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 A HISTORY OF HEREFORDSHIRE Henry I to Pain Fitzjohn, lord of Ewyas Harold, while part, including the castle of Ewyas Lacy, now Longtown, was granted to Joce de Dinan, afterwards an adherent of the Empress Matilda, but recovered about 1154 by Hugh de Lacy's sister's son Gilbert, founder of the second and greater house of Lacy.^"' Pain Fitzjohn, under the Conqueror's system of administer- ing the counties in pairs, was sheriff both of Shropshire and Herefordshire in the time of Henry I. Together with Miles of Gloucester, who held Glouces- tershire and Staffordshire,"" and who acquired the possessions of Bernard of Neufmarche by marrying his daughter Sibyl, he administered the country from the Severn to the sea."^ He and Miles were among the earliest supporters of Stephen among the magnates."' But on the death of Henry the uncertainty in regard to the succession relaxed the vigour of the administration, and the Welsh began to gain the upper hand in the Marches. In July, 11 37, Pain Fitzjohn was slain while endeavouring to repel their aggressions."^ As Stephen could give the Marcher lords no adequate support the whole of the district became disaffected. Early in 1 138 Geoffrey Talbot garrisoned Hereford on behalf of Matilda."* Stephen promptly marched on the city, the siege of which occupied him for four or five weeks. At the end of that time the garrison surrendered and were allowed to depart. But during the siege the part of the town below the bridge of the Wye was burnt, and on 15 June, the day of Stephen's departure, Geoffrey burned the suburb beyond the Wye."' At the same time Stephen also reduced the castle of Weobley, built since the time of Domesday, which had likewise been seized by Talbot,"' placing garrisons in both fortresses. The open declaration of Robert of Gloucester for Matilda in 1 138, and the landing of the empress herself in the following year, were followed by the secession from Stephen of the greater part of Western England. Miles of Gloucester joined Matilda's party, routed Stephen's men at Wallingford, and seized the royal castles in Gloucester- shire and Herefordshire."' The city of Hereford was gained without diffi- culty, but the castle held out, and towards the close of 11 39 was besieged by Miles of Gloucester and Geoffrey Talbot, who caused great scandal by disinterring the bodies of the dead when making a trench in the churchyard and by placing their balistae in the bell-tower of the minster. Stephen advanced to Little Hereford, near Leominster, in the hope of relieving the garrison, but was forced to retire without success."^ In 1 140, or late in 1139, Stephen made a regrant"° of the town and castle of Hereford and of the whole earldom of Herefordshire"" to his •"'Eyton, Antiq. ofShrops. v, 238-41 ; cf. Arch. Cambr. (Ser. 3), xv, 41. ™ Pipe R. of jl Hen. I (Rec. Com.), 72, 76. For a discussion regarding the exact character of their office and of the distinction between vicecomes and custos see Round, Geoffrey de Mandevilk, 297-8. "' Gesta Stephani (Rolls Ser.), 1 6. "'See Chart, to Miles in Lansd. MSS. 229, fol. no; 259, fol. 66, printed in Round, Geoffrey de Mandevilk, 1 1 . ^"Cont. Flor. Wore. (ed. Thorpe), ii, 98 ; Gesla Stephani,. "*Cont. Fkr. Wore, ii, 106 ; Henry of Huntingdon, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 261 ; Ord. Vit. Hist. Eccles. (Soc. de I'Hist. de France), v, i lo. "' Cont. Flor. Wore, ii, 106. "' Ibid. "' Gesta Stephani (Rolls Ser.), 57-60. ™ Will. Malms. Gesta Regum, ii, 557 ; Gesta Stephani, 68-9. "' ' Sciatis me redidisse hereditarie,' &c. '" ' Comitatum de Herefordscyre': ' comitatus ' must be rendered earldom, and not county; otherwise the phrase is redundant. ' Comitatus ' expresses the office ; ' scyre,' the territory. 358