Cheshire

by Charles E. Kelsey

Edward had not long received the Earldom of Chester from his father when the Barons' War broke out. Simon de Montfort made an alliance with Llewellyn the Welsh prince, and Chester, expecting an attack, was put into a state of defence. Abbot Simon could hardly have commenced building his beautiful Lady Chapel when he saw his church desecrated and turned into barracks by Sir William de la Zouche, the Chief Justice of Chester.

After the defeat of Henry and Edward at Lewes they were compelled to hand over to Earl Simon the Earldom of Chester, and Henry de Montfort, Simon's eldest son, came to Chester and received in his father's name the homage and oath of fealty of the citizens. Lucas de Taney was left in charge of the city.

Edward afterwards escaped from the custody of Earl Simon, and James de Audley seized the castle of Beeston on his behalf. He also besieged Lucas de Taney in the castle of Chester for ten weeks, but did not succeed in taking it on account of the excellent defence made by the garrison. De Taney surrendered when he heard of the death of Simon de Montfort at Evesham, where Edward won a great victory. The chief of the surviving barons were brought as prisoners to Beeston Castle.

But the great prize for which de Montfort fought and laid down his life was won. When Edward came to the throne he learned from the mistakes made by his father, chose his ministers wisely, and gave his people good laws. His reign saw the growth of a full and free parliament, in which all classes of free men were represented. Cheshire did not, however, send any members, but being under the personal eye of the king had still a separate government of its own as well as its own judges and law-courts.

Vale Royal reminds us of the great Plantagenet king, whose motto was 'Keep Troth' and who for thirty-five years did all he could to win the love of his people. Before Edward became king he went on Crusade to the Holy Land, where he distinguished himself by recovering the holy city of Nazareth from the Saracens. On his return he narrowly escaped shipwreck. In his peril he invoked the aid of the Virgin Mary, and vowed that if he were saved he would build a monastery in her honour on his return to his own country. The Chronicle tells us that 'the vessel straightway righted itself and was miraculously brought safe into port; the sailors disembarked, the Prince landing last of all, and immediately the vessel broke in pieces, and every fragment of the wreck vanished under the water'.

Edward 'kept his troth' and built a home for one hundred monks of the Cistercian Order at Darnhall. Four years later he laid the foundation stone of a stately Abbey at Vale Royal, in the very heart of Cheshire. Queen Eleanor and a great company of nobles accompanied him. We may not now hear the Angelus tolling its summons to evening prayer, nor see jolly monks fishing the streams of the Weaver, but in the last few months the foundations of the Abbey church where they chanted the mass have been discovered.

The abbey took more than fifty years to build, and it was not until the reign of the third Edward that the monks were able to move from their temporary lodgings to the new and spacious building. The abbey received valuable lands in the neighbourhood of Over, Darnhall, and Weaverham, of which villages the abbot became lord. By the ancient 'customs' of the manor of Darnhall the villagers were required to attend at the manorial, now the abbot's court; the abbot had power of life and death over all his tenants, who had also to grind all their corn at the abbot's mill; at the death of any native the abbot took all his horses, cattle, and pigs, and half of his standing and gathered corn.

Cheshire saw a good deal of Edward the First in the earlier half of his reign. In the year after the ceremonies at Vale Royal we find him at Macclesfield, when he began to build the parish church of S. Michael.

He was the first English king to take in hand the conquest of Wales seriously. In the reign of Henry the Third the Welsh had taken advantage of the king's troubles with his barons, and waged a murderous warfare on the Cheshire border. They advanced as far as Nantwich, and James de Audley, who owned a large part of the barony of Nantwich, saw his castles burnt, woods felled, and cattle destroyed. Preparations were made for a big expedition into Wales, and Prince Edward summoned the knights and barons of Cheshire to Shotwick Castle on the banks of the Dee. A grassy knoll, where once stood the castle keep, is all that is left of the scene of the gathering.