barons of Normandy, on Saint Margaret's day, being the fifth day of the week, and the thirteenth day before the calends of August. Having then received the oaths of fealty from the clergy and the people of the dukedom of Normandy, he gave to Geoffrey, son of Rotrod, earl of Perche, his niece, Matilda, daughter of the duke of Saxony, in marriage.

On the third day after this, that is to say, on the feast of Saint Mary Magdalen, Philip, king of France, and Richard, duke of Normandy, met to hold a conference between Chaumont and Trie. Here the king of France urgently requested that the duke of Normandy would restore to him Gisors, and many other places, which it would be tedious individually to mention. But Richard, seeing that if he did so, it would redound to his everlasting loss and disgrace, added to the beforementioned twenty thousand marks of silver, which the king, his father, had covenanted that he would pay to the king of France, another four thousand marks of silver, and by these obtained his favour and regard; and the king of France restored to him everything that he had taken in war from the king, his father, both castles as well as cities, and other fortified places, and vills and farms as well.

14

In the meantime, queen Eleanor, the mother of the beforenamed duke, moved her royal court from city to city, and from castle to castle, just as she thought proper; and sending messengers throughout all the counties of England, ordered that all captives should be liberated from prison and confinement, for the good of the soul of Henry, her lord; inasmuch as, in her own person, she had learnt by experience that confinement is distasteful to mankind, and that it is a most delightful refreshment to the spirits to be liberated therefrom. She, moreover, gave directions, in obedience to the orders of her son, the duke, that all who had been taken in custody for forestal offences should be acquitted thereof and released, and that all persons who had been outlawed for forestal offences should return in peace, acquitted of all previous offences against the forest laws; and further, that all persons who had been taken and detained by the will of the king, or of his justice, and who had not been detained according to the common law of the county or hundred, or on appeal, should be acquitted; and that those who were detained by the common law, if they could find sureties that they would make due re

14 She had been kept sixteen years in close confinement by her husband, king Henry.

dress at law, in case any person should think proper to make any charge against them, should be set at liberty; if, also, they should make oath that they would make due redress, if any person should think proper to make any charge against them, even then they were to be set at liberty just as much. Those, also, who, on appeal, had been detained in custody upon any criminal matter, if they could find sureties that they would make due reparation and in full, were to be set at liberty. Those, also, who were outlawed at common law, without appeal, by the justices, were to return in peace, on condition that they should find sureties that they would make duo reparation at law, if any person should think proper to allege anything against them; and if they had been convicted 15 upon appeal made, if they could make peace with their adversaries, they were to return in peace. All those persons, also, who were detained upon the appeal of those who knew that they were evildoers, were to be set at liberty, free and unmolested. Those evildoers who, for their evidence, had been pardoned life and limb, were to abjure the territory of their lord, Richard, and to depart therefrom; while those evildoers who, without any pardon of life or limb, had accused others of their own free-will, were to be detained in prison, until their cases should have received due consideration.

It was further ordered, that every free man throughout the whole kingdom should make oath that he would preserve his fealty to his lord Richard, king of England, son of our lord king Henry and queen Eleanor, his wife, with life and limb, and worldly honors, as being his liege lord, against all men and women whatsoever, who might live and die, and that they would be obedient to him, and would give him aid in all things for the maintenance of his peace and of justice.

In addition to this, the said duke of Normandy restored to Robert, earl of Leicester, all his lands, which his father had taken from him, and restored all persons to their former rights, whom his father had deprived of their possessions. All those persons, however, clergy as well as laity, who, leaving his father, had adhered to himself, he held in abhorrence, and banished from his acquaintanceship; while those who had

16 The word "appellatio," "appeal," is used in these several instances in its sense of an accusation made of the commission of a heinous crime, by one subject against the other. In this sense it is derived from the French verb "appeller," "to summon," or "challenge.”

faithfully served his father, he retained with him, and enriched with numerous benefits.

." 17

After this, the said duke passed over to England from Harfleur on the ides of August, being the Lord's day before the Assumption of Saint Mary, the Mother of God, while Walter, archbishop of Rouen, Henry, bishop of Bayeux, and John, bishop of Evreux, who had preceded him to England, were there awaiting his arrival. There came also from Normandy, Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, Gilbert, bishop of Rochester, Hugh, bishop of Lincoln, and Hugh, bishop of Chester, on which the duke and his brother John crossed over: at the arrival of whom, their kingdoms rejoiced, because they trusted that through them they might be brought to a better state. And although some, though but very few, were hurt at the death of the king, still it was some consolation that, as the poet says, "Wonders I sing, the sun has set, no night ensued;' for truly no night did ensue after the setting of the sun. a ray of the sun, 18 occupying the throne of the sun, spreads its own lustre more brilliantly, and to a greater distance than its own original sun. For when the sun has set below the earth from his throne, his ray, still remaining, and subject to neither eclipse or setting, being suddenly cut off from the body of the sun, and wholly reflected back upon itself, as though a sun itself, it becomes much greater and much more brilliant than the sun, of which it was a ray, by reason of no clouds intervening and no impediment obstructing its course. But, in order that no difficulties may harass the mind of the reader, the meaning of this may be more fully ascertained on reading the following pentameter:

