
joined by the old supporters of their cause, the men of
Kent. Thus reinforced, they marched direct for London,
where they arrived on the 2nd of July, and were favourably
received by the citizens. The king was at Coventry when
the news of the landing of the Yorkists arrived, and the
Lancastrian army marched to meet them and reached
Northampton, where they strongly entrenched themselves.
Edward earl of March, who was now equally eminent for
his abilities and activity, and for his great popularity, left in
London the earl of Sdisbury, lord Cobham, and Sir John
Wenlock, to watch the Tower which was held for the king
by lord Scales, and advanced with Warwick, Fauconberg,
and Bourchier, to meet their enemies. In the battle of

Glossary." I Saints. 2 Their.

THB HISTORY OP LUDLOW. S9S

Northampton^ fought on the 10th of July^ after an obstinate
struggle, the Lancastrians were entirely defeated^ and the
king himself was left in the hands of the victors. The total
number who fell in this battle appears not to have been
great, although much exaggerated by several old writers ;
but on the side of the king were slain the duke of Buck-
ingham, the earl of Shrewsbury, and the lords Beaumont
and Egremont, and about three hundred knights and gen-
tlemen. The queen with her son fled to the north, and
reached Scotland in safety. The earls carried the king to
London, and immediately called a parliament.

A curious poem written by one of the Yorkists imme-
diately after the battle of Northampton, aflfords an interesting
picture of the state of popular feeling at that time. In this
poem the leaders of the different parties are characterized
by their badges, or by popular names, as the Rose for
Edward earl of March, the Fetterlock for the duke of York,
the Eagle for the earl of Salisbury, and the Bear for the
earl of Warwick. Edward, as being especially associated
with Warwick, is here most commonly distinguished as the
Bear-ward. After speaking of the mutability of human
afiairs, the writer goes on to say. —

** An ensaumple hereof I take witnesse

Of certeyne persones that late exiled were,
Whos sorow is turned into joyfalaesse,

The Rose, the Fetyrlok, the Egle, and the Bere.

Orete games in Inglond sum tyme ther were,
In hanking, huntyng, and fisshing, in every place,

Amonge lordes with shelde and spere,
Prosperete in reme^ than reignyng wase.

<< Whereof God, of his specialle grace,
Heryng the peple crying for mercye,
Considering the fakehode in every place,
Oave inflewenz of myrthe into bodyes on hye.

GlMsary, — 1 Realm.

The whiche in a Berward lighted prevelye,
Edward, jong of age, disposed in solace ;

In hanking and huntyng to begynne meiyly.
To Northamptone, with the Bere, he toke his trace.'*

The Bear- ward's object was to rescue the Hunter Qdng
Henry) from his Dogs and from the Buck (the earl of
Buckingham) with whom they had allied themselves. —

** Now shal ye here a mervelons case,

All only thoronghe God oone proTysione ;
The Berward and the Bere thei did the Dogges chaoe,

And put the3rme to flight, to gret confticione.

Thus agayne alle natoralle disposicione^
To se a Bere to seke his owne game,

Bat if it were of Gk>ddi8 mooione.
That he shold do the Dogges shame.

'' Talbot* ontrewe was the oon Dogges name,

Ravling Bewmond anodre,' I nnderstonde ;
The thrid also was made ful tame.

He was called bolde Egremonde.

When the Bereward come to the grounde.
Where he chased the forsaid leese,*

Amonge alle other a Buk he foonde.
The whiche was hye and fat of greese.

« The ooriages Berward put hym ferre in preese,'

To die Hnnt,^ onre kynge, he hyed hym ful fast^
The Bere, for alle the Dogges, wold not seese,*

Bat hyed hym sone afiftre^ swyffUy in hast*

The Dogges barked at hem ful fast ;
The Bnk set up his homes on hye,

The Berward, thei cryed, thei wold downe cast.
The Bere also, if that he come nye.

Ghsaarif.-^i Another. 2 A leash. 3 Crowd. 4 Hunter. 5 Cease,
discontinue. 6 Soon after.

• John Talbot earl of Shrewsbury.

THB HISTORY 07 LX7DL0W. S97

*^ The Bereward aBked no qnestione why.
Bat on the Dogges he set foUe ronnde ;

The Bere made the Dogges to cry,
And with his pawme' cast theyme to grounde*
The game was done in a litel stounde,

The Bnk was slayne and borne away ;
Agayne the Bere than was none hoonde,

But he might sporte and take his play/'

The stanzas which follow describe the respectful bearing
of the victors towards the Hunter (king Henry), after they
had obtained possession of his person. All historians bear
witness to the moderation of the earb on this occasion.

« But the Hunt he saved from harme that day.

He thought never other in alle his mynde ;
He lowted* downe, and at his fote lay.

In token to hym that he was kynde.

The Bereward also, the Hnntes frende,
Felle downe on kne saying with obedience,

' Sovereigne lord, thenk us not unkynde,
Nor take ye this in none offence.

« < We have desired to come to your presence,
To cure excuse we myght not answere ;

Alle thinges were hyd from your audience,
Wherefore we fled away for fere,'
The Hunt said tho,' * I wol you here.

Ye be right welcom bothe to me ;
Alleway I pray you to stond me nere,

Te be my frendis I may wele se.

" * Stond up, Berward, welcom be ye,
Oramercy of your gentyl game j

From you and your Bere I wol never fle ;
Tellithe^ me now what is your name.'
'* Edward of Marche, I am the same,

Trewe to Ood and youre highnesse.''

GltMioi^y.— i Palm. 2 Bowed, stooped. 3 Then. 4 Tell.

The gentyl Bere said, ^ Wkhooten blame,
We have be pat in gret heyynesse/ "

The king is then made to throw all the blame of past
events on the evil councillors with whom he had been sur-
rounded, the ** Dogges" from whom the earls had relieved
him, whom, in the ballad, he degrades with the title of
" curs."

** The HuDt answerid with gret mekenesse,

* The Dogges wrought* agayne alle kyndt ;'
Thei labored to bryng me in distresse,

I was theire majster and specialle ftende.

The Buk ran before, the Bogges behynde,
I followed afiler, I wist never why ;

In no place game kowde* I fynde,
The Bok and the Dogges playde by and by.

<^ * A geDtylle Dogge wol naturally

His mayster love, and drede also ;
His kyndly^ game if he may aspy,

From hym belyve^ he wol be goo.

These curre Dogges before dyd not so :
The Buk and they played jMzr aseni :^

They lapped away the fatte me fro.
Me to myscheve^ was theire entent

*< < And never to me thei wold consent,

The whiohe called you ever trey tours untrewe ;

Tyl now the trewe comynerys^ of Kent
Be comyn with you, falsehed to destrewe,*
And truthe long exiled now to renewe.

Seynt Thomas I thanke, in alle yonre right
That girded you this day, and shewid to be trewe,

So fewe men slayne in so gret a fight.

<< < It was the werk of Qod Almight,
Of mannesse'** power it might not be.

G2tMMry.— 1 Worked, acted. 2 Nature. 3 Could. 4 Natural. 5 Im-
mediately. 6 By agreement. 7 To ruin, cause to faiL 8 Commoners.
9 Destroy. 10 Man's.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 299

Gramercy, Fauoon, of tbi fayre flight,
The bird from the neet he made to fle/ "

Tlxe 'Faucon' was William Neville lord Fauconberg,

i^lio distinguished himself by his zeal in the Yorkist cause.

ITlxe oommons of Kent appear to have formed the bulk of

the "iTorkist army at the battle of Northampton ; and the

«rrt^l1 number slain in that engagement is confirmed by the

testimony of a contemporary writer of great authority. Our

poem proceeds to describe, in conformity with the narratives

of the old chroniclers, the manner in which the king was

\ed. to London.

^< To London now, that fayre cyte,
The Hnnt was brought fol reverendy ;

The Berward, the Bere, the Pawcone fre,
Bode about hym folle joyfully.

** Thorow that cyt6 right opynly

The Hunt rode, with gret gladnesse ;
The pepil rejoysed inwardly,

And thanked Gh)d of his goodenesse ;

That he iiketh with lustynesse
To endewe the Hunt, cure noble kyng.

And to remeve' his hevynesse,
Whiche to his regalle is nothyng conservyng."

The ballad then returns to the acts which had in the
meanwhile been done in London. The earl of Salisbury
(the Eagle) had laid close siege to the Tower, which was
defended by lord Scales (the Fish) and other steady Lan-
castrians. When the Tower was delivered, lord Scales
attempted to escape with three others who were most
obnoxious to the other party, but his flight was intercepted
by some watermen of the earl of Warwick, who slew him
and left his body naked at the gate of " the Clynke."

« The Egle from Londone was never remeving,*
But hovid' and wayted^ upon his pray ;

^ (^bmtr^.^i Bemove. 2 Berao¥iiig-*-hL' n*JY<3c l«lt London. 3 Kijvereiip

900 THX HIROKT OF UTDiaW.

Afle hk ddite was ever in fiflshing.

Hie Fkahe were doaed in pytteB alwaj.
Tit St the last, upon a daj.

The Fimhe drewe nere unto the hayte ;
Nede hathe no lawe, thus alle men saj.

Hie Egle therto erer lajde goode wayte.

** To shape awaj it was foi atrajte.

The Egyk biides laj so theyme abowte ;
Ever beholding the fiilce dissay te.

How from theyme alle thei wold gon onte.

Hie Egle lighted, and made hem to lonte :
The Fisshe was feynte and litelle of might ;

Yit iiij. there were, bothe gret and stonte.
The whiche he toke alle at a flight*

<' Alle thei had scaped upon a nyght.

Save theire Skales were placked away ;
Than had the Fisshe lost alle here might»
And litel joy in watjrr to play/'

The writer of this ballad concludes with a prayer for the
safe and immediate return of the duke of York.

<< Now God, that madest bothe nyght and day,
Bryng home the mayster of this game,

The duke of Yorke, for hym we pray.
That noble prynce, Richard be name.

** WhoQi treson ne falsehod never dyd shame,

Bat ever obedient to his sovereigne ;
Falsehod evermore put hym in blame.

And lay awayte* hym to have sleigne.

If Gh>d be with us, who is us agayne ?
He his so nowe, blessid mot he be !

Of this fortune alle men may be fayne,
That right hathe now his fre entree."*

62M«ary.— 1 Lay in wait or in ambush.

* This poem was communicated by Sir Frederic Madden to the Society
of Antiquaries, and is printed in the Archnologia, yoL xxix, p. 334.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 801

The duke of York had, indeed, remained quiet in Ireland
during these events, but, on receiving intelligence of the result
of the battle of Northampton, he hastened back to England.
He arrived at Chester in the latter part of August, and
passing through Shrewsbury, Ludlow, and Hereford, at
which latter place he had appointed to meet his duchess, he
reached London on the 10th of October. Now at length
he threw of all mask from his intentions, and deliberately
stated his claim to the crown. The parliament hesitated,
and ordered it to be taken into consideration ; and it was
finally agreed that Henry should enjoy the throne during
his life, and that the duke of York should be acknowledged
his heir, and appointed protector of the kingdom till
Henry^s death. For a time the new order of things went
on smoothly, at least in appearance ; but there was little
solidity imder the surface. We have abundant evidence of
fears and suspicions in the Fasten Letters, those interesting
memorials of the popular feelings of the fifteenth century.
John Brackly, a priest and very popular preacher of this
period, says in a letter written from Norwich to Sir John
Paston soon after the events just described, " God save our
good lord Warwick, all his brethren, Salisbury, &c. from
all false covetise and favour of extortion, as they will flee
utter shame and confusion. God save them and preserve
from treason and poison ; let them beware thereof, for the
pity of God ; for if ought come to my lord Warwick but
good, farewell ye, farewell I, and all our friends; for, by
the way of my soul, this land were utterly undone, as God
forbid ; their enemies boasting with good (i. e. with money,
by bribery) to come to their favour. But God defend
them, and give them grace to know their friends from their
enemies, and to cherish and prefer their friends, and lessen
ihe might of all their enemies throughout the shires of the
land." A still more remarkable testimony of the fears and
feelings of the Yorldsts at this time is preserved in the
following short poem,* the writer of which strongly urges

« Prmted in tbe Archcologia, toI. xxix, p. 340.
2 R

the men then m power to be on their g^uard against ibe
Lancastrians, and to be distrustful of pretended Mendship,
which agrees precisely with friar Brackly*s apprehensions.
The earl of March is here again designated as the Rose,
and the other lords by the same terms as before; the
*' Ragged Bottis" refer to the earl of Warwick, while the
" Staflford Knottis" indicate the duke of Buckingham, the
head of the house of Sta£ford.

'* Awake» lordes, awake, and take goode hede.
For Bom that speke fal fayre, tbei wolde your eril spede;
Though thei pere in yonr presence with a fajre &ce.
And her tunge chaunged, the hert is as it was.
Thei scyne' in theire assemble, It is a wondre thjng
To se the Rose in wyntre* so fresshe for to spryng ;
And many barked atte Bare,* that now be fol stylle,
Yit thei wol hym wyrye,* if thei might have her wylle.
But of your fewe fomen^ nothing that ye drede.
For the comyns' ben youres, ever at youre nede ;
Yit a seege^ wold be set the falte to take and holde.
For oon^ scabbed shepe may enfecte al a folde.
Trust not to moche* in the favour of youre foos ;
For thei be double in wirking, as the worlde gos»
Promysing foith fully obeisaunce to kepe.
But perfite^ love in theire hertis is leyde for to slope.
And though thei were*" the Rose, or the Ragged Btatkf
Thei rought never how sone, in feithe, that ye starffe.
For fyro and water togider in kyndeling be" brougbt.
It passeth mannes power, be God that me bought !
For two faces in a bode'* is never to tryst,
Beth wel war before, and thenk of had-I-wist."

• This phrase appears to prove that the song was written early in the
winter which followed the battle of Northampton, i. e. the end of the year
1460.

Glostary.^l Say. 2 At the Bear (i. e. the earl of Warwick). 3 Worry.

4 Foes. 5 Commons. 6 Siege. 7 One. 8 Too much. 9 Perfect. 10 Wear.

11 In kindling (taking fire), to be (the infinitive of the verb). 12 Two
faces in one hood. 13 Had I known (a proverbial expression).

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 808

Per thei hopen and tristen* to here of a day,

To see the Rose and the Lione* brought to a bay,

With the £gel and the Bere, that worthi be in fight :

from that infortune* preserve you God Almight !

And lat not youre savegardes be to liberalle

To your foos, that be tumyng ever as a balle ;

And sithe* fortune hathe set you bye on hir whele.

And in youre comyns love, loveth ye hem as wele.

Por many that were the chaynef on hir sieve,

Wole ful fayne youre ly ves bereve ;

And som that were the Ragged Bottis,

Had lever* were the Stafford Knottis ;

But what thei mene no man it wottes,

Therfore I counsel, cschewe theire lottis.

To telle you more it is no nede,

By counsel goode, yit take goode hede,

For a Christmas gestenyng,' as clerkis rede,

At on-set stevyn^ is quyt in dede.

Wherfore I counsel you sempely as I can.

Of youre disposicion tellith not every man ;

Muche is in my mynde, no more is in my penne.

For this shuld I be shent/ might som men it kenne.

But pray we al to God that died on a spere.

To save the Rose, the Lyon, the Egle, and the Bere,

With al other lordes trewe to youre assent,

Her sheld* be ever God Omnipoteut."

Events were now marching towards a final crisis with
fearfiil rapidity. The queen, who had fled to the north,
was actively employed in raising another army, and had
been joined by the most powerful of the Lancastrian lords.
Hitherto the contest had been chiefly maintained by the
family feuds of the great barons of the realm; but the

* John Mowbray, duke of Norfolk — Iiis cognisance was a lion rampant.

t A badge of the earl of Warwick.

Glossary. — I They hope and trust. 2 Misfortune, mishap. 3 Since.
4 Rather. 5 Feast. 6 A time not previously appointed. 7 Ruined.
8 Shield.

commons were every day made more and more parties in
the cause. From a very early period there had existed
a strong feeling of jealous hostility between the Northerns
and the Southerns^ or the population to the south of the
Trent and those to the north of that river. The people of
the south and of the Welsh border^ far more advanced than
the others in their notions of popular liberty, had embraced
warmly the cause of the house of York ; and the queen's
party now enlisted all the prejudices of the Northerns on
the opposite side. It is stated by the old writers that
she now held forth a promise of free permission to plunder
the whole country south of the Trent, as an inducement to
march against the triumphant Yorkists ; and any one
acquainted with the history of these times will conceive the
influence of such a promise on the predatory inhabitants of
the Scottish border.

The duke of York was aware of the queen's proceedings,
and marched somewhat precipitately to anticipate the attack.
The rival armies met on the SOth of December, 1460, at
Wakefield in Yorkshire. Although the Yorkists had
imprudently engaged an army far superior in numbers to
their own, they fought bravely and supported the contest
for some time with good hopes of success, until they were
thrown into fatal disorder by an unexpected attack in the
rear made by a body of borderers newly arrived. The
result was in the highest degree disastrous to the Yorkists ;
the duke, and most of the men of note who had accom-
panied him were slain, and the furious enmity between the
Northerns and Southerns had been so great, that of five
thousand Yorkists who took part in the battle, no less
than two thousand were left on the field. The earl of
Salisbury was taken in the pursuit, and was carried to
Pontefract castle, where he was immediately beheaded.
The earl of Rutland, the duke's second son, a child of
twelve years of age, also fell into the hands of the Lancas-
trians, and was cruelly murdered by the lord Clifford. Most
of the prisoners of any consideration were executed to

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 809

ftatisfy the queen's thirst for the blood of her enemies ; and
her merciless conduct on this occasion rendered the Lan-
castrian cause still more unpopular in the south. The
following extract from a letter written about this time from
Clement Paston to his brother John, will give some notion
of the consternation of the Southerns: after speaking of
some private business, he says — ^^ What word that ever ye
have from my lords that be here (in London ?), it is well
done and best for you to see that the country be always
Teady to come, both footmen and horsemen, when they be
sent for ; for I have heard said the farther lords will be here
sooner than men ween, I have heard said ere three weeks
to an end ; and also that ye should come with more men
and cleanlier arrayed than any other man of your country
should ; for it lieth more upon your worship and toucheth
you more near than other men of that country (Norfolk),
and also ye be more had in favour with my lords here. In
this country every man is well willing to go with my lords
here, and I hope God shall help them, for the people in the
north rob and steal, and be appointed to pill (pillage) all this
country, and give away men's goods and livelihoods in all
the south country, and that will ask a mischief. My lords
that be here have as much as they may do to keep down all
this country, more than four or five shires, for they would
he up on the men in the north, for it is for the weal of aU
the south.''

The queen marched directly uponLondon, and the conduct
of her troops seemed to verify in every point the report that
the Northern men had covenanted for the plunder of the
South. She met with no serious check until she arrived
at St. Alban's, where she was opposed by the Yorkists
under the earl of Warwick. But having turned their posi-
tion, she attacked the main body of the earl's army between
that town and Bamet, and completely defeated it, the last
stand being made by the men of Kent on Bamet Common.
The king was left on the field, and was thus again liberated
from the party who had been acting in his name. The

ijancastnans annuiiea au tne acts oi govenuneni; passea
since their defeat at Northampton, proclaimed the leaden
of the' Yorkists as traitors, and set a price on the head of
Edward earl of March, who now, by the death of his
father, had become the immediate pretender to the throne.

Edward was on the Welsh border when he received
the first intelligence of the disastrous battle of Wakefield.
He had collected an army to join his father in the uarih ;
and his numbers were quickly swelled by multitudes of the
exasperated borderers. He was already marching against
the queen, when he was called back to oppose a large force
of Welsh and Irish which, under Jasper Tudor earl of
Pembroke, was advancing in the hope, it is said, of making
themselves master of his person, and thus putting an end
at once to the hopes of the Yorkists. The two hostile
parties met at Mortimer's Cross, near Wigmore in Hereford-
shire, on the morning of the 2nd of February. It is said
that before the battle commenced, three sims appeared in
the sky over the field, which approached each other until
they joined in one; and that Edward, taking this as a
favourable omen, subsequently adopted a bright sun as his
badge in remembrance of this circiunstance. After an
obstinate struggle, the Yorkists obtained a decided victory,
and nearly four thousand of their enemies were slain. All
the prisoners of rank were beheaded at Hereford, in retalia-
tion for the queen's cruelties after the battle of Wakefield ;
and then Edward continued his march towards the east,
his forces increasing continually by the way, until at
Chipping-Norton he joined the earl of Warwick who was
retreating from Bamet.

The Lancastrian army remained at the latter place and
at St. Alban's, plundering the country about, and not
sparing even the ancient abbey and church of St. Alban's.
The queen hesitated in moving towards London, because
she was well aware that the citizens were unfavourable
towards her. She sent to the lord mayor for some carts of
victuals for her army, and he did not venture to disobey

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 307

her order : but, as Hall informs us, '' the moveable com-
mons^ which favoured not the queenes part, stopped the
cartes at Cripplegate, and boldely sayd, that their enemies
livliicli came to spoyle and robbe the citizens, should neyther
"be relieved nor victayled by them. And notwithstandyng
gentle advertisement to them given of the mischiefes which
miglit ensue of their doyngs: yet they remayned still in
one obstinate minde and wilfuU will, not permittyng the
caryages to passe or go forwarde. Duryng which contro-
versies divers of the Northern horsemen came and robbed
in the suburbes of the citie, and would have entered at
Cripplegate, but they by the commoners were repulsed and
beaten backe, and three of them slaine." While the queen
-wsLS concerting measures for punishing the stubbornness
of the Londoners, news arrived of the approach of Edward
and the earl of Warwick, and the Lancastrian army imme-
diately commenced its retreat towards the north. The
sequel may be told in the words of the chronicler just
quoted. "The erles of Marche and Warwike, having
perfite knowlege that the king and queue, with their adhe-
rentes, were departed from Saint Albones, determined first
to ryde to London, as the chiefe key and common spectacle
to the whole realme, thinking there to assure themselves
of the east and west parte of the kingdome, as king Henry
and his faction nesteled and strengthened him and his alies
in the north partes : meaning to have a bucklar against a
sworde, and a southrene byll to countervayle a northern
bastard. And so these two great lordes, resolvyng them-
selves upon thys purpose, accompanied with a great number
of men of warre, entered the citie of London, in the first
weeke of Lent. What should I declare how the Kentish-
men resorted : how the people of Essex swarmed, and how
the coimties adjoyning to London daylie repayred to see,
ayde, and comfort this lustie prince and flower of chivalrie,
as he in whome the hope of their joy and the trust of their
quietnesse onely then consisted." Edward, less scrupulous
than his father, took advantage of the favourable disposition

308 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

of the people assembled at London, and caused himself to be
received and proclaimed as king, under the title of Edward
IV. This last event took place on the 4th of March, 1461,
when Edward had not yet reached his twenty-first year.
''On Thursday the first week in Lent," a manuscript at
Lambeth informs us, " came Edward to London with thirty
thousand men, and so in field and town every one caUed
' Edward king of England and of France.' " In the eyes
of the populace the loss of the French conquests was a sore
blot in the character of the unfortunate Henry.

Nothing gives us so striking a picture of the spirit of
these great national struggles as the popular songs of the
age. A contemporary manuscript in the archiepiscopal
library at Lambeth* has preserved a song composed on the
occasion of Edward's entrance into London, which gives us
some notion of the joy with which he was received.

** Sithe* Ood bathe chose the to be his knyght.
And posseside the in this right,
Thoue him honour with al thi royght,

Edivardus Dei gratia,

** Oute of the stoke* that longe lay dede,
God hathe causede the to sprynge and sprede,
And of al Englond to be the hede/

Edwardus Dei gratia,

** Sithe God hath yeven the, thorough his myghte,
Owte of that stoke birede^ in sight
The floure to springe and rose so white,

Ednfordus Dei ffrcaia.

^* Thoae yeve* hem lawde and praisinge,
Thoue vergyne knight of whom we synge,
Undeffiled* sithe thy bygynyng,

Edmardus Dei graiuij

* Commimicated by Mr. Halliwell to the Society of Antiquaries, and
printed in the Archsologia, vol. xxix, p. 130.

GVonary^-^X Since. 2 Stock, i. e. the house of York. 3 Head. 4 Buried.
5 Giye. 6 Undefiled, i. e. who had nerer sustained a defeat.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 809

** God save thy contenewaanoe,
And so to prospede* to his plesaunce,
That ever thjne astate thou mowte* enhannce,
Edmardua Dei gratia,

** Rex Angliae et Francice, y say,

Hit is thine owne, why saist thou nay ?
And so is Spayn, that faire contrey,

Edwardus Dei s^atia.

** Fy on slowtfulle contenewauance !
Where conquest is a noble plesaunce,
And registerd in olde rcmemberance,

Edwardus Dei gratia,

** Wherefore, prince and kyng moste myghti,
Remembere the subdene of thi regaly.
Of Englonde, Fraunce, and Spayn, trewely.

Edwardtis Dei groHa,**

Edward had need of the utmost activity to secure his
new position. The queen^ in her retreat, had kept her
forces together, and she was busily employed in strengthen-
ing herself in the north, where by the middle of March she
had collected an army of sixty thousand men. Edward,
counting probably on the exasperation of the Southerns,
who were eager to revenge the violences committed by the
Northern army, determined at once to march against her.
On the 5th of March, John duke of Norfolk was sent '^ into
his countrey with all diligence to prepaire for the warre."
A day or two after the earl of Warwick moved northward
with the main body of the Yorkist army, which consisted
chiefly of Welshmen (or borderers) and Kentishmen, and
» the men of the south joined him in his advance in such
numbers that on reaching Pontcfract his army had increased
to forty-nine thousand men. Edward left London on the
l£th of March, and soon joined the advancing army. At

(TlMMfy.-'l Proiper, apeed welL 1 May.
£ s

SIO THE HISTORY OF LTTBLOW.

Ferrybridge there was a sharp and unexpected engagement^
in which the Yorkists slew lord Clifford, the base murderer
of the infant earl of Rutland after the battle of Wakefield.
On Friday evenings the 27th of March, the two armies
came in sight of each other at Towton near York ; and the
exasperated multitude were with difficulty restrained ficom
fighting during a few hours. The battle began without
much regularity about four o'clock on Saturday, amid a
heavy storm of snow, rendered more gloomy by the ap-
proaching darkness of the evening. Northerns and Southerns
fought with imrelenting fiiry during the whole of the night,
and at noon of the next day, which was Palm Sunday, the
result seemed still doubtful, when the duke of Norfolk
appeared with a body of fresh troops, and by three o'clock
the Yorkists had gained a decisive victory. In this savage
contest, in which neither side gave quarter, from thirty-
three to thirty-eight thousand men were slain, of which
number twenty-eight thousand belonged to the Lancastrian
party. The earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland,
with several other barons of the Lancastrian party, and
Sir Andrew Trollop, who had deserted the Yorldsts at
Ludlow, were among the dead, and the earls of Devonshire
and Wiltshire were taken and beheaded. The dukes of
Somerset and Exeter escaped to York, and fled thence with
the queen, king Henry, and their son prince Edward,
closely pursued by their enemies, to Scotland. Edward
entered York immediately after, where he found the heads
of his father and younger brother still exposed on the
walls, and a number of Lancastrian heads were put up in their
place. After remaining in the north a sufficient time to
ensure the effects of his victory, he returned to London,
where he was crowned with great solemnities on the 29th
of June.

A curious Yorkist ballad on the battle of Towton, and
the events which preceded it, written immediately after
Edward's coronation, is preserved. It not only pictures
the spirit of the times and the exultation of the victors, but

it enumerates by their banners the chief towhs which sent
men to aid the victorious party, ahd to avenge the invasion
of the South by the Northerns, as well as the barons who
took part in this sanguinary contest.* Some oif these
banners, or badges, cannot now be easily appropriated.

'* Now is the Rose of Rone* gfowen to a gret honodre,
Therfore syng we everycnone/ i-blessid be that fioure !

** 1 wame yon every chone, for [ye] sbuld understonde,
There spraDge a Rose in Rone, and sprad into Englonde ;
He that moved cure mone,* thoroughe the grace of Gbddes

sonde,^
That Rose stonte alone the chef flour of this londe.

I-blessid be the tyme that ever God sprad that floure !

** Blessid be that Rose ryalle that is so fresshe ol* hewe !
Almighty Jhesn blesse that soulef that the sede sewe !
And blessid be the gardeyne ther the Rose grewe !
Cristes blessyng have the! alle that to that Rose be trewe !
And blessid be the tyme that ever God sprad that floure!

^* Betwix Cristmas and Candelmas, a litel before the Lent,
Alle the lordes of the northe thei wrought by oon assent ;
For to stroy' the sowthe cnntr^ thei did aHe hnr entente f
Had not the Rose of Rone be, al Englond had be shent J
I-blessid be the tyme that ever God sprad that floure !

« Upon a Shrof Tuesday, on a grene leede,*

Betwix Sandricche and Saynt Albons many man gan blede ;
On an AsWedynsday we lisvid in mykel drede,

* This ballad is presenred in a manuscTipt in the library of Trinity
College, Dublin, from which it was copied by Sir Frederic Madden, and
communicated to the Archssologia, vol. xziz, p. 343.

t llie duke of York, who was slain at Wakefield.

Oloaaary.'-l Rouen, where Edward was bom in 1441. 2 Erery one
3 RemoTed our grief. 4 Sending. 5 Destroy. 6 Intention, ondeayour.
7 Ruined. 8 A green plain.

Than cam the Rose of Rone downe to halp us at oure nede*
Blessid be the tyme that ever God sprad that floure !

** The northen men made her host, whan thei had done that dede,
< We wol dwelle in the southe cuntrey, and take al that we nede ;
These wifes and hur doaghters oure purpose shal thei spede.'
Than seid the Rose of Rone, ^ Nay, that werk shal I fbrbede/
Blessid be the tyme that ever God sprad that flonre !

** For to save al Englond the Rose did his entent.

With Calays and with Londone, with Essex and with K.ent ;
And al the southe of Englond unto the watyr of Trent ;
And whan he saw the tyme best, the Rose from London i^ent,
Blessid be the tyme that ever Qod sprad that flonre !

** The way into the northe cuntr6 the Rose ful fast he songrbl;

With hym went the Ragged Staf, that many man dere bought ;
^ So than did the White Lyon,* ful worthely he wrought,

Almighti Jhesu blesse his soule that tho* armes ought I*

And blessid be the tyme that ever God sprad that flonre/

" The Fisshe Hokef cam into the felde with ful egre mode;'
So did the Comysshe Chowghet and brought forthe alle hir

brode j*
Ther was the Blak Ragged Staf,§ that is bothe trewe and goode.
The Brideld Horse, the Watyr Bouge|| by the Horse stode.
Blessid be the tyme that ever God spred that floure !

