[202] The Gesta itself is, on this point, conclusive, for it distinctly states that the Empress "solito severius, solito et arrogantius procedere et loqui, et cuncta cœpit peragere, adeo ut in ipso mox domini sui capite reginam se totius Angliæ fecerit, et gloriata fuerit appellari."
[203] Will. Malms., 744.
[204] To this visit (if the only occasion on which she was at Winchester in the spring) must belong the Empress's charter to Thurstan de Montfort. As it is not comprised in Mr. Birch's collection, I subjoin it in extenso (from Dugdale's MSS.):—
"M. Imperatrix H. Regis filia Rogero Comiti de Warwick et omnibus fidelibus suis Francis et Anglis de Warewicscire salutem. Sciatis me concessisse Thurstino de Monteforti quod habeat mercatum die dominica ad castellum suum de Bellodeserto. Volo igitur et firmiter præcipio quatenus omnes euntes, et stantes, et redeuntes de Mercato prædicto habeant firmam pacem. T. Milone de Glocestria. Apud Wintoniam."
As Milo attests not as an earl, this charter cannot belong to the subsequent visit to Winchester in the summer. The author of the Gesta mentions the Earl of Warwick among those who joined the Empress at once "sponte nulloque cogente."
[205] Cont. Flor. Wig., p. 130.
[206] This he did on the ground that the recognition of Stephen as king by the pope, in 1136, was binding on all ecclesiastics (Historia Pontificalis). Vide infra, p. 69, n. 1.
[207] Will. Malms., p. 744. Oddly enough, Miss Norgate gives this very reference for her statement that in a few days the Archbishop of Canterbury followed the legate's example, and swore fealty to the Empress at Wilton.
[208] "Convenitur ibi ab eadem de principibus unus, vocabulo Robertus de Oileio, de reddendo Oxenfordensi castello; quo consentiente, venit illa, totiusque civitatis et circumjacentis regionis suscepit dominium atque hominium" (Cont. Flor. Wig., p. 131).
[209] "She then made her way to London by a roundabout path. She was received at Oxford by the younger Robert of Oily," etc. (Norm. Conq., v. 306).