Historical and Descriptive Guide Through Shrewsbury

by S. F. Williams

At the end of the eighth century, and during the reign of the Mercian King Offa, the Shrewsbury portion of Powis was surrendered by treaty to the Saxons. It was no longer a metropolis, but it retained, even in Alfred’s time, the distinguished name of Pengwerne. Scrobe, however, was substituted for Pengwerne in the reign of his successor, Edward the Elder, who held a mint here, and on one side of the coin was the inscription, Edward Rex Angliæ, and on the reverse, Aelmer on Scrobe.

Proceeding later on we come to the Danish invasion when Shrewsbury was an object of Danish cruelty in those struggles which took place between the ferocious pirates from Denmark and Scandinavia and the Saxons. At the time the Danes under Sween landed in the Isle of Wight, King Ethelred was at Shrewsbury. Here he called a council of his nobles to decide what measures should be adopted to effectually put a stop to the atrocities and limit the power of the Danes. A purchase of peace, advised by Edric, Duke of Mercia, was agreed upon; and England had to bear the infamy of obtaining the semblance of quiet (for the nation was soon again disturbed) by the payment of £30,000 sterling.

The character of Duke Edric was stained by a foul and treacherous murder committed near Shrewsbury. Edric invited Duke Alshelm, a royal prince, to a banquet, and afterwards induced him to accompany a hunting party. During the chase Edric led Alshelm, his chief guest, into a wood where a butcher of the town named Godwin Porthund, who had been employed for the purpose, lay concealed. This ruffian seized an opportunity to attack Alshelm, who was killed. It was this dastardly crime which caused the order recorded in Domesday Book that whenever the sovereign came here twelve of the citizens should constantly guard his person, and twelve should invariably attend him with weapons of defence when he went out hunting.

In the general victories of the Danes Shrewsbury revolted from the Saxon rule, and rendered allegiance to Canute; but in 1016 Edmund, son of Ethelred, marched to the town from the North, re-captured it, and punished his faithless subjects with great cruelty.

At the Norman conquest Shrewsbury was known from its paying “gelt,” that is, money for 200 hides of land. Of course, it did not escape the barbarities of William the Conqueror. The Welsh, about 1067 laid siege to the town, but William, coming hither from York, opposed the besiegers with the same relentlessness, the same cruelty that characterised the violent policy he everywhere else pursued.

In the reign of William the Conqueror the Earls of Shrewsbury held their court at Shrewsbury, which was then the capital of the earldom. William conferred the earldom, and with it a grant of the town and a considerable portion of the county, upon Roger de Montgomery, a near relative. William rewarded his commanders with estates—a very excellent remuneration for their services. These, given by the king, were held under the Earl of Shrewsbury; and amongst their fortunate possessors were ancestors of the families of Waring and Corbett. Both Roger and Robert Corbett held lordships or manors under Roger de Montgomery—the former to the number of twenty-four. Military offices appear to have been extremely profitable things in these days—the honours were something more valuable than crosses and medals.

The usages of Shrewsbury recorded in Domesday Book peril the basis of the fancy that their is a divinity about a king. It was ordered, for instance, that wherever the king slept in Shrewsbury twelve of the “best citizens” should be deprived of “balmy sleep” to guard him—him whom the celestial powers have been supposed to hedge. What if the monarch be a queen? For her safety no provision seems to have been made. It was further ordered that when the king went out hunting twelve trusty men should be sent about him to protect him; and that when he left the city—Shrewsbury being then called a city—the sheriff should send twenty horses—whether with or without riders is not said—to conduct him a short distance into Staffordshire. There is a strong element of non-divinity, too, about some other requirements, such, for example, as these: that the masters of the mint, of whom there were three, should pay the king 20s. at the end of every fifteen days while the money coined here continued in circulation; that the executors of every deceased burgess should pay the king 20s.; that every burgess who shall experience the misfortune of having his house burned down should forfeit to the king (who was least injured) 40s., and to his two nearest neighbours (who were most injured, or at least jeopardised) 2s. each, and that every woman marrying should pay fees to the king—a widow 20s., but a spinster (who was libelled by this valuation) only 10s. From other customs narrated in Domesday Book we learn that in King Edward’s time there were 250 houses in Shrewsbury, and an equal number of burgesses, who paid £7 16s. 8d. per annum in excise, and that the city was rated at 100 hides, of which the church of St. Alkmund had two, St. Julian half of one, St. Millburg one, St. Chad three and a half, St. Mary one rood, Duke Edric three hides, and the Bishop of Chester three hides. Some light, too, is thrown upon the “treatment of criminals.” Those who “broke the peace, given under the king’s own hand,” were outlawed; those who disturbed the peace were ordered to pay a forfeit of 10s.; and those who drew blood in a fight were fined 40s.

