the archbishop elect pronounced them excommunicated. In consequence of this, Divine service ceased from that day in the metropolitan church.

In the same year, after the Purification of Saint Mary, queen Eleanor, the mother of king Richard, Alice, the sister of Philip, king of France, Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, John, bishop of Norwich, Hugh, bishop of Durham, Godfrey, bishop of Winchester, Reginald, bishop of Bath, William, bishop of Ely, Hubert, bishop of Salisbury, Hugh, bishop of Chester, Geoffrey, archbishop elect of York, and John, earl of Mortaigne, the king's brother, by order of our lord the king crossed over from England to Normandy; and after holding a council with them, our lord the king appointed William, bishop of Ely, his chancellor, chief justiciary of England; while he made Hugh, bishop of Durham, justiciary from the river Humber to the territory of the king of Scotland. He also compelled Geoffrey, archbishop elect of York, and John, earl of Mortaigne, his brothers, to make oath, touching the Holy Evangelists, that they would not enter England for the next three years, except with his permission. However, he immediately released his brother John from the oath which he had made, and gave him permission to return to England, after swearing that he would faithfully serve him.

The king also sent to England William, bishop of Ely, his chancellor, to make the preparations necessary for him and his expedition; and, as he wished to exalt him above all other persons in his dominions, both clergy as well as laity, he sent envoys to pope Clement, and prevailed upon him to entrust to the before-named chancellor the legateship of the whole of England and Scotland. On the chancellor arriving in England, he caused the Tower of London to be surrounded with a moat of very great depth, hoping that so the river Thames might pass around it. After this, the chancellor received, for the necessities of our lord the king, from each city of England two palfreys and two sumpter horses by way of aid; from each abbey throughout England one palfrey and one sumpter horse; and from each of the king's manors one palfrey and one sumpter horse

In the same month of March, on the seventeenth13 day before the calends of April, being the sixth day before Palm Sunday, the Jews of the city of York, in number five hundred men, besides women and children, shut themselves up in the 43 A various reading has "the eighteenth."

tower of York, with the consent and sanction of the keeper of the tower, and of the sheriff, in consequence of their dread of the Christians; but when the said sheriff and the constable sought to regain possession of it, the Jews refused to deliver it up. In consequence of this, the people of the city, and the strangers who had come within the jurisdiction thereof, at the exhortation of the sheriff and the constable, with one consent made an attack upon the Jews.

After they had made assaults upon the tower, day and night, the Jews offered the people a large sum of money to allow them to depart with their lives; but this the others refused to receive. Upon this, one skilled in their laws arose and said: "Men of Israel, listen to my advice. It is better that we should kill one another, than fall into the hands of the enemies of our law." Accordingly, all the Jews, both men as well as women, gave their assent to his advice, and each master of a family, beginning with the chief persons of his household, with a sharp knife first cut the throats of his wife and sons and daughters, and then of all his servants, and lastly his own. Some of them also threw their slain over the walls among the people; while others shut up their slain in the king's house and burned them, as well as the king's houses. Those who had slain the others were afterwards killed by the people. In the meantime, some of the Christians set fire to the Jews' houses, and plundered them; and thus all the Jews in the city of York were destroyed, and all acknowledgments of debts due to them were burnt.

In the same year died Isabella, queen of France, and daughter of the earl of Hainault, before her husband Philip, king of France, had set out for Jerusalem. In the same year, the Annunciation of our Lord fell on Easter day, a thing that had not happened for a long time previously. In the meantime, the king's envoys, whom he had sent to Rome to obtain the legateship of England and Scotland for William, his chancellor, returned to him with letters of our lord the pope relative thereto. Accordingly, on the strength of his legateship, the said bishop of Ely, legate of the Apostolic See, chancellor of our lord the king, and justiciary of all England, oppressed the clergy and the people, confounding right and wrong; nor was there a person in the kingdom who dared to offer resistance to his authority, even in word.

After Easter, the said chancellor of the king came to York

with a great army, for the purpose of seizing those evil-doers who had destroyed the Jews of that city; and, on learning that this had been done by command of the sheriff and the keeper of the tower, he deprived them both of their offices; while he exacted of the citizens of the city a hundred hostages, as security for their good faith and keeping the peace of the king and the kingdom, and that they would take their trial in the court of our lord the king for the death of the Jews. After this, the said chancellor placed in charge of Osbert de Longchamp, his brother, the jurisdiction of the county of York, and ordered the castle, in the old castelry which William Rufus had erected there, to be fortified. The knights, also, of that county who would not come to make redress, he ordered to be arrested.

The said chancellor, by virtue of his legateship, next suspended the canons, vicars, and clerks of the church of Saint Peter at York, because they had refused to receive him in solemn procession; and laid the church itself under an interdict until the canons, vicars, and clerks of the church of Saint Peter should come and throw themselves at his feet; he also caused the bells of that church to be laid upon the ground.