<< The Grehound and the Hertes Hede, thei quyt hem wele that
day,
So did the Harow of Caunterbury, and Clynton with his Kay ;
The White Ship of Brystow, he feryd* not that fray,
The Blak Ram of Coventry, he said not one nay.

Blessid be the tyme that ever God spred that floure !

• The duke of Norfolk, whose banner bore a white lion.

t Lord Falconberg.

X This was the cognizance of John lord Scrope of Bolton.

} Edmund lord Grey of Ruthyn, afterwards earl of Kent.

g Supposed to be Henry viscount Bouchier, afterwards earl of Essex.

Glossafy.'-'l Those. 2 Possessed. 3 Sharp mood. 4 Brood. 5 VuM^

THB BISTORT OF LUDLOW. SIS

*^ The Fawcon and the Petherlok* was ther that tjde»
The Blak Bolle also hymself he wold not hyde ;
The Dolfyn cam fro Walys, iij. Carpis he his syde.
The prowde Libert* of Saleshory, he gapid his gomesP wide.
Blessid be the tyme that ever Qod spred that flonre !

*' The Wolf cam fro Worcetre, fnl sore he thought to byte»
The Dragon cam fro Olowcestre^ he bent his tayle to smyte ;
The Griffon cam fro Leycestre, fleyng in as tyte,*
The Oeorge cam fro Notyngham with spere for to fyte.
Blessid be the tyme that ever Ood spred that floure I

*^ The Boris Hede fro Wyndesoyer, with tosses* sharp and kene.
The Estriche Fader was in the felde^ that many men myght

Bene ;'
The Wild Rat fro Norhamptone, with hor brode nose,
Ther was many a fayre pynone* wayting upon the Rose.
Blessid be the tyme that ever God spred that floure !

^* Tlie northen party made hem strong with spere and with
shelde ;
On Palmesonday affter the none thei met us in the felde ;
Within an owre thei were right fayne to fle, and eke to yelde,
xxvij. thousand the Rose kyld in the felde.

Blessid be the tyme that ever God spred that floure I

" The Rose wan the victoryCy the feld, and also the chace ;
Now may the housband in the southe d welle in his owne place ;
His wif and eke his fairs doughtre, and al the goode he has ;
Soche menys^ hath the Rose made, by vertu and by grace.
Blessid be the tyme that ever God sprad that floure I

• This and one or two of the otheis appear to hare been different badges
borne by Tarious parties of Edward's own feudal retainers. Men of
Ludlow were probably in the battle, who had to rerenge not only the
general cause, but the plundering of the town by the Liuicastrians on a
former occasion.

GfoMory.—l Leopard. 2 Gums. 3 Quickly. 4Tuaks. 5 See. 6 Psa*
aon, flag. 7 Such means.

]j. erchebisshops of England thei crouncd the Rose kjng;
Almighti Jhesu Bare the Rose, and geve hym his blessjng,
And al the reme* of England joy of his crownyng.

That we may blesse the tyme that ever God sprad that floore!
Amen, pur eharite.

In the summer after his coronation king Edward made
a tour through the southern parts of the kingdom, beginning
at Canterbury, and passing through Winchester, and other
places until he reached Bristol, where he was received
with unusual rejoicings. At the Temple Gate he beheld a
figure representing William the Conqueror, who was made
to address him in the following doggrell verse, —

^* Wellcome, Edwarde, onre son of high degr6!

Many yeeris hast thoa lakkyd owte of this londe.
I am thy forefader, Wylliam of Normandye,

To see thy welefare here through Goddys sond.*'

A giant over the gate appeared in the act of delivering up
the keys. As the king marched into the town, other
pageants were ready to receive him, and prove the attach-
ment of the citizens to his person. While he remained
here. Sir Baldwin Fulford and other Lancastrians were
brought before him, and beheaded on the 9th of September.
The king soon after left Bristol to prepare for his first
parliament, which met at London in the beginning of
November.

A contemporary writer observes that on this occasion,
"forsomoche as he fande in tyme of nede grete comforth
in his comyners, he ratyfied and confermyd alle the
ffiraunsches yeve to citeis and townes, &c. and graunted to
many cyteis and townes new fraunschesses more than was
grraunted before, ryghte largly, and made chartours thereof^
to the entent to have the more good wiUe and love in his
londe."* Among the towns which had supported the

GAMMfy.*^! Royally. 2 Reahn.

• Warkworth'8 Chronicle, ed. Malliwell, p. 2.

THB HI8T0KT OF LUDLOW. 815

interests of the house of York, none had been more staunch,
and few had suffered more severely, than Edward's own
town of Ludlow. On the 7th of December in the first
year of his reign, (1461) he rewarded the townsmen with a
charter which greatly extended their franchises, and the
preamble states that it was given in consideration of " the
laudable and gratuitous services which our beloved and
fiEiithful subjects the burgesses of the town of Ludlow, have
rendered unto us in the obtaining of our right to the crown
of England, for a long time past withheld from us and our
ancestors, in great peril of their lives ; and also the rapines,
depredations, oppressions, losses of goods, and other griev-
ances, for us and our sake in divers ways brought upon
them by certain of our competitors;" the king "being
desirous for the amelioration and relief of our town aforesaid,
and of the burgesses and inhabitants in the same, to
bestow our grace and favour on the same burgesses."

'To understand the benefits conferred by this charter, it
will be necessary to trace rapidly the gradual progress of
the place from a small assembly of freemen and traders
who sought protection under the walls of the formidable
castle to a populous borough. We have seen that before
the end of the twelfth century the inhabitants had become
numerous, and that the town was defended by walls with
the repair and defence of which we find them charged at an
early period. At first they would be obliged to live
in a state of galling dependence on their feudal lord, taxed
at his caprice, and involved in constant troubles by their
resistance to the extortions or oppressions of his officers.
But the lord would in course of time see that it was his
own interest to protect and encourage them, and they
would obtain for a momentary sacrifice a part of the
franchises enjoyed by the older and more independent
municipal corporations. This is the simple history of the
origin of many of our borough towns. The townsmen
would buy of their lord the right of taxation for a fixed
rent, or fee farm ; they would obtain exemption from his

mi;eneTence in cneir iniieniai disputes^ witn tne ngni oi
judging their own causes ; and they would have officers of
their own appointment, or at least only subjected to the
approval of their lord.

Until the charter of Edward IV, the town of Ludlow
held all its rights and firanchises by grant from the lord of
the manor. At what period the inhabitants first received
the title of burgesses is unknown, but they must have
been incorporated, and have enjoyed a certain share of
independent rights, early in the thirteenth century, for the
grant of pasture on Whitcliffe by Jordan of Ludford, of a
date anterior to the year 1241, is made " to all the
burgesses and men of Ludlow," and in return for it, it is
stated that '' the burgesses of Ludlow have granted unto me
and to my heirs, and to all the men of my household, freely
to buy and sell in the town of Ludlow, in fairs and out of
fairs, without any custom given." In the 27th of Henry
VI, a charter was granted by Richard duke of York, as the
feudal lord, in which it is stated that there had been
" before time out of memory an ancient government in the
said town, consisting of twelve and twenty-five burgesses of
the said town, and that the same twelve and twenty-five
burgesses ruled and governed the said town, and were the
body of the said town," which government the duke
confirmed by the said charter. Their acts however appear
to have required the consent and approval of the lord, as in
the follovring old order, printed in the book of charters, from
the municipal archives.

''Ye shall understand the ordinance made and granted
by Richard late duke of York, whose soul God save, and
by the twelve and twenty-five of this town, that no manner
craft make no foreign brother, but it be a man of this same
town, dwelling and occupy the same craft that he is made
brother of, tmder payne of x. li., so as it plainly appeareth
under the said dukes seal and the conmion seal of the
town, to be forfeit as ought times as it may be proved. •

"Also it is ordered by the said duke and twelve and

twenty-five^ that no burgess, chansel, or resident were no
lordes clothe, nor gentlemen on pain of forfeiture of his
burgesship, and he be burgess, and all others to be at a fine
after the discretion of the said twelve and twenty-five, and
also their bodies to prison, and there to abide the deliverance
of the council of the said town.

** Also it is ordered by the said duke and council that no
man within the town dwelling, disobey no ordinance made
by the twelve and twenty -five, under the payne aforesaid.

'' Also the twelve and twenty-five have ordained that all
manner men that be or hereafter shall be empanelled in
any inquest of debte, or tresspass, detenue or covenant
broke, that thei appear under pain of two-pence each of
them the first day, the second day four-pence, the third day
six-pence, and so every day to increase the amerciament
two-pence, till they appear, and it to be recevyd without
any favour for the debtors."

The charter of Edward IV relieved the borough from all
feudal dependence, and gave to the inhabitants the manor
of the town, with the absolute right of managing their own
affidrs, and electing their own officers, without any foreign
interference, by fee-farm, that is, for ever, on condition of
an annual payment of twenty-four pounds thirteen shillings
and four pence, which was not a large sum in comparison
with the fee-farm of other towns similarly situated. The
king also grants to the town "a gUda mercateria (mer-
chant gild), with a company of merchants and other
customs and liberties appertaining to the gild aforesaid,
that no person who shall not be of that gild shall transact
any merchandise in the town aforesaid, or the suburbs of
the same, except by the licence and consent of the same
burgesses." The remainder of the charter gives to the
burgesses more extensive liberties and privileges than were
enjoyed by many boroughs of much greater antiquity and
importance. In 1478, a second charter was granted, to
relieve the tow^n from some grievances which seoni to have
occurred in the payment of the fee-farm into the king^s
2 T

818 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

exchequer. The whole tenor of these chaxters shows tkat
the town of Ludlow enjoyed the especial favour of king
Edward.

Many other acts prove Edward's partiality for this town
and its neighbourhood ; but after his throne seemed to be
firmly established^ he began to show his real character, and
became selfish and tyrannical, and his popularity rapidly
diminished. Many of his supporters, such as Warwick,
were as selfish as himself ; and thinking themselves abridged
of the emoluments and honours for which chiefly they had
fought^ they began to desert his cause. In 1469, the
general discontent broke out in an insurrection in the
north, and the king was obliged to call upon his family
friends in Wales to support him. William lord Herbert,
whom the king had created earl of Pembroke after the
attainder of Jasper Tudor (now an exile), raised a consider-
able army of Welshmen^ and marched against them, but
the Welshmen were defeated with great slaughter near
Banbury, and their leader was taken and beheaded. The
insurrection was only repressed by the intermediation of
the earl of Warwick. From this time one intrigue followed
another until in 1470 king Edward was obliged to take
refuge with the duke of Burgundy. He returned, however,
after only about five mouths absence, and regained the
crown almost as quickly as he had lost it. It was secured
to him by the decisive battle of Bamet, on the 14th of April,
1471, in which the earl of Warwick — the king-maker—
was slain.

The Welsh appear to have been still divided by their
feudal animosities. Only two years before they had marched
with an earl of Pembroke of Edward's making — a Herbert
— to fight the Lancastrian insurgents. Some of the Welsh
chiefs had raised their men, joined Edward on his return,
and fought with him in the battle of Barnet. But a rival
earl of Pembroke, Jasper Tudor, the same who had been
defeated by Edward at Mortimer's Cross, and who had
fought in the Lancastrian cause in Wales in 1468, was now

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 319

raising an army in that country to join queen Margaret,
who had landed at Weymouth, collected the remains of
Warwick's army, and was marching towards the border.
King Edward overtook her at Tewkesbury on the 4th of
May, and the Lancastrians were again entirely defeated,
on which Jasper Tudor disbanded his army and fled. In
the midst of these troubles we can have no doubt that the
border must have been a scene of confusion and violence.

Of this indeed there are abundant proofs in the records
of the time. In all parts of the kingdom, people took
advantage of the political divisions of the state to rob and
oppress one another under pretence of imaginary acts of
treason or partizanship, and this was more especially the
case on the borders of Wales, where the Welshmen were
still on the watch for every opportunity of plundering their
neighbours. In the parliament of 147S, the commons
petitioned the king to '^ considre the intoUerable exJk)rsions,
oppressions, and wronges, that to youre subjettes daily been
put, and in especiall in the parties of this youre land
adjoynyng the contr^ of Wales, which by the outeragious
demeanyng of Walsshmen, favoured under such persons as
have the kepyng of castelles and other places of strengh
there, as it is supposed, been wasted, and likely utterly to
be distroyed."* Immediately after the opening of this
parliament, on the 6th of October, 1472, the king created
his eldest sou prince Edward, then a mere infant, prince
of Wales and earl of the county palatine of Chester, and,
probably to afford a remedy to the evils complained of,
almost immediately sent him and his younger brother to
the castle of Ludlow, in company with his half brothers,
the marquis of Dorset and Sir Richard Grey, and under
the guardianship of his uncle, Antony Widville earl Rivers.
Hall, whose chronicles of these events we have cited a few
pages back, tells us the royal child was sent to Ludlow
" for justice to be doen in the marches of Wales, to the end

that by the authentic of hys presence the wilde Welshe-
meniie and evill disposed personnes should xefiram from
their accustomed murthers and outrages." The prince's
council^ over which Alcock^ bishop of Worcester^ was
appointed president^ were actively occupied in carrying
into effect these objects. In the following official letter/
dated in 1475, when the prince was still hardly four yean
of age, we find his two half brothers occupied in putting
down one of these not unfirequent acts of turbulence.

*< To our trusty and welbeloved the baillies of Shrewsbury,
and to either of them.

" By the prince.

*^ Trusty and welbeloved, we grete yoa wele. And where
as oftentymes hertofor ther have be made as well nnto oar
moost drad lorde and fadre, as unto us, greet and haynes
complaynts of robberies, murdres, manslaughters, ravysshments
of women, brennyng of houses, and othir horrible dedys and
misbeliavyngs, by thenhabitants of the Marches adjoinant unto
you; and in especiall now late greet murdre, brennyng, and
manslaughter doon by errant tbeves and rebellious of Oswestre
hundred and Chirkes lond in dispite of my said lorde and
fad res lawes and us, as the said misdoers fere nor shame opply
to sey, as we be credibly enformed. For the redresse of the
same, my said lorde and fadre hath commanded us by his
speciall lettres to assemble and reise his liege people, and to se the
punisshment of the said malefactours. For thexecution wherof
we have substitute oar right entierly and welbeloved brethem
uterynes Thomas Markes Dorset and Richard Grey, knight,
with power sufficient unto thoes parties. Wherfor we desire
and pray you, and natheless in my said lordes name charge
you, that fortwith, uppon the sight of this our writyng, ye do
make opyn proclamacion in our said lorde and fadres name,
that all manner men within your bailly weke betwix Ix. and zvj.
arredie themselfs, sufficiently harneysed, and drawe toward our
said brethem, there to give their attendaunce in all hast possible.

• Printed in Owen and Blake way's tiistory of Shrewsbury, rol. i.
p. 252.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. S21

And that ye ne fiule herof as ye will answere to my said lorde.
And that ye put yoa in effectual devoir to se that viteleiv
parTey and bring brede, ale, fiessh, and other vitail for the
anstentacion of our seid brethem and their folawsbip, and they
ahal be wele and truly content therfor. Yeven undre our
signet, at the castle of Ludlowe, the viij. day of June."

The two princes remained at Ludlow during the life of
their father. Wc find tliem paying visits to Shrewsbury in
1478 and 1480. On king Edward's death in 1483, they
were still at Ludlow Castle, under the guardianship of
their maternal uncle, lord Bivers, and their half brother,
lord Bichard Grey, and were immediately recalled to
London to perish there within a few weeks, amid the
mysterious events which attended the accession of Richard
m. to the throne. After having celebrated at Ludlow the
then high festival of St. George's day, they left that town
on the 24th of April, 1483, on their way to the capital.

Immediately after his coronation, king Bichard made a
progress towards the west. He passed through Oxford
to Gloucester, a city which had always been devoted to his
fiEimily, and in which he was now received with great
rejoicings. He reached Tewkesbury on the 4th of August,
and thence passed on to Worcester, Warwick, Coventry,
Leicester, Nottingham, Doncaster, and to York, where he
was extremely popular, and his arrival was welcomed with
extraordinary splendour and festivities. Several of the
towns through which he passed obtained new and favourable
charters of their municipal liberties. He reached York
about the end of August, and remained there nearly a
fortnight. On his way to his capital, he received at
Lincoln the news of the treacherous rebellion of the duke
of Buckingham.

The borders of Wales had become important at this
period from the position taken by the powerful Welsh
family of the Tudors against the reigning dynasty. The
duke of Buckingham had great power in Wales and in

ohropshire^ m which latter county he held the castle and
estates of Caus^ as the representative of the ancient family
of Corbet. He raised his standard at his castle of Breck-
nock^ on the 18th of October^ and immediately adranoed
towards Worcester, but at Weobley his progress was arrested
by unusual floods ; and he was kept so long at this place,
that his Welsh followers, discouraged by the tidings of the
king's preparations and approach, disbanded and returned
to their native mountains. The duke left Weobly in
disguise, a fugitive, and was concealed for a few days in
the neighbourhood of Wem, by Ralph Banestre, Esq. of
Lacon, but he was discovered, and arrested by sir Thomas
Mytton, the sheriff of Shropshire, a staunch adherent of
the family of York, who carried him to Shrewsbury, and
he was thence sent to Salisbury, where he was beheaded
on the 2nd of November. Richard shewed his gratitude
to the town of Shrewsbury, for the fidelity it had shown to
him on this occasion, by remitting a part of its fee-farm.
To sir Thomas Mytton the king gave the duke's castle and
manor of Cans.

The border was deeply implicated in the last scene of
Richard's brief reign, for many of the chief families stood
firm to the cause of their monarch, and some sealed their
fidelity with their blood on the fatal field of Bosworth.
Shrewsbury, under sir Thomas Mytton, made an ineffectual
attempt to arrest the progress of the successful pretender to
the throne, in his march from Wales.

The sanguinary stru^le between the two rival families
of York and Lancaster ended in the person of Henry VJI.
It left the country exhausted and demoralized. The borders
of Wales continued still a scene of turbulence and riot, which
the laws seem to have been insufficient to suppress; and
amid the few records of local events at this time we find
the names of some of the best families connected with deeds
of violence and injustice. In 1487, an act of parliament
was passed against the Kinastons of Shropshire, " for the
greate abhomynation as well of raurthers as of robberies,

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

and Other greate and iuordynat offences, commytted and
done by Thomas Keneston, Humfrey Keneston, Olyver
Keneston, and Richard Keneston, late of the countie of
Shropshire, geutilmen, as to oure sovereygn lorde the kyng
credebly ys shewed, [wherefore] oure soyereygne lorde hath
dyrecte his dyvers lettres of pryv^ seales, to the said Thomas,
Humfray, Olyvere, and Richard Keneston, as well with
proclamacion as otherwise ; the whiche privy seales, obsty-
natly, contrarie to their true allegeaimce and fealt^, they
have disobeyed, to the greate contempt of his highness, and
most perilous and*grevous ensample of all other his sub-
gettes.*'* Only four years later, in 1491, a similar act was
directed against one of the Crofts : — " Forasmuche as
Thomas Crofte commytted a detestable murdre within the
Marches of Wales, at the tyme of the beyng of the kyng
our sovereign lordes late progresse, and therupon is fledde,
and hath taken the sayntuary of Beaudeley. Be it
ordeyned, stablished, and enacted by the kyng oure said
sovereign lorde, by the assent of the lordys spiritual and
temporall, and the comens, in this present parliament
assembled, and by auctoriti^ of the same, that all lettres
patentes, giftes, and grauntes, made by the kyng our
sovereign lorde unto the said Thomas Crofte, of the office
of rangership of the forest of Wichewode, in the countie of
Oxon, and of every other office and offices whiche he had,
as well within the realme of England, as in Wales, and the
Marches of the same, by whatsoever name or names the
same Thomas Crofte be named or called in the said lettres
patentes, giftes, or gratmtes or the same offices, or any of
theym be named or called in any suche lettres patentes,
giftes, or grauntes, be, from the first day of this present
parliament, utterly voide, and of no force, wtue, ne effecte."t
In the progress alluded to the king, after visiting the
north, had passed along the border, visiting Woroester,

• Rolls of Parliament toI. yi, p. 403.
t lb. p. 441.

S24 THE UI8TOKY OF LUDLOW.

Hereford, Gloucester and Bristol, in the course of which
it is probable that he was received at Ludlow. The ineffi-
ciency of justice in this part of the kingdom was caused
- not only by the feuds and turbulence of the inhalntants,
but in many cases by the conflicting rights of jurisdictioD
still held on the lands of the old lords marchers ; snd m
late as the year 1535, four acts passed in one parliament
show us that then Wales and its Marches must have been
much in the same state that Ireland is at the present day.
These were '^ an act for punishment of perjury of juion
in the lordships merchers in Wales;" '^an act that
murders and felonies done or committed within any lordship
mercher in Wales shall be enquired of at the sessions holden
within the shire grounds next adjoining, with many good
ordres for ministrati<m of justice there to be had;" "«^
act for punishment of Welshmen attempting any assaults or
aflSrays upon any of the inhabitants of Hereff. Glouc snd
Shropshire;' and "an act for purgation of convicts b
Wales."

Henry VII followed the example of Edward IV in
sending his in&nt son, Arthur prince of Wales, bom in
1486, to keep his court at Ludlow Castle, under the guar-
dianship of a distant kinsman. Sir Rhys ap Thomas. Hi^
king appears to haye paid frequent visits to Ludlow while
his son remained there; but in April 1508, his sympathies
with the border were cut of by the untimely death of the
young prince, in whom all the best hopes. of the kingdom
had been centered.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

SECTION XL

I%e Diasclutian of Monaateries.

DURING ages of political turbulence^ like those of
which we have had to speak, it is not to be wondered at if the
condition of the border counties had been totally changed.
Repeated attainders and confiscations had destroyed nearly
all the great families who had been settled here in the
earlier Norman times, and new names of land-holders had
taken the place of those which are found in the records of
the thirteenth century. The Tudor dynasty was now
pursuing its favourite policy of suppressing the old feudal
aristocracy of the IdinAr—parcere sub/ectts, et debeUare
9uperbo9 — ^and we find families which, a few generations
before, had been little more than retainers or servants of the
Norman barons, suddenly becoming the lords of the soil.
But a still greater revolution in society was now ap-
proaching, the natural consequence of an event which may
be considered truly as the finishing blow given to the feudal
system. From the twelfth century, the monastic Establish-
ments which had arisen in every part of the island, had
been gradually absorbing the landed property, and the
richest portions of the great feudal estates had under one
pretence or other been conferred upon them. So long as
the Romish religion held absolute sway in the land, the
monks looked upon the representatives of their benefactors
as their patrons and feudal lords, took part with them in
their friendships and enmities, and sent to the field under
their banners, from duty or from inclination, the soldiers
which their lands ought to furnish. But the case was
widely changed, when the monasteries were suppressed
by the stem hand of the eighth Henry. The monastic
possessions were not restored to the descendants of those
who had bestowed them, nor reunited to the baronial
estates of which they had originally made a part, but they
2 u

326 lUE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

were distributed rather lavishly among a host of private
gentry, devoted to the new order of things, whom the new
dynasty loved to raise upon the ruins of the old institutions,
and whom in the same degree the aristocracy feared and
hated as upstarts and natural enemies. The men thus
brought forward upon the stage became the foundation of
that class of society to which succeeding ages have given
the title of the English gentry. In more ancient times, the
feudal land-holders could raise armies with much greater
fiunlity than their sovereign, who was thus obliged in
turbulent times to depend upon one part of his nobles to
defend him against the other, and the balance of power was
kept or broken, as it was on a larger scale among the
sovereign states of Europe, according to the family alliances
or political coalitions of the nobles among themselves.
Two or three offended or dissatisfied barons, raising their
dependant tenantry and joining their forces together, found
little difficulty in overawing their sovereign. But after the
dissolution of the monasteries, such coalitions were no
longer practicable; for where formerly the feudal superior
could raise his men secretly and imopposed through the
whole extent of his broad territory, now he foimd an
independent gentleman, whose interests were the reverse o(
his own, watching and obstructing his motions at every
turn. We have a very remarkable instance of this in the
rebellion of the northern lords against Elizabeth's govern-
ment in 1569. The great chieftains of Westmoreland and
Northimiberland, from their peculiar position on the firontier,
had kept up something of the substance of feudalism long after
the very shadow had disappeared from the southern districts
of England, and they had the rashness to imagine that they
might do as their ancestors had done, and that by raising
their numerous tenantry and marching direct to the south,
they could take their sovereign by surprise, and awe the
crown as it had been awed of old. But they had overlooked
the importance of Ihe opposition they were to encounter at
their own gates by the Boweses, and the Oargraves, and a

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 327

number of other bold and active houses which had been
planted on the ruins of the inactive monasteries ; and this
opposition kept them sufficiently engaged till the crown
had assembled a force which it was useless to war against.
The only result was the confiscation of the great estates of
the norths and the extinction of the last spark of feudalism.
The monastic establishments contained within themselves
from the very nature of their construction^ the germs of
those corruptions and vices which ultimately led to their
destruction. The exposure of these corruptions at the
time of the Reformation was no new discovery. The
traditions of centuries had condemned them, and by their
own voice, as well as by that of society at large. They
were social evils, which could only be tolerated imder the
peculiar circumstances of remote times. As early as the
twelfth century (previous to which we know little of their
effect on society beyond what is told us by their own his-
torians, and that is far from fovourable) the cry against the
monkisli orders was loud and general, and their charac-
teristics are stated to have been unbounded pride, and luxury,
and covetousness. Of course there are exceptions to every
thing. But two or three of the serious and trust-worthy
writers of the times have preserved facts relating to the
monastic bodies which disclose such a picture of selfishness
and crime as is not easy to be imagined ; and the constant
repetition of laws for the repression of these abuses, in
the frequent councils of the church, show that those laws
were wanted and at the same time that they were inef-
fectual. It would not be easy to draw a more extraordinary
picture of petty, litigious, selfish worldliness under the garb
of religion, than that revealed by Josceline de Brakelonde
in his history of the domestic affairs of his own monastery
of St. Edmundsbury during a few years of the twelfth
century, and it was no solitary example. In the thirteenth
century, the period through which the monastic orders
were increasing rapidly, the popular feeling against them
was becoming more intense and more general. Volumes

might be tiued with the satincal writings ot which, during
this age^ the monkish vices were the hutt. An English
poem of the earlier part of the fourteenth century^ describing
the abuses which had crept into society^ assures us that—

— *^ These abbots and priors do against their rights ;
They ride with hawk and hound, and counterfeit knights.
They should leave such pride and be religious ;
But now is pride master in every ordered house ;*

i-wis,
Religion is evil held, and fareth the more amis .^

Of the charity by which it has been pretended that the
monks were distinguished^ this writer says —

<* For if there come to an abbey two poor men or three.
And ask of them help for holy charity,
Scarcely will any do his errand,t either young or old.
But let him cower there all day in hunger and in cold,

and starve.
LodL what love there is to God, whom they say that tbej
serve/'

But if there arrive at the same time a great man's servant^
with a message of another kind, —

<< He shall be led into the hall and be made full warm

about the maw ;
And God's man stands there outside, sorry is that law.

<< Thus is God now served throughout religion ',t

There is he all too seldom seen in any devotion ;

His household is unwelcome, come they early or late ;

The porter hath commandment to keep them without the gate,

in the fen.||
How may they love the Lord, that serve thus bis men."

* That is, houses of all orders of monks. I haye modernized the
language of this poem, as it is rather obscure to general readers.

t That is, listen to the petition ^hich the poor man has brought.

X Religion was the term used to express the monastic body at large.

H In the mud.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 829

Their strictness of life was mere outside show : —

** This is the penance that monks do for their lord's love :
They wear socks in their shoes and felted boots above ;
They have forsaken for God's love both hunger and cold ;
But he have his hood and cap furred, he is not i-told
(reckoned of any worth),

in the convent ;
But certainly pride of wealth hath them all ablent (blmdedj.

" Religion (monachUm) was first founded hardness for to
di-ie (suffer), '

And now is the most part turned to ease and gluttony.

Where shall men now find fatter or redder of teres (counte-
nances).

Or better faring folk, than monks, canons, and friars ;

In every town

I know no easier life than is religion,"

The friars are here described as worse even than the
monks^ and as to their humility and charity, —

** If a poor man come to a friar to ask shrift (absolution).
And there come a richer and bring him a gift $
He (the latter) shall into the refectory and be made full glad.
And the other stands outside, as a man that were made

in sorrow ;
Yet shall his errand be undone till the next morrow."*

It was more than half a century after this, that the
inimitable Chaucer painted his monk i

^* An out-rydere, that loved venerye ;
A manly man, to ben an abbot able«
Ful many a deynt6 hors haddc he in stable :
And whan he rood, men might his bridel heere
Oyngle in a whistlyng wynd so cleere.
And eek as lowd as doth the chapel belle."

• This curious poem is printed in its original form in my Political
Songs, pp. 323—345.

SSO THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

And after speaking of his contempt for the letter of the
" rule" under which he livedo the poet goes on to describe
him as^ —

** Therefore he was a pricasour aright :
Greyhoundes he hadde as swifte as fowel in Bight :
Of prikyng and of hantjng for the hare
Was al his lust, for no cost wolde he spare.
I saugh his sieves, purfiled atte hond
With grysy and that the fynest of a lond.
Aiud for to festne his hood undor his cbyn
He hadde of gold y-wrought a curious pyn :
A love-knotte in the gretter ende ther was.
His heed was ballid, and schon as eny glas,
And eek his face» as he hadde be anoynt.
He was a lord fal fat and in good poynt.
His eyen steep, and roily ng in his heed.
That stemed as a forneys of a leed.
His bootes souple, his hors in gret estat,
Now certeinly he was a fair prelat.
He was not pale as a for-pyned goost.
A fat swan loved he best of any roost."

Chaucer's friar was equally distinguished : —

** His typet was ay farsud ful of knyfes
And pynnes, for to give faire wyfes.
And certayn he hadde a mery noote.
Wei conthe he synge and pleye on a rote.
Of yeddynges he bar utturly the prys.
His nekke whit as the flour-de-lys.
Therto he strong was as a champioun.
He knew wel the tavemes in every toun.
And every ostiller or gay tapstere.
Bet than a lazer, or a beggere,
For unto such a worthi man as he
Accorded not, as by his faculty.
To have with sike lazars aqueyntaunce.
It is not honest, it may not avannce.
For to delen with such poraile,

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. SSI

But al with riche and sellers of vitaille.

And over al, ther profyt schulde arise,

Curteys he was, and lowe of servyse.

