[162] Ib. “Tunc dicta commendatione animæ, et aspersa aqua benedicta, episcopus discessit.”
[163] Ib. “Ille appensus est admirando fortitudinis spectaculo, ut nec moriturus gemitum, nec moriens produceret suspirium.”
[164] Will. Gem. viii. 34; Ord. Vit. 814 A.
[165] Ord. Vit. 704 C. “Morellus, domino suo vinculis indissolubiter injecto, de Anglia mœstus aufugit, multasque regiones pervagatus pauper et exosus in exsilio consenuit.”
[166] See very emphatically in the Chronicle, 1097.
[167] Will. Malms. iv. 311. “Contra Walenses … expeditionem movens, nihil magnificentia sua dignum exhibuit, militibus multis desideratis, jumentis interceptis. Nec tum solum, sed multotiens, parva illi in Walenses fortuna fuit, quod cuivis mirum videatur, cum ei alias semper alea bellorum felicissime arriserit.” This last is hardly true of his French and Cenomannian campaigns. The writer goes on to attribute the failure of Rufus in Wales mainly to the nature of the country, and to say that Henry the First found out the right way of dealing with the Welsh, by planting the Flemings in their country.
[168] Chron. Petrib. 1097. “Ac þa ða se cyng geseah þæt he nan þingc his wiiles þær geforðian ne mihte, he ongean into þison lande fór, and hraðe æfter þam, he be þam gemæron castelas let gemakian.”
[169] See N. C. vol. ii. p. 478.
[170] Ib. p. 481.
[171] Ib. p. 479.
[172] Ib. p. 396.
[173] See N. C. vol. ii. pp. 483, 707.
[174] Ib. p. 483.
[175] See vol. i. p. 164.
[176] “That stubborn British tongue which has survived two conquests,” is, I think, a phrase of Hallam’s.
[177] See vol. i. p. 122, and N. C. vol. iv. p. 489.
[178] See N. C. vol. iv. p. 501.
[179] Ib. p. 676.
[180] Ib. vol. iv. p. 489; v. p. 109.
[181] Ib. vol. ii. p. 708; v. p. 777.
[182] See N. C. vol. iv. p. 501.
[183] See vol. iv. pp. 676, 777.
[184] See vol. i. p. 121.
[185] Ann. Camb. 1088, 1089 [1089–1091]. “Menevia fracta est a gentilibus insulanis.” The Brut is to the same effect, and has a warm panegyric on the bishop. The dates in the Welsh Chronicles are here wrong, but only by the fault of the editor. The entries are made quite regularly year by year, and they agree with those in the English writers.
[186] Brut y Tywysogion, 1089; it should be 1092.
[187] Will. Malms. four iv. 310. “Quod eum Scottorum et Walensium tumultus vocabant, in regnum se cum ambobus fratribus recepit.” See vol. i. p. 295.
[188] See Appendix GG.
[189] See Appendix GG.
[190] The descendants of Jestin appear very clearly in Giraldus, It. Camb. i. 6 (vol. vi. p. 69); “Quatuor Caradoci filii Jestini filiis, et Resi principis ex sorore nepotibus, his in finibus herili portione, sicut Gualensibus mos est, pro patre dominantibus, Morgano videlicet, et Mereducio, Oeneo, Cadwallano.” Morgan appears soon after (p. 69) as guiding Archbishop Baldwin and his companion Giraldus over the dangerous quicksands of his Avon.
[191] See Appendix GG.
[192] See N. C. vol. iv. p. 186.
[193] See vol. i. p. 62.
[194] See N. C. vol. ii. p. 250.
