[274]. For all these events Simeon of Durham is the authority giving most detail.
[275]. Hist. Monast. de Abingdon, ii., 10.
[276]. Brut y Tywysogion, 1080.
[277]. Mon. Angl., vii., 993, from an “inspeximus” of 31 Ed. I. The charter in question is dated “apud villam Dontonam,” which in the index to the volume of Patent Rolls is identified with Downton, Wilts. William, at Downton, may very well have been on his way to one of the Hampshire or Dorset ports.
[278]. iii., 168. On the other hand, Giesbrecht (iii., 531) has suggested that a political difference was the occasion of the quarrel between Odo and William, the former wishing to take up arms for Gregory VII., while the latter was on friendly terms with the emperor. But Gregory himself in a letter addressed to William (Register, viii., 60), while reproving his correspondent for lack of respect towards his brother’s orders, admits that Odo had committed some political offence against the king. As to the nature of that offence, we have no contemporary statement, nor do we know how far Gregory may have possessed accurate information as to the motives which induced William’s action.
[279]. William of Malmesbury.
[280]. Ordericus Vitalis, iii., 196.
[281]. An isolated reference to the siege of Saint-Suzanne occurs in the Domesday of Oxfordshire, in which county the manor of Ledhall had been granted to Robert d’Oilly, “apud obsidionem S. Suzanne.”
[282]. Heimskringla, iii., 198.
[283]. The severity of the devastation should not be exaggerated, for in 1086 Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk were the most prosperous parts of England.