Ther was no man nowher so vertuons.

He was the beste begger in al his hous :

For though a widewe hadde but oo schoo.

So pleasaunt was his Inprinciph^

Yet wolde he have a ferthing or he wente.

His purchace was bettur than his rente.

And rage he couthe and pleye as a whelpe.

In love-dayes ther couthe he mochil helpe.

For ther was he not like a cloysterer.

With a thredbare cope, as a pore scoler.

But he was like a maister or a pope.

Of double worstede was his semy-cope.

That rounded was as a belle out of a presse.*

Somwhat he lipsede, for wantounesse,

To make his Englissch swete upon his tunge;

And in his harpyng, whan that he hadde snnge,

His eyghen twynkeled in his heed aright.

As don the sterres in the frosty night."

No part of England could boast so many monastic
establishments, in proportion to its extent, as the Welsh
border, and it was here, as we have already seen, that the
spirit of reform showed itself as early, and as actively, as in
any part of the island. In the middle period, between the
anonymous poet quoted above and Chaucer, a border satirist,
the writer of the Visions of Piers Ploughman, painted the
monastic vices in colours almost more black than they are
described in any of the extiucts given above. It was he
who uttered the remarkable prophecy of the vengeance
which was to fall upon them, and which we are now going
to see fulfilled in the sweeping measures of the reign of
Henry VIII. This border poet and satirist tell us that, —

" Now is religion (t. e. manachism) a rider,
A roamer about,
A leader of love-days,

Aind a land-bayer,

A pricker on a palfrey

From manor to manor,

A heap of hoands at his tail

As he a lord were,

Aind anlcss his knave kneel

That shall his cup bring.

He lours on him, and asks him

Who taught him courtesy."

But says this deep seeing reformer, —

<< There shall come a king.
And confess you religiouses (monks).
And beat you as the bible telleth
For breaking of your rule ;
And amend monials (nuns)^
Monks and canons,
And put to their penance.

^^ And then shall the abbot of Abingdon,
And all his issue for ever,
Have a knock of a king,
And incurable the wound."

The popular feeling against the monks is still more
strongly expressed in a satirical poem of the banning of
the fifteenth century, entitled Piers Ploughman's Creed,
which it is not improbable was also composed on the
Border, where the spirit of Wycliffism had shown itself
strongly, and a man named Walter Brut, or Bright, had
been exposed to severe persecution at Hereford for his
doctrines. These are but prominent examples of the spirit
which ran through a large portion of the literature of the
day, in which the same faults and the same turpitudes are
described as inmates of the monastic establishments as
were confessed to by the monks themselves at the dissolu-
tion of monasteries, and then caused so much scandal
throughout Europe.

rfsi

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. S3S

There was nothing new in the mere fact of dissolving a
monastery. Several instances occur at much earlier periods
of the suppression of a religious house on account of the
dissolute life of its inmates; and Wolsey had more recently
dissolved a number of the smaller houses for the endowment
of his colleges. But hitherto the ecclesiastical power had
claimed the sole right of interfering in such cases; and
Wolsey's proceedings^ although directly authorized by the
pope^ had raised so much dissatisfaction among the monks
as to be attended in some instances with open insurrection
and rebellion. Much greater opposition was therefore to be
expected to the extensive dissolution now contemplated by
the civil power.

It must be acknowledged at the same time that many
circumstances combined to facilitate the suppression of
monasteries at the moment when it was undertaken. The
principles of the reformation had made rapid progress in
our island^ and probably nowhere more than on the borders
of Wales. The scene of Latimer's preaching was at Bristol.
The monks and lEriars had long ceased to be personally
objects of respect ; their relics and their miracles began to
be despised; and in the documents of the time they avow
themselves that the pious offerings* which had formerly
enriched them were now so much diminished by the
general abatement of religious zeal, that they were often
obliged to raise money by selling or pledging the crosses of
silver and gold to which those offerings had previously been
made. This was more especially the case with the friars,
who, prohibited by their rule from possessing lands, were
more dependent on pious offerings, and whose houses, at the
eve of the reformation, were in general reduced to a state
of penury. The doctrines of the reformers had also found
listeners among the monks and firiars themselves, who, dis-
gusted with the vices that surrounded them, lent willing
hands towards their suppression. As early as 1526, a
bachelor of arts, named Garret (subsequently burnt in
Smithfield for heresy), was busily employed in distributing
« X

bishop of L:
" this Garro t
Redyng, fo •
suche corriT i
fessed the s
receyved n i
hath used I
The bisho] ;
man Garp ;
thinfectioi t
prior of I <
in the T(
Luther. i
nastic he
looking 1 I
scientiov
elsewhe:
instant!*
yng up I
as they i
border, i
supplic
leave f \
worthj I

the m
after i
(M drr
tables
some

Ki I

culti'' I

ceed<

bear [

the t

the
as 1

THE HISTOBY OF LUDLOW. 886

boeks^ the greater portion of which are still preserved.
They were voluntary confessions, their chief object being
apparently to obtain pensions after the dissolution by this act
of obsequiousness; and, as they are crimes which no virtuous
man or woman would avow, whether strictly true or not,
they are equaUy degrading to the individuals who made
the confession, and who in most cases form a large majority
of their house. The smaller houses were first confiscated
by an act of parliament. Some of the lai^r ones were
seized upon on account of the resistance of their rulers
to the royal will. The acknowledgment of the king's
supremacy, and the consequent desertion of the pope, were
stamblingblocks which brought not a few of the heads of
larger houses to the scaffold or to the gallows. The dissolution
of the smaller houses had been in some places ^olently
opposed, and led to a series of rebellions in the north and
north-eastern parts of the kingdom, which for a moment
threatened the crown, and in which several of the greater
abbots, and numerous active monks, were seriously impK-
cated. Where no distinct charge of treason could be
brought against an obstinate superior, the neighbourhood
of his monastery was searched for charges against him, and
this, unfortunately for the monastic character in the age
of the dissolution, was seldom done in vain.

Fewer papers have been preserved relating to the visi-
tation and dissolution of the monasteries on the borders
of Wales, than to that of most other parts of the country ;
and we are led to suppose that in general they were given
up without much opposition. Among the mass of exa-
minations and depositions relating to persons guilty of
seditious speeches, now preserved among the Chapter House
documents in the Rolls House, there are a few which show
that OUT border was not free from excitement and agitation,
while they all afford interesting pictures of the manners of
the time, and of the low state of society. The eagerness
with which individuals of the lowest rank were persecuted
for seditious speeches would astonish us, did we not know

that parallels might be found within the laat fifty or aiAj
years. On one occasion we find an actual beggai thrown
into prison^ and formal depositions relating to him sent
ta the king's minister^ because in drinking at a Tillage inn
he had said ** he wished king Henry's head were boiled ina
potj and he would be the first to drink <^ the broth." On
the 12th of August^ 1585, a countryman of Crewle in
Worcestershire, was accused of having chai^^ed the king
with being the cause of the badness ot the weather, he
having, on hi» way from Wofcester market, declued to one
of his companions that, ^* yt y» long of the kyng that tlii»
wedre is so troubloua or unstable, and I wcne we shall
nevir have better wedre whillis the kyng xvignetlfe, smd
therfore it maketh no matter if he were knocked or patted
on the heed." On the 22nd of September, in the same
year, a priest named sir John Brome,* who held the
vicarage of Stanton Lacy near Ludbw, and the curacy of
Ludford, was accused by certain priests of Ludlow ol retain-
ing the pope's name in his service books, and of (Knitting the
names of the king, queen, and princess, in his prayers, and
it was deposed that when some one authorised for that
purpose erased the pope's name before his face, he told the
man he was a fool, '^ saying to hym, this worlde will not
last ever." This belief that the extraordinary changes now
going on would be only of temporary duration, was a
pretence for many to bow their heads to the storm. In
September, 15S6, the year of the great northern rebellion,
known by the title of the " Pilgrimage of Grace," several
witnesses (countrymen and wcmien of Crewle, in Worcester-
shire, already mentioned), deposed individually 'Hhat the
Sonday next before Seynt Bartilmewys day now last past,
he was present in the house of oon Hugh Hogges, keping
an ale house at Craule, in the seyd countie, smyth, in the
company of sir Jamys Pratte, clerke, vicar ther, emonges

* Sir, the iranslaiion of the latin dominus was always added to the
name of » person who had taken the degree of bachelor of arts in ft
«niyersUy.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 837

oChere wordes, and after other comynycacions of the putting
doMme and suppressing of the monastery or priory ol Studley
in Warwikeshire, he harde the seyd sir Jamys say and
uttere thes wordes. That the churche went downe and wolde
be worse untyll ther be a shrappe fa Now fj, and sayde
that he rekoned ther were xx^ mI* nygh of flote (afioaJt)j
and wished ther were xx^t m^- mo^ so that he were oon^ and
rather tomorrowe then the next day^ ffor ther shall nevere
be good worlde untyll ther be a shrappe^ and they that may
escape that shall lyre mery inoughe.'* The picture of the
ricar drinking with his parishioners in the public room
of the tavern after his sermon on the Sunday is^ it must be
confessed, not very dignified; one of the deponents said
'' that the seyd sir James was drynking and mery emongest
many wyffes and men in the hall*' of the inn. On a
Sunday in the January preceding the date last mentioned,
according to the depositions made before the justices of the
peace at Ghreat Malvern (in the following Jime), James Asche,
parson of Stanton in Worcestershire, said from the pulpit,
that if the king *' dyd not go fiirth wyth his lawes, as he
b^;on, he wold call the king anticryste;" and he had
further stated in the same pulpit, about Lent, that '^ the
king our soveraign lorde was nought, the bysshoppes and
abbottes nought, and hymself nought to/' It is not very
clear in what sense these words were intended to be taken.
We find in several of these documents the evidence that
the rising in the north met with the sympathy of the
monks and clei^ on the border, and that they were
mortified at its suppression. The abbot of Pershore had
used words to this effect in April, 1537. One Bobert ap
Roger, examined at Wigmore on St. John's day, in the
year last mentioned, was accused of having said, as he
came from the church of Llaimlledawn, '^ that the kynges
grace was out of the fayth of holye churche, bycause he
dyd put downe holy days, robbe saintes, and robbe the
churches of theyr duetes (dues J, and sayd that if the men
of the churche wolde rysc togedcrs, they shulde not sett a

838 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

poynt for hym. And further sayed, it were better for men
of the churche to dye in the faythe and in the ryght of the
churche, then to snffer the kynge to robbe thym/' It also
appears from the depositions on this occasion^ that a report
had been extensively spread abroad '^ that the kynges grace
was aboute to pull downe all the churches." A man in
Cheshire was committed to prison about the same time
for having asserted '^ that if the spirituall men had holden
togeders, the kyng cold not have byn hed of the churclie."

The great year of the dissolution of monastic houses was
1538, and we are enabled to trace one party of the king's
oonmiissioners in their somewhat rapid progress through
the border. Bichard, suffiragan bishop of Dover/ (there
was a great number of these suffiragans or titular bishops
without dioceses, in the latter times of popish rule in this
country), who had himself been a friar and had thrown aside
his habit, received a commission from Cromwell at the
beginning of the year to visit the houses of the different
orders of friars for the purpose of taking their resignations.
During the month of February, he had proceeded through
Huntingdon, Boston in Lincolnshire, Lincoln, Grantham^
Newark, and Grinsby, on his way to Hull, Beverley,
Scarborough, Carlisle, and Lancaster. He describes the
houses of friars he had then visited as '^ very pore howseys
and pore persons.'' He appears to have been occupied seveial
weeks in the north, after which he returned to the midland
counties^ and passed from Northampton, by Coventry, Ather-
stone, Warwick, Theleaford, Droitwich, and Worcester, to
Gloucester, at which place we find him on the S3rd of May.
The visitor in his letter of that date, states generally that
^* in every place ys povertey and moche schiffte made with
suche as theie had before, as jewellys selling, and other
schifik by leasys ;" and he complains that at Droitwich the
prior had ''in lesse than on yere that he hathe be prior

* The compiler of the Cottonian Catalogue, misreadiag the signature
2>0Mrwii., or Dewrem,, has called this man Richard Devereux, and has
been followed in the mistake by other persons.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

ther, fellyd and solid vij. score good elmys^ a chales
of iij^^ unc. and x. unc, a sensor of xxxvi. unc.^ ij. gie
pottys eche abull to sethe an hoU oxe^ as men sey,
pannySy and other^ so that in the howse ys not left oi
on schete, on plater or dische." The visitor next reps
various parts of the south of England^ and went as
Winchester and Southampton^ whence he returned tc
c^ester^ and received the surrender of the friars' hoi
that city on the 28th of July.

Other commissioners had preceded the bishop of
in the counties of Worcester and Gloucester. Towai
middle of March, sir William Petre had received the
nation of the abbot of Evesham^ and on the 17th o
month he took that of the important and powerful pri
Lfanthony at Gloucester. Sir William says that he
the surrender of Lanthony as quietly as might be \
appears that the prior had been charged with vices
revolting nature, of tvhich a detailed account is giver
paper preserved in the Bolls House, apparently dra^p
hy one of the brotherhood. It is stated that the sc
master, having accidently discovered the prior's beha^
went immediately to expostulate with him, but met
with an angry reception. He then went to one o
brethren with whom he was intimate (it was a hou
Austin canons), and laid his mind open to him.
returned together to the prior, and attempted again to
mildly to him. But ''whan the priour had harde 1
wordes, he was sore displeased with them, insomoche
he commanded the scholemaister to be sette in the sto<
where he sate iij. days and iij. nightis, besyde that he
in feare of his lyfe : and the fourth day he toke hym oi
the stockes, and commanded hym to avoyde shortely oi
the coimtrey, and never to retume thyther agayne:
where so ever he dwelled after, the priour founde the m<
styll to dryve hym awey. And the priour made the cha
Austine to be put forth within prison." The writer of
statement concludes, '' For a due triall and profe of all

said matter^ ye may (it it please you) sende for tne sayd
scholemaister, whiche nowe dwelleth in Shropshire^ within
ij. myles of Lidlowe, with one Willam Hejring^, servant to
our soyerayne lorde the kynge, whiche scholemaister wyll
be alway redy to justifie the trouthe of all this matter/*

The bbhop <^ Dover found the two houses of friars in
Gloucester deeply in debt, and, to use his own words, " the
clamor of pore men to whom the monye ys ow^eynge ys to
tedyus." This was often the case, and in some instances
the sale of the moveable property was not sufficient to pay
them. The friars, according to the report of the visitor,
were in general eager to quit their ccmvents and be released
from their vows. According to the report subscribed by
the mayor and aldermen, the surrender of the three houses
of friars in Gloucester was entirely voluntary. In his letter
to Cromwell of the 28th July, the visitor announces his
intention of passing by way of Hereford to Ludlow, but he
appears subsequently to have altered his plans, for he pro-
ceeded immediately after the above date to Worcester, where
he took into the king's hands two houses of friars, to
Bridgenorth where one was surrendered, to Atherstone
where he took one, to Lichfield where he received one, to
Stafford where he received two, to Newcastle-under-Lin«
where there was a convent of Black Friars, and to Shrews-
bury where there were three houses of friars. *' If " says
the visitor, " they gave ther howseys into the kynges
handdes for poverte, I receyvyd them, and elles non." We
obtain the above information from a letter of the bishop of
Dover, dated at Shrewsbury, the ISth of August, and the
various documents among the Chapter House records in the
Bolls House enable us to trace his doings almost at every
step. A variety of papers in this depository prove to us
that the different religious orders enjoyed the worst possible
character in Worcester, and apparently with good reason.
The two houses of priors in that city were the Black Friars
and the Grey Friars, both, to judge by the inventories,
tolerably well furnished, and unusually rich in church

THB HISTORY OF LUDXOW.

vestments and plates. The kitchens and brewhouses
also better stored than in many of the inventories. i
Slack Friars we find in —

ITie keehyn.
Item, iij. gret pottes and ij. Bmall.
Item, iij. gret pannys and iij. platters and cue charg<
Item, ij. potyngera and ij. saucers.
Item, a flesche hoke and a trevet.
Item, a broken gredyren and a fryenge pan.
Item, a payer off pothokes and a lytyll skelet.
Item, a longe bare of yeryn' alonge the chymny.
Item, i]. skomers and ij. yeryn rakkes.
Item, iij. broches.

The kitchen of the Grey Friars was still better i :
for it possessed the luxury of " a knife !"

Item, xiij. plateres and dyschys and one sawser.

Item, iiij. cownterfet dyschys.

Item, a knyfe.

Item, a brasse potte.

Item, iij. kawthemes.'

Item, ij. postnettes and a skelet

Item, a fryeyng pan.

Item, ij. brasse pannes.

Item, iij. brooby s and a byrd broche;

Item, a payer off cobyrons.

Item, a chafynge dysche.

Item, a gredyron.

The visitor was at Bridgnorth on the 5th of August
the following note, signed by the two bailiffs of the t :
shows the condition in which he found the house ol
Grey Friars there.

M^- Thys V. day of Anguste in the xxx. yere off k;
Henry the viij^ that Rycharde byschope of Dover, and ve!

GFlMiofy.— 1, bar of iron. % cauldrons.

842 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

under the lorde prevy seale for the kyngcs grace, was in Bryge-
northe, wher that the warden and heys bredern in the presens of
master Thomas Hall and master Randolphe Rodes, balys ofif
the sayd towne, gave ther howse with all the pertenans into the
vesytores handdes to the kynges nse ; for sayd warden and
brethern sayd that they war nott abull to leve, for the charjte
off the pepulle was so smalle that in iij. yeres they had not
recey vyd in almes in redy mony to the sum off x* by yere, but
only leve by a serves that they had in the towne in a chapell on
the bryge. Thus the sayd vesytor receyveyd the sayd howse
with the pertenans to the kynges use, and by indentures dely-
veryd yt to us the sayd balys to kepe to the kynges use, tyll
the kynges plesur war forther knowyn. Thys wyttenes we
the sayd balys witb other.

per me, Thomam Halle,
per me, Randull Rowdes.

At Shrewsbury there were three houses of friars, the
Grey^ Black, and Austins. The first of these had sold their
property before the visitors came, " and made a grett rumor
in the towne," and to avoid further trouble they gave up
their house at once. The Austin Friars was " a howse all
in ruyne, and the more parte falleynge downe;" and the
only two inmates were the prior (who is described in the
visitor's letter as *' a man like to be in a frenzy**) and two
Irishmen. The religious houses in Shrewsbury appear to
have been generally in a decayed state. The abbot of
Shrewsbury stood charged with grievous neglect and dilapi-
dation of the property of the abbey. The Black Friars
in Shrewsbury alone is described by the visitor as a
well-ordered house, and it was not immediately suppressed.
The following paper, preserved in the Rolls House, relates
to these houses.

" Memorandum. This xiij. day of August, in the xxx**-
yere of ower most dred soveren lorde kyng Henry the viij<«-
Rycharde byschope of Dover, and vysytor under the lorde
prevy seale for the kynges grace, was in Schrewysbery, where

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

Cliat in presens of master Edmunde Cole and maste i
Bfytton^ balys ther, the sayd v^sytor was in all the i
of fryers, and ther accordeynge to hys conimyesy
the sayd howseys, and ther toke in eche place an in i
all ther goodes, and commyttyd the same to the befoi
balys custody, tyll the kynges plesar be forther kno i
Wks towcheyng the Graye Fryeres in presens of the s
gave ther bowse into the yysy tores handdes by oi i
^withowte any consell or coaccyon; as towcheynge t)
Fryeres ther war no more bat a prior and ij. Eryscl I
and all ntensylys gon, and no thynge ther to helpe th I
not so mnche as a chales to saye masse, and no man d *
the prior to lende hym any, so that all that was in all i i
kowde not be priseyd at zxvj* viij^^* no beddeynge nor m<
nor drynke, wherfor the sayde vysytor dyschargeyd i
')>rior of that offys, and assyneyd the sayd ij. Eryschc <
Erionde into ther natyve conventes, and toke that h( '
the kynges honddes. To the Blacke Fryeres he gave cert i
cyons, toke ther accounttes, and so lefte them to ke]
order, and thus levynge bothe the Graye and Austen i
with the pertenans and stnffe in the balys handdes by ini !
and so departeyd. Thys wyttenesseythe the sayd ba '
other.

per me, Edmund <
per me, Adam M3 1

From Shrewsbury the visitors proceeded to Ludlow
have met with no papers relating to their inter :
progress. They were at the last-mentioned town i
23rd of August, when they received the surrenders
only two monastic houses there. These were con\ ;
Augustine and White Friars, the former situated n( i
street, adjoining to what is still called Friars lane. II
appear to have been in a reduced state, for the act ol
nation is signed by a prior and only three friars.

*' Memorandum. We the prior and convent of the
Fryeres of Lodlowe, with one assente and consente, w
any cojiccyon or consell, do gyve ower bowse into the li

844 THE HISTOKY OF LUDLOW.

of the lorde vjsytor to the kynges nee, desyeryng hjs g^raoe
to be goode and gracjons to us. In wyttenes we sabeerybe
ower namyB with ower proper hande, thys zziij^ daye of Aogosly
the xzz*^ yere of the rayne of ower dred soveren lorde kynge
Henry the viij**-

per me, Egidinm Pyonrynge priorem Angiutinencium de

Ludlow,
per me, fratrem Johannem Pratt,
per me, fratrem Willelmon Higges.
per me, fratrem Chriatofenim Hogeson.

By hns the bayllyffea of Ladlow, Wylliam Tevans and
Thomas Whelar.

The inventory of the fumitiure of this house, which
accompanies the document just given, is also a proof that it
was not very rich : —

The Austen Fryeres of Lndlowe delyvered to Wyllyam
Yerans and Thomas Wheler, balys ther.
2%e9ewtrif.
Itemi a chesabnll and ij. tenacles of golde with ij. albes.
Item, a syngyll vestement of blacke worstede.
Item, a syngyll vestement of blewe damaske.
Item, ij. olde oopys.
Item, a oope of sylke with starres.
Item, a fayer cofer.
Item, a chesabnll and a tenacle of olde blacke velvet.

Thequere.
Item, ij. olde anter' clothes.
Item, a holy water stope, laten.'
Item, a deske of tymber.
Item, yj. auter clothes stcyneyd, olde.
Item, the quere new stalleyd.
Item, ij. fayer belles and a lytyll bell in the stepuU.

The haUe, butiere^ and keekyn.
Item, a lytyll tabuU and ij. trastelles* and a forme.

OfoiMfy.— 1, Otf^, an altar. % lattn, a kind of mixed metal resembling
brass. S, the truttel was the temporary frame on which the bord€ or
table was laid, one tmstel ropporting it at each end, with intarmedtate

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

Xtem, ij. olde cupbordee.
Xtem, a pan and a ketell.
Xtem, a lytyll brasse pott.
Xtem, iij. pewter plateres, olde
Xtem, a lytyll broche.
Xtem, a fayer gret cupborde.
Xtem, a gret trowe/
Xtem, a tabuU and ij. formye.
Xtem, fayer laveres of tynne.

Item, a boxe fiill of evydens.

And memorandum, ther rest in the vysytorcs hai
chales weyeynge ziij. unc. Abo ther laye to plege i
beynge coper within, all weyeynge bothe the coper an<
▼j**- ix. nnc, for the whyche the vysytor payde for th
firyeres vj*- xiiij*- j*-

Wyllyam Yevans 3

Thomas Wheler 3

Ther be in renttes yerly iiij^'- above the owte rentes.

The priory of St. Mary White Friars, which stood 1
the town wall, beneath the Churchyard, is descri
Leland (who visited it just before the dissolution)
fayre and costlie thinge," and appears by the fol
inventory of its furniture to have been a much richei
than the other, but even it had some of its goods p;
The surrender, which is nearly in the same words as
the Austin friars, is signed by five friars, Rycharde ^
Humfre Wenlooke, Patricius Lester, Wyllelmus 1
and Bicardus Femoll ; but there is no mention what
a prior, so that we are justified in supposing th;
house also was reduced and dilapidated, and that
rendered partly because it was not able to carry on.

ones if the table were very long. When the meal time approac
board or table was placed on Uie trustelf, and this was called k
iabU ; when not in use, they were put out of the way.

Oloaary'^lt trow$, tiongh.

S46 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

The White Fryeren of Ludlowe dely vered to Wy llyam YetaiR
and Thomas Wheler, balys ther,

Thequere.
Item, on the hey auter one auter clothe.
Item, a steyneyd clothe before the auter.
Item, an olde pylowe.
Item, an olde paxe with a rose.
Item, a payer of gret candelstekes, laten.
Item, a payer of small candelstekes, laten.
Item, a frame for y. taperes with holies* of lede.
Item, a frame of yeryn* for iij. taperes.
Item, an offeryng cofer for iij. lockes.
Item, a towel.

Item, a fayer masse-boke, wrytyn.
Item, a sacry bell.

Item, ij. lectoms, tymber, with olde clothes on them.
Item, an ymage of ower lady of py te for the sacrament.
Item, iij. belles in the stepnll, one more* than other.
Item, a steyneyd clothe to hange above the auter.
Item, a holy water stope,^ laten.
Item, the quere well stalled rownde abowth

The chyrche*
Item, ij. tabulles of alybaster.
Item, iij. pewes of tymber.
Item, a longe pese of tymber for a crane.
Item, a pulpet and a forme.
Item, a tumbe' of alybaster gratyd with yeryn.

The utter sextry.
Item, ij. olde almerys^ and an olde chest.
Item, an olde clothe of aras to laye in the quere.

The inner sextry.
Item, iij. copys of rede velvet.

Item, a chesabull of the same with decon and subdecon.
Item, a cope of mottelay velvet.
Item, iij. copys of cowers' damaske.
Item, a chesabull and ij. decons of the same with albee.

Gloatary^—lt boUet, bowls. 2» yetyfif iron. 3, more, that is, greater.
4, stope, a stoup for holy water. 5, tumbe tombe or sepulchral monumexit.
6, (Um^i/9, almories or ambries, oupboards. 7, cotoert, coarse.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 847

Item, for reqntem masse iij. oopys of blacke damaske,

Item^ a chesabull, blacke velvety and ij. decons of blacke
damaske with albes.

Item, a chesabuU of wh^te fustyon with rede spottes, with
ij. decouns of the same with albcs.

Item, a chesabuU and ij. decons of whjte nedell worke for
Lenty and albes to the same.

Item, a vestement of yelowe damaske, with all thynge to yt
belongeynge.

Item, a vestment of cowers sylkc, blewe and whyte, with
Stafford knottes, with all thynge to yt belongeynge.

Item, a payer of vestementes of blew velvet, with gryffyths'
knottesy and albes therto.

Item, a payer of blewe vestementes of worstede and an albe.

Item, a payer of why te vestementes of cowers sylke.

Item, a vestemente of grene sylke with oystres* fetherea
brodry worke albe and all thynge therto belongeynge.

Item, zj. corporas casys with iij. corporas clothes.

Item, ij. olde auter clothes, dyaper

Item, iiij. olde franttes for the auters.

Item, an olde pawle of sylke.

Item, a vayle of lynyn clothe, blew and whyte.

Item, a clothe to hange before the rode.

Item, iij. lytyll pylowes.

Item, an olde blacke herseclotbe, saye.
Thefermery.

Item, ij. new parcloses.

Item, a tabull, ij, trnstelles, and ij. formys.

Item, a bedstede.

The buttere and kechyn.

Item, a cupborde and a horde.

Item, a brasse pott.

Item, a coper ketell.

Item, a plater, ij. dysches, and a sawser.

Item, ij. cowbyerynes* and a lytyll broche.

Item, a chafynge dysche and a skomer.

Item, a gredyeryn.

Afotaary.— ly grr/ffyiht, griffins. 2, oyttrea, ostriches. 3» eow^erynu,
cob-irons.

S48 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

The prior es chamber.
Item, faangeynges of red saye and grene abowte the chamber.
Item, a carpet.
Item, a almery.
Item, a tabuU, a payer of trustelles, and ij. formys.

The upper ehambereB.
Item, a bedstede.

Item, a tabnll, ij. tmstelles, and a forme.
Item, an olde steyneyd clothe.
Item, a fayer longe cofer.

The other ehamberee.
Item, a fether bede and a bolster.
Item, a coTerlete and a payer of schetes.
Item, a lytyll borde and ij. formys.

Item, a lytyll caschet* full of evydens.

and memorandum, ther rest in the vysytores handdes a chales
and a crosse weyeynge iij*' xj. unc. Also ther laye in plege,
a broken senser, a chales, and a schype, with an olde cope of
▼eWet, for the whyche the vysytor payd for the sayd fryeres
y^L yt. yjd. Jtem, thc sayd vysytor payd above thys ij*« viy*«

Wyllyam Yevans )
Thomas Wheler l^^^^'

Four days after the surrender of the religious houses in
Ludlow, on the 27th of August, we find the bishop of
Dover at Haverfordeast, from whence he forwarded to
Cromwell the surrender and inventories of twenty-eight
houses which he had dissolved in his progress. Unfortu-
nately most of these appear to be lost, but the letter which
accompanied them has escaped their fate. He there states
that "in many placeys ther ys moche clamor for dettes of
conventtes, so that withowte ye be goode lorde to pore men,
many shall lese moche moneye by the fryeres, the whyche
woU make a grett clamor amonge the pepull, for now I
have moche besynes to satysfye the pepull for dettes. They
say that yt ys not the kynges plesur that pore men shulde

OftwMiy.— 1 CMchet, a casket.

THB HISTORY OP LUDLOW. 849

lose ther monye^ with many worddes.; but by feyer menys
I satysfye them; sum I make schyfte and pay, sum I
satysfye with worddes, for in dyverse placeys all the stuffe
in the howseys ys not abull to pay the dettes." In a
subsequent part of the letter, he gives a fiirther account of
the dilapidated state of the revenues of the friars, and an
amusing notice of the superstitious relics he had met with,
among which was the ear of the soldier struck off by Saint
Peter. "In many placeys," he says, "I fynde but one
lytyll chales, and also in many placeys the substans in
plege. Suche small chales and suche plegeys as be better
than they ley for, I pay the money, and receyve the pleges

to the kynges use, and suche I brynge with me. I

wold sende to yow dyverse relykes, but they wer to comeras
(cumbrous) to cary. I have Malkows ere that Peter
stroke of, as yt ys wrytyn, and a thousand as trewe as that,
but the holyest relyke in all Northe Walys I send to yow
here ; ther may no man kysse that, but he muste knele so
sone as he se yt, thowgh it war in the fowlest place in all
the contr^, and he must kys every stone, for in eche ys gret
pardon. After that he hathe kyssyd yt, he must pay a met
of come, or a chese of a grote, or iiijd. for yt. Yt was
worthe to the fryeres in Bangor, with another image, the
whyche I also have closeyd up, xx. markes by yere in come,
chese, catell, and money." In conclusion, the visitor
signifies his intention of proceeding by Brecknock and
Caermarthen to Haverfordwest, and thence to Cornwall
and Devonshire.

