But another epoch was now rapidly dawning upon the world. Rome had passed the meridian of her splendour, and she who, so short a time before, was acknowledged mistress of the world, felt the tide of conquest and prosperity visibly ebbing away. Insurrections abroad, divisions, tumults, and murders at home, served but to aggravate and complete her fall. After the departure of the Romans from this island, Chester appears to have been alternately possessed by the Britons, the Saxons, and the Danes; by the latter, however, it was held but a very short period, being restored to the Saxons by the valiant daughter of Alfred the Great, Ethelfleda, the wife of Ethelred, Prince of Mercia. This lady is said to have repaired the city and rebuilt the walls in 907, and, as some affirm, considerably added to their former extent. After her death, the city again fell into the hands of the British princes, from whom it was recovered in 924 by King Egbert, whose death almost immediately followed this event. National affairs were then conducted according to that
good old-fashioned plan,
That they shall take who have the power,
And they shall keep who can.
From this period to the Conquest, Chester has nothing of a tale to tell; but on the accession of William the Conqueror, he created his nephew Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, at the same time investing him with supreme authority throughout the county and city, so that he held as absolute a regal sway within those limits as the king himself had in his dominions. For one hundred and sixty years did Hugh Lupus and his successors, the seven Norman Earls of Chester, exercise their petty sovereignty over the city and county, until the death of Earl John Scot, in 1237, when Henry III. took the earldom, with all the powers annexed to it, into his own hands; and from that period to the present it has been held by the English Crown. The title of Earl of Chester was conferred by Henry upon his eldest son, afterwards Edward I. It has ever since been vested in the reigning monarch’s eldest son, and is now enjoyed by his Royal Highness, Albert, Prince of Wales, the hopeful heir of our beloved Queen.
“In 1255, the Welsh, under their Prince, Llewellyn, made an irruption into this neighbourhood, carrying fire and sword to the very gates of the city. The following year Prince Edward, who had recently been created Earl of Chester, paid a visit to the city, and received the homage of the nobles of Cheshire and part of Wales.” The hostile inroads of Llewellyn remained unrevenged until King Henry, in 1257, summoned his nobility and bishops to attend with their vassals at Chester, in order to invade the Principality.
“In 1272, Edward I. ascended the throne, and soon gave indications of his determination to subject Wales to the English crown. This monarch was at Chester in 1276 and 1277; in the former year he came for the purpose of summoning Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, to do him homage; who having refused to comply, he returned the next year with an army, and marching from Chester, took Rhuddlan castle, and made it a strong fortress. In 1282, we again find Edward I. in the city, where he resided from the 6th of June to the 4th of July. The following year, having been victorious in his expedition against the Welsh, he was at Chester with his Queen, and attended mass in St. Werburgh’s Church, on which occasion he presented the Abbey with a cloth of great value. In September, 1284, the King was at Chester for four days, and again passed through the city in 1294, on his march to Wales, to suppress the rebellion of Madoc.
“In 1312, Edward II. came to Chester to meet Piers de Gaveston, on his return from Ireland.
“In 1399, Henry of Lancaster, in arms against Richard II., mustered his troops under the Walls of Chester, whence, on the 19th of August, he marched for Flint, and returned on the following day with Richard, whom he lodged in a tower over the outer gateway of the castle, opposite to Glover’s Stone, from whence he was conveyed prisoner to London.
“In 1459, Henry VI., with Queen Margaret and her son Edward, visited Chester, and bestowed little silver swans on the Cheshire gentlemen who espoused her cause.
“On the 13th of July, 1494, Henry VII., with his mother and the Queen, came to Chester with a great retinue, from whence they proceeded to Hawarden; the Earl of Derby, and a number of ‘Chester gallants’ attending.
“The summer of the year 1507, was memorable here from the awful visitation of the ‘sweating sickness,’ which raged for a short time with great violence. It is recorded that 91 householders were carried off in three days by this distemper; but it is worthy of remark, that the female sex were generally exempt from the plague, only four having fallen victims to the disease. Cats and women have each nine lives! In 1517, the sweating sickness again proved fatal to many of the inhabitants; and the city was also infected with the plague, probably to a more serious extent. It is recorded that ‘many died and others fled out of the city, insomuch that the streets were full of grass;’ and ‘that for want of trading the grass did grow a foot high at the Cross, and in other streets of the city.’ In 1550 the city suffered severely from the sweating sickness, and to this affliction was added a great scarcity of provisions; corn selling in Chester at sixteen shillings a bushel. From the year 1602 to 1605, with few intermissions, the dreadful effects of the plague were experienced in the city. It is stated to have begun in the month of September, in the former year, at the house of one Glover, in St. John’s lane, in whose house alone seven persons died. The contagion was particularly fatal in 1603 and 1604; 650 persons died in the former year, and 986 in the latter; at one period 55 died weekly.—During this dreadful visitation, the fairs of the city were suspended, the court of exchequer was removed to Tarvin, and the county assizes were held at Nantwich. The plague had abated in the month of February 1605.”