VII.

History

A quantity of evidence exists to show prehistoric settlement of the area, but the first main occupants were Anglo-Saxons, who arrived in the 7th century. Their territory soon became part of Mercia, and it was Offa, the Mercian king, who, in the 8th century, built the earthworks known as Offa’s Dyke as a defence against the Welsh. This part of England was in constant conflict for many centuries. Not only were there continuing skirmishes with the Welsh, but in the 10th century the local landowners were regularly threatened by Viking invaders. Although, shortly before the Norman Conquest, Harold II, king of England, had achieved some kind of order in the county, Welsh raiders continued to be a problem. For this reason, it was in the north and the south-west of Herefordshire that the Normans built the first two of their English castles.

In the second half of the 14th century, the county became sympathetic to the views of John Wycliffe, an early leader of the English Reformation, and over many decades gave sanctuary to his followers, known as the Lollards. During the Wars of the Roses, Herefordshire was firmly on the Yorkist side, and provided a major army for the Duke of York, later to become Edward IV, who defeated the Lancastrian forces at the Battle of Mortimer's Cross, north-west of Leominster, in 1461. Herefordshire supported the Royalists during the English Civil War, during which the city of Hereford changed hands several times before being finally subjugated.