The most important religious houses in the immediate
neighbourhood of Ludlow were Wigmore abbey and the
priory of Leominster, the latter, as has been seen in the
earlier part of our history, a foundation of remote antiquity.
The bishop of Dover's commission was merely to visit the
houses of friars, and he probably did not interfere with
either of the establishments just mentioned. The prior of
Leominster was lord of the manor of the town ; and the fair
estates of the priory seem to have been considered a desirable
S z

850 THK HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

possession even for a prince. The following letter, without
date or signature, is preserved among the records in the
Rolls House; it was evidently written from Leominster,
by some one who was desirous of conciliating the good-will
of the powerful minister Cromwell, to whom it is addressed.

Yf it so be that it shall please the kynges highnes to take
his pleasure of the house of Leomstre, as it is sapposyd that his
grace wyll of that and many other moo, I thyncke it good that
your honourable lordship have respect unto the same house, for
onles the kynges grace wyll apoynte it unto his derely belofyd
son ower prince, it wylbe a right goodlie thyng ffor yoor
lordship or ffor your sone. For I ensure you as I suppose
theare is nat snche another turf within the kinges realme lying
soo nygh togedre within itself, and within soo litle a compas,
and of suche value and commoditie, as that is, ffor it is worthe
a m^ markes of rent of assise and casualties, and alle lying
within the compas of v. or vj. miles at thuttermost, so that on
bay lie maye gather alle the bole rentes of the lordship. I beseke
your lordship to take no displeasure with me, ffor that I write
800 boldlie unto you, ffor I entend no other but your goodnes
and the wealthe of the same. And this I praye Ood to send
you a mery and a joifulle Christmas, and soo manye.

The report of the commissioner sent, probably in conse-
quence of this letter, to survey the estate, is preserved in
the same collection, and shows that the prior was not
opposed to the dissolution. His name was John Glover.
The i-ecommendations contained in the preceding letter
seem to have been so entirely justified by the following
report, that we find that the estates of Leominster priory
were retained in the crown until James I granted them
to his favourite, the duke of Buckingham.

The instrocions of the lordship belongyng to the pryour

of Lemster, selle unto Hedyng abbye.

Ytt may plese yower lordship to consyder that the holle

lordship ys by yer vij. c. lb., as I was informyde by the

pryour. Trewly it is very substansyall, ryche landis, with grett

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 851

demajnSy as plessant and profFytabull as may be for so myche,
and the comon pepull dothe say to me that the forsayd lordship
ys x\riij. c. merke stcrlyn by yer, of which may be parfet
relashon made herafter of ytt. Also trewly nowe of latte
betwen the abbot* and pryour, thoy have sore fellyde ther
woodis and dothe lette ther howsis fawlle dowen, and thay wyll
not do no reprashon, to the gret decay of the towens, petty to
see ytty and daylly wyll decay yf thay kepe them, which as fare
as I can persay ve ys the gret fawtt in the abbot of Redyng, for
he injoys the most profet, and so doth excewse them by gret
poverty to make mony lo pay the kynges grace. This is ther
comon voyse.

Also, yf pics yower lordship to be good to the pryour and
geve ere to hym, he wyll showe yower lordship of large mony
that the abbot of Redyng bathe, with dyvers other thynges,
which is gret petty he shnlde contynew in that casse. I do
trust your lordship shall fynde this pryour onest and redy to do
that nedfull, so your lordship to be good in his penshon for
his lyvyiig.

Also, yf yower lordship pies to have eny other instrocsyons
more perfet, her is with the pryour won sir Robart Worralle,
pryst, and Johan Yuke his baylly of Lemster, which be perfet
to relatte all nedfnll to your lordship, inspessyall the baylly,
and he desires to do your lordship servis at your plessure.

Also, ther is dyvers and meny bonde men belongyng to
the lordship, and trewly it is a ryalle ryche contry, abuU to
make meny men to serve the kynges grace in that lordship.

The last abbot of Wigmore was named John Smarts who
had succeeded to that office in 1517, and who was, as it ap-
pears, deposed just before the dissolution for a long series of
mal-administration. Among the records in the Rolls House
in London^ so rich in documents of this kind^ we find
several draughts and copies of the charges brought against
abbot Smart, which appear to have been drawn up and
presented by some of the monks of his own house; these
are worthy to be printed entire, not only as an important

• i. e. The abbot of Reading.

852 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

local document^ but as* affording an inteieeting pictuze of
an overbearing abbot of the age preceding the dissolution
of monasteries. It will appear by the following paper that,
in order to increase his authority and enable him to exercise
episcopal functions, he had, like the bishop of Dover^ pur-
chased of the pope the title of a bishop, and under this
cover it was that he ordained priests, as here stated. The
number of these titular bishops, without diocese^ was very
great, and must have been a cause of many evils and
irregularities. As their names are only accidentally pre-
served in records, we are unable to ascertain how many
such dignitaries were found among the clergy of the border.
A matrix of a seal has recently been found in Shropshire,
which has doubtless belonged to one of these suffragan
bishops, but from what place he took his title has not yet
been discovered : the inscription on the seal is s. pbtri.
DBi. GRA. EPI.MONTIS.MABAN. It appears that John Skipp,
bishop of Hereford, as prior commendatory, surrendered the
abbey of Wigmore to the king's conmiissioners on the
18th of November, 15S8 : there were then apparently only
seven monks in the house. The following is the most
perfect copy of the charges against the abbot; it is signed
by one of his canons.

Articles to be objected agaynst John Smart, abbot of
the monasterye of Wigmour, in the cowntye of Herford,
to be exhibite to the right honorable lord Thomas
Cromwell, the lord prevy seale and vicegerent of the
kynges majestye.

1. The said abbot is to be accused* of symonye, as well for
takyng money for advocations and presentacions of henefyceSf
as for gyveng of ordres, or more trulye sellyng them, and that
to such persons which have byn rejected els where, and of lytle
lernyng and light conversacionn.

2. Item, the said abbot hath promoted to ordres maoye
scholers, when all other bushops did refrayne to gyve enye for

* The phrase is to bt accused means the same as ihsre is grovfidfif
accusing him.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 858

certen good ordinans devised bj the' kynges majesty and his
cowncell for the commune weale of this rojalme, then resorted
to the said abbot scholers owt of all partyes, whom he wold
promote to ordres by Ix. at a tyme, and sumtymes moo and
otherwhiles lesse, and snmtyme the said abbot wold gyve ordres
by night within his chambrey and otherwhile in the church
yarlye in momingesy and nowe and then at a chapell owt of the
abbey, soo that there be manye unlemed and light prestes made
by the said abbot, in the diocese of Landaf and in the place
afor named, a thowsand as yt is estemed by the space of this
vij. yeres he hathe made prestes, and receyved not soo litle
money of them as a thowsand powndes for theyr ordres.

3. Item, that the said abbot nowe of late, when he colde
not be suffired to gyve generall ordres, wookely for the mooste
parte doth geve ordres by pretense of dispcnsacion, and by that*
colour he promotes them to ordres by ij« or iij., and takes
mych money of them both for theyr ordres and for to purchase
theyr dispensaciouns afler the tyme he hath promoted them to
theyr ordres.

4. Item, the said abbot hath hurte and damaged his
tenauntes by puttyng them from theyr leaxes unjastelye, and by
inclowsyng theyr communes from them, and sellyng and utterly
wastyng the woodes that were wont to releve and succor them.*

5. Item, the said abbot hath sold corradyes,t to the damage
of his said monasterye.

6. Item, the said abbot hath alienat and sold the yoelsj and
plate of the said monasterye to the value of fyye hundreth merkes,

* In earlier times the right of feeding their swine in the woods and
other privileges connected vith them, were advantages enjoyed by the
tenants of the land, which were necessarily diminished as the woods
disappeared.

t Corrady (in Medieval Latin corrediun^ or more generally oonredium)
was what we should now term a man's board; and by granting these
to people for their lives out of the provisions of the abbey, the abbot,
while he put money in his own pocket, seriously diminished the fature
revenues of the house.

} Toeb, i. e. jewels, under which title (in Medieval Latin JoeaUaJ
were formerly included a great variety of small articles of value which
were stored up in the cabinet or treasury. Our present restricted accep-
tation of the word is comparatively modem.

854 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

tt> parchase of the bnshope of Rome bis bnlles to be a bashopp,
and to annex the said abbeje to his bnshoprick to that intent
t}iat he shttld not for his misdedes be poneshed or depryved
from his said abbacy.

7« Item, that the said abbot (long after that other bushops
hadd renounced the bnshop of Rome and professed them to the
kynges majestye) dyd use, but more verclye usurped, thoffyce of
a bnshopp by vertue of his furst buUes purchased from Rome,
tyll nowe of late, as yt will appere by the date of his confir-
matioun, yf he have enye.

8. Item, that he the saiil abbot hathe ly\red viciusly and
kept to concubyne diverse and manye women, that is openlye
knowen.

9.. Item, that the said abbot doth yet contynue his vicins
lyvyng, as yt is knowen openlye.

10. Item, that the said abbot hath spent and wasted much
of the goodes of the said monastery upon the foresaid women.

11« Item, that the said abbot is malicius and vere wrathfull,
not regardyng what he sayth or doth in his furye or angre.

12. Item, that oon Rychart Gyles bought of thabbot and
covent of Wigmour a corradye and a chambre for hym and bis
wife for terme of theyr ly ves, and when the said Rychart Gyles
was aged and was verey syke, he dispoosed his goodes and
made execntnrs to execute his will; and when the said abbot
nowe beyng perceaved that the said Rychart Gyles was ryche
and hadd not bequested soo much of his goodes to hym as be
wold have hadd, the said abbot then came to the chambre of
the said Rychart Gyles, and putt owt thens all his frendes and
kynsfolke that kept hym in his syknesse; and then the said
abbot sett his brether and others of his servauntes to kepe tbe
sykeman, and, the night next ensueng after, the said Rycbart
Gyles coffer was broken and thens taken alle that was in tbe
same to the value of xl. merkes, and long after the said abbot
confessed before the executers of the said Richart Gyles that yt
was his dede.

13. Item, that the said abbot (after that he had taken awaye
the goodes of the said Rychart Gyles) used dayly to reprove and
chekke the said Rychart Gyles, and enquerc of hym were was
more of hys koyne or money, and at the last the said abbot

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 856

thought he lyved to long, and made the syke (after much sorye
kepyng) to be taken from his fetherbed and layed upon a oold
mattrasy and kept his frendes from hym to his death.

14. Item, that after the said Rychart Gyles was dead, the
said abbot soght his chambre and found his wifes moneye and
toke yt aw aye thens, and after that the said abbot gyve to
the wif of the said Rychart Gyles wyne to drynk, and then
immediately after she fyll syke soo that hyr bodye was all broken
owt, she beyng vere aged, and soo she contynued to hyr death,
that was not long after, and, as she declared, and showed upon
hyr death bedd, the forsaid wyne was the cause of that hyr
sykenesse and death.

15. Item, that the said abbot consented to the death and
mardryng of oon John Tykehulle, that was slayne at hys
procureng at the said monasterye by sir Rychart Arbley,
chanou and chapleyn to the said abbot, which chanon b and ever
bath byne synes that tyroe chefe of the said abbotes cowncell,
and is supported to karye crossebowes, and to goo whither he
lusteth at enye tyme to fyshyng and huntyng in the kynges
forestes, parkes, and chases, but lytle or no thyng servyng
the quere as other brethren doo ther, nother corrected of the
said abbot for enye trespace he doth coromytt,

16. Item, that the said abbot hath byne perjured oft, as is to
be proved and is proved, and as yt is supposed dyd not make a
true inventorye of the goodes, catals, and joels of his monasterye
to the kynges majeste and his cowncell.

17. Item, that the said abbot hath openlye preched against
the doctrine of Christ, sayeng he owght not to love hys enmye
but as he loves the dcvuUe, and that he shuld love his enmyes
sowle but not his bodye,

18. Item, that the said abbot hath infringed all the kynges
injunctions whych were geven hym by doctor Cave to observe
and kepe, and when he was denounced in pleno capiiulo to
have broken the same, he wolde have putt in prisoun the brodat
as dyd denounce hym to have broken the same injunctions,
save that he was lett by the coven t there.*

* L 6, Save that he was hindered by the coxiYeiit, or body of the
monks.

IV. iiein» loe saia aoooc naco lase oat small regarde to t&e
good lyvynge of his howsehold.

20. Item, that the said abbot hath hadd yet a speciall favour
to misdooersy as maDquellerSy* thefes, deceavere of theyr neigh-
boors, and by them moost ruled and consnlted.

21. Item, that the said abboth hath grannted leases of fermes
and advocations fnrst to oon man, and toke his fyne, and after
hath graonted the same leax to another for moore monejf,
and then wold make to the last taker a leax or wrytyng with a
ante-date of the fnrst leax, which hath breade grett difssensions
emong gentlemen, as Mr. Blount and Mr. Meysey, and other
takers of such leaxes, and that ofle.

22. Item, the said abbot havyng the contrepaynes of leaxes
in his kepyng, hath for money raced owt the noaibre of yeres
mencioned in the said leaxes, and wryto a gretter nombre in the
former taker his leaxe, and in the contrepayne therof, to the
intent to defraude the taker or byer of the reversion of such
leaxes, of whom he had receyved theyr money.

23» Item, the said abbot hath not accordyng to the fun-
dacion of his monasterye admitted frelye tenauntes into certen
almeshowses belongyng to the said monasterye, but ofthen he
hath taken large fynes^ and sum of them he hath put awaje
thens that wold not gyve hym fynes, whither poore, aged, and
impotent people were wont to be frelye admytted and receyve
the founders almes ther of olde custom, lymyted to the same,
which almes is allso diminished by the said abbot*

24. Item, that the said abbot dyd not delyver the bulle of
his bushopryck that he purchased fro Rome to ouer soveraigne
lord the kynges cowncell tyll long after the tyme he had dely-
vered and exhibyted other bulles of his monasterye to them.

26. Item, the said abbot hath detyned and yet doth detyne
servauntes wages, and ofte when the said servauntes have asked
theyr wages, the said abbot hath putt them into the stookkes
and beate them.

26. Item, the said abbot in tymes past hath had a greate
devotioun to ryde to Llanyevran in Wales, upon Lammas
daye, to receyve pardoun theyr, and on the evyn he wold lye

* Man-killers.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 857

with oon Marjc Hawle, a old concnbyne of his, at the Walsh-
poole, and on the morowe ryde to the forsaid Llanyevran, to
be confessed and absolved, and the same night retorne to
companye with the said Marye Hawle at the VITalshe-poole ;
and Kateryn the said Marye Hawle hyr sastur doghter, whom
the said abbot long hath kept to concnbyne, and had children
by hyr that he lately maryed at Ludlowe ; and others that have
be taken owt of his chambre and pot in the stookes within the
said abbeye, and others that have complayned upon hym to the
kynges cowncell of the Merches of Wales, and the woman that
dasht owt his tethe that he wold have had by violens, I will not
name no we, nor other mennes wifes, lest yt wold offend youer
good lordship to reade or heare the same.

27« Item, the said abbot doth dayly enbecell, selli and
conveye the goodes, catals, and joels of the said monasterye,
havyng no nede soo to doo, for yt is thowght that he hath a m.
merkes, or ij. thowsand, lying by hym that he hath gooten by
sellyng of ordres and the joels and plate of the monasterye
and corradyes, and yt is to be feared that he will alyenate
all the reste, in lesse youer good lordship spedely sye redresse
and make provision to let the same.

28. Item 9 the said abbot was acustomed yerly to preach
at Leyntwardyne infesto naixmtat^ Mane wrgtmsy where and
when the people were wont to offer to a ymage theyr, and to
the same the said abbot in his sermon wold exorte them and
encorage them, but now the oblacions be decayed, the said
abbot espyeng the ymage there to have a coote of sylver
plate and gylt, hath take awaye by his own auctoryte the same
ymage and the plate turned to his use, and left his preching
therey seyng there is no moore profyt to cum yn, and the plate
that was abowte the said ymage was named to be worth zU
poundes.

28« Item, that the said abbot hath ever noreshed enmyte
and discord among his brothers, and hath not encoraged them
to leme the lawes and misteryes of Christ, but he that leaste
knewe was moost cherished of hym, and he hath byn highly
displeased and disdayned when his brother wold saye, * this is
Goddes precept and doctrine, this ye ought to preferre before
youer cerymonyes and vayne constitutions.' This sayeng was

3 A

358 THE HISTORY OF LUD1X)W.

high disobedicnsv and ^huld be grevusly poneshed, wher that
lyenfff obloqnyc, flatcrje, ignorant, derision, contumely, discord,
great sweryng, drynkyng, ypochrysye, fraude, snpersticion,
disccyte, conspiracye to wrang iheyr neighbor, and other of
that kynde, were had in speciall favour and regarde. Lande
and prayse be to God that hath Bent us the time, knowlege,
honor, and long prosperite to ouer soveraigne lord and bis
noble cownccll that tend re to avaunce the same. Amen.
By sir John Lee yoner faythfuU bedman,

and chanon of the said mon. of Wigmoar.

My good lordc, there is in the said abbey a crosse of fyne
gold and precius stoones, wherof oon diamond was estemed
by doctor Boothe, bushop of Flereford, worth a c. markes. In
this crosse is inclosed a peco of wood named to be of the crosse
that Cristc dyed upon. And to the same hath byn offring,
and when yt shnid be browght doon to the church fro the
tresorye, yt.was brought doone with light and lyke reverence as
shuld have be doon to Christe himself. I feare lest thabbot
upon Sondaye next, when he maye cum to the tresorye, will
take awaye the said crosse, and brekc yt, and tume yt to hn use
and many other prcciiis yocls that be there.

All thes articles afor written be true as to the substaunoe
and true meaning of them, thogh peraventnre for haste and lacke
of cowncell sum woordes be sett nmisse or owt of theyr plase,
that T wilbe redye to prove for as much as lyes in me, when it
shall lyke youer honorable lordshipp to direct youer comissionn to
me or cnye man that wilbe indifferent and not corrupt, to sytt
upon the same at the said abbey, where the witncsse and proves
be moost redye, and the truth is best knowen, or at enye other
plase wher yt shalbe thought moost convenient by youer high
discretion and auctoryte.

With the dissolution of each monastic house, the whole
property was at once surrendered to the crown. The first
step taken to turn this property to account, was by selling
the furniture and, in a great many cases, the materials of
the building. There are very few documents now left to
enable us to trace the successive demolition of buildings and
sale of goods and materials of the religious houses on the

THE HISTOKY OF LUULOW. 369

borders of Wales, although much curious information may
be gathered from the Scudamore papers which have lately
been purchased for the British Museum. John Scudamore
and Robert Burgoyn were the king's receivers of the mo-
nasteries in the border counties. We may form some notion
of the work of demolition from the following items of sales in
1638 connected with the abbey of Bordesley in Worcester-
shire^ preserved among the papers of the Scudamores.

Sales ther made the xxiij^*^ day of September, anno regni
regis Renrici viij^'- xxx"®- at the survey ther.

Fyrst, sold to Raffe Sheldon esquyer, and

Mr. Markeham, the iron and glasse in the

wyndowes of the north syde of the cloyster - xvij** viij**
Item, sold to Mr« Markeham the old hroken

tyle house at the reddyche and a lytle house

by the same ... vij"- vj*«

Item, recevyd of Mr, Grevylle for a lytle table

and the pavyng stone ther - - iij"- iiij***

Item, sold to Mr. Markeham the pavyng tyle

of the north syde of the cloyster - - v»«

Item, a lytle bell sold to Raphe Sheldon esquyer xxx*-
Item, the pavement of the est syde of the ch)ys-

ter, sold to a servaunt of the busshoppes of

Worceter - • - - v»

Item, the glasse of the est syde of the cloyster,

sold to Mr. Morgon - - - vij»- vj**

Item, sold to Thomas Norton a butteras of

stone at the est ende of the churche - xij^-

With the exception of a few houses in Staffordshire,
Scudamore's accounts are only preserved in a book where
he enters merely the sums paid to him by purchasers,
without any particulars of the articles bought; and this
book only relates to arrears, the earliest payments of which
belong to the year 1643. On the 7th of April in that year,
fifty-three shillings and eight-pence were paid for goods or
materials of the Austin Friars at Ludlow; and we have
similar payments on account of the same house of thirty-

seven shillings and four-pence on the £8th of July in the
same year; of fifty-three shillings and eight-pence by
another person on the same day; of four pounds eleven
shillings on the S3rd of Aprils 1545 ; of the same sum on
the 28th of October in that year ; of two shillings on the
gist of May, 1546 ; of twenty-five shillings and six-pence
on the 4th of September, and of the same sum on the
SOth of November, in the year last mentioned. The pay-
ments on the same account for the White Friars of Ludlow
are, twenty-five shillings and six-pence on the 2Snd of May,
1548 ; the same sums on the 7th of June, 1543, and on the
2Srd of April, 1545 ; five pounds on the 28th of October,
1545: fifty-one shillings and six-pence on the 25th of
May, 1546; and fifty-one shillings on a subsequent date,
in the same year. For the larger monasteries, such as
Shrewsbury, Wenlock, Buildwas, Haughmond, Dore, and
Wigmore, these payments, of large and small sums, are
much more numerous. It is probable that the buildings of
Wigmore abbey were destroyed almost immediately after
its dissolution, and all that now remains is the old abbey
grange, a fine specimen of timber building, and its barn,
which is no less remarkable for its lofty timber roof. In
1574, the records of the abbey were lying in a neglected
state in Wigmore castle, as we learn from a letter dated
on the Srd of October, in that year, and written by the
celebrated doctor Dee, who says " the third and last prin-
cipall point of this my present suit to your lordship (}orA
Burghley), is for your lordshippes hand to a letter directed
to Mr. Harley, keper of the records of Wigmor castell, or to
whom in this case it doth appertayn. For that, at my b^®
being there, I espied an heap of old papers and parchmeii^»
obligations, acquittances, accounts, &c. (in time past be-
longing to the abbay of Wigmor) and there to lye rotting,
spoyled, and tossed, in an old decayed chappell, not com-
mitted to any mans speciall charge: but three quarters
of them I understand to have byn taken away by diverse
(eyther taylors, or others, in tymes past). Now my fantasia

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

361

is that^ in som of them will be some mention made of
noblemen of those dayes, whereby (eyther for chronicle or
pedigree) som good matter may be collected out of them by
me (at my leysor) by the way of a recreation." All these
records have now so entirely disappeared^ that it is stated
in the last edition of the Monasticon that even an impres-
sion of the abbey seal is no longer to be met with. This,
however, is not strictly correct, as I have now before me
casts of three seals of Wigmore, the largest of which
(apparently as old as the thirteenth century) represents
St. Victor (?) with figures on each side of him, all three
standing in niches of a canopy, and a monk on his knees
below. The inscription around appears to be s.monasterii

SANCTOR. lACOBI ET VICTOHIS UE WIG.

The Barn of Wigmore Grange.

Monastic seals are frequently of great interest as works of
art, and as illustrating costume and manners of different pe-
riods. The counter-seal of the priory of Leominster contained
a Roman intaglio, probably found on some of the ancient
sites in that neighbourhood — perhaps at Kenchester. Round
it is the inscription qvi se hvmiliat exaltabitvb. Cameos

868 THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

and engraved stones were very fre-
quently used in this way in the middle
ages. They were prized and preserved,
in the belief that they possessed rare
and even miraculous properties. I be-
lieve that in the shrine at Cologne there
are several hundred, some of them ex-
tremely beautiful; and it is by no
means uncommon in this country to
find them inserted in seals. ^^^ ^, Leominrt^.

Several causes combined to induce
the commissioners, or the persons who subsequently ob-
tained the monastic estates, to destroy the buildings. The
latter, not unfrequently, used the materials for building
their mansion houses. And they were in many cases
already rendered ruinous by the violence with which they
were stripped of the fixtures in wood and metal. The
churches more especially suffered from this cause. Burgoyn,
writing to Scudamore, observes, — " As you write unto me,
we maye sell no housyng unto suche tyme we have furste
certefied, save only the churches, cloysters, and dorters.
Howbeyt Mr. Giffard and I have sold in some ffrire houses
all the buyldynges, the cause was for that they werre so
spoyled and torne by suche as sold the goodes, that in
manner they were downe, and yff they should nott have
ben sold, the kyng should have hadd nothyng thereoff."
Lead at this time appears to have been an article of value,
and it was invariably stripped from the buildings, and
reserved for the king's use, which must naturally have
caused the ruin of the buildings themselves. In the
Scudamore papers in the British Museum, there are many
items of payments for taking down the lead and conveying
it to the Severn, whence it was carried in boats to Bristol.
It appears from a letter written to John Scudamore as late
as 1555, in the reign of Philip and Mary, that there still
remained a considerable quantity of lead and bell-metal
in the receiver's hands : the letter states — " there dothe

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. S6S

remayn to be aunsweryd by you bothe leade and bell
metalle as ffoUowythe, that ys to saye, for leade att Bristoll,
iij. ff., iiijc. quarter, x. lb. ; Wigmore, liij. ff. j. quarter ff. de.,
cxxij. lb.; Ludlowe, v. ff., iij quarter ff. ecciij. quarter
cne- ; at Severn, in the custodye of Thomas Irelonde, j. ff. ;
Rocestre, vj. ff.; Croxden, xiiij. ff. de.; Delacres, iiij. ff. ;
Tuttberye, vj. ff. j. quarter; nuper prioratus canonicorum
de Stafford, xliiij. ff. ; Lylleshull, v. ff. ; Halesowen, x. ff. ;
the late monestarye of Shrewsborye, Ixvij. ff. de. ecc. lb. ;
the celle of Dudley, iiij. ff.; and ffor belle metalle att
Westwoode, in the county of Worcestre, eccc. lb."

If we carefully examine the accounts relating to the
property of the dissolved monasteries, we should probably
find the representations which have been made as to the
lavish manner in which that property was wasted, after it
came to the crown, totally unsupported by facts. It would
appear from the books of Scudamore's accounts, that the
debts of the religious houses were honourably paid, and
that all annuities of priests, &c. and bonds made previous
to the dissolution were allowed to continue in full force.
Liberal pensions (according to the rate of money at that
time) were given to the monks, who were at the same time
allowed to embrace a secular life. Among the houses
remaining in the receiver's hands at the time his books
(preserved in the British Museum) begin, the only one in
the immediate vicinity of Ludlow was that of Wigmore. It
is very remarkable (and requires for explanation more docu-
ments than appear now to exist) that John Smart, the abbot
to whose charge we have seen that such serious crimes were
laid, and who is supposed to have been deposed, is there
found receiving the unusually large yearly pension of eighty
pounds out of the property of the dissolved abbey, in two
half-yearly payments of forty pounds each At the same
time his predecessor Walter Hopton, also described as late
abbot, who had resigned to make room for Smart and must
now have been an old man, is represented as receiving
a pension of twenty pounds a year. Each of the canons

364 THE HISTORY OF LVDLOVi.

appears, by the same account, to have received five pounds
yearly.

We find also, by the Scudamore accounts, that considerable
sums of money were expended out of the monastic property
for the reparation of churches on the border, which had
probably run into neglect and ruin in consequence of the
unsettled state of this part of the country. From a letter
of sir Richard Riche to John Scudamore, dated the S4th of
March, 1541, it appears that this was done at the suggestion
of the bishop of Worcester. " Wher," says sir Richard, " I
am advertised by my lord bisshopp of Worcetour, that diverse
suche chanseUs of churches within the counties of Glouce-
tour, Hereford, Salopp, Stafford, and Worcetour as dooth
belong and apperteign to the kinges highnes ben in so
greatt ruyne and dekaie, that withoute inmiediate repara-
cions to be doon in and apon the said chansells^ the kynges
majestic shalbe (not long to come) at moche greatter charge
to reedifie diverse of the same, theise shalbe therfor to
require you, and in his graces behalff to commande you,
and every of you, withoute delaie, to cause necessarie and
convenient reparacions to be doon in and uppon suche of
the said chanseUs as shall apperteign to the kinges majestie
being within the saide counties, accourding to the neces-
sitie of the same." In the few yearly accounts of John
Scudamore preserved, the expenses of the reparations of
several of these churches are stated. These payments are,—

25 Aug. 1541, out of the accounts of Wigmore abbbey^ for the

repair of the chancel of " MomelW church.
12 Nov. 1541, out of Haughmond abbey, for new roofs to the

choirs of Uffington and Ruyton churches.
21 Nov. 1541, out of Haughmond abbey, for repairing the

choir of Shawbnry Church,
21 Nov. 1541, out of Acombury priory, for repairing the

chancel of Wolferlow church.
6 June, 1542, out of Wigmore abbey, for repairing the chancel

of Wigmore parish church.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 865

80 Aug. 1542, out of Hanghmond abbey, for repairing the

chancels of Uffington and Rujton churches.
31 Aug. 1542, out of the monastery of Stone, for repairing the

chancel of Madely church,
18 Nov. 1542, out of Tutbury priory, 3d. 6d. '-for the repara-

cyon of a glasse wyndow yn the chauncell" of Church-

Broughton.
12 Nov« 1543, out of Shrewsbury abbey, for new roofing with

lead and repairing the chancel of the church of High

Ercall.
9 Oct. 1544, out of Roucester abbey, for repairing the chancel

of Roucester parish church. (Staff.)
12 Oct. 1544, out of Hanghmond abbey, for repairing the

chancel of Wroxeter church.
22 Oct. 1545, out of Bordesley abbey, for repairing the chancel

of " Chydeswykeham" church. (Glouces.)

