[157]. to ð forewarde, on condition: comp. ‘Al Denemark i wile you yeue, | To þat forward þu late me liue,’ Havelok, 485, 6. This rare use of to has probably developed from the notion of associated with.
[159]. dide . . . sculde: ‘did worse here than he should,’ Thorpe. For hær sculde, read ær dide: comp. her, 11/190.
[163]. Oxford Castle was surrendered to Matilda in the summer of 1141, and Stephen’s men entered the city, Sept. 26th, 1142. Matilda escaped a few days before Christmas 1142; she left England early in 1147.
[164]. sægen, if a noun, OE. sægen, means report; it is a verb at 8/106, and may be here.
[165]. mid rapes, a detail peculiar to the Chronicle.
[167]. By 1144 Geoffrey of Anjou was completely master of Normandy. The Angevin house was not popular there. here thankes, with their goodwill, willingly: thankes is an adverbial genitive, here, poss. adj. Comp. 116/155, 153/70: with gen. noun, ‘warschipes vnþonkes,’ 118/42; with gen. of possessive pron. ‘þines þonkes,’ OEH i. 17/35; ‘hares unþances,’ 14/56: absolutely, ‘sume þances sume unþances,’ AS. Chron. MS. C 1066: uninflected, ‘unþonc hise teð,’ HM 47/26, comp. ‘þat him wes mucheles unðonc,’ L 22370; ‘mid his gode þonke,’ 34/69.
[170]. suster, Constance, sister of Louis VI of France. The betrothal took place in 1140 when Eustace was about ten years old. The attempt to secure Normandy took place in 1151. Just before his death, Aug. 18th, 1153, Eustace ravaged East Anglia and tried to extort money from Bury St. Edmunds.
[174]. Canteberi: see 1/14.
[176]. rixan: Stephen sought in vain to have Eustace crowned in 1152. Geoffrey of Anjou died Sept. 7th, 1151; Matilda of Boulogne, May 3rd, 1152. Louis VII was divorced from Eleanor of Aquitaine, March 18th, 1152; she married Henry of Anjou at Whitsuntide. She sent for Henry, and he hastened to Poitiers where the marriage took place; ‘ad nuptias ducis quas concupierat convolavit,’ Ann. Monast. iv. 28.
[180]. Henry landed in England Jan. 6th, 1153. He captured Malmesbury, demolished Stephen’s tower at Wallingford, took Stamford and Nottingham. By Nov. 6th he had come to terms with Stephen at Wallingford.