[70], 9. Great roll of Winchester. Domesday Book: the returns forming the basis of which were transmitted to a board sitting at Winchester, by whom they were arranged in order and placed upon record (Lingard, i. 249).
[70], 19. Custom of the realm. This custom is described by Blackstone (Commentaries [1844 ed.] i. 229) as an ancient perquisite called queen-gold or aurum reginæ, due, in the proportion of 10 per cent., from every person making a voluntary offering to the King.
[71], 1. Ransom of King Richard. Richard wrote to his mother from Haguenau on the 19th April, 1193, a letter notifying the 70,000 marks demanded for his ransom by the German Emperor Henry VI. To meet this, the monasteries of England handed over all their gold and silver to royal commissioners, and amongst the treasure delivered up by St. Edmund's was the golden chalice given to the Abbey by Henry II. Queen Eleanor's release of it is printed in the Monasticon (1821 ed.), iii. 154 (see also p. 146 of the Chronicle).
[71], 19. Icklingham. This appears to be the transaction referred to in a Charter of 1200, granted by Samson (confirmed by King John 15th March, 1200):—"We further give and grant to the said Hospital of St. Saviour, for the maintenance of the poor folk, £12 in money from our town of Icklingham, to be annually received through our sacrist." The signatures to this Charter (given in Parker's Melford, p. 9) are interesting. They include "Herbert, the prior," "Hermer, the sub-prior" (see chapter xvi. of this book), and "Jocelin, the almoner" (our Chronicler).
[72], 4. confirmed by the King's Charter. Richard I. signed at Chateau Galliard on 18th July, 1198, two charters (1) confirming to Abbot Samson the manor and advowson of Mildenhall; (2) placing the manor, except Icklingham, at the disposal of the sacrist on certain conditions. At the accession of King John, Samson gave the King £200 for a confirmation of the first Charter, and especially of Mildenhall (cf. Rokewode, pp. 124-5).
[72], 15. Walter of Coutances. The Church at Woolpit was the first piece of preferment of this famous Archbishop. Walter apparently succeeded, at Woolpit, Geoffrey Ridel, made Bishop of Ely in 1173 (see note on page 237). Rokewode says (p. 126): "Henry II. obtained from Hugh, Abbot of St. Edmund's, in free alms, the Church of Woolpit for his clerk, Walter de Coutances, and in consideration thereof, by charter dated at Winchester, granted that after the decease of Walter or his resignation, the Church should be appropriated to the use of the sick monks" (Reg. Nigr. fol. 104 v.). Walter obtained several other appointments, but seems from the text to have retained the Church at Woolpit till 1183, when he was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln. Next year (1184) he was elected Archbishop of Rouen. He took a prominent part in the troubles of the reigns of Richard I. and John, and died at Rouen on 16th November, 1207.
[72], 22. Pope Alexander and Octavian. Alexander III., elected Pope on 7 September, 1159, was obliged to leave Italy in 1162, on account of the power of the Anti-Pope Octavian, and did not return until the decease of the latter in 1164. Samson's journey to Rome was, therefore, between 1159 and 1162, before he became a professed monk.
[73], 3. Pretended to be Scotch. Mr. Arnold gives as the reason for this that "the Scottish kingdom at this time naturally sided with Octavian, England being in favour of Alexander" (I. xliii.). It has been suggested that "simulavi me esse Scottum" in the text means that Samson pretended to be an Irishman, the name Scotus having originally signified Irish, only acquiring its present meaning with the immigration of the Scots from the North of Ireland into Argyll, and their growth into a powerful nation. Bromton, speaking of Ireland, says:—"Dicta est eciam aliquando Scotia a Scotis eam inhabitantibus, priusquam ad aliam Scotiam Britannicam devenerunt; unde in Martirologio legitur: Tali die apud Scotiam natalis Sanctæ Brigidæ: quod est, apud Hiberniam" (see Twysden, Historiæ Anglicanæ Scriptores X, London 1652: vol. I., col. 1072, l. 11). When therefore this passage was written (the fourteenth century) it is clear that the usage of Scot as meaning Irishman was not understood, and was regarded as needing explanation. Samson's contemporary, Ralph de Diceto, following the account of Henry of Huntingdon, twice explains that the Scots came from Ireland (ed. Stubbs 1876, I. 10; II. 34). This explanation again implies that by the middle and end of the twelfth century the word had come to mean exclusively "Scotsman." The same opinion is expressed by Burton: "It is not safe to count that the word Scot must mean a native of present Scotland, when the period dealt with is earlier than the middle of the twelfth century" (History of Scotland, 1873, I. 207). In that part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which was compiled during the reign of King Alfred, Scot regularly means Irishman. In a.d. 903 the death is noted of Virgil, abbot of the Scots, i.e. Irish: but this appears to be the last instance of the use of the word in the Chronicle in that sense. Between the years 924 and 1138 the word Scot occurs fourteen and Scotland twenty-six times in the Chronicle, always with the modern significance.
[73], 6. Gaveloc. Javelin, a word of Celtic origin, but not specifically Scotch. Matthew Paris speaks of it in 1256 as a Frisian weapon: "Frisiones cum jaculis quæ vulgariter gavelocos appellant." (Chr. Maj. ed. Luard. v. 550.) In the Romance of Percival by Chrestien de Troyes, is the couplet, "Et il, qui bien lancier savoit, De gaverlos que il avoit." (Ed. Potvin, Tome I. lines 1309-10. Mons, 1866).
[73], 10. Ride, Ride Rome, turn Cantwereberi, This is written in English by Jocelin; and its meaning seems to be "I am riding towards Rome, turning from Canterbury." Arnold (I. xliii.) says, "If he had meant to say 'returning to Canterbury,' he would at once have been taken for an English adherent of Alexander."