Fulk FitzWarin at the time of his death in 1197. Whittington Castle lies on the English side of Offa's Dyke, which during the Norman era and before was the border between England and Wales. The site was fortified as a castle by William Peverel in 1138, in support of Empress Matilda, the daughter of King Henry I (1100–1135), in her struggle (known as The Anarchy) for the throne against King Stephen (1135–1154), grandson of William the Conqueror. In the late 1140s the lordship of Whittington, like Oswestry and Overton ceased to be part of England and became part of the Kingdom of
Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor Yaroslav, the pretender to the throne of the Kievan Rus'. A son of Kievan Grand Duke Vladimir the Great, he was vice-regent of the Principality of Novgorod at the time of his father's death in 1015. Yaroslav's eldest surviving brother, Sviatopolk I of Kiev, killed three of his other brothers and seized power in Kiev. Henry II's support of Yaroslav was in direct opposition to not only Sviatopolk but to Bolesław I as well. Years before, Bolesław I had married one of his daughters to Sviatopolk, making the new Kievan Grand Duke a son-in-law to the Polish Duke. Henry II