Editing Chester (section)

===Medieval===
[[File:Castle Gate. Chester 02753.jpg|thumb|Castle Gate, Chester {{Circa|1781}}]]
[[File:Chester Castle 02790.jpg|thumb|[[Chester Castle]] {{Circa|1781}}]]
After the Roman troops withdrew, the Romano-British established several petty kingdoms. Chester is thought to have become part of [[Kingdom of Powys|Powys]].  ''Deverdoeu'' was a [[Welsh language|Welsh]] [[Welsh placenames|name]] for Chester as late as the 12th century (cf ''Dyfrdwy'', Welsh for the river Dee). Another, attested in the 9th-century ''[[Historia Brittonum|History of the Britons]]'' traditionally attributed to [[Nennius]], is ''{{nowrap|Cair Legion}}''<ref name=mommy>[[Nennius]] ({{abbr|attrib.|Traditional attribution}}). [[Theodor Mommsen]] ({{abbr|ed.|Editor}}). [[s:la:Historia Brittonum#VI. CIVITATES BRITANNIAE|''Historia Brittonum'', VI.]] Composed after AD&nbsp;830. {{in lang|la}} Hosted at [[s:la:Main Page|Latin Wikisource]].</ref><ref name=nashford>Ford, David Nash. "[http://www.britannia.com/history/ebk/articles/nenniuscities.html The 28 Cities of Britain] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415120312/http://www.britannia.com/history/ebk/articles/nenniuscities.html |date=15 April 2016 }}" at Britannia. 2000.</ref><ref name=shusher>Newman, John Henry &&nbsp;al. [http://www.mocavo.co.uk/Lives-of-the-English-Saints-St-Gilbert-Prior-of-Sempringham-Volume-3/527392/459 ''Lives of the English Saints: St. German, Bishop of Auxerre'', Ch.&nbsp;X: "Britain in 429, A.&nbsp;D.",<!--sic--> p.&nbsp;92.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160321234154/http://www.mocavo.co.uk/Lives-of-the-English-Saints-St-Gilbert-Prior-of-Sempringham-Volume-3/527392/459 |date=21 March 2016 }} James Toovey (London), 1844.</ref> ("[[caer|Fort]]" or "[[civitas|City]] of the Legion"); this later developed into ''{{lang|cy|Caerlleon}}'' and then the [[modern Welsh]] ''{{lang|cy|Caer}}''. (The town's importance is noted by its taking the simpler form in each case, while [[Isca Augusta]] in [[Monmouthshire]], another important legionary base, was known first as [[Caerleon on the Usk]], and now as [[Caerleon]]). King Arthur is said to have fought his ninth battle at the "city of the legions" (''Caerlleon'') and later [[Augustine of Canterbury|St Augustine]] came to the city to try to unite the church, and held his synod with the Welsh Bishops.

In 616, [[Æthelfrith of Northumbria]] defeated a Welsh army at the brutal and decisive [[Battle of Chester]] and probably established the [[Anglo-Saxon]] position in the area from then on.{{cn|date=March 2023}} The [[Northumbria]]n [[Anglo-Saxons]] used an [[Old English]] equivalent of the British name, ''{{lang|ang|Legacæstir}}'', which was current until the 11th century, when, in a further parallel with Welsh usage, the first element fell out of use and the simple name Chester emerged. In 689, King [[Æthelred of Mercia]] founded the Minster Church of West Mercia on what is considered to be an early Christian site: it is known as the Minster of St John the Baptist, Chester (now St John's Church) which later became the first cathedral. Much later, the body of Æthelred's niece, St Werburgh, was removed from Hanbury in Staffordshire in the 9th century and, to save it from desecration by Danish marauders was reburied in the Church of SS Peter & Paul – later to become the Abbey Church (the present cathedral). Her name is still remembered in St Werburgh's Street, which passes alongside the cathedral, and near the city walls,{{cn|date=March 2023}} and in [https://www.stwerburghchester.co.uk St Werburgh's Roman Catholic church] in Grosvenor Park Road.

The Anglo-Saxons extended and strengthened the walls of Chester to protect the city against the Danes, who occupied it for a short time until [[Alfred the Great|Alfred]] seized all the cattle and laid waste on the surrounding land to drive them out. It was Alfred's daughter [[Æthelflæd]], Lady of the Mercians, that built the new Anglo-Saxon ''burh''.{{cn|date=March 2023}} A new Church dedicated to St Peter alone was founded in AD 907 by the Lady Æthelfleda at what was to become the Cross. In 973, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that, two years after his coronation at Bath, [[King Edgar's council at Chester|King Edgar of England came to Chester where he held his court]] in a palace in a place now known as Edgar's Field near the old Dee bridge in Handbridge. Taking the helm of a barge, he was rowed the short distance up the River Dee from Edgar's Field to the great Minster Church of St John the Baptist by six (the monk Henry Bradshaw records he was rowed by eight kings) tributary kings called ''reguli''.{{cn|date=March 2023}}

In 1071, King William the Conqueror<ref name="Cunliffe2001">{{cite book
|last=Cunliffe
|first=Barry W.
|title=The Penguin atlas of British & Irish history
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o4IZAQAAIAAJ
|access-date=30 December 2010
|year=2001
|publisher=Penguin
|isbn=978-0-14-100915-5
|page=72
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130528132514/http://books.google.com/books?id=o4IZAQAAIAAJ
|archive-date=28 May 2013
|url-status=live
}}</ref><ref name="Britannicainc1995">{{cite book
|title=The New Encyclopædia Britannica: Micropædia
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iI1WAAAAMAAJ
|access-date=30 December 2010
|year=1995
|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica
|isbn=978-0-85229-605-9
|page=180
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130528125625/http://books.google.com/books?id=iI1WAAAAMAAJ
|archive-date=28 May 2013
|url-status=live
}}</ref> made [[Hugh d'Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester|Hugh d'Avranches]], who built [[Chester Castle]], the first [[Earl of Chester|Earl of Chester (second creation)]]. From the 14th to the 18th century, the city's prominent position in [[North West England]] meant it was commonly known as Westchester. This name was used by [[Celia Fiennes]] when she visited the city in 1698.<ref>"The Illustrated Journeys of Celia Fiennes 1685 – c1712" edited by Christopher Morris</ref> and is also used in ''[[Moll Flanders]]''.