William passes the winter in the north: "he ordered the towns and fields of the whole district to be laid waste; the fruits and grain to be destroyed by fire or by water. ... thus the resources of a once flourishing province were cut off, by fire, slaughter, and devastation; the ground for more than sixty miles, totally uncultivated and unproductive, remains bare to the present day”.”

Aegelric, the former bishop of Durhama, is betrayed into William's hands, and confined at Westminster.

WALES.

A.D. 1070. RYWALLON, one of the princes of North Wales, is killed.

Wales was nominally subject to the English crown at the time of the arrival of the Normans, and although William was too much occupied in other parts to enforce, except on one occasion, the claim of feudal superiority, it was only reserved for a more fitting season. As early indeed as 1067, one Baldwin built a castle, where now stands Montgomery, within the acknowledged border of Powys, and in 1069 and 1070 other adventurers seized on, and fortified, posts on the coast of Dyved, or Pembroke. In this latter year, civil dissension opened the

Such is the substance of the account of William of Malmesbury, in his "History of the Kings," which is usually considered to have been written about 1135, or nearly 60 years after the event, and it is fully borne out by numerous entries in the Domesday Book. The lands of the Saxon leaders appear to have been rendered so desolate, that on 411 manors described, only eight cottagers and 35 villeins are entered.

He had been abbot of Peterborough, but after holding the see of Durham 15 years he returned to his monastery; he again left it to join his people against the Normans. He died in prison, at Westminster, Oct. 15, 1072.

See pp. 105, 145.

See A.D. 1081, p. 197.

road to other parts of the country; the purchased aid of a few Norman horsemen enabled Caradoc, lord of Morganwg (Glamorgan), to seize the principality of South Wales; but his treacherous allies soon returned as plunderers, and next as conquerors and permanent settlers. Early in the reign of William II. they joined another rebellious lord of Glamorgan, killed Rhys ap Tudor, the lineal descendant of Howel Dda, and partitioned his territories d.

This success was followed by William's assertion of his feudal superiority, and his grant of other parts of Wales to certain of his favourites. In consequence, a crowd of desperate adventurers poured into the country, extending to it all the miseries that England then suffered. The Welsh strove fiercely against them, and more than once, according to their own annalists, cleared the land; "but the spoilers had tasted of the sweetness of Wales," they returned to the charge, found allies among the numerous aspirants to sovereignty after the death of Rhys ap Tudor and the exile of his family, and in the course of the two following reigns, though almost constantly in a state of siege, and often in extreme jeopardy, Norman and Flemish castles and colonies spread along

The leader of this band was Robert Fitzhamon; the names of his twelve principal companions have been preserved, and to them is ascribed the foundation of the numerous castles still found in Glamorganshire and its immediate neighbourhood. They were Gilbert Humfreville, Oliver St. John, Payen de Turberville, Peter le Soore, Reginald de Sulby, Richard Greenfield, Richard de Siward, Robert St. Quintin, Roger Berknolles, John the Fleming, William the Easterling, and William of London.

Both were detested for their cruelty, but, according to Caradoc of Llancarvan, the Flemings had not even the reputation of courage; on one occasion Griffin ap Tudor (see p. 222) encouraged his men to attack them with the remark, that, though twenty times more numerous, they "were only Flemings;" his followers justified his confidence by routing their opponents.

the coasts of South and West Wales; Powys was more completely occupied; and Gwynneth alone, favoured by the nature of the country, was able to maintain a semblance of independence.

It was indeed little more than a semblance, although the brave and often successful efforts of Owen Gwynneth, the descendant of Howel Dda, the "Owen brave and Owen strong" of the bards, and the internal troubles of England, long delayed the complete subjugation of the land. Their contact with the Normans, however, soon produced many important changes among the Welsh. The feudal institution was received among them; numerous intermarriages, and consequent exchanges of property, took place; the authority of the archbishop of Canterbury was allowed to supersede that of the archbishop of St. David's; some of their chiefs accepted the office of justiciary from the English kings, and such great alterations were in consequence made in the institutes of Howel Dda, that as early as 1080 the prince of North Wales gave the parties to any suit the choice of being judged by the old or the new law.

A.D. 1070. The laws called those of Edward the Confessor are promulgated in London, contrary to the wish of the people of the east and north, who desire the Danish law.

A council holden at Winchester, about Easter, in which Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury, is deposed. and sentenced to imprisonment.

Lanfranc, a Norman abbot, is appointed archbishod

He escaped to Scotland, and is believed to have died there.

of Canterbury, Aug. 15, and consecrated August 29. Thomas, a canon of Bayeux, appointed archbishop of York, declines to take the oath of canonical obedience to him, which commences the contest for the primacy between the two sees.

Waltheof, the son of Siward, who had held York against William, is taken into favour, and marries Judith, the king's niece.

King Sweyn from Denmark arrives in the Humber, with many bishops and earls; "the English people from all the fen lands came to them, conceiving that they would win all the land."

Christiern, a Danish bishop, establishes himself at Ely. Hereward, the younger brother of the earls Edwin and Morcar, heads a band, which plunders and burns the abbey of Peterborough, it having been bestowed by William on Thorold," a stern man," and one of his partisans, June 2; they deposit their plunder at Ely, but it is afterwards lost at sea.

The Danish fleet comes into the Thames, when William makes a treaty with Sweyn, and it withdraws.

Malcolm of Scotland marries Margaret, the sister of Edgar Atheling.

Caradoc, son of Griffin ap Rytherch, lord of Glamorgan, obtains the sovereignty of South Wales by the help of the Normans. He is shortly succeeded by his son Rytherch.

Wilfrid, in the seventh century, had refused to be consecrated by the archbishop of Canterbury, but probably as much from dislike of his communion with Aidan and others of the British church as from any claim to the primacy. The dispute, which in its course led to many indecent broils, even in the presence of royalty (see anno 1175), was at length decided in 1354 by Pope Innocent VI. in favour of Canterbury.

A.D. 1071. "All the monasteries are ordered to be plundered," says the Saxon Chroniclers.

The earls Edwin and Morcar become outlaws; "they fled out and roamed at random in woods and fields."

Edwin is treacherously killed, but Morcar takes ship and joins Hereward in the Isle of Ely. Hereward is also joined by Aegelwine, the expelled bishop of Durham (brother of Aegelric), Siward Barni, and many hundred men.

"Then William beset the land all about, and built a bridge, and went in, and had ships at the same time on the sea-side .... the outlaws then surrendered, except Hereward and those who would join him, whom he led out triumphantly."

The lands of Edwin and Morcar, in Norfolk and Lincoln, are granted chiefly to Ivo Tailbois, who married their sister Lucyk; their Yorkshire lands had been devastated.

We learn from later writers that this plunder included not only the valuables which the oppressed English had there deposited in a place of fancied safety, but also most of the charters which William himself had granted. See p. 181.

h He was captured when the island surrendered, and died in prison at Abingdon soon after. Of the other prisoners it is said, "the king disposed of them as he thought proper;" he, however, spared the lives of Morcar and Siward Barn, and on his death-bed ordered them to be set at liberty. See p. 207.

iHe is mentioned in the Domesday Book as having held, in the time of King Edward, large possessions in Gloucester, Norfolk, Warwick, and Yorkshire.

i Hereward's fate is uncertain; the Chronicle of Gaimar says he led a wandering life for a time, and then was surprised and killed by a troop of Bretons in the pay of William.

Many of William's followers were thus provided with wives as well as lands, which was perhaps intended to pave the way for a peaceable possession of the country by the next generation, though it may well be doubted whether the ladies could regard themselves as more fortunate than their despoiled or murdered relatives.