[137] "Item in Augusto perrexit super eum et concordati sunt, sed non diu duravit" (ibid.).
[138] Printed in Archæological Journal, xx. 291. Its second witness is Richard de Luci, whom I have not elsewhere found attesting before Christmas, 1141.
[139] If, as would seem, Hugh Bigod appears first as an earl at the battle of Lincoln, when he fought on Stephen's side, it may well be that the "concordia" between them in August, 1140, similarly comprised the concession by the king of comital rank. On the other hand, there is a noteworthy charter (Harl. Cart., 43, c. 13) of Stephen, which seems to belong to the winter of 1140-1, to which Hugh Bigod is witness, not as an earl, so that his creation may have taken place very shortly before Stephen's fall. As this charter, according to Mr. Birch, has the second type of Stephen's seal, it strengthens the view advanced in the text.
[140] Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, vol. xi., New Series.
[141] Mr. Birch points out the interesting fact that while the earlier type has an affinity to that of the great seal of Henry I., the later approximates to that adopted under Henry II.
[142] Royal Charters, No. 15. See my Ancient Charters, p. 39.
[143] Dr. Stubbs observes that the consequence of the arrest was that "the whole administration of the country ceased to work" (Const. Hist., i. 326).
[144] Cotton Charter, vii. 4. See Frontispiece.
[145] This is the well-known Henry de Essex (see Appendix U), son of Robert (Rot. Pip., 31 Hen. I.), and grandson of Swegen of Essex (Domesday). He witnessed several of Stephen's charters, probably later in the reign, but was also a witness to the Empress's charters to the Earls of Oxford and of Essex (vide post).
[146] A John, son of Robert fitz Walter (sheriff of East Anglia, temp. Hen. I.), occurs in Ramsey Cartulary, i. 149.