book iv

. chap. 14. There are some MSS. which want this chapter. The former editor of Bede accounts for it very satisfactorily; stating that a very ancient MS. in the Cotton Collection has a note marking that a leaf was here wanting; and that those which want the chapter were transcripts of this imperfect MS.

[264] Acca, bishop of Hexham, A.D. 710, and a great friend of venerable Bede, who inscribed to him many of his works.

[265] Or Elbert. See b. i. c. i. p. 15.

[266] He was at the same time bishop of Worcester, and archbishop of York.

[267] See b. i. c. 4, p. 78.

[268] “Concerning St. Wistan, consult MSS. Harl. 2253. _De Martyrio S. Wistani._”--HARDY.

[269] Repton.

[270] Thought to be the Devil’s Dyke, on Newmarket Heath.

[271] He was tied to a tree, and shot to death with arrows. Abbo Floriacensis.

[272] This boundary is said to have been formed by Canute, in consequence of his father Sweyn having been killed by St. Edmund in a vision for attempting to plunder his territory. See Malm. de Gest. Pontif. lib. ii. f. 136, b. edit. Lond.

[273] Faremoutier in Brie.

[274] Hist. Eccl. b. iii. c. 8, p. 122.

[275] In b. i, c. 1, p. 15, it is said the compensation for their murder was made to their mother; but here she is called their sister, which is the general account. When it was left to her to estimate this compensation (i. e. their weregild), she asked as much land as her stag should compass, at one course, in the Isle of Thanet; where she founded the monastery of Minster. Vide W. Thorn. col. 1910, and Natale S. Mildrythæ; (Saxonicè), MS. Cott. Calig. A. xiv. 4.

[276] “Mild” gentle.

[277] In Shropshire.

[278] The Seven Sleepers were inhabitants of Ephesus; six were persons of some consequence, the seventh their servant. During the Decian persecution they retired to a cave, whence they despatched their attendant occasionally to purchase food for them. Decius, hearing this, ordered the mouth of the cave to be stopped up while the fugitives were sleeping. After a lapse of some hundred years, a part of the masonry at the mouth of the cave falling, the light flowing in awakened them. Thinking they had enjoyed a good night’s rest, they despatched their servant to buy provision. He finds all appear strange in Ephesus, and a whimsical dialogue takes place, the citizens accusing him of having found hidden treasure, he persisting that he offered the current coin of the empire. At length the attention of the emperor is excited, and he goes in company with the bishop to visit them. They relate their story and shortly after expire. In consequence of the miracle they were considered as martyrs. See Capgrave, Legenda Nova.

[279] On the Norman conquest many English fled to Constantinople, where they were eagerly received by Alexius, and opposed to the Normans under Robert Guiscard. Orderic. Vitalis, p. 508.

[280] Victor II. succeeded Leo IX. in 1056, and died in 1057. Stephen or Frederic, brother of duke Godefroi, succeeded Victor II. on the second of August, 1057, and Nicolaus became pope in 1059.

[281] That is, of Malmesbury. This Elmer is not to be confounded with Elmer or Ailmer prior of Canterbury.

[282] Died and was buried at St. Paul’s. Sax. Chron. A. 1057.

[283] It is hardly necessary to observe, that the succession of William is one of the most obscure points in our history.

[284] Near Chichester.

[285] It was customary for the king to wear his crown on the solemn festivals of Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas: it being placed on his head in due form by the archbishop.

[286] “Westminster Abbey was consecrated on the 28th of December, 1065. Ailred of Rievaulx, in his Life of Edward, states that the church had been commenced some years before, in performance of a vow the king had made to go to Rome; but being dissuaded from it, he sent to the pope to obtain his dispensation from that journey; the pope granted it, on condition that Edward should, with the money he would have spent in that voyage, build a monastery in honour of St. Peter.”--HARDY.

[287] The battle of Stanford-bridge was fought on the 25th of September, 1066. See Saxon. Chron. p. 440.

[288] What Malmesbury here relates is highly probable, from the shortness of the time which elapsed from William’s landing, to the battle of Hastings,--only fifteen days. In this period, therefore, the intelligence was to be conveyed to York, and Harold’s march into Sussex to be completed; of course few could accompany him, but such as were mounted.

[289] Will. Pictaviensis, to whom he seems here to allude, asserts that Harold had collected immense forces from all parts of England; and that Denmark had supplied him with auxiliaries also. But the circumstances mentioned in the preceding note show the absurdity of this statement.

[290] “Robert’s expedition to Jerusalem was in 1035,” (Bouq. 14, 420.)

[291] Ecclesiast. x. 16.

[292] Geoffrey II., son of Foulques III., earl of Anjou, whom he succeeded, A.D. 1040.

[293] “He was the son of Hugh de Montgomery and Jemima his wife, daughter of Turolf of Pont-Andomare, by Wora, sister of Gunnora, great-grandmother to the Conqueror. He led the centre of the army at the battle of Hastings, and was afterwards governor of Normandy. William the Conqueror gave him the earldoms of Arundel and Shrewsbury. See more of him in Sir H. Ellis’s Introduction to Domesday, vol. i. p. 479.”--HARDY.

