Early in the eleventh century, the Saxon sway had been so far extended as to have left the Dyke behind, and Wales was regarded as a part of England, and an attempt made to force it to contribute to the common tax for the defence of the island against the Danes. For this purpose Edwin, the Ealderman of the Mercians, led an army as far as St. David’s, punishing the people for their refusal. At that period, and during the reign of the Confessor, the Welsh were led by Griffith-ap-Llewelyn, the ablest of their princes, and, indeed, the only one who ever held the Welsh together, or gave the English cause for anything like serious apprehension. Aided sometimes by the Danes from Ireland, sometimes by traitorous Saxon chiefs, and sometimes even by the discontented Normans, he is found during the first half of the eleventh century waging on the whole a successful war against Herefordshire. It is certain, from the number, magnitude, and character of the existing earthworks, that Irchen or Archenfield, called from its beech-trees “Trefawrth” by the Welsh, and sometimes by the English “Fernley,” had from a very early period been inhabited by the English; but either distrusting these, or because he wished to quarter afar off the visitors whom he attracted, but of whom he was afraid, the Confessor made large grants of land along this district to his Norman courtiers, with whom, therefore, Griffith had not unfrequently to deal. The earliest of these grants seems to have been made to Richard Fitz-Scrob, whose fortress, built after a fashion till then unknown in England, gave great and general offence. His original castle has been replaced by later structures, now also in ruin, but the earthworks are probably original; and the name of Richard’s Castle shows how deeply the fear of its builders was impressed upon the people; and it is, moreover, a very rare example of a parish bearing a purely Norman name. These grants were opposed by Earl Godwin and his sons, and it was to enforce his remonstrances against them that the English Thane led a force from Beverstone, and challenged the Confessor to give up his stranger favourites—a struggle which finally ended in the temporary banishment of that truly English noble. In 1052, during Godwin’s exile, Griffith invaded Herefordshire, and advanced as far as Leominster before Fitz-Scrob and his Normans were in the field to meet him. They were beaten in a pitched battle, and upon open ground.