[195] He has an entry to himself in Essex (Domesday, ii. 54 b). He appears again in 100 b, and in the town of Colchester (106) he holds “i. domum, et i. curiam, et i. hidam terræ, et xv. burgenses.” A building with some trace of Romanesque work used to be shown as “Hamo’s Saxon hall or curia.” Why more “Saxon” than everything else in that Saxon land it was not easy to guess. In Ellis he is made to be the same as “Haimo vicecomes” who appears in Kent and Surrey (Domesday, 14, 36). This last witnesses a letter of Anselm’s (Epp. iii. 71) to the monks of Canterbury, along with another Haimo, “filius Vitalis,” “Wimundus homo vicecomitis,” and a mysterious “Robertus filius Watsonis”—what name is meant? In Epp. iv. 57 a letter is addressed to him by Anselm, complaining of damage done by his men to the Archbishop’s property at Canterbury and Sandwich. Or is this “vicecomes” in Kent the same as Haimer or Haimo—he is written both ways—the “vicecomes” (in another sense) of Thouars, who plays an important part before and after the great battle? See N. C. vol. iii. pp. 315, 457, 551.
[196] See vol. i. p. 197.
[197] In this way we may put a meaning on the account in the Tewkesbury History quoted in N. C. vol. iv. p. 762. Brihtric had not any honour of Gloucester.
[198] See Ord. Vit. 578 D; William of Malmesbury, Hist. Nov. i. 3. She was “spectabilis et excellens fœmina, domina tunc viro morigera, tunc etiam fœcunditate numerosæ et pulcherrimæ prolis beata.” She was the mother-in-law of his patron.
[199] See Mr. Clark, Archæological Journal, vol. xxxv. p. 3 (March, 1878).
[200] Will. Malms. v. 398. “Monasterium Theochesbiriæ suo favore non facile memoratu quantum exaltavit, ubi et ædificiorum decor, et monachorum charitas, adventantium rapit oculos et allicit animos.”
[201] See the Gloucester History, i. 93, 122, 223, 226, 334, 349; ii. 125. The gift of the church of Saint Cadoc at Llancarfan is mentioned over and over again. At i. 334 there is an alleged confirmation of this gift by William the Conqueror in 1086. Can this be trusted so far as to make us carry back the conquest of Glamorgan into his day, or are we to suppose that a wrong date has crept in? In the Monasticon, ii. 67, is a charter of Nicolas Bishop of Llandaff (1148–1153) confirming the grants of a crowd of churches in Glamorgan to the abbey of Tewkesbury. Among them is “ecclesia de Landiltwit,” that is Llaniltyd or Llantwit Major.
[202] See Mr. Clark, Archæological Journal, xxxiv. 17.
[203] See Mr. Clark. Archæological Journal, xxxiv. 25.
[204] See N. C. vol. iv. p. 676.
[205] In the second Brut he appears as Wiliam de Lwndwn in 1088 (p. 72), Wiliam de Lwndrys in 1094 (p. 78).
[206] See N. C. vol. iv. p. 782.
[207] See Mr. Clark, Archæological Journal, xxxiv. pp. 22, 30.
[208] See N. C. vol. v. pp. 854, xxxix.
[209] See the Margam Annals, 1130 (Ann. Mon. i. 13), and Mon. Angl. v. 258.
[210] Margam Annals, 1147; Ann. Mon. i. 14.
[211] See vol. i. p. 34.
[212] See the wonderful story in Giraldus, It. Camb. i. 2 (vol. vi. p. 32).
[213] Ib. p. 36. The wonders of the lake, now known as Llangorse pool, fill up more than two pages.
[214] Chron. de Bello, 34. He is described as “vir magnificus Bernardus cognomento de Novo Mercato.” His gift is “ecclesia … sancti Johannis Evangelistæ extra munitionem castri sui de Brecchennio sita.” But the gift was made only “ejusdem prædictæ ecclesiæ Belli monachi, nomine Rogerii, apud eum aliquamdiu forte commanentis, importuna suggestione.”
[215] We have seen (see vol. i. p. 34) Bernard spoken of as son-in law of the old enemy Osbern of Herefordshire. Could Osbern have married the elder Nest, perhaps as a second wife? Or was the younger Nest a second wife of Bernard?
[216] See N. C. vol. ii. p. 679; vol. iii. pp. 710, 777.
[217] See the story in Giraldus, It. Camb. ii. 2 (vol. vi. p. 29). The son was disinherited, and the honour of Brecknock passed to the husband of the daughter, whom her mother allowed to be Bernard’s child. He speaks of her as “Nesta nomine, quam Angli vertendo Anneis vocavere.” In the Battle Chronicle (35) she appears as a benefactress by the name of Agnes. She gave to Battle “de propria hereditate quamdam villulam extra Walliam in Anglia sitam [in Herefordshire], quæ Berinton vocatur.” She gave it “forte invalitudine tacta.”
