Geoffrey de Mandeville: A study of the Anarchy

by John Horace Round

Cott. Chart, xxi. 6.

"Ordingus dei gratia Abbas ecclesie sancti eadmundi Omnibus hominibus suis et amicis et fidelibus francis et anglis salutem. Sciatis me concessisse Alberico comiti Gisnensi per concessum totius conventus totum feudum et servitium Rogeri de Ver auunculi sui sicut tenet de honore sancti eadmundi uidelicet per seruitium unius militis et dimidii et totum feudum et seruitium Alani filii Frodonis sicut tenet de honore sancti eadmundi uidelicet per seruitium iii militum, et insuper singulis annis centum solidos ad pascha de camera mea. Hec omnia illi concedo in feudo et hereditate, ipsi et heredibus suis de ecclesia sancti eadmundi et de meis successoribus. Quare uolo et firmiter precipio quod idem Albericus comes Gisnensis et heredes sui jure hereditario teneant de ecclesia sancti eadmundi bene et honorifice hec supradicta omnia per seruitium quod supradiximus. Huius donationis sunt testes ex parte mea Willelmus prior Radulfus sacrista Gotscelinus et Eudo monachi Mauricius dapifer Gilebertus blundus Adam de cocef' Radulfus de lodn' Willelmus filius Ailb'. Helias de melef' Gauffridus frater eius. Ex parte comitis, Gauffridus de ver Robertus filius humfridi Robertus filius Ailr' Garinus filius Geroldi Hugo de ging' Albericus de capella Radulfus filius Adam Guarinus frater eius Radulfus de gisnes Gauffridus filius Humfridi Gauffridus Arsic Rodbertus de cocef' Radulfus carboneal et Hugo filius eius et plures alii."[591]

But, to return to Maud's charter, the point which I am anxious to emphasize is that of the formula she employs, namely, "do et concedo," as against the "sciatis me fecisse" of an original creation. I trace this distinction in later years, when her son, who had already, as we have seen, confirmed this charter to Aubrey, again confirmed it when king (1156), employing for that purpose the same formula: "Sciatis me dedisse et concessisse comiti Alberico." Conversely, in the case of Hugh Bigod, he employs the formula: "Sciatis me fecisse Hugonem Bigot comitem de Norfolca" (1155), this being an earldom of Stephen's creation, and, so far as we know, of his alone. This is a view which should be accepted with caution, but which has, if correct, an important bearing.

The very remarkable shifting clause as to the county of which the grantee should be earl requires separate notice. The axiom from which I start is this: When a feudatory was created an earl, he took if he could for his "comitatus" the county in which was situated the chief seat of his power, his "Caput Baroniæ." If this county had an earl already he then took the nearest county that remained available. Thus Norfolk fell to Bigod, Essex to Mandeville, Sussex to Albini, Derby to Ferrers, and so on. De Clare, the seat of whose power was in Suffolk, though closely adjoining Essex, took Herts, probably for the reason that Mandeville had already obtained Essex, while Bigod's province, being in truth the old earldom of the East Angles—"Comes de Estangle," as Henry of Huntingdon terms him,—took in Suffolk. So now, Aubrey de Vere probably selected Cambridgeshire as the nearest available county to his stronghold at Castle Hedingham.[592]

But the Empress, we see, promised it only on the strange condition that her uncle was not already in possession. I say "the strange condition," for one would surely have thought that she knew whether he was or not. Moreover, the dignity was then held not by her uncle, but by his son, and is described as the earldom of Huntingdon, never as the earldom of Cambridge. The first of these difficulties is explained by the fact that the King of Scots had, early in the reign, made over the earldom to his son Henry, to avoid becoming himself the "man" of the King of England. The second requires special notice.

We are taken back, by this provision, to the days before the Conquest. Mr. Freeman, in his erudite essay on The Great Earldoms under Eadward, has traced the shifting relations of the counties of Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, and Northumberland. The point, however, which concerns us here is that, "under William," Earl Waltheof, "besides his great Northumbrian government, was certainly Earl of Northamptonshire (Ord. Vit., 522 C.), and of Huntingdonshire (Will. Gem., viii. 37)."[593] His daughter Matilda married twice, and between the heirs of these two marriages the contest for her father's inheritance was obstinate and long. Restricting ourselves to his southern province, with which alone we have here to deal, its western half, the county of Northampton, had at this time passed to Simon of St. Liz as the heir of the first marriage, while Huntingdon had conferred an earldom on Henry, the heir of her marriage with the Scottish king. The house of St. Liz, however, claimed the whole inheritance, and as the Earl of Huntingdon, of course, sided with his cousin, the Empress, Earl Simon of Northampton was the steadfast supporter, even in their darkest hours, of Stephen and his queen. Now, the question that arises is this: Was not Earl Henry's province Huntingdonshire with Cambridgeshire? Mr. Freeman writes of Huntingdonshire, that "in 1051 we find it, together with Cambridgeshire, a shire still so closely connected with it as to have a common sheriff, detached altogether from Mercia," etc.[594] It is true that when the former county became "an outlying portion of the earldom of Northumberland," it does not, he observes, "appear that Cambridgeshire followed it in this last migration;"[595] but when we compare this earlier connection with that in the Pipe-Roll of 1130,[596] and with the fact that under another David of Scotland, this earldom, some seventy years later, appears as that of Huntingdon and Cambridge,[597] we shall find in this charter a connecting link, which favours the view that the two counties had, for comital purposes, formed one throughout. We have a notable parallel in the adjacent counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, which still formed one, the East Anglian earldom. Dorset and Somerset, too, which were under one sheriff, may have been also intended to form one earldom, for the Lord of Dunster is found both as Earl of "Dorset" and of "Somerset." I suspect also that the Ferrers earldom was, in truth, that of the joint shrievalty of Derbyshire and Notts, and that this is why the latter county was never made a separate earldom till the days of Richard II.

The doubt of the Empress must therefore be attributed to her anxiety not to invade the comital rights of her cousin, in case he should deem that her creation of an earldom of Cambridgeshire would constitute such invasion. It is evident, we shall find, that he did so. The accepted view is, it would appear, that Aubrey, by virtue of this charter, became Earl "of Cambridge."[598] Mr. Doyle, indeed, in his great work, goes so far as to state that he was "cr. Earl of Cambridge by the Empress Maud (after March 2) 1141; ... cr. Earl of Oxford (in exchange) 1155."[599] But in Cole's (unpublished) transcript of the Colne Cartulary (fols. 34, 37), we have a charter of this Aubrey, "Pro animâ patris mei Alberici de Vere," which must have passed between 1141 and 1147, for it is attested by Robert, Bishop of London, appointed 1141, and Hugh, Abbot of Colchester, who died in 1147. In this charter his style is "Albericus Comes Oxeneford." Here, then, we have evidence that, in this reign, he was already Earl "of Oxford," not Earl of Cambridge.

Before quitting the subject of Aubrey's creation, we may note the bearing of the shifting clause on the creation of the earldom of Wiltshire. It implies that Patrick of Salisbury had not yet received his earldom. This conclusion is confirmed by a charter of the Empress tested at Devizes, which he witnesses merely as "Patricio de Sarum conestabulo."[600] The choice of Dorset is somewhat singular, as it suggests an intrusion on the Mohun earldom. But this rather shadowy dignity appears, during its brief existence, as an earldom of Somerset rather than of Dorset.

The specific grant of the "tertius denarius," as in the creation charters of the earldoms of Essex and of Hereford, should also be noticed.

The "Earl Gilbert" who is repeatedly mentioned in the course of this charter is Earl Gilbert "of Pembroke," maternal uncle to Aubrey. It is this relationship that, perhaps, accounts for the part he here plays.

Of the remaining features of interest in the record, attention may be directed to the phrase concerning the knights' fees of William de Helion: "Ut ipse Willelmus teneat de Comite Alberico, et ipse Comes faciat inde michi servitium;" also to the implied forfeiture of William Peverel of Nottingham, he having been made prisoner at Lincoln, fighting on Stephen's side. Lastly, the promise to the earl of the chancellorship for his brother William becomes full of interest when we know that this was the Canon of St. Osyth,[601] and that he was to be thus rewarded as being the clerical member of his house. It enables us further to identify in William, the existing chancellor, the brother of John (fitz Gilbert) the marshal.

We have now examined these two charters, parts, I would again insist, of one connected negotiation. What was its object? Nothing less, in my opinion, than a combined revolt in the Eastern Counties which should take Stephen in the rear, as soon as the arrival from Normandy of Geoffrey of Anjou and his son should give the signal for a renewal of the struggle, and a fresh advance upon London by the forces of the west country. Earl Geoffrey himself was now at the height of his power. If he were supported by Aubrey de Vere, and by Henry of Essex with Peter de Valoines (who are specially named in Geoffrey's charter), he would be virtually master of Essex. And if the restless Earl of the East Angles (p. 178 supra) would also join him, as eventually he did, while Bishop Nigel held Ely, Stephen would indeed be placed between two fires. I cannot but think that it is to the rumour of some such scheme as this that Stephen's panegyrist refers, when he tells us, the following year, that Geoffrey "had arranged to betray the realm into the hands of the Countess of Anjou, and that his intention to do so had been matter of common knowledge."[602]

I would urge that in the charters I have given above we find the key to this allusion, and that they, in their turn, are explained, and at the same time confirmed, by the existence of this concerted plot. We have now to trace the failure of the scheme, and to learn how it was that all came to nought.

Stephen's illness, to which, it may be remembered, I had attributed in part the inception of the scheme, only lasted till the middle of June. By the time that Robert of Gloucester had set forth to cross the Channel, Stephen was restored to health, and ready and eager for action.[603] Swift to seize on such an opportunity as he had never before obtained, he burst into the heart of the enemy's country and marched straight on Wareham. He found its defenders off their guard; the town was sacked and burnt, and the castle was quickly his.[604] The precautions of the Earl of Gloucester had thus been taken in vain, and the port he had secured for his return was now garrisoned by the king.

The effect of this brilliant stroke was to paralyze the party of the Empress. Her brother, who had left her with great reluctance, dreading the fickleness of the nobles, had made her assembled supporters swear that they would defend her in his absence, and had further taken with him hostages for their faithful behaviour.[605] He had also so strengthened her defences at Oxford that the city seemed almost impregnable.[606] Lastly, a series of outlying posts secured the communications of its defenders with the districts friendly to their cause.[607]

But Stephen, in the words of his panegyrist, had "awaked as one out of sleep." Summoning to his standard his friends and supporters, he marched on Gloucestershire itself, and appeared unexpectedly at Cirencester on the line of the enemy's communications. Its castle, taken by surprise, was burnt and razed to the ground. Then, completing the isolation of the Empress, by storming, as he advanced, other of her posts,[608] he arrived before the walls of Oxford on the 26th of September.[609] The forces of the Empress at once deployed on the left bank of the river. The action which followed was a curious anticipation of the struggle at Boyne Water (1690). The king, informed of the existence of a ford, boldly plunged into the water, and, half fording, half swimming, was one of the first to reach the shore. Instantly charging the enemy's line, he forced the portion opposed to him back towards the walls of the city, and when the bulk of his forces had followed him across, the whole line was put to flight, his victorious troops entering the gates pell-mell with the routed fugitives. The torch was as familiar as the sword to the soldier of the Norman age, and Oxford was quickly buried in a sheet of smoke and fire.[610] The castle, then of great strength, alone held out. From the summit of its mound the Empress must have witnessed the rout of her followers; within its walls she was now destined to stand a weary siege.

It is probable that Stephen's success at Oxford was in part owing to the desertion of the Empress by those who had sworn to defend her. For we read that they were led by shame to talk of advancing to her relief.[611] The project, however, came to nothing, and Earl Robert, hearing of the critical state of affairs, became eager to return to the assistance of his sister and her beleaguered followers.

