William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, had landed in England three and a half years previously, and defeated the English King Harold at the battle of Senlac. But the real 'conquest' was yet to come; and after swift visits to the west and north of England William crossed the hills that lay between York and Cheshire and made a dash upon Chester, the one great city of free England that had not yet bowed to the might of the Norman invader.
There were at this time in Chester many English, the wife of Harold among them, who had fled thither after the defeat of Senlac, prepared on William's approach to cross the seas to Ireland. In the next century Gerald 'the Welshman' related the legend that Harold himself was not killed at the battle of Senlac, but escaped, and, after many wanderings, took refuge in a hermit's cell near the minster of S. John's, where he remained until his death. The story was no doubt invented by those who were unwilling to believe that an English king had been defeated by a foreigner.
William captured the city and received the submission of Edric the Forester and other Saxon leaders. Chester was put in charge of a Flemish noble called Gherbod, who, however, in the following year returned to his native land. Then, leaving a trail of fire and sword through mid-Cheshire, William marched southwards to Salisbury Plain, where he held a grand review of all his followers and distributed to them their rewards. You will not see him again in Cheshire. No part of the country ever needed a second visit from the 'Conqueror'.
The English who had borne arms against William were treated as rebels and deprived of their lands and possessions, which were parcelled out among the Normans. A parcel of land thus granted was called a manor. All the landowners, including those English who were allowed to keep their estates, were compelled to take the oath of fealty to King William in person. In this way William broke up the great earldoms which had been created by the Danish king Cnut.
Cheshire, however, in which the Saxon Earl Edwin, Harold's brother-in-law, owned vast estates, was from the first treated in a very special manner. Owing to its position on the border of Wales, William saw that it was very necessary to place a strong military power in this part of England to protect his newly-won kingdom from invasion from the west. So he bestowed the county upon his own favourite nephew Hugh d'Avranches, surnamed Lupus or 'the Wolf', and his heirs, giving him the title of Earl of Chester. The earl's duty was to repel any attacks that might be made by the Welsh, and permission was given him even to extend his earldom, if possible, beyond the Welsh border. Royal rights were granted to him over all land within the earldom, which was held by him 'as freely by the sword as the king held England by the Crown'. For this reason Cheshire was called a County Palatine, that is, a county whose ruler exercises all the powers of an independent prince, save only that he owns allegiance to his overlord the king. And the sword, the 'sword of dignity', as it was called, was no light one. You may see it if ever you visit the British Museum, a mighty two-edged weapon four feet long, with its inscription in Latin engraved beneath the hilt, 'Hugo comes Cestriae,' Hugh Count of Chester.