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glimpse of him and his East Angles marching down from the Cotswold into the Vale of Gloucester, under Godwin's command, to plead with that cogency that pertains to an armed array, in the presence of Edward the Confessor, for justice on Eustace of Boulogne and his followers for their ravages committed at Dover. The intervention of Leofric of Mercia warded off the struggle, and the Suffolk homesteads received back their men unscathed. Five years afterwards Harold took flight, and after some delay Alfgar, the son of Leofric, succeeded him, holding the earldom till the memorable Mickle Gemote of London, in September, 1052, restored the Godwin family to their old position.

Next year Godwin died, and Edward the Confessor and his Witan transferred Harold from the more ancient earldom of East Anglia to the more extensive one of Wessex. The general joy at this promotion seems to argue favourably for the state of East Anglia under Harold. Alfgar now sought and obtained restitution to that post which he had occupied for so short a period. Indeed, the earldoms changed hands about that time with a velocity which could not have proved beneficial either to ruler or ruled. Alfgar's father, the great Leofric, died on the last day of August, 1057, and his French successor, Ralph, followed him before the year was out. In spite of serious faults in his character, Alfgar was allowed to succeed his father in Mercia, and Harold's younger brother Gurth became Earl of the East Angles. But the territory was cut short by the subtraction of Essex, which helped to create an earldom for another brother, Leofwin, Oxfordshire being added afterwards for important political reasons, as well as by compensation. Gurth remained Earl till the day when he and his brothers fell at Senlac, and the Saxon gave way to the Norman.

TH

CHAPTER VI.

THE NORMAN PERIOD.

HE thrilling events of the Norman Conquest told on Suffolk chiefly by change of proprietorship. The men whose names ended in wulf, ketyl, bert, and win went out, and the men whose names began in Fitz, De and Le came in. One remarkable survival is that of the ante-conquestal Toelmag in the Tollemaches of Helmingham. What Edric of Laxfield had done we know not; but, as a rule, we know that Robert Malet, or the Hammer, held the broad lands that were Edric's in the days of Edward the Confessor. Roger of Poitou, Ralph Baynard, William de Varennes, and other friends of the victor, eminently Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, appear as the new owners. No earl held Suffolk as his sole jurisdiction, Norwich in the course of a little time becoming the civil and ecclesiastical centre; and from the well-known hill of that city was wielded the rod of county authority till the reign of Richard II.

The fortunes of the Malet family may serve as a comment on those days.

The family was founded by William Malet, of Graville, in Caux, Normandy. He married Hesilia Crispin, descended from Crispina, daughter of Rollo, first Duke of Normandy. He took part in the battle of Hastings, where his rashness nearly lost him his life. According to most of the chroniclers of the time whose accounts are

accepted by Freeman, he was entrusted with the burial of Harold's body on the sea-shore, before its removal to Waltham. He was made Sheriff of York, and placed in charge of the city when it was taken by William in 1068; but only a year later he was made prisoner by the Danes when they recaptured the city. Probably, soon exchanged, he died during the campaign against Hereward the Wake in 1071. He was one of the few nobles allowed to build a castle, which he did at Eye. He also established a market there by the King's leave. It is recorded in Domesday that this market rendered quite valueless that of the Bishop established at Hoxne. There is no account of the amount of his very large possessions in England, but besides those into which he entered without question, his son Robert laid claim to many lordships in York and Lincolnshire; but the chief bulk of his property was undoubtedly in Suffolk.

In the King's grant to Lanfranc of the manor of Fracenham,1 Robert Malet is styled Vicecomes. There is no mention of him in the reign of William Rufus, but in Henry I.'s reign he was Grand Chamberlain of England. Unfortunately, he joined Robert de Bellesme, Earl of Shrewsbury, and others, in inviting Robert Duke of Normandy to invade England. In the treaty between Robert and Henry it was stipulated that Robert's adherents should not suffer for joining his cause; but notwithstanding this agreement Robert Malet was banished from the country, and all his English possessions were confiscated. He retired to his Norman estates, where he passed the rest of his life. He was supposed to have been killed at the battle of Tinchebrai in 1106. His forfeited estates were granted to Stephen of Blois, while his office of Grand Chamberlain was given to Aubrey de Vere, in whose family it became hereditary. He married Elisée de Brionne, daughter of the Count of Brionne. His son William went as a banneret to the first Crusade

1 Now Freckenham.

in the train of Duke Robert. In 1109 he was banished, like his father, for participation in the rebellion of Helias, Earl of Maine, and, like his father, retired to Normandy. Of his two sons, one founded the still existing French family; another, Hugh, remained in England, where he married an heiress and settled in the West.

Robert Malet had a brother, Gilbert, the last of whose descendants, William Malet, was one of the guarantors of Magna Carta.

To revert to the earldom: East Anglia was destitute of such a dignitary till nine years after the Conquest, when the North-folk and the South-folk were united under the title of the former. There was a certain Ralph de Guader, to adopt the best known form of many spellings, a Breton on his mother's side, though his father was a Norfolk man named Ralph. Like most of the military adventurers of the day, he was not averse to a good match, and found one in Emma, daughter of the powerful William FitzOsberne, Earl of Hereford, and joint-Regent with Bishop Odo during the Conqueror's absence in Normandy. So far as conflicting authorities may be reconciled, it seems that the King's consent to the marriage had been obtained and withdrawn. The great Earl William died about this time, and his second son, Roger, a young man, took his place. The marriage took place at Exning, but according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle there was a bridal feast at Norwich:

'Then was that bride-ale

The source of man's bale.'

Ralph de Guader, newly-created Earl of Norfolk, had amongst his guests his young brother-in-law, Earl Waltheof, son of the great Siward of Northumbria, and bishops and abbots. There seems to have been good cheer and strong talk, and in the end a dangerous conspiracy, which broke up through the defection of Waltheof. Ralph de Guader escaped from Norwich by water, got out to sea, sailed to Brittany, and thence to Denmark, where his later plottings resulted in failure. With his

departure the East Anglian earldom collapsed for some sixty years, when it was renewed in the Bigod family.

However the realm in general may have suffered at the hands of the lordly owners of castles in those days when 'men openly said that Christ and His saints slept,' the Scourge was comparatively lightly laid on in Suffolk. There are but six castles to be ascribed to this periodFramlingham, Haughley, Bungay, Eye, Clare, and Orford. The first has already been mentioned in the account of St. Edmund, the Martyr-King. It has but little advantage of natural position. Uncertain, but not improbable, tradition represents it as a stronghold of King Redwald, what time he held Court at Rendlesham. The first and second Norman kings are said to have held it in their own hands. Shortly after his accession, Henry I. granted it to Roger Bigod (A.D. 1103). The present building arose on its ruins.

In the other instances existing earthworks appear to have been utilized. Haughley and Eye stand upon high artificial mounds, which may have been memorials to mighty men, unrecorded in the history of their remote times. The keep at Bungay is well protected on the west by a great earthen vallum, apparently forming one side of a large rectangular enclosed space, of which a small part of the north boundary also remains on Outney Common, as yet not quite obliterated by the operations of the Great Eastern Railway.

After awhile this keep received an outer fence of curtains and round towers, so that each tower could be defended separately, and in case of all surrendering, the keep itself might prolong resistance. And here a remarkable discovery was made in 1891. enclosure between the keep and the

In the bailey, or outer walls, was

found the square well, its sides properly plastered, and a grim underground apartment about 14 feet square, with two square shafts through which a scanty supply of air and a hardly perceptible modicum of light would be admitted. A more effectual comment on the condition

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