[294] “For an account of the earls of Anjou consult the Gesta Consulum Andegavensium, auctore Monacho Benedictino Majoris Monasterii (apud Acherium, tom, iii.)”--HARDY.

[295] To carry a saddle was a punishment of extreme ignominy for certain crimes. See another instance in W. Gemeticensis, Du Chesne, p. 259, and Du Cange, in voce “Sella;” who very justly supposes the disgrace to arise from the offender acknowledging himself a brute, and putting himself entirely in the power of the person he had offended.

[296] “From this passage it is clear that Foulques IV. was still the reigning earl of Anjou, which therefore proves that Malmesbury had finished this work before 1129, in which year Geoffrey le Bel, better known as Geoffrey Plantagenet, son of Foulques, became earl of Anjou.”--HARDY.

[297] Terent. Andr. iv. 1.

[298] “These words seem to imply that the Great Council of the kingdom had never agreed to any settlement of the crown on the duke; and without such sanction no oath made by Harold in favour of William would have been binding.”--HARDY.

[299] Some copies omit from “it is wonderful,” to “But,” and substitute as follows:-- ... “that in the course of a very few years, many, if not all, things were seen changed in either order. The former became, in some respects, more dull but more liberal: the latter, more prudent in every thing, but more penurious; yet both, in defending their country, valiant in battle, provident in counsel; prepared to advance their own fortune, and to depress that of their enemies.”

[300] This passage enables us to ascertain nearly the year in which William of Malmesbury’s work was written.

[301] “There are two places called St. Valeri; one in Picardy, situated at the mouth of the Somme, and formerly called Leugonaus; the other is a large sea-port town, situated in Normandy, in the diocese of Rouen, and was formerly called S. Valeri les Plains, but now S. Valeri en Caux. It seems to be the former place to which Malmesbury here refers, ‘In Pontivo apud S. Walericum in ancoris congrue stare fecit,’ writes William of Jumièges.”--HARDY.

[302] This was said in allusion to the feudal investiture, or formal act of taking possession of an estate by the delivery of certain symbols. “This story, however, is rendered a little suspicious by these words being in exact conformity with those of Cæsar, when he stumbled and fell at his landing in Africa, _Teneo te, Africa_. The silence of William of Poitou, who was the duke’s chaplain, and with him at his landing, makes the truth of it still more doubtful.”--HARDY.

[303] “Whatever may have been the conqueror’s orders, to restrain his army from plundering, it is conclusive, from the Domesday Survey, that they were of no avail. The whole of the country, in the neighbourhood of Hastings, appears to have been laid waste. Sir Henry Ellis, in the last edition of his General Introduction to Domesday, observes, that the destruction occasioned by the conqueror’s army on its first arrival, is apparent more particularly under Hollington, Bexhill, &c. The value of each manor is given as it stood in the reign of the conqueror; afterwards it is said, ‘vastatum fuit;’ and then follows the value at the time of the survey. The situation of those manors evidently shows their devastated state to have been owing to the army marching over it; and this clearly evinces another circumstance relating to the invasion, which is, that William did not land his army at one particular spot, at Bulwerhithe, or Hastings, as is supposed,--but at all the several proper places for landing along the coast, from Bexhill to Winchelsea.”--HARDY.

[304] Lib. v. c. 14.

[305] This is from W. Pictaviensis, who puts it in the mouth of the conqueror, but it is evidently false; for Godwin died A.D. 1053, Siward A.D. 1055, and in 1054 we find Edward the Confessor sending for his nephew from Hungary, to make him his successor in the kingdom, who, accordingly, arrives in A.D. 1057, and dies almost immediately after. He could not, therefore, have made the settlement as here asserted.

[306] As the armour of that time was of mail, this might easily happen.

[307] What this was is not known; but it is supposed to have been a ballad or romance, commemorating the heroic achievements of the pretended nephew of Charlemagne.

[308] “There seems to have been a fabulous story current during the twelfth century, that Harold escaped from the battle of Hastings. Giraldus Cambrensis asserts, that it was believed Harold had fled from the battle-field, pierced with many wounds, and with the loss of his left eye; and that he ended his days piously and virtuously, as an anchorite, at Chester. Both Knighton and Brompton quote this story. W. Pictaviensis says, that William refused the body to his mother, who offered its weight in gold for it, ordering it to be buried on the sea-coast. In the Harleian MS. 3776, before referred to, Girth, Harold’s brother, is said to have escaped alive: he is represented, in his interview with Henry II. to have spoken mysteriously respecting Harold, and to have declared that the body of that prince was not at Waltham. Sir H. Ellis, quoting this MS., justly observes, that the whole was, probably, the fabrication of one of the secular canons, who were ejected at the re-foundation of Waltham Abbey in 1177.”--HARDY.

