he put into prompt
and terrible execution. It seems not improbable that upon one of these
royal visits the miners of the Forest applied for and obtained their
"customes and franchises," which, even in the less remote days of Edward
I., were granted, as the record of them declares, "time out of minde."
The demand which the Conqueror made upon the citizens of Gloucester for
thirty-six "Icres" of iron yearly, each of which comprised ten bars, made
at their forges, six in number, wherewith to furnish his fleet with
nails, was procured doubtless from this Forest, for which impost the
above-named grant was possibly designed as a compensation.

The 'Annals' of Giraldus, relative to the reign of Henry I., inform us
that the Castle of St. Briavel's, or Brulails was now built by Milo
Fitz-Walter, with the design of confirming the royal authority in the
neighbourhood, and of checking the inroads of the Welsh; but, extensive
as its ruins still are, they seem to contain no trace of so early a
period. The only vestige of that age is seen in the Parish Church, which
stands opposite the north entrance of the castle. Henry created
Fitz-Walter Earl of Hereford, and committed the castle of St. Briavel's,
and the district adjoining, to his care. The 'Itinerary' of the same
writer speaks of "the noble Forest of Dean, by which Gloucester was amply
supplied with iron and venison." Tithes of the latter were given by this
King to the Abbey there.

[Picture: South side of the Nave in St. Briavel's Church]

In the fifth year of the succeeding reign of Stephen, by whom the gifts
just mentioned were confirmed, the Forest of Dean, that is, its royal
quitrents, were granted to Lucy, Milo Fitz-Walter's third daughter, upon
her marrying Herbert Fitz-Herbert, the King's chamberlain, and progenitor
to the present Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. So profuse a gift on
such an occasion may seem almost incredible; but its tenure, we must
remember, was precarious, the Forest itself being continually exposed to
danger by its proximity to the Welsh border. Mahel was this lady's
youngest brother, of whom Camden records that "the judgment of God
overtook him for his rapacious ways, inhumane cruelties, and boundless
avarice, always usurping other men's rights. For, being courteously
treated at the Castle of St. Briavel's by Walter de Clifford, the castle
taking fire, he lost his life by the fall of a stone on his head from the
highest tower." I