To the Abbey of Grestein in Normandy[197] founded by Herlwine de Contevill, his father, he was a great benefactor, for he gave[198] thereunto the lordships of Gratings and Broteham in Suffolk, and the tithe of Cambis, as also his lands at Saisinton in Cambridgeshire; which place of Gratings (now Cretings) was a cell to that foreign monastery. He likewise[198] gave thereto the manor of Wilminton in Sussex, where also there was a cell for monks of that religious house; and in Ferlis[198] five hides of lands. In Pevensel he gave[198] them the house of one Engeler; and in his Forest of Pevensel, granted to them pannage and herbage, with timber for repair of their churches and houses, as also fuel for fire.
He gave moreover to that Abbey of Grestein half the fishing of Langeney, and the whole tithe of that fishing, as also the churches of Eldene, Wesdene, and Ferles, and one hide of land at Heetone. But whereas he found that the greatest part of the possessions which belonged to the Priory of St. Petroc at Bodmin in Cornwall, founded by King Æthelstan, had been[199] taken from the same, and enjoyed by canons secular, he therefore seised[199] upon the remainder, and converted them to his own use.
When he departed this world, I do not find; but if he lived after William Rufus so fatally lost his life by the glance of an arrow in New Forest from the bow of Walter Tirell; then was it unto him that this strange apparition happened, which I shall here speak of, otherwise it must be to his son and successor Earl William,—the story[200] whereof is as followeth. In that very hour that the king received that fatal stroke, the Earl of Cornwall being hunting in a wood distant from that place about two ——
and left alone by his attendants, was accidentally met by a very great black goat, bearing the king all black, and naked, and wounded through the midst of his breast; and adjuring the goat by the Holy Trinity to tell what that was he so carried, he answered, “I am carrying your King to judgment, yea that tyrant William Rufus, for I am an evil spirit, and the revenger of his malice which he bore to the church of God, and it was I that did cause this his slaughter; the protomartyr of England, St. Alban, commanding me so to do; who complained to God of him for his grievous oppressions in this Isle of Britain, which he first hallowed,” all which the Earl related soon after to his followers.
This Earl Robert took to wife[201] Maud, daughter to Roger de Montgomery (Earl of Shrewsbury) which Maud was also a great benefactress to the Monks of Grestine in Normandy, by the gift[202] of Conoc, consisting of ten hides, and two hides in Bodingham, with the church of that place, as also one house in London, with all customs thereto belonging. Moreover, she gave[202] unto them two and thirty hides of land which she had of Roger de Montgomery her father, viz. at Harinton eight, at Mersen eleven, at Hiteford six, at Langeberge two, at Tavistone three and an half, and at Clavendon three yards land.
By this Maud he had issue[203] William, who succeeded him in these earldoms of Moreton and Cornwall, and three daughters, whose Christian names are not expressed; whereof the first was wife[203] to Andrew de Vitrei; the Second to[203] Guy de la Val; the third to the Earl of Thoulouse, brother to Raymond Count of St. Giles, who behaved himself so valiantly in the Jerusalem expedition.
The lands whereof he was possessed at the time of the Conqueror’s Survey,[204] were in Sussex, fifty-four manors, besides the borough of Pevensel; in Devonshire seventy-five, besides a church and a house in Exeter; in Yorkshire an hundred and ninety-six; in Wiltshire five; in Dorsetshire forty-nine; in Suffolk ten; in Hantshire one; in Middlesex five; in Oxfordshire one; in Cambridgeshire five; in Hertfordshire thirteen; in Buckinghamshire twenty-nine; in Gloucestershire one; in Northamptonshire
ninety-nine; in Nottinghamshire six; and in Cornwall two hundred and forty-eight, having two castles, one at Dunhevet, the other at Tremeton.
William, succeeding Earl Robert his father in the earldom of Moreton in Normandy, and this of Cornwall, being a person[205] of a malicious and arrogant spirit from his childhood, envied the glory of King Henry the First; and not contented with those two earldoms, demanded from King Henry the earldom of Kent as his right, which earldom his uncle Odo (the Bishop) formerly had, giving out[205] privately, that he would not put on his robe, unless that inheritance which he challenged by descent from his uncle might be restored to him, unto which demand, the King at first, considering[205] his own unsettled condition, gave[205] a subtile and dilatory answer; but when[205] he discerned that those clouds, from whence he doubted a storm, were over, he not only denied[205] his request, but began to question him for whatsoever he possessed unrightfully; yet (that he might not seem to oppose what was just) modestly yielding[205] that he should have a lawful trial for the same; but with that judicial sentence, which thereupon ensued, this Earl being highly displeased, in a great rage got over into Normandy, and there besides some fruitless attempts which he made against the King’s castles, having an evil eye towards Richard Earl of Chester (son of Hugh) made[206] no little spoil upon his lands, though he was then but a child, and in the King’s tutelage; from which time, together with Robert de Bellesme, Earl of Shrewsbury, he ceased not[206] to foment a rebellion in those parts. Anno 1103.
4th H. I. 1104. The king therefore discerning these his practises, seised[207] upon all his possessions here in England, razed[208] his castles to the ground, and banished[208] him this realm.