[309] Four manuscripts read _Exoniam_, and one, namely, that which was used by Savile, read _Oxoniam_. But Matthew Paris also seems to have read _Exoniam_, for such is the text of the two best MSS. of that author. (Reg. 14, c. vii. and Cott. Nero, D. V.) Upon a passage in the Domesday Survey, describing Oxford as containing 478 houses, which were so desolated that they could not pay gold, Sir H. Ellis remarks: “The extraordinary number of houses specified as desolated at Oxford, requires explanation. If the passage is correct, Matthew Paris probably gives us the cause of it, under the year 1067, when William the Conqueror subdued _Oxford_ in his way to York:--‘Eodem tempore rex Willielmus urbem Oxoniam sibi rebellem obsidione vallavit. Super cujus murum quidam, stans, nudato inguine, sonitu partis inferioris auras turbavit, in contemptum videlicet Normannorum; unde Willielmus in iram conversus, civitatem levi negotio subjugavit.’ (Matt. P. ed. Watts, sub ann. 1067, p. 4.) The siege of Exeter in 1067 is also mentioned by Simeon of Durham, col. 197; Hoveden, col. 258; Ralph de Diceto, col. 482; Flor. of Worces. fol. Franc. 1601, p. 635; and by Ordericus Vitalis, p. 510.”--HARDY.

[310] Domesday Book bears ample testimony to this statement; and that which closely follows, viz. that the resources of this once-flourishing province were cut off by fire, slaughter, and devastation; and the ground, for more than sixty miles, totally uncultivated and unproductive, remains bare to the present day. The land, which had belonged to Edwin and Morcar in Yorkshire, almost everywhere in the Survey is stated to be _wasta_; and in Amunderness, after the enumeration of no fewer than sixty-two places, the possessions in which amounted to one hundred and seventy carucates, it is said, ‘Omnes hæ villæ jacent ad Prestune, et tres ecclesiæ. Ex his 16 a paucis incoluntur, sed quot sint habitantes ignoratur. Reliqua sunt wasta.’ Moreover, _wasta_ is added to numerous places belonging to the archbishop of York, St. John of Beverley, the bishop of Durham, and to those lands which had belonged to Waltheof, Gospatric, Siward, and Merlesweyne!--HARDY.

[311] Fordun has a story of Edgar’s being cleared from an accusation of treason against W. Rufus, by one Godwin, in a duel; whose son, Robert, is afterwards described as one of Edgar’s adherents in Scotland. L. v. c. 27-34. “The Saxon Chronicle states, that in the year 1106, he was one of the prisoners taken at the battle of Tinchebrai, in Normandy. Edgar is stated, by Dr. Sayers, in his Disquisitions, 8vo, 1808, p. 296, upon the authority of the Spelman MSS., to have again visited Scotland at a very advanced period of life, and died in that kingdom in the year 1120. If this date can be relied upon, the passage above noted would prove that Malmesbury had written this portion of his history before the close of that year.”--HARDY.

[312] “Earl Waltheof, or Wallef, as he is always styled in Domesday Book, was, according to the Saxon Chronicle, beheaded at Winchester on the 31st May, 1076. The Chronicle of Mailros and Florence of Worcester, however, assign this event to the preceding year.”--HARDY.

[313] “Harold’s master of the horse. He was killed in 1068, in opposing the sons of Harold, when they came upon their expedition from Ireland.”--HARDY.

[314] “W. Fitz-Osberne was only the father-in-law of Ralph de Guader.”--HARDY.

[315] There is considerable difficulty in distinguishing exactly the various meanings of the term “miles.” Sometimes it is, in its legitimate sense, a soldier generally; sometimes it implies a horseman, and frequently it is to be taken in its modern acceptation for a knight; the latter appears to be the meaning here.

[316] “Charles, called the Good. He was the son of Canute IV, king of Denmark, and Adele, daughter of Robert le Frison. He succeeded Boudouin VII, as earl of Flanders (17th June, 1119,) and died 2nd March, 1127.”--HARDY.

[317] “King William now went over sea, and led his army to Brittany, and beset the castle of Dol; but the Bretons defended it, until the king came from France; whereupon king William departed thence, having lost there both men and horses, and many of his treasures, (Sax. Chron. A.D. 1076.) This event is more correctly attributed by Florence and others to the preceding year.”--HARDY.

[318] Domesday book. This invaluable record, which has been printed by order of the House of Commons, contains a survey of the kingdom, noting, generally, for there are some variations in different counties, the proprietors and value of lands, both at the time of the survey and during the reign of Edward the Confessor, the quantity of arable, wood, and pasture, &c. the various kinds of tenants and slaves on each estate, and, in some instances, the stock; also the number of hides at which it was rated, for the public service, with various other

## particulars.

[319] Sweyn succeeded to the kingdom of Denmark on the death of Magnus in 1047.

[320] Man and Anglesey.

[321] Nicolas reigned from A.D. 1105 to A.D. 1135, June 25, when he was murdered.

[322] “Hoveden, who follows Malmesbury, adds that Alexius married, crowned, and then burnt alive his female accomplice.”--HARDY.

