Hereford Castle

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A memorial erected in 1809 on the site of the former outer bailey of Hereford Castle

Hereford Castle is an Outbound castle in the town of Hereford , the capital of the English county of Herefordshire . It was built sometime before 1052, making it one of the oldest castles in England. It is believed that Hereford Castle was destroyed when the Welsh conquered Hereford in 1055, but was rebuilt in the following decade. In the civil war of anarchy during the reign of King Stephen , the castle was besieged three times; the garrison surrendered each time and so the castle changed hands.

Early history

In the 11th century, Herefordshire was regularly attacked by the Valais. Rather than always having the county capital's defenses repaired, Ralph the Timid , son of the Count of Vexin , decided to have a castle built in the defenses of Hereford. Ralph was named Earl of Hereford around 1046 ; the exact construction period of the castle is not known, but it already existed in 1052. This first castle is said to have stood in the same place as the later castle, in the east of the city. The areas to the north and west were densely populated and to the south is the River Wye . In 1055 Hereford town and castle were sacked by the Valais. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes the incident:

“And they gathered a great force of Irish and Valais; and Earl Ralph gathered a great army against them in the town of Hereford; where they met; but before a spear was thrown, the English fled because they were mounted. The enemy then set up a great bloodbath - about four or five hundred men; and nobody on the other side. They then went to the city and burned it down completely; and also the great cathedral, which the wealthy Bishop Athelstan had built, which they plundered and robbed it of its relics and its reef, and of all other things; and the people slaughtered them and led some away. "

Harold Godwinson had the city's defenses repaired in 1056, but what happened to the castle is not mentioned. Shortly after the Norman conquest of England in 1066, William FitzOsbern was named Earl of Hereford . He probably had the castle rebuilt, as it was restored in 1067 when, according to an entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Eadric Cild molested their garrison. William FitzOsbern died in 1071 and his son, Roger de Breteuil , took over the castle. He was involved in the unsuccessful uprising of the counts , which had the aim of overthrowing Wilhelm the Conqueror , and therefore lost the castle.

In April 1138, Geoffrey Talbot captured Hereford Castle from supporters of King Stephen. Later that year, King Stephen and his troops besieged the castle until the garrison surrendered. In 1140, during the anarchy, Geoffrey Talbot and Miles de Gloucester captured the castle from the garrison supported by King Stephen. During the siege the churchyard of St Guthlac was desecrated. The Gesta Stephani reports about the event:

“(...) everywhere the townspeople uttered screams and lamentations, either because the earth in their families' cemetery had been piled up into a wall and they - what a horrible sight - the corpses of their parents and relatives, some half rotten, some just buried, could see how they were mercilessly dragged from the depths, or because you could suddenly see how catapults were raised. "

Geoffrey Talbot and Miles de Gloucester had siege engines built so that they could attack the castle from two sides and the garrison surrendered. In 1154, Matilda's son, King Henry II , gave the moth of Hereford to Roger de Gloucester as a fiefdom, but rebellion ensued, King Henry reclaimed the castle and it remained in royal possession for the remainder of its days. 1216 appointed King John Walter de Lacy for High Sheriff of Herefordshire and asked him to watch over the royal castle in Hereford. The following year reinforcement work was carried out on the castle to protect it against Welsh attacks.

Welsh attacks

During the second war of the barons in the 13th century, the castle became the headquarters of the barons' party, headed by Simon de Montfort .

During the Owain Glyndŵr rebellion between 1400 and 1411, King Henry IV stayed at Hereford Castle and prepared attacks and raids into Wales there.

During the English Civil War , Herefordshire was largely a royalist stronghold , but Hereford Castle does not appear to have played a major role in the fighting. The castle was later sold to Sir Richard Harley and some of his friends, but subsequently fell into disrepair. The ruins appear to have been torn down in the 1650s and the building blocks were used for other buildings in the city.

According to the librarian and historian John Leland , Hereford Castle was once "almost the size of Windsor Castle " and "one of the most beautiful and strongest in England".

today

In 1746 the removal of the remaining ruins was ordered and the site was converted into a park, today's Castle Green . The castle moat became the Castle Pool .

In 1833 Castle Green (formerly the outer bailey) was leased to the city council for 200 years. Thus, the city administration is still responsible for maintaining the site as a recreational park.

The monument to Lord Nelson , which today stands on the former castle grounds, was erected in 1809 in the middle of the outer bailey. A pedestrian bridge, the Victoria Bridge , crosses the River Wye. It connects Castle Green with the footpaths along the river and those around the cathedral.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ron Shoesmith: Hereford City Excavations - Volume 1: Excavations at Castle Green . Council for British Archeology. P. 4. 1980. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
  2. ↑ Ron Shoesmith: Hereford City Excavations - Volume 1: Excavations at Castle Green . Council for British Archeology. P. 56. 1980. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
  3. ↑ Ron Shoesmith: Hereford City Excavations - Volume 1: Excavations at Castle Green . Council for British Archeology. P. 57. 1980. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
  4. ↑ James Ingram (translator): The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle . The Everyman Press, 1847 (1912).
  5. ↑ Ron Shoesmith: Hereford City Excavations - Volume 1: Excavations at Castle Green . Council for British Archeology. Pp. 4-5. 1980. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
  6. ↑ Ron Shoesmith: Hereford City Excavations - Volume 1: Excavations at Castle Green . Council for British Archeology. Pp. 57-58. 1980. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
  7. ↑ Ron Shoesmith: Hereford City Excavations - Volume 1: Excavations at Castle Green . Council for British Archeology. S. 5. 1980. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
  8. ^ RCH Davis (translator), KR Potter (editor): Gesta Stephani . 2nd Edition. Oxford Medieval Texts. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1976 (1955). ISBN 978-0-19-822234-7 . P. 109.
  9. ↑ Ron Shoesmith: Hereford City Excavations - Volume 1: Excavations at Castle Green . Council for British Archeology. S. 58. 1980. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
  10. ↑ Ron Shoesmith: Hereford City Excavations - Volume 1: Excavations at Castle Green . Council for British Archeology. S. 1. 1980. Retrieved June 7, 2016.

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Coordinates: 52 ° 3 '8.7 "  N , 2 ° 42' 43.8"  W.