Gloucester has always been a town of importance, owing to its situation. A Roman camp was formed here in A.D. 43, and later it was fortified with a massive wall (of which the traces still survive), as befitted a military post equal in importance to Cirencester, Winchester, Chichester, and Colchester. Much of modern Gloucester rests on Roman foundations.
After the Romans left Britain in 410 A.D., the country suffered from the struggles between its petty kings, and from the invading hosts of the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons. In the end Gloucester, or Gleawan-ceastre, became one of the chief cities of the Mercian kingdom. Alfred held a Witan in the town in 896. Athelstan—the reputed founder of St. John's church—died in it in 940. King Edgar resided there in 965. Hardicanute and Edward the Confessor both held Witans here, but William the Conqueror must always be the central figure in the long line of notable men connected with Gloucester. It was in Gloucester that he spent his Christmas vacations when he could, and it was in the Chapter-House that he took "deep speech" with his wise men, and ordered the compilation of Domesday Book. His son and successor was often at Gloucester, and as Professor Freeman wrote, "in the reign of Rufus almost everything that happened at all, somehow contrived to happen at Gloucester." His death was prophesied by the Abbot of Shrewsbury in a sermon in the Abbey, and warning was sent to the king, but it was of no effect.
Henry I., Henry II., and John were frequently in the town, and the youthful Henry III. was crowned in the Abbey in 1216. Later on he was imprisoned in Gloucester by Sir Simon de Montfort. Edward I. held a Parliament, which passed the celebrated Statutes of Gloucester. Edward II., foully murdered in Berkeley Castle, was buried in the choir of the Abbey.
Richard II., in 1378, held his famous Parliament in the Abbey precincts. In this Parliament the House of Commons secured for itself the right of controlling the financial arrangements of the nation.
Henry IV. and V. assembled their Parliaments in Gloucester, and from Gloucester Richard III. is said to have issued the death-warrant of his nephews. Henry VII. was well received as Earl of Richmond, when he passed through the town on his way to Bosworth Field. Henry VIII., with Anne Boleyn, is said to have spent a week in what is now the Deanery. Later he visited the neighbourhood with Jane Seymour. Elizabeth visited the town, and stayed in the old house next to St. Nicholas' Church. She gave the city the privileges of a seaport, much to the annoyance of Bristol. Gloucester supplied one ship to the navy at the time of the Armada in 1588. In the disastrous Civil War the city played an important part. It is said that the unpopularity of Laud, who had been Dean of Gloucester, led the citizens to side with the Parliament. They held the city under Colonel Massie, against enormous odds, through a long siege, and the king, who had his headquarters at Matson House, was obliged, owing to the approach of Essex with relief, to raise the siege. This was a most serious blow to the failing cause of Charles I.
During the Commonwealth the citizens seem to have lost their heads somewhat, and to have turned against the officer who had saved their city from destruction. Some, too, had made arrangements for demolishing the Cathedral, but fortunately were frustrated in their plans.
As a matter of policy the city congratulated Charles II. at the Restoration in 1660, but without much result, as the walls and gates were ordered to be destroyed. James II. visited Gloucester, and is said to have touched over a hundred persons for the king's evil, a proceeding to which he objected on the score of expense.
The last two Georges visited the city, and Queen Victoria visited it when Princess Victoria, and again later, after her marriage.
The city, like Tewkesbury, is a curious admixture of the new and the old. It has long emerged from the primitive state, and is now well drained and well supplied with water; but the heavy penalty attaching to transition has been paid, and many old houses and historic buildings, like the Tolsey and others, have disappeared.
The history of Gloucester, commercially, is a history of progress. In Domesday Book, Gloucester is mentioned in connection with iron, the founding of nails for the king's ships. As the ore was obtained locally, this branch of trade flourished till the seventeenth century. Bell-founding was practised as early as 1350 by John Sandre, and one of his bells still hangs and rings in the cathedral tower. Cloth-making, too, was practised, but, declining in the fifteenth century, was superseded by pin-making, for which Gloucester was for many years famous. Glass-making was carried on in the seventeenth century, and the Rudhall family for several generations had a bell-foundry of wide reputation.