441 “Lord have mercy upon us,” thrice repeated, three times.
442 Bernard the monk notices the custom of imparting the holy light, in order that the bishops and people might illuminate their several residences from it. Fulcher describes this event at great length, and observes that each person had a wax taper in his hand for the purpose of receiving the holy fire. Gesta Dei, p. 407.
443 Engines made to cast stones.
444 Fulcher relates, with great coolness, that he saw the bodies of the Turks, who were slain at Cæsarea, piled up and burned, in order to obtain the bezants which they had swallowed. Hist. Hierosol. ap. Du Chesne, tom. iv. 845. This practice of swallowing money is referred to by pope Urban, and, by his account, the merely burning dead bodies to obtain the hoard was a very humble imitation of the Saracen custom, with respect to those who visited Jerusalem before the crusades; which was to put scammony in their drink to make them vomit, and if this did not produce the desired effect, they proceeded to immediate incision! Guibert Abbas. Opera, p. 379.
445 Juvenal, Sat. i. 43.
446 Among a variety of instances adduced of her wealth, it is stated, that the mast of the vessel which conveyed her to Palestine, was covered with pure gold. Alb. Aquens. ap. Gesta Dei, p. 373.
447 Fulcher assigns a different reason for her being divorced. The king, being extremely ill and thinking he should not survive, recollected that he had another wife living, to whom he had been previously married at Edessa. Du Chesne, t. iv. 864. He had been twice married before. His first wife, an English woman, accompanied him on the Crusade, and died in Asia: the second, daughter of Taphnuz, an Armenian nobleman, following him, by sea, to Jerusalem, was taken by pirates; and being suspected of improper conduct during her absence, was, on her arrival at Jerusalem, about A.D. 1105, repudiated, and shut up in the convent of St. Anne. Alb. Aquens. ubi sup. Guib. Abbat. Opera, p. 452.
448 “Roger, prince-regent of Antioch, son of Richard, seneschal of Apulia, married Hodierna, sister of Baldwin II. He was slain in 1119.”—Hardy.
449 This account appears in some measure incorrect. Gozelin and the king were both confined in the same castle. On its being seized Gozelin escaped, and collected troops to liberate his friends, who were now themselves besieged. But ere his arrival, the Turks had made themselves masters of the fortress and carried off the king, who did not recover his liberty for some time, and then only by paying a considerable ransom. Fulch. Carnot. et Will. Tyr. ap. Gesta Dei.
450 Baldwin died 21st August, A.D. 1131.—Hardy.
451 Boamund was baptized Mark; but his father hearing a tale related of a giant named Buamund, gave him that appellation. When, after his captivity, he returned to France, many of the nobility requested him to stand for their children; this he acquiesced in, and giving them his own name, it became frequent in these parts, though before nearly unknown in the West. Ord. Vital. p. 817.
452 There is a play here on the words Mollucium and Durachium, intended to imply soft and hard, “mollis” and “durus,” which it is not easy to translate.
453 Orderic. Vital. p. 797, gives a different account of his deliverance, and which has quite a romantic air.
454 Leonard was godson to Clovis king of France, and obtained, through the favour of that monarch, that, whenever he should see any one who was in chains, he should immediately be set at liberty. At length it pleased God to honour him to that degree, that, if any person in confinement invoked his name, their chains immediately fell off, and they might depart; their keepers themselves having no power to prevent them. Vide Surius, Vitæ Sanct. Nov. 6.
455 He is called Pontius in Bouquet, Rec. 13, 7.
456 Helena, daughter of Otho I. duke of Burgundy. Bouquet, Rec. 13, 7.
457 None of the original historians of the crusade mention Robert, by name, as refusing the crown. Henry of Huntingdon however records it, and Albertus Aquensis observes, that it was first offered to Raymond, earl of Toulouse, who declining to accept it, and the other chiefs in succession following his example, Godfrey was, with difficulty, prevailed on to ascend the throne. Alb. Aquens. 1. vi. c. 33. and Villehardouin, No. 136.
458 “Sibilla, duchess of Normandy, died by poison, according to Ordericus Vitalis, and the Continuator of William of Jumièges. Malmesbury’s account does not appear to be supported by any contemporary testimony.”—Hardy.
459 “Normandy was only mortgaged for 10,000 marks, about the 100th part of its present value.”—Hardy.
