The Saxon Chronicle places king William's expedition to Wales in 1081.
Lords, you have heard heretofore how William, duke of Normandy, came with a great host and people without number into England, and conquered by force all the land, and slew King Harold, and caused himself to be crowned at London, and established peace and laws at his will, and gave lands to divers people who came with him.
There was a genuine Fulk fitz Warren, who appears in the historical record as a rebel against King John and his successor, Henry III, and this romance may well have been written for him or members of his family, perhaps again by a trouvère (minstrel) in the employ of the family. Fulk and his companions were known once to arrive in Britanny and for a yeare with his kinsmen and cousins. He thought that nothing should hinder him from going into England in the New Forest that was created by William the Conqueror by razing villages where he used to haunt. Fulk hell in with the king who was pursuing a boar and with six knights carried him into their gallery. King John pardoned Fulk and his companions on their promise to cause their peace, left six knights until the peace was proclaimed.
The king called Roger de Bellême (Roger de Montgomery), to whom the Conqueror gave the earldom of Shropshire after 1071, but the exact yeare is not known, although a building appeared commenced in 1087 . The title, de Belesme, belonged to earl Roger's first wife, and from her descended to their eldest son Robert. and gave him all the county of Shrewsbury very freely, and it was called a county palatine. Roger founded outside the town of Shrewsbury an abbey of St. Peter-Shrewsbury Abbey, dedicated to St. Peter, was the foundation of Roger de Montgomery. Palatine or Shrewsbury were towards their lord King Henry, the son of William the Bastard and brother of King William Rufus, wicked and they completed the castle of Brugge in spite of king Henry's inhibition; for which king Henry disinherited them and condemned them to perpetual exile, and he gave their lands to his knights. The castle of Dynan, and all the country round towards the river of Corve, with all the honor, he gave to Sir Joce, his knight. Now, the town was a very long time called Dynan, which is now called Ludlow. The haunted castle of Bran was later renamed Dynan / Ludlow. Montgomery began a castle at Brugge, Bridgnorth. Earl Roger did not begin the castle here; but he built a castle at Quatford, which his son Robert transferred to "Brugge." and another castle he began at Dynan, Ludlow.
The history of the commencement of Ludlow Castle is very obscure, and the territorial division of the district, as stated in Domesday, would seem to contradict the statement of its being begun by earl Roger. From Roger's son Roger, all the county of Shrewsbury passed to Robert de Bellême, the eldest son of Roger de Montgomery. His brother, Hugh de Montgomery, however, who succeeded his father in the Shropshire estates, on whose death they reverted to Robert de Bellême, and Ernald, his young son, with Pembroke. Roger's fifth and youngest son, Arnulf de Montgomery had the custody of Pembroke Castle,
When king William approached the hills and valleys of Wales, not then long ago, he saw a very large town near Old Oswestry, formerly inclosed with high walls, which was all burnt and ruined, Roman site bronze. Beside it is a little castle which is called the Tree of Oswald; but now it is called Osewaldestre, Oswestry, Oswald was an Anglo-Saxon king of England, and a saint as well. He was killed by pagans, but his arm was preserved uncorrupted and miracles were reported on the place he fell in battle. Then the king inquired of a Briton what was the name of the town and how it came to be so ruined. Formerly there came into this country Brutus, a very valiant knight, and Corineus, from whom Cornwall still retains the name, and many others derived from the lineage of Troy; and none inhabited these parts except very foul people, great giants, whose king was called Geomagog from a match between Corineus and Geomagog, or Gogmagog, is well known to every reader of the fabulous British history. [That is, the History of the Kings of Britain of Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1135), at the end of the first book. This is only one of the many ways that this text tries to connect itself with Arthurian legend ]. The castle was formerly called Castle Bran; but now it is called the Old March.
Owen Gwynned was prince of Wales,Owen Gwynned, or Gwyneth, ruled North Wales from 1137 to 1169 who was a valiant and good warrior, and the king feared him much the more. This Owen had ravaged all the march, and all was waste from Chester to Mount Gilbert. The king appareled himself very richly came with a great host into the county of Shrewsbury, and found all the towns burnt between Chester and Shrewsbury; for the prince claimed all the march for his own and as belonging to Powys. The king was very wise, and thought that he would give the march lands to the most valiant knights of all his host, in order that they should defend the march from the prince to their profit and to the honor of their lord the king.
Ludlow, in all probability came to the hands of Henry I, not by forfeiture of Robert de Bellême, but as an escheat of de Lacy. From Stephen, Joceas de Dinan retained the name of Dynan, called everywhere Joce de Dynan was from under the auspices of the emperor, and not Henry I. The king, when thus he had settled these lands, returned to London, and from London to Normandy, and there died. Then reigned in England William Rufus, his son; and after him Henry, his younger brother, who subsequently detained Robert Curthose, his elder brother, in prison all his life; the cause will not be told you on this occasion. Robert Curthose was the oldest child of William the Conqueror, but the king passed over him in favor of the second son, William Rufus. Robert became the duke of Normandy instead. When William Rufus died in a hunting accident in 1100, Robert was on crusade and the English throne was seized by the youngest brother, Henry (1100-1135). Robert came back from Crusade fuming, but there was little he could do. Henry raised an army in 1106, invaded Normandy, and captured Robert at the battle of Tinchebray, and made himself duke of Normandy. . Robert was held prisoner for over twenty years.