[219] Brut y Tywysogion, 1091 (1093). “And then fell the kingdom of the Britons.” (Teyrnas y Brytanyeit.) Florence, recording the same event, adds; “Ab illo die regnare in Walonia reges desiere;” but he himself in 1116 says, “Owinus rex Walanorum occiditur.” Cf. Ann. Camb. in anno, where the royal title is not given to Owen. Indeed in the present entry the Annals call Rhys only “rector dextralis partis;” that is, of South Wales.
[220] See vol. i. p. 121.
[221] Ann. Camb. 1091 (1093). “Post cujus obitum Cadugaun filius Bledint prædatus est Demetiam pridie kalendarum Maii.”
[222] Brut y Tywysogion. So Ann. Camb. “Circiter Kalendas Julii Franci primitus Demetiam et Keredigean tenuerunt, et castella in eis locaverunt, et abinde totam terram Britonum occupaverunt.”
[223] On the beavers in the Teif, see a long account in Giraldus, It. Camb. ii. 3. Cp. Top. Hib. i. 26. He discusses the lawfulness of eating the beaver’s tail on fast-days, without coming to so decided a conclusion as when he rules (Top. Hib. i. 15) that the barnacle might not be eaten.
[224] It is very hard to put Irish kings in their right places; but there is no doubt that this Murtagh—I take the shortest way of spelling his name—is the same as the Murtagh of Connaught, head King of Ireland, though Giraldus calls him King of Leinster, of whom we shall hear a good deal before long.
[225] It. Camb. ii. 1 (vi. 109). “Rex Rufus … Kambriam suo in tempore animose penetrans et circumdans, cum a rupibus istis Hiberniam forte prospiceret, dixisse memoratur: Ad terram istam expugnandam, ex navibus regni mei huc convocatis, pontem adhuc faciam.” The Irish king, when he hears, “cum aliquamdiu propensius inde cogitasset, fertur respondisse: Numquid tantæ comminationis verbo rex ille ‘Si Deo placuerit’ adjecit?”
[226] See vol. i. p. 166.
[227] It. Camb. u. s. “Tanquam prognostico gaudens certissimo, Quoniam, inquit, homo iste de humana tantum confidit potentia, non divina, ejus adventum non formido.”
[228] See N. C. vol. iv. p. 676.
[229] Ib. p. 526.
[230] On Bishop Wilfrith, see N. C. vol. v. p. 209, and vol. i. p. 534. We shall hear of him again.
[231] I refer to such names as Hasgard and Freystrop. The fords in this district are of course fiords. The names of Hereford and Haverfordwest have sometimes been confounded, but the ford comes from a different quarter in the two names.
[232] See N. C. vol. v. p. 75.
[233] He does justice to his birthplace in It. Camb. i. 12 (vol. vi. p. 92), and proves by a sorites “ut Kambriæ totius locus sit hic amœnissimus.” “Pembrochia” here appears as part of Demetia.
[234] Sir Rhys ap Thomas, the hero of Carew (Caerau) in Henry the Seventh’s time, is chiefly of local fame. But his name has made its way into general history. See Hall’s Chronicle, p. 410, and several other places.
[235] It. Camb. i. 12 (vol. vi. p. 89). “Provincia Pembrochiensis principale municipium, totiusque provinciæ Demeticæ caput, in saxosa quadam et oblonga rupis eminentia situm, lingua marina de Milverdico portu prosiliens in capite bifurco complectitur. Unde et Pembrochia caput maritimæ sonat. Primus hoc castrum Arnulfus de Mungumeri, sub Anglorum rege Henrico primo, ex virgis et cespite, tenue satis et exile construxit.” The date is of course wrong, as the castle of Pembroke appears both in the Annales Cambriæ and in the Brut in 1094, and as Giraldus himself describes the castle as in being soon after the death of Rhys ap Tewdwr. He perhaps confounds Arnulf’s first rude work with the stronger castle built by Gerald on the same site in 1105. This, according to the Brut, was fortified with a ditch and wall and a gateway with a lock on it.