Geoffrey of Anjou had, on various pretences, detained the earl in Normandy, instead of accepting his invitation and returning with him to England. But Robert's patience was now exhausted, and, bringing with him, instead of Geoffrey, the youthful Henry "fitz Empress," he sailed for England with a fleet of more than fifty ships. Such was the first visit to this land of the future Henry II., being then nine years and a half, not (as stated by Dr. Stubbs) eight years old.[612]

The earl made it a point of honour to recapture Wareham as his first step. He also hoped to create a diversion which might draw off the king from Oxford.[613] This was not bad strategy, for Stephen was deemed to be stronger behind the walls of Oxford than he would be in the open country. The position of affairs resembled, in fact, that at Winchester, the year before. But the two sides had changed places. As the Empress, in Winchester, had besieged Wolvesey, so now, in Oxford, Stephen did the same. It would, therefore, have been necessary to besiege him in turn as the Empress was besieged the year before. Well aware of the advantage he enjoyed, Stephen refused to be decoyed away, and allowed the castle of Wareham to fall into Robert's hands. The other posts in the neighbourhood were also secured by the earl, who then advanced to Cirencester, where he had summoned his friends to meet him. Thus strengthened, he was already marching to the relief of Oxford, when he received the news of his sister's perilous escape and flight. A close siege of three months had brought her to the extremity of want, and Stephen was pressing the attack with all the artillery of the time. A few days before Christmas, in a long and hard frost, when the snow was thick upon the ground, she was let down by ropes from the grim Norman tower, which commanded the approach to the castle on the side of the river. Clad in white from head to foot, and escorted by only three knights, she succeeded under cover of the darkness of night, and by the connivance of one of the besiegers' sentries, in passing through their lines undetected and crossing the frozen river. After journeying on foot for six miles, she reached the spot where horses were in waiting, and rode for Wallingford Castle, her still unconquered stronghold.[614]

On receiving the news of this event Robert changed his course, and proceeded to join his sister. In her joy at the return of her brother and the safe arrival of her son, the Empress forgot all her troubles. She was also in safety now, herself, behind the walls of Wallingford, the support of that town and its fidelity to her cause being gratefully acknowledged by her son on his eventual accession to the throne.[615]

But her husband had declined to come to her help; her city of Oxford was lost; her prestige had suffered a final blow; the great combination scheme was at an end.

[504] He states that the Earl of Gloucester, on his release, "circa germanam sedulo apud Oxeneford mansitabat; quo loco, ut præfatus sum, illa sedem sibi constituens, curiam fecerat" (p. 754).

[505] He set sail "aliquanto post festum sancti Johannis" (Will. Malms., p. 765).

[506] See the dazzling description of his power given by the author of the Gesta, who speaks of him as one "qui omnes regni primates et divitiarum potentiâ et dignitatis excedebat opulentiâ; turrim quoque Londoniarum in manu, sed et castella inexpugnabilis fortitudinis circa civitatem constructa habebat, omnemque regni partem, quæ se regi subdiderat, ut ubique per regnum regis vices adimplens, et, in rebus agendis, rege avidius exaudiretur, et in præceptis injungendis, plus ei quam regi obtemperaretur" (p. 101). William of Newburgh, in the same spirit, speaks of him as "regi terribilis" (i. 44).

[507] See p. 160.

[508] "In totâ propemodum Angliâ sicut mortuus conclamaretur" (ibid.).

[509] William of Malmesbury (ut supra) is the authority for 1142, and Henry of Huntingdon for 1136: "Ad Rogationes vero divulgatum est regem mortuum esse" (p. 259).

[510] "Jam ergo cœpit rabies prædicta Normannorum, perjurio et proditione pullulare" (ibid.).

[511] It would seem to have been entered immediately after that charter to Miles of Gloucester which I have printed on p. 11, and which precedes it in the transcripts.

[512] Lansdowne MS. 259, fol. 66.

[513] "Archiepiscopis, etc." (Dug.).

[514] "suus" omitted (Dug.).

[515] "ejus" (Dug.).

[516] "tenuerunt" (Dug., Dods.).

[517] "subjectum" (Dods.).

[518] "Lundoniæ et Middlesexiæ" (Dug.).

[519] "Et ... tenuit" (Essex shrievalty) omitted by Dugdale (and, consequently, in his Baronage also).

[520] Dodsworth transcript closes here.

[521] "illi" omitted by Dugdale.

[522] "quæ fuit" omitted by Dugdale.

[523] "per servicium militare" (wrongly, Dug.).

[524] "et" omitted by Dugdale.

[525] "centum libratas" (Dug.).

[526] Chreshall, alias Christhall, Essex. Part of the honour of Boulogne. Was held by Count Eustace, at the Survey, in demesne. Stephen granted it to his own son William, who gave it to Richard de Luci.

[527] Bendish Hall, in Radwinter, Essex. Part of the honour of Boulogne. It was given by Stephen's son William to Faversham Abbey, Kent.

[528] This word is illegible. It baffled the transcriber in Lansd. MS. 259. Dugdale has "wiam." The right reading is "luiam," the river Lea being meant, as is proved by the Pipe-Roll of 14 Hen. II.

[529] William fitz Otwel, Earl Geoffrey's "brother," is referred to by Earl William (Geoffrey's son) as his uncle ("avunculus") in a charter confirming his grant of lands (thirty-three acres) in "Abi et Toresbi" to Greenfield Nunnery, Lincolnshire (Harl. Cart., 53, C, 50). He is also a witness, as "patruus meus," to a charter of Earl Geoffrey the younger (Sloane Cart., xxxii. 64), early in the reign of Henry II. He was clearly a "uterine" brother of Earl Geoffrey the elder, so that his father must have married William de Mandeville's widow—a fact unknown to genealogists.

[530] William de Sai had married Beatrice, sister (and, in her issue, heiress) of the earl, by whom he was ancestor of the second line of Mandeville, Earl of Essex. In the following year he joined the earl in his furious revolt against the king.

[531] This was William "Capra" (Chévre), whose family gave its name to the manor of "Chevers" in Mountnessing, county Essex. He was probably another brother-in-law of the earl, for I have seen a charter of Alice (Adelid[is]) Capra, in which she speaks of Geoffrey's son, Earl William, as her nephew ("nepos"). There is also a charter of a Geoffrey Capra and Mazelina (sic) his wife, which suggests that the name of Geoffrey may have come to the family from the earl. Thoby Priory, Essex, was founded (1141-1151) by Michael Capra, Roesia his wife, and William, their son. The founder speaks of Roger fitz Richard ("ex cujus munificentiâ mihi idem fundus pervenit"), who was the second husband (as I have elsewhere explained) of "Alice of Essex," née de Vere, the sister of Earl Geoffrey's wife. A Michael Capra and a William Capra, holding respectively four and four and a half knights' fees, were feudal tenants of Walter fitz Robert (the lord of Dunmow) in 1166.

[532] William, son of Walter (Fitz Other) de Windsor, castellan of Windsor. In the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I., he appears as in charge of Windsor Forest, for which he renders his account. It is probably to this charter rather than to any separate grant that Dugdale refers in his account of the family.

[533] This is an unusual name. As William de Say is mentioned just before, it may be noted that his son (Earl Geoffrey's nephew) promised (in 1150-1160) to grant to Ramsey Abbey "marcatam redditus ex quo adipisci poterit quadraginta marcatas de hereditate sua, scilicet de terra Roberti de Rumele" (Chron. Ram., p. 305). Mathew de Romeli, according to Dugdale, was the son of Robert de Romeli, lord of Skipton, by Cecily his wife. A Mathew de Romeli, with Alan his son, occur in a plea of 1236-7 (Bracton's Note-Book, ed. Maitland, iii. 189).

[534] Geoffrey de Tourville appears in 1130 as holding land in four counties (Rot. Pip., 31 Hen. I.).

[535] William de Ou (Auco) or Eu is returned in the carta of the Earl of Essex (1166) as holding four fees of him.

[536] See Appendix Q, on "Osbertus Octodenarii."

[537] Dodsworth's transcript begins again here, and is continued down to "Belloc[ampo]."

[538] "Comes Herefordiæ" (Dug.).

[539] So also Dodsworth; but Dugdale wrongly extends: "Robertus filius Reginaldi." See p. 94, n. 4.

[540] Robert de Courci of Stoke (Courcy), Somerset. He figures in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I. As "Robert de Curci" he witnessed the Empress's charter creating the earldom of Hereford (July 25, 1141), and as "Robert de Curci Dapifer" her confirmation of the Earl of Devon's gift (Mon. Aug., v. 106; Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 391), both of them passing at Oxford, the latter (probably) in 1142, subsequent to the above charter. He was slain at Counsylth, 1157.

[541] John Fitz Gilbert, marshal to the Empress, and brother, as the succeeding charter proves, to William, her chancellor. With his father, Gilbert the Marshal (Mariscallus), he was unsuccessfully impleaded, under Henry I., by Robert de Venoiz and William de Hastings, for the office of marshal (Rot. Cart., 1 John), and in 1130, as John the Marshal (Mariscallus), he appears as charged, with his relief, in Wiltshire, for his father's lands and office (Rot. Pip., 31 Hen. I.). He is mentioned among the "barons" on the side of the Empress at the siege of Winchester (Gesta Stephani), and he was, with Robert de Curcy, witness to her (Oxford) charter, which I assign in the last note to later in this year, as he also had been to her charter creating the earldom of Hereford (July 25, 1141). Subsequently, he witnessed the charter to the son of the Earl of Essex (vide post). He played some part in the next reign from his official connection with the Becket quarrel. See also p. 131.

[542] Miles de Beauchamp, son of Robert de Beauchamp, and nephew to Simon de Beauchamp, hereditary castellan of Bedford. In 1130 he appears in connection with Beds. and Bucks. (Rot. Pip., 31 Hen. I.). With his brother (Salop Cartulary) Payn de Beauchamp (who afterwards married Rohaise, the widow of this Geoffrey de Mandeville), he had held Bedford Castle against the king for five weeks from Christmas, 1137, as heir-male to his uncle, whose daughter and heir, with the Bedford barony, Stephen had conferred on Hugh Pauper, brother of his favourite, the Count of Meulan (Ord. Vit.; Gesta Steph.). Dugdale's account is singularly inaccurate. Simon, the uncle, must have been living in the spring of 1136, for he then witnessed, as a royal dapifer, Stephen's great (Oxford) charter.

[543] See p. 94, n. 2.

[544] Robert de Oilli the second, castellan of Oxford, and constable. Founder of Osney Priory. He appears in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I., and had witnessed, as a royal constabularius, Stephen's great (Oxford) charter of 1136, but had embraced the cause of the Empress in 1141 (see p. 66). He witnessed five others of the Empress's charters, all of which passed at Oxford (Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 391, 392, 396, 397).

[545] See p. 95, note 1.

[546] Dodsworth's transcript recommences and is continued to the end.

[547] "Ibidem" (Dods., wrongly).

[548] "Ijdem" (Dods., wrongly).

[549] "Meduana" (Dug., rightly). "Johelus de Meduanâ" (Juhel of Mayenne) figures in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I. as holding land in Devonshire. At the commencement of Stephen's reign, Geoffrey of Anjou had entrusted him with three of the castles he had captured in Normandy, on condition of receiving his support (R. of Torigni).

[550] Guy de Sablé had accompanied the Empress to England in the autumn of 1139 (Ord. Vit., v. 121).

[551] Clairvaux was a castle in Anjou. Payn de Clairvaux (de Claris vallibus) had, in 1130, and for some time previously, been fermor of Hastings, in Sussex (Rot. Pip., 31 Hen. I. p. 42). Later on, in Stephen's reign, he appears at Caen, witnessing a charter of Geoffrey, Duke of Normandy (Bayeux Liber Niger).

[552] "Alvia" (Dug.).

[553] Or "Rumard." Dugdale has "Rumard."

[554] "Valoniis" (Dug.). Peter de Valoines. The occurrence of this great Hertfordshire baron is of special interest, because we have seen the Empress granting a charter to his father, Roger, in 1141. It is probable, therefore, that Roger had died in the interval. Peter himself died before 1166, when his younger brother, Robert, had succeeded him. His widow, Gundred (de Warrenne), was then living.

[555] "Comiti ... meis." Dodsworth has only "Com etc."

[556] "cum sigillo" (Dods.).

[557] The clause certainly favours the belief that a relationship existed, but it was probably collateral, instead of lineal.

[558] "Possessiones omnes ad ecclesiam pertinentes, castellum quoque de Storteford in sua dominatione recepit" (Rad. de Diceto, i. 250).

[559] This negotiation between the Empress and Geoffrey should be compared with that between her and the legate in the spring of the preceding year. Each illustrates the other. In the latter case the expression used is, "Juravit et affidavit imperatrix episcopo quod," etc. In the former, the empress is made to say, "Hanc autem convencionem et donacionem tenendam affidavi," etc. But the striking point of resemblance is that in each case her leading followers are made to take part in the pledge of performance. At Winchester, we read in William of Malmesbury, "Idem juraverunt cum ea, et affidaverunt pro eâ, Robertus frater ejus comes de Gloecestrâ, et Brianus filius comitis marchio de Walingeford, et Milo de Gloecestriâ, postea comes de Hereford, et nonnulli alii" (see p. 58). At Oxford, we read in these charters, "Et hujus fiduciæ sunt obsides per fidem et Testes, Robertus comes Gloecestrie, et Milo comes Herefordie, et Brianus filius comitis et," etc. So close a parallel further confirms the genuineness of these charters. Another remarkable document illustrative of this negotiation is the alliance ("Confederatio amoris") between the Earls of Hereford and Gloucester (see Appendix S). Each earl there "affidavit et juravit" to the other, and each named certain of his followers as his "obsides per fidem"—the very phrase here used. See also p. 385, n. 3.

