One summer's day, Sir Joce rose early in the morning, and ascended a tower in the middle of his castle, to survey the country; and he looked towards the hill which is called Whitcliff, and saw the fields covered with knights, squires, sergeants, and valets, some armed on their steeds, some on foot; and he heard the horses neigh, and saw the helms glittering. Among whom he saw the banner of Sir Walter de Lacy, blazing new with gold, with a fess of gules across. Sir Walter's arms are a gold background with a red horizontal band across the middle of the shield.
Fulk called his knights, and ordered them to arm and mount their steeds, and take their arblasters and their archers, and go to the bridge below the town of Dynan, and defend the bridge and the ford that none passed it. With five hundred with him, knights and servants on horse and foot, besides the burgesses and their servants. At length came Sir Joce and his banner all white with silver, with three lions passant, of azure, crowned with gold; Three blue lions, walking sideways with the front paw further away raised, wearing gold crowns on a silver background. Then with great force Joce passed the bridge, and the hosts encountered body to body. Joce struck Godebrand, who carried the banner of Lacy, through the body with a spear. Then the Lacy lost his banner. Then the people exchanged blows, and many on both sides were slain. Sir Walter and his people thought to pass safely; but the people of Sir Joce drove them back, and many on both sides were wounded and killed. Lacy had the worst and took his way beside the river of Teme. Joce de Dynan knew Walter de Lacy by his arms, and saw him flying all alone. The village of Bromfield is hardly two miles from Ludlow. As it may be viewed from Ludlow Castle, the banks of the Teme, the wood of Whiteliff descending towards them, and Bromfield in the distance in a wooded valley field.
Lacy saw nobody but Joce alone, and returned very boldly. And they fought fiercely; for neither cared to spare the other. It seemed to Joce that the encounter lasted too long, and he raised his sword with ire, and struck the Lacy on the shield, that he clove it through the middle, and gave him an ugly wound on the left arm. Joce attacked him eagerly, and had nearly captured him, when Sir Godard de Bruce, from the Bruces who were located in the marches, and were much concerned in the border wars during the twelfth century. William de Bruce, lord of Brecon, was one of the most turbulent of the border barons towards the end of that century. Sir Godard and his companions very boldly assailed Sir Joce on all sides, and he defended himself against them like a lion. Fulk fitz Warine was left in the castle, for he was only eighteeneyears old, and he heard the cry in the tower, ascended in haste, and saw the lady and all the others crying. He went to Hawyse, and asked what ailed her, and why she made such sorrowful cheer. The lady and her daughters in the tower see their lord so pressed that he could hardly endure, and cry, faint, and make great lamentation; for they never expected to see their lord alive.
Marion of Heath betrays Dynan to Arnold de Lys and Sir Walter takes Dynan. She remained at the castle of Dynan. Joce commanded that she should be carefully attended to. And, for fear of the Lacy and other people, he took into his pay thirty knights and seventy sergeants and valets, and delivered them his castle to keep until his return into the country. When Joce was gone, next day Marion sent a messenger to Sir Arnold de Lys, and prayed him, for the great friendship that was between them, that he would not forget the covenants which were made between them, and that he come hastily to talk with her at the castle of Dynan, for the lord and the lady and the strength of their household are gone to Hertland when it was called Ireland, and that he return to the same place where last he escaped from the castle. Sir Arnold to his lord, Sir Walter de Lacy, and told how Fulk, the son of Guarin de Metz, had espoused Hawyse, the daughter of Sir Joce de Dynan, and how Sir Guarin and Sir Joce had left provision in the castle of Dynan, and were gone to Hertland to seek soldiers, and to assemble there their men, and to collect a host and people without number." And, when all the host shall be assembled, they will come at once to Ewyas, and will burn and take your lands. Sir Arnold prepared his company, which was numerous; for he had in his company, knights, squires, and sergeants, more than a thousand. And he came to the castle of Dynan by night, and caused part of his company to remain in the wood, near Whitcliff, and part to lay in ambush below the castle, in the gardens. The gardens belonging to the castle lay in the meadows to the north, at the foot of the rock, and bordering on the river Teme, perhaps extending to the river Corve, which runs into the Teme, at a very short distance from the castle.
Sir Arnold was a young bachelor and handsome, and he was greatly overtaken with the love of Marion of the Heath, a very pretty damsel, who was the chief chamber-maid of the lady of the castle of Dynan. There are still several places named the Heath in the neighborhood of Ludlow, from some one of which Marion may have taken her name. The maidens attendant upon the ladies of knights and barons were damsels of gentle blood, who were placed with them to learn good manners and the forms of courtesy, as well as the accomplishments which could only be learnt there. They were often numerous, and lived with their lady in her chamber (whence their title), where they worked with her at embroidery, spinning, weaving, needlework, etc. Sir Arnold and the damsel often conversed together; for she used to come every day into the tower with her lady, to comfort Sir Walter de Lacy and Sir Arnold. They told her that they would behave faithfully towards her, without breaking any covenant, and bid her adieu. Sir Walter and Sir Arnold all alone went their way on foot; and, at the dawn of day, came to Ewyas, to the castle of Sir Walter de Lacy. And when his people saw their lord returned sound and well, it need not be asked if they were joyful; for they thought they had lost him for ever.