[236] Giraldus describes his namesake, the husband of his grandmother, as “vir probus prudensque, Giraldus de Windesora, constabularius suus [Arnulfi] et primipilus.”
[237] See N. C. vol. ii. p. 482.
[238] I have discussed this matter at length in Appendix BB. (p. 851) of the fifth volume of the Norman Conquest. Miss Williams (History of Wales, p. 209), like Sir Francis Palgrave, knows more about Nest than I can find in any book. But the tale in the Brut of her being carried off by Owen in 1106 (see N. C. vol. v. p. 210) is very graphic.
[239] See N. C. vol. iv. p. 501.
[240] So says the Brut, 1094 (1096). Is this William the son of that Baldwin from whom Montgomery took its Welsh name?
[241] See vol. i. p. 464.
[242] Chron. Petrib. 1094. “Eac on þisum ylcan geare þa Wylisce men hi gegaderodon, and wið þa Frencisce þe on Walon oððe on þære neawiste wæron and hi ǽr belandedon, gewinn úp ahofon, and manige festena and castelas abræcon, and men ofslogon, and syððan heora gefylce weox, hí hí on ma todældon. Wið sum þæra dæle gefeaht Hugo eorl of Scrobscire, and hi aflymde. Ac þeah hweðer þa oðre ealles þæs geares nanes yfeles ne geswicon þe hi dón mihton.”
[243] Brut y Tywysogion, 1092 (1094). The translation runs; “Whilst William remained in Normandy, the Britons resisted the domination of the French, not being able to bear their cruelty, and demolished their castles in Gwynedd, and iterated their depredations and slaughters among them.” The Latin annalist says only; “Britanni jugum Francorum respuerunt. Wenedociam, Cereticam et Demetiam ab iis et eorum castellis emundaverunt.” Both these writers have oddly mistaken the state of things in Normandy. One manuscript of the Annales says that William went into Normandy, and that the revolt happened, “ibi morante et fratrem suum expugnante,” while the Brut says more wildly that “King William Rufus [Gwilim Goch], who first by a most glorious war prevailed over the Saxons, went to Normandy to keep and defend the kingdom [teyrnas] of Robert his brother, who had gone to Jerusalem [Kærcesalem] to fight against the Saracens and other barbarous nations and to protect the Christians, and to acquire greater fame.”
[244] Flor. Wig. 1094. “Ad hæc etiam primitus North-Walani, deinceps West-Walani et Suth-Walani, servitutis jugo, quo diu premebantur, excusso, et cervice erecta, libertatem sibi vindicare laborabant. Unde collecta multitudine, castella quæ in West-Walonia firmata erant frangebant et in Cestrensi, Scrobbesbyriensi, et Herefordensi provincia frequenter villas cremabant, prædas agebant, et multos ex Anglis et Normannis interficiebant.” The names of Gruffydd and Cadwgan come from the later Brut, which copies Florence or comes from the same source.
[245] Flor. Wig. 1094. “Fregerunt et castellum in Mevania insula, eamque suæ ditioni subjiciebant.” This confirms the statement of the later Brut about the building of the castle of Aberlleiniog (see p. 97); but he says nothing about Anglesey here.
[246] “In the wood of Yspwys,” says the Brut.
[247] So both the Annales and the Brut. The name of William son of Baldwin comes from the Brut two years later.
[248] Brut y Tywysogion, 1092 (1094). “And the people and all the cattle of Dyved they brought away with them, leaving Dyved and Ceredigion a desert.”
[249] See vol. i. p. 476.
[250] Ann. Camb. 1095. “Franci devastaverunt Gober et Kedweli et Stratewi. Demetia, Ceretica, et Stratewi deserta manent.”
[251] I have no better direct authority for this than the later Brut, which says under 1094--the chronology is very confused—that “the Frenchmen led their forces into Gower, Cydweli, and the Vale of Tywi, and devastated those countries, and William de Londres [William de Lwndrys] built a strong castle in Cydweli.”
[252] This comes under the year 1099, and is attributed to “Harry Beaumont [Harri Bwmwnt].” Is this the Earl of Warwick? I know no other “Henricus de Bello Monte.”
