The time spent on this important charter has not been wasted. We have found that one who stands in the front rank of English philologists, and for whom the same would, doubtless, be claimed in “diplomatic,” may arrive, in spite of great learning, at quite erroneous conclusions, simply from inexact treatment of the evidence before him.
A word more on Ingelric. According to Mr. Freeman, “that Ingelric was an Englishman seems plain.”[62] Mr. Stevenson, however, who has specially studied the subject of personal names, holds that this was Frankish. The St. Martin’s charter specially speaks of his having acquired his lands under Edward the Confessor. Mr. Stevenson, however, goes further, and states, as we have seen, that it proves him to have been “one of William’s clerks” (sic); and he argues that “if he was a chancery clerk, he may have continued the traditions of Edward’s chancery.” It is remarkable, however, that in an Exeter charter (1069) to which Mr. Stevenson refers us, he again attests, as in two of the charters dealt with above, as “Ingelricus presbyter.” I have chosen, therefore, for this paper the style “Ingelric the priest.”
No question of origin can arise in the case of a third personage, who also enjoyed the favour both of Edward and of his successor, namely, Albert of Lotharingia. Known hitherto as having, it is supposed, given its name to Lothbury—for the “Terra Alberti Loteringi” is mentioned in the list of London wards temp. Henry I.[63]—he occurs in many places on the pages of Domesday. As “Albertus Lothariensis” we find him a tenant-in-chief in the counties of Herefordshire and Beds (186, 216b2), one of his manors in the latter county having been held by him, we read, under Edward the Confessor; and he also occurs by the same style as holding under the latter king at Hatton, Middlesex (129). But, so far, there is nothing to show that Albert was a cleric.
It is a Westminster Abbey charter that supplies the missing clue:
Willelmus rex Anglorum Francis et Anglis salutem. Sciatis me dedisse Sancto Petro Westmonasterii et abbati Gilleberto ecclesias de Roteland et terras pertinentes ad easdem ecclesias sicut Albertus Lotharingius de me tenebat ipsas ecclesias cum omnibus pertinentibus ad ipsas. Teste Hugone de Portu.[64]
Turning to “Roteland” in Domesday, we find that the last name in the list of its tenants-in-chief is that of “Albertus clericus,” who holds the churches of Oakham, Hambleton, and St. Peter’s, Stamford, “cum adjacentibus terris eisdem ecclesiis ... de rege,” the whole forming a valuable estate. Again, we read under Stamford: “Albertus unam æcclesiam Sancti Petri cum duabus mansionibus et dimidia carucata terre quæ jacet in Rotelande in Hemeldune; valet x sol.” (336 b). Following up this clue, we recognise our man in the “Albertus clericus” who holds at “Eddintone,” in Surrey (30, 36 b), and doubtless also in “Albertus clericus” who held land as an under-tenant at Windsor (56 b). Nay, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that he is also the “Albertus capellanus” who, at the end of the Kent Domesday (14 b), has a page all to himself as tenant-in-chief of Newington. Thus in the official index to Domesday we find Albert entered under “clericus,” “Lothariensis,” “Albertus,” and (probably) “capellanus,” and yet, in each case, it is the same man. Regenbald, exactly in the same way, is entered under ‘Cirecestre,’ ‘presbyter’ and ‘Reinbaldus.’ In my ‘Feudal England’ I have similarly identified (p. 167) “Eustachius,” one tenant-in-chief, with “Eustachius vicecomes,” another (and with “Eustachius,” an under-tenant),[65] and “Oger,” a Northamptonshire tenant-in-chief, with Oger “Brito,” a Lincolnshire one (p. 220). In the Eastern counties the Breton founder of the house of Helion is similarly indexed under ‘Britto’ for Essex, ‘Herion’ for Suffolk, and ‘Tehelus’ for Norfolk. Small as these points may seem, their ultimate consequence is great, for they still further reduce the number of tenants-in-chief. When the history of these magnates is more fully known, it will probably be found that those who held in capite per servitium militare, thus excluding, of course, mere serjeants, etc., were a mere handful compared with the vast total given by Ellis and others.
Albert’s Lotharingian origin becomes of special interest now that we know he was a cleric, for Mr. Freeman devoted a special appendix to “Lotharingian churchmen under Edward.”[66] Unfortunately he was not acquainted with the case of Albert. Dr. Stubbs also has dwelt on the importance, for the church, of “the increased intercourse with the empire, and especially with Lorraine,” under Edward the Confessor.[67] He alludes, without committing himself to it, to Mr. Freeman’s somewhat fanciful theory on the subject.
III
Anglo-Norman Warfare
Having devoted special study to the art of war in the Norman period, including therein the subject of castles, I may have, perhaps, some claim to deal with the latest work on a topic which requires for its treatment special knowledge. When a treatise assumes a definite character, and is likely to be permanently consulted, it calls for closer criticism than a mere ephemeral production, and on this ground I would here discuss some points in Mr. Oman’s ‘History of the Art of War’ (1898).