In the year 1070, at the season of Lent, by the advice of William, earl of Hereford, and some others, king William ordered his followers to search the monasteries throughout the whole of England; and the money which, on account of his severity and extortion, the wealthier English had deposited there, he ordered to be taken from them.

Bishop Egelwin, having returned from flight, as already mentioned, now meditated in his mind a perpetual exile. For, seeing the affairs of the English in a state of confusion on every side, and fearing that the sway of a foreign nation, to whose language and manners he was a stranger, would press with severity upon himself, he determined to resign his bishopric, and to provide for himself, as he best might, in a foreign land. Having, therefore, provided a ship, and put all necessaries on board, he was waiting for a fair wind in the harbour of Wearmouth.

At the same time there were some other ships there; on board of which were the Clito Edgar with his mother Agatha, and his two sisters, Margaret and Christiana, Siward Barn, Marleswein, and Elfwin, son of Norman, and many besides; who, after the attack on the castles at York, on the return home of the Danes, dreading the vengeance of the king for having aided them, were preparing to fly to Scotland and waiting for a fair passage thither.

At this period, a countless multitude of Scots, under the command of king Malcolm, passing through Cumberland, and making their way towards the east, fiercely laid waste the whole of Teesdale 39 and its neighbourhood, far and wide. Having come to a place which, in the English language, is called Hundredesfelde, and in the Latin "Centum Fontes" (the hundred springs), and having slain there some of the English nobles, the king, retaining with him part of his army, sent home the other part, with an infinite amount of spoil, by the road by which they had come. In doing this, his crafty design was, that the wretched inhabitants who, in their fear of the enemy, had for safety concealed themselves and their property in whatever hiding-places they could find, might suppose that the whole of the enemy's forces had departed, and that he might suddenly come upon them after they had, with a feeling of security, returned to their towns and homes; 29 The vicinity of the river Tees.

VOL. I.

L

which, accordingly, happened to be the case. For, having laid waste part of Cleveland, he suddenly ravaged Heorternisse, and thence making a fierce incursion upon the lands of Saint Cuthbert, deprived all of the whole of their property, and some even of their lives.

40

In addition to this, he consumed the church of Saint Peter the Apostle, at Wearmouth, with flames which were kindled by his men in his own presence; other churches also he burned to the ground, together with those who had taken refuge in them. While riding near the banks of the river, and from an elevated spot looking down upon the cruelties inflicted by his men upon the wretched English, and satiating his mind and his eyes with this sight of horror, word was brought to him that the Clito Edgar and his sisters, comely young women of royal blood, with many others, very wealthy fugitives from their country, had taken refuge in that harbour. On this, after interchanging courtesies with them, he kindly addressed them when they came, and gave to them and all their attendants, with the strongest assurances of peace, an asylum in his dominions for as long a period as they should think fit. Amid these depredations inflicted by the Scots, earl Cospatric, who, as already mentioned, had purchased the earldom of Northumbria of king William for a sum of money, having obtained the aid of some active allies, ravaged Cumberland with dreadful havoc; and then, having laid waste the country with fire and sword, returned with a large quantity of spoil, and shut himself and his followers within the strong fortifications of Bebbanburgh;" whence frequently sallying forth, he greatly weakened the enemy's strength. At this period Cumberland was subject to king Malcolm; not by rightful possession, but in consequence of having been subjugated by force.

Malcolm, on hearing what Cospatric had done (while he was still looking at the church of Saint Peter burning amid the flames kindled by his own men), could hardly contain himself for anger, and commanded his men no longer to spare any individual of the English nation, but either to strike them to the earth and slay them, or, making them prisoners, carry them off, doomed to the yoke of perpetual slavery. The troops having received this sanction, it was dreadful even to 41 Bamborough.

40 In the north of Northumberland.

witness the cruelties they were guilty of towards the English. Some aged men and women were decapitated with the sword; others, like swine intended for food, were pierced through and through with lances; infants were torn from the breasts of their mothers, thrown aloft into the air, and on falling, received upon the points of lances, sharp weapons being thickly planted in the ground.

The Scots, more savage than wild beasts, took delight in these cruelties, as though a spectacle of games; and thus did the age of innocence, destined to attain heaven, breathe its last, suspended between heaven and earth. But the young men and young women, and whoever besides seemed adapted for toil and labour, were driven away in fetters in front of the enemy, to endure a perpetual exile in captivity as servants and handmaids. Some of these, while running before those who drove them on, became fatigued to a degree beyond what their strength could endure, and, as they sank to the ground on the spot, the same was the place of their fall and of their death. While beholding these scenes, Malcolm was moved to compassion by no tears, no groans of the wretched creatures; but, on the contrary, gave orders that they should be perseveringly driven onward in their course.