Part of the money produced by these sales was also
expended on other public works. We find in the accounts
alluded to, that duiing the years from 1511 to 1546^
considerable sums were furnished at frequent intervals
from the money arising out of the abbey of Great Malvern,
for building the sea-wall at Longney on Severn; and on
the 11th of November, 1542, forty shillings was paid out
of the accounts of Acornbury for the repair of the Mill-
street mills at Ludlow, which then belonged to the crown,
and which were the subject of a law-suit in the reign of
James I, by which the town was seriously impoverished.
'* Item, payd the xj^^ day of Novemb. a^* xxxiiijo* R. H.
viij^i- to Thomas Wheler and Richard Handley, baylyefes
of the towne of Ludlow, by thandes of Johan Alsopp now
one of the baylyefies ther, the some of fforty shelynges for
so much money by them payd for dyvers reparacyons by
them done upon the come mylles, voc, the Mylle strete
mylles, etc. as it apperith by a debentur, xl«- "

The monastic establishments were thus, within the space
of two or three years, entirely swept from the face of the
land. There remained still, however, a rather numerous

S B

class ot small toundations, known as chantnes^ colleges,
private chapels^ and gilds^ which were attached genersdly
to parish churches, and which were either wholly or par-
tially devoted to what were now considered superstitions
usages, chiefly consisting in the support of priests to say
masses for the dead or obits. These were totally inccm-
sistent with the religious doctrines of the reformationy
which now prevailed in England. An act of parliament
for the suppression of endowments of this kind was passed
in the S7th of Henry VIII (a. d. 1545-6), but appears not
to have been put in execution ; but an act, more complete
in itself, and confirming the former, was passed in the first
year of the reign of Edward VI, A, d. 1547. By this
statute, all foundations of the above description were de-
clared to be suppressed, and their estates were forfeited to
the crown; but it was provided or recommended in the
act itself that the property thus taken firom the purposes to
which it had been devoted by the original founders should
be appUed by the crown to the erection of grammar
schools, increasing of colleges, and other purposes connected
with education, and to the appointment and endowment of
vicars, &c. By a proviso at the end, all foundations of this
kind which had received direct confirmation in the preceding
or present reign, were excepted from the effects of this act.
Commissioners were immediately sent round to take the
surrenders of the chantries and gilds, and to make inven-
tories of their goods and estates, out of which a large
portion of our grammar schools were founded.

The Palmer's Gild at Ludlow was one of those which
came within the excepting clause of the statute of Edward
VI; and when the king's commissioners visited it, the
old body corporate defended itself at law, and judgment
appears to have been given in its favour. Fearing, however,
to provoke the court by obstinate resistance, and willing to
get rid of the superstitious uses in the original foundation,
it was agreed that the property should be surrendered to
the crown, on condition that it should be placed in the

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 367

hands of the corporation of Ludlow for the charitable
purposes to which it had previously been appropriated.
The original drafts of letters^ &c. relating to this transac-
tion have been discovered among the municipal records
since the former part of the present volume was written.
On the 11th of May, 1548, the protector Somerset wrote
as follows to sir Edward North, then chancellor of the
aiigmentations.

We commende us right hartely unto you« Whereas the
inbabitanntes of Ludlowe have of late ben suters unto us that
they might have certen chauntries preserved in that there towne
of Ludlowe, by pretence of a certaine late graunte maide to
them by the kinges majestic last disceased, and yett never-
thelesse they shewe them selfes redy with all lowliness to take
suche order as shall by us be taken, we praye for their better
dispatche which they cheiflye seeke to examyn the trutho of
their charter, and lett them underatande the estate of the kinges
majesties title, to their forther quiett. Thus hartely fare ye welK
From Westm. the xj*- of Maye, a<>- 1648, Your lovinge
frinde, E, Somersett.

To our lovinge frende sir Edward Northe,

knight, chauncelor of the augmentacions, etc.

On the 7th of June following, sir Edward North returned
the following answer to the duke of Somerset*s letter.

My dutie remembred unto your graice. It may pleise the
same to be advertised that, accordinge to your graces pleisure
declared by your lettres conceminge the men of Ludlowes
sute for their guilde, I with the counsaill of the cort have harde
their oounscdll upon the debate, whereof the opinion of their
learned counsaill was very presice in Ludlowes quarrell against
the kinges highnes, and vowched some of the judges to be of the
same opinion againste the kinge. Forasmuche as the sturringe
of any doubtes in that case at their sute might enconrrage
many other to stirre and stande in the like againste the kinges
highnes, wich might tende to his majesties no little prejudice,
and withall perceivynge that moche of the revenewe is chari-

tably emploid upon the sustencion of the poore and maintenaunce
of a free grammer schole, bj the advise of the counsaill of the
corte thow^rht better to returne them to your graice petitioners
as before, and that they should stande to your graices considera-
cion in the same, then by sturringe of dowbtes in the statute
to geve other courrage to persue the like tittle, and findinge
them confirmable to the mocion in that behaulf, coulde doe no
lesse then comende their good confirmitie and efWones refarre
the matter to the determinacion of your graice. From Westm.
thevljt»»-of June, 1648.

Your graces humblye at comaundment,

Edward Northe.

Meanwhile the people of Ludlow became impatient at
the slow progress of the law proceedings^ and were naturally
fearful that some new act of parliament might come to rob
them of their claims. The following draughts of letters,
apparently from the gild to sir Ralph Vane and the law
counsel of the town, Mr. Calfhill, are undated, but they
were probably written shortly after the letter of sir Edward
North just given. The neighbours here mentioned were
perhaps the town corporation.

Right worshipful!, our humble salutacions to your good
mastership premised, pleaseth hit the same to be advertized
that wheare upon relacion made unto us, that your mastership,
thrather at the request of our vearie frynde Mr. Calfhill, are so
good unto us that ye have not onely ffurtberid a suyte by us
begone and enterprised unto the lorde protectours grace, con-
cemyng the exchaunge, alteracion, and unyting of certeyne
landes belonginge to the gylde or fratemytie in this towne
callyd the palmers gilde in Ludlow, unto the encorporacion
of the seid towne to have in fee ferme for ever, but also of your
further goodnes hath promysed one our behalve so to set for-
wardes our seyd suyte in thabsens of our neighbours whome we
sent to solycytate the same, as yf they or elles mo in nomber
for this towne for that purpos wer contynually attendaunt upon
your mastership for the setting forwardes of the same, and
for that we have nat (contrarie to our expectacion) herde from

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

Mr* Calfhill, who is left a solicitoar unto your mastership in

9 neither of your mastershipes procedinges in our suytes

sethens our seid neighbours departed from you, therfore we are
so bolde tatempte your seid mastership with oure lettre desiring
yon nat onelye to contynue our good master in the premisses,
but also to be so good as to signifie unto us what your proce-
dinges have ben sethens our neighbours departed from you, and
what is for us for the more expedicion of the premisses to be
done^ Greatly fearing that by long delay, sethens that the
tytle of the gilde is alreadie judged betwene tho kinges majestic
and us, ther may atte next parliament be establysshed suche
an acte that may brynge that our seid gilde within the compas
of the same, whiche wolde be to the utter ruyne of this towne.
And for that porcion towardes the recompens of your master-
shipes peynes whiche our neighbours and our verie frynde have
togiders promysed to your mastership, we will assure you, Ood
willing, shalbe reservyd to your mastershipes contentacion, with
our da^ly prayers, as knoweth our Lorde, who ever preserve
your mastership in worship. Written the day of

Oure approvyd frynde Mr. Calfhill, after our nght hartie
salutacions, with lyke thankes for your greate dylygens and
paynes, whiche we peroeave by the succese of our suytes by
you hertofore taken one the behalf of this towne ys so put
in suche a forwardnes that without your meanes and fryndes had
ben to harde for us to have compasid. Theis shalbe to
desire you, lyke as by our former lettres we have done, whiche
for that we ar in doute whether they be come to your handcs or
nat, therfore we eftsones writte (thrather because we thynke
longe to here from you) that ye will signifie unto us of your
procedinges in our suytes sethen the departure of our neighbours
from you, and what is fibr us in the same for the further
expedicion therof to be done, so that you with us and we with
you myght togyders so worko that therby the more expedicion
royght be hade, greatly fearing that long contynewans may
brynge us in further bondage, as ye know ; thus we arc bolde
to treble you with contynuall burthens and requestes, as we
do at this tyme our good master sir Rafe Vane, by our lettres
whiche we desire you to help this berer to delyver, assuring you

that je shall not onelj reoeave your hole charges that je shall
sasteyne, bnt also be so gratyfied that ye shall therwith be
satisfied, Qod willing, who ever kepe you.

Three years passed^ during which the town incmrred
considerable expense, before the matter was finally settled.
Perhaps there was some difiiculty in arranging the terms to
the satisfaction of all parties concerned in it. It is not till
the 27th of May, 1651, that we find the following order
of privy council to the chancellor of the augmentations,
then sir George Sackville, to draw up a new grant of the
gild property, which had been conditionally surrendered.

After our hartie commendacions, the kinges majesties pleasare
is that ye upon the sight hereof doe cause the clarke of your
courte to make out in parchement a booke in forme of a gifte
and graunte in fee fearmc to the baylifies, burgessis, and comnn-
altie of the towne of Ludlowe, in the countie of Sallop, and to
their successors, of all suche burgages, mesuages, lands, tene-
mentes, wooddes, and all other hereditamentes what soe ever
they be, which doe belonge unto the guylde or fratemitie of
palmers of our Ladye in Ludlowe aforesaid, wich burgages
and other the premisses and their appurtenaunces the warden,
brythem, and sisterne of the sayd guylde are contented to
surrender unto the kinges majesties handes, the said baylifies,
burgenses, and comunaltie yeldinge and paynge therefore to the
kinges majestic viij"* xiij*- iiij*- of rent, and his majesties further
pleasure ys, that the said baylifies and burgesis with the
cominaltie shall alwayes finde in the same towne, at their owne
charges, a free grammer schole with aschoolmaster and an hnssher
for the erudicion of youth in the Latine tonge, and also xxxiij*
poore and impotent people, every of them to have a chamber
and iiij^ a week, and alsoe on honeste learned man to preache
Ooddes woord, wich shalbe named the preacher of the towne of
Ludlowe, and on honeste and discrete minister to assiste the
parson in the ministracion of the devine sacramentes and service
there wich shalbe cauUid the assistant to the parson of the parisbe
of Ludlowe, and the said schoolmaster, hussher, preacher, assis-
tant, and every of them, to be alwayes nomynatyd and apoy nted by

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 871

the discression of the said baylyffes, bnrgessifiy and comminaltie.
And the same booke see made to sende unto ns sabscribyd with
joar hande^ that we ma^e preferre ^t to the kinges majesties
signs ture accordinglie. Thus fare je well. From Grenwich,
the xxvij*>»- of Maje, 1661.

Your loyynge ffirendes,
W. Wiltsh'J J. Bedforde, T. Dercye,

T. Cheyney, A. Wingfdd, W. Herbert

John Gate,

There still seems to have been some disagreement as to
the form of the grants and another year passed before it
was finally settled. The following documents belong to
the intervening period, and are interesting as fiimishing
information relating to the earlier history of the gild
which was not previously known. The first is a mere
memorandum.

Mem. to sue to opteyne a lycence for the guylde and frater-
nyt^ of palmers of onr Lady of Lndlowe to gyve and grannte
all their landes^ tenementea, and hereditamentz belonging to the
said guylde and fratemyt^, wher soever they l^e within the
realroe of Inglande, to the baylifies, burgessis, and comynalte
off Ludlowe aforesaid, and also to the same bayliffes, burgessis,
and cominalte to accept and reseve the same to them and their
successours/or ever, notwithstanding ony statute of mortmayne
to the contrary.

Item, to sue to opteyne a confirmacion of the said grant to
be made after the said lycence, and therby to confirmc their
estate and possesion in all the said landes, tenementes, and
hereditamentz, to have and to hold to them and their successors
for ever, according to the licence aforesaid.

The petition of the town founded upon this memorandum,
contains some curious information relating to the history
and objects of the gild, and to the state of the town.

To the kinges most royall majestie,
Moost humbly shewen and bcsechen your highnes your true

auu laiiuiuii Buujcvitw lue uctiiinesy uur^cuzR:», cuiu i;uiuuiuu» ua

your majesties towne of Ludlowe, in the com. of Salop, that
where a® Domini, 1284, certayne burgenses of the said tow^e,
being welthy and of good substaunce, devised and agreed to
erect and establishe a guylde to have contynaaunce for ever for
the purposes hereafter mencioned, and gave landes unto it for
mayntenaunce of tlie same, viz. to releve the necessitie of suche
as by fire, by shipwracke, by violence of theves, or other
nnevitable misfortune, shuld fall in decay, to heipe also the
necessitie of prisoners, poore maydens wanting substance to
preferre theym to mariage, and suche as shulde by Goddes
visitacion fall into incurable diseases, and lastly to sustayne
thre priestes, eche of theym at the wages of viij^ markes by
yere, as by their fundacion therof redy to be shewed at large
doth appere ; whiche said fundacion or guylde was afterwardes
augmented, confirmed, and incorporated by your majesties
most renowned progenitoures Ed. the thirde, Ric. the second,
and lastly by your highnes moost worthy father of famous
memory kinge Henry theight, and was nowe of late, in the ferst
session of the parliament holden in the begynnyng of your
majesties reigne, forprised and excepted to be noon of those
that by vertue of the statute for suppression of colleges, chaun-
tries, and guyldes, or of any other statute hetherunto made and
came or ought to cumme to the handes and posession of your
highnes ; yet for so muche as some question bathe been made
in whom the right title remayneth, and that after examynacion
therof and deliberate consultacion therin by the chaunoeloar
and connsaile of your highnes court of augmentacions, the
matter was lefte in suspence to be considered and ordered hy
your majesties moost honorable privey counsell, your said
oratours knowing your highnes moost godly inclinacion to the
advauncement and furtherannce of all charitable and good
publique ordinaunces, and withall considering that the whole
and entier profites of the said guylde, except only xxij°* ix'-
bestowed upon the fyndeng of priestes and obites for the dead, is
yet and alwaies hitherunto bathe been employed and spent
upon the sustentacion of xxx^*- poore and impotent persones,
the stipcnde of a Bcolemaister frely to tcache and instructe yontha
in the Latyna tunge, and suche like neeeseary uses, which your

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. S7S

highnes by Bpeciall wordes in the statute appoynted to have
contyoQanee as before rather with more eocrease and larger
allowauDce then any abatement or decrease therof; moost
hambly prayen and besecben your highnes to take the whole
revenue of the said guylde into your majesties handes ; and for
that the said towne is large and bathe but oon parishe churche
for iiijiB^ persones, and therin no viear endowed, wherunto also
from tyme to tyme is great accesse of straungiers owt of all the
principalitie of Wales and Marches of the same by occasion
that the commissioners resident in those parties for the good
govemement of the cnntrey moost commonly make their abode
in the castell there, and considering also that their fee ferme is
decaied iij^' by yere at your majesties handes for burgage
rentes heretofore paied out of thre religioase bowses dissolved^
and that they stand charged nevertheles with mayntenaunce of
the towne walles, the paviment, conduytes, and thre stone
bridges, that therfore your majestic will vouchesauf to convert
the rentes heretofore employed upon the superstitious abuses
of private masses, obites, and suche like, to Uie mayntenaunce
of a prechonr, an assistant to the person in the cure, and the
stipende of an ussher in the grammer schole, and therupon
to annexe the whole landes and revenue aforesaid to their fee
ferme of the towne ; and they shall pray, etc.

The following statement accompanied the foregoing
petition. It appears that it had now been resolved that, as
stated in the foregoing document, the property should be
added under such conditions to the fee farm of the town,
and included in a general confirmation of the municipal
charter granted by Edward IV.

The state of the guylde of Ludlowe, in the countye of

Sallop, which the inhabytauntes of the sayde towne of

Ludlowe nowe be suters unto the kynges'majestie to annexe

the same unto the corporacion to suche purposes and

intentes ensuynge.

Ffyrste, certen landes and tenementes lyinge in the towne of

Ludlowe were geven unto the saide gylde, and after the same

was incorporatte unto the inhabitauntes there by the name of a

8 •

warden, bretherne, and BjBters of the gnjlde of palmen m cmr
Ladye in Lndlowe, in the conntie of Sallop, by the lettrea pateotes
of the kinge, then beinge Edwarde the thirde, like as by the
same appeareth. And the landes theranto geren were imployed
anto the ffindinge of a scoolemaster, certen poore people in an
almes howse there erected and baylded, and there prestea.

Item, the landes and tenementes are by yere ctx^ wfaerof
c^- lyeth in Ladlowe, in kennelle rentes and decayed faowaes
yerelye chargeable in reparacion above z<^ and some yeres'c^^
and the residewe beinge xx"* lyeth in snndrye guHettea in
several! townes and shers, out of the which there is payde in qnyt
rentes xij*- yerelye.

Item, Richard the seconde, kinge of Snglande, in his tyme
confirmed the lettres patentes of kinge Edwarde the tfiirde.

Item, kinge Henry the eight confirmed the said gnylda by
his lettres patentes dated xxj<^* die NovemMg amu> r. wm^
xxvij<^ By reason of which oonfirmacion the said gnylde u
not within the compasse of dyssolacion by reson of the late
actes of parlymentes had and made m anno xxxvij<^ H. viij^ and
anno primo Edwardi seati regis nunc^ like as by the laate
provyso conteyned in the acte of parlimentes had and made in
the said ffirste yere of our said soveraigne lord that nowe is
doth appeere*

The inhabitauntes of the saide towne beinge called before
the kinges honorable counsaill concemynge there saide gnylde,
and makinge ansWere for the defeiise of the said guylde by
reson of the proviso aforeeaide, were referred unto Mr. Northe
then chauncellour of the angmentacion and other the kinges
oounsaUl learned of the said courte, wherupon debatinge the
kinges tytle as well before them as afterwarde before Mr.
chauncellour Mr. Sackvyle nowe beinge ch%imcellour, they
were at severall tymes rrferred unto the kinges majesty and his
honorable counsaill, and by both the said Mr. chauncellours and
the counsaill of the said courte then beinge advysed to make ther
humble ante to surrender into the kinges handes the said guylde,
and therupon to desire his highnes that the same guylde maye
be annexed unto the corporacion of the said towne of Lndlowe^
the bayliffes for the tyme beinge, rendering jrerely therfore nnto
the kinges majesty an augmentaoion of ther ffise fferm, vz«

THB H18T0BT OF LUDLOW. 375

vvjl^' xiij*- iiij^ by yore ; and to fynde of the reeidewe of the
levenewiB yerely an assystaunt unto the parson, a precher, a
achole master, an nsher, and xzziij^- poore people, and the
charge of reparacion of the same.

Item, upon the inhabitaontes humble sute and surrender of
the said guyld unto the king. ... the kinges moste honorable

oonnsaiU upon dewe certificat had and made by both Mr

afforesaid of the state of the said guide, have therupon signefied

unto Mr. cha nowe ys the kinges pleasure; and

therupon by ther lettres and warraunt hay said

Mr. channcelour to make fforth a gifte in ffee fferme of the

premiBses unto the. and burgesses of Ludlowe aforesaide,

unto the yntentes and purposes before reh^rsed, reudringe the
saide yeraly reut of eighto ponndes threeteene shillinges fower
penoey togedier with xxiij''- xiy"* iiij'* beiage the ffee £Eenne of
Urn said towae and landes ineorporated unto theym by kinge
Edward the ffowreth, vhich in the hole ammounteth unto
1« markes*

The eonienies of the Ml of Ludlowe written m parchment to
he Msigned.

The firste and gretteste parte of the booke for Ludlowe
conteyneth the confirmacion of ther charter graunted by Edward
the ffowreth, as before saide.

alteracion of two ffay res and the markett ies

counsaill in the marches of Wales to be countrey

adjoyninge ; and nothinge wne ailjoyninge like as by

their lettres

th the incorporacion of the guylde landes

to suche intentes and purposes afore specyfyed.

A complete charter made according to these last state-
mente and directions, was granted to the town on the 26th
of April, 1552, which is the one that, confirmed in
subsequent reigns, still continues in force. The original
record of the gild of palmers, including the earlier deeds of
ito various estetes, and rolls of ite revenue and expenditure
from the reign of Edward III to the time of ite dissolution,
are still preserved, ^vith less injury and loss than might

be expected, in the municipal archiyes of the town. These
latter are rich in historical materials, and ought to be
carefully examined and arranged.

SECTION XII.
I%0 Lord Presidency of Wales and the Marches.

THE reign of Henry VIII saw reformation in other
departments of the state, as well as in the church. English-
men now began to enjoy internal tranquillity under an
efficient administration of the laws, which for a long period
before had been effective only against the weak and de-
fenceless. We have had yarious occasions of remarking the
turbulent state of the counties on the Welsh border, which had
led, under Edward IV and Henry VII, to the establishment
of another court at Ludlow Castle, attached to the persons
of the two infant princes of Wales, with a council, of which
the chief duty was to repress the disorders so prevalent in
Wales and its marches. After prince Arthur's death, the
prince's council was formed into a regular court of juris-
diction for the government of Wales, which was estabUshed
under a chief officer entitled the lord president, in Ludlow
Castle. The first of the lord presidents was William
Smyth, bishop of Lincoln, the founder of Brazennose College,
Oxford, who died in the fourth year of the reign of Henry
VIII, and was succeeded by Jeffirey Blyth, bishop of
Coventry and Lichfield. In 15S5, John Voysey, bishop of
Exeter, succeeded bishop Blyth, and he gave place in 15S5
to Roland Lee, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.

During the earlier part of the reign of Henry VIII, the
attention of the government appears not to have been
called very directly to the improvement of Wales, and it is
probable that the first lord presidents were by no mew>
active in their office, but with the appointment of bishop

THB HISTORY OF LX7DL0W. 377

Lee we enter upon a new era in the history of the border.
His was a mission of reforming and ciyilizingy and during
the period he held the office we find him traversing in
every direction the coimtry entrusted to his chaif^^ strength-
ening the castles and prisons^ assisting at local courts^ and
punishing with severity those who had long been in the
habit of breaking the laws with impimity. In the year of
his appointment^ no less than five laws appear upon the
statute book, relating to Wales. By the first of these,
which was ** for the punishment of perjury of jiurours yn
the lordshippes merchers yn Wales," it appears to have
been the common practice in those districts, that, when a
murderer or felon was brought to trial, his relations or
friends tampered individually with the jury, and by threats
or promises made them acquit him. Another law enacts
that keepers of ferry-boats on the Severn shall not, under
penalty of fine and imprisonment, carry men or goods
after evening or before sun-rise, its object being to hinder
murderers and felons from escaping from Gloucestershire
into South Wales. The next is a long act to reform the
administration of justice in Wales, and abolishes a number
of old popular customs which had interfered with it, forbid-
ding collections called commerihas, and other pretences
for extortion. The fourth of these acts is for the pumsh*
ment of Welshmen making assaults or afiBrays upon the
inhabitants of Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, and Shrop-
shire ; and the fifth is an act for the purgation of convicts
in Wales. Next year appeared two or three other acts of
the same description, one of which enacted that law should
be administered in Wales in the same manner as in England.
In the same year was passed an act for " reedifying" seven
towns, which states that many houses in these towns were
in ruins, " and specyally in the pryncipalle and chief stretes
there beyng, in the whiche chief stretes in tymes passid have
bene beautyfall dwellyng bowses there welle inhabited,
whyche at thys daye moche parte therof is desolate and
void groundys, with pittys, sellers, and vaultes lying open and

tmoareryd, yery peryllous unt people to go by m the nyg^t
without jeopardy of lyfe." The^e houses were to be xepaiied
within thiee years under pain of forfeiture to the superior
lord. Four of the seven towns specified as in this conditicm
were Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Bridgnorth, and Gloucester.
Other acts for the reformation of Waks, passed during the
succeeding years, prove the activity <^ the go'vermnent on
this subject during Lee's {nresidency.

Bishop Lee appears to have been an early protegee of
Thomas Cromwell, through whom he was appointed one of
the king's chaplains, and it was he who in 15S3 performed
the marriage ceremony between Henry YIII and Anne
Boleyn, for which he was rewarded in tl^ following year
with the bishopric of Coventry and Lichfield. He had no
doubt been appointed to the presidency of Wales as a
zealous and unflinching agent of Henry's government, and
he not only cleared the marches of the bands of robbers
with which they had been infested, but was the means
of effecting the final union of Wales with England. His
activity made him obnoxious to the evil-doers, and in one
of his letters in the State Paper Office he says, '' Although
the theves (as this berar can tell you) have hMEiged me by
imaginacion, yet I trust to be even with them shortely in
very dede." It was bishop Lee who first obliged the
Welsh gentry to abridge their long names.

A few of bishop Lee's letters will afii[»rd the best picture
of his labours. Others will be found among the documents
in the State Paper Office. Most of those which follow
have been printed from that source and from the British
Museum by sir Henry Ellis, in his new series of " Original
Letters." One of the bishop's first cares was to repair and
strengthen the castle of Ludlow, the seat of his court, and
to these operations the following letter, written apparently
on the 9th of November, 1535, refers.

Bishop Lee to OromtvelL
Moste harty recommendacions and like thanks fibr jonr
manyfold gentlenes, and nowe of late ffor my sarveor, etc.

TUB HISTORY OF LT7DL0W. S79

Where} at my laste being at the courte, it pkaMd 70a of your
goodenesy att my poor request, to moTe the kings hip^hnes ffor a
warraant of an hmsdredth pounds ffor the reparaeions of the
eastle of Lndlowe, which ye sent me direeted to sir Edward
Crofte; knight, reoeyvonr of the erledome of the marche, where-
Qppon, I entending none other then the accomplishment of my
masters pleasare, incontynently bonghte viij. foother of leede.
and the same have bestowed nppon the saide castell, and
ffarther repayred the tome ffor this tyme as I truste it was not
thies hnncbreth yeres, apd so wold have oontynued if I might
have had my money which at this tyme is nygh Ix^ Bat
Mr« Crofte sayeth, and so dothe the auditor, Mr. Turner, that
tber ys assignements of the hole receyts as to the kings house-
holde and the lady dowager. 80 that, before Ood, I am
compelled to borowe and paye the sayde money of myne owne;
wherin if I have not your heipe, I am att no lytle after-dele.
Wherfore I hartely praye you to directe your lettres as well to
the sayde sir Ed warde Crofte as to the auditor aforsaide, to paye
to me the saide c^* And I truste I shall not only beware at
another season, etc« but also for the same ymployed, as your
truste is in me.

I truste my lorde of Northfolke will reporte our diligence
here, with wthoose grace I comuned at large, and tolde his grace
all that I wrote to you off concemyng theves in thiese parties.
And att that tyme Geffrey Harley putt upp his supplicacion to
his grace, who called Mr. Englefild and me, and bade us if he
were a thief that he shuld be hangid, which is non onlike, if
grace come not ffirom you. I pray you commende master
Englefild incontynently after christemas, ffor I persey ve that then
Mr. Vernon muste be absent. And thus £BEtre ye as well as I
wolde my self. In haste, ffrom Ludlowe, the ix^* daye of
Novembre. It was tyme thyes reparaeions were doyne, for I
promisse you it whold a cost the kyngs grace fyve hundreth
of hys pounds within short tyme, or ells all a goyne to uo^ht,
wherein I trust I have doyne my part, as yee shall by other
that have seyne and waveyd the same.

Yowrs most bownden,

Bokmd Co. el Lioh.
To my moste entierly beloved

ffrende, master secretary.

880 THB HISTORY OF LtTDLOW.

Bet^'een this date and Christmas the active lord president
had been at Radnor and Presteign, "among the very
thickest of the thieves^" to adopt his own expression from
the following letter ; and he was preparing to make a new
excursion into the same parts in the ensuing spring. He
gives but an unfavourable picture of the condition into
which the stores and arms in Ludlow Castle had been
allowed to fall by his predecessors in office.

Bishop Lee to Cromwell^

Moste hartely I recommende me unto you, aiid c^tifye the
same that I have receved your gentle lettres by the messenger,
and according to the contents tborof I shall see every thing
accomplished as shall apperteigne, by Godda grace. And
ffarther advertising you that I have bene in Wales, at Presteyne,
where I was right hartely welcommed with all the honest of
that parties, as sir James JBaskervile and many other, without
any speares or other ffashion as heretofore hath ben used, as at
large this berer shall enforme you. Which jomey was thought
moche daungerouse to some ; but, God willing, I entende after
Easter to lye oon moneth at Presteyne, even among the thickest
of the thevesy to doo my master suche service as the strongest of
them all shalbe affrayed to doo as tofore, God willing. And
ffirom tbens to Herforde, Monmouth, and Chepstowe, for this
sommer, which wilbe costely. Wherfore, if the kings highnes
will have this countrey reformed, which is nigh at a poynte,
his grace may not stick to spende oon hundreth pounds more or
lesse for the same.

In my going and retorne to Ludlowe, I was at Wigmore.
and vewed the castill, and truly the kings highoes must neds
repayre and helpe the same, which is in maner utterly decayed
in logyngs, and all for reparacyon in tyme. Yet the walls be
reasonably goode, and the leede therof will helpe, the tymber is
at hande greate plenty. So, the kings graces pleasure knowen
ffor money, I shall see the same well doon ; if wee of this
counsaile might have a warraunt to bestowe suche money as we
shttld gett to the kinges graces use uppon the same and other,
then ye shall understonde our diligence, I truste, both ffor the
kings advauntage and his graces honour.

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 381

Radnor casteli is not to be repayred, bat only a prison
house amended* which must neds be doon : ffor ther have ben
loste no lesse bj evill keping then yitj^ theves, and have no
place to kepe them* All may not be brought to Ludlowe, ffor
many consideraoions which were to long to write. I suppose
that xx^^ or xl^- marks wolde make ther a goode prison, which
is no*greate somme.

Item, the kings grace hath here an armorer att his coste
and charge, and hath delyvered to him certen harnesses, but
no man here knoweth howe moche. Ther be also, in sir
Richard Herberts custodye, two hundreth hamesse lyeng roting,
and he being now sioke, I sent to him to knowe the truthe ;
and me thinketh hit were more mete they shulde be here with
the armorer to be kepte, who hath wages, ffor the same, then
ther with hym, who woll give a sclender accompte ffor the same.
Ther be also, as I am credibly enformed, other harnesses at
Thomebury, although I dowbte not they be well, yet yt is,
after my symple mynde, convenyent they were together. Here
be xl^* or 1^' bowes, not a bill nor goon, but oone great goone
which my lord Ferrers brought downe» nor goone powder, nor
stones.* Here be certen sheves of arrowes lefte, so that hit
appereth a goone without powder or stones, shafts without
bowesy Almayne revetts without gorgetts or apprones of mayle.
If I shulde nede to doo my master service, I must goo seke hit
of other; ffor here is not of his graces owne. But if it might
Btonde with his pleasure, I thinke hit right necessary that this
casteli shulde not thus be lefte. And that that his highnes
pleasure shalbe, to my litle witt and power shalbe accomplished.
Wherin, and in every of thies, I beseche you to enforme his
grace, that in tyme to comme no faulte bo layed to me in not
relating the same to his majestye.

And in other things this berer, my trusty servaunt, shall
enforme you of my mynde, to whom I hartely praye you to
geve credence. And thus I commytt you to God, Who sende
you a mery newe jere to your harts comforte. From Ludlowe,
the xxvj^ daye of Decembre. Yowrs most bownden,

Roland Co, et Lich.
To my moste entierly beloved ffrende, master secretary.

