Barn, and Wulnoth, the brother of king Harold, whom he had kept in confinement from his childhood, and all besides whom he had imprisoned, either in Normandy or England. After this, he gave the kingdom of England to his son William, and, to his eldest son, Robert, who was then in exile in France, he left the dukedom of Normandy And then, being fortified with the heavenly viaticum,75 after having reigned over the English nation twenty years, ten months, and twentyeight days, he parted with his kingdom and his life, on the fifth day before the ides of September, and, having been there interred, rests at Caen, in the church of Saint Stephen the Proto-martyr, which he had built from the foundation, and amply endowed.

WILLIAM THE YOUNGER.

On this, his son, William, repaired to England with all haste, taking with him Morcar and Wulnoth, but, shortly after his arrival at Winchester, he consigned them to the same strict confinement as before; after which, on the sixth day before the calends of October, being the Lord's day, he was consecrated king at Westminster, by Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury. Then, returning to Winchester, he distributed the treasures of his father, as he himself had commanded, throughout England; that is to say, to some of the principal churches ten golden marks, to some six, and to some less. To each of the churches situate in country places 76 he ordered five shillings to be given, and crosses, altars, shrines, text-books," candlesticks, chalices, pipes,78 and various ornaments, embellished with gold, silver, 75 The consecrated wafer, administered to the dying, "in articulo mortis."

76 The words are "in villis sitis." The allusion is to the parish churches throughout the country.

77 This seems the best translation for "textos," which means the book of the Gospels, which was generally adorned with gold and jewels, and kept in the treasury of the monastery, and laid on the altar on Saints'days and Sundays.

78" Fistulas." Allusion is made to the pipes which (in the early centuries of the church, when the Holy Eucharist was administered to the laity in both kinds,) were used by the communicants for the purpose of sucking the wine out of the cup. The object of this seems to have been that, by the use of several pipes, more than one might partake of it at the same time.

and precious stones, to be distributed among the most deserving churches and the monasteries.

His brother Robert, also, on his return to Normandy, bounteously divided among the monasteries, churches, and the poor the treasures which he found, in behalf of the soul of his father; and, after having knighted them, allowed Dunecald," the son of Malcolm, king of the Scots, and Ulph, the son of Harold, the former king of the English, whom he had released from confinement, to depart.

80

In the year 1088, a great dissension arose among the nobles of England. For a portion of the Norman nobility was in favour of king William; but the other, and larger part espoused the cause of Robert duke of Normandy, and desired to invite him to govern the kingdom, and either deliver up William alive to his brother, or, putting him to death, deprive him of his kingdom. The chiefs in this execrable affair were Odo, bishop of Bayeux, who was also earl of Kent, Geoffrey, bishop of Constance, Robert, earl of Mortaigne, Roger, earl of Shrewsbury, and the chief men of eminence throughout the whole kingdom, with the exception of archbishop Lanfranc. This abominable deed they privately discussed during Lent, and, immediately after Easter, began to ravage the country each in his own neighbourhood, and plunder and pillage it, at the same time providing their castles with fortifications and provisions. Geoffrey, bishop of Constance, and Robert de Mowbray repaired to Bristol, where they had a very strong castle, and laid waste all the country as far as the place which is called Bathan.81

The nobles also of Hereford and Shrewsbury, with a multitude of people from Wales, proceeded as far as Worcester, laying waste and destroying with fire everything before them. They intended, also, to have taken the church and the castle, which latter was at that period entrusted to the charge of the venerable bishop Wulstan. When the bishop heard of this he was greatly distressed, and, considering what plan he should adopt, had recourse to his God, and entreated Him to look down upon His church and His people, thus oppressed by their enemies. While he was meditating upon these things, his household sallied forth from the castle, and took and slew five hundred of them, and put the rest to flight. 79 V. r. Duncan. 80 Half-brother of William the First.

81 Bath.

Roger Bigot entered the castle of Norwich, and spread devastation throughout the country. Bishop Odo, through whom .82 these evils had arisen, proceeded into Kent, and laid waste the royal vills, and ravaged the lands of all those who preserved their fealty to the king and gained possession of the castle of Rochester.

On hearing of these things, the king caused the English to be assembled together, and, pointing out to them the treachery of the Normans, entreated them to give him their assistance, on condition that, if they should prove faithful to him in this emergency, he would grant them better laws, such as they should make choice of; he also forbade all unjust taxes, and returned to all their woods and right of venison; but, whatever he promised, he soon withdrew. The English however, then assisted him faithfully. Accordingly, the king assembled his army for marching on Rochester, where he supposed his uncle, bishop Odo, was; but, when they came to Tunbridge, they found the castle closely shut against the king. However, the English, boldly storming it, destroyed the whole castle, and those who were in it surrendered to the king. After this, the king with his army directed his course towards the castle of Pevensey; for bishop Odo had withdrawn from Rochester and fled to that castle, whither the king, with a large army, followed him, and besieged the castle for six entire weeks.