[323] Archdeacon, and afterwards chancellor. Baronius, x. 289.

[324] He was elected pope the 22nd of April, 1073, and died 25th May, 1085.--HARDY.

[325] Investiture was a symbolical mode of receiving possession of a benefice, dignity, or office.

[326] This seems intended to denote his absolute submission, and willingness to undergo any kind of penance which might be enjoined upon him. Sometimes excommunicated persons wore a halter about their necks; sometimes they were shorn or scourged prior to receiving absolution. Vide Basnage, pref. in Canisium, p. 69, 70.

[327] “The abbey of St. Stephen’s, Caen, is stated to have been completed in 1064, but when it was dedicated is not accurately known: some fix the dedication in 1073, others in 1081, and Orderic in 1077. There was, however, a foundation charter granted subsequently to 1066, for in it William styles himself King.”--HARDY.

[328] “The convent of the Holy Trinity was founded by Matilda 1066, and its church dedicated on the 18th of June in that year. Duke William on the same day, presenting at the altar his infant daughter Cecilia, devoted her to the service of God in this monastery, where she became the second abbess.”--HARDY.

[329] “This disgraceful contention happened in the year 1083. It seems to have arisen from the abbat (Thurstan) attempting to introduce a new chant, brought from Feschamp, instead of the Gregorian, to which the monks had been accustomed.”--HARDY.

[330] Bracton says (lib. ii. c. 8, sec. 4), that the bishop of Durham had as full power in the county of Durham as the king in his own palace. The privileges of the see of Durham trace back to the time of St. Cuthbert.

[331] Walker offered to purge himself by oath from all participation in the murder. See Flor. Wig. A.D. 1080.

[332] “Matilda died 2nd Nov. 1083. She bequeathed to this monastery her crown, sceptre, and ornaments of state. A copy of her will may be seen in the Essais Historiques, by the Abbé de la Rue, tom. ii. p. 437.”--HARDY.

[333] Some MSS. omit from “a dreadful spectacle,” to the end of the paragraph, and substitute thus, “Here he willingly passed his time, here he delighted to follow the chase, I will not say for days but even months together. Here, too, many accidents befell the royal race, which the recent recollection of the inhabitants supplies to inquirers.”

[334] Agatha and Adeliza were their names, according to Ordericus Vitalis, (lib. iv. 512.)

[335] Some MSS. omit from “money,” to “I have,” and substitute, This he sought all opportunities of collecting, provided he could allege that they were honourable, and not unbecoming the royal dignity. But he will readily be excused, because a new government cannot be administered without large revenues. I have, &c.

[336] The Romish ritual directs the woman to kneel, with a lighted taper in her hand, at the church door, where she is sprinkled with holy water, and afterwards conducted into the church. The practice seems connected with the festival of the Purification. Vide Durand, lib. vii. c. 7.

[337] Sixty shillings down, and as much more afterwards. Orderic. Vital.

[338] ... lanistarum vel pellificum. It seems a sneer at the sanguinary disposition of the Roman people, and at the bulls of the pope. In a dispute on the credibility of evidence adduced, it is observed, that the oral testimony of three bishops was certainly to be preferred “to sheep-skins blackened with ink and loaded with a leaden seal.” Edmer. Hist. Nov. p. 65.

[339] Marianus was born in Ireland A.D. 1028, and was compiler of a celebrated chronicle, which is the basis of Florence of Worcester. His imagined correction of Dionysius is founded in error.

[340] See the letters which passed on this subject between Lanfranc and Thomas archbishop of York in Lanfranci Opera, ed. J. A. Giles, 2 vols. 8vo. forming vols. 21 and 22 of Patres Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ.

[341] Two of the MSS., used by Mr. Hardy, place here the dedicatory epistle of the author to Robert Earl of Gloucester, which we have placed at the commencement of the work.

[342] “At this period the custom of receiving knighthood from the hands of bishops or abbats yet obtained. There is a law of Henry I., prohibiting abbats from making knights.”--HARDY.

[343] The 27th of September.

[344] Persius, Sat. i. 85.

[345] On their own lands, it should seem from Sax. Chron., p. 465.

[346] Nidering is supposed by Somner to denote such as were infamous enough to rifle a dead body. Gavelk. 65. Lye renders it, nequam, exlex,--infamous, outlaw. MS. Nithing. Spelman derives it from nidus: but there is no authority for either interpretation; and in such cases it is safer, to confess ignorance than to mislead the reader by fanciful etymologies.

[347] This crucifix was very celebrated; it being pretended that it was the work of Nicodemus. “See further on this subject in the Rev. J. E. Tyler’s interesting volume, entitled, ‘Oaths, their origin, nature, and history.’ London: 8vo, pp. 289-296.”--HARDY.

[348] Cicero de Officiis, ii. 15. Much of the argument is borrowed from the same source.

[349] Some read, “The king used to laugh,” &c.

[350] This is unintelligible to the English reader. The author uses the word “firmarius,” which certainly would not have conveyed the idea of a “farmer” to the mind of either Cicero or Horace.

