On the trail of the MARCHER LORDS
When William the Conqueror won the Battle of Hastings in 1066 he lost no time in consolidating his victory in England. But the canny king left the tricky task of controlling the borderlands with Wales to his most loyal followers: rewarding them with land grants and allowing them to build castles that would create a buffer zone to protect England while extending Anglo-Norman influences into Wales.
Three of William’s closest confidants, William FitzOsbern, Roger de Montgomerie and Hugh d’Avranches (‘the Fat’) were made Earls of Hereford, Shrewsbury and Chester respectively, overseeing the southern, central and northern Welsh Marches as the area became known (from French ‘marche’, or Anglo-Saxon ‘mearc’ meaning ‘border’).
