In my paper on “Regenbald, Priest and Chancellor,”[49] I was able to trace, by combining the evidence of Domesday and of charters, the history of a “priest” of Edward the Confessor, who became the “priest” of his successor also, and held of him rich possessions in churches and lands. Another churchman who flourished both before and after the Conquest, and must have enjoyed the favour both of the Confessor and of the Conqueror, was Ingelric, first dean of the house of St. Martin’s-le-Grand, whose lands had passed before Domesday to Count Eustace of Boulogne. Mr. Freeman was interested in Ingelric as a “commissioner for redemption of lands,” but only knew him as a layman. Nor indeed is there anything in Domesday to suggest that he was other. To Mr. W. H. Stevenson belongs the credit of proving that he was a priest by printing “an old English charter of the Conqueror,” confirming the foundation of St. Martin’s-le-Grand, in which the “cujusdam fidelis mei Ingelrici scilicet peticioni adquiescens” is equated by “æfter Ingelrices bene mines preostes.”[50] It was similarly as “minan preoste” that William had described Regenbald.

The charter I shall now deal with was not known to Mr. Stevenson, and has not, I believe, been printed. It is of real historical interest, apart from the fact that among its witnesses we find Ingelric “the priest.”

Mr. Freeman held that the reconciliation between the Conqueror and the Abbot of Peterborough—Brand, the Englishman, whose election had been confirmed, even after the Battle of Hastings, by the ætheling Eadgar—was one of the earliest events after William’s coronation.[51] To that episode I do not hesitate to assign a charter entered in the Peterborough ‘Liber Niger’ belonging to the Society of Antiquaries. It is a general confirmation of the abbey’s possessions, “petente abbate Brand,”[52] and is witnessed thus:

Here we have first Ealdred, by whom William had been crowned; then Wulfwig, bishop of Dorchester, here described as bishop “of Lincoln.” The mention of Mærleswegen is of special importance, for this great English noble had been left in charge of the North by Harold on the eve of the Battle of Hastings, and rose in revolt against William in the summer of 1068. Here we have evidence of his presence at William’s court, when his movements were unknown to Mr. Freeman. We see, moreover, that he was still sheriff (of Lincolnshire). “Ulf filius Topi,” who appears in other Peterborough charters, had given “Mannetorp,” Lincolnshire, and other lands to the abbey.

It is very remarkable that the Norman witnesses are only entered after these Englishmen, although the first is “earl William,” in whom we must see the Conqueror’s friend, William Fitz Osbern, already, apparently, earl of Hereford. Sufficient attention has hardly been given to this early creation or to the selection of so distant a county as Herefordshire for William’s earldom.

In addition to this charter, there is known to me another, little later probably, the last witness to which is entered as “Ego Ingelricus ad hoc impetrandum obnixe studui.” This brings me to the third charter that I shall deal with in connection with Ingelric. This is the one I mentioned at the outset as granted by the Conqueror at his request, and edited with so much care and learning by Mr. W. H. Stevenson. This, in its stilted, antique form, has much in common with the one preceding, while its style combines those of the two others. I place the three together for comparison:

Mr. Freeman looked with suspicion on this third charter, which he termed “an alleged charter of William.”[53] His criticism that, though dated 1068, its list of witnesses closes with the two papal legates who visited England in 1070, is a perfectly sound one. Mr. Stevenson ignored this difficulty in his paper; and, on my pointing it out, still failed to explain the positive “huic constitutioni interfui” of Cardinal John. Awkward, however, as the difficulty is, the other attestations are so satisfactory that we must treat these as subsequent additions rather than reject the charter.

The remarks which immediately follow are intended only for students of what is uncouthly known as ‘diplomatic,’ a study hitherto much neglected in England. In this charter, as printed in Mr. Stevenson’s paper, there is appended the clause:

A corresponding clause is found in the old English version of the text which follows it. But in the Latin text the clause is followed by these words:

Mr. Freeman somewhat carelessly confused the two clauses:

Mr. Stevenson follows him in this confusion, but carries it much further. Speaking of “supplementary confirmations,” as used in William’s chancery, he writes:

In the elaborate footnotes appended to this passage there are three points to be dealt with.

The first is “the king’s coronation” as the time when the charter was executed. Mr. Stevenson writes:

But, as we have seen, it is not the fact that Mr. Freeman spoke of Christmas 1067 as “the date of William’s coronation.” That event took place, as all the world knows, at Christmas, 1066, and so was long previous to this gift and charter. Mr. Stevenson’s error is a strange one.

The second point is that of the “supplementary confirmation.” Mr. Stevenson, referring us to the best parallel, writes:

I here break off to print, for convenience, the parallel clauses in these documents side by side.

Resuming now Mr. Stevenson’s note on the documents of 1072, at the point where I broke it off, we read:

As the former document (A.2 of the Canterbury charters, apparently overlooked till some twenty years ago) could not possibly be “dated at Winchester at Whitsuntide,” one turns to the text as given by the Palæographical Society, only to find that these words are sheer imagination on Mr. Stevenson’s part. There is nothing of the kind to be found there. Owing to this incomprehensible error, he has altogether misunderstood these “supplementary confirmations.” The clauses I have printed side by side must not be broken up. The earlier, like the later, is a consistent whole, added at one time.[59]

When, then, was the “Ingelric” charter actually drawn up? Mr. Stevenson, following, we have seen, Mr. Freeman’s loose expressions, tells us that “as the present charter (sic) was peracta at Christmas, 1067, and confirmata at Whitsuntide, it was most probably written at the former date.” But it was the “donacio,” not the “charter,” which was “peracta” at Christmas. The text only tells us of the charter that it was written “anno ab incarnacione Domini MLXVIII^o.” My own view is that the charter was written not at Christmas, 1067 (which was the date of the act of gift), but at (or after) Whitsuntide, 1068. I base this conclusion on the first three witnesses:

• Ego Willelmus rex Anglorum, etc.
• Ego Mathildis regina consensum præbui.
• Ego Ricardus regis filius annui.

