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 POLITICAL HISTORY Pentecost was exiled, while Osbern son of Richard Scrupe in 1060 held office in the shire, probably as sheriff/* In 1055 the Welsh ravages of 1052 were repeated on a larger scale. ^Elfgar, the son of Leofric and earl of the East Angles, was banished at the meeting of the Witan in March. After raising a force in Ireland he made an alHance with Gruffydd ab Llywelyn, who had recently overthrown and slain his rival Gruffydd ab Rhydderch.*^ Together they marched on Here- fordshire and harried the country. The effect of the Welsh ravages in Edward's reign was still felt in the time of Domesday.*" Two miles from the city of Hereford Gruffydd and iElfgar were met by Earl Ralph on 24 October at the head of a large force of English and Normans. According to Florence of Worcester Ralph was ill-advised enough to order the English part of his force to follow the Norman practice of fighting on horseback. When battle was joined Ralph and his followers set the example of flight, which was followed by the entire force mounted on horses untrained to war. A great slaughter was made, four or five hundred men falling in the rout. The city was plundered, the minster of St. Ethelbert burned, shortly after its erection by Bishop Ethelstan to commemorate the martyrdom of the East Anglian king by Offa, and its store of relics and vestments carried away. A rash attempt on the part of seven canons to defend the great door of the church only led to their own death and increased the fury of the Welsh and Irish levies. The Welsh account adds that Gruffydd destroyed the citadel as well as the town, and Freeman in consequence conjectures that the Normans had erected a castle in the cathedral town also, but this is unlikely : a Norman fortress would not have fallen so easily before an undisciplined and transient assault.*'' From this time Ralph's name ceases to appear in connexion with the history of the shire. The greatness of the disaster called for the interposition of the central government. Earl Harold, having gathered from ' very near all England ' a force which mustered at Gloucester, pitched his camp in ' Stradel ' within the Welsh borders.*' Gruffydd and ^Ifgar shunned an encounter with this formidable host, and retreated into South Wales. Harold did not pursue them, but fortified Hereford, first with a ditch and rampart (vallum), and afterwards with a stone wall (murus) .*^ The conclusion of peace with ^Elf gar at Billingsley in Shropshire '■" afforded no relief to the harassed men of Here- ford. In the following year Gruffydd repeated his inroad, this time in company with a Scandinavian chief known as Magnus, son of Harold. Ethelstan, the aged bishop of Hereford, had died at Bosbury earlier in the year, and his successor, Leofgar, led his forces against the invaders. On 17 June, 1056, another disaster was experienced at Claftbyrig." Leofgar was " Cod. Dipl. No. 833 ; Ellis, Introduction to Domesday, i, 460 ; cf. Freeman, Norman Conquest (1877), ii, 352. " Ann. Cami. 1055; Brat y Tyvjysogion (1054). « Domesday (Rec. Com.), i, 181. =' Jngl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Sen), i, 324, 325 ,• Flor. Wore. Chron. i, 212-3; Brut y Tywysogion (1054) , cf. Freeman, Norman Conquest (1877), ii, 395—400. " In Domesday Straddele is included in Heref. ; Domesday (Rec. Com.), i, 1 8 1. It has been identified with the Golden Valley, Arch. Cambr. (Ser. 3), xiii, 299, xv, 412 (Ser. 4), xiii, 32. portis et seris munivit.' Freeman conjectures that the more elaborate fortifications were erected when Harold was earl of the shire, Norman Conquest, ii, 402. ™ JngL-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 324-6 ; Flor. Wore. Chron. i, 214. " Perhaps Cleobury. I 353 45
 * ' Domesday (Rec. Com.), i, 1 79 ; cf. Florence, i, 2 14, ' Herefordam rediens, vallo lato et alto illam cinxit,