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In autumn 1016 King Cnut
appointed Hrani as Earl of the Magonsaetan (the people
who lived in the non-Welsh part of what is now Herefordshire
and the southern part of what is now Shropshire). Hrani was one of Cnut's
Danish followers, but Englishmen
also held senior positions in Cnut's system of government. By 1018 the
formidable Godwine was an Earl. Godwine married Gytha, a Danish
princess, and their sons received Danish names - Sven, Harold and Tostig.
Sven and Harold were to play major roles in Herefordshire.
It was probably Cnut who
extended the Wessex shire system into Mercia. Hereford became
a county town of an area which included the southern part of
the old Western Hecani/Magonsaetan territory and the northern
part of the old kingdom of Ergyng - southern Ergyng or
Archenfield retained its Welsh characteristics and its
political position is debatable.
The area now in the parishes
of Fownhope, How Caple, Brockhampton, Brampton Abbotts and
probably Holme Lacy were in Herefordshire: the area of
Ballingham, Bridstow, Foy, Hentland, Kings Caple and probably
Bolstone were in Archenfield.
The accession of Edward the Confessor in 1042 brought the
first Norman lords to England. Edward's nephew Ralph, known as
'The Timid' became Earl of Hereford. Other Normans built the
first castles in the country - at Ewyas Harold and Richards
Castle.
In 1055 Gruffydd ap Llewellyn,
King of Gwynedd and Powys, led an army towards Hereford. With
him was Ælfgar, the outlawed Earl of East Anglia. Ælfgar led
a force of eighteen ships companies of Vikings that he had
recruited in Ireland and it is likely that they sailed up the
Wye. Earl Ralph led his force of Normans and English to meet
them. In the battle that followed Ralph was decisively beaten
and the Welsh, with their Viking allies entered and burnt the
town of Hereford. Gruffydd returned home in triumph and laden
with booty.
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The combined militias
of England were put under the command of Harold Godwinson who
forced the Welsh back into the Black Mountains, west of
Hereford, while he camped in the Golden Valley beneath. The
stalemate was utilised by Harold to rebuild the defences of
the town of Hereford.
However this was not an
English victory. The Worcester version of theAnglo-Saxon
Chronicle says 'and then when they [Gruffydd and Ælfgar]
had done most damage, it was decided to revoke the sentence
of outlawry against earl Ælfgar, and to restore him to his
earldom'. Terms of peace were proposed and a meeting
between Harold, Gruffydd and Ælfgar was arranged. This
was at Billingsley in Bolstone parish - tellingly, on the
border between Welsh Archenfield and English Herefordshire.
The Welsh king was obviously not negotiating from a position
of weakness.
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