In the meantime, Richard, king of England, gave to Hugh, bishop of Durham, leave to return to his country: who, on meeting the chancellor at the city of Ely," presented to him the king's letters, in which the king had appointed him justiciary from the river Humber to the territories of the king of Scotland; on which the chancellor made answer, that he would with pleasure execute the king's commands, and took him with him as far as Suwelle," where he seized him, and kept him in custody until he had surrendered to him the castle of Windsor and others which the king had delivered into his charge. In addition to this, the bishop of Durham delivered to the chancellor, Henry de Pudsey, his son, and Gilbert de la Ley, as pledges that he would keep faith to the king and his kingdom; on which, the bishop of Durham, being liberated from the custody of the chancellor, came to a vill of his, which bears the name of Hoveden.46 While the bishop was staying at this place for some days, there came to Hoveden Osbert de Longchamp, brother of the chancellor, and William de Stuteville, with a considerable body of armed people, intending, by 44 Erroneously called "Blie" in the text. 45 Southwell. 46 Howden, in Yorkshire, the native place of our author.

command of the chancellor, to seize the bishop; however, the bishop gave them security that he would not depart thence, except with the permission of the king or of the chancellor. Accordingly, the bishop of Durham sent messengers to the king of England, to inform him of everything that had happened to him through the chancellor.

In the meantime, the king of England marched into Gascony, and laid siege to the castle of William de Chisi, and took it; on which he hanged William, the owner of the castle, because he had plundered pilgrims from Saint Jago," and other persons, as they passed through his lands. After this, the king of England proceeded to Chinon, in Anjou, where he appointed Gerard, archbishop of Auxienne, Bernard, bishop of Bayonne, Robert de Sabul, Richard de Camville, and William de Fortz de Oleron, chiefs and constables of the whole of his fleet which was about to proceed to the land of Syria, and gave them ordinances to the following effect : 48

The Charter of Richard, king of England, containing ordinances for those who were about to proceed by sea.

"Richard, by the grace of God, king of England, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and earl of Anjou, to all his subjects about to proceed by sea to Jerusalem, greeting. Know ye, that we, with the common consent of fit and proper men, have made the enactments under-written. Whoever shall slay a man on ship-board, he shall be bound to the dead man and thrown into the sea. If he shall slay him on land, he shall be bound to the dead man and buried in the earth. If any one shall be convicted, by means of lawful witnesses, of having drawn out a knife with which to strike another, or shall strike another so as to draw blood, he shall lose his hand. If, also, he shall give a blow with his hand, without shedding blood, he shall be plunged in the sea three times. If any man shall utter disgraceful language or abuse, or shall curse his companion, he shall pay him an ounce of silver for every time he has so abused him. A robber who shall be convicted of theft, shall

47 Saint Jago de Compostella.

48 These are a small portion of what are known as the "Oleron Laws," from having been made by king Richard when his fleet was lying at Oleron, an island at the mouth of the river Charente. They form the basis of a large part of the sea-laws in use at the present day.

51

50

have his head cropped after the manner of a champion, and boiling pitch shall be poured thereon, and then the feathers of a cushion shall be shaken out upon him, so that he may be known, and at the first land at which the ships shall touch, he shall be set on shore. Witness myself, at Chinon."

The king also gave orders, in another writ of his, that all his subjects who were about to proceed to sea should pay obedience to the orders and commands of the before-named justices of his fleet. After this, the king proceeded to Tours, and there 52 received the scrip and staff of his pilgrimage from the hands of William, archbishop of Tours; but it so happened that, while the king was leaning on the staff, it broke asunder. After this, the said king, and Philip, king of France, met at Vezelay, where rests the body of Saint Mary Magdalen. Here they stayed two days, and left the place on the octave of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. When they had arrived at the city of Lyons on the Rhone, after they with the greater part of their households had passed over the bridge across that river, the bridge, being thronged with men and women, broke down, not without doing injury to great numbers. Here also the two kings separated, in consequence of the multitude of men who followed them, as one place was not sufficient to hold them. Accordingly, the king of France, with his troops, went on to Genoa, while the king of England proceeded with his to Marseilles.

A Lament on the Expedition to Jerusalem.53

"Most grievous are the days which have come upon us, and worthy to be graced with no white stone. For the woes have ministered to our grief which Holy Jerusalem is known to

50 Champions, before commencing the combat, had the hair cut close, probably for the purpose of offering no unfair advantage to the antagogonist, by reason of the length of the hair and the facilities thereby offered for pulling them to the ground.

51 This is a very early instance of the practice of tarring and feathering. 52 Roger of Wendover says that he received it at Vezelay.

53 This lament consists of thirty-two monkish lines, in rhymes of four. The first four will serve as a specimen :

"Graves nobis admodum dies effluxere

Qui lapillis candidis digni non fuere.
Nam luctus materiam mala præbuere,

Quæ sanctam Jerusalem constat sustinere."

It is not improbable that this was a song generally sung by the Crusaders.