ereford Cathedral is dedicated to St. Mary and St. Ethelbert. In around 792 King Ethelbert of East Anglia was murdered on the order of Offa, King of the Mercians. Ethelbert's body was buried in a wooden church on the site of the present Cathedral. 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 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 within the Cathedral supposed to be the chair used by King Stephen at his royal proclamation in 1138.

St. Thomas Cantilupe was Bishop at Hereford from 1275. He was Lord High Treasurer and twice Chancellor of Oxford. He supported Simon de Montfort in his attempts to prevent foreigners taking religious posts in England, and left the country after Simon was defeated. Edward I brought Cantilupe back to become Hereford's Bishop. In 1786 the west end of the Cathedral fell down damaging the Norman nave. Repairs were undertaken by James Wyatt.Mini Timeline

1056		Hereford cathedral burnt
		A force of Welsh and Irish men led by Griffith, a Welsh prince attacked and burnt the building.
		Bishop of Hereford
		Death of Athelstan, bishop of Hereford; succeeded by Leofgar, who tried to take reprisals against Gruffydd, the Welsh Prince. 1
		Death of Leofgar, bishop of Hereford
		Gruffydd ap Llywelyn killed Leofgar, bishop of Hereford and others near Glasbury on Wye; English militia called out against Gruffydd but a settlement reached. 1
1080		Hereford Cathedral new building
		Robert de Losinga, a Norman Bishop started work on a new Cathedral at Hereford.2
1135		Stephen at Hereford
		Stephen visits Hereford Cathedral for his royal proclamation on Whit-Sunday. The chair reputed to have been used by Stephen still exists at Hereford.2
1226		Lady Chapel at Hereford
		From around 1226 until 1246, construction of the Lady Chapel at Hereford cathedral was undertaken.