The castle of Dynan, and all the country round towards the river of Corve, with all the honor, he gave to Sir Joce, his knight. Joce completed the castle which Roger de Bellême in his time had begun, and he was a strong and valiant knight. Below the town of Dynan, a bridge of stone and lime must have occupied the site of the present Castle, or Dinham, bridge; but there is no tradition at present of any other than a wooden bridge having crossed the river Teme at this place until recent times. The river below Dinham was crossed by a wooden bridge for foot passengers only and that all horses and carriages had to cross a ford, which at times was where over the river of Teme, from the crossroads to the rivers to the land's end, into the high road which goes amid the march from Chester to Bristol.
The bridge was replaced by a wooden bridge for carriages, and about thirty years ago this also was taken down. Joce made his castle of Dynan of three bails, and surrounded it with a double fosse, one within and one without. Ludlow Castle as it now stands, the three baillies being the keep, the inner court, and the outer court. The two fosses were, that which still exists in the outer court, and one which separated the wall of the outer court from the town, now filled up and turned into a promenade.
A mound was called Waybury; and a river runs by it- Pevereyes took its name from Payn Peverel, and it was called Peverel. The king called Payn Peverel, and gave him the White Laund, with forest, waste, chases, and all the country. And there was a mound surrounded with marsh and water; and there Payn made a fair and strong tower. And William Peverel, his sister's son, received and had all the heritage of Payn. Subsequently, this William conquered by the sword all the land of Morlas, as far as the water of Dee, Ellesmere, Maylour, and Nauhendon. This William made in the White Land a tower, and called it White Tower; and the town which is about it is still called White Town, in English Whittington In Ellesmere he made another tower, and on the water of Keyroc another. It happened afterwards that Payn Peverel died in his castle in the Peak.
The Gloucester manor that was later called Painswick was an estate held by Ernesi in 1066. It passed to Walter de Lacy and was held by his son Roger de Lacy in 1086 until banishment in 1096. The estate was possibly the caput of the Lacy lands east of the Severn and was held in chief. Roger was succeeded by his brother Hugh before 1115 and Hugh's daughter Sibyl, the wife of Payn, son of John. The estate was held by the Crown between 1126 and 1130 but had been restored to Pain before his death in 1137 when he was succeeded by his daughter Cecily, the wife of Roger of Gloucester. Cecily survived to the end of the 12th century but the manor of Painswick had passed to her nephew Ralph de Munchensy before his death c. 1190. Ralph was succeeded by his brother William (d. by 1204), and William by his son, also William (d. by 1212). The younger William's heir was his brother Warin, who had livery of his estates in 1213. Warin's estates were forfeited in 1215, and Painswick was granted to Walter de Lacy, but Warin regained his lands in 1217 and died in 1255. At Warin's death his son William succeeded to Painswick but suffered temporary forfeiture, his lands being granted to his brother-in-law William de Valence. Painswick continued and Munchensy regained his estates at Ebworth before his death c. 1287 when the succession of his daughter Denise was challenged unsuccessfully by William de Valence who alleged that she was illegitimate. Denise, who later married Hugh de Vere, was granted livery of her estates in 1297 and died in 1313 when Painswick passed to her cousin Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke (d. 1324). The supposed castle south of the church, or a manor-house on or near the same site, appears to have been used as a residence by the Talbots until the mid 15th century, for in 1346 Richard Talbot founded a priory for Augustinian canons at Flanesford (Herefs.) and endowed it with lands and a mill in Painswick . An estate granted to the priory of Llanthony Prima by Hugh de Lacy was later known as the manor of PAINSWICK and was subsequently transferred to Llanthony Secunda at Gloucester which held it at the Dissolution and it was held by St. Guthlác's Priory, Hereford with his approaches toward Gloucester Abbey. Other religious orders to have possessions in Painswick during the Middle Ages were the Knights Hospitaller, who owned a tenement, and Cirencester Abbey. The estate of Cirencester church recorded in 1086 was evidently that in Stroudend later held by the abbey.
The king went thence, and came to a country joining to the White Laund, which belonged formerly to a Briton, Meredus son of Beledins. Meredith ap Blethyn was a contemporary of William I, and Prince of North Wales at the time when that king invaded it. He died in 1133. It was his son Madoc whose name became associated with Oswestry, of which he seems to have been possessed during the exile of William fitz Alan, in Stephen's time. To the FitzAlans, even after they had inherited wider influence and greater prestige with the earldom of Arundel, Haughmond was their family monastery: successive lords referred to the canons in their charters as canonici mei.