[560] That these securities were modelled on the practice of contracting sovereign powers is seen on comparing them with the treaty between Henry I. and the Count of Flanders (see Appendix S). But most to the point is the treaty between King Stephen and Duke Henry, where the clause for securing the "conventiones" runs:—"Archiepiscopi vero et episcopi ab utraque parte in manu ceperunt quod si quis nostrum a predictis conventionibus recederet, tam diu eum ecclesiastica justicia coercebunt, quousque errata corrigat et ad predictam pactionem observandam redeat. Mater etiam Ducis et ejus uxor et fratres ipsius Ducis et omnes sui quos ad hoc applicare poterit, hæc assecurabunt."

[561] We may perhaps compare the oath taken by the French king some years before, to secure the charter ("Keure") granted to St. Omer by William, Count of Flanders (April 14, 1127):—"Hanc igitur Communionem tenendam, has supradictas consuetudines et conventiones esse observandas fide promiserunt et sacramento confirmaverunt Ludovicus rex Francorum, Guillelmus Comes Flandriæ," etc., etc.

[562] See Appendix T, on "Affidatio in manu."

[563] See Appendix U: "The Families of Mandeville and De Vere."

[564] Add. MSS., 31,943, fols. 86 b, 99, 116 b.

[565] It is headed "Pro Comite Oxoniæ Carta Matildæ Imperatricis confirmata," and it confirms the grants made by her "prout per cartam illam (i.e. Matildæ) plenius liquet."

[566] See Appendix V, on "William of Arques."

[567] i.e. escambio.

[568] Of Helions in Bumsted Helion, Essex, the other portion of the parish, viz. Bumsted Hall, being, at and from the Survey, a portion of the De Vere fief. These his ten fees duly figure in the Liber Niger.

[569] Dedham, Essex.

[570] They were named, I presume, from the castle of Rames, adjoining the forest of Lillebonne.

[571] This would seem to imply that Roger de Ramis had married a sister of Aubrey de Vere. See Appendix X: "Roger de Ramis."

[572] Grey's Thurrock, in South Essex, being that portion of it which had been held by William Peverel at the Survey.

[573] Query, the "Salamon clericus de Sudwic" (Northants) of the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I. (p. 85)?

[574] This was not Tilbury on the Thames, but Tilbury (Essex) near Clare, as is proved by Liber Niger (p. 393), where this land of Salamon proves to be part of the honour of Boulogne, held as a fifth of a knight's fee.

[575] See Appendix R: "The Forest of Essex."

[576] Geoffrey Talbot appears in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Henry I. as paying two hundred marks of silver for his father's land in Kent (p. 67). As "Agnes Vxor Gaufredi Talebot" is charged, at the same time, "pro dote et maritagio suo" (ibid.), it would seem that our Geoffrey had a father of the same name. We learn from the Liber Niger (i. 58) that at the death of Henry I. (1135) he held twenty knights' fees in Kent.

[577] "Rogeri" in MS.

[578] Or "Rumard."

[579] Rectius Petr[us].

[580] "Ex libro quodam pervetusto in pergamena manuscripto in custodia Henrici Vere nunc Comitis Oxoniæ, et mihi per Capitan: Skipwith, mutuato 21 April, 1622."

[581] See Appendix Y.

[582] As "turrim de Colcestr' et castellum" for "turrim et castellum de Colcestr'." The only difference of any importance is that Dugdale reads "Albenejo" in this charter, where he has "Albrincis" in that of the Empress.

[583] I may perhaps be permitted to refer to my own discovery, in a stable loft, of a document bearing the seal of the King-maker, and bearing his rare autograph, which antiquaries had lost sight of since the days of Camden.

[584] Mr. Eyton must have strangely overlooked this charter, for he begins his series of Henry's charters in 1149.

[585] "Inga" in Dugdale's transcript, and rightly so, for we find this same Hugh, as "Hugo de Ging'," a witness to a charter on behalf of Earl Aubrey, about this time (infra, p. 190). There were several places in Essex named "Ging" alias "Ing."

[586] Compare the famous Lewes charter of William de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, said (if genuine) to be the earliest allusion to a peerage creation. There the earl speaks of William Rufus, "qui me Surreæ comitem fecit."

[587] Abingdon Cartulary, ii. 179.

[588] It should, however, be observed that in this same charter she refers to Earl Gilbert (of Pembroke) and Earl Hugh (of Norfolk) by their comital style, though, so far as we know, they were earls of Stephen's creation alone. But such a reference as this is very different from the style formally given in a charter of creation.

[589] Archæologia, vol. xxxi.

[590] "Its date is subsequent to the 25th of July, 1141, when the Empress created Milo de Gloucester Earl of Hereford at Oxford, who has this title in the charter, and, from its having been given at Oxford, there can be little doubt that it was contemporaneous with that creation, and certainly prior to the siege of Winchester in the month of August following" (ibid., pp. 231, 232).

[591] Of these witnesses "ex parte comitis," Geoffrey de Ver held half a knight's fee of him, Robert fitz Humfrey held one, Robert fitz "Ailric" one, Ralph fitz Adam a quarter, Ralph de Guisnes one, Geoffrey Arsic two, Robert de Cocefeld three, Ralph Carbonel one and a half. Hugh de Ging' was the "Hugo de Inga" who acted as proxy (vide supra) at Henry's confirmation of his mother's charter. This charter has an independent value for its bearing on knights' fees. See also Addenda.

[592] At the same time, we must remember that he held a considerable fief in Cambridgeshire (see Domesday), which, if he could not have Essex, might lead him to select that county.

[593] Norm. Conq., ii. 559.

[594] Ibid.

[595] Norm. Conq., ii. 559.

[596] Where they form one shrievalty with one firma, though the county of Surrey as well is inexplicably combined with them.

[597] And the "tertius denarius" of Cambridgeshire was actually held by its earl (1205).

[598] Stubbs, Const. Hist., i. 362, note.

[599] Official Baronage, i. 291.

[600] Mon. Ang., v. 440; Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 392. This conclusion reveals a further error in the Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal, which gives a very incomprehensible account of this Patrick's action.

[601] See Appendix U.

[602] "Regnum, ut in ore jam vulgi celebre fuerat, comitissæ Andegavensi conferre disposuerat" (Gesta Stephani, p. 101). This very remarkable incidental allusion should be compared with that in which Henry of Huntingdon justifies the earl's arrest by Stephen: "Nisi enim hoc egisset, perfidio consulis illius regno privatus fuisset" (p. 276).

[603] "Duravit improspera valetudo usque post Pentecostem (June 7); tum enim sensim refusus salutis vigor eum in pedes erexit" (Will. Malms., p. 763).

[604] "Rex ... comitis absentiam aucupatus, subito ad Waram veniens, et non bene munitum propugnatoribus offendens, succensa et depredata villa, statim etiam castello potitus est" (ibid., p. 766).

[605] "Obsides poposcit sigillatim ab his qui optimates videbantur, secum in Normannia ducendos, vadesque futuros tam comiti Andegavensi quam imperatrici quod omnes, junctis umbonibus ab ea, dum ipse abesset, injurias propulsarent, viribus suis apud Oxeneford manentes" (Will. Malms., p. 764). The phrase "junctis umbonibus" revives memories of the shield-wall. See also Appendix S.

[606] "Civitatem ... ita comes Gloecestrie fossatis munierat, ut inexpugnabilis præter per incendium videretur" (ibid., p. 766).

[607] Gesta, pp. 87, 88.

[608] Gesta, p. 88.

[609] "Tribus diebus ante festum Sancti Michaelis" (Will. Malms., p. 766).

[610] See the brilliant description of this action in the Gesta Stephani, pp. 88, 89.

[611] "Mox igitur optimates quidem omnes imperatricis, confusi quia a domina sua præter statutum abfuerant, confertis cuneis ad Walengeford convenerunt," etc. (Will. Malms., p. 766).

[612] Dr. Stubbs has erroneously placed his landing in 1141 instead of in the autumn of 1142. See Appendix Y, on "The First and Second Visits of Henry II. to England."

[613] Will. Malms., pp. 767, 768.

[614] See, for the story of her romantic escape, the Gesta Stephani (pp. 89, 90), William of Malmesbury (pp. 768, 769), John of Hexham (Sym. Dun., ii. 317), William of Newburgh (i. 43), and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (p. 384). This last is of special value for its mention of her escape from the tower of the castle. It states that Stephen "besæt hire in the tur," and that she was on the night of her escape let down by ropes from the tower ("me læt hire dun on niht of the tur mid rapes"). It is difficult to see how this can mean anything else than that she was lowered to the ground from the existing tower, instead of leaving by a gate.

[615] See his charter to Wallingford (printed in Hearne's Liber Niger (1771), pp. 817, 818), in which he grants privileges "pro servitio et labore magno quem pro me sustinuerunt in acquisitione hereditarii juris mei in Anglia."

CHAPTER IX.
FALL AND DEATH OF GEOFFREY.

The movements of Geoffrey during the latter half of 1142 are shrouded in utter darkness. After the surrender of the isle of Ely, we lose sight of him altogether, save in the glimpse afforded us by the Oxford intrigue. It is, however, quite possible that we should assign to the period of the siege of Oxford Castle (September-December, 1142) a charter to Abingdon Abbey which passed at Oxford.[616] For if we deduct from its eight witnesses the two local barons (Walter de Bocland and Hugh de Bolbec), five of the remaining six are found in the Canterbury charter.[617] In that case, Geoffrey, who figures at their head, must have been at Oxford, in Stephen's quarters, at some time in the course of the siege. He would obviously not declare for the Empress till the time was ripe for the scheme, and, in the meanwhile, it might disarm suspicion, and secure his safety in the case of the capture or defeat of the Empress, if he continued outwardly in full allegiance to the king.

It was not till the following year that the crisis at length came. Stephen, at Mid-Lent, had attended a council at London, at which decrees were passed against the general disregard of the rights and privileges of the Church. Her ministers were henceforth to be free from outrage, and her sanctuaries from violation, under penalty of an excommunication which only the pope himself could remove.[618]

At some period in the course of the year (1143) after this council—possibly about the end of September—the king held a court at St. Albans, to which, it would seem, there came the leading nobles of the realm.[619] Among them was the Earl of Essex, still at the height of his power. Of what passed on this occasion we have, from independent quarters, several brief accounts.[620] Of the main fact there is no question. Stephen, acting on that sudden impulse which roused him at times to unwonted vigour, struck at last, and struck home. The mighty earl was seized and bound, and according to the regular practice throughout this internecine warfare, the surrender of the castles on which his strength was based was made the price of his liberty. As with the arrest of the bishops at Oxford in 1139, so was it now with the arrest of the great earl at St. Albans, and so it was again to be at Northampton, with the arrest of the Earl of Chester some three years later. What it was that decided Stephen to seize this moment for thus reasserting his authority, it is not so easy to say. William of Newburgh, who is fullest on the subject, gives us the story, which is found nowhere else, of the earl's outrage on the king more than three years before,[621] and tells us that Stephen had been ever since awaiting an opportunity for revenge.[622] He adds that the height of power to which the earl had attained had filled the king with dread, and hints, I think, obscurely at that great conspiracy of which the earl, as we have seen, was the pivot and the moving spirit.[623] Henry of Huntingdon plainly asserts that his seizure was a necessity for the king, who would otherwise have lost his crown through the King-maker's treacherous schemes.[624] We may, indeed, safely believe that the time had now come when Stephen felt that it must be decided whether he or Geoffrey were master.[625] But, as with the arrest of the bishops at Oxford four years before, so, at this similar crisis, his own feelings and his own jealousy of a power beneath which he chafed were assiduously fostered and encouraged by a faction among the nobles themselves. This is well brought out in the Chronicle of Walden Abbey,[626] and still more so in the Gesta. It is there distinctly asserted that this faction worked upon the king, by reminding him of Geoffrey's unparalleled power, and of his intention to declare for the Empress, urging him to arrest the earl as a traitor, to seize his castles and crush his power, and so to secure safety for himself and peace for his troubled realm.[627] It is added that, Stephen hesitating to take the decisive step, the jealousy of the barons blazed forth suddenly into open strife, taunts and threats being hurled at one another by the earl and his infuriated opponents.[628] On the king endeavouring to allay the tumult, the earl was charged to his face with plotting treason. Called upon to rebut the charge, he did not attempt to do so, but laughed with cynical scorn. The king, outraged beyond endurance, at once ordered his arrest, and his foes rushed upon him.[629]