* Cannon balls were at this time usually made of stone.
3 D

In the next letter, dated the 19th January^ 1686, the
bishop speaks of his activity in hunting down the ^^ thieves,"
and boasts of having reduced Wales to such order that one
thief took another, and that the cattle, a great object of
plunder in previous times, were now sufficient to take care
of themselves. In fiict, as soon as the strength of the
government was felt, many of the evil-doers who -were less
compromised by their outward actions, sought to secure
their own peace by betraying, or showing their zeal against
those who were more obnoxious to justice.

Bishop Lee and sir Thomas Englqfield to OromwM*

After my moste harty recommendacions, this sfaalbe tad-
vertise yon that we have receaved from you the twoo outlawes,
named David Lloide or Place, and Johan ap Richard Hockiitozi,
with Richard ap Howell o^mw Somner, the murderer at Man-
month, ffor the which we hartcly thanke you. And the saiJ
twoo outlawes we have sent to their triall, according to justice,
which to morowe they shall receyve (God pardon their sowles}.
And ffarther, within twoo dayes after the recey ving of the saide
theves, were brought to us iiij. other outlawes as great or
greater then the forsaide David and Johan were, and twoo of the
ffirst of them had byn outlawed thies xvj. years ; wherof u}-
were in liffe, and oone slayne brought in a sacke trussed uppon a
horse, whom we have cawsed to be hanged uppon the gaiowes
here for a signe, Wolde Ood ye had seen the fiashion therof.
Hit chaunced the same day to be markett daye here, by reason
wherof iij^^* people ffollowed to see the said cariage of the saide
thief in the sacke, the maner wherof had not been seen here-
tofore. What shall wee say ffarther : all the theves in Wales
qwake ffor ffeare, and, att this day, we doo assure you, ther i^
but oone thief of name of the sorte of outlawes, whose name is
Hugh Duraunt, tmstyng to have him shortely. So that nowe
ye may boldely affirme that Wales is redact to that state that
oone thief taketh another, and oone cowe kepith another Sot
the moste parte, as Lewes my servaunt at his retome shall
more at large enforme y6u. The takers of thies outlawes were
my lord of Richmonds tenaunts off Keviliske and Amstley^

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 883

moste parte ffor ffeare and money, and parte ffor to have
thanks, and partelj to have somme of their kjnredd discharged.
Beseching you that the kyags highnes may be advertised
hereof. And thus the Holy Trinitie preserve you. From
Ludlowe, the zix^- daye of January.

Your most bownden,
Roland Co. et Lich.
At your conmiaundment,

T.Englefild.
^Dicken ap Ro^ dio Bagh.
^ . J Howell ap Ho" dio Bagh, aUaa Ho" Banner.
J Howell ap David Vayne.
^ Johan Dee Jmydw, aUaa Johan ap Meredith.
To the right worshipfull master Thomas Cmmwelly
chief secretary unto the kings highnes, this
be yoven.

We find several papers among the Cromwell documents
at the Rolls House, which relate to deeds of turbulence
and violence perpetrated in Wales and the border counties
about this period. One of them, dated in the first year of
bishop Lee's presidency, contains some curious depositions
relating to the making of forged money on a somewhat
large scale in the neighbourhood of Abergavenny. Such
deeds had formerly been screened by the feudal privileges
of the lords of the soil, who claimed the sole right of juris-
diction over their dependents. In the following paper,
taken from the source just alluded to, bishop Lee sends
Cromwell a list of malefactors thus protected by one person,
sir Walter Herbert, and it is the best proof that could be
g^ven of the evils of the system.

I pray hartely to Ood that yt may please the kinges good
grace of his mercifujle pety with the advise of his most honour-
able connoell, to seet redres that his subjectes be not thus dayly
murthered and robbed.

Thomas Herbert 1 For wilfull Murthur comytted and done at a
Philip Herbert > place called Tyntarne within the lordeschipe
Morgan BaygtesJ of Trillage, in the kyling of one . . ap Rice

KneiiDg 00 018 KnejBf wnicii moroas, fbitipf
and Morgan be supported in the kyoges
lordsohip of Magonr, by Water Herbart,
steward under the eorle of Worcettonr, and
no poniscbment for the seid murther; the
more pete, Ood helpe !
Edward Cuttelar, beyng that tyme with William Herbert, dyde

kylle one in Flette Stret, and toke

sentere at Westminster, and fro thens cam to

Walys to Water Herbert, and was his serraunt

there, and yt no ponisement.

Water Herbert ) for wilfull murther don within the lordeschepe

Johan Madocke) of Chepstow.

Lame Johan Herbert, for the murtheringe of ij. men, and do

ponischement.
Johan Lewys Freschower ) owtelawyd for felony and jugeoient
and one Caduke a barber ) geyvn and after comyttyd felony

and toke the churche, and therapon
wher abjured, and after that resorted
to London to Thomas Johan, and
to Oder, and where take for the mor-
thering of ij. men by Kynsington.
Richard Phelip Johan, for murther, supported at Magour by

Water Herbert.
Johan M artche, Water Herbert ys servaunt, for the murther . .
Johan Sysill, Water Herbert servaunt, for murther.
William Herbert, and Thomas ap Powell, of Magour, for

murther.
Morgan Thomas, Llewelyn Hyghne, Water Herbert ys servaant,

for murther.
Thomas ap Powell, of the Pill, Water Herbert ys servaunt, for
murther.

m 1 /Water Herbert ys servauntes, for the mur-

oneTresham f ^i . r •• ^i. ^ \ i. *

T h B rl >thenng of ij. men, that ys to whete one

mi. u 1. % Johan Dier, and anoder Johan Whetsam, etc.

Thomas Hygham j '

Jenkyn Taylour, Water Herbert ys servaunt, for murther.
Johan Griffyth Pelle, for murther.

THE HISTORY OP LUDLOW. 886

Thejff'eB and OuteUmB.
John Thomas Welyn ^ Water Herbert jb servauntes, for the
Howell Thomas Welynf robbing of William Davy, at Oryn-
8ir David, a prest i^fild, and putting hym and his moder

Lawsans Gaynard jon 9l hotte trevet for to make them

schow, etc.
Rosse Phepe, owtelawyd for felony, and supported and mayn-

teynid by Water Herbert, his rcteneir.
Bawling Jamys \

Johan Lloyd / Water Herbert ys servauntes, notorius theffes
Rees A where ^ openly knowen, with oder, for the robbing of
Richard Draper i a Breton schepe and faveryd.
Thomas Davy /

One Meredith, Water Herbert ys servaunt, owtelowyd for felony,
Resse Tynker, supported by Water Herbert within his awtorite,

men supposeth a money maker, etc. not.
Myles Mathew, Water Herbert his frend, for the robbing of
the cathedrall churche of Landaffe, with other, etc. not :
Jamys Butteler \

Howell Coke
Johan Pull Meyricke
Lewys ap Ryce
Rorgg' Morgan
Lewys Higham
Johan Kymys ^

Memorandum. When that Water Herbert, and George ap
Morgan, wher on and agreyd togedur, whatsoever manner of
meschyff where done yt was clokyd, the more pety.

In the next letter of the lord president, we find him at
Monmouth^ on his proposed summer circuit in search of
^* theves." In the course of his proceedings^ he had found
a person who had actually, by some means or other, obtained
a licence from the king to act contrary to the statute
already mentioned, that forbade gathering of money under
the title of commorthas.

^ Water Herbert ys servauntes, and no-
torius thefiSes.

Bishop Lee to Oromwell,

Iftsnop Jbee to vromweu.
After my most harty recommendacions, hit may please the

same to be advertised that of late I receaved letters ffrom my
sniyeyoTy conteyDyDg the olde amured goodenes and ffiiTor of
yoor goode harte contynued towards me ffrom tjme to tjme,
and nowe lastely in that it pleaseth you to tendre my sate ffor the
priory of saincte Thomafiy although I cannot have it to atonde,
yet ffor that ye mynde my preferment to the fferme of the
demaynesy I hartely thanke you« As GKkL judge me, I only
desyre the same ffor quyetnes and ffor none advauntage, as my
saide surveor shall enforme you, to whom I hartely beaeche you
to geve fiReurther credence bothe herein and other things, emongs
which oone ys ffor the reparacions of the castill of Monmootbe,
which is all decayed and in ruyn (the hall and the walls only
excepte). And fforasmoche as it shalbe a shire towne, and
that also this counsaile shall ffor sondry causes repayre thither,
I thinke bit expedient the priory here, viz. the mansion of the
same, as stones, tymber, and other[things to be reserved ffor the
re-edifieng of the saide castill, which, together with co^* in redy
moneye, and suche as this counsaile wolde helpe, woide make a
convenyent lodging ffor this counsaile and other at the kin^
graces pleasure : wherein his grace pleasure knowen, and money
had as bifore, my diligence shall not fiayle to the best of my
litle power. But there is no leade in the sayde priory. I truste
I have sett Brecknock castell in as perfitt ffashion as he was
syns his first foundacion. Truste ye me truly, I wilbe more
circumspecte in spending the kings graces moneye then myne
owne. And what the kings graces pleasure shalbe herein, I
praye you I maye be asserteyned shortly.

And fforasmoche as abowte Arusteleye, syns my moving unto
Brecknock in Southwales, be gathered together a certen cluster
or company of theves and murderers, where I entended to
Olocestor, I must of necessitie retome to Herforde and
Ludlowe ffor the redresae of the same, which, Grod willing* shall
not be omytted. Hartely prayeng you to remembre the com-
mission that Mr. Englefild left with you ; ffor without that
we can doo no goode here*

Farthermore ye shall understonde that where, ffor the highe
commoditie and welth of Wales and the marches of the same,
commortha and other ezaccions were fordon by statute, cone
Oeorge Mathewe, gentleman, of Southwales, hath obteigned a

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 887

plftcarde to the contrary (the kings grace as I take it not playnely
instructed therin), ffor there is no caose whye expressed, as by the
copy hereindosed hit doth appere,* wherin I wolde gladly knowe
the kings graces pleasure shortely. Truly it is right large, all
things considered, fiTor he is so ffrended that it shall ron through
all Wales to his advauntage, as I take it, of a thowsand marks«
Thus I trouble you, beseching you of pacyence and daily my
prayer is for your preservaccion, which almighti Jhesu conty*
newe. From Monmouthe, the xxj'^* daye of June.

Yours most bownden,
Roland Co. et Licb.
To my moste entierly beloved ffrende,
master secretary.

Among other papers in the Rolls House, are copies of
the examinations relating to the abduction of a widow, who
was seized publicly in a church at service time, by a party
of armed men, and carried away. The trial of the offenders
took place at Gloucester, and it appears, from the following
letter (in the State Paper Office), that, the jury having
been tampered with, they were acquitted. This manner of
escaping justice had, apparently, been a conmion practice
in Wales and on the border. The date of this letter is
February, 1587.

Bishop Lee to Cromwell^
To the right honorable and his very good lord, the lord
Cromwell, lord privy seall.

My dutye remembred to your good lordshype, advertesynge
the same that I have receaved your letteres datid at the courte
the xvij***- daye of February, willing me (that were dyveres
complayntes have bene made againste sir John Hudleston,
knyghte of the one party, and sir John Bridges of the other

* Inclosed in this letter is the copy of the " placard*' or licencei which
bears date at Greenwich. Feb. 2, in the 27th Hen. VIII, A. D. Ib36k
This fixes the date of the letter to June, 1536, and not 1540. as sir Henry
Ellis supposed from the mention of the priory of Stafford. In fact, on
the 9th of July, 1536, Cromwell was raised to the peerage, after which he
would not have been addressed as '* master secretary."

parte, by divers poore men), I should entend to the reformatYOD
of the same, and to give a vigelent eye, and oircomspectely to
harken to the ordere and factyones in the county of Gloucester.
My good lord acoordinge to my dutye thes shalbe to enforme
the same that sir William Sullyard, knyghte, Mr. John Vernon,
and Thomas Holte, were at the assyses at Gloucester, with the
justycese of assise, for dyveres causes. Amonge other one was
for the tryall of a cause of rape« comy tted by one Roger Morgane
of Wales, with a greate nomber in his companye, in takyng
awaye a widowe again ste her will out of a churche, wherin,
althoughe pre^^ante evidence was gy ven to the enquest agaynste
the sayd Morgane and his company (as was thought to us all),
yet notwithstandynge the sayd mallefactores were acquitted, to
the evell example of other« And my good lorde, this is a vice that
is and hathe bene comonly used in Wales, and hathe moste need
of reformatyon (which we entendynge) caused the sayd persones
to be brought to tryall, and at soche tyme as the enqueste
should have ben empanelled, suche as were of reputacion and
appointed to have bene of the same enqueste absented themselves,
so that we were driven to take meane men and of mean state,*
anil so throughe beringe and secrete labore the sayd partyes
were acquitted. And therupon, the sayd jurye was and is
bounde to appeare at the nexte assyses ; and, in the meane tyme,
before the kynges most honorable counsell in the stare chambere,
within X. dayes wamynge to them gy ven, yf it shalbe seen to
your and their honores. My lord, yf this be not looked upon,
farewell all good rule. I have herwith sente unto your lord-
shipe the coppy of the whole bookes of evidence to the entente
that the same scene and perused by your lordshipe, I may knowe
your lordships pleasure, what tyme the said enqueste shall
appere, that therupon I maye gyve knowledge therof to the sayd
enqueste, wherof I hartely desyere your lordshipp.

At these assyses were viij. condempned, wherof vj. for fellony,
and ij. for treason whose heades and quarters shalbe sent to viij.
of the beste townes of the sheir. Those tway ne were the bereward
and his ffellowe that were broughte by the sherife from your
lordshipe; and ij. other for sedytyous words agaynste the
kynges highnes were sett of the pillorye, and had there yeares
nay led to the same, besydes other puneshements accord inge to

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 389

their desertes. And thus the Holy Trynetye longe contynewe
your good lordshipe in honor. In haste, from Gloucester, the
laste day of Fehruarye.

Your lordshipes moste bounden,

Roland Co. et Lich.

Among oflFenders with whom justice had now to deal for
the first time, were the gipsies, then commonly known by
the name of Egyptians or gypcians. From the following
letter addressed to the lord president, it would appear that
they infested the Marches of Wales, where they had perhaps
found it easier to evade the laws than in other parts of the
country. Gipsies appear not to have been known in
Europe before the sixteenth century. The date of this
letter is December 5, 1537.

Cromwell to the lord president of the Marches,

After my right hartie commend acious, whereas the kinges
majestie aboutc a twelfmoneth past gave a pardonne to a company
of lewde personnes within this realme calling themselves Gip-
cyans, for a most shamfiill and detestable murder commytted
amonges them, with a speciall proviso inserted by their owne
consentes, that onles they shuld all avoyde this his graces realme
by a certeyn daye long sythens expired, yt shuld be lawfull to
all his graces ofiycers to hang them in all places of his realme
where they myght be apprehended, without any further ex-
amynacion or tryal after fforme of the lawe, as in their lettres
patentes of the said pardon is expressed. His grace, hering
tell that they doo yet lynger here within his realme, not
avoyding the same according to his commaundement and their
owne promes, and that albeit his poore subjects be dayly
spoyled, robbed, and deceyved by them, yet his highnes officers
and ministres lytic regarding their dieuties towardes his majestye,
do permyt them to lynger and loyter in all partys, and to
exercise all their falshodes, felonyes, and treasons unpunnished,
bathe commaunded me to sygnifye unto youc that his most
dreade commaundement is that ye shall laye diligent espiall
throughowtc all the partes there aboutes youe and the shires next
3 E

liUIVjrlJTIIKy TTXtc»u«^i (uijr \/& »u« ovkjxA p««i ovuAa«x9 i^wiiiii^ UBsajw

selfes Egipcjans, or that hathe heretofore called thema^fes
Egipcyans, shall fortune to enter or travayle in the same. And
in cace yone shall here or knowe of any suche, be they men
or women, that ye shall compell them to repair to the next
porte of the see to the place where they shalbe taken, and
eyther wythout delaye uppon the first wynde that may conTejre
them into any parte of beyond the sees, to take shipping and to
passe to owtward partyes, or if they shall in any wise breke that
commaundement, without any tract to see them execmted ac-
cording to the kinges hieghnes sayd lettres patents remaynyng of
recorde in his chauncery, which with these shalbe your d^-
charge in that behaulf : not fay ling taccomplishe the tenoor
hereof with all effect and diligence, without sparing appon any
commyssion, licence, or placarde that they may ahewe or
aledge for themselfes to the contrary, as ye tender bis graces
pleasure, which also ys that youe shall gyve notyce to all the
justices of peax in that countye where youe resyde, and the
shires adjoynant, that they may accomplishe the tenoar hereof
accordingly. Thus ffare ye hertely wel. From the Neate, the
v«^ day of December, the xxix^ yere of his majesties most noble
regne.

Your lovyng ffreende,

Thomas Cmmwell.
To my verye good lorde, my lorde of

Chestre, president of the counsaile

of the Marches of Wales.*

The gipsies had been banished from this country by an
act of parliament passed in the SSnd year of the king's
reign (a. d. 1531)^ which appears, however, to have b^n

* The original of this letter is preserved in the Cottonian Manuscripts
in the British Museum, Titus B. I, fol. 407. It is not clear why the lord
president is entitled ** my lord of Chester." Henry VIII, about this time,
established the new bishopric of Chester; and as the united see of
Coventry and Lichfield had been formerly moved from Chester, perhape
king Henry designed to carry it back, and to make Lee the first bishop of
Chester.

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 391

•

ineffectual^ as we find them alluded to in after years. The
act just mentioned describes this wandering people as " an
outlandish people calling themselves Egyptians^ using no
crafte nor feate of merchandise, who have come into this
realm, and gone from shire to shire and place to place in
great company, and used great, subtle, and crafty means to
deceive people, bearing them in hand that they by palmestry
could tell men and womens fortunes." It is remarkable
that the act which immediately precedes it, and was passed
in the same year, is directed against poisoners. We find in
other countries that the gipsies were concerned in several
cases of poisoning, a crime which was widely prevalent
during the middle ages. The following document relating
to this singular class of people, which is preserved among
the records of the Rolls House, and has not been hitherto
printed, appears to be of the same date as the preceding
letter, and is given as a pertinent illustration of it.

To ITumuu earl of Essex, lord prefoey seal.

Right honorable and my singuler good lorde, my dutie
remembred, this is to advertise your honorable lordshipp that
one maister Paynell, baylyff of Bostone, is com bi your lord-
shippes commaondement, as he seithe, for to convey up certeyne
persones namynge them sellfies Egiptians that shulde be here
in prison at Bostone. So it is, right honorable lorde, that the
Mondaie in the Rogacion weeke laste paste, there cam to Bostone
fovre Egiptians whiche did com the daie before from the towne
of Lenn, whiche forseide persones the undermarshall of the
kynges marshallsee caried from hence to London to your
lordshipp from other of thcr company that wer here then in
prisone before Cristynmas laste paste, and the reste of their
company wer shipped by the kynges commaundement (as your
lordshipp knoweth) from Bostone and landed in Norwey. And
now at these persones commynge laste to Bostone, the consta-
bles of the same towne immediatly not onely sett them in the
stockes as vagaboundes, but also serched them to their shertes,
but nothinge cowde be found uppon them, not so muche as

wolde paie for their mete and drynke, nor none other bagge or
baggage, but one horse not worthe iiij** ; and then I did examen
them why thei cam hither, and did not get them owte of the
kynges reakne, as other of their company was, and thei shewed
me that of late thei wer dem jtted owte of the marshailaee where
thei wer in prisone, and commaunded hi your lordsfaipp (as
thei seide) to departe owte of the realme as shortely as thei
myght gett shippinge. And thei thinkinge to have had ship-
pinge here at Bostone as their company had, did com hither,
and here beynge no shippinge for them, the forseide constables
of Bostone did avoide them owte of the towne as vagaboundes
towanles the nexte portes, which be Hull and Newcastell. And
this I certefie your lordshipp of truetbe, as knowes our Lorde,
who ever preserve your honorable lordshipp. Written at
Bostone the Thursdaie in Whitson weeke.

By yower oratour with my pore servys,

Nicolas Robertson.

The last of bishop Lee's letters which we shall give is
taken from an Harleian manuscript^ and relates to the
turbulent behaviour of the people of Cheshire, a county
included in the jurisdiction of the court of government of
Wales and the Marches.

Bishop Lee to Cromwell.

To the righte honorable the lord Croumwell, lord privye
seall.

My duty in my moste humble maner unto your lordshipe
remembred, it may please the same to be advertysed that I have
receaved your honorable letteres dated the 13 daye of Maye,
willinge and comaundynge me, that yf the acte or afiraye
done betweene Cholmeley and Manwerynge (as at this tyme is
reported to your lordshipe) were done without our comyssyoun,
that then this counsell should not proceed to the determenatyon
therof, and yf the same were not so, then to staye untyll the
kynges graces pleasure were therin knowne, and therof with
dilligence to assertaine your lordshipe. Pleasethe it the same to

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 39S

be advertyssed that imedyatly after the deed of affraye comytted
betweene the say d partyes, sir Johan Porte, on of this counselU
did sygnefy unto your lordshipe the whole effecte touchinge the
the said affraye which was done in Staffordsheir without our
comyssyon, and therupon it pleased your lordshipe to comaund
this counsell ernestelye to looke to the same and to the punyshe-
ment therof, as should appertayne, which we have done accor-
dinglye, and have taken bonds of either of the said partyes for
keepinge of the kinges peace. And forasmuche as Cholmeleye
could not convenycntly bring in his suretyes, and for that also he
was slaundered to lye in a wayte for Manweringe (which as yet
18 not proved), this counsell kepte the said Cholmeleye in ward
by the space of thre monthes, as well in the porters lodge as in
the kinoes castle at Wigmore, to his no lytle payne and charges,
unto snche tyme he had found snffytyente suretyes. And in
this tyme Manweringe by a kynsman of his exhibited a byll of
complaynt unto this counsell, and afterwards at Bridgenorthe
(my lord Ferrars and justyce Porte being presente) exhibited
another bylle against Cholmeley, and had daye assynged to
prove his bylle, at which daye he brought no proofes nor yet
synce would, but stayed, and so came doune your lordshipes
second lettere, willinge this counsell to proceed and all other
processes of writts against Cholmeley or his servantes to surcesse,
which to accomplyshe the said Manwaringe did at al tymes
refuse. And so obtayned your lordships thyrd and laste letter
as before, which to folio we this counsell is always redye as shall
stand with the kynges graces pleasure and your lordshipes.
Yety my good lord, dthoughe this affraye were done without our
lymytes, yet it foUoweth the persone as I take it, and bothe
partyes be within our comyssyon, so that wee have cognysone
in the case (the kynges majesties pleasure and your lordshipe not
to the contrarye). And, my good lord, there is nether man
slayne nor maymed, but a lewde act comitted, the semblable
wherof, yea and a manyfold grealere, bathe byne by this counsell
ordered and determened. But the mallyce and proude of
Cheshiere gentlmen cannot so take up, disdeyninge this infe-
ryour courte and the ordere of the same, myndynge all myscheefe
and ungratyousness with infynete vexatyones of theire neighe-
bores (as would God ye knewe the truthe), I am sure more

S94 THS HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

nmrdera and manslaaghteres in Chesheir and the borderes of
the same within this yeare then in all Wales this two yeares,
which they shall not denje; and nothinge done untyll oar
comynge for the punyshement of the same, the partyes lett
goe and none taken to oar knouledge. Yf ther be a forfeitore
of a recognezonesy jet it hangeth upon the proofe of that who
begane the affraye, which Cholmeley layethe to Manweringe,
and Manweringe to him; prooves and partyes be all in this
quarrelle for the tryall of the same, wherfore nowe so shall
please the kynges majesty and your lordshippe, so it be. Also
I beseeche your lordshipe that the kynges graces pleasure maye
be knowne, for that betwixte this and AlhoUantyde the lord
marcheres maye use the tryall of ffellones, for I am dayly
called upon and cane make them no answere* I have written
to your lordshipe and to my lord chauncelere dyveres tymes,
but your lordshippes buseness is suche that it is not in your
rememberance. Your poore bedesman this berer desyrethe me
to move your lordshippe to be good lord unto him. And thus
the holy Trynetye longe contynewe your good lordshipe in
honore. From Chester, the 2V^ daye of Maye.

Your lordshipes moste bounden,

Roland Co. et Lich.

The date of the foregoing letter is uncertain. Bishop
Lee's exertions continued unabated till his death, which
took place on the S4th of January, 1543, at Shrewsbury,
where he was buried. He left the districts over which he
had presided in a state of tranquility and security, diflfering
very much from that in which he had found them.

Lee was followed by a succession of lord presidents who
appear to have shown much less activity in their office,
and who in fact would have found little encouragement in
the vicissitudes of the English government between this
period and the accession of queen Elizabeth. Another
bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, Richard Sampson, was
raised to the dignity immediately after bishop Lee's death,
and held it till the second year of king Edward YI (1548),
when he was removed to make way for the powerful and

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 396

grasping duke of Northumberland. Bishop Sampson ap-
pears not to have been a vigilant president; for he was
obliged to seek the king's pardon for having allowed a
captured offender^ Griffin ap John^ to escape from his cus-
tody. The duke of Northumberland appears never to have
visited Ludlow in virtue of his office. He was succeeded
in 1550^ by William Herbert, shortly afterwards created
earl of Pembroke, who had, previous to his appointment,
been sent into Wales by king Edward VI, where his great
prudence is said to have preserved the tranquility of that
part of the island, now again in danger of being disturbed.
In 1553, on the accession of queen Mary, Nicholas Heath,
bishop of Worcester, was appointed lord president of Wales
and the Marches, a zealous catholic, who for his zeal for
the old religion had been deprived of his bishopric in the
reign of Edward VI. We know but little of the history of
the border under Mary's rule; but the town records of
Ludlow, and especially the chamberlains' books, show that
attempts were made to restore in some degree the old
church furniture along with the old ceremonies. The
monastic lands were too effectually deposited in the hands
of their new owners to be easily recovered ; and the destruc-
tion of monastic buildings had rendered it next to impossible
to place the monastic orders in their former position in
the country. On the death of the queen at the end of

1558, bishop Heath refused to crown Elizabeth, and was
committed to the Tower. He had already resigned the
presidency of Wales in 1556, and had been succeeded by
the earl of Pembroke, who held the office again till 1558,
when he made way for another prelate, Gilbert Bourne,
bishop of Bath and Wells, also a devoted catholic, who had
been chaplain to bishop Bonner. This prelate, who was
committed to safe custody on the accession of Elizabeth,
was succeeded by sir John Williams, who held the office
only a few months, dying at Ludlow on the 14th of October,

1559. In his place the queen appointed the ever celebrated
sir Henry Sidney, to whose presidency (which lasted twenty-

seven years), Wales and the border owe perhaps more than
even to that of Roland Lee.

Sir Henry Sidney was the eldest son of sir William
Sidney, of Penshurst, in the county of Kent, a gentleman
who had filled many important employments during the
reign of Henry VIH, and had held the offices of chamberlain
and steward to Edward VI, while prince. His son Henry
was from his infancy bred and educated with prince Edward,
who treated him as a companion with the greatest fami-
liarity, often even sharing his bed with him. In 1550,
when scarcely twenty-one years of age, he was knighted,
along with William Cecil, so celebrated afterwards as the
favourite and able minister of queen Elizabeth, and the
same year he was sent as ambassador to France. On his
return he was made chief cup-bearer to the king for life,
and married the lady Mary Dudley, daughter of the earl
of Northumberland, who was decapitated on the accession
of queen Mary, and sister of Robert Dudley, the famous
earl of Leicester of the reign of Elizabeth. Sir Henry
Sidney remained in the highest favour during the short
reign of Edward VI, who died in his arms at Greenwich,
on the 6th of July, 1553. After that event, he seems to
have retired for a while into private life; but in spite of
his family connection with the Dudleys, and the catastrophe
in which they were involved at the commencement of the
new reign, sir Henry Sidney retained the favour of queen
Mary, and was by her made vice-treasurer and general
governor of all the revenues in Ireland, and he was soon
afterwards invested with the temporary government of that
kingdom as lord justice. Queen Elizabeth continued him
in his employments; as we have already stated, she ap-
pointed him lord president of the Marches of Wales ; in
1563, he was sent again on an embassy to France; in
1564 he was made a knight of the garter; and he was
subsequently thrice appointed lord deputy of Ireland, the
affairs of which country he regulated with consummate
wisdom and prudence.

From the end of 1569 to the close of 1565, Sydney
carried on the government of Wales in his own person, and
of the attention he paid to it we have many proofs among
his papers still preserved, although most of the records
appear to be lost from which we could have derived a par-
ticular account of it and of its influence upon the civilization
of the principality. From subsequent allusions, and a
variety of circumstances, we are justified in concluding
that, since the time of bishop Lee, the counties which lay
under the jurisdiction of the court at Ludlow had fallen
into many of those disorders which are natural to a country
placed under a subordinate government, when the latter is
not exerted with the necessary rigour. Among the family
papers at Fenshurst is one, which has been printed in the
collection by Collins, written in sir Henry's own hand,
and consisting of extracts relating to the history and duties
of his oflSce, which shows the anxiety of this lord president
to make himself acquainted with every thing relating to it.
He there tells us that " the lorde president and counsail
of the domynion and pryncipallitie of Wales and the
Marches of the same were established in the tyme of kinge
Edward the fourth and eversythens ;" and that " thereby
the hole countrey of Wales have ben, by the government of
the same lorde president and counsaill, sythens the estab-
lishment of the same, brought from their disobedient,
barbarous, and (as may be termed) lawless incivilitie, to the
civill and obedient estate they now remayne, and all the
English counties bordering thereon brought to be affrayed
from such spoyles and felonyes as the Welsh before that
tyme usually by invading their borders annoyed them
with."

