Malvern Chase was a royal chase that occupied the land between the Malvern Hills and the River Severn in Worcestershire and extended to Herefordshire from the River Teme to Cors Forest. [1]
The following parishes and hamlets were within the Chase: Hanley Castle, Upton-upon-Severn, Welland, Longdon, Birtsmorton, Castlemorton, Bromsberrow, Berrow, Malvern, Colwall and Mathon. [1]
In his book The Forest and Chase of Malvern, [2] Edwin Lees describes the origins of the chase. "Nothing is stated with certainty as to the ownership of the Forest or Wilderness of Malvern before the reign of Edward I, who granted it as Royal property to Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, and it was henceforth called a Chace. The second Gilbert de Clare married Maude, daughter of John de Burgh, when the Chaces of Malvern and Cors, with the Castle and Manor of Hanley, were assigned her as a dower; but the Earl being killed in the Scottish war, and having no children by Maude, these possessions went after his death to his sisters, as his heirs, and the eldest, who married Hugh le Despencer the younger, brought them with other possessions into the Despencer family, where they remained till in the third generation, then passing by marriage to Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, a renowned general in the reign of Henry V who was killed in the French wars."
His son, Henry Beauchamp, created Duke of Warwick by Henry VI, died aged only 22, at Hanley Castle, and was buried in Tewkesbury Abbey. His estates and Malvern Chace among them, as he died without issue, passed to his only sister and heiress, Ann, married to the celebrated Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, the "king-maker" who leaving two daughters, his were, as heiresses, divided between them. One was matched to the unfortunate Edward, Prince of Wales, son of Henry VI. and Queen Margaret, killed in the rout after at Tewkesbury.
She was married afterwards to Richard Duke of Gloucester later King Richard III., and had one son Edward who died aged around ten. The other became the wife of George, Duke of Clarence, who left one son. This son and heir was beheaded in the Tower on pretence of conspiracy by order of Henry VII., who then seized upon all young Warwick's possessions, including the Castle and Manor of Hanley, the parks of Blackmore, Hanley, and Cliffey, all lying in the bosom of the Chace, together with the market town of Upton-upon-Severn; and so these possessions thus unjustly obtained by Henry remained Crown lands till about the year 1630.
King Charles I engaged in sale of Royal forests and chases during the 1620s and 30s in an attempt to provide himself with income without recourse to Parliament. In 1630 he granted one-third part of the Forest or Chace of Malvern to Sir Robert Heath, then Attorney-General, and Sir Cornelius Vermuyden. In the meantime many rights or claims of right had arisen by grant or long usages in the lapse of several centuries. When the grantees began to enclose the Chace, the commoners and other persons interested disputed their right to do so. Several riots and disturbances took place in consequence. Such riots were common in these processes, elsewhere being known as the Western Rising. [3]
Nevertheless, a decree was issued in 1632 for the "disafforestation of the Chace of Malvern, and for freeing the lands within the bounds, limits, and jurisdictions thereof, of and from the game of deer there and the forest laws." By this decree (to obviate all disputes) one-third part only was to be severed and divided by commissioners, but the other two parts "shall remain and continue unto and amongst the commoners, and be held by them according to their several rights and interests, discharged and freed from his Majesty's game of deer there, and of and from the forest laws, and the liberties and franchises of Forest and Chace, in such sort as by the said decree it doth and may appear." [2]
Further disputes with landowners resulted in clarifications that any land that was disafforested had to be in proportion to the quality of the land as a whole, so that the common was not the most meagre land.
King Charles II confirmed the settlement. [2] Commissioners were to judge any further requests for encroachments. The Chace was gradually eroded until the 1800s, when campaigners and renewed interest in the Malvern Hills resulted in the Malvern Hills Act 1884 which appointed Malvern Hills Conservators to preserve the area and govern its land use.
The Battle of Tewkesbury, which took place on 4 May 1471, was one of the most decisive battles of the Wars of the Roses in England.
The Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin, Tewkesbury, commonly known as Tewkesbury Abbey, is located in the English county of Gloucestershire. A former Benedictine monastery, it is now a parish church. Considered one of the finest examples of Norman architecture in Britain, it has the largest Romanesque crossing tower in Europe.
Earl of Warwick is one of the most prestigious titles in the peerages of the United Kingdom. The title has been created four times in English history, and the name refers to Warwick Castle and the town of Warwick.
Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick was an English medieval nobleman and military commander.
Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, 7th Earl of Gloucester was a powerful English noble. He was also known as "Red" Gilbert de Clare or "The Red Earl", probably because of his hair colour or fiery temper in battle. He held the Lordship of Glamorgan which was one of the most powerful and wealthy of the Welsh Marcher Lordships as well as over 200 English manors.