[253] This is from the same entry in the later Brut. After mentioning the castles, it is added that Harry Beaumont “established himself there and brought Saxons from Somersetshire [Saeson o wlad yr Haf] there, where they obtained lands; and the greatest usurpation of all the Frenchmen was his in Gower.” Nothing can be made of this writer’s dates, even when we accept his facts with a little trembling.
[254] This account comes only from the younger Brut (79). It is in fact part of the legend of the conquest of Glamorgan. But that legend, as we have seen, has elements of truth in it, and this particular story seems to fit in well with the general course of events. The men of Morganwg and Gwaenllwg—that is the modern Wentloog, the land between Rhymny and Usk—rose and destroyed the castle, Pagan of Turberville leading them.
[255] See N. C. vol. iv. p. 501.
[256] It is strange that the mention of this great British success comes only from the English accounts. Just after the King had left Bamburgh, he heard (Chron. Petrib. 1095) “þæt þa Wylisce men on Wealon sumne castel heafdon tobroken Muntgumni hatte, and Hugon eorles men ofslagene, þe hine healdon sceoldan.”
[257] Chron. Petrib. ib. “He forði oðre fyrde hét fearlice abannan.”
[258] Ib. “And æfter Sc̃e Michaeles mæsse into Wealan ferde, and his fyrde toscyfte, and þæt land eall þurhfor, swa þæt seo fyrde eall togædere com to Ealra Halgena to Snawdune. Ac þa Wylisce a toforan into muntan and moran ferdan, þæt heom man to cuman ne mihte.” On the use of the word muntas see N. C. vol. v. p. 517.
[259] Ib. “And se cyng þa hamweard gewende, forþam he geseah þæt he þær þes wintres mare don ne mihte.”
[260] Ann. Camb. 1095. “Mediante autumno rex Anglorum Willielmus contra Britones movit exercitum, quibus Deo tutatis, vacuus ad sua rediit.”
[261] Ann. Camb. 1096. “Willielmus filius Baldewini in domino (?) Ricors obiit, quo mortuo castellum vacuum relinquitur.”
[262] Brut y Tywysogion, 1094 (1096). The words are most emphatic in the manuscript of the Annales quoted as C; “Britones Brecheniauc et Guent et Guenliauc jugum Francorum respuunt.”
[263] Chron. Petrib. 1096. “Eac on þison geare þa heafod men þe þis land heoldan oftrædlice fyrde into Wealon sendon, and mænig man mid þam swiðe gedrehtan, ac man þær ne gespædde, butan man myrringe and feoh spillinge.”
[264] Ann. Camb. C. “Franci exercitum movent in Guent, et nihil impetrantes vacui domum redeunt, et in Kellitravant versi sunt in fugam.” The name of the place is given in the text of the Annals as “Celli Darnauc;” the Brut as “Celli Carnant.” I do not know its site.
[265] Ib. “Iterum venerunt in Brechinauc et castella fecerunt in ea, sed in reditu apud Aberlech versi sunt in fugam a filiis Iduerth filii Kadugaun.” The Brut gives their names as Gruffydd and Ivor.
[266] So says the Brut, 1094 (1096).
[267] These details of the siege of Pembroke come from Giraldus, It. Camb. i. 12. As he has mistaken the date of the whole matter by putting it in the reign of Henry, so he has mistaken the special date of the siege, which he places soon after the death of Rhys ap Tewdwr, that is in 1093. His stories may belong to the movement of 1094; but they seem to come more naturally here. When the knights have deserted, “ex desperatione scapham intrantes navigio fugam attemptassent, in crastino mane Giraldus eorum armigeris arma dominorum cum feodis dedit, ipsosque statim militari cingulo decoravit.”
[268] They are brought “ad ultimam fere inediam.” Then Gerald, “ex summa prudentia spem simulans et solatia spondens, quatuor qui adhuc supererant bacones a propugnaculis frustatim ad hostes projici fecit.”
