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Alfred
the Great's daughter, Aethelflaed, the
'Lady of the Mercians' has fortified
the towns of Mercia, including Hereford,
in response to the threat from the Danes
who occupy most of England and are marauding
in Wales.
For two hundred years, a wooden cathedral
has stood near the central crossroads.
At the bottom right, an equally old,
or even older, monastery lies outside
the defences. The latter's cemetery
is the burial ground for the whole town.
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Burgred
0f Mercia
When
Offa died in 796 Mercia's security must
have seemed fairly assured. Mercia's
defeat by the West Saxons under Egbert
at Ellendun in 825 led to a brief period
in 829 when it was subjugated. King
Wiglaf seems to have regained independence
for Mercia in 830 and returned it to
more or less its former territories.
Wiglaf was succeeded by Beorhtwulf.
In
the mid 9th century Mercian expansion
south of Hereford led to the annexing
of northern Ergyng. Writing in the 12th
century the author of the 'Life' of
St Oudoceus (Euddogwy) says that at
this time the area was lost to the English
'from Moccas to the Dore to the Worm
to the Tarader'. This may have been
as a result of a campaign by King Burgred
of Mercia and his father-in-law, King
Aethelwulf of Wessex. |
The
confrontation between the various English
and Welsh kingdoms was soon to be complicated
by another threat. The first Danish
raiders had reached Sheppey in 835.
By 873 the Danes appointed a Mercian
thegn, Ceolwulf, as puppet king, and
Mercia was partitioned. Hereford was
in the rump of Mercia not under direct
Danish rule.
Ceolwulf is last mentioned in 877 and
we know nothing of the government of
Mercia from that date to 883, when the
Mercian leader was Aethelred. He is
styled 'ealderman' of the Mercians rather
than king and seems to have operated
under the suzerainty of the King of
Wessex, Alfred the Great. In 886 or
887 Aethelred married Alfred's daughter
Aethelflaed. |
The
Worm Brook - For generations this small
stream was the border between the Anglo-Saxon
kingdom of Mercia and British kingdom
of Glywyssing |
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The
Danes
In 893 Aethelred called out his thegns from
burhs (fortresses) including Hereford, together
with Welsh allies, to march against the Danes
and defeated them at Buttington in modern-day
Montgomeryshire. The Danes responded by ravaging
the length of Wales in 894 and 895.
The
Western walls of the City of Hereford.
The stone walls date from the mid 13th
century. Several phases of earth and
timber defences preceded these and the
first gravel bank may date from the
middle of the 9th century. The foundations
of earlier houses were buried beneath
the first defences. |
Aethelflaed
Aethelred suffered from severe ill-health
from around 900, and the effective rule
of Mercia passed to Aethelflaed, the
'Lady of the Mercians'. A formidable
woman, she appears to have commanded
her troops in person and undertaken
the fortification of the Mercian burhs
between 910 and 916. Hereford was one
of these burhs, and in 914 the men of
Hereford and Gloucester defeated a great
host of Danes in Archenfield (the old
Ergyng).
Aethelflaed not only fought the Danes
but was also active on the Welsh frontier,
on one occasion sending a force beyond
the Black Mountains to capture the Queen
of Brycheiniog, at Llangorse. |
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