Discover Durham City in the Middle Ages: The City of Durham was the political and religious centre of an entire region in the Middle Ages. The capital of the County Palatinate of Durham, from the Norman era the Kings of England delegated power to the Bishops of Durham as a feudal overlord to govern England's frontier. Durham City itself was a designed as a fortress built upon a peninsula with the River Wear wrapped around it, a critical defensive spot. Its Cathedral, located inside the inner for