[269] Ib. “Die vero sequente ad figmenta recurrens exquisitiora, literas sigillo suo signatas coram hospitio Menevensis episcopi, cui nomen Wilfredus, qui forte tunc aderat, tanquam casu a portitore dilapsas inveniri procuravit.” I suppose this means that the Bishop was in a house outside the besieged castle; otherwise it is not clear how the Welsh could have got hold of the letter. It seems also to imply that the Bishop was on friendly terms with the besieged. But the whole story is a little dark.
[270] Ib. “Quo per exercitum literis lectis audito, statim obsidione dispersa ad propria singuli sunt reversi.” Directly after—“nec mora”—Gerald marries Nest. If we could at all trust her grandson’s chronology, this would throw some light on her relation to Henry.
[271] Ann. Camb. 1096. “Penbrochiam devastaverunt et incolumes domum redierunt.” The cattle come from the Brut.
[272] Ann. Camb. 1097. “Geraldus præfectus de Penbroc Meneviæ fines devastavit.” In the other manuscript he is dapifer, and in the Brut ystiwart.
[273] See vol. i. p. 572.
[274] Ib.
[275] Chron. Petrib. 1097. “Se cyng Willelm … mid mycclum here into Wealon ferde, and þæt land swiðe mid his fyrde þurhfór, þurh sume þa Wyliscean þe him to wæron cumen, and his lædteowas wæron.” Eadmer (Hist. Nov. 37), to whom the details of a Welsh war did not greatly matter, makes overmuch of these seeming successes; “Rex … super Walenses qui contra eum surrexerant excercitum ducit, eosque post modicum in deditionem suscipit, et pace undique potitus est.”
[276] See vol. i. p. 582.
[277] Chron. Petrib. 1097. “Ða Wylisce men syððon hi fram þam cynge gebugon.”
[278] Ib. “Heom manege ealdras of heom sylfan gecuron. Sum þæra wæs Caduugaun gehaten, þe heora weorðast wæs: se wæs Griffines broðer sunu cynges.” On the use of “sum,” see Earle, Parallel Chronicles, p. 357. It is surely a little hard when Giraldus (It. Camb. i. 2. p. 28) speaks of his grandmother’s grandfather as one “cujus tyrannis totam aliquamdiu Gualliam oppresserat.”
[279] See N. C. vol. i. p. 506.
[280] Ib. vol. ii. p. 396.
[281] Ib. p. 399.
[282] Flor. Wig. 1097. “Post pascha”—he seems to have mixed up the two expeditions of the year—“cum equestri et pedestri exercitu secundo profectus est in Waloniam, ut omnes masculini sexus internecioni daret; at de eis vix aliquem capere aut interimere potuit.” Cf. N. C. vol. ii. p. 481.
[283] The Brut here waxes so spirited that one is sorry not to have a better knowledge of the original. “The French dared not penetrate the rocks and the woods, but hovered about the level plains. At length they returned home empty, without having gained anything; and the Britons, happy and unintimidated, defended their country.” The Annals say, “Willelmus rex Angliæ secundo in Britones excitatur, eorum omnium minans excidium; Britones vero divino protecti munimine in sua remanent illæsi, rege vacuo redeunte.” The other MS. has, “nihil impetrans vacuus domum rediit.”
[284] Chron. Petrib. 1097. “Þærinne wunode fram middesumeran forneah oð August.”
[285] Ib. “And mycel þærinne forleas on mannan and on horsan and eac on manegan oðran þingan.” Florence softens a little; “De suis nonnullos, et equos perdidit multos.”
[286] See vol. i. pp. 572, 575.
[288] See vol. i. p. 583.
[291] On the story of Godwine and Ordgar, see Appendix HH.
[292] See N. C. vol. iv. p. 620.
[293] Fordun, v. 22 (vol. i. p. 221, Skene). “Fit mox hinc inde magnus armorum apparatus, pugnaturi conveniunt; Orgarus favore regis elatus, regiis satellitibus hinc inde vallatus, insignibus etiam armorum ornamentis splendidus procedit.”
[294] Ib. “Silentio per præconem omnibus imposito, et vadiis utrorumque a judice in certaminis locum projectis, ut Deus, secretorum cognitor, hujus causæ veritatem ostenderet, proclamante, postremo res armis, et causa superno judici committitur.”