[351] Those who followed the court, being under no kind of control, were in the habit of plundering and devastating the country wherever they went. When they were unable to consume whatever they found in their lodgings, they would sell it to the best bidder, or destroy it with fire; or if it were liquor, after washing their horses’ legs with a part, they let the remainder run. “As to their cruelty towards their hosts, or their unseemly conduct towards their wives and daughters, it is shameful even to remember.”--Edmer. Hist. Nov. p. 94.

[352] These shoes, which gave occasion for various ordinances for their regulation or abolition, during several successive centuries, are said to have owed their invention to Fulk, earl of Anjou, in order to hide his ill-formed feet. Orderic. Vitalis, p. 682: who also observes, that the first improver, by adding the long curved termination, was a fellow (quidam nebulo) in the court of William Rufus, named Robert.

[353] Others read, “The palace of the king was not the abode of majesty, but the stews of pathics.”

[354] Edmer, besides constant mention of Anselm in his Historia Novorum, wrote his life also, in a separate form.

[355] A Jewish youth imagined that St. Stephen had appeared to him, and commanded him to be baptized: this he obeyed. His father immediately flew to the king, earnestly entreating an order for his son to be restored to the faith of his ancestors. The king not discovering any advantage as likely to accrue to himself, remained silent: on this the Jew offers him sixty marks, on condition that he would restore his son to Judaism. William then orders the youth to be brought before him; relates his father’s complaint, and commands him to renounce his baptism. The lad, astonished, replies, “Your majesty is joking surely.” “I joke with thee,” exclaims the king, “thou son of ordure! begone, and obey my commands instantly, or by the cross at Lucca I will have your eyes torn out.” The young man remaining inflexible, he drove him from his presence. The father was then ordered before the king, who desired him to pay down the money he had promised; but, on the Jew’s remonstrating that he had not reconverted his son, and the king’s declaring that his labour was not to go unrewarded, it was agreed that he should receive half the sum. Edmer, Hist. Novor. p. 47.

[356] “Compater” sometimes means a friend or companion.

[357] Pharsalia, lib. ii. 515--v. 580.

[358] “It has been inferred from this passage, that Malmesbury states the tower of London was built by William Rufus. There appears, however, little doubt that the principal building, now called the White Tower, was commenced by the Conqueror, and finished by Rufus, under the superintendence of Gundulph, bishop of Rochester.”--HARDY.

[359] “The tradition of William having met his death by the hand of Sir Walter Tirel, whilst hunting in the New Forest, is generally received; but Suger, a contemporary historian, and, as it seems, a friend of Tirel, in his Life of Louis le Gros, king of France, alluding to the death of Rufus, observes, ‘Imponebatur a quibusdam cuidam nobili Gualtero Tirello quod eum sagitta perfoderat: quem, cum nec timeret nec speraret, jurejurando sæpius audivimus quasi sacrosanctum asserere, quod ea die nec in eam partem silvæ, in qua rex venebatur, venerit, nec eum in silva omnino viderit.’ See also Edmer, Hist. Nov. p. 54, and Ord. Vit. Hist. Eccles. lib. x. p. 783.”--HARDY.

[360] It fell A.D. 1107. An. Winton.

[361] By this probably is to be understood the payment of Peter-pence. Anselm had offended the king, by acknowledging Urban without consulting him.

[362] Juvenal, Sat. i. 37.

[363] A kind of woollen shirt.

[364] The concluding psalms of the matin service.

[365] The Horæ, or canonical services, were matins, primes, tierce, sexts, nones, vespers, and complines.

[366] The Ambrosian ritual prevailed pretty generally till the time of Charlemagne, who adopted the Gregorian. Durandus (lib. v. c. 1) has a curious account of an experiment, on the result of which was founded the general reception of the latter, and the confining the former chiefly to Milan, the church of St. Ambrose.

[367] The learned Mabillon appears much displeased with Malmesbury, for the motives here assigned for abbat Robert’s quitting Citeaux. Vide Ann. Benedictinor.

[368] From the French “losenge,” adulation.

[369] Alluding to the legend of St. Peter and Simon Magnus; who having undertaken by means of enchantment, to fly, was, by the adjuration of St. Peter, dashed to the earth and killed. Vide Fabricius, Codex Apocryphus.

[370] His letters, long supposed to be lost, were found by the editor of this work in a MS. belonging to the Burgundian library at Brussels, and have been since published by R. Anstruther, 8vo. Bruxellis, 1845.

[371] Joscelyn’s “Life and Translation of St. Augustine” is printed in the “Acta Sanctor. Antwerp. 26 Maii.” See the Preface to Bede, p. xxxix.

[372] Another famous writer of Lives of Saints, several of which exist still in MS.

[373] “The council of Clermont, in Auvergne, continued from 18th to 28th of Nov. A.D. 1095; wherein the decrees of the councils held by pope Urban at Melfe, Benevento, Troie, and Plaisance, were confirmed, and many new canons made. Malmesbury’s is perhaps the best account now known of that celebrated council. See the acts of the council of Clermont; Conc. tom. xii. p. 829, &c.”--HARDY.