In consequence of this, Scotland became filled with menservants and maid-servants of English parentage; so much so, that even at the present day not only not even the smallest village, but not even the humblest house is to be found without them.

After the return of Malcolm to Scotland, bishop Egelwin having set sail with the view of proceeding to Cologne, a contrary wind arose and drove him back upon the coast of Scotland, which also, after a speedy passage, brought thither the Clito Edgar with his above-named companions. On this, king Malcolm, with the full consent of his relations, married Margaret, the sister of Edgar, a woman ennobled by her royal birth, but much more ennobled by her wisdom and piety, through whose zeal and untiring efforts the king himself, laying aside his barbarian manners, became more virtuous and more civilized. By her he had six sons-Edward, Edmund, king Edgar, Ethelred, king Alexander, king David, and two daughters, Matilda, queen of the English, and Mary, who became the wife of Eustace, earl of Boulogne.

In the same year, a great synod was held at Winchester, on the octave of Easter, by command of king William, who was there present; it was also sanctioned by our lord Alexander, the pope, who gave the authority of the Apostolic See thereto, through his legates, Hermenfred, bishop of Sion, and the cardinal priests, John and Peter. At this synod Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury, was deprived of his archbishopric on three grounds, namely; because he had wrongfully held the bishopric of Winchester together with the archbishopric; because, in the lifetime of archbishop Robert, he had not only held the archbishopric, but even for some time, at the celebration of the mass, had made use of his pall which remained at Canterbury, when he himself had been violently and unjustly expelled from England; and because he had received the pall from Benedict, who had been excommunicated by the holy Church of Rome, for having gained the papacy by means of bribery. His brother Agelmar, the bishop of East Anglia," was also deprived there, as were also some abbats; all which was done by the agency of the king, in order that as many of the English as possible might be deprived of their honors; in whose place he might appoint persons of his own nation, for the purpose of strengthening his possession of the kingdom which he had recently acquired. For this reason, also, he deprived of their honors certain bishops and abbats, whom, as no evident reason existed, neither synods nor secular laws condemned; and, placing them in confinement, kept them there to the end of their lives, being merely influenced, as already mentioned, by suspicion on account of the kingdom he had newly acquired.

At this synod, also, while the rest, being sensible of the king's feelings, were afraid lest they should be deprived of their dignities, the venerable man, Wulstan, bishop of Worcester, resolutely demanded restoration of a considerable quantity of property belonging to his see which had been retained in his possession by archbishop Aldred, when he was removed from the see of Worcester to that of York, and which, after his death, had come into the king's hands; and both asked for justice to be done by those who presided over the synod, and demanded it of the king. But the church of York, as it then had no pastor to speak for it, was dumb; judgment was 42 Bishop of Helmham, in Norfolk.

therefore given that the claim should remain in its present state until an archbishop was appointed, who might defend his church, and there would be a person to make answer to his charge; so that, after the charges and answers had been considered, judgment might be given with more fairness and certainty. Accordingly, on the present occasion, the claim stood over for a time.

On the day of Pentecost, in this year, the king, being then at Windsor, gave the archbishopric of the church of York to Thomas, a venerable canon of Bayeux, and the bishopric of Winchester to Valceline, his own chaplain: and, by his command, on the following day, Armenfred, the above-named bishop of Sion, held a synod, John and Peter, the cardinals before-mentioned, having returned to Rome.

44

43

At this synod Agelric, bishop of the South Saxons,43 was degraded in an uncanonical manner; and shortly after, for no fault on his part, the king placed him in confinement at Mearlesberge.* A considerable number of abbats were also deposed; after whose deposition, the king gave to his chaplains Arfract, the bishopric of East Anglia, and to Stigand, that of the South Saxons; to some of the Norman monks he also gave abbeys; and, as the archbishop of Canterbury had been deposed, and the archbishop of York had recently died, by the king's command Valceline was ordained on the eighth day after Pentecost by the same Armenfred, bishop of Sion, the legate of the Apostolic See.

On the approach of the feast of Saint John the Baptist, earl Osborn departed for Denmark with the fleet that had lain in the river Humber during the winter, but his brother, Sweyn, outlawed him on account of the money, which, contrary to the wishes of the Danes, he had received from king William. At this period the most valiant man, Edric, surnamed the Woodsman, 46 was reconciled to king William. After this, the king summoned from Normandy Lanfranc, the abbat of Caen, a Lombard by birth, a man of the greatest learning in every respect, well skilled in all the liberal arts and in the knowledge of both divine and secular literature, and most prudent in counsel and in the management of temporal matters, and, on the day of the Assumption of Saint 43 Bishop of Selsey. 45 Of Helmham.

44 Marlborough.

46 Silvaticus.