No material transactions appear to have occurred in the annals of Shrewsbury for nearly half a century, from the last named date until the conquest of England by the Normans under William. The city was then granted, together with nearly the whole of the county and a great proportion of land in other parts of the kingdom, to Roger de Montgomery, a Norman chief related to William, and by whom he was attended in his English expedition. Roger was no sooner put in possession of his newly acquired property, than being sensible of the advantages resulting from the situation of the town, he constituted it the capital of his earldom, and fixed his abode in it as lord paramount of the county; and having judiciously built a castle on the isthmus, for the purpose of protecting his residence from the attack of his enemies, with the assistance of inferior barons of his court, administered various solemn and kingly acts of justice, donation, and investiture within its walls. Earl Roger was, however, not suffered to enjoy the immense possessions bestowed on him by the Norman conqueror without molestation: Owen Gwynedd, a spirited Welsh chieftain, excited either by hopes of plunder or a desire to dispossess the invaders, of a place which was capable of being rendered a great annoyance to his countrymen in the hands of powerful enemies, attacked it with a considerable body of Welsh; and so important was his attack considered by William, that he marched with a numerous army from the north, for the purpose of repelling the daring disturber; nor did his usual good fortune desert him in this instance, Owen being defeated and a great portion of his followers slain. As a suitable acknowledgment to divine providence for his good fortune and the splendid triumphs of his arms, the Earl founded the benedictine Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul. A short time previous to his death he was shorn a monk. He died July 27th, 1094, and was buried in the chapel of the Abbey; over his tomb was placed an armed knight in stone.
Robert de Belesme, son of Roger de Montgomery, who succeeded his brother Hugh the Red in the earldom of Shrewsbury, united with the party who wished to seat Robert, duke of Normandy, on the throne, in lieu of Henry the First; and on the coronation of that monarch, openly rebelled against his authority, placing the castle under the command of Roger de Corbet, and garrisoning it with 80 soldiers. Henry immediately marched for Shrewsbury at the head of 60,000 men, and threatening, if the town was not delivered up to him in three days, to hang all he should find therein, Robert surrendered, and sent the keys to the king by Ralph, abbot of Seez, imploring his clemency: this was granted, but Robert was banished to Normandy, his immense estates forfeited, and the splendour of his baronial house for ever extinguished. Henry then took the government of the town into his own hands, and granted the inhabitants their first charter.—The restless disposition of Robert however still incited him to fresh acts of rebellion, but being taken prisoner, he was brought over to England, and being sentenced to perpetual imprisonment, he at length died a miserable death in Wareham castle.
In 1116, the nobility of the realm did homage to William, Henry’s son, at Shrewsbury, and swore allegiance to his father.
The conquest of Wales had always been a leading object in the politics of England, not only from the desire of more extensive dominion, but as a means of preventing in future the devastation and misery which the animosity of a warlike and injured people had occasioned on the English borders. The utility likewise of employing in foreign enterprises a martial nobility, inclined the Norman princes to encourage, by every incitement of advantage and honour, the dangerous designs of subduing or of making settlements in Wales. The consequence of the attacks of the rapacious Norman barons on the Welsh was, that Shrewsbury was continually subject to the ravages and injuries of the contending parties. Besides this, its natural strength and situation on the borders, or as they were then termed the Marches of Wales, rendered it extremely eligible for the rendezvous of the army employed in the Principality, and it was therefore frequently honoured with the presence of those who swayed the sceptre of Britain.
During the struggles between Stephen and the empress Maud, William Fitz Alan, governor of the castle of Shrewsbury, espoused the cause of the latter, and being joined by several noblemen and gentlemen in these parts, left his castle in the care of a deputy, from whom he exacted an oath that he would not deliver up his charge to the king. Stephen having taken the castle, and hanged several of the garrison for the obstinacy of their defence, Alan was forced to fly, leaving his castle and estates in the possession of the king; but on the accession of Henry II. he was restored to all his honours and estates, for his faithful adherence to the fortunes of the family.
In the beginning of the reign of king John, a royal council was assembled in Shrewsbury for the purpose of devising means to put a stop to the continual and harrassing incursions of the Welsh. Gwenwynwyn, prince of Powis, offered terms of reconciliation, but, without any apparent cause, he was detained a prisoner.—The Welsh shortly after attempted to recover their liberties; on this occasion John assembled a large army at Oswestry, and released Gwenwynwyn and several other Welsh chieftains, who immediately repaired to his standard with all the forces they could muster. Llewellin ap Jorwerth, who then governed Wales, was obliged to retire before this powerful army of the British monarch, and delivered hostages to answer for the rectitude of his conduct. But Llewellin, fired with the idea of rescuing his countrymen from the yoke of foreign government, once more broke the truce which had been concluded.
