4 HISTORICAL MEMORANDA OP 



Alfred the Great. That prince had been elected in preference to 

 his brother's children ; and as they were likewise passed over by 

 the Wittena at his death, whose choice was fixed on Edward, one 

 of them, named Ethel wold, attempted to seize the crown for him- 

 self. He not only raised an army, but allied himself with the 

 Anglo-Danes, and defied his cousin's power. In 905, he ravaged 

 Mercia, which comprehended that part of Herefordshire in which 

 Wigmore is situate : but he ultimately fell in a contest in Kent. 

 In 910, Edward, with the Mercians and West Saxons, marched 

 into Northumbria, destroying and plundering the Anglo-Danish 

 possessions. The following year, the northerns repaid this devas- 

 tation by an irruption into Mercia : nor was the superiority of the 

 Anglo-Saxon king, over his dangerous neighbours, fully established 

 till the battle of Wodensfield. He now pursued the plans of pro- 

 tection which his father had devised, and determined to defend the 

 frontiers of his dominions by a line of fortresses. In Mercia and 

 Wessex, he built castles which he filled with soldiers, who were 

 ordered, without waiting for the king or earls of the counties, to 

 join the provincials in repelling invaders. Upon the western limits 

 he appointed their erection at Wigmore in Herefordshire, Bridg- 

 north and Cherbury in Shropshire, Edesbury in Cheshire, and 

 Stafford and Wedesborough in Staffordshire, which seem to have 

 been chosen with great judgment. Thus the foundation of Wig- 

 more castle is fixed to the year 912, or soon after.* 



The military policy of Edward was proved by its issue. Two 

 Danish earls led a hostile fleet round Cornwall into the Severn, de- 

 barked, and plundered in Herefordshire, taking the bishop of Arch- 

 enfield prisoner. The men of Hereford, Gloucester, and the nearest 

 burghs, as the fortified places were called, defeated them, with 

 the loss of one of their chiefs, and the brother of the other. 



The next occurrence may probably be assigned to the year 1068. 

 William the Conqueror had returned to Normandy, three months 

 after his coronation, leaving the care of England to his favourite 

 William Fitz Osborne, who, according to Malmsbury, first incited 

 him to invade this country, and to Odo, his half-brother, bishop of 

 Bayeux. The exactions of the Normans augmented the despera- 

 tion of the Anglo-Saxons, until the latter broke out into revolt. 

 He returned ; but his mistrust of his new subjects calling forth his 



• In this year, says the Saxon Chronicle, died ^Ethelred, alderman (i. e. the 

 ruling person) of Mercia; Ethelfleda, his widow, in 920, when Edward in- 

 corporated that kingdom with Wessex. 