[374] The practice of private wars; for an account of which, see Robertson’s Hist. of Charles V. vol. i.

[375] If orders could not be completely conferred on Saturday, the ceremony might be performed on Sunday; and the parties continuing to fast the two days were considered as one only.--DURAND.

[376] The Truce of God, was so called from the eagerness with which its first proposal was received by the suffering people of every degree: during the time it endured, no one dared infringe it, by attacking his fellows. See Du Cange: and Robertson’s Charles V. vol. i. It was blamed by some bishops as furnishing an occasion of perjury, and was rejected by the Normans, as contrary to their privileges. The Truce of God was first established in Aquitaine, 1032.

[377] There are other orations, said to have been delivered by Urban in this council, remaining; and L’Abbe (Concil. T. x.) has printed one from a Vatican MS.; but they are all very inferior to Malmesbury.

[378] He alludes to St. Augustine and the fathers of the African church.

[379] This gratuitous insult on a brave and noble people is unworthy a writer like William of Malmesbury; but the monkish historians were as deficient in taste as in style. The cloister was a useful seminary to teach the plodding accuracy which is required to write a chronicle; but for elevation of mind and diffusion of liberal sentiment, it was as inefficient as it is still.

[380] The rustic, observes Guibert, shod his oxen like horses, and placed his whole family on a cart; where it was amusing to hear the children, on the approach to any large town or castle, inquiring, if that were Jerusalem. Guib. Novigent. Opera, p. 482.

[381] Fulcher says, those who assumed the cross were estimated at that number; but that multitudes returned home ere they passed the sea. Fulcherius Carnotensis ap. Gesta Dei per Francos, p. 387.

[382] However repugnant this representation may be to the generally received opinion, it is that of an eye-witness, when describing the army assembled at Constantinople. Fulch. Carnot. p. 389.

[383] It should probably be the Elbe, as he appears to describe the people of northern Germany.

[384] Virgil, Æneid i. 281.

[385] “Hildebert was translated to Tours, A.D. 1125, upon the death of Gislebert, who died at Rome about the middle of December, 1124, in the same week with pope Calixtus. (Ord. Vit. lib. xii. p. 882.)”--HARDY.

[386] For a very interesting account of the walls and gates of Rome, see Andrew Lumisden’s “Remarks on the Antiquities of Rome and its Environs, London, 4to. 1797.”

[387] Now called Porta del Popolo.

[388] Porta Pinciana.

[389] The Two Hundred and Sixty are said to have been shot with arrows in the amphitheatre, by order of Claudius. The Thirty suffered under Diocletian.

[390] Porta Salaria.

[391] Porta Pia.

[392] Porta di San Lorenzo.

[393] Porta Maggiore.

[394] The Forty Soldiers suffered martyrdom under Licinius at Sebastia in Armenia.

[395] So called, because for a long time after they had suffered martyrdom (martyrio coronati) their names were unknown; and though afterwards their real names were revealed to a certain priest, yet they still continued to retain their former designation.

[396] Porta di San Giovanni.

[397] There is no notice of this in Lumisden: it is probably now destroyed.

[398] Porta Latina.

[399] Porta di San Sebastiano.

[400] Porta di San Paolo.

[401] Aquas Saluias, now Trefontane. The tradition is, that St. Paul was beheaded on this spot: that his head, on touching the ground, rebounded twice, and that a fountain immediately burst forth from each place where it fell. See Lumisden.

[402] Porta Portese.

[403] Porti di San Pancrazio.

[404] Sacred places and bodies of saints long since deceased, are but feeble safeguards against the outbreak or even moderate agency of human passions, which, in every country and under every form of superstition, act always in the same way.

[405] Aldhelmi Opera, page 28.

[406] The story of Silvester’s having baptized Constantine is considered as altogether unfounded. See Mosheim, vol. i.

[407] This, in Aldhelm, is the Labarum, or imperial standard.

[408] The place of his birth is contested.

[409] Geor. i. 103.

[410] “The Danube empties itself through six mouths into the Euxine. The river Lycus, formed by the conflux of two little streams, pours into the harbour of Constantinople a perpetual supply of fresh water, which serves to cleanse the bottom, and to invite the periodical shoals of fish to seek their retreat in the capacious port of Constantinople.”--HARDY.

[411] After all the researches of the last fifty years, the “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” by Gibbon, will be found to contain the best history of these Byzantine emperors.

[412] His Turkish name was Killidge-Arslan: his kingdom of Roum extended from the Hellespont to the confines of Syria, and barred the pilgrimage of Jerusalem. (See De Guignes, tom. iii. p. 2, pp. 10-30.)--HARDY.

[413] When Urban II addressed the multitude from a lofty scaffold in the market-place of Clermont, inciting the people to undertake the crusade, he was frequently interrupted by the shout of thousands in their rustic idiom exclaiming “Deus lo vult!” “It is indeed the will of God!” replied the pope; “and let those words, the inspiration surely of the Holy Spirit, be for ever adopted as your war-cry.”--HARDY.

