(1072-5)
The elaborate record of this trial is only found, I believe, in the Trinity College (Cambridge) MS., O. 2, 1 (fos. 210b-213b) from which it has been printed by Mr Hamilton in his Inquisitio Comitatus Cantabrigiensis (pp. 192-5). This 'placitum', therefore, would seem to have remained unknown till the publication of that work (1876).
The date of this important document can be fixed within a few years. It mentions Earl Waltheof among those before whom the plea was held, so that it cannot be later than 1075; and as it also mentions 'Rodulfus comes', it is evidently previous to the revolt of the earls in that year. On the other hand, it is later than the death of William Malet, for it mentions his son Robert as in possession, and later, therefore, than the restoration of Waltheof at the beginning of 1070. Moreover, it is subsequent to the death of Stigand ('post obitum illius'). Now Stigand was not even deposed till the spring of 1070; and we know from Domesday and other sources that he lived some time afterwards. We may safely say, therefore, that this 'placitum' did not take place till after the suppression of the Ely revolt in the autumn of 1071. Practically, therefore, our document belongs to the years 1072-1075. Now, as Abbot Thurstan did not die till 1076—the date given in the Liber Eliensis, and accepted by Mr Freeman—it follows that this great act of restitution in favour of the Abbey took place under Abbot Thurstan himself, a fact unmentioned by the chroniclers, and unsuspected by Mr Freeman, who held that he found no favour in William's eyes.
The great length of this document—so important for its bearing on Domesday—precludes its discussion in detail. But its opening clause must be given and some of its features pointed out.
Ad illud placitum quo pontifices Gosfridus et Remigius, consul vero Waltheuus, necnon vicecom[ites] Picotus atque Ilbertus jussu Willelmi Dei dispositione Anglor[um] regis, cum omni vicecomitatu sicut rex preceperat, convenerunt, testimonio hominum rei veritatem cognoscentium determinaverunt terras que injuste fuerant ablate ab ecclesia sancte Dei genitricis Marie de insulâ ely ... quatinus de dominio fuerant, tempore videlicet regis Ædwardi, ad dominium sine alicujus contradictione redirent quicunque eas possideret.
The mention of Count Eustace among those withholding lands proves that at the date of this document he was already restored to his possessions. Another individual whose name occurs several times in this document is Lisois ('De Monasteriis'), the hero of the passage of the Aire. Collating its evidence with that of Domesday, we find that Lisois had been succeeded, at the date of the great record, by the well-known Eudo Dapifer in a fief, ranging over at least five counties—Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex—in all of which Domesday records his name as the predecessor of Eudo. This is of the more interest because Mr Freeman wrote:
The only notice of this Lisois which I can find in Domesday is in ii. 49b, where he appears in possession, but seemingly illegal possession, of a small holding in Essex.
So again we have in our document this passage relating to Stigand:
He sunt proprie ville monasterii insule Ely quos Stigandus archipresul tenebat, unde per annum victum fratribus reddidit tantum quantum pertinet ad hoc. Has vero tenet rex noster W. post obitum illius, Methelwald et Crokestune et Snegelwelle et Dictun.
Now Stigand, according to the Liber Eliensis 'quasdam illius optimas possessiones sicut Liber Terrarum insinuat, ad maximum loci dispendium retinuit'. Our document identifies these 'possessiones' with Methwold and Croxton in Norfolk, Snailwell and Ditton in Cambridgeshire, and thus disposes of Mr Freeman's very unfortunate suggestion—advanced, of course, to justify Stigand—that the Liber Eliensis here referred to a tiny Hampshire estate, which the Abbey had held under Stigand T.R.E.[1]