The actual seizure of the earl appears to have been attended by circumstances of which we are only informed from a somewhat unexpected quarter. Mathew Paris, from his connection with St. Albans, has been able to preserve in his Historia Anglorum the local tradition of the event. From this we learn, firstly, that there was a struggle; secondly, that there was a flagrant violation of the right of sanctuary. The struggle, indeed, was so sharp that the Earl of Arundel, whom we know to have been an old opponent of Geoffrey (see p. 323), was rolled over, horse and all, and nearly drowned in "Holywell." The fact that this tussle took place in the open would seem to imply that the whole of this highly dramatic episode took place out of doors.[630] As to the other of these two points, it is clear that there was something discreditable to Stephen, according to the opinion of the time, in his sudden seizure of the earl. William of Newburgh observes that he acted "non quidem honeste et secundum jus gentium, sed pro merito ejus et metu; scilicet, quod expediret quam quod deceret plus attendens." Henry of Huntingdon similarly writes that such a step was "magis secundum retributionem nequitiæ consulis quam secundum jus gentium, magis ex necessitate quam ex honestate."[631] The Chronicle of Walden, also, complains of the circumstances of his arrest;[632] and even the panegyrist of Stephen is anxious to clear his fame by imputing to the barons the suggestion of what he admits to be a questionable act, and claiming for the king the credit of reluctance to adopt their advice.[633]

But there was a more serious charge brought against the king than that of dishonourable behaviour to the earl. He was accused of violating by his conduct the rights of sanctuary of St. Albans, though he had sworn, we are told, not to do so, and had taken part so shortly before in that council of London at which such violations were denounced. The abbot's knights, indeed, went so far as to resist by force of arms this outrage on the Church's rights.[634] It is clearly to the contest thus caused, rather than (as implied by Mathew) to the actual arrest of Geoffrey, that we must assign the struggle in which the Earl of Arundel was unhorsed by Walchelin de Oxeai, for Walchelin was one of the abbey's knights, and was, therefore, fighting in her cause.[635]

Though the friends of the earl interceded on his behalf,[636] the king had no alternative but to complete what he had begun. After what he had done there could be no hope of reconciliation with the earl. Geoffrey was offered the usual choice; either he must surrender his castles, or he must go to the gallows. Taken to London, he was clearly made, according to the practice in these cases, to order his own garrison to surrender to the king. Thus he saw the fortress which he had himself done so much to strengthen, the source of his power and of his pride, pass for ever from his grasp. He had also to surrender, before regaining his freedom, his ancestral Essex strongholds of Pleshy and Saffron Walden.[637]

The earl's impotent rage when he found himself thus overreached is dwelt on by all the chroniclers.[638] The king's move, moreover, had now forced his hand, and the revolt so carefully planned could no longer be delayed, but broke out prematurely at a time when the Empress was not in a position to offer effective co-operation.

We must now return to the doings of Nigel, Bishop of Ely. That prelate had for a year (1142-43) been peacefully occupied in his see. But at the council of 1143 his past conduct had been gravely impugned. Alarmed at the turn affairs were taking, he decided to consult the Empress.[639] He must, I think, have gone by sea, for we find him, on his way at Wareham, the port for reaching her in Wiltshire. Here he was surprised and plundered by a party of the king's men.[640] He succeeded, however, in reaching the Empress, and then returned to Ely. He had now resolved to appeal to the pope in person, a resolve quickened, it may be, by the fact that the legate, who was one of his chief opponents, had gone thither in November (1143). With great difficulty, and after long debate, he prevailed on the monks to let him carry off, from among the remaining treasures of the church, a large amount of those precious objects without the assistance of which, especially in a doubtful cause, it would have been but lost labour to appeal to the heir of the Apostles. As it was Pope Lucius before whom he successfully cleared his character, and as Lucius was not elected till the March of the following year (1144), I have placed his departure for Rome subsequent to that of the legate. He may, of course, have arrived there sooner and applied to Cœlestine without success, but as that pontiff favoured the Empress, this is not probable. Indeed, the wording of the narrative is distinctly opposed to the idea.[641] In any case, my object is to show that the period of his absence abroad harmonizes well with the London Chronicle, which places Geoffrey's revolt about the end of the year. For the bishop had been gone some time when the earl obtained possession of Ely.[642]

Hugh Bigod, the Earl of Norfolk, whose allegiance had ever sat lightly upon him, appears to have eventually become his ally,[643] but for the time we hear only of his brother-in-law, William de Say, as actively embracing his cause.[644] He must, however, have relied on at least the friendly neutrality of his relatives, the Clares and the De Veres, in Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, and Essex, as well as on the loyalty of his own vassals. It is possible, from scattered sources, to trace his plan of action, and to reconstruct the outline of what we may term the fenland campaign.

Fordham, in Cambridgeshire, on the Suffolk border, appears to have been his base of operations. Here supplies could reach him from Suffolk and North Essex. He was thence enabled to advance to Ely, the bishop being at this time absent at Rome, and his forces being hard pressed by those which Stephen had despatched against them. The earl gladly accepted their appeal to himself for assistance, and was placed by them in possession of the isle, including its key, Aldreth Castle.[645] He soon made a further advance, and, pushing on in the same direction, burst upon Ramsey Abbey on a December[646] morning at daybreak, seized the monks in their beds, drove them forth clad as they were, and turned the abbey into a fortified post.[647]

He was probably led to this step by the confusion then reigning among the brethren. A certain scheming monk, Daniel by name, had induced the abbot to resign in his favour. The resignation was indignantly repudiated by the monks and the tenants of the abbey, but Stephen, bribed by Daniel, had visited Ramsey in person, and installed him by force as abbot only eighteen days before the earl's attack.[648] It is, therefore, quite possible that, as stated in the Walden Chronicle, Daniel may have been privy to this gross outrage. In any case the earl's conduct excited universal indignation.[649] He stabled his horses in the cloisters; he plundered the church of its most sacred treasures; he distributed its manors among his lawless followers, and he then sent them forth to ravage far and wide. In short, in the words of the pious chronicler, he made of the church of God a very den of thieves.[650]

But for the time these same enormities enabled the daring earl at once to increase the number of his followers and to acquire a strategical position unrivalled for his purpose. The soldiers of fortune and mercenary troopers who now swarmed throughout the land flocked in crowds to his standard, and he was soon at the head of a sufficient force to undertake offensive operations.[651] From his advanced post at Ramsey Abbey, he was within striking distance of several important points, while himself comparatively safe from attack. His front and right flank were covered by the meres and fens; his left was to some extent protected by the Ouse and its tributaries, and was further strengthened by a fortified work, erected by his son Ernulf at one of the abbey's manors, Wood Walton.[652] In his rear lay the isle of Ely, with its castles in the hands of his men, and its communications with the Eastern Counties secured by his garrison at Fordham.[653] His positions at Ely and Ramsey were themselves connected by a garrison, on the borders of the two counties, at Benwick.[654]

Thus situated, the earl was enabled to indulge his thirst for vengeance, if not on Stephen himself, at least on his unfortunate subjects. From his fastness in the fenland he raided forth; his course was marked by wild havoc, and he returned laden with plunder.[655]

Cambridge, as being the king's town, underwent at his hands the same fate that Nottingham had suffered in 1140, or Worcester in 1139, at the hands of the Earl of Gloucester.[656] Bursting suddenly on the town, he surprised, seized, and sacked it. As at Worcester, the townsmen had stored in the churches such property as they could; but the earl was hardened to sacrilege: the doors were soon crashing beneath the axes of his eager troopers, and when they had pillaged to their hearts' content, the town was committed to the flames.[657] The whole country round was the scene of similar deeds.[658] The humblest village church was not safe from his attack,[659] but the religious houses, from their own wealth, and from the accumulated treasures which, for safety, were then stored within their walls, offered the most alluring prize. It is only from the snatch of a popular rhyme that we learn incidentally the fact that St. Ives was treated even as the abbey of which it was a daughter-house. In a MS. of the Historia Anglorum there is preserved by Mathew Paris the tradition that the earl and his lawless followers mockingly sang of their wild doings—

"I ne mai a live

For Benoit ne for Ive."[660]

It may not have been observed that this jingle refers to St. Benedict of Ramsey and its daughter-house of St. Ives.[661]

Emboldened by success, he extended his ravages, till his deeds could no longer be ignored.[662] Stephen, at length fairly roused, marched in strength against him, determined to suppress the revolt. But the earl, skilfully avoiding an encounter in the open field, took refuge in the depths of the fenland and baffled the efforts of the king. Finding it useless to prolong the chase, Stephen fell back on his usual policy of establishing fortified posts to hem the rebels in. In these he placed garrisons, and so departed.[663]

Geoffrey was now at his worst. Checked in extending his sphere of plunder, he ravaged, with redoubled energy, the isle itself. His tools, disguised as beggars, wandered from door to door, to discover those who were still able to relieve them from their scanty stores. The hapless victims of this stratagem were seized at dead of night, dragged before the earl as a great prize, and exposed in turn to every torture that a devilish ingenuity could devise till the ransom demanded by their captors had been extorted to the uttermost farthing.[664] I cannot but think that the terrible picture of the cruelties which have made this period memorable for ever in our history was painted by the Peterborough chronicler from life, and that these very doings in his own neighbourhood inspired his imperishable words.

Nor was it only the earl that the brethren of Ely had to fear. Stephen, infuriated at the loss of the isle, laid the blame at their bishop's door, and seized all those of their possessions which were not within the earl's grasp. The monks, thus placed "between the devil and the deep sea," were indeed at their wits' end.[665] A very interesting reference to this condition of things is found in a communication from the pope to Archbishop Theobald, stating that Bishop Nigel of Ely has written to complain that he found on his return from Rome that Earl Geoffrey, in his absence, had seized and fortified the isle, and ravaged the possessions of his church within it, while Stephen had done the same for those which lay without it. As it would seem that this document has not been printed, I here append the passage:—

"Venerabilis frater noster N. elyensis episcopus per literas suas nobis significavit quod dum apostolicorum limina et nostram presentiam visitasset, Gaufridus comes de mandeuilla elyensem insulam ubi sedes episcopalis est violenter occupavit et quasdam sibi munitiones in ea parauit. Occupatis autem ab ipso comite interioribus, Stephanus rex omnes ejusdem ecclesie possessiones exteriores occupavit et pro voluntate sua illicite distribuit."[666]

This letter would seem to have been written subsequent to Nigel's return. The bishop, however, had heard while at Rome of these violent proceedings,[667] and had prevailed on Lucius to write to Theobald and his fellow-bishops, complaining—

"Quod a quibusdam parrochianis vestris bona et possessiones elyensis ecclesie, precipue dum ipse ab episcopatu expulsus esset, direpta sunt et occupata et contra justitiam teneantur. Quidam etiam sub nomine tenseriarum villas et homines suos spoliant et injustis operationibus et exaccionibus opprimunt."[668]

But the bishop was not the only sufferer who turned to Rome for help. When Stephen installed the ambitious Daniel as Abbot of Ramsey in person, Walter, the late abbot, had sought "the threshold of the Apostles." Daniel, whether implicated or not in Geoffrey's sacrilegious deeds, found himself virtually deposed when the abbey became a fortress of the earl. Alarmed also for the possible consequence of Walter's appeal to Rome, he resolved to follow his example and betake himself to the pope, trusting to the treasure that he was able to bring.[669] The guileless simplicity of Walter, however, carried the day; he found favour in the eyes of the curia and returned to claim his abbey.[670] But though he had been absent only three months, the scene was changed indeed. That which he had left "the House of God," he found, as we have seen, "a den of thieves." But the "dove" who had pleaded before the papal court could show himself, at need, a lion. Filled, we are told, with the Holy Spirit, he entered, undaunted, the earl's camp, seized a flaming torch, and set fire not only to the tents of his troopers, but also to the outer gate of the abbey, which they had made the barbican of their stronghold. But neither this novel adaptation of the orthodox "tongues of fire," nor yet the more appropriate anathemas which he scattered as freely as the flames, could convert the mailed sinners from the error of their unhallowed ways. Indeed, it was almost a miracle that he escaped actual violence, for the enraged soldiery threatened him with death and brandished their weapons in his face.[671]

In the excited state of the minds of those by whom such sights were witnessed, portents would be looked for, and found, as signs of the wrath of Heaven. Before long it was noised abroad that the very walls of the abbey were sweating blood, as a mark of Divine reprobation on the deeds of its impious garrison.[672] Far and wide the story spread; and men told with bated breath how they had themselves seen and touched the abbey's bleeding walls. Among those attracted by the wondrous sight was Henry, Archdeacon of Huntingdon, who has recorded for all time that he beheld it with his own eyes.[673] And as they spoke to one another of the miracle, in which they saw the finger of God, the starving peasants whispered their hopes that the hour of their deliverance was at hand.