For

18 The mean

"Sol pater, et radius filius ejus erat." 19 And thus, the son becoming greater and greater, enlarged the good works of his father, while the bad ones he cut short. 17 Mira canam, sol occubuit, nox nulla secuta est. ing of this passage is very obscure, indeed it seems solely framed as a quaint conceit, for the purpose of punning upon the words "sol," "solum," and the like. It is as follows, "Nam radius solis solium solis seriens, sole suo jubar lucidius ac latius spargit. Cum enim sol a suo solio in solum deciderit, stans tamen ejus radius, occasum vel eclipsim nesciens de corpore solari repente divisus, et in se solide reverberatus sol, sole, cujus fuit radius, nulla nubium interpolatione vel injuriâ impediente multo major, et lucidior est effectus." He seems obscurely to allude to the superior prosperity of Richard over his father, in consequence of having no domestic grievances through undutiful children, who had brought clouds over his sunshine. 19The father was the sun, his son his ray."

For those whom the father disinherited, the son restored to their former rights; those whom the father had banished, the son recalled; those whom the father kept confined in irons, the son allowed to depart unhurt; those upon whom the father, in the cause of justice, inflicted punishment, the son, in the cause of humanity, forgave.

Accordingly, as already stated, Richard, the said duke of Normandy, son of Henry, king of England, lately deceased, came over to England; on which he gave to his brother John the earldom of Mortaigne, and the earldoms of Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, Nottingham, Derby, Lancaster, and the castles of Marlborough and of Luggershall, with the forests and all their appurtenances; the honor also of Wallingford, the honor of Tickhill, and the honor of Haye; he also gave him the earldom of Gloucester, together with the daughter of the late earl, and caused her to be immediately married to him, Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, forbidding it, because they were related by blood in the fourth degree. He also gave to him the Peak and Bolsover; but the duke retained some castles of the before-named counties and honors in his own hands.

In addition to this, the said duke gave to Andrew de Chauvigny the daughter of Raoul de Dol, with the honor of Chateau Raoul, in Berry, (she having been the wife of Baldwin, earl of Rivers), and had them immediately married at Salisbury, in presence of queen Eleanor; he also gave to William Marshal the daughter of Richard, earl of Striguil,20 with the earldom of Striguil; and to Gilbert, son of Roger Fitz-Rainfray, he gave the daughter of William de Lancaster. To Geoffrey, his own bastard brother, who had been formerly bishop-elect of Lincoln, he gave the archbishopric of York; the canons having, with the king's consent, elected him to the archbishopric of York. And although Master Bartholomew, acting as the deputy of Hurbert Fitz-Walter, the dean of that church, both before the election and after it, appealed to the presence of the Supreme Pontiff, because Hugh, bishop of Durham, and an especial son of that church, and Hubert Fitz-Walter, dean of the said church, to which parties belonged the first votes in the election, were absent, still, the said canons were determined not to abandon their purpose, but elected the person above-named, and under their seals confirmed the said election.

20 Strongbow, earl of Pembroke.

However, on the bishop of Durham and Hubert Fitz-Walter making complaint as to this illegal conduct on the part of the canons, the duke gave orders that all things relative to the church of York should be in the same state as they were on the day on which his father had been living and dead; and accordingly the ecclesiastical rights of the archbishopric returned into the hands of Hubert Fitz-Walter and his deputies as before, while the secular benefices of the said archbishop returned into the charge of the servants of the duke.

In the same year, Geoffrey, bishop of Ely, departed this life at Winchester, on the twelfth day before the calends of September, and being carried to Ely was buried there; on which duke Richard took possession of all his treasures. The said duke also sent his bishops, earls, and barons to all the treasuries of the king, his father, and caused all the treasures found, consisting of gold and silver, to be counted and weighed; the number and weight of which it would be tedious to mention, inasmuch as this amount of treasure far exceeded in tale and weight one hundred thousand marks. After this, he sent his servants and bailiffs throughout all the seaports of England, Normandy, Poitou, and others of his lands, and caused the largest and best of all the ships to be selected for himself, which were able to carry large freights, and then distributed some of them among those of his friends who had assumed the cross for the purpose of setting out for Jerusalem, while the others were reserved for his own use.

The duke then came to London, the archbishops, bishops, earls, and barons, and a vast multitude of knights, coming thither to meet him; by whose consent and advice he was consecrated and crowned king of England, at Westminster, in London, on the third day before the nones of September, being the Lord's Day and the feast of the ordination of Saint Gregory, the pope (the same being also an Ægyptian day21), by Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, who was assisted at the coronation by Walter, archbishop of Rouen, John, archbishop of Dublin, 'Formalis, archbishop of Treves, Hugh, bishop of Durham, Hugh, bishop of Lincoln, Hugh, bishop of Chester, William, bishop of Hereford, William, bishop of

21 Ægyptian days were unlucky days, of which there were said to be two in each month. It is supposed that they were so called from an Ægyptian superstition, that it was not lucky to bleed or begin any new work on those days.