264 



in the time of Haeold had made themselves masters of Caerleon, 

 Caerwent, Chepstow, and Monmouth ; and the Norman Barons 

 appear to have retained these places, from whence, by a series 

 of raids, they at length mastered the whole country, which at 

 that period was known as Gwent. It was not till the reign of 

 Henkt II that the line of petty princes who had ruled over 

 Gwent became extinct, — say some 60 years before the date I 

 have just quoted as that in which the first mention occurs of 

 the Castle of Caldicot. 



The Humphrey de Bohun, to whom the Castle then belonged, 

 was the fifth Earl of that line, and went by the sobriquet of the 

 Good Earl of Hereford. He died in 1275, and was buried before 

 the high altar in the priory of Llanthony. 



The fifth descendant of this good Earl of Hereford, also a 

 Humphrey de Bohun, died in 1373, leaving two daughters, of 

 whom the elder married Thomas de Woodstock, Duke of 

 Gloucester, and the younger Henky de Bolingbroke, who 

 afterwards became King Henry the Fourth. 



This Duke of Gloucester obtained the Earldom of Hereford, 

 and the High Constableship of England, and came into posses- 

 sion of Caldicot Castle. 



The Duke's inordhiate ambition got him into trouble, which 

 ended in his being murdered. As Froissart says in his 

 "Chronicle," "When he had dined, and was about^to have 

 washed his hands, there came into his chamber four men, and 

 cast suddenly a towel about the Duke's neck, and drew so sore 

 that he fell to the earth, and so they strangled him, and closed 

 his eyes." This was in 1397, in the time of Richard the Second, 

 who is believed to have been at the bottom of the affair. 



Caldicot Castle was at this time possibly confiscated to the 

 crown, as the Duke of Gloucester was under an attainder for 

 treason. 



He left one son, who died without issue ; and his daughter 

 became co-heiress of^the de Bohun estates. She married Edmund 

 Earl of Stafford, and ancestor of the celebrated, but unfortunate, 

 Henry Duke of Buckingham. This Eai-1 Stafford was killed at 

 the battle of Shrewsbux-y, and died seized of Caldicot Castle. 