The time, indeed, had come. As the now homeless abbot wandered over the abbey's lands, sick at heart, in weariness and want, the sights that met his despairing eyes were enough to make him long for death.[674] Barely a plough remained on all his broad demesnes; all provisions had been carried off; no man tilled the land. Every lord had now his castle, and every castle was a robber's nest.[675] In vain he boldly appealed to Earl Geoffrey himself, warning him to his face that he and his would remain cut off from the communion of Christians till the abbey was restored to its owners. The earl listened with impatience, and gave him a vague promise; but he kept his hold of the abbey.[676] The heart of the spoiler was hardened like that of Pharaoh of old, and not even miracles could move him to part with his precious stronghold.[677]

But if Ramsey had thus suffered, what had been the fate of Ely? A bad harvest, combined with months of systematic plunder, had brought about a famine in the land. For the space of twenty or even thirty miles, neither ox nor plough was to be seen; barely could the smallest bushel of grain he bought for two hundred pence. The people, by hundreds and thousands, were perishing for want of bread, and their corpses lay unburied in the fields, a prey to beasts and to fowls of the air. Not for ages past, as it seemed to the monks, had there been such tribulation upon earth.[678] Nor were the peasants the only sufferers. Might was then right, for all classes, throughout the land;[679] the smaller gentry were themselves seized, and held, by their captors, to ransom. As they heard of distant villages in flames, as they gazed on strings of captives dragged from their ravaged homes, the words of the psalmist were adapted in the mouths of the terrified monks: "They bind the godly with chains, and the nobles with links of iron."[680] In the mad orgie of wickedness neither women nor the aged were spared. Ransom was wrung from the quivering victims by a thousand refinements of torture. In the groans of the sufferers, in the shrieks of the tortured, men beheld the fulfilment of the words of St. John the Apostle, "In those days shall men ... desire to die, and death shall flee from them."[681]

Again we are tempted to ask if we have not in these very scenes the actual original from which was drawn the picture in the English Chronicle, a picture which might thus be literally true of the chronicler's own district, while not necessarily applicable, as the latest research suggests, to the whole of Stephen's realm.

It was now that men "said openly that Christ slept, and His saints." The English chronicler seems to imply, and Henry of Huntingdon distinctly asserts, that the wicked, emboldened by impunity, said so in scornful derision; but William of Newburgh assigns the cry to the sufferings of a despairing people. It is probable enough that both were right, that the people and their oppressors had reversed the parts of Elijah and the priests of Baal. For a time there seemed to rise in vain the cry so quaintly Englished in the paraphrase of John Hopkins:—

"Why doost withdraw thy hand aback,

And hide it in thy lappe?

O pluck it out, and be not slack

To give thy foes a rappe!"

But when night is darkest, dawn is nearest,[682] and the end of the oppressor was at hand. It was told in after days how even Nature herself had shown, by a visible sign, her horror of his impious deeds. While marching to the siege of Burwell on a hot summer's day, he halted at the edge of a wood, and lay down for rest in the shade. And lo! the very grass withered away beneath the touch of his unhallowed form![683]

The fortified post which the king's men had now established at Burwell was a standing threat to Fordham, the key of his line of communications. He was therefore compelled to attack it. And there he was destined to die the death of Richard Cœur de Lion. As he reconnoitred the position to select his point of attack, or as, according to others, he was fighting at the head of the troops, he carelessly removed his headpiece and loosened his coat of mail. A humble bowman saw his chance: an arrow whizzed from the fortress, and struck the unguarded head.[684]

There is a conflict of testimony as to the date of the event. Henry of Huntingdon places it in August, while M. Paris (Chron. Maj., ii. 177) makes him die on the 14th of September, and the Walden Chronicle on the 16th. Possibly he was wounded in August and lingered on into September, but, in any case, Henry's date is the most trustworthy.

The monks of Ramsey gloried in the fact that their oppressor had received his fatal wound as he stood on ground which their abbey owned, as a manifest proof that his fate was incurred by the wrong he had done to their patron saint.[685] At Waltham Abbey, with equal pride, it was recorded that he who had refused to atone for the wrong he had done to its holy cross received his wound in the self-same hour in which its aid was invoked against the oppressor of its shrine.[686] But all were agreed that such a death was a direct answer to the prayer of the oppressed, a signal act of Divine vengeance on one who had sinned against God and man.[687]

For the wound was fatal. The earl, like Richard in after days, made light of it at first.[688] Retiring, it would seem, through Fordham, along the Thetford road, he reached Mildenhall in Suffolk, and there he remained, to die. The monks of his own foundation believed, and perhaps with truth, that when face to face with death, he displayed heartfelt penitence, prayed earnestly that his sins might he forgiven, and made such atonement to God and man as his last moments could afford. But there was none to give him the absolution he craved; indeed, after the action which the Church had taken the year before, it is doubtful if any one but the pope could absolve so great a sinner.[689]

In the mean time the Abbot of Ramsey heard the startling news, and saw that his chance had come. The earl might be willing to save his soul at the cost of restoring the abbey. To Mildenhall he flew in all haste, but only to find that the earl had already lost consciousness. There awaited him, however, the fruit of his oppressor's tardy repentance in the form of instructions from the earl to his son to surrender Ramsey Abbey. Armed with these, the abbot departed as speedily as he had come.[690]

The tragic end of the great earl must have filled the thoughts of men with a strange awe and horror. That one who had rivalled, but a year ago, the king himself in power, should meet an inglorious death at the hands of a wretched churl, that he who had defied the thunders of the Church should fall as if by a bolt from heaven, were facts which, in the highly wrought state of the minds of men at the time, were indeed signs and wonders.[691] But even more tragic than his death was the fate which awaited his corpse. Unshriven, he had passed away laden with the curses of the Church. His soul was lost for ever; and his body no man might bury.[692] As the earl was drawing his last breath there came upon the scene some Knights Templar, who flung over him the garb of their order so that he might at least die with the red cross upon his breast.[693] Then, proud in the privileges of their order, they carried the remains to London, to their "Old Temple" in Holborn. There the earl's corpse was enclosed in a leaden coffin, which was hung, say some, on a gnarled fruit tree, that it might not contaminate the earth, or was hurled, according to others, into a pit without the churchyard.[694] So it remained, for nearly twenty years, exposed to the gibes of the Londoners, the earl's "deadly foes." But with the characteristic faithfulness of a monastic house to its founder, the monks of Walden clung to the hope that the ban of the Church might yet be removed, and the bones of the great earl be suffered to rest among them. According to their chronicle, Prior William, who had obtained his post from Geoffrey's hands, rested not till he had wrung his absolution from Pope Alexander III.[695] (1159-1181). But the Ramsey Chronicle, which appears to be a virtually contemporary record, assigns the eventual removal of the ban to Geoffrey's son and namesake, and to the atonement which he made to Ramsey Abbey on his father's behalf.[696] The latter story is most precise, but both may well be true. For, although the Ramsey chronicler would more especially insist on the fact that St. Benedict had to be appeased before the earl could be absolved, the absolution itself would be given not by the abbot, but by the pope. The grant to Ramsey would be merely a condition of the absolution itself being granted. The nature of the grant is known to us not only from the chronicle, but also from the primate's charter confirming this final settlement.[697] As this confirmation is dated at Windsor, April 6, 1163, we thus, roughly, obtain the date of the earl's Christian burial.[698]

The Prior of Walden had gained his end, and he now hastened to the Temple to claim his patron's remains. But his hopes were cruelly frustrated at the very moment of success. Just as the body of the then earl (1163) was destined to be coveted at his death (1166) by two rival houses, so now the remains of his father were a prize which the indignant Templars would never thus surrender. Warned of the prior's coming, they instantly seized the coffin, and buried it at once in their new graveyard, where, around the nameless resting-place of the great champion of anarchy, there was destined to rise, in later days, the home of English law.[699]

[616] Chronicle of Abingdon, ii. 178, 179. Assigned to "probably about the Christmas of 1135" (p. 542).

[617] See p. 143. They are Earl Geoffrey, Robert de Ver, William of Ypres, Adam "de Belnaio," and Richard de Luci. The sixth, "Mainfeninus Brito," we have seen attesting Stephen's first charter to Geoffrey in 1140 (p. 52). Another charter, perhaps, may also be assigned to this period, namely, that of Stephen (at Oxford) to St. Frideswide's, of which the original is now preserved in the Bodleian Library. For this, as for the preceding charter, the date suggested is 1135 (Calendar of Charters and Rolls), but the names of William of Ypres and Richard de Luci prove that this date is too early. These names, with that of Robert de Ver, are common to both charters, and if Richard de Luci's earliest attestation is in the summer of 1140, it is quite possible that this charter should be assigned to the siege of 1142.

[618] Rog. Wend., ii. 233; Mat. Paris (Hist. Angl.), i. 270; Hen. Hunt., p. 276.

[619] No clue to this date, important though it is for our story, is afforded by any of the ordinary chroniclers. The London Chronicle, however, preserved in the Liber de Antiquis Legibus (fol. 35), carefully dates it "post festum Sancti Michaelis."

[620] Mon. Ang., iv. 142; Mat. Paris (Hist. Angl.), i. 270, 271; William of Newburgh, cap. xi.; Gesta Stephani, pp. 103, 104; Hen. Hunt., p. 276.

[621] See p. 47.

[622] "Acceptam ab eo injuriam rex caute dissimulabat, et tempus opportunum quo se ulcisceretur, observabat."

[623] "Subtili astutia ingentia moliens."

[624] "Nisi enim hoc egisset, perfidia consulis illius regno privatus fuisset."

[625] Compare the words of the Gesta: "Ubique per regnum regis vices adimplens et in rebus agendis rege avidius exaudiretur et in præceptis injungendis plus ei quam regi obtemperaretur."

[626] "Tandem vero a quibusdam regni majoribus, stimulante invidia, iniqua loquentibus, quasi regis proditor ac patriæ dilator erga regem mendaciter clanculo accusatus est.... Vir autem iste magnanimus subdola malignantium fraude, ut jam dictum est, delusus" (Mon. Ang., iv. 142).

[627] "Tum quia Galfridus, ut videbatur, omnia regni jura sibi callide usurparat, tum quia regnum ut in ore jam vulgi celebre fuerat, comitissæ Andegavensi conferre disposuerat, ad hoc regem secreta persuasione impulerunt, quatinus Galfridum de proditionis infamia notatum caperet, et redditis quæcunque possederat castellis, et rex post hinc securus, et regnum ipsius haberetur pacatius" (Gesta).

[628] "Rege multo tempore differente, ne regia majestas turpi proditionis opprobrio infameretur, subito inter Galfridum et barones, injuriis et minis utrinque protensis, orta seditio" (ibid.).

[629] "Cumque rex habitam inter eos dissensionem, sedatis partibus, niteretur dirimere, affuerunt quidam, qui Galfridum de proditionis factione in se et suos machinatâ, libera fronte accusabant. Cumque se de objecto crimine minime purgaret, sed turpissimam infamiam verbis jocosis alludendo infringeret, rex et qui præsentes erant Barones Galfridum et suos repente ceperunt" (ibid.).

