On the abbey founded in 1130, see Neustria Pia, 749.
[1094] This seems to be the meaning of Orderic’s words, “Non enim sese sine violentia dedere dignabantur, ne malefidi desertores merito judicarentur.”
[1096] Orderic’s way of telling this is curious; “Quia dux deses et mollis erat, ac principali severitate carebat, Rodbertus de Monteforti, aliique seditionis complices, qui vicissim dissidebant, mappalia sua, sponte immisso igne, incenderunt, totum exercitum turbaverunt, et ipsi ex industria, nemine persequente, fugerunt, aliosque, qui odibilem Rodbertum gravare affectabant, turpiter fugero compulerunt.” Of all the Roberts concerned, it would seem to be he of Montfort who was “odibilis” at the present moment.
[1097] Ord. Vit. u. s. “Cum ululatu magno post eos deridentes vociferati sunt.”
[1098] Ord. Vit. 806 D. “Per totam ergo provinciam pagensium prædas rapiebant, et direptis omnibus, domos flammis tradebant.”
[1099] Orderic (806 B) implies that the works at Bridgenorth were still going on; “Brugiam, munitissimum castrum, super Sabrinam fluvium construebat.” But Florence is still more emphatic; “Muros quoque ac turres castellorum, videlicet Brycge et Caroclove, die noctuque laborando et operando, perficere modis omnibus festinavit.” The Brut speaks obscurely of some earlier dealings about Bridgenorth, of which we have no record elsewhere; “Brygge, concerning which there had been war, against which the whole deceit was perpetrated, and which he had founded contrary to the order of the King.” The rebels are described generally as fortifying their castles and surrounding them with ditches and walls, which are expressed in the Welsh text by the loan words “O ffossyd a muroed.”
[1100] Orderic and the Brut stand alone among our authorities in mentioning all the four castles, Arundel, Tickhill, Bridgenorth, and Shrewsbury. The Chronicle and William of Malmesbury leave out Tickhill. Florence and the Chronicle both leave out Shrewsbury. William of Malmesbury (v. 396) further confounds the siege of Arundel with that of Shrewsbury. From Orderic we get a clear and full account, while the Brut supplies many details as to the Welsh side of the business. Orderic opens his story in a becoming manner; “Rex exercitum Angliæ convocavit, et Arundellum castellum, quod prope litus maris situm est, obsedit.”
[1101] The Malvoisins before Arundel seem to have struck all our writers. We get them in the Chronicle; “Se cyng ferde and besæt þone castel æt Arundel, ac þa he hine swa hraðe gewinnan ne mihte, he let þær toforan castelas gemakian, and hi mid his mannan gesette.” They appear also in Florence, William of Malmesbury, and Henry of Huntingdon. They were doubtless of wood; but it is only from Roger of Wendover (ii. 170), who is followed by Matthew Paris (Hist. Angl. i. 190), that we get the direct statement, “castellum aliud ligneum contra illud construxit.”
[1102] So I understand the words of Orderic, 806 B; “Ibi castris constructis, stratores cum familiis suis tribus mensibus dimisit.”