460 Cicero de Offic. 1. iii. But Malmesbury seems to have thought it necessary to soften it; as Cæsar’s axiom says, “for the sake of power.”
461 Instead of these words “nor was he liberated, &c.,” another manuscript reads, “and whether he ever will be set free, is doubtful.” Upon which Mr. Hardy observes that these various readings of the MSS. seem to mark the periods when the author composed and amended his history. In other words, the reading in the text was substituted by the author, when he revised his work after Robert’s death, for the reading in the note, which is copied from a MS. written whilst Robert was still in prison.
462 “Henry was born in 1068, not in 1070, as stated by Ordericus Vitalis, (Annal. Burton, apud Fell, inter Rer. Anglic. Script. v. p. 246.)”—Hardy.
463 “William the Conqueror was abroad at Pentecost in the 21st year of his reign, A.D. 1087. Henry undoubtedly received knighthood in the year 1086, in the 20th year of his father’s reign.”—Hardy.
464 Wilkins, Leges Anglo-Saxonicæ, 233.
465 This has been taken to mean the abolition of the Curfew, by which it is said, all fires were ordered to be extinguished at eight o’clock; but it may be doubted, whether it does not rather refer to some regulation of the court merely.
466 Those called the Confessor’s.
467 Matilda having taken the veil, though only for a purpose, scruples were raised as to the propriety of her entering the marriage state: a synod was therefore called at Lambeth by archbishop Anselm, and it was there determined that Matilda, not having voluntarily become a nun, might marry according to the law of God. See Edmer, pp. 56, 57.—Hardy.
468 These appellations seem intended as sneers at the regular life of Henry and his queen. Godric implies God’s kingdom or government.
469 For the particulars of the bishop’s escape, see Ordericus Vitalis p. 787.
470 “There is no vestige of this exhortation in any letter of pope Paschal to king Henry now known. Indeed Paschal, writing to archbishop Anselm, enjoins him to effect a reconciliation between the king and his brother. See Anselmi Opera, edit. nov. p. 382, col. 2.”—Hardy.
471 Orderic. Vital. [p. 815.] relates a circumstance highly indicative of the troubled state of Normandy. Henry, on his arrival, was immediately welcomed by Serlo bishop of Sees; who, on conducting him into the church, pointed out the area nearly filled with boxes and packages brought thither for security from plunderers, by the inhabitants.
472 His daughter Mabil became the wife of Robert earl of Gloucester, to whom Malmesbury dedicated this work.
473 Robert de Belesme was seized by order of king Henry in 1112, having come to him in Normandy as ambassador from the king of France to treat of peace. Robert was in the following year sent over to England, and confined in Wareham Castle until his death.—Hardy.
474 “The laws of Henry I. have lately been reprinted in the ‘Ancient Laws and Institutes of England,’ under the able editorship of Mr. Thorpe.”—Hardy.
475 “It appears from two charters, printed in Rymer’s Fœdera, vol. i. pp. 6, 7, that Henry agreed to pay a pension of four hundred marks, annually, to Robert, earl of Flanders, for the service of one thousand knights.”—Hardy.
476 “William, surnamed Clito [the Clito], son of Robert, duke of Normandy, and Sibilla de Conversano, succeeded to the earldom of Flanders upon the death of Charles le Bon, A.D. 1127.”—Hardy.
477 He probably intended a joke on the custom of ringing the bells to scare evil spirits.
478 “Ordericus Vitalis attributes this act to Odo, bishop of Bayeux; but Pope Urban II., in his Epistle to Raynald, archbishop of Rheims, ascribes it to Ursio, bishop of Senlis.”—Hardy.
479 “Although king Philip, a few years before his death, entertained some notion of embracing a monastic life, as is seen in the epistle written to him by Hugh, abbat of Cluni, yet it appears that he never carried his design into effect.”—Hardy.
480 “Pope Calixtus met king Henry at Gisors on his return from the council at Rheims, held in October 1119.”—Hardy.
481 This practice is referred to by Henry Huntingdon, when speaking of Hardecanute, who had four repasts served up every day, “when in our times, through avarice, or as they pretend through disgust, the great set but one meal a day before their dependents.”—H. Hunt. lib. vi. p. 209.
482 “Henry of Huntingdon, in his epistle to Walter (Anglia Sacra, pars ii., p. 695) gives a flattering character of Robert. Ordericus Vitalis places his death on the first June, A.D. 1118.”—Hardy.