[630] This story, being told by Mathew Paris alone, and evidently as a matter of tradition, must be accepted with considerable caution. He makes the singular and careless mistake of speaking of Earl Geoffrey as William (sic) de Mandeville, though he properly terms him, the following year, "Gaufridus consul de Mandeville." On the other hand, it is possible to apply a test which yields not unsatisfactory results. Mathew tells us that the Earl of Arundel was unhorsed "a Walkelino de Oxeai [alias Oxehaie] milite strenuissimo." Now there was, contemporary with Mathew himself, a certain Richard "de Oxeya," who held by knight-service of St. Albans Abbey, and who, in 1245, was jointly responsible with "Petronilla de Crokesle" for the service of one knight (Chron. Majora, vi. 437). Turning to a list of the abbey's knights, which is dated by the editor in the Rolls Series as "1258," but which is quite certainly some hundred years earlier, we find this same knight's fee held jointly by Richard "de Crokesle" and a certain "Walchelinus." Here then we may perhaps recognize that very "Walchelinus de Oxeai" who figures in Mathew's story, a story which Richard "de Oxeya" may have told him as a family tradition. Indeed, there is evidence to prove that this identification is correct.

[631] The coincidence of language between these two passages, beginning respectively "eodem tempore" and "eodem anno," ought to be noticed, for it has been overlooked by Mr. Howlett in his valuable edition of William of Newburgh for the Rolls Series, though he notes those on p. 34 before it, and on p. 48 after it, in his instructive remarks on the indebtedness of William of Newburgh to others (p. xxvi.).

[632] "Vir iste nobilis, cæteris in pace recedentibus, solus, rege jubente, fraudulenter comprehensus, et, ne abiret, custodibus designatis, detentus est" (Mon. Ang., iv. 142).

[633] "Ne regia majestas turpi proditionis opprobio infamaretur."

[634] "Milites autem beati Albani, qui tunc, ad ecclesiæ ejus custodiam et villæ fossatis circumdatæ, ipsum vicum, qui juxta cænobium est, inhabitabant, ipsi regi in faciem viriliter restiterunt, donec ecclesiæ, quam quidam ex regiis ædituis violaverant, satisfecisset ipse rex, et ejus temerarii invasores.... Et hoc fecit rex contra jusjurandum, quod fecerat apud Sanctum Albanum, et contra statuta concilii nuper, eo consentiente, celebrati" (Mathew Paris, Historia Anglorum, i. 271).

[635] An incidental allusion to this conflict between the followers of the king and the abbey's knights is to be found, I think, in a curious passage in the Gesta Abbatum S. Albani (i. 94). We there read of Abbot Geoffrey (1119-1146): "Tabulam quoque unam ex auro et argento et gemmis electis artificiose constructam ad longitudinem et latitudinem altaris Sancti Albani, quam deinde, ingruente maxima necessitate, idem Abbas in igne conflavit et in massam confregit. Quam dedit Comiti de Warrena et Willelmo de Ypra et Comiti de Arundel et Willelmo Martel, temporibus Regis Stephani, Villam Sancti Albani volentibus concremare." The conjunction of William of Ypres with Abbot Geoffrey dates this incident within the limits 1139-1146, and there is no episode to which it can be so fitly assigned as this of 1143, especially as the Earl of Arundel figures in both versions.

[636] "Et licet multi amicorum suorum, talia ei injuste illata ægre ferentium, pro eo regem interpellarent" (Mon. Ang., iv. 142).

[637] "Rex igitur Galfridum, custodiis arctissime adhibitis, Londonias adducens, ni turrim et quæ miro labore et artificio erexerat castella in manus ejus committeret, suspendio cruciari paravit; cum salubri amicorum persuasus consilio, ut imminens inhonestæ mortis periculum, castellis redditis, devitaret, regis voluntati tandem satisfecit" (Gesta, p. 104). "Igitur, ut rex liberaret eum reddidit ei turrim Lundoniæ et castellum de Waledene et illud de Plaisseiz" (Hen. Hunt., p. 276). "Eique arcem Lundoniensem cum duobus reliquis quæ possidebat castellis extorsit [rex]" (W. Newburgh, i. 45). The castle of (Saffron) Walden, with the surrounding district, was placed by Stephen in charge of Turgis d'Avranches, whom we have met with before, and who refused, some two years later, to admit the king to it (Gesta, ed. Howlett, p. 101). Mr. Howlett appears to have confused it with another castle which Stephen took "in the Lent of 1139," for Walden was Geoffrey's hereditary seat and had always been in his hands.

[638] "Regnique totius communem ad jacturam, tali modo liberatus de medio illorum evasit" (Gesta, p. 104). "Quo facto, velut equus validus et infrænis, morsibus, calcibus quoslibet obvios dilaniare non cessavit" (Mon. Ang., iv. 142).

[639] "Episcopus vero Elyensis pro tam imminenti sibi negotio auxilium Dominæ Imperatricis et suorum colloquium requirendum putavit" (Anglia Sacra, i. 622).

[640] This might lead us to suppose that the incident belonged to the latter half of 1142, when Wareham was in the king's hands. The date (1143), however, cannot be in question.

[641] Historia Eliensis, p. 623. Theobald, from his Angevin sympathies, supported Nigel's cause.

[642] See Appendix Z: "Bishop Nigel at Rome."

[643] "Hugone quoque, cognomente Bigot, viro illustri et in illis partibus potenti, sibi confœderato" (Gesta, p. 106).

[644] Mon. Ang., iv. 142.

[645] "Homines regis erga locum fratrum Ely insidias unanimiter paraverunt, adversum quos cum custodes insulæ non sufficerent rebellare, Galfridum comitem, tunc adversarium [Stephani regis,] incendiis patriam et seditione perturbantem, suscipiunt; cui etiam castrum de Ely, atque Alrehede, ob firmamentum tuitionis, submiserunt" (Historia Eliensis, p. 623).

[646] Here again we are indebted for the date to the London Chronicle (Liber de Ant. Leg., fol. 35), which states that Geoffrey "in adventu Domini fecit castellum Ecclesiam de Rameseya." Geoffrey's doings may well have been of special interest to the Londoners.

[647] "Ira humanum excedente modum, ita efferatus est, ut procurantibus Willelmo de Saye et Daniele quodam falsi nominis ac tonsuræ monacho, navigio cum suis subvectus Rameseiam peteret, ecclesiam Deo ac beato patri Benedicto dicatam summo mane ausu temerario primitus invadendo subintraret, monachosque omnes post divinum nocturnale officium sopori deditos comprehenderet, et vix habitu simplici indutos expellendo statim perturbaret, nullaque interveniente mora, ecclesiam illam satis pulcherrimam, non ut Dei castrum sed sicut castellum, superius ac inferius, intus ac extra, fortiter munivit" (Mon. Ang., iv. 142). "Hic totus in rabiem invectus Ramesiam, nobile monasterium invadens, fugata monachorum caterva, custodiam posuit" (Leland's Collectanea, i. 600).

[648] Chronicon Abbatiæ Ramesiensis, pp. 327-329.

[649] "Monachis expulsis, raptores immisit, et ecclesiam Dei speluncam fecit latronum" (Hen. Hunt., p. 277).

[650] "Vasa autem altaris aurea et argentea Deo sacrata, capas etiam cantorum lapidibus preciosis ac opere mirifico contextas, casulis cum albis, et cæteris ecclesiastici decoris ornamentis rapuit, et quibuslibet eruere volentibus vili satis precio distraxit unde militibus et satellitibus suis debita largitus est stipendia" (Mon. Ang., iv. 142). "Cœnobiumque sancti Benedicti de Rameseiâ non solum, captis monachorum spoliis, altaribus quoque et sanctorum reliquiis nudatis, expilavit, sed etiam expulsis incompassive monachis de monasterio, militibusque impositis castellum sibi adaptavit" (Gesta, p. 105). "Cum manu forti monasterium ipsum occupavit, monachos dispersit, thesaurum et omnia ecclesiæ ornamenta sacrilega manu surripuit et ex ipso monasterio stabulum fecit equorum, villas adjacentes commilitonibus pro stipendiis distribuit" (Chron. Ram., p. 329).

[651] "Galfridus igitur, ubique in regno fide sibi et hominio conjuratis in unum secum cuneum convocatis, gregariæ quoque militiæ sed et prædonum, qui undecumque devote concurrerant, robustissima manu in suum protinus conspirata collegium, ignibus et gladio ubique locorum desævire" (Gesta, p. 105). "Crebris eruptionibus atque excursionibus vicinas infestavit provincias" (W. Newburgh, i. 45).

[652] "Castellum quoddam fecerat apud Waltone" (Chron. Ram., p. 332).

[653] "Inde recessum habuit per Ely quiete: Fordham quoque contra hostes sibi cum valida manu firmare usurpavit" (Historia Eliensis, p. 623).

[654] "Similiter apud Benewik in transitu aquarum" (ibid.).

[655] "Omnia adversus regiæ partis consentaneos abripere et consumere, nudare et destruere" (Gesta, p. 105). "Maneria, villas, ceteraque proprietatem regiam contingentia primitus invasit, igni combussit, prædasque cum rapinis non minimis inde sublatas commilitonibus suis larga manu distribuit" (Monasticon, iv. 142).

[656] Cont. Flor. Wig., ii. 119, 128. Compare the Peterborough Chronicle: "Ræuedan hi & brendon alle the tunes" (Ang. Sax. Chron., i. 382).

[657] Gesta.

[658] "Talique ferocitate in omnem circumquaque provinciam, in omnibus etiam, quascunque obviam habebat, ecclesiis immiseranter desæviit; possessiones cœnobiorum, distractis rebus, depopulatis omnibus in solitudinem redegit; sanctuaria eorum, vel quæcumque in ærariis concredita reponebantur sine metu vel pietate ferox abripuit" (ibid.).

[659] "Locis sacris vel ipsis de ecclesiis nullam deferendo exhibuit reverentiam" (Monasticon, iv. 142).

[660] "Facti enim amentes cantitabat unusquisque Anglice," etc. The "Anglice" reads oddly. Strange that the sufferings of the people should be bewailed and made merry over in the same tongue!

[661] Stephen himself behaved no better, to judge from the story in the Chronicle of Abingdon (ii. 292), where it is alleged that the king, being informed of a large sum of money stored in the treasury of the abbey, sent his satellite, William d'Ypres, who, gaining admission on the plea of prayer, broke open the chest with an axe, and carried off the treasure.

[662] "Militum suorum numerositate immanior factus, per totam circumcirca discurrendo provinciam nulli cuicunque pecuniam possidenti parcere vovit" (Mon. Ang., iv. 142).]

"Crebris eruptionibus et excursionibus vicinas infestavit provincias. Deinde sumpta ex successu fiducia longius progrediens, regem Stephanum acerrimis fatigavit terruitque incursibus" (Will. Newb., i. 45).

[663] Gesta.

[664] "Exploratores vero illius, habitu mutato, more egenorum ostiatim oberrantes, villanis et cæteris hujusmodi hominibus pecunia a Deo data abundantibus insidiabantur, quibus taliter compertis intempestæ noctis silentio, tempore tamen primitus considerato, Sathanæ satellites a comite transmittebantur qui viros innocuos alto sopore quandoque detentos raperent raptos vero quasi pro magno munere ei presentarent. Qui mox immani supplicio, per intervalla tamen, vexabantur et tamdiu per tormenta varia vicissim sibi succedentia torquebantur, donec pecuniæ eis impositæ ultimum solverent quadrantem" (Monasticon, iv. 142). An incidental allusion to this system of robbery by ransom is found in an inquisition (temp. John) on the royal manor of Writtle, Essex (Testa de Nevill, p. 270 b). It is there recorded that Godebold of Writtle, who held land at Boreham, was captured by Geoffrey and forced to mortgage his land to raise the means for his ransom: "Godebold de Writel' qui eam tenuit captus a comite Galfrido, patre Willelmi de Mandevilla, tempore regis Stephani, pro redemptione sua versus predictum comitem acquietanda posuit in vadimonium," etc.

[665] "Propterea Rex Stephanus, irâ graviter accensus, omnia hæc reputavit ab Episcopo Nigello machinari; et jussit e vestigio possessiones Ecclesiæ a suis undequaque distrahi in vindictam odiorum ejus. Succisâ igitur Monachis rerum facultate suarum, nimis ægre compelluntur in Ecclesiâ, maxime ciborum inedia. Unde non habentes victuum, gementes et anxii reliquas thesaurorum," etc. (Historia Eliensis, p. 623).

[666] Cotton. MS., Tib. A. vi. fol. 117.

[667] "Hæc omnia episcopo, quamvis Romæ longius commoranti, satis innotuerunt, et gratiâ Domini Papæ sublimiter donatus, his munimentis tandem roboratus contra deprimentum ingenia, ad domum gaudens rediit" (Historia Eliensis, p. 623).

[668] Cotton. MS., Tib. A. vi. fol. 116 b. See Appendix AA: "Tenserie."

[669] Chronicle of Ramsey, p. 329.

