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 POLITICAL HISTORY minster, and made her his mistress/^ Florence of Worcester states that he desired to marry her, and being prevented left the country. In any case he was outlawed, either before or after he had left England/' It is uncertain to whom Herefordshire was entrusted after his exile. Some of Swegen's possessions were divided between his brother Harold and his cousin Beorn,*" and probably the earldom was among them. But it is also possible, as Freeman conjectures, that Herefordshire at least was transferred to Ralph, Edward's nephew, who held the rank of earl in 1050." As Ralph, however, continued to hold an earldom after the restoration of Swegen,*' it is on the whole more likely that his jurisdiction extended over Worcestershire and Warwickshire, part of the territory of the Hwiccas. But the evidence does not admit an exact decision, and during Swegen's exile Herefordshire may have been under the authority of Harold, of Beorn, or of Ralph." In 1049 Swegen endeavoured to make his peace with King Edward and to recover his possessions, but was foiled by the refusal of Harold and Beorn to part with those which had been granted to them. In revenge he mur- dered Beorn, afterwards escaping with difficulty to Flanders." In the following spring Swegen was inlawed and probably restored to his earldom.*' During his absence the men of Herefordshire, together with those of Gloucestershire, had suffered a defeat on 29 July, 1049, while endeavouring under the leadership of Ealdred, bishop of Worcester, to repel an invasion of Gloucestershire by Gruffydd ab Rhydderch, with whom was leagued a band of Irish pirates." In 1 05 1 Swegen was involved in his father Godwin's quarrel with Edward concerning the chastisement of Dover. Besides the main cause of difference one authority adds as a secondary grievance that the foreigners had built a castle in Herefordshire, among the followers of Earl Swegen, and wrought every kind of harm and insult to the king's men thereabout that they could.*' The erection of this castle has been ascribed by Freeman to Richard Scrupe, who according to Domesday held the manor of Burford in Shropshire, four manors in Worcestershire, and lands in Herefordshire.*' The same author places the castle in the present parish of Richard's Castle on the borders of Shropshire, three and a half miles from Ludlow.*' It is certain that there was a castle there in the time of Domesday, the castle of Avreton,"* a name surviving in that of Overton, a small hamlet in the parish. But there is no adequate reason for the identification of the foreigners' castle with Avreton or Richard's Castle, and Mr. J. H. Round has urged that it is- '" Jngl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 302 ; Flor. Wore. Chron. i, 201-2. '' Angl.-^ax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 308, 309 ; Henry of Huntingdon, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 192. " Jngl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 307. " Cod. Dipl. Nos. 792, 793. " Flor. Wore. Chron. (ed. Thorpe), i, Z05. Ramsay thinks that Swegen was not restored to his earldom Foundations of Engl. , 447, and there is a passage in William of Malmesbury whieh states that Ralph was earl of Hereford in 105 1, Gesta Regum (Rolls Ser.), i, 241. But, as Freeman points out, William of Malmesbury's ehronology is often inexaet. Moreover the Chron. definitely states that Swegen had an earldom in 105 I, Angl.-Sax. Chron. i, 315. " See Freeman's Norman Conq. (1877), ii, 577-80. His conclusions are too definite. " Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 307, 308 ; Flor. Wore. Chron. (ed. Thorpe), i, 202-3 ; Hen. of Hunt. Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 193. '* Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 312, 315 ; Flor. Wore. Chron. (ed. Thorpe), i, 203. " Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 310 ; Flor. Wore. Chron. (ed. Thorpe), i, 203. " Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 315. " Domesday (Ree. Com.), i, 176^, i863, 260. " Norman Conq. ii, 138. " Domesday (Rec. Com.),, xZdb. 351