Upton-upon-Severn is a town and civil parish in the Malvern Hills District of Worcestershire, England. Lying on the A4104, the 2021 census recorded a population of 2,903 for the town.
Malvern Hills is a local government district in Worcestershire, England. Its council is based in the town of Malvern, and its area covers most of the western half of the county, including the outlying towns of Tenbury Wells and Upton-upon-Severn. It was originally formed in 1974 and was subject to a significant boundary reform in 1998. In the 2011 census the population of the Malvern Hills district was 74,631.
Malvern Wells is a village and civil parish south of Great Malvern in the Malvern Hills district of Worcestershire, England. The parish, once known as South Malvern, was formed in 1894 from parts of the civil parishes of Hanley Castle, Welland, and the former parish of Great Malvern, and owes its development to the 19th-century boom years of Malvern as a spa town. Malvern Wells is a centre of commercial bottling of Malvern water. The population of the parishes of Malvern Wells and Little Malvern was recorded in 2011 as 3,196.
A royal forest, occasionally known as a kingswood, is an area of land with different definitions in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The term forest in the ordinary modern understanding refers to an area of wooded land; however, the original medieval sense was closer to the modern idea of a "preserve" – i.e. land legally set aside for specific purposes such as royal hunting – with less emphasis on its composition. There are also differing and contextual interpretations in Continental Europe derived from the Carolingian and Merovingian legal systems.
Eleanor de Clare, suo jure 6th Lady of Glamorgan was a powerful Anglo-Welsh noblewoman who married Hugh Despenser the Younger, the future favourite of Edward II of England, and was a granddaughter of Edward I of England. With her sisters, Elizabeth de Clare and Margaret de Clare, she inherited her father's estates after the death of her brother, Gilbert de Clare, 8th Earl of Gloucester, 7th Earl of Hereford at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. She was born in 1292 at Caerphilly Castle in Glamorgan, Wales and was the eldest daughter of Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, 7th Earl of Gloucester, 5th Lord of Glamorgan and Princess Joan of Acre.
West Worcestershire is a constituency in Worcestershire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Harriett Baldwin, a Conservative. The constituency is considered a safe seat for the Conservatives. The constituency boundaries roughly correspond with the Malvern Hills District.
Anne Beauchamp, 16th Countess of Warwick was an important late medieval English noblewoman. She was the daughter of Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick, and his second wife, Isabel le Despenser.
Holt is a village and civil parish in the Malvern Hills District of the county of Worcestershire, England. The church is dedicated to St. Martin, and dates from about the 12th century. Holt Bridge, over the River Severn, was designed by Thomas Telford, and opened in 1830.
Hanley Castle is a village and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, between the towns of Malvern and Upton upon Severn and a short distance from the River Severn. It lies in the administrative area of Malvern Hills District, and is part of the informal region known as The Malverns. It is served primarily by bus service 332 Worcester - Upton upon Severn - Hanley Castle operated by Aston Coaches and 363 Worcester - Tewkesbury operated by First Worcester.
The Lordship of Glamorgan was one of the most powerful and wealthy of the Welsh Marcher Lordships. The seat was Cardiff Castle. It was established by the conquest of Glamorgan from its native Welsh ruler, by the Anglo-Norman nobleman Robert FitzHamon, feudal baron of Gloucester, and his legendary followers the Twelve Knights of Glamorgan. The Anglo-Norman Lord of Glamorgan, like all Marcher lords, ruled his lands directly by his own law: thus he could, amongst other things, declare war, raise taxes, establish courts and markets and build castles as he wished, without reference to the Crown. These privileges were only lost under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542. Though possessing many castles, the main seat of the Lordship was Cardiff Castle.
The Western Rising was a series of riots which took place during 1626–1632 in Gillingham Forest on the Wiltshire-Dorset border, Braydon Forest in Wiltshire, and the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire in response to disafforestation of royal forests, sale of royal lands and enclosure of property by the new owners. Disafforestation is a change in legal status that allows the land to be sold normally, rather than being preserved as a forest. Enclosure takes the land out of common use, denying access to non-owners who had previously used it.
Whiteleaved Oak is a hamlet in the English county of Herefordshire, lying in a valley at the southern end of the Malvern Hills between Raggedstone Hill and Chase End Hill where the counties of Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire meet. It was home to a 500-year-old oak tree, which was thought to be sacred. On 9 July 2020, the tree was destroyed by a fire which broke out due to lanterns being hung on its branches.
Edwin Lees (1800–1887) was a British botanist and antiquarian.
Cors forest was an ancient forest in Worcestershire and Gloucester, to the south of Malvern Chase. It appears to have included all that part of Gloucestershire lying between the rivers Severn and Leadon. The chase extended into Worcestershire on the boundary of Eldersfield and Chaceley.