[670] "Quum autem negotium feliciter ibi consummasset, reversus in Angliam infra tres menses per judices delegatos abbatiam suam, Rege super hoc multum murmurante, recuperavit" (ibid., p. 330).

[671] "Quum vero sæpedictus abbas in possessionem abbatiæ suæ corporaliter mitti debuisset, invenit sceleratam familiam prædicti comitis sibi fortiter resistentem. Sed ipse, Spiritu Dei plenus, inter sagittas et gladios ipsorum sæpius in caput ejus vibratos, accessit intrepidus, ignem arripuit, et tentoria ipsorum portamque exteriorem quam incastellaverant viriliter incendit et combussit. Sed nec propter incendium nec propter anathema quod in eos fuerat sententiatum locum amatum deserere vel abbati cedere voluerunt. Creditur a multis miraculose factum esse quod nullus ex insanis prædonibus illis manus in eum misit dum eorum tecta combureret quamvis lanceis et sagittis, multum irati, dum hæc faceret, mortem ei cominus intentarent" (ibid.).

[672] "Aliud etiam illis diebus fertur contigisse miraculum, quod lapides murorum ecclesiæ Ramesensis, claustri etiam et officinarum quas prædones inhabitaverant, in magna quantitate guttas sanguinis emiserunt, unde per totam Angliam rumor abiit admirabilis, et magnæ super hoc habitæ sunt inter omnes ad invicem collationes. Erat enim quasi notorium, et omnibus intueri volentibus visu et tactu manifestum" (ibid.).

[673] "Dum autem ecclesia illa pro castello teneretur, ebullivit sanguis a parietibus ecclesie et claustri adjacentis, indignationem divinam manifestans, exterminationem sceleratorum denuntians; quod multi quidem, et ipse ego, oculis meis inspexi" (Hen. Hunt., p. 277).

[674] "Miserabilis abbas iste post tot labores et ærumnas quietem habere et domum suam recuperasse sperabat a qua dolens et exspes recessit, laboribus expensis ita fatigatus ut jam tæderet eum vivere. Non enim habebat unde modice familiæ suæ equitaturas et sumptus necessarios posset providere" (Chron. Ram., p. 331).

[675] "In omnibus terris dominicis totius abbatiæ unam tantum carucam reperit et dimidiam, reperit victualium nihil; debitum urgebat; terræ jacebant incultæ.... Oportuit præfatum abbatem xxiiii castell[?anis] vel amplius singulis mensibus pro rusticis suis redemptiones seu tenserias præstare, qui tam per Danielem quam per ipsos malefactores multum exhausti fuerant, et extenuati" (Chron. Ram., 333, 334). This description, though it is applied to the state of things which awaited the abbot on Earl Geoffrey's death, is obviously in point here. It is of importance for its allusion to the plough, which illustrates the language of Domesday (the plough-teams being always the first to suffer, and the most serious loss: compare Bishop Denewulf's tenth-century charter in Liber de Hyda), but still more for its mention of the tenseriæ. Here we have the very same word, used at the very same time, at Peterborough, Ramsey, and Ely. The correction, therefore, of the English Chronicle is utterly unjustifiable (see Appendix AA). Moreover, a comparison of this passage with the letter of Pope Lucius (ante, p. 215) shows that at Ramsey, as at Ely, the evil effect of this state of things continued in these tenseriæ even after the bishop and the abbot had respectively regained possession.

[676] "Suorum tandem consilio fretus, comitem Gaufridum adiit, monasterii sui detentorem, patenter et audacter ei ostendens tam ipsum quam totam familiam ipsius, tam ex ipso facto quam apostolica auctoritate interveniente, a Christianâ communione esse privatos, domum suam sibi postulans restitui si vellet absolvi. Quod comes vix patienter audiens, plures ei terminos de reddenda possessione sua constituit, sed promissum nunquam adimplevit ita ut cum potius deludere videretur quam ablatam possessionem sibi velle restituere; unde miser abbas miserabiliter afflictus mortis debitum jam vellet exsolvisse" (Chron. Ram., p. 331).

[677] "Sed prophani milites in sua malitia pertinaces nec sic domum Dei quam polluerant reddere voluerant; induratum enim erat cor eorum" (ibid., p. 330).

[678] "Oppresserat enim fames omnem regionem; et ægra seges victum omnem negaverat; per viginti milliaria seu triginta non bos non aratrum est inventus qui particulam terræ excoleret; vix parvissimus tunc modius emi poterat ducentis denariis. Tantaque hominum clades de inopiâ panis sequuta est, ut per vicos et plateas centeni et milleni ad instar uteris inflati exanimes jacerent: feris et volatilibus cadavera inhumata relinquebantur. Nam multo retro tempore talis tribulatio non fuit in cunctis terrarum regnis" (Historia Eliensis, p. 623).

[679] "Efferbuit enim per totam Angliam Stephani regis hostilis tribulatio, totaque insula vi potius quam ratione regebatur" (Chron. Ram., p. 334).

[680] "Potentes, per circuitum late vastando, milites ex rapinâ conducunt; villas comburunt: captivos de longe ducentes miserabiliter tractabant; pios alligabant in compedibus et nobiles in manicis ferreis" (Historia Eliensis, p. 623).

[681] "Furit itaque rabies vesana. Invicta lætatur malitia: non sexui non parcunt ætati. Mille mortis species inferunt, ut ab afflictis pecuniam excutiant: fit clamor dirus plangentium: inhorruit luctus ubique mærentium; et constat fuisse completum quod nunciatur in Apocalypsi Joannis: 'quærent homines mori et fugiet mors ab eis'" (ibid.).

[682] "Sed verum est quod vulgariter dicitur: 'Ubi dolor maximus ibi proxima consolatio'" (Chron. Ram., p. 331).

[683] "Herba viridissima emarcuit, ut eo surgente quasi præmortua videretur, nec toto fere anno viridatis suæ vires recuperavit. Unde datur intelligi quam detestandum sit consortium excommunicatorum" (Gervase, i. p. 128).

[684] "Accessit paulo post cum exercitu suo ad quoddam castellum expugnandum quod apud Burewelle de novo fuerat constructum, et quum elevata casside illud circuiret ut infirmiorem ejus partem eligeret ad expugnandum, ... quidam vilissimus sagittarius ex hiis qui intra castellum erant capiti ipsius comitis lethale vulnus impressit" (Chron. Ram., 331, 332). "Hic, cum ... in obsidione supradicti castelli de Burwelle in scuto et lancea contra adversarios viriliter decertasset, ob nimium calorem cassidem deposuit, et loricæ ventilabrum solvit, sicque nudato capite intrepidus militavit. Æstus quippe erat. Quem cum vidisset quispiam de castello, et adversarium agnosceret, telo gracili quod ganea dicitur eum jam cominus positum petiit, que testam capitis ipsius male nudati perforavit" (Gervase, i. 128). "Dum nimis audax, nimisque prudentiæ suæ innitens regiæ virtutis castella frequentius circumstreperet, ab ipsis tandem regalibus circumventus prosternitur" (Gesta, p. 106). "Post hujusmodi tandem excessibus aliisque multis his similibus publicam anathematis non immerito incurrit sententiam, in qua apud quoddam oppidulum in Burwella lethaliter in capite vulneratus est" (Mon. Ang., iv. 142). "Inter acies suorum confertas, a quodam pedite vilissimo solus sagitta percussus est. Et ipse, vulnus ridens, post dies tamen ex ipso vulnere excommunicatus occubuit" (Hen. Hunt., 276).

[685] "In quodam prædio consisteret quod ... ad Ramesense monasterium pertinebat, et pertinet usque in hodiernum diem.... Quod iccirco in fundo beati Benedicti factum fuisse creditur ut omnes intelligere possent quod Deus ultionum dominus hoc fecerat in odium et vindictam injuriarum quas monasterio beati Benedicti sacrilegus comes intulerat" (Chron. Ram., p. 331).

[686] "Cum nollet satisfacere, placuit fratribus ibidem Deo servientibus in transgressionis huius vindictam Crucem deponere si forte dives ille compunctus hoc facto vellet rescipiscere. Tradunt autem qui hiis inquirendis diligentiam adhibuerunt eadem depositionis hora Comitem illum ante castrum de Burewelle ad quod expugnandum diligenter operam dabat letale vulnus suscepisse et eo infra xl dies viam universe Carnis ingressum fuisse" (Harl. MS., 3776). See also Appendix M.

[687] "Verum tantarum tamque immanium persecutionum, tam crudelium quoque, quas in omnes ingerebat, calamitatum justissimus tandem respector Deus dignum malitiæ suæ finem imposuit" (Gesta, p. 106). "Quia igitur improbi dixerunt Deum dormitare, excitatus est Deus, et in hoc signo, et in significato" (Hen. Hunt., p. 277).

[688] "Letiferum sui capitis vulnus deridens nec sic a suo cessavit furore" (Gervase, i. 128, 129).

[689] "Pœnitens itaque valde et Deo cum magna cordis contritione pro peccatis suis supplicans, quantum taliter moriens poterat, Deo et hominibus satisfecit, licet a præsentibus absolvi non poterat" (Mon. Ang., iv. 142). Cf. p. 202, supra.

[690] "Quum igitur apud Mildehale mortis angustia premeretur, hoc audiens præfatus abbas ad eum citissime convolavit. Quo cum venisset, nec erat in ipso comite vox neque sensus, familiares tamen ipsius, domino suo multum condolentes, eum benigne receperunt et cum literis ipsius comitis eum ad filium suum scilicet Ernaldum de Magna Villa ... statim miserunt ut sine mora cœnobium suum sibi restitueret" (Chron. Ram., p. 332).

[691] "Gaufridus de Magna Villa regem validissime vexavit et in omnibus gloriosus effulsit. Mense autem Augusti miraculum justitia sua dignum Dei splendor exhibuit" (Hen. Hunt., p. 277).

[692] "Et sicut, dum viveret, ecclesiam confudit, terram turbavit, sic, ad eum confundendum tota Angliæ conspiravit ecclesia; quia et anathematis gladio percussus et inabsolutus abscessit, et terræ sacrilegum dari non licuit" (Gesta, p. 106).

[693] "Illo autem, in discrimine mortis, ultimum trahente spiritum, quidam supervenere Templarii qui religionis suæ habitum cruce rubea signatum ei imposuerunt" (Mon. Ang., ut supra). But the red cross is said not to have been assumed by the order till the time of Pope Eugene (1145). See Monasticon Ang., ii. 815, 816.

[694] "Ac deinde jam mortuum secum tollentes, et in pomerio suo, veteris scilicet Templi apud London' canali inclusum plumbeo in arbore torva suspenderunt" (Mon. Ang., iv. 142). "Corpus vero defuncti comitis in trunco quodam signatum, et propter anathema quo fuerat innodatus Londoniis apud Vetus Templum extra cimiterium in antro quodam projectum est" (Chron. Ram., p. 332). This would seem to be the earliest mention of the Old Temple. Pomerium in Low Latin is, of course, an orchard, and not, as Mr. Freeman so strangely imagines (at Nottingham, in Domesday), a town wall.

[695] "Post aliquod vero tempus industria et expensis Willelmi quem jam pridem in Waldena constituerat priorem, a papa Alexandro, more taliter decedentium meruit absolvi, inter Christianos recipi, et pro eo divina celebrari" (Mon. Ang., iv. 142).

[696] "Ibique jacuit toto tempore Regis Stephani magnaque parte Regis Henrici Secundi, donec Gaufridus filius ejus, Comes Essexie, vir industrius et justitiarius Domini Regis jam factus Dominum Willelmum abbatem cæpit humiliter interpellare pro patre suo defuncto offerens satisfactionem, et quum ab eo benignum super hoc responsum accepisset, statuta die convenerunt ambo sub præsentia domini Cantuarensis, scilicet beati Thomæ martyris, super hoc tractaturi.... Quo facto, pater ipsius comitis Christianæ traditus est sepulturæ." The earl's grant runs as follows:— "Gaufridus de Magna Villa Comes Essexie, omnibus amicis suis et hominibus et universis sanctæ Ecclesiæ filiis salutem. "Satis notum est quanta damna pater meus, Comes Gaufridus, tempore guerrarum monasterio de Rameseia irrogaverit. "Et quia tanta noxia publico dinoscitur indigere remedio, ego tam pro eo quam pro suis satisfacere volens, consilio sanctæ Ecclesiæ cum Willelmo Abbate monachisque suprascripti cœnobii in hanc formam composui.... Et quia constat sepedictum patrem meum in irrogatione damnorum memoratæ ecclesiæ bona thesauri in cappis, et textis, et hujusmodi plurimum delapidasse, ad eorundem reparationem ad ecclesiæ ornatum dignum duxi redditum istum assignari" (Cart. Ram., i. 197). Compare p. 276, n. 3, and p. 415.

