[1103] Flor. Wig. 1102. “Idcirco mox Walanis et Nortmannis, quot tunc habere potuit, in unum congregatis, ipse et suus germanus Arnoldus partem Staffordensis pagæ vastaverunt, ac inde jumenta et animalia multa, hominesque nonnullos in Waloniam abduxerunt.”
[1104] Ord. Vit. 806 B. “Audiens defectionem suorum ingemuit, eosque a promissa fide, quia impos erat adjutorii, absolvit, multumque mœrens licentiam concordandi cum rege concessit.”
[1105] So Orderic; I add the stipulation about Robert from William of Malmesbury; “Egregia sane conditione, ut dominus suus integra membrorum salute Normanniam permitteretur abire.” William’s account just here is very confused; but this condition seems to have struck him, and it explains some things which come later. He goes on to make this strange statement; “Porro Scrobesbirienses per Radulfum tum abbatem Sagii, postea Cantuariæ archiepiscopum, regi misere castelli claves, deditionis præsentis indices, futuræ devotionis obsides.” Now Orderic has, as we shall see, a wholly different account of the surrender of Shrewsbury, and Abbot Ralph, a victim of Robert of Bellême (see vol. i. p. 184), is not at all likely to have been in one of his castles. Can it be that William has got hold of the wrong castle and the wrong Ralph? Did Bishop Ralph of Chichester act by any chance as mediator between the King and the garrison of Arundel, a place in his diocese?
[1106] The name of Howard is not heard till the time of Edward the First, and it is not noble till some generations later. If it really be the name of an English office, Hayward or Hogward, and not a Norman Houard, then Arundel, already a castle T. R. E., has fittingly come back to the old stock.
[1107] See above, [p. 160]. Tickhill appears as “Tyckyll” in Florence, as “Blida” in Orderic, as “Blif” in the Brut. The editor of this last, who carefully translates “Amúythia” as Shrewsbury, seems not to have known that “Blif” and “Bryg”—there seem to be several readings—meant Blyth and Bridgenorth.
[1108] So Florence; “Rotbertum, Lindicolinæ civitatis episcopum, cum parte exercitus Tyckyll obsidere jussit [rex]: ille autem Brycge cum exercitu pene totius Angliæ obsedit.”
[1109] “Unde,” says Orderic—that is from Arundel—“rex ad Blidam castrum, quod Rogerii de Buthleio quondam fuerat, exercitum promovit. Cui mox gaudentes oppidani obviam processerunt, ipsumque naturalem dominum fatentes, cum gaudio susceperunt.” Yet it may be that Bishop Robert, like Joab and Luxemburg, fought against the castle, and that Henry, like David and Lewis the Fourteenth, came to receive its submission.
[1110] The succession of the lords of Tickhill is traced by Mr. John Raine in his history of Blyth.
[1111] See Raine, p. 168.
[1112] See N. C. vol. v. p. 488.