Joce de Dynan rose early, and went to his chapel within the castle, which was made and dedicated in honor of the Magdalene. The round chapel in the inner court of Ludlow Castle, the walls of which still remain, with some good Norman arches. It appears from this account to have been dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene. The day of dedication of which is the day of St. Cyriac and seventy days of pardon. The day of St. Cyriac, or Ciriac, was the 8th of August. The seventy days of pardon were of course to be the reward of those who offered up a prayer for the founder. He heard the service of God; and, when he had done that, he mounted the highest tower in the third bail of the castle, which is now called by many Mortimer.- a tower in the outer court (third bailey) of the castle is still popularly known by the name of Mortimer's Tower, which it thus seems to have retained since the thirteenth century. Joce surveyed the country, and saw nothing but what was well. He descended from the tower, and caused the horn to be sounded for washing, and sent for his prisoner Sir Walter and Sir Arnold escaped with the help of Marion of Heath.
The hospital of The Holy Trinity, the Virgin Mary, and St. John the Baptist, or Ludlow St. John stood a hospital at the northern end of the Teme Bridge, Ludlow, and was founded by the Ludlow burgess Peter Undergod, the first known master prior of the hospital. In his foundation charter, probably executed in the 1220s, Undergod endowed the hospital with a fulling mill on the Teme, which he had acquired from Walter De Lacy's son Gilbert, and with rents in Ludlow and lands at Rock (in Stanton Lacy) and Ludford. Walter de Lacy, as manorial lord, executed at least four charters in favour of the hospital before his death in 1241. By 1255 the hospital's endowments included 6 burgages in Ludlow, 8 virgates in Rock, 16 a. in Richard's Castle, and half a virgate in Corfham.
(1)
Sir Walter thought sent for his people from Ireland and took into his pay knights and others, so that there was strong contest and hard battle between Sir Walter and Sir Joce. The Lacies had large possessions in Ireland in the conquest of which, Hugh de Lacy, the father of Walter de Lacy, took an active part, and he was rewarded with a grant of the whole county of Meath. The earls and barons of England saw the great mortality and hurt which had happened, and which still happened between them daily; they arranged a loveday between Sir Walter and Sir Joce. [Love days are mentioned in the fourteenth-century poem, Piers Ploughman, and also in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, l. 260.] Love days (dies amoris) were days agreed upon for settling differences by umpire, instead of having recourse to violence, or to legal proceedings. They appear to have been sometimes a means of hindering justice, and the ecclesiastics seem generally to have managed them.
Joce de Dynan sent his letters to Guarin de Metz and Melette his good lady, the father of the youth Fulk called by many Fulk the Brown. Guarin and Melette with a great retinue came to the castle of Dynan, and were received there with great honor and joy, and remained there a week. The sent to Hereford for the bishop Robert who was bishop about the time of hte marriage of Fulk II Fitzwarine. There were three Roberts, bishops of Hereford, in the twelfth century; Robert de Betun, from 1131 to 1148; Robert de Melun, from 1162 to 1167; and Robert Foliot, from 1174 to 1186. The bishop came, and with great honor performed the marriage ceremony. Joce held great festivity during fifteen days. When the feast was ended, Sir Joce and Sir Guarin and their households all went towards Hertland. The peace is made between Sir Walter and Sir Joce and Joce marries his daughter Haywise.
The gate of the town, called, in modern times Dinham Gate. The majority of Sir Arnold's men had been left outside; and now that the castle had been surprised and taken, they were admitted into the town. The original town of Dynan was built under the immediate protection of the castle, and probably occupied only that part of the present town in and adjacent to what is still called Dinham. No doubt one of the two names is only a corruption of the other. The knights who were in the castle unfastened the doors, and went into the town, and opened the gate of Dynan towards the river, and admitted all their people. They placed at the end of each street in the town a great number of people, and caused the town to be set on fire; and in each street they made two fires. The burgesses and the sergeants of the town, when they saw the fire, rose from their beds, some naked, others clothed, and knew not what to do, for they were almost mad.
