In 926 the Britons were driven from Exeter by Athelstan, who banished them into Cornwall, and fixed the River Tamar as their boundary. Athelstan was one of the greatest benefactors the city has had; for, in addition to increasing the fortifications by means of a massive wall flanked by towers, he built a castle on the Red Mount, now known as Rougemont Castle. Although very little of this now remains, a portion of the ruins is generally known as "Athelstan's Tower", and has a window with a triangular head, which is certainly of Saxon style and date. In 932 Athelstan rebuilt the Monastery of Our Lady and St. Peter, staffing it with monks of the Benedictine Order, and presenting them with the reputed relics of St. Sidwell, a saint who is still somewhat of a puzzle to ecclesiologists. A few years later the monastery was plundered by the Danes, when the monks beat a hasty retreat, but returned in 968 on the entreaty of King Edgar. A mint was shortly established here, wherein the first coins were struck naming Athelstan "King of England".
The Danes made continuous raids in the neighbourhood, but were decisively defeated by the West Countrymen in 1001, at Pinhoe, a few miles from Exeter. From that time until the treacherous massacre of the Danes in Wessex upon St. Brice's Day in 1002 by Ethelred, this part of the country was comparatively free from their inroads; but Gunhilda, the sister of Swegen, King of Denmark, being among the slain, this king came to avenge her death. He sailed up the Exe, burning and plundering the villages on its banks, and for four years his army marched in every direction across Wessex, and was at length induced to withdraw on being paid a wergeld (war tax) which was first levied on Exeter.
After the Battle of Hastings, Gytha, the mother of Harold, took refuge in Exeter, and Leofric, the bishop, offered to render homage to William as Royal suzerain; but the Conqueror would have no half-hearted submission, so Exeter closed its gates to the Normans. It held out for eighteen days, when the military science of the Normans, and particularly the skill they showed in undermining the walls, caused it to surrender. The resistance won the besiegers' respect and brought unusually good terms from so ruthless a victor as William. The lives of the garrison were spared, Gytha was allowed to seek safety by sea, and it has been said that the victorious troops were withdrawn from the city gates to prevent them from claiming the licentious privileges so generally granted to their followers by the Norman kings.
As is fitting for its county town, the first entry in the Devonshire Domesday deals with Exeter, in which city, it is recorded, the king had 285 houses rendering customary dues. The generally debased character of the coinage of the time led to various expedients being adopted by the Exchequer for securing approximately accurate payment of a specified sum of money. Among other things the entries in Domesday state that in the total—
"This (city of Exeter) renders 18 pounds per annum. Of these Baldwin the Sheriff has six pounds by weight and assay, and Colvin has of them 12 pounds by tale for the service of Queen Eadgyth".
This entry is significant, for one pound or twenty shillings meant one pound or twelve ounces troy of silver; and when money was payable by weight twenty shillings were not taken as the equivalent of one pound unless they fully weighed one pound. In this instance it is observable that the portion of the customary dues rendered for the 285 houses, which went to the Exchequer, was collected by the sheriff under the strictest rules of weight and assay, whereas the portion allotted to the widow of Edward the Confessor was received by the tale only. The authorities took care that the sheriff collected the full amount due to the Crown, but did not trouble themselves about the ex-queen's share.
It has been affirmed that it was by the Normans that the fairs of England were moulded into the shape with which we are most familiar. At Exeter, in 1276, in reply to a writ of quo warranto, it was satisfactorily shown that the rights of the city, its fee-farm rent and its farms, dated from pre-Conquest days. The privileges and emoluments attached to fairs in large towns were very great. During the time allotted to them the citizens were often debarred from selling anything, whereas strangers could vend their wares during the fair, but at no other period of the year. In Cossin's Reminiscences of Exeter (1877) we are told how "at Exeter, on the occasion of the Lammas Fair, a procession yet perambulates the city, one man bearing a pole with a gigantic stuffed glove at the top of it, the latter being subsequently hung out at the Guildhall".
GUILDHALL PORCH
Many of England's reigning sovereigns have visited the city, among them being Edward IV and Richard III. Henry VII came thither on 7 October, 1497, on the suppression of Perkin Warbeck's rebellion, when that rebel had attempted to capture the city. The rebels were brought before the king, bareheaded and with halters round their necks, and after they had pleaded for mercy Henry pardoned them. On his departure, the king presented the civic authorities with a sword and cap of maintenance, both of which are still carried before the Mayor and Corporation on occasions of state.