Holinshed is of opinion that Ostorius Scapula was the founder of Chester, and the reasons he adduces are certainly very plausible. He says, “It is not unlike that it might be first built by P. Ostorius Scapula, who, as we find, after he had subdued Caractacus, King of the Ordonices, that inhabited the countries now called Lancashire, Cheshire, and Salopshire, built in those parts, and among the Silures, certeine places of defense, for the better harbrough of his men of warre, and keeping downe of such Britaines as were still readie to move rebellion.”
Passing over the space of a few years, we find Julius Agricola completing the conquest of this island. Such was his formidable power and skilful policy in governing the people, that we are told they soon became reconciled to the supremacy of the Roman arms and language. He quelled their animosity to the Roman yoke, and certainly did very much for the progress of the people in civilization, knowledge, and the arts of peace.
There is perhaps no place in the kingdom that can boast of so many monuments of Roman skill and ingenuity as Chester; but as these will be described in detail as we proceed, we need not specify them here.
About the year 448 the Romans withdrew from the island, after having been masters of the most considerable part of its territory for nearly four centuries, and left the Britons to arm for their own defence. No sooner, however, had the Romans withdrawn their troops, than the Scots and Picts invaded the country with their terrible forces, and spread devastation and ruin along the line of their march. These vindictive and rapacious barbarians, fired with the lust of conquest, made a pitiless onslaught upon the property and lives of the people. The unhappy Britons petitioned, without effect, for the interposition of Rome, which had declared its resolution for ever to abandon them. The British ambassadors were entrusted with a letter to the legate at Rome, pathetically stating their perilous dilemma, and invoking their immediate aid.
The intestine commotions which were then shaking the Roman empire to its centre prevented the masters of the then world from affording the timely aid sought at their hands.
Despairing of any reinforcement from Rome, the Britons now invoked the aid of the Saxons, who promptly complied with the invitation, and under Hengist and Horsa, two Saxon chiefs, who were also brothers, wrested Chester from the hands of the invaders. The Saxons, perceiving the weakness of their degenerate allies, soon began to entertain the project of conquering them, and seizing the country as their spoil. During the conflict which ensued between the Britons and Saxons, who from allies became masters. Chester was frequently taken and retaken, and suffered severely in various sieges. Ultimately, the Aborigines were totally subjugated under the mightier sway of Saxon arms.
In 607 Ethelfrid, King of Northumbria, waged a sanguinary battle with the Britons under the walls of Chester, whom he defeated.
It is recorded that he came to avenge the quarrel of St. Augustine, whose metropolitan jurisdiction the British monks refused to admit. Augustine is said to have denounced against them the vengeance of heaven, for this reason, three years previously.
Sammes, in his Antiquities of Britain, gives an interesting statement of this celebrated battle: “Edelfrid, the strongest King of the English, having gathered together a great army about the city of Chester, he made a great slaughter of that nation; but when he was going to give the onset, he espied priests and others, who were come thither to entreat God for the success of the army, standing apart in a place of advantage; he asked who they were, and for what purpose they had met there? When Edelfrid had understood the cause of their coming, he said, ‘If, therefore, they cry unto their God against us, certainly they, although they bear no arms, fight against us, who prosecute us by their prayers.’”
The victory was not destined, however, to be an abiding one. The supremacy of Ethelfrid over the Britons was not long in duration. History tells us that a few years after he had achieved his conquest, the united forces of Brocmail and three other British princes rescued from his hands the possession of Chester, and put his armies to flight. In 613, the Britons assembled in Chester, and elected Cadwon their king, who reigned with great honour for twenty-two years.