(1)
The hospital church was built at, or shortly after, its foundation and the hospital's right to celebrate divine service there was confirmed by the patron before 1241. By the end of the 13th century, the hospital possessed lands in Overton. In addition to confirming the foundation charter Sir Walter granted the hospital exclusive right to full the cloth of the men of Ludlow, liberty to trade on his estates quit of toll, and the amercements of his tenants in Rock and Stanton Lacy manors. It was not felt necessary to secure royal confirmation until 1266. The hospital appears to have obtained possession of the manor of Ludford shortly after 1330. Nearly all these grants to the hospital were made by Ludlow burgesses, although a grant made to endow a chantry by Joan, widow of Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, in 1354 is the first indication of a close relationship with the earls of March, whose patronage guaranteed the hospital's survival at a period when Ludlow burgesses seem to have diverted their interests to the Palmers' Guild, but rights of patronage appear to have been vested in the Lacy family following Walter de Lacy's confirmation, and passed with Ludlow manor to the Mortimers in the early 14th century. Mortimer patronage may account for the comparative esteem in which the hospital was held locally in the early 15th century.
The endowment of a daily mass in the hospital church by Richard of Eastham in 1364 was presumably only one of several such services of which no record survives. In the later Middle Ages, however, the principal obligation of the brethren was to maintain regular services for their Mortimer patrons in the castle chapels of St. Peter and St. Mary Magdalen.
An indulgence for the repair of the hospital's bells was obtained in 1411. In 1417 Edmund, Earl of March, gave the hospital licence to convert its fulling mills on the Teme into corn mills and to grind the corn of the inhabitants of Ludlow there and in 1458 his nephew Richard, Duke of York, granted to it the chapel of St. Mary Magdalen in Ludlow castle. Patronage of the hospital passed to the Crown on the accession of Edward IV. In consideration of the losses suffered by the hospital at the hands of the Lancastrians, presumably during the sack of Ludlow following the 'Rout of Ludford' (1459), Edward IV in 1466 granted it the right to hold view of frankpledge on its estate in Ludlow, Ludford, Rock, Hawkbatch, and Overton, and acquitted it of clerical taxation and of suit at the county and hundred courts. On at least three occasions it was called upon to act as guarantor that endowments of Palmers' Guild obits were applied to their proper purposes. The foundation charter had directed that the brethren should be regulars, living under certain religious rules and, as in many other hospitals, the Augustinian rule had been adopted here by the later 14th century. Their claim to be regulars led to occasional clashes between the brethren and the bishop of Hereford, as in 1435, when they submitted to the collation by the bishop of one of their number as master but indicated that this should not be treated as a precedent.
By the early 15th century the hospital seems to have developed into a small college of priests whose principal functions were to serve chantries and obits in the hospital church and in the chapels at Ludlow castle. Masters of the hospital were usually referred to as priors after 1300 and the institution was known indifferently as a hospital or a priory in the 15th and 16th centuries. The decay of hospitality to poor travellers and strangers was among the reasons given for the annexation of the chapel of St. Mary Magdalen in 1458 and an appreciable part of the hospital's income continued to be spent on alms until its dissolution. The hospital seems to have fallen into decline during the mastership of John Holland (c. 1502-28).
Holland was succeeded by Edward Leighton, an Oxford graduate who had in seeking the appointment from Cardinal Wolsey and who had turned for help to Thomas Cromwell in October 1529. In the following month the next presentation was granted to two of Leighton's kinsmen, one of whom was a doorward at the Tower of London, and Leighton was instituted prior in the following year. Like his predecessor Leighton was presented for inclosing the commons. As in the 14th century the estate then lay in Ludlow, Ludford, Overton, Rock, and Hawkbatch. Although no detailed survey survives it is known to have included over 40 burgages in Ludlow. In 1537 Leighton granted the hospital to William Foxe and his son Edmund and in 1539, with the consent of the bishop, Leighton surrendered the mastership to Charles, brother of Edmund Foxe, who subsequently received a pension of £6 a yeare from the grantees. Part of the hospital buildings was converted into a house, which was occupied by various members of the Foxe family until the early 17th century. The church was still being used for worship, presumably as a private chapel, in 1564, when Jane, widow of William Foxe, left a chalice and other church goods there to her son Edward.
The church was described as 'decayed' in 1593 and was largely demolished by Ludlow corporation in 1636, when the materials were used to repair the parish churchyard wall. St. John's House, facing Ludford Bridge at the corner of Lower Broad Street and Temeside, incorporates a small part of a building which originally stood at the south-west corner of the hospital site. Its west wall contains medieval masonry and there are remains of a pointed archway on the south gable. The latter has been largely reconstructed but the western jamb and the lower part of the arch, which are intact, date from the early 13th century. The Foxe family inserted upper floors in this part of the house and added a two-bay stone wing to the east in the later 16th or early 17th century. Other parts of the hospital may have survived in a range of tenements extending northwards on Lower Broad Street. These were occupied by 'labourers and journeymen artificers' in the mid 18th century but were rebuilt c. 1770. The hospital site (2½ a.) was still accounted extra-parochial in 1790.
'Hospitals: Ludlow (St John)', A History of the County of Shropshire: Volume 2 (1973), pp. 102-04.