A HISTORY OF HEREFORDSHIRE the extreme west of the county on the southern bank of the Wye, where the valley narrows between the Black Mountains and the hills of Radnor, he built Clifford Castle on devastated ground, shielding the shire from attack from the west, and granted it to Ralph de Todeni, whose daughter Margaret brought it by marriage to Walter de Clifford, Fair Rosamond's father. Although it was within the shire it was not placed in a hundred nor subjected to custom.'" At Ewyas Harold he rebuilt a former fortification," probably identical with Pentecost's Castle of 1052. It secured the country to the south-west, closing the entrance from Monmouthshire and Glamorgan. Before 1086 there existed also a fortified house at Eardisley, some five miles north-west of Clifford, in the possession of Roger de Lacy,'** while Overton Castle, in the parish of Richard's Castle, on the Shropshire border, may, like Wigmore, indicate a fortress erected to check the ravages and control the power of Edric the Wild, who made his final submission in the summer of 1070. Earl William, however, once the country was secured behind him by the campaigns of the Conqueror, was no longer content to act on the defensive, but began in earnest the conquest of South Wales, ably supported by Walter de Lacy.'* His sphere of action and authority extended from the boundary of Shropshire to the shores of the Severn. In 1070 he slew Maredudd ab Owain, who had risen to power in Deheubarth after Rhiwallon had fallen in battle in 1068. He extended the confines of his earldom into Wales. At the junction of the Monnow and the Wye he built Monmouth Castle,'^ while at the time of Domesday Caerleon Castle was also included in Here- fordshire, with that part of Monmouthshire between the Wye and the Usk, besides Radnor in mid-Wales.'^ In this warfare the men of Archenfield were especially renowned as warriors, and had the privilege of forming the van in advance, and the rear in retreat." The whole of the conquests recorded in Domesday ought not, however, to be ascribed to Earl William, for towards the close of 1070 he was sent to Normandy to assist Matilda in the government of the province, and early in 1 07 1 he was slain in battle in Flanders. He was succeeded in his earl- dom and English estates by his younger son, Roger de Breteuil, to whom William of Malmesbury gives a bad character.'* He and Ralph Guader, earl of Norfolk, were the leaders in 1075 of the first revolt of the Norman garrison in England against the central government. The complicity of Waltheof made the rebellion particularly dangerous. One of the grievances of Roger is of great interest. He resented the sheriffs holding pleas upon his lands, a fact which may bear on the character of his father's earldom. William ordered the sheriffs to desist until he should be able after his return from Normandy to decide the questions at issue." After the bride-ale at Norwich, where, contrary to the king's mandate, Roger married his sister Emma to the earl of Norfolk, he returned to his earldom and rose in revolt. He was supported by his military retainers, but he could not gain the fyrd. On the contrary, the forces of the diocese of Worcester under Wulfstan the bishop, Ethelwig abbot of Evesham, and Urse the sheriff of Worcestershire, "" 'Non subjacet alicui hundret neque in consuetudine,' Domesday (Rec. Com.), i, 183a. " Ibid, i, i?,6a. Ibid, i, 1843. " Ibid. 186^. '* Ord. Vit. Hist. Eccles. (Soc. de I'Hist. de France), ii, 218-19. Domesday (Rec. Com.), i, 180^. 'Mbid. i, i8o3, 181, 185;^. "Ibid, i, 179. ^ GestaRegum,m,2^^. ^ Lanfranc to Roger, Lanfranci Opera Omnia (ed. Giles, 1 844), i, 64. 356
