Chester began when the Romans built a fort next to the River Dee about 75 AD
The monastery of St Werburgh was dissolved on the 20th January 1540 but the following year King Henry VIII decided to reconstitute the old monastery as the new Cathedral of the recently created Diocese of Chester. On the 26th July 1541, the King sealed with his Privy Seal the writ establishing the Cathedral and the Great Seal was added on the 4th of August 1541, thus legally constituting the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary in Chester.