quence, on the fourth day before the nones of August, being the fifth day of the week, in the eighth year of the indiction. The body was carried to Winchester, and buried at the old monastery there, in the church of Saint Peter. And not undeservedly did this befall him, for, as popular rumour affirmed, this was undoubtedly the great might of God and his vengeance. For, in ancient times, that is to say, in the days of king Edward and the other kings of England, his predecessors, that same district flourished most abundantly in inhabitants, and worshippers of God, and churches, but, by the command of king William the Elder, the people being driven away, the houses half destroyed, and the churches pulled down, the land was rendered fit only for the habitation of wild beasts; and this, according to general belief, was the cause of the mishap; for it was the fact that, some time before, Richard, the brother of this same king William the Younger, lost his life in the same forest; and a short time previously, his cousin Richard, son of Robert duke of Normandy, while hunting there, was pierced by an arrow discharged by one of his knights, of which wound he died. In the place, also, where the king fell, in former times a church had been built, but, as previously stated, in his father's time, it was levelled with the ground.

In the days of this king, as in part already mentioned, there were many portentous signs beheld in the sun, moon, and stars; the sea, also, frequently flowed beyond its usual limits on the shore, and swept away men and animals, towns, and a vast number of houses. In a village which is called Berkshire,28 just before the king's death, blood flowed from a spring during a period of three weeks.29 The devil, also, showed himself frequently, in a frightful shape, to many Normans in the woods, and made many communications to them respecting the king and Ranulph and some other persons. Nor is this to be wondered at, for in their time almost all equity on part of the laws was silent, and all grounds for justice being suppressed, money alone held sway with the men in power. fine, at this period, some persons paid more obedience to the royal wishes than to justice; so much so, that Ranulph, con

In

28 Some words are evidently omitted in the text. William of Malmesbury says that this took place at the village of Finchampstead, in the county of Berks. 29 William of Malmesbury says fifteen days.

trary to ecclesiastical law and the prescribed rules of his order (for he was a priest), first put up to sale abbacies, and then bishoprics, the holders of which were dead, having lately received the presentations from the king, to whom he paid yearly no small sum of money. The influence of this man became so extensive, and so greatly did his power increase in a short space of time, that the king appointed him judge and general manager of the whole kingdom.

Having secured this extent of power, in every quarter throughout England he mulcted some of the richest and most wealthy by taking from them their property and lands. The poorer classes he unceasingly oppressed by heavy and unjust taxes, and, in many ways, both before he received his bishopric and after, persecuted both great and small in common, and ceased not to do so up to the period of the king's death. For on the very day on which the king met with his death, he held in his own hands the archbishopric of Canterbury and the bishoprics of Winchester and Salisbury.

HENRY THE FIRST.

King William reigned fourteen years all but twenty-eight days, and was succeeded by his younger brother, Henry. Shortly after, on the nones of August, he was consecrated king at Westminster, by Maurice, the bishop of London; and, on the day of his consecration, he set free the holy church of God, which had been sold and let to farm in his brother's time; he did away with all bad customs and iniquitous exactions by which the kingdom of England was unrighteously oppressed; he also established unbroken peace in his kingdom, and commanded that it should be maintained. To all in common he restored the laws of king Edward, together with those amendments to them which his father had made: but the forests, which he had made and held, he retained in his own hands.

Not long after this, on the seventh day before the ides of September, he placed Ranulph, the bishop of Durham, in confinement in the Tower of London, and recalled Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, from Gaul.

In the meantime, Robert, earl of Flanders, and Eustace, earl of Boulogne, returned home first, and after them Robert, duke of

Normandy, with the wife whom he had married in Sicily. Shortly after this, Henry, king of the English, assembled the elders of England 30 at London, and took to wife Matilda, the daughter of Malcolm, king of the Scots, and of queen Margaret, and sister of the kings Edgar, Alexander, and David; on which she was consecrated queen, and crowned by Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, on the Lord's day, being the day of the feast of Saint Martin.

Thomas, archbishop of York, a man whose memory was revered, and of exemplary piety, affable, and beloved by all, departed this life at York, on the Lord's day, being the fourteenth day before the calends of December, and was succeeded by Gerard, the bishop of Hereford.

In the year 1101, Louis, king of the Franks, visited the court of king Henry at London, at the time of the Nativity of our Lord. On the calends of February, Ranulph, the bishop of Durham, escaped from confinement, by means of extreme artfulness, and, crossing the sea, went to Robert, duke of Normandy, and persuaded him to make a hostile invasion of England. In addition to this, many of the powerful men in this country sent ambassadors to him, and begged him to come with all haste, offering him the crown and the kingdom. On the eighth day before the ides of June, the city of Gloucester, together with the principal monastery there and many others, was destroyed by fire.

