Editing Cheshire (section)

===Earldom===
[[File: Doomsday Book - Counties of England - 1086.png|thumb|left|The counties of England following the [[Norman Conquest]]. Cheshire held a strategic position on the Welsh border with the [[Hundred (county division)|hundreds]] between the rivers [[River Mersey|Mersey]] and [[River Ribble|Ribble]] (Inter Ripam et Mersam) to the north.]]
[[File:Wales 1234 (Marchia Wallie and Pura Wallia).svg|thumb|The strategic location of the [[Earl of Chester|Earldom of Chester]]; the only [[county palatine]] on the Welsh Marches.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/english/heritage/medieval_exhibition/struggles.htm |title=Wrexham County Borough Council: The Princes and the Marcher Lords |publisher=Wrexham.gov.uk |access-date=14 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230232130/http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/english/heritage/medieval_exhibition/struggles.htm |archive-date=30 December 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref><br /><br />{{legend|#87de87|Pura Wallia (independent Wales)}}{{legend|#aaeeff|Lands gained by [[Llywelyn the Great]] in 1234}}{{legend|#ffb380|Marchia Wallie (lands controlled by Norman Marcher barons)}}]]

After the [[Norman Conquest]] of 1066 by [[William the Conqueror|William I]], dissent and resistance continued for many years after the invasion. In 1069 local resistance in Cheshire was finally put down using draconian measures as part of the [[Harrying of the North]]. The ferocity of the campaign against the English populace was enough to end all future resistance. Examples were made of major landowners such as Earl [[Edwin of Mercia]], their properties confiscated and redistributed amongst Norman barons.

The earldom was sufficiently independent from the kingdom of England that the 13th-century [[Magna Carta]] did not apply to the shire of [[Chester]], so the [[Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester|earl]] wrote up his own [[Magna Carta of Chester|Chester Charter]] at the petition of his barons.<ref name=Hewitt>{{cite book |title=Mediaeval Cheshire: An Economic and Social History of Cheshire in the Reigns of the Three Edwards |last1=Hewitt |first1=Herbert James |location=Manchester |publisher=Manchester University Press |page=9 |date=1929 }}</ref>