Alrewas at the time was a flourishing settlement in the ownership of Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia and it remained the property of King John until he granted it to Roger de Somerville to be followed by the Griffiths and later, the Turtons.
This manor came under the control of the King again following Morcar being murdered in 1015 and the lands were later given to Ælfgar, the Earl of Mercia, but he lost this at the Norman Conquest.
Outside the city they defeated a northern English army led by Edwin, Earl of Mercia and his brother Morcar, Earl of Northumbria at the Battle of Fulford on 20 September.
Gruffydd's consolidation of power and alliance with Ælfgar of Mercia made him a threat to Harold Godwinson, earl of Hereford.
Gruffydd now allied himself with Ælfgār, son of Earl Leofric of Mercia, who had been deprived of his earldom of East Anglia by Harold Godwinson and his brothers.
Leofric, Earl of Mercia (968–1057), English noble and benefactor of churches
In 1055 Ælfgar, the earl of East Anglia, was exiled and allied himself with the ruler of Wales, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn.
In the Domesday Book the multiple estate of Bolton Abbey was listed as going from the lordship of Edwin, Earl of Mercia to the Clamores of Yorkshire.
These had previously belonged to a variety of Anglo-Saxons, including Edwin, Earl of Mercia.
James Earl Jones | Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex | Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma | Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener | Earl | Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts | Earl of Derby | Mercia | Earl Warren | Earl of Pembroke | Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer | Earl of Warwick | Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford | Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby | Earl of Shrewsbury | William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham | Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester | Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick | Earl of Leicester | John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon | Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex | Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester | Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer | Earl of Devon | Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig | My Name Is Earl | Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon | Earl Scruggs | Earl of March | Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe |
High up in the Chantry Chapel can be seen the shields of the Lords of the Manor from Saxon times beginning with Wulfric, Earl of Mercia and founder of Burton Abbey.