483 Roger had a church in the neighbourhood of Caen, at the time that Henry was serving under his brother William. Passing that way, he entered in, and requested the priest to say mass. Roger began immediately, and got through his task so quickly that the prince’s attendants unanimously declared, “no man so fit for chaplain to men of their profession.” And when the royal youth said, “Follow me,” he adhered as closely to him, as Peter did to his heavenly Lord uttering a similar command; for Peter, leaving his vessel, followed the King of kings; he, leaving his church, followed the prince, and appointed chaplain to himself and his troops, became “a blind guide to the blind.” Vide G. Neubrig, 1. 6.
484 “Paulus Diaconus, also called Winfrid, was secretary to Desiderius, last of the native princes of Lombardy. Paulus wrote his History of the Lombards, in six books, before the empire by Charlemagne was founded.”—Hardy. Malmesbury seems to imply that the vessel was lost in the Mediterranean; but if so, he misunderstood Paulus Diaconus, who is speaking of the race of Alderney. Vide Paul. Diac. lib. i. c. 6, ap. Muratori. Rer. Ital. Script. t. 1.
485 Of Henry’s prudent accommodation to the times, a curious anecdote is related by Ordericus Vitalis, p. 815. When Serlo bishop of Sees met him on his arrival in Normandy, he made a long harangue on the enormities of the times, one of which was the bushyness of men’s beards which resembled Saracens’ rather than Christians’, and which he supposes they would not clip lest the stumps should prick their mistresses’ faces; another was their long locks. Henry immediately, to show his submission and repentance, submits his bushy honours to the bishop, who, taking a pair of shears from his trunk, trims his majesty and several of the principal nobility with his own hands.
486 Virg. Æn. vi. 853.
487 Whilst endeavouring to distinguish good coin from counterfeits, the silver penny was frequently broken, and then refused. Henry’s order, therefore, that all should be broken, enabled any one immediately to ascertain the quality, and, at the same time, left no pretext for refusing it on account of its being broken money.—Vide Edmerum Hist. Novor. p. 94.
488 Suger relates, that Henry was so terrified by a conspiracy among his chamberlains, that he frequently changed his bed, increased his guards, and caused a shield and a sword to be constantly placed near him at night: and that the person here mentioned, who had been favoured and promoted in an especial manner by the king, was, on his detection, mercifully adjudged to lose only his eyes and his manhood, when he justly deserved hanging.—De Vit. Lud. Grossi. Duchesne, iv. 308.
489 “Compare Malmesbury’s character of Henry in this particular with that given of him by Henry of Huntingdon.”—Hardy.
490 The ceremony of giving possession of lands or offices, was, by the feudal law, accompanied with the delivery of certain symbols. In conformity to this practice, princes conferred bishoprics and abbeys by the delivery of a crozier and a ring, which was called their investiture: and as consecration could not take place till after investiture, this, in fact, implied their appointment also. The popes at length finding how much such a practice tended to render the clergy dependent on the temporal power, inhibited their receiving investiture from laymen by the staff and ring, which were emblems of their spiritual office. The compromise of Henry with Paschal enacted, that in future the king would not confer bishoprics by the staff and ring; but that the bishops should perform the ceremony of homage, in token of submission for their temporals: the election by these means, remaining, nominally, in the chapter, or monastery.
491 The printed copy, as well as such manuscripts as have been consulted, read, “investituras consecrationum:” evidently wrong; the true reading, as appears from Edmer, p. 72, where the whole instrument is inserted, being “investituram vel consecrationem.”
492 On Anselm’s return, shortly after Henry’s accession, it was agreed that all matters should remain in abeyance, until both parties should have sent messengers to the pope, for his decision on the subject of investitures. See Edmer, p. 56.
493 He had been recalled on the king’s accession, but afterwards quitted the kingdom again.
494 “Henry married Adala, daughter of Godfrey, conte de Louvain, in February, 1121.”—Hardy.
495 “Bromton (col. 1013, x. Scrip.) ascribes to Malmesbury words which are no where to be found in this author, ‘Willelmus Malmesbiriensis dicit, quod ille Willelmus regis primogenitus palam Anglis fuerat comminatus, quod, si aliquando super eos regnaret, faceret eos ad aratrum trahere quasi boves: sed spe sua coruscabili Dei vindicta cum aliis deperiit.’”—Hardy.
496 “The nuptials of prince William with Matilda, daughter of the earl of Anjou, were celebrated in June, 1119, before the council of Rheims.”—Hardy.