At the beginning of the 12th century, two years after the accession of Henry I., signs of disloyalty manifested themselves at Shrewsbury. Roger de Belesme, son of Roger Earl of Shrewsbury, who is described as “a rash and discontented young man,” was in favour of the pretensions of Duke Robert to the crown. He carried his views to the length of rebellion, and, to be prepared for emergencies, fortified his castles in Shropshire, and built a wall on each side of Shrewsbury Castle. One portion of this wall stands now on the Dana, another in Water Lane, and another along the Severn footpath on the Wyle Cop side of the railway bridge. Henry, who had himself reached the throne by an act of usurpation, declared “the rash young man” a traitor, and prepared to execute vengeance upon him. He marched through Bridgnorth, capturing it, to Shrewsbury, with a force of 60,000 soldiers, to besiege the town. Three days he gave the governors of the castle to consider whether they should lay down their arms, and threatened that if the Castle were not delivered to him at the end of that time, he would attack it and hang every person he seized therein. The Earl surrendered, implored the mercy of this merciless king, acknowledged his crime of treason, and was banished to Normandy by Henry who took possession of the town “to the general joy,” says one, “of all the people.” Henry granted the town a Charter, and there followed a succession of 32 Royal Charters to the second year of the reign of James II. The earliest Charter preserved in the archives of the Corporation is dated November 11th, 1189, the first year of Richard I.

During the civil wars between Stephen and Matilda, or the Empress Maud, as she is sometimes called, Baron William Fitz Allen, governor of the town, and sheriff of the county, who resided in the castle, espoused the cause of the Empress; but the town, after some resistance, was taken by assault, the baron’s estates forfeited, and several of the garrison hanged. Allen himself was compelled to escape and left the castle in possession of the king, who had conducted the siege in person. Allen fled to Matilda, and when she was finally necessitated to take refuge in Normandy he repaired to the court of France, where he remained until the accession of Henry II., when he returned, and all his estates, with the government of Shrewsbury, were restored to him.

In the early part of the next reign—that of John—numerous engagements happened on the Welsh borders between the royal forces and the Welsh; and Shrewsbury became the scene of several contests between the same apparently deadly and irreconcilable foes. Now it was captured by the Welsh; then they were beaten, dispersed, and the town retaken by the king. Peace was entered into only to be soon violated. Boys were exchanged as hostages for the due observance of the treaties. These were broken and the boys hung. Henry III. had his hands full with the frequent incursions of the Welsh. One year they, and the next the king, were masters of the town. The king and Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, were constantly at war. In 1215 Llewellyn held the town and castle with a large army. In 1220 Henry had succeeded to the possession of it. Animosities, however, continued to subsist between them; and thus the disturbances were prolonged, each party being alternately now victor and now vanquished, for a term of upwards of 80 years, from the reign of John, about 1200, to the infancy of that of Edward I., about 1282. During this protracted period of assault and counter assault—a period of great distress for the inhabitants who suffered from these perpetual contests, and peculiarly from the depredations of the Welsh—the town sustained the penalty of no less than seven sieges. The most notable and the most serious occurred in 1233, when the place was partly burned down, nearly every house plundered, and numbers of the inhabitants killed by Llewellyn, assisted by the Earl of Pembroke and other noblemen. Peace was once more obtained by offers of pardon to the Welsh on condition of their obedience. The terms were accepted; but in 1241 it again became necessary for Henry to march against the restless Llewellyn. A rebellions spirit also appeared about 1256 in the person of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, who seized the town without material opposition. In 1267 disturbances again broke out. Henry appeared at Shrewsbury at the head of his army to quell the discord. War was on the eve of being renewed when Llewellyn submitted, and peace once more was effected. In 1269 Henry’s eldest son was appointed governor of the town and castle, on the 23rd of September. Still the government of Shrewsbury oscillated between the Welsh and the sovereign power; and in 1277, Edward I, there was another open rupture. A novel course was adopted. Hostilities had been waged fruitlessly. Now the Courts of Exchequer and King’s Bench were removed to Shrewsbury that “they (the Welsh) might be awed into submission, and all necessary help be at hand for taming them.” The condition of the citizens was most distressing. The prey of their Celtic neighbours, they were also they prey of the wolves which inhabited the desolate mountains of the Principality, and which in herds ravaged the surrounding districts. About 1282, however, the Welsh were finally subdued; and their submission to the English government, which was then accomplished, has unquestionably been beneficial to themselves.