William the Conqueror’s castle

William the Conqueror’s victory at the Battle of Hastings was followed by years of uprisings. In 1069–70 the earldom of Mercia, which included modern Cheshire, rebelled. Once the rebels were defeated, William built a castle in Chester. He sited the earth and timber defences on the promontory overlooking the river crossing, outside the Roman fortress but protected on one side by a cliff.

Early Norman castles typically had a motte (a high, conical mound), topped by a timber tower, overlooking a bailey (a level area protected by a bank topped by a wooden palisade), which contained stables and so on. Until recently, the large earthen mound that supports the medieval Flag Tower was thought to be a motte.

But a recent archaeological survey suggests that William may have built a ‘ringwork’ – a ring-shaped bank and ditch. If so, the castle’s so-called outer ward (mostly covered by today’s car park), which historians have assumed was a later addition, was perhaps also built in 1070.

In 1071, King William gave the castle to his nephew, Hugh d’Avranches (d.1101), and made him Earl of Chester. The large earldom was very profitable. By 1086, its annual income was £136 (about £1 million today).

With a stronghold close to the Welsh border, Hugh spent years fighting the Welsh and eventually made himself ruler of much of north Wales. Due to his savagery in battle, he was nicknamed ‘the Wolf’.

Ranulf de Blondeville

Ranulf, 6th Earl of Chester, was probably born in Mid Wales in 1170, but his ancestors were Norman. A small man, he was described as having a ‘violent and ambitious temper’. He loyally supported a series of English kings, as long as he was well rewarded.

When he was about 18, Ranulf married Constance, the powerful Duchess of Brittany and King Richard I’s sister-in-law. About eight years later, in 1196, he was involved in a botched political plot. King Richard ordered him to kidnap Constance, together with Arthur, her son by her first marriage and Richard’s heir, and to hold them captive at a castle in Normandy. Richard then marched his army to ‘rescue’ them. The plan was contrived to assert Richard’s power over the Duchy of Brittany, but it quickly fell apart. Ranulf continued to hold Constance captive, and when he was forced to release her almost two years later, she immediately began divorce proceedings.

Ranulf fought in King John’s war against the Welsh in 1209–12. In 1218, he sailed to Egypt to take part in the Fifth Crusade, and soon after his return began building castles at Beeston in Cheshire and Bolingbroke in Lincolnshire to consolidate his power bases.

During his long absences, Ranulf’s chief official, or constable, Roger de Lacy, looked after Chester Castle. Roger was another wealthy knight, who also travelled widely. He once rescued Ranulf from a siege at Rhuddlan in Wales by convincing the Welsh that a crowd of minstrels and other ‘loose characters’ he had recruited at Chester fair was actually an army.

The Barons’ War and the siege of 1265

In 1254 Henry III’s eldest son, the future Edward I, married Eleanor of Castile. As a wedding gift, the king gave them Chester Castle and the old earldom, plus land in France, Ireland and Wales.

But Henry’s barons were growing angry with his unwillingness to reform his style of government. In 1264 Simon de Montfort and other barons rebelled. At the Battle of Lewes, in Sussex, they defeated the king’s army and took Prince Edward hostage.

After a year in captivity, Edward gave Chester Castle and its lands to Simon in return for his freedom, although Edward claimed to have escaped. Hearing this, James de Audley and Urian de Saint Pierre, barons who were loyal to Edward, laid siege to the castle on 31 May 1265. The garrison, led by Lucas de Taney, resisted strongly, although the details of the fighting are unknown.

After taking the rebel forces by surprise at Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire, Edward, with a large army, confronted Simon again on 4 August at the Battle of Evesham in Worcestershire. Simon and his eldest son were killed. When Lucas de Taney heard the news, he surrendered, after a siege that had lasted ten long weeks. Edward returned from Evesham to occupy Chester.

The castle in the English Civil Wars

After about 1450, royal owners paid for repairs to the castle, but no major upgrades. Increasingly, it was used as a prison, court and barracks for troops on campaign, as well as the administrative centre of the earldom.

As the gateway to north Wales and Ireland, Chester was strategically important during the English Civil Wars (1642–6). The Royalist governor of the city, John, Lord Byron, made the castle his headquarters. The opposing Parliamentarian forces were commanded by Sir Willliam Brereton, a well-educated and widely travelled Cheshire landowner.

Fighting began early in 1643. It intensified on 20 September 1645 when the Parliamentarians overran the suburbs. They established a gun battery in St John’s churchyard, which soon breached the city wall. King Charles I himself arrived with reinforcements, but when his army was defeated, he gave the governor permission to surrender.

Despite being heavily outnumbered, the 1,600 defenders stubbornly fought on. But the following winter was bitterly cold. With about 6,000 civilians packed into the city, food and fuel ran short, and occasional Parliamentarian bombardments worsened morale. Negotiations for a surrender began on 20 January 1646.

Two weeks later, Brereton’s soldiers marched into Chester. The defenders were allowed to leave unharmed, apart from the reinforcements brought from Ireland, who were taken prisoner. Poorly supplied, the Irish were accused – rightly or wrongly – of stealing clothing and food. Their presence had certainly increased tensions in Chester, and they were treated more harshly as a result.