Chester's economic fluctuations in the 10th century were accompanied by changes in the local administration, most notably by the rise of strong local ealdormen whose interest in the city eventually eclipsed that of the king. Such figures could be expected to take considerable profits not only from customs and tolls levied in the city but also from the mint. Late Anglo-Saxon Chester was one of those towns where the moneyers made a payment in addition to the farm, which, like the dues rendered when the coinage was changed, was owed to king and earl in the proportion of two to one. Assessment of the decline is also affected by redatings of the Chester coin hoards. Those from Castle Esplanade and Eastgate Street were probably deposited c. 965 and c. 970 respectively, well before the renewal of Viking hostilities in the Irish Sea. Only the Pemberton's Parlour hoard is likely to have been buried in 980 at the time of the Viking raid. That raid has been overused as a reason for the decline of the Chester mint and cannot account for the catastrophic falling-off in 973, presumably part of some more general process since the other north-western mints, especially Derby, show a like pattern. One possible explanation lies in long-term economic developments. The shift away from the north-western mints towards those of eastern England in the late 10th century may have owed as much to changes in trading patterns in response to the opening up of the German silver mines in the 960s as to the disruption of traffic across the Irish Sea
It is not easy to ascribe territories to 10th-century ealdormen, but it seems that already in the 930s one of the districts ruled by such an official was north-west Mercia, the principal settlement in which was Chester. The area had already emerged as a monetary region before Æthelstan's death in 939, and was characterized by a coinage distinct from the issues where there was direct royal control. An ealdorman based in the North-West, Æthelmund, was among those appointed by King Edmund in 940, and quite possibly his presence ensured the continuance of a north-western monetary region and an effective mint at Chester. After 965, however, his ealdormanry seems to have been absorbed into that of Ælfhere of Mercia, whose interests lay elsewhere. The rise of a local or at least Mercian ealdorman and the Mercian particularism fostered by Ælfhere meant that increasingly Chester lay on the fringes of royal authority. That was a further reason for the insignificant role assigned to its mint in the centralizing measures of 973. Nevertheless, Chester was still a significant place, the scene of a notable expression of Edgar's imperial ambitions, the celebrated encounter with a group of Scots, Welsh, and Scandinavian rulers at which he was allegedly rowed on the Dee in token of submission. The sources differ about the number and identities of those involved, but it seems likely that Edgar did indeed take his fleet to Chester, where he met eight princes, including the kings of Scots and Strathclyde, the king of Gwynedd and other Welshmen, and the king of the Isles and another Norse ruler, perhaps from Wales or Cumbria. Although the account of the rowing from Edgar's palace on the Dee to the church of St. John and back appears only in post-Conquest sources, there was clearly a naval element in the ceremony. Taking place soon after Edgar's belated coronation at Bath in 973, it was undoubtedly a special occasion, although whether it was viewed by all the participants as a long-term submission to imperial authority is debatable. Probably it set the seal on a more ad hoc relationship, a pact between parties interested in keeping Scandinavian raiders out of the Irish Sea. As such, the episode illustrated the city's ambivalent position. Although an important harbour and naval base, it was relatively remote from the heartlands of English royal power, and hence a suitable setting for encounters with other ruling princes.
Edgar's death in 975 ended royal attempts at centralization, bringing a slackening of royal control over the coinage and a resumption of regional die-cutting. Chester nevertheless remained one of the few northern mints which continued to be supplied with dies from the South. There seems to have been no senior ealdorman with a close interest in the North-West, and the area was perhaps under the control of royal reeve. The city's relatively depressed state was indicated by the low output of its mint in the 980s and early 990s. From the 990s there were signs of a revival, and Chester may once again have become a die-cutting centre, albeit on a modest scale. Though it never regained its earlier pre-eminence, the mint was becoming more productive by 1000, and by the reign of Cnut (1016- 35) had reached a fresh peak of activity, with at least 16 moneyers active in his first substantive (Quatrefoil) issue. The mint cut its own dies, but they were not distributed elsewhere except for one pair cut perhaps c. 1020 for Sihtric III, king of Dublin. Chester coins were also imitated at a mint somewhere in the Irish Sea area during Cnut's reign, evidence that they commanded widespread acceptance.
The changes may be connected with the appointment for western Mercia of a new ealdorman, Leofwine, whose sphere of influence probably included Chester. Leofwine probably did not succeed immediately to the full authority of Ealdorman Ælfhere, for in 1007 he was subordinate to Eadric Streona when the latter was appointed earl of Mercia, and he remained so under Eadric's successor Eglaf (1017-23). Even so, Leofwine's appointment had important political implications; it coincided with renewed royal efforts against the Northmen in the Irish Sea, in which Chester served in 1000 as the naval base for an attack on Cumberland and Man. The city's military importance at that time was further demonstrated by the fact that it was the destination of Edmund Ironside and Earl Uhtred of Northumbria in their attempt to raise support against Cnut in 1016, and to harry Leofwine, whose loyalty was doubtful.
After Eglaf's death in 1023 Leofwine's descendants succeeded to the whole Mercian earldom. Western Mercia probably retained an especial importance: Leofwine's son, Earl Leofric (d. 1057), enriched several important churches and cult centres in the area, including the two minsters in Chester, St. Werburgh's and St. John's. When Leofric's son Ælfgar revolted successfully in the 1050s, the western Marches were his centre of operations and he eventually sent his Irish Viking fleet to Chester to be paid off. Clearly Chester was still an important naval base for his family. Ælfgar's alliance with the Welsh king Gruffudd ap Llywelyn led to the latter's acquisition of lands west of the Dee, near Chester, and when in 1063 Earl Harold attacked Gruffudd's palace at Rhuddlan in Flintshire he made the city his base. Although with Gruffudd's defeat in the same yeare the lands beyond the Dee returned to English control, the main beneficiary was not the king but Ælfgar's youthful son and heir, Earl Edwin. By then the king had relinquished all his Cheshire lands to the earls of Mercia, leaving them in a position not so very unlike that of their post Conquest successors at Chester. Clearly by the mid 1060s the area held considerable potential for an energetic earl. One indication of the impact of such developments upon Chester itself was the fact that in Harold II's reign (January-October 1066) its mint was one of the few supplied with locally produced dies, and the continuing close association of the city with the comital house was demonstrated when Harold's widow Ealdgyth was sent there by her brother Earl Edwin after the battle of Hastings.