 ereford Cathedral is dedicated to St. Mary and St. Ethelbert. In about 792 King Ethelbert of East Anglia was murdered on the order of Offa, King of the Mercians. His body was buried in a wooden church. Between 1052 and 1056 in the reign of Edward the Confessor, Bishop Aethelstan built a new church on the site. The new church was destroyed in 1056 by Griffin, King of the Welsh who killed the cathedral's bishop at the time and many of the clergy. The Norman invasion brought some stability and in 1080 under Bishop Losinga, rebuilding work began on the Cathedral which had been in ruins since the Welsh attack. There is a chair here supposed to be the chair used by King Stephen at his royal proclamation, in 1138.
St. Thomas Cantilupe was Bishop here from 1275. He was Lord High Treasurer and twice Chancellor of Oxford. He supported Simon de Montfort in his moves to prevent foreigners taking posts in England, and left the country after Simon was defeated. Edward I brought him back to become Bishop. In 1786 the west end fell down, damaging the Norman nave. Repairs were undertaken by James Wyatt. |
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