[1113] Ord. Vit. 806 B. “His ita peractis, rex populos parumper quiescere permisit, ejusque prudentiam et animositatem congeries magnatorum pertimuit.”
[1114] Ord. Vit. 807 A. “Rodbertus autem Scrobesburiam secesserat, et præfatum oppidum Rogerio, Corbati filio, et Rodberto de Novavilla, Ulgerioque Venatori commiserat, quibus lxxx. stipendiarios milites conjunxerat.”
[1115] Corbet—“Corbatus”—appears in Orderic (522 B, C), along with his sons Roger and Robert, as a chief man in Shropshire under Earl Roger. He must have died before the Survey, as only his sons appear there. The lands which Corbet’s son Roger held of Earl Roger fill nearly two columns in Domesday, 255 b; they are followed by those of his brother Robert in 256. Several of Roger’s holdings had been held by Eadric, and in one lordship of Robert’s he is distinctly marked as “Edric Salvage.” Several of Roger’s under-tenants are mentioned, of whom “Osulfus” and “Ernuinus” must be English, while another lordship had been held by Ernui. If these names mean the same person, then Earnwine or Earnwig had held two lordships, one of which he lost altogether, while the other he kept in the third degree, holding it under Roger son of Corbet, who held it under Earl Roger. I suppose that these sons of Corbet have nothing to do with “Robertus filius Corbutionis” who appears in the east of England and whose name is said to be “Corpechun.” See Ellis, i. 478. I cannot find Robertus de Novavilla in Domesday.
[1116] I cannot find Wulfgar in Domesday, unless he be the Vlgar who appears as an antecessor in 256, 257 b. Some other huntsmen, fittingly bearing wolfish names, as Wulfgeat (50 b) and Wulfric (50 b, 84), appear in Domesday as keeping land T. R. W., but no Wulfgar.
[1117] The action of the Welsh appears in all our accounts, but most fully in Orderic and the Brut. The Annales Cambriæ say only “Seditio [magna] orta est inter Robertum Belleem et Henricum regem.” William of Malmesbury says spitefully, “Wallensibus pro motu fortunæ ad malum pronis.” But he seems somehow to connect them specially with Shrewsbury. Florence is emphatic, and brings out the feudal relation between them and Earl Robert (see above, [p. 424]); “Walanos etiam, suos homines, ut promptiores sibique fideliores ac paratiores essent ad id perficiendum quod volebat, honoribus, terris, equis, armis incitavit, variisque donis largiter ditavit.” From the Brut we get the names of all three, Cadwgan, Jorwerth, and Meredydd. Orderic leaves out Meredydd, and calls them sons of Rhys instead of Bleddyn. He adds, “Quos cum suis copiis exercitum regis exturbare frequenter dirigebat.”
[1118] Ord. Vit. 807 A. “Guillelmum Pantolium, militarem probumque virum, exhæreditaverat, et multa sibi pollicentem servitia in instanti necessitate penitus a se propulsaverat.” Orderic had mentioned him already in 522 B, C, by the name of “Guillelmus Pantulfus,” as one of Earl Roger’s chief followers in Shropshire. His Shropshire holdings fill a large space in Domesday, 257, 257 b, where he appears as Pantulf and Pantul; and the history of one of them has been commented on in N. C. vol. iv. p. 737. Many of them were waste when he received them. His Staffordshire lordship is entered in p. 248, with the addition “in Stadford una vasta masura.” See N. C. vol. iv. p. 281. I do not know why Lappenberg (ii. 234, p. 294 of the translation) makes William Pantulf to have been persecuted (“verfolgt”) by Earl Roger on account of a share in the murder of Mabel. If he had lost his lands then, he would hardly have appeared in Domesday, and, according to Orderic, it was not Earl Roger, but Robert of Bellême himself, who disinherited him.
[1119] See N. C. vol. iv. p. 316. Orderic calls it “Staphordi castrum, quod in vicino erat.”
[1120] Orderic tells us, “Hic super omnes Rodberto nocuit, et usque ad dejectionem consiliis et armis pertinaciter obstitit.”
[1121] The Malvoisin at Bridgenorth comes from Florence; “Machinas ibi construere et castellum firmare cœpit.”
[1122] “Totius Angliæ legiones in autumno adunavit, et in regionem Merciorum minavit, ibique Brugiam tribus septimanis obsedit.” So says Orderic, 807 A. When Florence says, “infra xxx. dies civitate omnibusque castellis redditis,” he must take in Shrewsbury, though he does not mention its name. Bridgenorth could not be called “civitas;” Shrewsbury is so called in Domesday, where the name does not imply a bishop’s see.