Matilda was not “queen” till Whitsuntide, 1068, and was not even in England at Christmas, 1067. If it be urged that, even though found in this position, her name was interpolated afterwards, I reply that the name of William’s eldest son, Robert, would then have been similarly added. The fact that we find, instead, his second son, Richard (afterwards killed while hunting in the New Forest) is to me the strongest possible evidence that Robert had remained behind, as regent, in Normandy when his mother came over to England to be crowned. The most probable date, therefore, for the execution of this charter is that of her coronation at Westminster, 1068. It preserves for us, in that case, the names of the magnates present on that occasion, including Hugh bishop of Lisieux, who may well have escorted her from Normandy, and thus have attended the ceremony.[60].

My third point follows as a corollary from this conclusion. For if the charter was drawn up at Whitsuntide, 1068, not at Christmas, 1067, there is an end of Mr. Stevenson’s argument and conclusion:

The time spent on this important charter has not been wasted. We have found that one who stands in the front rank of English philologists, and for whom the same would, doubtless, be claimed in “diplomatic,” may arrive, in spite of great learning, at quite erroneous conclusions, simply from inexact treatment of the evidence before him.

A word more on Ingelric. According to Mr. Freeman, “that Ingelric was an Englishman seems plain.”[62] Mr. Stevenson, however, who has specially studied the subject of personal names, holds that this was Frankish. The St. Martin’s charter specially speaks of his having acquired his lands under Edward the Confessor. Mr. Stevenson, however, goes further, and states, as we have seen, that it proves him to have been “one of William’s clerks” (sic); and he argues that “if he was a chancery clerk, he may have continued the traditions of Edward’s chancery.” It is remarkable, however, that in an Exeter charter (1069) to which Mr. Stevenson refers us, he again attests, as in two of the charters dealt with above, as “Ingelricus presbyter.” I have chosen, therefore, for this paper the style “Ingelric the priest.”

No question of origin can arise in the case of a third personage, who also enjoyed the favour both of Edward and of his successor, namely, Albert of Lotharingia. Known hitherto as having, it is supposed, given its name to Lothbury—for the “Terra Alberti Loteringi” is mentioned in the list of London wards temp. Henry I.[63]—he occurs in many places on the pages of Domesday. As “Albertus Lothariensis” we find him a tenant-in-chief in the counties of Herefordshire and Beds (186, 216b2), one of his manors in the latter county having been held by him, we read, under Edward the Confessor; and he also occurs by the same style as holding under the latter king at Hatton, Middlesex (129). But, so far, there is nothing to show that Albert was a cleric.

It is a Westminster Abbey charter that supplies the missing clue:

Turning to “Roteland” in Domesday, we find that the last name in the list of its tenants-in-chief is that of “Albertus clericus,” who holds the churches of Oakham, Hambleton, and St. Peter’s, Stamford, “cum adjacentibus terris eisdem ecclesiis ... de rege,” the whole forming a valuable estate. Again, we read under Stamford: “Albertus unam æcclesiam Sancti Petri cum duabus mansionibus et dimidia carucata terre quæ jacet in Rotelande in Hemeldune; valet x sol.” (336 b). Following up this clue, we recognise our man in the “Albertus clericus” who holds at “Eddintone,” in Surrey (30, 36 b), and doubtless also in “Albertus clericus” who held land as an under-tenant at Windsor (56 b). Nay, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that he is also the “Albertus capellanus” who, at the end of the Kent Domesday (14 b), has a page all to himself as tenant-in-chief of Newington. Thus in the official index to Domesday we find Albert entered under “clericus,” “Lothariensis,” “Albertus,” and (probably) “capellanus,” and yet, in each case, it is the same man. Regenbald, exactly in the same way, is entered under ‘Cirecestre,’ ‘presbyter’ and ‘Reinbaldus.’ In my ‘Feudal England’ I have similarly identified (p. 167) “Eustachius,” one tenant-in-chief, with “Eustachius vicecomes,” another (and with “Eustachius,” an under-tenant),[65] and “Oger,” a Northamptonshire tenant-in-chief, with Oger “Brito,” a Lincolnshire one (p. 220). In the Eastern counties the Breton founder of the house of Helion is similarly indexed under ‘Britto’ for Essex, ‘Herion’ for Suffolk, and ‘Tehelus’ for Norfolk. Small as these points may seem, their ultimate consequence is great, for they still further reduce the number of tenants-in-chief. When the history of these magnates is more fully known, it will probably be found that those who held in capite per servitium militare, thus excluding, of course, mere serjeants, etc., were a mere handful compared with the vast total given by Ellis and others.

Albert’s Lotharingian origin becomes of special interest now that we know he was a cleric, for Mr. Freeman devoted a special appendix to “Lotharingian churchmen under Edward.”[66] Unfortunately he was not acquainted with the case of Albert. Dr. Stubbs also has dwelt on the importance, for the church, of “the increased intercourse with the empire, and especially with Lorraine,” under Edward the Confessor.[67] He alludes, without committing himself to it, to Mr. Freeman’s somewhat fanciful theory on the subject.