While these things were going on in England, Robert, duke of Normandy, had assembled a considerable force, and was preparing to send it to England, intending shortly to follow, as though making sure of England through the agency of bishop Odo and the others, who were his partisans there. But William the Younger had now taken measures of defence by sea with his cruisers, which slew many of them on their passage to England, and sank others at sea; so much so, that no man can tell the number of those who perished.

During the period of these transactions at sea, bishop Odo, and those who were with him, being compelled by hunger, surrendered the castle of Pevensey, and promised, on oath, that they would leave England and not enter it again, except

82 The words after "Norwich" here are adopted from the AngloSaxon Chronicle; as the text has "et omnes vicit in malum," words which admit of no sense whatever, and are clearly erroneous.

with the leave of king William; they also engaged that they would first deliver up the castle of Rochester. But, when Odo had come to Rochester with the king's men, who, on the king's behalf, were to receive possession of the castle, he was immediately placed in confinement together with them, by those who were in the castle. Some persons assert that this was done by the cunning contrivance of the bishop. However, in this castle there were some valiant knights, and almost all the nobility of Normandy. There was also there, Eustace the Younger, earl of Boulogne, and many of the nobles of Flanders. When the king heard of this, he came with his army to Rochester, and laid siege to the city; upon which, after a short time, those who were in it surrendered; and thus the bishop, who was almost a second king of England, irrecoverably lost his dignity. But, on arriving in Normandy, he immediately received charge of the whole province from duke Robert. William, bishop of Durham, and many others also, took their departure from England.

83

In the year 1089, Lanfranc, the archbishop of Canterbury, departed this life, on the ninth day before the calends of July, being the fifth day of the week. In the same year, on the third day before the ides of August, being Saturday, about the third hour of the day, there was a very great earthquake throughout England.

In the year 1090, William the Younger, king of England, with the intention of taking Normandy from his brother Robert and subjecting it to his own dominions, first took the castle of Walter de Saint Valery, and the castle which has the name of Albemarle, and, afterwards, several other castles, and placed knights in them, who committed ravages throughout Normandy. On seeing this, and discovering the faithlessness of his own people, duke Robert sent ambassadors to Philip, king of the Franks, his liege lord, who thereupon came into Normandy, and the king and the duke laid siege to one of the castles which was garrisoned by his brother's troops. On this being told to king William, he secretly sent a considerable sum of money to king Philip, and, entreating him to desist from besieging it, succeeded in his object.

83 These words are succeeded by the following detached sentence, "cujus ordinem causæ libellus in hoc descriptus ostendit." It is evidently corrupt, and capable of no exact translation; though it probably means, "the reasons for which will appear from what is previously stated."

84

In the year 1091, king William the Younger went over to Normandy in the month of February, with the design of taking it from his brother Robert; but, while he was there, peace was made between them by treaty, on condition that the duke should with good faith deliver up to the king the earldom of Eu, Feschamp, the abbey of Mount Saint Michael, and Keresburg, with the castles which had revolted from him, and that the king should reduce to subjection to the duke the province of Maine and the castles of Normandy, which were then making resistance to him. It was also agreed that the king should restore their lands in England to all the Normans who had lost them by reason of their fidelity to the duke, and should also give to the duke as much land in England as was then arranged between them. In addition to this, they came to an understanding that if the duke should die without a son lawfully born in wedlock, the king should be his heir; and, in like manner, if the king should happen to die, the duke should be his heir. Twelve barons on the king's side and twelve on the duke's guaranteed this treaty by oath.

86

In the meantime, while these matters were being treated of, their brother Henry, having raised all the troops he could, with the aid of some of the monks in the place, took possession of Mount Saint Michael, laid waste the king's lands, and took prisoners some of his men, and spoiled others. In consequence of this, the king and the duke, assembling an army, besieged the Mount during the whole of Lent, and had frequent skirmishes, and lost some men and horses. But the king, growing wearied of the protracted siege, retired without coming to terms, and, shortly after, dispossessed the Clito Edgar of all the honors which the duke had conferred upon him, and banished him from Normandy.

In the meantime, in the month of May, Malcolm, king of the Scots, invaded Northumbria with a large army. If he could only find provisions, his object was to make further inroads and commit acts of violence upon the people of England. But God ordained it otherwise; and, therefore, he was impeded in his designs. The king, on hearing of this, re84 Called "Owe" in the text. 85 Cherbourg. 36 Of course he would naturally be displeased at the little regard paid to his interests in the compact then being made.