[632] "Vir iste nobilis, cæteris in pace recedentibus, solus, rege jubente, fraudulenter comprehensus, et, ne abiret, custodibus designatis, detentus est" (Mon. Ang., iv. 142).
[633] "Ne regia majestas turpi proditionis opprobio infamaretur."
[634] "Milites autem beati Albani, qui tunc, ad ecclesiæ ejus custodiam et villæ fossatis circumdatæ, ipsum vicum, qui juxta cænobium est, inhabitabant, ipsi regi in faciem viriliter restiterunt, donec ecclesiæ, quam quidam ex regiis ædituis violaverant, satisfecisset ipse rex, et ejus temerarii invasores.... Et hoc fecit rex contra jusjurandum, quod fecerat apud Sanctum Albanum, et contra statuta concilii nuper, eo consentiente, celebrati" (Mathew Paris, Historia Anglorum, i. 271).
[635] An incidental allusion to this conflict between the followers of the king and the abbey's knights is to be found, I think, in a curious passage in the Gesta Abbatum S. Albani (i. 94). We there read of Abbot Geoffrey (1119-1146): "Tabulam quoque unam ex auro et argento et gemmis electis artificiose constructam ad longitudinem et latitudinem altaris Sancti Albani, quam deinde, ingruente maxima necessitate, idem Abbas in igne conflavit et in massam confregit. Quam dedit Comiti de Warrena et Willelmo de Ypra et Comiti de Arundel et Willelmo Martel, temporibus Regis Stephani, Villam Sancti Albani volentibus concremare." The conjunction of William of Ypres with Abbot Geoffrey dates this incident within the limits 1139-1146, and there is no episode to which it can be so fitly assigned as this of 1143, especially as the Earl of Arundel figures in both versions.
[636] "Et licet multi amicorum suorum, talia ei injuste illata ægre ferentium, pro eo regem interpellarent" (Mon. Ang., iv. 142).
[637] "Rex igitur Galfridum, custodiis arctissime adhibitis, Londonias adducens, ni turrim et quæ miro labore et artificio erexerat castella in manus ejus committeret, suspendio cruciari paravit; cum salubri amicorum persuasus consilio, ut imminens inhonestæ mortis periculum, castellis redditis, devitaret, regis voluntati tandem satisfecit" (Gesta, p. 104). "Igitur, ut rex liberaret eum reddidit ei turrim Lundoniæ et castellum de Waledene et illud de Plaisseiz" (Hen. Hunt., p. 276). "Eique arcem Lundoniensem cum duobus reliquis quæ possidebat castellis extorsit [rex]" (W. Newburgh, i. 45). The castle of (Saffron) Walden, with the surrounding district, was placed by Stephen in charge of Turgis d'Avranches, whom we have met with before, and who refused, some two years later, to admit the king to it (Gesta, ed. Howlett, p. 101). Mr. Howlett appears to have confused it with another castle which Stephen took "in the Lent of 1139," for Walden was Geoffrey's hereditary seat and had always been in his hands.
[638] "Regnique totius communem ad jacturam, tali modo liberatus de medio illorum evasit" (Gesta, p. 104). "Quo facto, velut equus validus et infrænis, morsibus, calcibus quoslibet obvios dilaniare non cessavit" (Mon. Ang., iv. 142).
[639] "Episcopus vero Elyensis pro tam imminenti sibi negotio auxilium Dominæ Imperatricis et suorum colloquium requirendum putavit" (Anglia Sacra, i. 622).
[640] This might lead us to suppose that the incident belonged to the latter half of 1142, when Wareham was in the king's hands. The date (1143), however, cannot be in question.
[641] Historia Eliensis, p. 623. Theobald, from his Angevin sympathies, supported Nigel's cause.