[955] Sir Francis Palgrave (iv. 366), countersigned by Dean Church, Anselm, 243, assures us that “Edith was very beautiful.” Mr. Robertson (i. 153, note) will not allow that she was more than “rather pretty.” The Abbess in Hermann of Tournay witnesses to her beauty at the age of twelve, but all that William of Malmesbury (v. 418) can say of her is that she was “non usquequaque despicabilis formæ.” We have already heard of her studies at Romsey, and in her letters to Anselm (Epp. iii. 55, 119) the display of scriptural and classical learning might have satisfied Orderic himself. It is more comforting to find in the second letter that she wishes to bestow the abbey of Malmesbury on one bearing the English name of Eadwulf. Anselm refuses his consent, because Eadwulf sent him a cup, which seemed like an attempt at simony. Eadwulf however did in the end become abbot.
[956] Will. Malms. v. 393. “Erat illa, licet genere sublimis, utpote regis Edwardi ex fratre Edmundo abneptis, modicæ tamen domina supellectilis, utroque tunc parente pupilla.”
[957] Chron. Petrib. 1100. “And siðþan sona heræfter se cyng genam Mahalde him to wife, Malcolmes cynges dohter of Scotlande, and Margareta þære goda cwæne, Eadwardes cynges magan, and of þan rihtan Ænglalandes kyne kynne.” Eadmer (Hist. Nov. 56) traces up the pedigree to Eadgar, but he does not forget that she was “filia Malcholmi nobilissimi regis Scotorum.”
[958] See N. C. vol. ii. p. 308.
[959] See above, [p. 31], and [Appendix EE]. Eadmer, Hist. Nov. 56. “Siquidem eadem Mathildis, inter sanctimoniales in monasterio ab infantia nutrita et adulta, credebatur a multis in servitium Dei a parentibus oblata, eo quod publice visa fuerat earum inter quas vivebat more velata.”
[960] Ib. “Ipsa Anselmum cujus in hoc nutum omnes expectabant adiit.”
[961] Ib. 57. “Differt Anselmus sententiam ferre et causam judicio religiosarum personarum regni determinandam pronunciat. Statuto itaque die coeunt ad nutum illius, episcopi, abbates, nobiles quique, ac religiosi ordinis viri.” Anselm’s Convocation thus admitted lay members.
[962] The archdeacons are sent “Wiltuniam, ubi illa fuerat educata,” but Romsey must surely be meant. See [Appendix EE].
[963] Ib. “Remoto a conventu solo patre, ecclesia Angliæ quæ convenerat in unum de proferenda sententia tractat.”
[964] See N. C. vol. iv. pp. 564, 835.