498 Virgil Æneid. v. 206.
499 He is called a butcher by Orderic Vitalis, p. 867, who has many particulars of this event.
500 “The marriage of William, son of the duke of Normandy, with Sibilla, in 1123, was dissolved, at the instance of king Henry, in the following year, by the pope’s legate.”—Hardy.
501 “Matilda was betrothed to the emperor Henry V. in 1109, but was not married to him until the 7th January, 1114.”—Hardy.
502 The church of St. Maria, in Scuola Græca, is so called, from a tradition that St. Augustine, before his conversion, there taught rhetoric.—See Lumisden, 318.
503 Trastevere, that part in which St. Peter’s is situated.
504 Three beautiful columns, supposed to be remains of the temple of Jupiter Stator.
505 The principal entrance to St. Peter’s church, so called by way of pre-eminence.
506 The Rota, which seems to have been a part of St. Peter’s church, is not enumerated by Fontana, de Basilica Vaticana.
507 The chapel, in which the tombs of the apostles are said to be placed.
508 The patrician of Rome appears to have been its chief magistrate; derived from the office of prefect or patrician under the emperors of Constantinople.
509 As pope Calixtus II.
510 The church of St. Saviour, or St. John Lateran, built by Constantine the Great.
511 MS. pravilegium, a play on the words privilegium and pravilegium.
512 Cosenza, L’Abbe, tom. x.
513 Another MS. reads Troianus instead of Turianus.
514 “Septimo decimo. More correctly octavo decimo, as the emperor went before Easter in the year 1117.”—Hardy.
515 “Paschal died in Jan. 1118.”—Hardy.
516 “Maurice Bourdin, archbishop of Brague, was elected pope by the influence of the emperor Henry V, on the 9th of March, 1118, and took the name of Gregory VIII.”—Hardy.
517 “Gelasius II, died at Clugny, 29th Jan. 1119.”—Hardy.
518 A monastery near Salerno, inaccessible, except by one passage. Here were kept such as from their conduct had become either dangerous or scandalous: they were supplied with every thing necessary, according to their order, but were held in close confinement. Its name was given from the untameable disposition of its inmates. See Orderic. Vital. 870.
519 This was a high compliment to the ancient Briton.
520 Guibert of Nogent excuses himself from commemorating the valour of many of the crusaders, because, after their return, they had run headlong into every kind of enormity. Opera, p. 431.
521 Robert de Arbrisil founded the monastery of Fontevrault in 1099, and died in 1117.
522 “Bernard founded the abbey of Tyron in 1109, and died in 1116.”—Hardy.
523 At Lewes in Sussex.
524 The uppermost garment of the priest, covering the rest entirely.
525 Those who officiated were enjoined to fold up their garments.
526 It was customary to hold a short chapter immediately after primes.
527 Odo, second abbat of Clugny, was founder of the Clugniac rule in the tenth century. Odilo was elected the fifth abbat of Clugny in 994.
528 Godfrey was prior of Winchester from A.D. 1082 to 1107. His verses in commendation of the chief personages of England are in the manner of those already inserted on Serlo abbat of Gloucester. Many of his epigrams have very considerable merit.
529 He probably has Henry Huntingdon in view, who wrote a History of England shortly after him.
530 Terentii Andria, i. 1.
531 What these were is unknown, as it is believed there is no MS. of them now to be met with.
532 “The emperor Henry V. died on the 23rd of May, A.D. 1125; and in September, A.D. 1126, king Henry returned from Normandy, with his daughter the empress.”—Hardy.
533 “The union of the kingdoms under Egbert did not take place for several years after his accession in 802.”—Hardy.
534 This must be understood with the exception of Canute and his sons, between Edmund Ironside, and Edward the Confessor.
535 Here seems a mistake. Margaret was given to Malcolm by her brother Edgar Atheling, while in exile in Scotland, A.D. 1067. See the Saxon Chronicle.
536 “Robert was created earl of Gloucester in the year 1119. On the Pipe-roll, 31 Hen. I., this entry occurs: ‘Glœcecestrescire. Et comiti Glœc. xxii. numero pro parte sua comitatus.’”—Hardy.
537 “The nuptials of Matilda with Geoffrey Plantagenet, afterwards earl of Anjou, were celebrated in the presence of her father, in Sept. 1127.”—Hardy.