When intelligence of this event reached John, his heart was so steeled against the feelings of humanity that he ordered the immediate execution of the hostages, 28 in number, and chiefly children allied to the first families in Wales—a deed which renders his name worthy to be recorded on the same page, in the annals of cruelty, with that of Nero. Nottingham was the place in which this tragical drama was acted, and from thence John marched with his army for the purpose of chastising the Welsh; but fear and distrust took possession of his mind, and learning that the Pope had dissolved the allegiance of his subjects, he dismissed his army on a sudden and returned to London. Llewellin soon after suddenly appeared before Shrewsbury, which he now entered without opposition; nor did a long period elapse before the Welsh took ample vengeance for the cruelties committed on their countrymen. An insurrection having broke out in England, in consequence of the unpopular ministry of Peter de Roche bishop of Winchester, in the 17th of Henry III. many of the barons joined Llewellin, and having united their forces, laid waste the Marches, and entering Shrewsbury, after having plundered and burnt the town, in which were considerable riches, they put many of the inhabitants to the sword. Notwithstanding peace was established between the contending monarchs, the national jealousies and deep rooted hatred of the two nations were the fruitful source of perpetual conflicts, to repress which, Henry marched with his array to Shrewsbury, where, in 1269, peace was again restored, through the mediation of the Pope’s legate; and the town and castle of Shrewsbury were placed under the care of Edward, the king’s eldest son, afterwards the celebrated Edward I.
On the death of his father, Edward succeeded to the throne, and determined to exert every effort which his power and talents afforded, to obtain what had long been the object of his ambition, the entire conquest of Wales. Soon after Easter, 1277, Edward left London to regulate the measures of the ensuing campaign; and that the administration of justice might not be delayed, by the absence of the king and the length of the war, he removed the Court of Exchequer and the Court of King’s Bench to Shrewsbury.
In the general accommodation made with the vanquished followers of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, in 1264, Llewellin ap Gryffydd was included; but he saw that a blow was meditating by the English king, which though suspended for a time, would be the more severe, and fall with greater weight on his country. Llewellin thought it prudent to secure the support of the adherents of the house of Montfort, of whom many yet remained in England by solemnizing his marriage with the daughter of the late earl. He therefore demanded the young lady from the French king, to whose court on the demise of her father she had retired, but on her passage to Wales she was taken by some of the English vessels and detained at the court of Edward. Llewellin demanded the fulfilment of a treaty made between Henry III. and himself and the release of his bride from Edward, while the latter required Llewellin to appear and do homage for his kingdom, which he refused to perform unless hostages were delivered for the safety of his person. This was the ostensible cause of the war undertaken by Edward, and the pretext for attempting an entire conquest of the principality. Edward cautiously avoided putting to the test the well known valour of a nation inflamed with a just sense of their wrongs and proud of their ancient independence.—Llewellin unable to face an enemy pressing on by slow, cautious, and decisive operations, returned to the mountains of Snowdon, and Edward not choosing to enter the recesses of that difficult country, calmly awaited the result of his policy. The prospect of a famine seconded his prudential schemes, and Llewellin had no better alternative than to implore the clemency of the English monarch. Little generosity or pity was to be expected in the terms granted by Edward, and accordingly Llewellin agreed to pay 5000 marks as a fine; to do homage for his crown; to relinquish all the country between Chester and the river Conway; and to deliver hostages for his future submission.
On his return to London, Edward was attended by the Welsh prince and a numerous retinue of chieftains, for the purpose of swearing fealty to their conqueror. During their stay they were continual subjects of derision to the populace, who treated them as savages and laughed at their foreign garb and unusual appearance. To a people proud and irascible, and who, though vanquished, were still alive to injury and insult—to a sense of their own valour, and to the fond idea of their native independence, this treatment could not be pleasing. They therefore, privately entered into an agreement to revolt on the first opportunity; resolving to die in their own country as freemen, rather than come any more as vassals into England, to be the sport of a haughty and contemptuous nation. Accordingly they flew to arms. Edward, surprised to find himself again attacked by the Welsh prince, determined to crush effectually the rebellious spirit of the Welsh, and advanced from Shrewsbury with a considerable army. The progress of the king was at first slow, in consequence of several advantages gained over him by Llewellin, but the latter being at length surprised near Builth, in Brecknockshire, he was defeated, and together with 2000 of his soldiers, slain. Gratitude could pay no tribute to his memory so expressive, as the tears which his country shed upon the tomb of their prince, who, after many efforts to preserve the freedom of the land which gave him birth, fell in the conflict, and found an honorable grave in its ruins.