31

In consequence of the above representations, Robert, duke of Normandy, having collected a vast number of knights, archers, and foot, assembled his ships at a place which, in the Norman language, is called Treport; on learning which, king William gave orders to his sailors to watch the seas, that no one might approach the English territory from the country of Normandy, and, having collected an innumerable army throughout the whole of England, he himself pitched his camp not far from Hastings, in Sussex; for he considered it a matter of certainty that his brother would land in that neighbourhood.

But duke Robert, acting on the advice of bishop Ranulph, so wrought upon some of the king's sailors, by making them promises of different kinds, that, forsaking the fealty which they owed the king, they went over to him, and acted as his guides to England. All things, therefore, being in readi31 V. r. Ultreport.

30 The Witenagemote.

32

On

ness, together with his army, he embarked, and, about the time of the feast of Saint Peter ad Vincula, landed at a place called Portesmudh, and immediately moving on his army towards Winchester, encamped in a suitable spot. learning his arrival, some of the chief men of England at once, as they had previously arranged, went over to him, while others, concealing their sentiments, remained with the king. But the bishops, the common soldiers, and the English, with resolute determination, sided with him, and were unanimously prepared to go forth to battle in his cause.

However, the more prudent men on both sides, having held a discreet conference among themselves, made peace between the brothers on the following terms:-that the king was to pay yearly to the duke three thousand marks of silver and restore gratuitously to all the ancient dignities in England which they had lost in consequence of their fidelity to the duke; and in like manner, the duke was to restore them to those, who, for the king's cause, had lost their dignities in Normandy, without any recompense. On these terms being made, the king's army returned home, and part of the duke's returned to Normandy, while part remained with him in England.

At

In this year, Godfrey, king of Jerusalem, son of Eustace the elder, earl of Boulogne, who had been previously the most powerful duke of Lorraine, departed this life, and rests entombed in the church of Golgotha. After his death, the Christians unanimously elected his brother, Baldwin, their king. this period, Robert de Belesme, earl of Shrewsbury, the son of earl Roger, commenced (with the view of opposing king Henry, as the event proved,) to repair with a broad and high wall the castle which Agelfleda, lady of the Mercians, in the reign of her brother Edward the Elder, had formerly built on the western side of the river Severn, at a place called Bridge;' he also began to build another in Wales, at a place which is called Carrocove.

33

In the year 1102, the above-named earl Robert de Belesme, who also at that time ruled over the earldom of Ponthieu, and was possessed of a considerable number of castles in Normandy, strongly fortified the city of Shrewsbury and the castle there, as also the castles of Arundel and of Titchil,34 with 32 Portsmouth. V. r. Moresmuth. 33 Now Bridgenorth. 34 Tickhill, in Yorkshire.

VOL. I.

provisions, engines of war, arms, knights, and foot-soldiers, against king Henry. He also hastened, by every possible method, working day and night, to complete the walls and towers of the castles of Bridge and Carrocove; the Welch also, and his own men, he encouraged by gifts of honors, lands, horses, and arms, and by various other presents, to become more zealous and faithful to himself, and more ready to do what he wished.

These attempts, however, and his efforts were very soon stopped short. For his plots and intentions being, by means of certain information, discovered, the king pronounced him a public enemy. On this, at once assembling all the Welch and the Normans he possibly could at that moment, he and his brother Arnold laid waste part of the borough of Stafford, and carried away thence into Wales many beasts of burden and animals, together with some of the people. The king, however, without delay, laid siege first to his castle of Arundel, and, having erected castles around it, retired. He then ordered Robert, bishop of Lincoln, to lay siege to the castle of Tickill; while he himself, with an army levied throughout the whole of England, besieged the castle of Bridge, and ordered his people to construct engines of war and erect a castle there. In the meantime, by some trifling presents, he easily prevailed upon the Welch, in whom earl Robert placed great confidence, to disregard the oaths they had sworn to him, and entirely forsake him, and join in the attack against him. The consequence was, that, within thirty days, the city and all the castles were surrendered; and, having now subdued his enemy, Robert the king, ignominiously expelled him from England, and, shortly after, condemned his brother Arnold to a like fate, as a reward for his perfidious conduct.

After these events, king Henry being at London, with all the chief men of his kingdom, both ecclesiastics and those of the secular order, at Westminster he invested two of his clergy with bishoprics, appointing Roger, his chancellor, bishop of Salisbury, and Roger, his chief of the larder, bishop of Hereford. Here, also, Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, held a great synod, upon matters relating to the Christian religion, the following prelates sitting there with him :-Gerard, archbishop of York, Maurice, bishop of London, William, bishop elect of Winchester, Robert, bishop of Lincoln, Samson,