[414] Hegesippus, a Greek author of the second century, wrote an account of the Jewish war, and of the destruction of Jerusalem; said to have been translated into Latin by St. Ambrose. He also wrote an ecclesiastical history, in five books, a fragment of which only remains.

[415] “The siege of Antioch commenced on the 21st of October, 1097, and ended 3rd June, 1098.”--HARDY.

[416] Pharsalia, iv. 579.

[417] The balista was a warlike engine for casting either darts or stones: the petrary, for throwing large stones only.

[418] Owing to the scarcity of fuel.

[419] “Phirouz, a Syrian renegade, has the infamy of this perfidious and foul treason.”--HARDY.

[420] “In describing the host of Corbaguath, most of the Latin historians, the author of the Gesta, (p. 17,) Robertus monachus, (p. 56,) Baldric, (p. 3,) Fulcherius Carnotensis, (p. 392,) Guibert, (p. 512,) William of Tyre, (lib. vi. c. 3, p. 714,) Bernardus Thesaurarius, (c. 39, p. 695,) are content with the vague expressions of ‘infinita multitudo,’ ‘immensum agmen,’ ‘innumeræ copiæ,’ ‘innumeræ gentes.’ The numbers of the Turks are fixed by Albertus Aquensis at two hundred thousand, (lib. iv. c. 10, p. 242,) and by Radulphus Cadomensis (c. 72, p. 309) at four hundred thousand horse. (Gib. Decl. Rom. Emp. vii. pp. 364, 5.)”--HARDY.

[421] The greatest part of their march is most accurately traced in Maundrell’s Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem.--HARDY.

[422] The church of St. Mary, at Bethlehem, contained within its walls a sort of grotto, in which it was pretended Christ was born.--See Bede, de Locis Sanctis.

[423] “Jerusalem was possessed only of the torrent of Kedron, dry in summer, and of the little brook or spring of Siloe, (Reland, tom. i. pp. 294, 300). Tacitus mentions a perennial fountain, an aqueduct, and cisterns of rain-water. The aqueduct was conveyed from the rivulet Tekoe, or Etham, which is likewise mentioned by Bohadin, (in Vit. Saladin. p. 238.)”--HARDY.

[424] It was pretended that the lamps in the church of the Holy Sepulchre were miraculously ignited on Easter Eve.

[425] Bernard, with two companions, sailed from Italy to Alexandria, and travelled thence by land to Jerusalem in the year 870. Their travels are printed in “Mabillon’s Acta Benedictinorum.” The account is short, but has several interesting particulars. There is also a good MS. in the British Museum, Bib. Cott. Faust, b. 1, where, by a mistake of the scribe, it is dated A.D. 970, but this is clearly wrong, for Bernard mentions Lewis, king of Italy, as then living, and he died A.D. 875.

[426] Some MSS. insert the name of another John after Juvenalis, but no patriarch of this name is known to have lived at that period. Malmesbury has, moreover, omitted the names of eleven patriarchs, between Juvenal, who died A.D. 458, and Zacharias who died A.D. 609.

[427] Cosroes, or Chosroes the Second, king of Persia.

[428] “The church of Jerusalem was vacant after the death of Sophronius, A.D. 644, until the year 705, when John V succeeded, whom Theodorus followed, A.D. 754.”--HARDY.

[429] “The tower of David was the old tower Psephina or Neblosa; it was likewise called Castellum Pisanum, from the patriarch Daimbert. (D’Anville, pp. 19-23.)”--HARDY.

[430] That is to say, with several floors or apartments, one above the other; each of which contained soldiers.

[431] Interested motives and conduct, it is to be observed, are several times imputed to the adventurers from Sicily and Calabria.

[432] In allusion to the custom of painting and gilding the ceilings.

[433] Godfrey would not, however, accept the name of king, nor wear a crown of jewels in a city where his Saviour had been crowned with thorns. He therefore contented himself with the title of “Defender and Baron of the Holy Sepulchre.”

[434] Pope Urban however died fourteen days after the taking of Jerusalem. Daibert was appointed patriarch of the captured city.

[435] The church of Golgotha contains within it the rock on which the cross was fixed for the crucifixion. Bede, Eccles. Hist. p. 264.

[436] Fulcher wrote an account of the transactions in Syria, where he was present, from A.D. 1095 to 1124. Malmesbury condenses much of his narrative with his usual ability. It is printed in the Gesta Dei per Francos, and, ap. Duchesne Hist. Franc. Scriptor. tom. iii.

[437] Paul was bishop of Antioch in the third century. “He was better pleased with the title of ducenarius than with that of bishop. His heresy, like those of Noetus and Labellius in the same century, tended to confound the mysterious distinction of the Divine persons. He was degraded from his see in 270, by the sentence of eighty bishops, and altogether deprived of his office in 274 by Aurelian (Mosheim’s Ecc. Hist. vol.i. p. 702, &c.)”--HARDY.

