[13]. gære: 1133 A.D. The eclipse took place on August 2nd ‘ð oþer dei’; it lasted ‘ab hora fere 3 usque ad horam 6,’ Liebermann, Anglo-Normannische Geschichtsquellen, 79. Henry died at Lions-la-Forêt on the night of December 1st, 1135, and was buried January 6th, 1136.
[18]. sua dide: Comp. ‘sua diden’ 10/152; ‘swa ibeoð’ 14/70: similar are 8/84, 110, 9/115, 10/165, 176, 12/v. 5, 140/30, 146/117, 215/27, 217/97. The subject is often omitted when it would represent the same thing as a noun or pronoun in an oblique case in the preceding clause or phrase, as at 16/122, 45/239, 98/71, 102/133, 118/42, 128/5, 140/25, 207/354, 217/94; see KH 1268 note.
[19]. Andreas is the Vulgate form.
[20]. þe mihte: comp. 8/81.
[21]. sune . . . frend: Robert of Gloucester and Hugh, archbishop of Rouen, were at his death-bed.
[22]. ‘Corpus eius . . . apud Radingum in monasterio cuius ipse devotus fundator largusque ditator exstiterat, sepultum est,’ William of Newbury, 30. Redinge, L. Radingia.
[23]. wið: the usual prepositions are against and to, but comp. ‘nalde na mon mis-don wið oðre,’ OEH i. 15/17, 35/2, and see [48/300 note]. dær. Their peace was soon broken, ‘Ferae quoque, quae in tota prius regione, tanquam in indagine reclusae, cum summa pace reservabantur, nunc quaquaversum turbari, a quolibet passim dispergi, ab omnibus, abiecto metu, prosterni,’ Gesta, 4.
[27]. blais: L. Blēsae: ai is an English graph for ei. Tonic e free (L. ē) passed through ei to oi in most French dialects, but in Norman it stopped at the first stage: in the Norman patois of to-day, L. me(n)sem is meis, mes. Similarly L. Pictavum passed through Peitou to Poitou in central French, but remained at the first stage for some time in Anglo-Norman; see 10/179. Stephen was ‘filius comitis Blesensium’; he was himself ‘comes Boloniensis.’
[28]. Willelm curbuil, Guillelmus Curbuliensis, W. of Corbeil (L. Corboilum), a canon regular of the Augustinian Order, became archbishop of Canterbury in 1123, and died 1136. The subject of halechede is lundenisce folc: according to the Gesta (p. 4) they claimed the right to elect. mide-wintre dæi, Christmas Day; the pre-Christian name for the festival.
[30]. ricemen, powerful men, nobles: comp. 8/99, 19/34, 206/324. Balduin de Reduers, Balduinus de Radvariis; in France, Baudouin de Réviers (near Caen). An e for Fr. ie is characteristic of Anglo-Norman. He was created Earl of Devon sometime before June, 1141. The order of events is here confused. The settlement with David of Scotland by which Stephen granted the earldoms of Carlisle, Huntingdon and Doncaster to David’s son, Henry, was made before Easter, 1136; Hugh Bigod seized Norwich castle in May; Stephen laid siege to Bampton in June and took Exeter in September; Milo of Beauchamp held Bedford castle against the king early in 1138. Stephen was much blamed for his clemency to the rebels at Exeter; see Round, 24.