We have seen how much bishop Lee did towards pro-
ducing this result; but in a country which for so many
ages had been subject only to the capYicious jurisdictions of
turbulent landholders, or, as in some parts from the cha-
racter of the country itself, inaccessible to any law, we
cannot be surprised if it was still subject to many disorders,
S F

and if the lord president's court was a very busy one.
His neglect would soon throw it into confusion^ and would
give room for collusion and bribery, and every other
description of corruption, and it seems probable that it
was in this state when sir Henry Sydney was appointed to
the presidency. As it had to deal in many instances with
men who were tenacious of old vested rights, whose insubor-
dination had been the cause of many of the disorders of the
country, and who were hostile to an authority which was
intended especially to curb and restrain them, they often
attempted to dispute its jurisdiction, and to carry their
causes to Westminster, where they expected more easily to
escape justice, and appeals of this kind seem to have
tormented the earlier years of Sydney's presidency. One
object of the lord president in the paper just mentioned was
to draw together a few facts, placing in a clear light the
extent and independence of the jurisdiction of his court.
This paper was written at the time, apparently, when sir
Henry, by his appointment to the government of Ireland,
was preparing for his departure to a still more troublesome
scene of labour, and when therefore, as he retained the lord
presidency of Wales^ he would have to direct the court from
a distance; and he was consequently desirous of noting
precedents for such a case. These he seems to have had
no difficulty in finding during the two preceding reigns,
when the lords presidents appear to have left the government
in a great measure to the council. " The lord president
beinge within the realme, and from the place where the
councell make abode, is to geave direction to the rest of the
councell, and to be made pertaker of matters of importance,
as the heade of the body of the councell, and his assent to
be hadd to the proceedings in matters of importance ; may
appere by several orders taken in an. 2, 3, and 4 of kinge
Edward, before the said lord president and councell, some
whereof baringe date at Shrewsbury, some at Worcester,
some at Ludlow, and subscribed by John earl of Warwick,
then lord president, in testimony of his assent to that

THB HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 399

which was done by the rest of the councell in his absence.
He that nowe supplyeth thoffice of clerck of the councell,
then seryinge under Mr. Evans, deceassed, that was then
clerck of the councell, brought these orders to Bushope
Hatfield, to the said lord president, and procured his hand
to the same, as may appear. The severall lettres and
mynuts of lettres betweene bushopp Heath, lord president,
then beinge at London, and the councell then beinge in
the comission, shewe that he, then beinge lord president,
gave direccion to the rest of the councell, although he was
absent from the place."

By another note of sir Henry Sydney's, made about this
time, probably with a view to a retrenchment of expenses,
it appears that the annual expenditure of the court of the
Marches of Wales in the third year of the reign of Edward
VI (a. d. 1549) amounted to eight hundred and seventy-six
pounds fifteen shillings and sixpence. The officers of the
household in Ludlow Castle were then a steward of the
household, with a salary of four pounds a year, two cooks,
each receiving forty shilUngs a year, with two '* laborers of
the kitchen," or assistant cooks, at twenty shillings a year
each, and a butler, pantler, yeoman of the cellar, and cater,
at forty shillings a year each, and an '^almner" and an
under brewer, each receiving twenty shillings a year.

The consequence of Sydney's absence in Ireland was
soon felt in the government of Wales, whence he re-
ceived intelligence of disorders which appear to have
required his own presence to repress them. From a
warrant to the sheriflf and justices of the peace of the
county of Monmouth, dated on the 9th of March, 1573,
it is stated that the people of that county, "partely for
want of the peace of God, and partely for lack of good
order, or dutiful reverence and obedience to the lawes,
have grown to such liberty and insolencie as they have not
left any insolencie or offence unatempted ; so many mur-
ders, manslaughters, robberyes, theftes ; such fighting and
quarelling ; and manifold offences ; that no country within

the commission aforeseid is so much misliked." The
remedies recommended in this case^ and the proceedings
which it was announced would be taken, furnish a rather
curious illustration of the condition of this country at that
time. " The contynuance and increase whereof semeth to
growe by the default of the sheriff and justices of pees,
in respect of favour, shown one towards the other's officers,
servants, and retainers; wherebie, in maintenyng of matters,
one gentleman or other shal become a partie, what offence
soever the same shalbe." It was this crowd of retainers
and dependents, supported in their evil-doing by the
authority of their masters, that was the curse of the age of
which we are now speaking. The president's order then
declares the earnest wish of the local government to put an
end to these disorders, and continues — ^^It is therefore
ordered by the said lord president and counsail, that a
letter rehersing the premises be directed to the sheriff and
justices of the pees of the said coimtie of Monmouth,
commanding them to have consideracion of theise thinges,
in such diligent sort, as may be answerable to the trust in
them reposed ; bending their sole study and industry to the
performaunce of the pees, the common quiet of the countrey,
and doing of justice, and for that purpose, to assemble
theraselfes together, and consulting by what meanes good
order and quietnes may be best contynued ; and to devide
themselfs into eight, ten, or twelve parties, more or lease,
as to their discrescions, having regarde to the quarter of
the sheir and number of themselfs as shall seeme most
convenient; besides theire generall care, that every par-
ticular member may give diligent hede, within the lymytts
appointed to them, for preser^ntion of quietness and good
order ; showing good examples of reformacion in themselfes,
wherein it were not amisse that the order heretofore
prescribed to them for appointing overseers of good rule
in every parish were eftsoon put in execution with no less
perseveraunce to thexecution of the lawes against vaga-
bonds, idle persons, loyterers, and such as can not yeld

accompt of their way of livinge within the compasse of the
lawe lately provided in that behaulf. The statutes against
alehouse-keepers, whether they be more in number than
needeth, or the places of their habitations convenient or
inconvenient, is specially to be remembred; with the
statutes of reteyners, hue and cry, and for keeping of good
and substantial watches in places convenient, at the tymes
appointed by the lawes ; and for the avoyding of the sundry
and manyfold theftes there lately committed; the order
heretofore sett down that the bucher, or such as killed any
cat tell, to cause the hide or hides therof to be openly
shewed in the market, or before the overseers of the parish,
before the sale thereof, showeth also to good purpose to be
remembred."

At this same time, a controversy had arisen with some
lawyers of Worcester, who aimed at withdrawing that city
and county from the* jurisdiction of the court of the
Marches, and their leader, a gentleman of the name of
Robert Wilde, had been committed to prison. But he was
subsequently set at liberty, on bail.

These and other complaints seem to have attracted the
attention of Elizabeth to the necessity of renewing solemnly
and reinforcing the authority of her court for the govern-
ment of Wales and the borders, and in the June of the
following year, 1574, a new set of instructions were
addressed to sir Henry Sydney and the council, who were
thereby reappointed with alterations in, and additions to,
their numbers. In these instructions the extent of the juris-
diction of the court, and the causes which it was to try, are
more carefully defined, as well as the attendance expected
from the officers and council, and the duties which they
were to fulfil. It is therein earnestly required that they,
" by all their poUicies, ways, and means, they can, shall put
their good and efiectual endeavours to refrein all manner of
murders, felonies, burglaries, rapes, riots, routes, unlawful
assemblies, unlawful retainers, regraters, forestallers, extor-
tioners, conspiracies, maintenances, perjuries, of what kind

soever they be ; and also all other unlawful misdemeanors,
offences, contempts, and evil doings, whatsoever they be,
attempted, done, or committed, by any person or persons
within the limits of their commissions.'' It is added " and
whereas divers persons in Wales have commonly used
heretofore to go as well to the church, as in fairs, markets,
and other places appointed for justice, in harness and privy
coats, the queenes highnes pleasure is, that from henceforth
no man shall wear neither harness nor privy coats, neither
in churches, fairs, markets, or any other place of justice,
except such as shall be licensed, commanded, or authorised
by the queenes highnes, or her honorable council, or by
the lord president and council, or officer where any fair,
market, or justice place is kept." An order like this is
sufficient to impress upon us the turbulent condition of a
country to which it applies; such armour could only be
intended for defence or offence, and must have made the
country a perpetual scene of riot. People offending in any
of the foregoing particulars were to be rigorously proceeded
against by the court; and it was directed that '^the said
lord president and council, or three of them, at the least,
whereof the lord president or vice-president to be one, upon
sufficient ground, matter, and cause, shall and may put
any person accused, and known or suspected, of any
treason, murder, or felony, to tortures, when they shall
think convenient, and that the cause shall apparently
require, by their discretions."

'' And whereas," the instructions continue, " divers lewd
and malicious persons have heretofore, and of late days,
more and more spread abroad many false and seditious
tales, which amongst the people have wrought great incon-
veniencies, breeding to the danger of uproars," the court is
directed to make search after the authors of such reports,
and '^ whensoever any such slanderous tales shall be re-
ported, that the reporter shall be forthwith stayed, and all
means used to attach them from one to another, until the
first author may be apprehended, and duly and openly

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW. 408

^uTiished^ and if the report extend to treason^ then to

rause the law to proceed^ and execution to be done accor-

lingly. And if it be of less account, yet such as may

^ork some inconvenience to the dishonour of her majesty

stud of the state public, or otherwise of the government,

tlien they shall pimish the party so offending by the pillory,

cutting off their ears, whipping, or otherwise by their

discretions." Various other directions are given to proceed

not only against a variety of offences which show that order

and morality were not well observed in the principality

and the borders, but against extortions and impositions

which it appears were practised by the lawyers and others

connected with the court. These directions are followed

by regulations of the accounts of fees, and of the expenses

of the household. ''The queen's majesty's pleasure is,

that a household shall be kept and continued by the said

lord president or vice-president, for the diet of him and the

rest of the council there, and for such others as are by her

majesty allowed to have their diet there. The same lord

president or vice-president shall nominate and appoint all

officers necessary for the said household, and every of

the said counsellors shall have in household there the

number of servants hereafter mentioned; that is to say,

sir John Throgmorton, knight, now justice of Chester, or

the justice that hereafter shall be, being appointed always

to be resident with the said lord president, to have in

household eight servants, and a chaplain or preacher. And

that all and every person of the said council, before ap»

pointed by these instructions to continual attendance, or

any of the other when they shall be called to attend, shall

have in household three servants ; so that if those persons

who are not bound to continual attendance, shall, without

sending for, come thither, or shall tarry longer than to

them is appointed, they shall not have any diet in the said

household."

The porter's lodge of Ludlow Castle was the prison of
the castle, and the porter acted the part of jailor ; and it

appears that at this time Wigmore Castle served as a
prison for more rigorous confinement. After providing
against extortion and bribery on the part of the porter
towards his prisoners, the instructions direct that " if so be
any person committed to the porter's charge, for any
matter between party and party, shall absolutely refuse t^
conform himself in time convenient, then such person to be
sent to Wigmore, or such like place as hath been accus>
tomed ; and in case of felony, after full examination taken,
the prisoner so to be sent to the gaol of that country where
they are to be tried; except consideration of the trial
before themselves or other matter shall move them for
further detainment there. In all which cases, respect is
to be had that the porter's lodge be not pestered otherwise
than necessity requireth."

In a set of further instructions, given two years later,
the particular duties of the porter towards his prisoners are
set forth in a way which give us a curious picture of
the manners of the court at this period. It is there
directed, " First, that every person committed to the charge
-of the porter shall be there deteyned as a prisoner according
to the quallitye of the offence, and not to departe out of
the porter's lodge without the speciale lycence of this
coimcell, and to take and receive of them such fees as
hereafter ensueth : First, for treason, murther, or fellonies,
to be deteyned in irons dureing the councell's pleasure,
and not to departe out of the circuite of the porter's lodge.
Item, all persons committed for contempts or any misde-
meanours or offences w^here the queene is to have a fyne
for the same, they likewise to be detayned in prison without
sufferance to goe abroad without the speciall lycence of this
councell. Item, to take and receive as their ordinary fees,
of every person committed for contempt, ijs. vid. and not
above, except for his dyett. Item, to take and receive of
every person being of the degree of an esquire, and above,
and committed for any offence for which he is to wear
irons, to take for his committment ijs. vid., and for every

person being committed as is aforesayd and under the
degree of an esquire ijs. vjd. for his fee. Item, it is further
ordered that the porter shall continually have in readinesse
for the jenterteynment of prisoners two tables of dyett to be
in this sort kept, viz. the best and first table at viijd. the
meale, the second at vjd. the meale, and the same to be with
meate and drinke so furnished as the parties may according
to their payment have therein competent and convenient,
and the partie committed to choose at his committment
at which of the sayd tables he will remayne, and if he fayle
to make payment of his fees of committment, and the
ordinary charge of the dyett after every weekes end, then the
porter to take bonds for the due payment thereof. Item,
it is further ordered that if any person be committed to
remayne in ward untill he should pay the queenes majestie
any sums for a fyne or to any person, or any sum of money
to the same partie by this councell ordered, or for not
accomplishing of any order taken by this councell, and
shall not conforme himselfe to perform the order, discharge
th^ fyne, and make payment to the parties within one
month after the tyme of his committment, then the porter,
at the end of the eayd month, to give knowledge to the
councell thereof to the end order thereupon may be taken,
that the party may be removed to Wigmore, or such other
place as this councell shall thinke meete. And when any
person is or shall be committed to ward, there to remayne
until he shall pay fine or other debt to the queene, or any
sum of money for costs, or other cause to the partie to
deteyne him as a prisoner in manner aforesayd, until the
attorney of the partie and the clerk of the fynes, by a note
in writing subscribed by their names upon the copie of the
submission, shall acknowledge to have received the sayd
sume wherein he is chargeable as well to the queene as
the partie."

It was just at this time that a very remarkable personage,
the celebrated Dr. Dee, visited the borders of Wales, and
we trace him into this neighbourhood by an autograph
3 G

letter still preserved. People were still influenced by the
superstitious feelings of the middle ages, and the avarice of
individuals was especially excited by the belief in hidden
treasures, which could only be found and discovered by
means far beyond the reach of the vulgar, a belief which
was sustained by the not unfrequent discovery of Boman
and other coins. Dr. Dee, though in most respects ftr
beyond his age in scientific knowledge, was still influenced
by its superstitions, and a principal part of the letter alluded
to, which is addressed to lord Burghley, and dated the 3rd
of October, 1574, consists of a petition that he might hate
a grant of the hidden treasures which he undertook to bring
to light, and it evidently originated in the tieasure legends
of the Welsh border, to some of which the writer alludes.
*' For this twenty yeres space," says he, " 1 have had sundry
such matters detected unto me in sundry landes," and " of
late I have byn sued unto by diverse sorts of people, of
which some by vehement iterated dreames, some by vision,
as they have thowght, other by speche forced to their
imagination by night, have byn informed of certayn places
where threasor doth lye hid ; which all for feare of kepers,
as the phrase commonly nameth them,* or for mistrust of
truth in the places assigned, and some for some other causes,
have forbom to deale farder, unleast I shold corrage them
or cownsaile them how to precede. Wherein I have
allways byn contented to heare the histories, fantasies,
or illusions to me reported, but never entermeddled ac-
cording to the desire of such." After justifying his belief
in such tales, Dr. Dee proceeds, " Your honor knoweth that
thresor trouv^ is a very casuall thing: and of which,
althowgh the prerogative of the queues majestie do entitle
to her a proprietie, yet how seldome her grace hath hitherto
receyved any commodity thereby, it is to your honor better
known than unto me. But as for mines of gold and silver,
to be in England or Ireland, many have written and

• That is, dragons or spirits, which were supposed to watch over and
guard hidden treasures.

reported both of old tyme and latter, as I think your honor
hath ere this hard abundantly discoursed. The value of a
myne is a matter for a kingcs threasor ; but a pot of two or
three hundred pounds, &c. hid in the ground, wall, or tree,
is but the price of a good boke or instrument for perspective,
astronomy, or som feat of importance. And truly vulgar
obscure persons, as hosiers and tanners, can (by colour of
seking assays of metalls, for the say master) enjoye liberty
to content their fantasies to dig after dremish demonstra-
tions of places, &c. May not I, then, (in respect of all the
former allegations of my pains, cost, and credit, in matters
philosophical! and mathematical!) yf no better nor easyer
way to serve my tume will fall to my lot from her majesties
hands ; may not I, then (I say) be thowght to meane and
intend good service toward the queues majestic and this
realme, if I will do the best I can at my own costis and
chargis, to discover and deliver true profe of a myne, vayn,
or owre of gold or silver, in some one place of her graces
kingdoms and dominions, to her graces only use ; in respect,
I mean, of any my demaund or part to be had thereof.
But uppon this comfortable consideration, that her majesty
do frely give unto me, by good warranty and assurance
of her letters patents, her right and propriety to all thresor
trouv^, and such things commodious, as (under that name
and meaning comprised) by digging or search any where in
her graces kingdoms and dominions T or my assignes shall
come to or finde; and with all good warranty (for my
indemnity) agayn all laws and persons, to make search by
^igguig or otherwise. And this to dure the term of my
life."

Having ended this petition. Dr. Dee proceeds to make a
statement relating to the castle of Wigmore which explains
to us the causes of the destruction of the greater part
of the documents relating to the history of this part of
the country. " The third and last principal! point of
this my present sute to your lordship," he says, " is for
your lordships hand to a letter directed to Mr. Harly, kepe r

of the records of Wigmor castell^ or to whome in this case
it doth appertayn. For that^ at my late heing there, I
espied an heap of old papers and parchments, obligations,
acquittances, accounts, &c. (in tyme past belonging to the
abbay of Wigmor), and there to lye rotting, spoyled and
tossed, in an old decayed chappell, not committed to any
mans speciall charge, but three quarters of them I under-
stand to have byn taken away by divers (eyther tajlors or
others, in tymes past). Now my fantasie is that in som
of them will be some mention made of noblemen and
gentlemen of those dayes, whereby (eyther for chronicle or
pedigree) some good matter may be collected out of them
by me (at my leysor) by the way of a recreation."

This letter is preserved in the Lansdown collection of
manuscripts in the British Museum; and the same col-
lection furnishes us with a remarkably curious document
relating to the treasure legends of the Welsh border. It is
a letter addressed by a Welshman, who, for some offence
or other, appears to have found his way into the Tower of
London, and who attempted to obtain his release by a
promise of discovering treasure in the castle of Skenfirith.
He writes to the lord treasurer Burghley as follows.

*^ Leave your lordship to understand that there is a castell
in the parish of Skemfryth, in the countie of Montgomerie.
Your lordship graunt full authoritie unto myne owne selfe, I
am a poore subject of the queues, if there be any treasure there,
your lordship shall know it, for by the voice of the country
there is treasure. No man in remembrance was ever seene to
open it, and great warrs hath been at It, and there was a place
not farr from it whose name is Gamdon, that is as much as to
say the game is doun. Pray you, good my lord, your letter to
the castle, craving your lordships free authoritie to open, and if
treasure be there, I will use it as it ought to be, and I will
stand to your lordships consideration to give me what you
please. For the countrcy saieth there is great treasure. The
voyce of the countrey goeth there is a dyvell and his dame, one
sitts upon a hogshed of gold, the other upon a hogshed of

silver, yet neverthelesse, with your lordships full power and
authoritie they shall be removed by the grace of God, without
any charge to the quene and your lordship. If that treasure be
there^ then I will looke for something at your handes. So
praying your lordships answer for the present despatcbe, so I
bid your lordship farewell. From the Tower of London, this
28th of Aprill,1589,

Your lordships to command,

William Hobbye.
** Your lordships owne hand write the Lord Treasurer
underneath this petition, as for example.

The Lord Treasurer,"

Sir Henry Sydney continued to be occupied in Ireland,
and the directions and orders for reformation in Wales
seenx to haye produced little effect. In 1576 we meet with
new complaints of the disorderly behaviour of the inha-
bitants of the border, which produced a proclamation,
dated at Ludlow, on the gist of October of that year,
setting forth that ^^the queues majesties counsail in the
Marches of Wales are given to understand, that there are
sondrie lighte, lewde, desperate, and disordered persons,
dwelling and inhabiting within sondrye the countyes of
Wales and the Marches of the same, that dailye weare,
carry e, and beare dyvers and sondrye kyndes of municion,
armure, and weapones, as lyvery coates, shurtes of male,
quilte dublettes, seniles, quilte hattes and cappes, mores
pickes, gley ves, longe staves, billes of unlefuU sies, swordes,
bucklers, and other weapones, defencive and invasive, unto
divers fayres, markettes, churches, sessions, courtes, and
other places of assembley, in affraye and terror of the
queues highnes subjects, wherby divers assaultes, affrayes,
hurtes, woundes, murders, and manslaughters, hathe bin
don, perpetrated, and comitted; which this counsaill con-
ceave the rather to growe by the incowragement of the
unlefull weapons and armor, and by the unlefull reteyning
of servaunts, and giving liveries, contrary to the queenes
majesties lawes and statutes in that case made and provided.

4iU THB HISTORY OF L.UDL.OW.

And albeit sondrye proclamacions have bin directed from
this counsaill unto the officers of the severall counties^ that
all and all manner of persons shold laye aside their armor,
municion, and unlefull weapones, and to weare^ beare, or
carrye the same, yet they having smale care or regarde
thereunto, in meare derogacion and contempte of the
lawes and statutes, doe weare, beare, and carrye the same
weapones and armur, facing and bracing the queenes
highnes quiet loving subjects, and to their greate grevans
comitting divers outraiges and disorders, to the imbolding
and incurraigment of mallefactors. And alsoe this counsail
are given to understand, that there are dyvers sheriffes that
have sold their offices of under-sheriffes, shere-clerkes,
bailifb, gailors, and under-officers, and have had and
receaved for the same no smale somes of money ; by meane
whereof manifold briberies, exaccions, comithers, extorcions,
and other injuries and wronges have bin also perpetrated
and comitted, and the cheeffest, meetiest, and honest free-
holders keapte from apparaunces at sessiones, and the
meanest sorte, that are not hable to give rewarde, and have
lest care of their othes, or are otherwise unablest to serve,
are compelled to serve, whereby fellonies and malefactors
escape unponished." It is added that by the general
negligence and ignorance of the officers, civil and ecclesi-
astical, ^^ncontynent living dothe muche abounde, and
abhominable inceest and adulterye creapt in, and muche
frequented in thes days ; and uncharitable excesse of usarye
and unlefull games ys much used ; artillaryc, case archery,
and shoting, whiche was provided for the defence of the
realme, lefte aside; many alehouses, and tippling houses,
not lefuUy lycensed nor bounden, keapte, and muche
haunted ; forestalling, regrating, buing and selling of cattelles
out of fayer and markett, dailye used, and the statute of
drovers not dulye put in execucion, wheiby the price of
cattelles is greatly enhaunced, and pryvellye conveyed and
stoUen from place to place, whiche will tende to the impover-
ishment and undoing of her majesties subjects, and encrease

THE HISTOKY OF LXmLOW. 411

of offenders^ if the same shold not in time be prevented
and looked unto, and the offenders ponished, according to
the order of the lawe." In conclusion, a certain number of
commissioners are appointed by this document for each
county within the jurisdiction of the court, who were to
examine into offences of every description and bring the
offenders to justice.

Documents like this give us the best notion of the
unquiet state of this part of the kingdom, even in the
reign of queen Elizabeth, and under the rule of so vigorous
a governor as sir Henry Sydney.

The complaints expressed so strongly in the foregoing
document called for the new orders for the direction and
reformation of the court, which have been given in a former
page, and which appear not to have done much towards
remedying the evil, and to have done nothing towards
relieving the queen of the heavy charges which attended
the government of Wales and die Marches. It appears
that this latter subject had given so much dissatisfaction to
Elizabeth, that she had conceived the design of abolishing
the court itself. A letter from sir Henry Sydney to the
council is preserved, in which he speaks strongly of the
want of economy with which the court at Ludlow was
managed at this time. In this letter, which is dated from
Ireland the 12th of November, 1576, Sydney throws the
blame of these expensive charges on the officers who had
been apiK)inted in the court contrary to his advice, and on
the growing negligence and incapacity of others who he
recommends should be removed. He points out the great
advantage of this local court in preserving Wales and its
borders in tranquillity, and represents that by it alone this
part of the island had been preserved from the rebellions
which had from time to time broken out in almost every
other district. He states that while he conducted this
government in person, or by a deputy responsible to himself,
the queen had heard none of these complaints, which had
arisen only since the appointment of officers who, during his

absence, were not immediately under his control. " Whyle
I attended there/' he says *'the house was cleane out of
debt, and money sufficient alwayes in the receivor of the
fynes hands to pay all that was due ; and besides, I am well
assured, I cawsed to be layd out for the makinge of the
conduits of water for Bewdley and Ludlowe, the repair of
those twoe houses, and other her majesties houses, above a
thousand poundes. When I returned out of this realme
(Ireland), I found the house twelve hundred poundes in
debt, and no reparacion donne ; no, nor that finished which
at my departinge I left half donne. While I attended there
last, the howse recovered well, so as though not out of debt,
yet moch lesse in debt I left it then I found it. And noTre
is it so farre behind hande, as not onelye olde bills of coun-
sellors cannot be paied, which they have foreborue a longe
tyme, but daylie growinge chardges for the howse, as for
fuell, cariage, and soch other necessarie incy dents to house-
holde as the howse cannot be mainteined without, are left
unpaied^ so moche to my burden, as were it not for
somme provision that by myne owne poUecye I have mad^,
I were not able to kepe the howse, considering the dearth
of all things, with the allowance I have, though the same
be very honorable."

Another evil pointed out by Sydney at this time was
the non-residence of some of the principal functionaries,
whereby on one hand judgments in suits were often deferred
and the suits themselves dragged on to an unreasonable
length, and, on the other hand, the subordinate officers
were not sufficiently held in check. The state and forms of
the court at Ludlow are curiously illustrated in these
remarks. "The second person there," says Sydney,
" which alwayes hitherto hath bene the justice of the countye
palatyne of Chester, must put on a minde to resyde for the
most parte with the councell, for so did Englefield, Har^/
Silyayarde, Townesend, Pollard, and Wooddes ; who besides
their dexteritie to expedite sutes, were for their gravetie and
judgement in the lawe, demed woorthy to occupie a place

Tim UiSTOKT UJT liVlilAlW. ^Jld

upon the bencke in any couxte in Englande ; and when any

of these attended that counsell, as continuallye for the most

parte they did^ light cawses were presently heard and ordered^

as well out of tearme tyme as in tearmes^ and matters of

more weight were determined in the tearmes^ when always

the benche was furnished with men of soche gravetie and

judgement in the lawe, as the janglinge baristers wold not

nor durst not lye of the lawe^ nor over long clamber in any

bad cawse of their clyents, as since^ and yet, as I heare

they doe, to the great losse of tyme, and to the drivinge of

the sutors to needeless and intollerable chardge. And

moreover the justice of one of the other three circuits

alwayes in tearmes attended there ; and so doe I wishe that

nowe they might be willed to doe, namelye Mr. Bromley or

Mr. Phetyplace. And then was the benche well able to

overrule die barre. But I have sene it farre otherwise, for

I have maney tymes, as we thought, felt the barre so farre

too stronge for the benche (which bathe hapned for the most

parte in the absence of the justice and the want of his

assistawnce), as I have, consideringe myne owne ignorance

in the lawes, deferred judgement, after too longe pleadinge,

imtiU I was better assisted ; and I feare the benche is not

moche the stronger for theim that were last made of the

same."

Sir Henry Sydney passed much of the latter years of
his life at Ludlow, and appears to have applied himself
with zeal to the duties of his office there. He appears to
have taken little part in the intrigues of the court, yet his
relationship to the earl of Leicester raised him enemies
and brought him sometimes imder suspicion. This was
increased by some reluctance he showed in enforcing the
severe laws of Elizabeth's reign against Catholic recusants,
who were at this time numerous in Wales, and had excited
especially the alarm of Whitgift, who then held the bishopric
of Worcester, by their secret meetings. A commission was
sent in 1679 to Sydney, the bishop of Worcester, and others,
to search out and try these delinquents, and they were even
3 H

414 THJB liiBTOliT OF I/UDIiDlfr.

authorised in certain cases to use torture in order to foice
them to oonfession. Next year Sydney made a progiea
in Wales, for the purpose of examining into some causes
which required his presence on the spot, and he instituted
formal proceedings against the Catholics in Montgomery-
shire ; hut the n^ligence, or perhaps rather the inddgoice,
with which he proceeded in regard to the commission, esuited
the displeasure of bishop Whitgift, and drew a private letter
from Sir Francis Walsingham which is still presenred. h
this letter, which is dated on the 9th of August, 1580,
Walsingham tells him that " My lords (of the privy coiincO)
of late callynge here to remembrance the commission that
was more than a yeare agoe given out to your lordship asd
certayne others for the reformation of the recusants and
obstinate persons in religion within Wales and the marches
thereof, marvayled verie muche that in aU this tyme they
have heard of nothing done therein by you and the rest; and
truly, my lord, the necessitie of this tyme requiryng so greatly
to have those kynd of men diligently and sharply proceaded
agaynst, there will here or verie hard construction bee made,
I feare mee, of you, to reteine with you the sayd comn^^
so longe, doyng no good therein. Of late now I reoeayed
your lordship's lettre towching suche persons as you thin^
meet to have the custodie and oversight of Mongomene
castle, by which it appearethe you have begone in yo^
present joraeys in Wales to doe somewhat in cawses ot
religion ; but having a speciall commission for this purpose,
in which are named speciall and yerie apt persons to jop<^
with you in those matters, it will bee thought strange to my
lords to heare of your prooeading in those cawses yn&o^
their assistance. And therfore, to the end their lordships
should conceave no otherwise than well of your dealyn?
without them, I have forborne to acquaynt them ^^ ^^
late lettre, wishyng your lordship, for the better hanSipi
and successe of those matters in religion, you called unto
you the bushoppe of Worcester, Mr. Phillips, and cert^P^
others specially named in the commission.''

TIlis letter ends with the ominous postcript. — ^'Your
lordship had neade to walk warely^ for your doings are
narrowely observed^ and her majestie is apt to geye eare to
any that shall yll you. Great howlde is taken by your
ennemyes, for neglectyng the executyon of this commission."

It was no doubt this disfavour shown to one whose long
services merited a better reward^ that chiefly raised a que-
rulous spirit exhibited in the inscription placed in 1581 over
the entrance to the inner court of Ludlow Castle^ which still
remains to bear testimony of the feelings with which this part
of the building was completed in that year.

HOMnrEBVS TS&BJLTIB LOQVIKIKI LAPIBXS.
AJXSO BBOin BBOIKJB XLIZABXTH^ 23.

THX 22 rxAB c6flbt or the rsisinxircT

or BIE HBimi SmiTBTy

lOnOHT OF THE HOST KOBLS OBBSB OF

THE GABTEB, ETC. 1581.

The gateway just alluded to was only one of the numerous
repairs executed by Sir Henry Sidney in this noble castle,
most of which he appears to have effected at his own expense.
Many of them seem to have been made in the latter years
of his life. The following curious list of them is found in
an original paper preserved among the Lansdowne Manu-
scripts in the British Museum.*

" Buyldinges and reparadons don by S^^* Henry Sidney,
knight of the most noble order [of the garter] 1. president
' of the queenes highness counsaiU in the Marches of Wales,
upon her ma^ies bowses there.

'^ Imprimis, for making and covering of certen chamb»
wtliin the castle of Wigmor w^ kdd, and for amending and
repayring of the walles and stayres thereof.

'' Item, for making and repayring of twoe chamb" and
divers other bowses of offices, as kitchen, larder, and buttry,
at the gate over the porters lodge at the castle of Ludlowe,
and for tyling and glasing thereof.