[438] The sugar cane. “This kind of herb is annually cultivated with great labour. When ripe they pound it in a mortar, strain off the juice, and put it in vessels until it coagulates, and hardens in appearance like snow or white salt. This they use scraped and mixed with bread, or dissolved in water. The canes they call Zucra.” Albertus Aquensis, ap. Gesta Dei, p. 270.

[439] In token of victory, or the completion of their purpose, by having visited the holy sepulchre. Vide Albert. Aquens. ubi sup. p. 290.

[440] See note, p. 384.

[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.

[497] See page 252.

[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.

[554] Earls, till this time, had apparently been official; each having charge of a county, and receiving certain emoluments therefrom: but these created by Stephen, seem to have been often merely titulary, with endowments out of the demesnes of the crown. Rob. Montensis calls these persons Pseudo-Comites, imaginary earls, and observes that Stephen had completely impoverished the crown by his liberalities to them. Henry the Second, however, on being firmly seated on the throne, recalled their grants of crown lands, and expelled them the kingdom.

[555] The term “miles” is very ambiguous: sometimes it is a knight; sometimes a trooper; sometimes a soldier generally. In later times it signified almost always a knight; but in Malmesbury, it seems mostly a horseman, probably of the higher order.

[556] “Roger, the chancellor of England, was the son of Roger, bishop of Salisbury, by Maud of Ramsbury, his concubine.”--HARDY.

[557] The author of the “Gesta Stephani,” says, the king ordered both bishops to be kept without food, and threatened, moreover, to hang the son of bishop Roger. Gest. Stephani, 944. The continuator of Flor. Wigorn. adds, that one was confined in the crib of an ox-lodge, the other in a vile hovel, A.D. 1138.

[558] It has before been related that Stephen made many earls, where there had been none before: these seem the persons intended by Malmesbury in many places, when speaking of some of the king’s adherents.

[559] It would seem from this passage that he had seen Livy in a more complete state than it exists at present.

[560] Horat. Epist. i. 1, 100.

[561] The meaning of vavassour is very various: here it seems to imply what we call a yeoman.

[562] This he effected by means of scaling ladders, made of thongs of leather. Gest. Stephani, 951.

[563] Several MSS., as well as the printed copy, read 1142, but one has 1141, which is right.

[564] “Ranulf, earl of Chester, and his uterine brother, William de Romare, were the sons of Lucia, countess of Lincoln.”--HARDY.

[565] The joust signifies a contest between two persons on horseback, with lances: each singled out his opponent.

[566] That is, as appears after, to acknowledge her publicly as their sovereign.

[567] Marchio: this latterly signified marquis in the sense we now use it; but in Malmesbury’s time, and long after, it denoted a guardian of the borders: hence the lords marchers on the confines of Scotland and Wales; though it does not appear very clearly how this should apply to Wallingford, unless it was his place of birth.

[568] This seems an oversight: as he had before related, more than once that Stephen preceded Robert in taking the oath to Matilda.

[569] Virgil, Æn. i. 33.

[570] The garrison having sallied out against him, he suddenly passed a ford which was not generally known and, repelling the enemy, entered the town with them. Gesta Regis Stephani, 958.

[571] One of the MSS. omits from, “This circumstance,” to the end, and substitutes, ... “but these matters, with God’s permission, shall be more largely treated in the following volume.”

Transcriber’s Notes

Simple typographical errors were silently corrected, except as noted below.

Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.

Many names were spelled in more than one way; in most cases, all variants have been retained here.

The spelling of non-English words was not checked.

Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.

The page headers of the original book contained a timeline. It is represented in this eBook by sidenotes, beginning with “[A.D. year]”, placed between paragraphs nearby their originally-printed positions, and shaded in some versions of this eBook. Redundant headers have been omitted, some of the dates are not in sequence, and some headers were not printed near the topics to which they refer.

All but three of the chapter headings used the abbreviation “CHAP.”, so the three that were spelled out have been changed to abbreviations.

The Index entries were not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page references, but all of the “U” entries have been moved to precede the “V” entries rather than to follow them.

In the Index, inconsistent usage of periods and semi-colons at the ends of main and sub-entries has not been changed; occasional mis-capitalization following such punctuation has not been changed; spellings that differ from the ones on the referenced pages have not been changed.

Unbalanced quotation marks in footnotes citing HARDY have been remedied.

Page 19: “unluckly” was printed that way.

Page 196: Shows “1017-1031” as the years of Canute’s reign, and also says he “reigned twenty years”.

Page 232: “to his day” appears to be a typographical error for “to this day”.

Page 256: Text uses “Standford Brigge” and “Stanford-bridge”; Index uses “Standford Bridge” to refer to this page. All retained here.

Page 462: The opening quotation mark before “A.D. 1112, the fifth of the indiction,” has no obvious matching closing mark.

Page 496: “none before, appropriating” was changed here from “none before, appropropriating”, which appears to be a typesetting error.