W. rex Anglor' E. epo. B. Abbi W. Malet salm. sciatis vos mei fideles me concessisse servitium de Liuremere quam Werno hactenus de me tenuit sancto Ædmundo Et filia Guernonis in vita sua de Abbate B. tenuit.[17]
The last clause is clearly an addition by the cartulary scribe. Now this charter being addressed, like the other, to Æthelmær ('Ethelmerus'), Bishop of the East Angles, is, of course, previous to April 1070. I should, therefore, also place it previous to the capture of William Malet at York in September 1069. But this, unlike the other date, is matter of probability rather than of proof. Mr Freeman believed that William returned, and died 'in the marshes of Ely' (1071), but this is only a guess in which I cannot concur.[18] In any case, we have evidence here of this well-known man having held a position in Suffolk (where he owned the great Honour of Eye) analogous to that of sheriff. He may have succeeded Northman in that office.
The relevant Domesday entry is as follows:
Hujus terram rex accepit de abbate et dedit Guernoni depeiz [de Peiz]. Postea licencia regis deveniens monachus reddidit terram. (363b.)
The charter records, I take it, the 'licencia regis' of Domesday.[19]
[1] Vol. xxvi., p. 256.
[2] Not counting Leofric, styled 'regis cancellarius' by Florence in 1046.
[3] See my life of him in Dictionary of National Biography.
[4] It might even be suggested that not only this charter but the Essex writ in favour of Deorman (addressed to Bishop William and Swegen the sheriff) belonged to the same early period. Compare, however, the Conqueror's Old English writ that I have discussed ('Londoners and the Chase') in the Athenæum of June 30, 1894.
[5] It is a noteworthy coincidence that 'Brihtricus princeps' and 'Eadricus princeps' are among the witnesses to Harold's Waltham charter in 1062, which Regenbald himself also attests as Chancellor.