King Ethelred, in the year 1006, kept his court at Shrewsbury; and in 1016 the inhabitants revolted to the Danish chief, Canute. They were afterwards compelled to return to their allegiance, and were severely punished for their defection by Prince Edmund, son of Ethelred. Alphelm, a prince of the blood, having been invited by Edric, duke of Mercia, and son-in-law to Ethelred, to a banquet at Shrewsbury, and afterwards to a hunting party, was treacherously murdered during the chase by one Godwin, a butcher of the town, whom Edric had hired for the purpose. This circumstance probably gave rise to a custom prevalent during the reign of Edward the Confessor, of twelve of the principal persons keeping guard over the king’s person when he came down to Shrewsbury, and the same number attending him whenever he went out a hunting. In this reign Shrewsbury had two hundred and fifty-two houses, besides the mint, which was under the direction of three officers, who were compelled to pay into the royal treasury twenty shillings at the end of every fifteen days, while the money was current. After the Norman conquest, Owen Gwynedd, Prince of Wales, laid siege to Shrewsbury; but William the Conqueror, who had just returned from a visit to his native country, in order to quell the rising tumults which everywhere began to threaten his British dominions, soon raised the siege, and punished the English chiefs, while he took ample vengeance on the Welsh. In this reign, Roger de Montgomery, the relation and favourite of the Conqueror, was created Earl of Shrewsbury, Arundle, and Chichester, and had a grant of nearly the whole of the county of Shropshire, besides a hundred and fifty manors or lordships in other parts of the kingdom. In one of the deeds transferring these manorial grants, Roger styles himself _Rogerius_, _Dei gratia_, _Scrobesburiensis Comes_—Roger, by the grace of God, Earl of Shrewsbury.
At the Doomsday survey, 1086, Shrewsbury is styled a city, and the Abbey is said to have been founded where the parish church of the city stood. This book also contains a summary of several municipal laws, customs, and usages, for the internal regulation of the place, and for increasing the king’s revenues. The amount of taxes at this period was £20, of which the king had two-thirds and the sheriff one, Hugh de Montgomery, who had succeeded his father Roger in the earldom of Shrewsbury, having been shot by an arrow from the skilful hand of Magnus, King of Norway, was succeeded by his brother, Robert de Belesme. Earl Robert united with the party who opposed the pretensions of Prince Henry, son of William Rufus, and espoused the claims of Robert, Duke of Normandy. He afterwards broke out into open rebellion, strengthened his castles in Shropshire, and at Shrewsbury built and fortified a flank wall, from each side of the castle across the isthmus, down to the side of the Severn. Upon this, the earl was publicly declared a traitor, and King Henry marched against him with a considerable force. The surrender of Bridgnorth to Henry induced the earl to quit Shrewsbury, and to commit its defence to three generals and eighty soldiers hired expressly for the purpose. With the assistance of a few Welsh, with whom he had made peace, he frequently disturbed the royal forces, till, being much harassed, he was compelled to return to Shrewsbury. Soon afterwards, the town was surrounded with an army of 60,000 men; and Robert de Belesme had scarcely seated himself in the castle, when the king demanded the immediate surrender of the place, threatening, in case of refusal, in three days to besiege the town, and hang every one found in the castle. The earl, perceiving that he had no forces to withstand the attack of the king, confessed his treason, implored the royal clemency, and sent the keys of the castle by the hands of Ralph, Abbot of Seez, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, which the king accepted, and banished the restless earl to Normandy. The spirit of revenge and ambition, however, rekindled in his breast, and he contrived once more to appear in arms against Henry; but was at length taken prisoner, and ignominously conveyed in chains to England, where he ended a miserable life a close prisoner at Wareham.