[295] There is no need to go through all the details. The strangest is when the hilt of Godwine’s sword breaks off; the blade drops; he picks it up, but naturally cannot use it without cutting his fingers. It is an odd coincidence that his son drops his whole sword in his exploit at Rama.
[296] Fordun, v. 22. “Abstracto namque cultro qui caliga latebat, ipsum perfodere conatur; cum ante initum congressum juraverit se nihil nisi arma decentia militem in hoc duello gestaturum.”
[297] “Mox perjurii pœnas persolvit. Cultro siquidem erepto, cum spes reum desereret, crimen protinus confitetur. Attamen hæc confessio nihil ad vitam illi profuit elongandam, undique vero, vulnere succedente vulneri, perfodebatur, donec animam impiam vis doloris et magnitudo vulnerum expelleret.”
[298] See N. C. vol. v. pp. 561, 893.
[299] Chron. Petrib. 1097. “Ða uppon Sc̃e Michaeles mæssan iiii. noñ Octobre, ætywde án selcuð steorra, on æfen scynende, and sona to setle gangende. He wæs gesewen suðweast, and se leoma þe him ofstód wæs swiðe lang geþuht, suðeast scinende, and forneah ealle þa wucan on þas wisan ætywde, manige men leton þæt hit cometa wære.” Here the comet shines very brightly, but it shines alone. William of Malmesbury (iv. 328) adds; “apparuerunt et aliæ stellæ quasi jacula inter se emittentes.” (We had shooting stars two years before; see p. 41.) Florence adds yet another portent; “Nonnulli signum mirabile et quasi ardens, in modum crucis, eo tempore se vidisse in cælo affirmabant.”
[300] Both the Chronicler and Florence mark that the departure of Anselm soon followed the appearance in the heavens; but it is William of Malmesbury who is most emphatic; “Ille fuit annus quo Anselmus lux Angliæ, ultro tenebras erroneorum effugiens, Romam ivit.”
[301] So I should understand the words of the Chronicle, “ferde Eadgar æþeling mid fyrdes þurh þæs cynge fultum into Scotlande.” But Florence says that the King “clitonem Eadgarum ad Scottiam cum exercitu misit.” Fordun (v. 5) makes him go, “collectis undique ingentibus amicorum copiis, auxilioque Willelmi regis vallatus.”
[303] Fordun tells this tale (v. 25); the younger Eadgar tells the vision to the elder, who acts accordingly.
[304] We have surely passed the bounds of history when Robert, accompanied by two other knights, charges the enemy, slays the foremost (“fortissimi qui ante aciem quasi defensores stabant”), puts Donald and the rest to flight, “et sic incruentam victoriam, Deo propitio, meritis sancti Cuthberti feliciter obtinuit.” The Chronicler says that Eadgar “þet land mid stranglicum feohte gewann.”
[305] Fordun, v. 26. “Ab ipso quidem ipse Donaldus captus est et cæcatus, ac carceri perpetuo damnatur.” “Ipso” is the younger Eadgar; this treatment of Donald would have been more pardonable in the elder. See more in Robertson, i. 159.
[306] See Robertson, i. 159, and N. C. vol. i. p. 529; vol. ii. p. 449; vol. iii. p. 431; vol. iv. p. 170.
[307] See Mon. Angl. v. 163, 165.
[308] Will. Malms. v. 400. “Captus vel perpetuis compedibus detentus, ingenue pœnituit; et ad mortem veniens, cum ipsis vinculis se tumulari mandavit, professus se plexum merito pro fratricidii delicto.” Cf. the burial of Grimbald in N. C. vol. ii. p. 273.
[309] Chron. Petrib. 1097. “Eadgar æþeling … þone cyng Dufenal út adræfde, and his mæg Eadgar, se wæs Melcolmes sunu cynges and Margarite þære cwenan, he þær on þæs cynges Willelmes heldan to cynge sette.” I do not find the words in Italics represented either by Fordun or by Mr. Robertson. They are not forgotten by Sir F. Palgrave, English Commonwealth, ii. cccxxxiv.
