Battle of Stafford
Who Fought
Anglo-Welsh rebel army led by Eadric the Wild
Norman forces led by Brian of Brittany and William I.
History & Significance
Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about 15 miles (24 km) south of Stoke-on-Trent, 15 miles (24 km) north of Wolverhampton and 24 miles (39 km) north-west of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021 census, and is the main settlement within the larger Borough of Stafford, which had a population of 136,837 in 2021.
Stafford has Anglo-Saxon roots, being founded in 913, when Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, founded a defensive burh; it became the county town of Staffordshire soon after. Stafford became an important market town in the Middle Ages and later grew into an important industrial town, due to the proliferation of shoemaking, engineering and electrical industries.
Prehistoric finds suggest scattered settlements in the area, whilst 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south-west of the town lies an Iron Age hill fort at Berry Ring. There is also evidence of Roman activity in the area, with finds around Clark and Eastgate Street. However it is thought that the Romans reclaimed the marsh for agriculture rather than settlement.
Stafford means "ford" by a staithe (landing place). The original settlement was on a near island, on a gravelly lowland bounded by loop of the River Sow to the south and west (a tributary of the River Trent). The eastern boundary was formed by Sandyford brook, with a marshy area to the north. Despite many drains being constructed in the 19th century, the area is still prone to flooding.
Stafford has been identified as the island of Bethney, or Bethnei where St Bertelin is said to have founded a hermitage about AD 700, before moving to a more remote area.
Others then settled in the area and named it Stafford. There may have been a settlement near the river crossing in 913, when Æthelflæd, Lady of Mercia founded a burh (fortified settlement) at Stafford; one of many founded across Mercia as part of her campaign against the Danes (Vikings). A mint was founded at Stafford by King Æthelstan (924-39) which continued in operation until the reign of Henry II (1154–89). Stafford also provided an industrial area for centralised production of Roman-style pottery (Stafford Ware), which was supplied to a chain of West Midlands burhs.
The county of Staffordshire was formed at about this time, with Stafford as its county town. Stafford lay within the Pirehill hundred.
In the autumn of 1069, a rebellion led by Eadric the Wild against the Norman Conquest culminated in the Battle of Stafford, during which the Anglo-Welsh rebel army was decisively defeated by Norman forces led by Brian of Brittany and William I. Two years later another rebellion, led by Edwin, Earl of Mercia, ended in Edwin's assassination and distribution of his lands among the followers of William the Conqueror, who granted Robert de Tosny (later known as Robert de Stafford) the manor of Bradley and one third of the king's rents in Stafford. The estate became the seat of the powerful Stafford family.
The ground they fought on
The site of Battle of Stafford lies on Triassic Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Triassic. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.
The decisive defeat of the Anglo-Welsh rebel army at the Battle of Stafford in 1069 left the town in a state of prolonged ruin; when Domesday Book surveyors recorded the settlement in 1086, seventeen years after the fighting, they found Stafford still "partially waste" with nearly a third of its messuages uninhabited, a stark testament to the destruction wrought in the wake of the Norman victory.
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Scheduled Monuments near Battle of Stafford
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