[697] Chron. Ram., pp. 306, 333. The king was probably at Windsor at the time, and the date is a useful one for Becket's movements.

[698] A curious archæological question is raised by this date. According to the received belief, the Templars did not remove to the New Temple till 1185, but, according to this evidence, they already had their churchyard there consecrated in 1163, and had therefore, we may presume, begun their church. The church of the New Temple was consecrated by Heraclius on his visit in 1185, but may have been finished sooner.

[699] "Cumque Prior ille corpus defunctum deponere et secum Waldenam deferre satageret, Templarii illi caute premeditati statim illud tollentes, et in cimiterio novi templi ignobili satis tradiderunt sepulturæ" (Mon. Ang., iv. 142). It was generally believed that his effigy was among those remaining at the Temple, but this supposition is erroneous, as has been shown by Mr. J. G. Nichols in an elaborate article on "The Effigy attributed to Geoffrey de Magnaville, and the Other Effigies in the Temple Church" (Herald and Genealogist (1866), iii. 97, et seq.).

CHAPTER X.
THE EARLDOM OF ESSEX.

The death of Geoffrey was a fatal blow to the power of the fenland rebels. According, indeed, to one authority, his brother-in-law, William de Say, met his death on the same occasion,[700] but it was the decease of the great earl which filled the king's supporters with exultant joy and hope.[701] For a time Ernulf, his son and heir, clung to the abbey fortress, but at length, sorely against his will, he gave up possession to the monks.[702] Before the year was out, he was himself made prisoner and straightway banished from the realm.[703] Nor was the vengeance of Heaven even yet complete. The chief officer of the wicked earl was thrown from his horse and killed,[704] and the captain of his foot, who had made himself conspicuous in the violating and burning of churches, met, as he fled beyond the sea, with the fate of Jonah, and worse.[705]

Chroniclers and genealogists have found it easiest to ignore the subsequent fate of Ernulf (or Ernald) de Mandeville.[706] He has even been conveniently disposed of by the statement that he died childless.[707] It may therefore fairly be described as a genealogical surprise to establish the fact, beyond a shadow of doubt, not only that he left issue, but that his descendants flourished for generations, heirs in the direct male line of this once mighty house. Ernulf himself first reappears, early in the following reign, as a witness to a royal charter confirming Ernald de Bosco's foundation at Betlesdene.[708] He also occurs as a principal witness in a family charter, about the same time.[709] This document,[710] which is addressed by Earl Geoffrey "baronibus suis," is a confirmation of a grant of lands in Sawbridgeworth, by his tenant Warine fitz Gerold "Camerarius Regis" and his brother Henry, to Robert Blund of London, who is to hold them "de predictis baronibus meis." The witnesses are: "Roesia Com[itissa] matre mea, Eust[achia] Com[itissa], Ernulfo de Mannavilla fratre meo, Willelmo filio Otuwel patruo meo, Mauricio vicecomite, Willelmo de Moch' capellano meo, Otuwel de bouile, Ricardo filio Osberti, Radulfo de Bernires, Willelmo et Ranulfo fil' Ernaldi, Gaufrido de Gerp[en]villa, Hugone de Augo, Waltero de Mannavilla, Willelmo filio Alfredi, Gaufredo filio Walteri, Willelmo de Plaisiz, Gaufrido pincerna." He is, doubtless, also the "Ernald de Mandevill" who holds a knight's fee, in Yorkshire, of Ranulf fitz Walter in 1166.[711] But in the earliest Pipe-Rolls of Henry II. he is already found as a grantee of terræ datæ in Wilts., to the amount of £11 10s. 0d. (blanch) "in Wurda." This grant was not among those repudiated by Henry II., and Geoffrey de Mandeville, Ernulf's heir, was still in receipt of the same sum in 1189[712] and 1201-2.[713] Later on, in a list of knights' fees in Wilts., which must belong, from the mention of Earl William de Longespée, to 1196-1226, and is probably circ. 1212, we read: "Galfridus de Mandevill tenet in Wurth duas partes unius militis de Rege."[714] That Ernulf should have received a grant in Wilts., a county with which his family was not connected, is probably accounted for by the fact that he obtained it in the time of the Empress, who, as in the case of Humfrey de Bohun, found the revenues of Wilts. convenient as a means of rewarding her partisans.[715] But we now come to a series of charters of the highest importance for this discovery. These were preserved among the muniments of Henry Beaufoe of Edmondescote, county Warwick, Esq., when they were seen by Dugdale, who does not, however, in his Baronage, allude to their evidence. By the first of these Earl Geoffrey (died 1166) grants to his brother Ernulf one knight's fee in Kingham, county Oxon.:—

"Sciatis me dedisse et firmiter concessisse Ernulfo de Mandavilla fratri meo terram de Caingeham, ... pro servitio unius militis in excambitione terre Radulfi de Nuer.... Et si Caingeham illi garantizare non potero dabo illi excambium ad valorem de Caingeham antequam inde sit dissaisitus.... T. Com[ite] Albrico auunculo meo, Henry (sic) fil[io] Ger[oldi], Galfr[ido] Arsic, Rad[ulf]o de Berner[iis], Waltero de Mandavilla, Will[elm]o de Aino, Galfrido de Jarpeuill, Will[elmo] de Plais', Jurdan[o] de Taid', Hug[one] de Auc[o], Willelm[o] fil[io] Alured Rad[ulfo] Magn[?avilla], Audoenus (sic) Pincerna, Rad[ulfo] frater (sic) eius, Aluredus (sic) Predevilain."[716]

Ralph "de Nuers," is entered in 1166 as a former holder of four fees from Earl Geoffrey (II.).[717] Of the witnesses to the charter,[718] Henry fitz Gerold (probably the chamberlain) held four fees (de novo) of the earl in 1166, Ralph de Berners four (de veteri), Walter de Mandeville four (de veteri), Geoffrey de Jarpe[n]ville one (de novo), Hugh de Ou and William fitz Alfred one each (de novo), "Audoenus Pincerna" and Ralph his brother the fifth of a fee (de novo) jointly. The relative precedence, according to holding, is not unworthy of notice. The second charter is from Earl William, confirming his brother's gift:—

"Willelmus de Mandavilla comes Essexie Omnibus hominibus, etc. Sciatis me concessisse Ernulfo de Mandauilla fratri meo donationem quam Comes Galfridus illi fecit de villa de Kahingeham.... T. Comite Albrico, Simone de Bellocampo, Gaufrido de Say, Will[elm]o de Bouilla, Radu[lfo] de Berneres, Seawal' de Osonuilla, Ric[ard]o de Rochellâ, Osberto fil[io] Ric[ard]i, Dauid de Gerponuilla, Wiscardo Leidet, Waltero de Bareuilla, Albot Fulcino, Hugone clerico," etc.[719]

Here Earl "Alberic" was uncle both to the grantor and the grantee; Simon de Beauchamp was their uterine brother; Geoffrey de Say their first cousin. William de Boville would be related to Otuel de Boville, the chief tenant of Mandeville in 1166.[720] "Sewalus de Osevill" then (1166) held four fees (de veteri) of the earl. Richard "de Rochellâ" held three-quarters of a fee (de novo). Osbert fitz Richard was probably a son of Richard fitz Osbert, who held four fees (de veteri) in 1166. Wiscard Ledet was a tenant in capite in Oxfordshire (Testa, p. 103).[721]

The third charter transfers the fee from the grantee himself to his son:—

"Notum sit ... quod ego Arnulfus de Mandeuilla concessi et dedi Radulfo de Mandeuilla filio meo pro suo servicio et homagio villam de Chaingeham ... et hospitium meum Oxenfordie ad prædictam villam pertinens[722] ... T. Henrico Danuers," etc.[723]

From another quarter we are enabled to continue the chain of evidence. We have first a charter to Osney:—

"Ego Gaufridus de Mandeuile ... confirmavi mercatam terre quam Aaliz mater mea eis diuisit in Hugato, sic[?ut] Ernulfus de Mandeuile pater meus eis assignavit."[724]

Then we have a charter which thus carries us a step further:—

"Ego Galfridus de Mandeuilla filius Galfridi de Mandeuillâ concessi Domino Galfrido patri meo, filio Arnulfi de Mandeuillâ," etc., etc.[725]

Among the witnesses to this last charter are Robert de Mandeville, and Ralph his brother, and Hugh de Mandeville. Lastly, we have a charter of Ralph de Mandeville, to which the first witness is "Galfridus de Mandauilla frater meus."[726]

We have now established this pedigree:—

GEOFFREY, = Roese
EARL OF ESSEX, | de Vere.
d. 1144. |
+--------+
|
Ernulf = Aaliz.
de Mandeville, |
son and heir |
(disinherited). |
|
+-------------+---------+
| |
Geoffrey Ralph
de Mandeville. de Mandeville.
|
Geoffrey
de Mandeville.

A further charter (Harl. Cart., 54, I. 44) can now be fitted into this pedigree. It is a notification by Adam de Port, to the Bishop of Lincoln, etc., of his grant of the church of "Hattele." The witnesses are: "Hernaldo de Mandeville et domina Alicia uxore sua, domina Matiltide uxore dicti Adæ de Port, Henrico de Port, fratre ejusdem, Galfrido de Mandeville," etc.[727] Here we have a clue to the parentage of Ernulf's wife.

Passing to the reign of Henry III., we find Kingham then still in possession of the family.[728] In Wiltshire they are found yet later, Worth being still held by them in 1292-93 (21 Edw. I).[729]

The importance of the existence of Ernulf and his heirs is seen when we come to deal with the fate of the earldom of Essex. That Ernulf was "exiled" even for a time becomes a remarkable fact, when we remember that he might have found shelter from the king among the followers of the Empress in the west. But he and his father had offended a power greater than the king. The Empress could not shield him from the vengeance of the outraged Church. It is, I think, in his doings at Ramsey, and in the penalties he had thus incurred, that we must seek the reason of his being, as we shall find, so strangely passed over, in favour of his younger brother Geoffrey, who had not partaken of his guilt.

To another charter, hitherto unknown, we owe our knowledge of the fact that Geoffrey was recognized as his father's heir, by the Empress, on his death. Instructive as its contents would doubtless be, it is known to us only from the following note, made by one who had inspected its transcript in the lost volume of the Great Coucher:—

"Carta M. Imperatricis per quam dat Gaufredo de Mannevill filio Gaufredi Comitis Essexie totam hereditatem suam et omnes tenuras quas concessit patri suo. Testes R. Com. Gloec., Rag. Com. Cornub., Rog. Com. Hereford, R. Regis filio, Umfridus de Bohun Dap., Johannes filius Gisleberti, W. de Pontlarch' Camerario. Apud Divisas.[730]

The names of Robert, Earl of Gloucester, and Roger, Earl of Hereford, limit the date of this charter to 1144-1147, and the father of the grantee died, as we have seen, in August, 1144. It should be noted that nothing is said here of the earldom of Essex, and that only an absolutely new creation could confer the dignity on Geoffrey, as he was not his father's heir.

Here, however, yet another charter, also at present unknown, comes to our assistance with its unique evidence that Geoffrey must have held his father's title before 1147.[731] He then disappears from view for the time.

We must now skip some twelve years, and pass to that most important charter in which the earldom was conferred anew on Geoffrey by Henry II. Only those who have made a special study of these subjects can realize the value of this charter, a record hitherto unknown. The attitude of Henry II. to the creations of Stephen and Matilda, the extent to which he recognized them, and the method in which he did so, are subjects on which the historian is peculiarly anxious for information, but on which our existing evidence is singularly and lamentably slight. Of the four charters quoted in the Reports on the Dignity of a Peer, only two can be said to have a real bearing on the question, and of these one is of uncertain date, while the meaning of the other is doubtful. But the charter I am about to deal with is remarkably clear in its meaning, and possesses the advantage that its contents enable us to date it with precision.

The original charter was formerly preserved in the Cottonian collection, but was doubtless among those which perished in the disastrous fire.[732] The copy of it made by Dugdale, and now among his MSS. at Oxford, is unfortunately imperfect, but the discovery of an independent copy among the Rawlinson MSS. has enabled me not only to fill the gaps in Dugdale's copy (which I have here placed within brackets), but also to establish by collation the accuracy of the text.