[310] The Chronicler tells us that Eadgar “syþþan ongean into Engleland fór.” And he had just before drawn a vivid picture of the state of England; “Ðis wæs on eallon þingan swiðe hefigtyme geár, and ofer geswincfull on ungewederan, þa man oððe tilian sceolde oððe eft tilða gegaderian, and on ungyldan þa næfre ne ablunnon.”
[311] Fordun, v. 26.
[312] Ib. This grant is made “episcopo et suis successoribus Dunelmensibus,” in distinction to the grant of Coldingham, which was “monachis Dunelmensibus.”
[313] Ib. “De licentia regis ad terram a rege sibi datam in Laudonia moratus est, et dum castellum ibidem ædificare niteretur, a provincialibus subito et baronibus tandem Dunelmensibus circumventus, eodem Ranulfo episcopo agente, captus est; in qua tamen captione magnam suæ virtutis memoriam apud totius regionis incolas dereliquit.”
[314] Ib. “Quod rex Edgarus rediens ut audivit, illum ex præcepto regis Angliæ liberatum, secum in Scociam reduxit cum honore, et quicquid ante episcopo donaverat, omnino sano consilio sibimet reservabat.”
[315] See vol. i. p. 564.
[316] See vol. i. p. 269.
[317] This siege and sally is described by William of Tyre, x. 17, 18, Gesta Dei per Francos, 786.
[318] Will. Malms. iii. 251. “Qui [Baldwinus] cum obsidionis injuriam ferre nequiret, per medias hostium acies effugit, solius Roberti opera liberatus præuntis, et evaginato gladio dextra lævaque Turchos cædentis; sed cum, successu ipso truculentior, alacritate nimia procurreret, ensis manu excidit; ad quem recolligendum cum se inclinasset, omnium incursu oppressus, vinculis palmas dedit.” Cf. iv. 384.
[319] Ib. “Inde Babylonem (ut aiunt) ductus, cum Christum abnegare nollet, in medio foro ad signum positus, et sagittis terebratus, martyrium sacravit.”
[320] See vol. i. p. 565.
[321] The story of Robert of Saint Alban’s is told in Benedict, i. 341, R. Howden, ii. 307.
[322] Fordun, v. 26. “Erat autem iste rex Edgarus homo dulcis et amabilis, cognato suo regi sancto Edwardo per omnia similis, nihil durum, nihil tyrannicum aut amarum in suos exercens subditos, sed eos cum maxima caritate, bonitate, et benevolentia rexit et correxit.”
[323] See Robertson, i. 163. The passage in Æthelred of Rievaux to which he refers comes in the speech of Robert of Bruce to David (X Scriptt. 344; see N. C. vol. v. p. 269). It seems to imply that David needed English help to keep his principality. “Tu ipse rex cum portionem regni quam idem tibi frater moriens delegavit, a fratre Alexandro reposceres, nostro certe terrore quidquid volueras sine sanguine impetrasti.”
[324] Mr. Robertson gives her the name of Sibyl. William of Malmesbury, v. 400, gives an odd account of her; “Alexandrum successorem Henricus affinitate detinuit, data ei in conjugium filia notha; de qua ille viva nec sobolem, quod sciam, tulit nec ante se mortuam multum suspiravit; defuerat enim fœminæ, ut fertur, quod desideraretur, vel in morum modestia, vel in corporis elegantia.” I cannot find her in the list of Henry’s daughters in Will. Gem. viii. 29.
[325] See N. C. vol. iv. p. 602; vol. v. p. 209.
[326] See Robertson, i. 172.
[327] See N. C. vol. v. pp. 237, 238.
[328] See Robertson, i. 123 et seqq.
[329] See N. C. vol. v. p. 305.
[330] Ib. pp. 260–263.
[331] Ib. p. 267.
[333] Eadwine, as Bæda witnesses (ii. 5), held the two Mevaniæ. But Mona appears as Welsh whenever the island is spoken of in either British or English Chronicles. Nennius (or the writer who goes by that name) has a heading (Mon. Hist. Brit. 52 D) of “Monia insula quæ Anglice Englesei vocatur, id est, insula Anglorum.” In our Chronicles it is Mon-ige in the year 1000. Our present story (1098) happens “innan Anglesege.”