538 “Henry completed the twenty-eighth year of his reign the 4th of August, 1128; but the Saxon Chronicle places his return from Normandy during the autumn of 1129.”—Hardy.
539 It is very remarkable what excessive pains were employed to prevail on the young men to part with their locks. In the council held at London by archbishop Anselm, A.D. 1102, it is enacted, that those who had long hair should be cropped, so as to show part of the ear, and the eyes. From the apparently strange manner in which this fashion is coupled in Edmer, p. 81, one might be led to suspect, it was something more than mere spleen which caused this enactment. See also Orderic. Vitalis.
540 An allusion to his name, which signifies a lion.
541 Pope Innocent died A.D. 1143.
542 “Philippe, eldest son of Louis VI, was consecrated by command of his father on the 14th April, 1129; but meeting with an accidental death on the 13th October, 1131, the king, twelve days afterwards, caused his second son, Louis, to be crowned at Rheims by the Roman pontiff, Innocent II.”—Hardy.
543 Both the printed copy and the MSS., which have been consulted, read here tricesimo primo, ‘thirty-first,’ [1131]; but it should be the thirty-second, 1132.—See Hen. Hunt.
544 “Malmesbury seems to have committed two oversights here. Henry went to Normandy for the last time on the third before the nones of August, (that is, third, instead of fifth), A.D. 1133. This is evident from the eclipse he mentions, which took place on that day, as well as from the testimony of the continuator of Florence of Worcester, a contemporary Writer.”—Sharpe. “Although all the MSS. read ‘tricesimo secundo,’ yet it is evident, from the context, that it should be ‘tricesimo tertio;’ the completion of Henry’s thirty-third regnal year being on the 4th of August, 1133. This, and other passages show, that Malmesbury reckoned Henry’s reign to commence on the 5th of August, the day of his consecration, and not on the 2nd of that month, the day of his brother’s death.”—Hardy.
545 “The eclipse of the sun took place on the 2nd of August, 1133, at mid-day.”—Hardy.
546 From what has been said above this should be two.
547 “Liberationes,” signifies, sometimes, what we now call liveries, that is garments; sometimes money at stated periods, or, as we should say, wages: it is here rendered in the latter sense, as being distinct from “solidatæ,” pay or stipends. Perhaps it was intended to distinguish two orders of persons by this bequest; servants and soldiers: otherwise it may mean garments and wages.
548 “The majority of contemporary writers state that Stephen’s coronation took place on the 26th December.”—Hardy.
549 “The author of the Dialogus de Scaccario states that for some time after the Norman conquest there was very little money in specie in the realm, and that, until the reign of Henry the First, all rents and farms due to the king were rendered in provisions and necessaries for his household; but Henry I ordered the payments to be made in money: they were consequently made ‘ad scalam,’ and ‘ad pensum;’ ‘in numero,’ or by tale; and ‘per combustionem,’ or melting, which latter mode was adopted to prevent payment being made in debased money; hence perhaps it was that Henry’s money was of the best quality.”—Hardy.
550 The progress of some of Henry’s treasure is curious. Theobald, earl of Blois, gave many jewels, which had been bestowed on him by Stephen, his brother, to certain abbeys, and these again sold them for four hundred pounds to Suger, abbat of St. Denis. Henry, Suger observes, used to have them set in most magnificent drinking vessels. Suger, ap. Duchesne, t. iv. p. 345.
551 Church-yards were, by the canons, privileged, so that persons in turbulent times conveyed their property thither for security.
552 It had been the practice to seize, to the king’s use, whatever property ecclesiastics left behind them. Henry of Huntingdon relates, that on the death of Gilbert the Universal, bishop of London, who was remarkable for his avarice, all his effects, and among the rest, his boots crammed with gold and silver, were conveyed to the exchequer. Anglia Sacra, ii. 698. Sometimes, even what had been distributed on a death-bed, was reclaimed for the king. Vide G. Neub. 3, 5. “This practice of seizing the property of ecclesiastics at their death seems subsequently to have settled down into a claim on the part of the king of the cup and palfrey of a deceased bishop, prior, and abbat. See Rot. Claus. 39 Hen. III, m. 17, in dorso.”—Hardy.
553 It seems to have been a vexatious fine imposed on litigants when, in their pleadings, they varied from their declaration. Murder is sometimes taken in its present acceptation; sometimes it means a certain fine levied on the inhabitants where murder had been committed.