* Lansdowne MSS. No. czi. art. 9.

'' Item^ for making of twoe walles of lyme and stone^ cvf
ffortie yaides in length at th'entring into the said gate.

'' Item, for making of a wall of lyme and stone at the porters
lodge, to inclose in the prisoners, of about twoe handled
yardes compasse, w^ in which place the prisoners in the day
tyme use to walk.

'' Item, for making of a wall of lyme and stone three yardes
in height, and about twoe hundred yardes compaase, for a
wood yard w^in the same castle.

'' Item, for making of a ocH^ howse and twoe offices under
the same for keping of the recordes, and for syling, tyling,
and glasing thereof.

" Item, for making of a fayre lardge stone bridge into the
said castle, w^ one greate arche in the myddest and twoe
at both endes ; conteyning in leinght about zzxtie or xl^
yardes, and in height upon both sides, wtli freestone, a yard
and a half.

''Item, for making, repayring, and amending <rf the
chappell w^m the siud castle ; syling, glasing, and tyling
of the same, with &yre and lardg wyndowes ; waynscotting,
benching, and making of seates and Imftlling places, and
putting upp of her ma^ ie« armes w^ divers noblemens armes,
together with all the L presidentes and counsailles, rounde
aboute the same.

" Item, for making of a ffiiyre howse of lyme and stone,
upon the backside of the kitchen w^in the said castle, with
divers and sondry ohambn^ as well for lodginges as other

'' Item, for making of divers stayres of lyme and stone, and
for making of sondry greate and lardg wyndowes, and glasing
thereof.

'' Item, for waynesootting and flouring of a great parlor
wtl^in the same castle, and making of a greate and huge
wyndowe in the same, and glasing thereof.

" Item, for casting of the ledd, and laying the same over
the said castle.

'' Item, for making of a fiayre and lardg seate upon the

north Bide of the said castle^ "w^ a howse over the same, to-
gether with a lardg waike inclosed with pall and tymber.

'' Item, for repairing, amending, and making of certen
chambn w^in the garden of the said castle, glasing and
tyling thereof.

'' Item, for making of a ffityre tennys corto w^in the same
castle, paying thereof wt2i free stone, and making the howses
rounde about the same w^ tymber.

'' Item, for making of a conduy t of ledd to convey the water
into the same castle of Ludlowe, the space of a myle and more
in leinght; for making of a house of lyme and stone, being
the hedd ; and for a goodly lardge foimteyne of lyme stone
and ledd, "W^ her mat^ armes, and divers other armes there-
upon ; and for conveying of the water in ledd from the same
fbunteyne into the garden, and divers other offices wtl^in the
howse ; and from thens into the castle streete, within the
saide towne of Ludlowe, and there making of a ffoimteyne
of lyme and stone.''

Sir Henry Sydney died in Ludlow Castle on the fifth of
May, 1586. His body was carried thence in great state to
Worcester, where it was placed in the cathedral church. It
was finally conveyed to his house at Penshurst, and it was
interred in Penshurst church on the 21st of June.

He was succeeded by his son-in-law, Henry Herbert earl
of Pembroke, who held the high office of lord president of
Wales fourteen years, till his death on the nineteenth of
January, 1601. A new set of instructions were issued to
this nobleman, and considerable changes were made in the
council at Ludlow, the reason for which, as given by the
queen, was, '^ that there is a great lack of men of estimation,
wisdom, and credit, to be of our oounsell, and to assist you
there, partly by death of dyvers, partly by lack of good choice
heretofore made of some of meaner estimation than was
convenient for so many shyres and centres within that
jurisdiction." The conclusion of the letter by which the
queen ordered these changes alludes further to the extta-
vagaiice and corruptions of the court. ^' And hereafter," she

says^ '' whan ther ahall axise any caiiBes of weight, mefte to
be deliberated uppon, or any other great matters of oom-
playnt, worthy to be grayely hard and determined, yow shall
send for the said persons, or for some such of them as for
their places of habitation may most conveniently, without
great charge, repayre to the place of residence for our
coonsell, and abyde ther dnryng the time that shall be
requisit for such great causes, hayyng regeai that no furder
chardge herby do grow ether to us or to them, than shall
be resonable, moderat, and necessary, which we do
remember unto you because it hath appeared that hertofior
larger allowance hath been made than was nedefull^ to
sundry of that counsell being but of meane state, coming
thither, sometyme more for their own or their fidends causes
than for ours and the administration of justyce, and by such
unnecessary allowances made hertofoce to many men of small
reputation for their jomays oftener than was needful, and for
ther continuance there also longer than the causes of their
access did require, the charges grew so lai^ as the house
became in debt, specially before the coming thither to that
place of yow our coosyn the lord president, the inconyenience
whereof we require you our president, and in your absence
the justyce, hereafter to forsee."

After the reign of Elizabeth, the hisUny of Ludlow in its
connection with the border ceases to offer much interest. A
succession of lords presidents ruled the court during the reign
of James and Charles ; the earl of Pembroke was succeeded
by lord Zouch, who was followed by lotd Eure, lord Gerald
of Bromley, the earl of Northampton, and others. During
their time, the court of the marches was gradually losing its
usefulness and consequent importance, for the age had passed
whose necessities called it into existence. The expenaive
and unwieldy establishment was a burthen on the country,
while it seems frequently to haye stood in the way of justice
by its slow and antiquated forms, and among the clashing
interests now rising up on every side, and the new principles
of liberty and independence, its authority was not unfire-

qnently set at defiance by those who liyed within its juris-
dictiQQ, who^ when prosecuted, appealed to other courts, or
evaded its judgments in other ways. An idea of the state of
the border under king James may be formed from the fol-
lowing letter of complaint addressed by the lord president
lord Eure apparently to the earl of Salisbury, and now
preserved in the Britidi Museum.
''My honobablb good Lobd,
'' It doth not a litle greeve me to have occasion to
relate imto yC [l^ship] the generall disobedience, many
meetinges, and combination against the government of
the courte in the prindpalitie of Wales since his ma^ie
and the 11* of his councell hath commanded by way of
instruocions, and hath given authoritie to the president
and courte, thereby to deale in causes not exceeding £10
w^l^n the fewer Ehiglish shires. It seameth they have
no cause to complayne of injustice, or of an hard and heavy
hand carryed over them by the president and councell here
now present, for then no doubt those daymours would be
readely brought up and presented to yC lo?> view. [I mar-
vel] that the grave bishop of Hereford should be the prime
man to subscribe his hande, w^ the rest of the gentlemen
of that countie, to their prindpall agent, S' Herbert Croft,

and to challenge that free tion and the inheritable

Ubertie by the lawes of the relme, definitively pronounced by
the grave judges, wth the privitie of the 11" and approbation
of his matie. It is tyme (my good lord), to confirme that
their supposed definitive sentence, or otherwise to enlarge
the authoritie of this courte, or (at the least) to warrant
and defend us in our proceeding, according to his ma^o*
instrucdons, that thereby his justice may be obeyed, or
otherwise to dissolve the jurisdiction quite. The grounde of
dislike was commenced against the lo# Zouch, whose seve-

ritie they disliked, now they successively to be freed ;

in the first they found good assistance of good

desert, but in this latter I hope yo^ loP will think |it meet]
that the prindpality and the marches shall extend itselfe

largely now in his matie's tyme, as formerly hath

been in the of the predecessors of this crowne.

The good that enseweth is only irr^;iilarity (w<^

some few gentlemen desire to have ; [the] example is verie
perillous^ and will spread its selfe at large; the common
people are enthralled to iheir greatness, terrified w^ their
threats, refuseth rath' to loose their rights than w^ ther
great charge to contend "w^ them in the law. The pooie
tenants of the queene complayne, that the officers tmder
her do exact such huge fines for themselves, more than the
queene doth, that thereby they are undone, b .... the
thraldome layed upon them by carriages, labours, threats,
am ... . and other terrors, of w<^ if they should complayne

at London, their maintayne the charge, and

likewise according the border fiishion, such a person shall
hardly escape a cruel revenge (even unto death), whereof
some attempts have been made since my comming. Letsuche
fowle crimes be complayned of to the sessions, if it doth
conceme the follower of a principall gentleman, either shall
the evidence be suppressed, or some extraordinary fkvour or
other wilbe shewed. What remedy can this place afibord
such complaynants ? by way of instrucdons we have no
authority to meddle w^h misdemeanors in the fewer English
shires, by the commissione of oyer and terminer wee cannot
send for the malefactor out of the countie. When the
justices of assise do come downe, remedy may be expected
by them, and in the meane tyme ether parties are com-
pounded, or evidence wilbe withdrawne; thus shall the
mightyer prevayle, and the poorer go to the wall. Worces-
tershire growedi as vehement almost as Herefordshire, by
the means of S' John Packington, now high sheriffie of the
sayd countie; the deputie lieutenants there, as also in
Herefordshire (Thomas Harleigh, Esq. and S' William
Liggen, knight), do refuse once to visite me, so y^^ I do
forbeare to grant them my deputadons till I see better
conformitie. And am out of hope to prevayle yv^ them for
mustermaster's places untill they knitt a fijrmer league w^

me, I am bould to trouble y loP w^b a large discourse^
relying upon yo' loP favour for my assistance in this place,
praying yo' loP, that either speedely I may be strengthened
against these ambitious gentlemen, or otherwise, that his
matiM iinll may be made knowne unto me, that I may know
what to obey ; 'for by this doubtfulness both his matie is
dishonored and his people discomforted. Thus hoping to
receive some comfort from yC* loP, I rest

To^ loP assured to command, Ba. Exjrb.

Ludlow QuOe, this xxxth of Jan. 1607."

A few slight allusions in contemporary writers, and an
examination of the records of the corporation (which are still
numerous and valuable) convince us that at the period of
which we have now been speaking, Ludlow was a populoiw
town, and that it received from the presence of the court
and the numerous class of persons who for different reasons
followed it, a character of splendour and gaiety which was
not seen in other towns of the same dimensions. It appears
to have been notorious for the number of its inns and its
lawyers. The celebrated Richard Baxter, when a mere
youth^ lived as a pupil with the chaplain of the council in
Ludlow Castle, and in his memoirs, printed under the title
of " Beliquiee Baxterianae," he has hinted more than once at
the licentiousness of the place. " About seventeen years of
age," he says, " being at Ludlow castle, where many idle
gentlemen had little else to do, I had a mind to learn to
play at tables ; and the best gamester in the house under-
took to teach me." And he tells us that '' the house was
great (there being four judges, the king's attorney, the
secretary, the clerk of the fines, with all their servants, and
all the lord president's servants, and many more) ; and the
town was full of temptations, through the multitude of per-
sons (counsellors, attorneys, officers, and clerks), and much
given to tippling and excess."

This court must soon of itself have become obsolete, but
the breaking out of the civil wars inflicted a blow on it from
3 I

which it never recovered; and with its decline it is my
intention to close this sketch of the history of the Wekh
border. Ludlow Castle^ occupied for a considerable time by
the royal party, acted no great part in the civil conten-
tions of the sixteenth century. Important as a medieval
fortress on the borders of a warlike and only partially con-
quered people, it was not so, either by its position or character,
in the warfare which now desolated the kingdom. On the
9th of June, 1646, it was surrendered to the parliamentary
general. Sir William Brereton, and the court of which it
had been so long the seat was not only virtually, if not ac-
tually abolished, but even the furniture of the castle, like
that of the other royal houses, was inventoried and offered
for sale. The inventory of the goods in Ludlow Castle at
this time is sufficiently curious to justify our inserting it
here both as giving us some notion of the style in which it
was furnished, and because we find in it the names by
which most of the apartments were known at that time,
and the purposes to which each was applied.

GOODS INVENTOEIBD AND APPBAISBD IN LITDLOWB CABTLB,
BELONOINe TO THE LATE KINO, Y^ 81"* OF GOTO* 1650.

In the PHfice' 8 Chamber. £ s. d.

One standing bedstead covered w^ watched da-
maske, with all the &miture suitable thereunto
belonging, valued at . . , . . 30 0 0

Sold to Mr. Bass, y« 11«» March, 1650,« fop 86/. 10».
Two fustaine quilts, one fiistaine downe bedd and
bolster, one fether boulster, a paire of fustaine blan-
ketts, one watched rugg, and a woollen blankett,
valued together . . . . . 6 10 0

Two small Turkey carpitts . . . 0 12 0

One old stript curtaine and rodd . . 0 6 ^

A table, and a court cuppboard . . .050

• This of course means 1651. By the old mode of reckoning time tbe
year began on the 25th of March, so that the January, February, and
March to the 24th, were considered as belonging to the prenoos year.

One pr* of a&dirans w^ brass knobbs, a fire
BhoTell, and a fire grate, and a wicker abeen . 0 12 0

All sold to Mr. Bass as appraised.

Suit of old tapistry hangings, cont. in all 120 ^^%
at 2«. per ell . . * . . 16 0 0

Sold to Mr. Cleam* y« 18*«» January, 1660, for do.
In the FaOet Chamber.
One small fether bedd and boulster, one pillow,
two blanketts, two ruggs, one half head board, one
skreen, one curtaine, one old table . . . 2 10 0

In the little wainscote garrett next to it, one old
table, a necessary stoole and pann . . .060

In the neat Boome to the Frme^s Sedehamber.
Three tables and a court cuppboard, one wicker
skreene, one fire shoyell, and one old press . . 0 18 0

In a Wainseatt Oloaett.
One barber's chabe, a table, and an old chest .070
Sold to Mr. Bass y« W^ May, 1660, for 4/.
In the Shovell Board Boom,
Nine pieces of green carsey hangings paned with
gilt leather, eight window curtains, five window pieces,
a chimney peice and curtaine rodds, and three other
small pe^' in a press in the wardrobe, at . 26 0 0

With y« Protector.

One large ahovell board table, seven little joyned
formes, one side table, and a court cupboard . . 2 10 0

One small Turkey carpitt, and two old joyned
stooles . . . .070

Sold Mr. Bass for 21. 178. as afforesaid.

One large fire grate in y^ chimney . .10 0

One brood green doth carpitt . . .260

Sold Mr. Bass for 3/. Ss. as afibresaid.
In the Chief Chamber.
One old joyned beddstead with doth curtains and
vaUonce, one press and an old chaire, and a stoole .200

424 THB HISTOBT OF LUDLOW.

One other table, three old peices of dammaske
haagingB, aBettlebed^aiodajoynedBtoole . 0 10 0

In the Gentleman Ushef^s Chamber.
Four peioes of stript hangings, three old Turkey-
worke stooles, two tables, one bedstead . . 1 10 0

One half-headed bedstead, one fether bedd and
cover lidd, and three pieces of old damix

All these sold Mr. Bass for 4/. y* 7th Sept^ 1650.
In the Steward^ 8 Chamber.
One suit of old damix hangings, cent, severall
peices, three carpitts of y« same, two tables, one
cuppboard, one travice curtaine and rodd, one wains-
cott chaire, three joyned stooles, one leather chaire
and stoole, one Turkey cushion, one frame foir a
bason, one other leather chaire, one fire grate in the
chimney, one fire shoyell, tongs and a paire of bellows,
one fether bedd, two boulsters, twp pillowB, two
blanketts, and one rugg, valued altogether at .400

Sold Mr. Bass y« 7^ Sep' 1660, for 4/.
In the Closeti next to U.
One necessary stoole and pann, two covers, one
table, and two firames to hang cloths upon . . 0 10 0

Sold Mr. Bass, as above, for tenn shillings.
In the Stetoard'i Man'i Chamber.
One half-head beddstead, w^ a damix cannopie,
one feather bed, one boulster, two blank^', one red
rugg, one settle, two old tables, and one joyned
stoole, valued together . . . . 2 10 0

In y* Secretary' 9 Man*$ Chamber.
One half-headed beddstead and table, and one
dose stoole . . . . .080

In the Clerh of the Kitchin'i Chamber.
Two old tables and a joyned chaire, two beddsteds,
one fether bedd, one pillow, one rugg, and two blan-
kets, four old stooles, one cushion, three curtains to
the bedd, and a window curtaine, one fire grate, and
a table in j* closett . . . . .200

Sold Mr. Bass, with No. 97, for 5/. as above.

£. s. d.
Jn the GavemourM' Quarien, formerly tke Ju$Hce$' Lodging.

Six pieces of tapistry hangings . . 18 8 0

Sold Mr. Cleament y* 18 January 1650, for do.
Three small Ihirkey caipitts .10 0

Sold Mr. aeomS for do.

Tenn Turkey worked hack chaires . . 8

Sold Mr. Brown y« 28th January, 1660, for 3/.
In the Govemour*M Quarier$m
Three tables and a court cuppboQurd . . 0

One large carpitt of green cloth . . .1

One fire grate for y« chimney . . .0

One old beddstead, one press, one trundle bedd-
sjhpad, and three green curtains

Sold Mr. Bass y« 7«» Febr 1660, for do

0 0

One suite of damix hangijsgs, one beddstead, three
old tables, one cuppboard, one Turkey carpitt, one
trundle beddstead, two window curtains, one rodd,
one press, two peices of wainscott, one fire shovell
and tongs ......

A piece of old damix, one table, one chaire, and
aome small books .....

0 15 0

8 0 0

0 10 0

One eight square feather bed and boulstei

. 2 10

Two other small feather beddsteads

. 8 6

Two fether beds without boulsten

. 8 0

Pout old pillows .

. 0 10

One flock boulster

, 0 8

One old quilt

. 0 8

Twelye dd blankets

. 1 4

Eight old ruggs .

. 2 0

Two old tables, and one Turkey carpitt

. 0 12

Two old Telret stooles

. 0 10

Two old blew doth stooles

. 0 6

One wicker skreene

. 0 2

One fire grate for a chimnej

. 0 6

^26 THE HI8T0RT OF LUDLOW.

£. 8. d.
A pair of green sea curtainB and yallance for a
bedd . . . . . 0 10 0

One beddfltead with green curtains and vallanoe,
one table, one damix carpitt, one leather chaire, six
stooles and a back stoole, a fire grate and fire irons . 1 10 0

One old joyned bedstead, one wainscott press,
and one old court cuppboard .10 0

One Bedstead and curtains . 0 15 0

J^ the Govemauf^i Kitchen.

Two tables, one forme, seven cushions, two old
chaires, one court cuppboard, one press for linnen,
one window curtaine, and a rodd . . . 1 10 0

Divers parcells of pewter inventoiyed att the

end: —

One brass pott . 0 10 0

One possnet . .020

One kittle . .070

One brass cuUender, a scinuner, and a broaken

befeforke . . . .080

All sold to Mr. Bass as appraised.

One table and a piece of damix . . .050

A brass mortar, pestle, and two spitts . 0 12 0

Here ends the Governor's Quarters.
In the Great Kitchen.
One pr« of large racks, one barr of iron before the
fire, two large griddirouB or grates to sett dishes
upon, and other wooden lumber there . . 1 10 0

In the Sremhouae.
Three fats and three coolers, one copper, two
leaden cestemes, one pumpe, two leaden troughs
and a leaden pipe, with other impljments thereunto
belonging . . . 15 0 0

THB HISTOBY OP LUDLOW. 427

£. 8. d.

In the JFett House.
One leaden cesteme, and two lairge bucketts with
iron hoopes . . . . .300

In the Bdkehauae*
One trough, one bynn, and one kneading board .060

In a roome acHoyning to it.
One grinding mill with all neceBsaiyB belonging
to it . . . . . . .500

In the Ooalehouse.
One paire of scales and three great weights . 0 5 t)

In the CknmeiU Chamber.
Three tables, one forme, one wickar skreene and
fire grate, and two stooles . . . .10 0

In the Dairy House,
Severall chest wracks and a dresser . 0 10 0

In y^ room called y^ Doctor^ $ Chamber.
One beddstead, three stript curtaifts and a tester,
one feather bedd, bcmlster, and three blanketts ; one
green rugg and one yellow rugg, six peices of stript
stuff, one table, one chaire, and one cuppboard, one
old Turkey stoole, one chamber pott, and one fire
shoyell and tongs . . . . .300

Sold all to Mr. Bass as above appraised.
In the Laundry*
Two half-headed beddsteads, two tables, two'cupp-
boards, and one forme . . . .080

In the Chamber next it.
One old beddstead and one forme . .040

In the Chappie Chamber.
A beddstead, four Ihirkey worke stooles, and a
table . . .080

In y* Hall. Two bng tables, two square tables
with formes, one fire grate, one side table, court
cuppboard, two wooden figures of beasts, three can-
dlesticks, and wracks for armour . . .10 0
In the Withdrawing Soome,

One suit of watc^ cloth hangings, pan* w*^ gilt

le&tbeff 1 Tjrmdow peice, a cuppboard clotb^ and 1
curiaiiie of Xiddftmiister fituff; 1 eurtaine rod^ 2
tables, 1 cuppboardi 1 fire grate, 1 p* of email andironB,
2 blew cloth carp% 'and two high stooles, euteable . 16

Two picturei, the one of the late king, Euid y*
other of his queeri' * * * >■ .0

In ihe Chamher culled the JA Berkiey^s Chamber .
One large press with lock and kej^ one table, one
cuppboard, one old feild bedd of watch^ dammaskej
i^k^e curtainea and a head cloth, one fethcF bedd^
two blanketts, one rugg, six old peices of atript stuff,
and one old stoole , . . * ,4

In a (yhamhtr called the Lad^ Alice her Chamber,
Two old tables, one necessary stoole and pan, one
suit of old damix hangings, one paire of dogg irons,
two cupboards and an old etoole . , 0

Sold all these to Mr. Bass as above apprais^.
In ike Roome adjo^nin^ to it.
One half-headed beddatead and a preaa . . 0

In a Chamber called y* €&nttabl^i.
One beddstead, two table i, one f ether bedd and
boulster, two piUows, three blankettB, one ruggj three
CLiBhioDB, one etoole, and a cuppboard . , 2

In Mr, Houghton** Roome,
One fether bedd and boulster, one blankett, one
rugg, one cuppboard, and an old bedatead . . 1

In a low Rmme near it.
One dresser board and other lumber . . 0

In the Mmnhaltt Quarters,
One f ether bed and boulster, two ruggs and one
blaukett, one bedatead, one trundle bedd, one table
and frojue, one little bench, one round iron for y* fire,
y* fire shovell and tongs, and three joyned formes * 2

One fetlier bedd and boulater, one side table, 4
atufl" carpitt B^ 2 wainscott chairs and a bedstead

£. 8. d.

One table, one forme, one press, one cannopy bed,
three bafe-headed bedsteads, and one high bedstead .10 0

One table, four stoolcs, four chairs, and one
beddfltead . . .080

In the Porter^s Lodje,
One little brass pott, a wamiing pann, and an
old tray . . . .060

On y^ oilier side ofy^ Gate.
One fether bedd, two boulsters, one pillow, two .,

blankitts, one rugg, one beddstead, two joynt stooles,
and one table . .200

One table, one iron rack, one p® of andirons, and
two stooles . . . .080

Over y* Riding House,
Two hatfe-headed beddstcads, one chest, and one
table . .060

Sold Mr. Bass all these as above appraised.
In y^ Court House of Justice.
One fether boulster and one brass pott . 0 14 0

The seat of Justice tables and benches . 0 10 0

In y^ Secretary's Chamber,
One liyery beddstead, one old table, two pieces of
Kiddermuster hanging, two pieces of darnix, one
window curtain, three curtains more of y* like stuff
about y« bedd, and 1 old carpitt . . . 1 10 0

In the Secretary's Study,
One Yelvett chair, two cushions, and other lumber ;
one table, one joynt stoole, one necessary stoole and
pann, and one old blew rugg . 0 18 0

In the Scullery.
One furnace and some small shelves, and in the
chamber belonging to it one bedstead . . 0 15 0

Sold all these to IVIr. Bass as above appraised.

In the first Wardrobe.
Two flock bedds, two boulsters, two ruggs, old
and rotten . . . 0 15 0

Twelve ruggs and seventeen blanketts . .300

S K

Three fether pillows
Twenty and four old cushions
Twelve fether bedds and six boulsters
Three small Turkey
One old rotten quilt

A. IS. u.

.060
.14 0
. 14 0 0
. 0 14 0
.006
Two pieces of tapistry hangings which were used
in y« Court of Justice . . .486

Five old green cloth carpitts, and one long carpitt
suitable . . .10 0

^ Eleven window curt"* of several sorts . . 0 12 0

One warming pann .020

A brass perfuming pann ,010

A brass pan, one pott, and a little kittle . 0 16 0

Sold all these, as above appraised, to Mr. Bass.
Three broken lanthoms . . .030

Sold Mr. Brown y« 28th JanT 1650, for three shillings.

One half-head bedstead

Sold Mr. Bass.

Thirteen old ciirtaine rodds, with some old iron
and other lumber ....
Sold Mr. Bass.

One large old Bible

Sold Mr. Bass.
In the inward Wardrobe,
Six cushions of cloth of Turkey worke .

Sold Mr. Bass.

0 ^ ^

10 0

0 6 0

0 ^ (^

A parcell of ragged sheets and table cloths, about
fourty - . - . - 0 6 0

Sold M'. Humphrey y« 28th Jan^, 1660, for 6».

One half-headed beddstead, w^^ a damix cannopy,
and two cushions - - - - 0 6 ^

Sold Mr. Bass.

THB HISTORY OF LXTDLOW. 481

£. 8. d.

One old quilt - - - - - 0 2 0
Sold to Mr. Bass.

One Turkey choir, one fether bolster, three
necessary stools w^^ poons, one bathing tub, w*^
other lumber - - - - 0 16 0

Sold to Ditto.
One travifis curtaine, one peice of an old damix
curtaine, and an head board of the same - - 0 4 0

Sold to Ditto.

One suit of old stript stuffe hangings, two peices
of green cotton, two window curtains and a rodd - 1 0 0
Sold Mr. Bass.

One French bedstead apparell* w**» green sea
curtains and vallance - - * - 1 0 0

Sold Mr. Bass.

Six feather bedds, fiye boulsters - - -700

Sold Ditto.

One flock bedd, and two boulsters - -080

Sold Mr. Bass.

Twenty and four roggs and blanketts - -10 0

Sold Mr. Bass.

One old surplice of Holland

Sold Mr. Bass ditto.

-050

One dammaske towell tenn y^' in length, and
8 more of 9 yards a peice - - - - 1 12 0

Four more Damaske table cloths - - 8 0 0

Three cuppboard deaths of Damaske - • 0 12 0

Six dozen of Damaske napkins - - - 1 10 0

4S2 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW.

£. B. d.

Three p^ of old Holland sbeeta, and three p' of
pillowbers, and nine little pillowbers, four elbowe
pillows at- - - - - -4 15 0

Six smaU amiing towells - - - 0 2 0

One Dammaskc table cloth in length 10 j^* - 2 0 0

One other of y* same length - - - 1 10 0

One other of y« like Damaske - - - 0 16 0

One other of y" same, soniew' longer - - 0 18 0

One other - - - - - 0 10 0
All these sold IMr. Humpherys as above aprais^.

One other of y« like length . . . 0 10 0

One Dammaske table cloth 7 y^' long . .17 0

Another of the same length . . . 0 14 0

Seven Dammaske towells at 9 y*^' the peice . 2 16 0

Five doz" of dyiiper napkins . . .15 0

Three coarse ciippboard clotlis and two towells . 0 7^ 0
The chest y* contained y" s'^ lining . .030

Twenty old dyaper and flaxen napkins fidl of holes 0 15 0

Fifteen dyaper napkins, somewhat better . 0 15 0
Four doz' of old napkins, with y* trunk wherein

the lining was, and two joyned stoolea . . 0 10 0
Sold all these to IMr. Humpherys as appraised.

A p^ of andirons, fire shov", and tongs . ,060

In the closett w^Hn y* Wardrobe.
One piece of damix and two traviss curtains, one
old chaire and an old stoole . . . .080

In the Chaplain! 8 Chamber^
One old beddstead, five old sea curtains, two old
foulding tables, a fire grate, two window curtains, two
old wooden chaires, and a broken wainscott press .10 0
In the Gentlewoman^ s Chamber.
Two tables, one court cuppboard, one tire grate,
one halfe-headed beddstead, two fether bcdds, two
blanketts, one yellow rugg, one fether boulster, one
flock boulster, one black and white coverlidd, one

THE HISTORY OP LUDLOW. 4SS

£. 8. d.

green cannopie, y^ stuff hangings round ye room,
two old stooles, one fire shov'^ and tongs, one p' of
bellows, one candlestick, and a chamber pott.*
In y^ Countease her Chamber.
A table and an old bedatead . . .060

One beddstead w'*» a cannopie and curf** of
Kiddermust"^ stuffe, one feath' bed and boulster, three
pillows, y« stuffe hanging about y* chamber, one carpitt
of y* same, one court cuppb*^, a chamb'^ pott and fire
grate, two p' of tongs and fire shov", 1 p' of bellows
and two p' of old torn sheets, valued alltogether .810
In the Dry Larder,
Three brass pans . . . .10 0

One possnet and a fish kettle . . . 0 12 0

One brass kittle . . . . .050

One small kittle, two frying pans, and two driping
pans . . 0 16 0

Sold all these, as appraised, to Mr. Bass.

One great brass pott . . . . 0 16 0

Onetreyett . . .020

One p' of iron racks . . . .070

Eighteen spitts and 3 gridirons, and 2 iron plats
for y« fire . .10 0

One powdering table, and some old shelyes and
other lumber .060

One old long brass ladle . . . .010

In y* Wine Cellar ^

One little leaden cesteme, with some shelves and

other lumber . . • 1 10 0

In the Pauntry*

One press, one beddstedd, one chaire, two chests,

one bynn, and other lumber . . . .10 0

* No value is affixed to these.

£. B. i

In the Chamber over y* Portet^s Lodge*

One fire grate, one great brass pott, one wainscott
chaire, three etooles, one fire shov", two niggs, two
stript curt"", and two damaske curt^*», three blanket ts,
two small fether beds, two boulsters, one pillow, one
necessary stoole and pann, one old wooden shovell,
one old small buckett, two leather drinking jacks,
and one old lanthome, valued at . . .600

^ Particular of Pewter hrought and weighed all
together as it was found in severall plaices of y*
Castle, y^ 4 J^otf, 1650.

Tenn candlesticks, 4 basons and ewers, two hand
basons, one great pewter cestem, twenty pye and
pasty plates, two small dishes, thirty-nine dishes of
Beyerall sizes, two chamb' pots, forty-five dishes w«*^
where in y* Dry Larder, seventeen other chamb'' pots,
valued together . . . . . 15 0 0

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "The history of Ludlow and its neighbourhood; forming a popular sketch of the history of the Welsh border"

See other formats