tioned by the chroniclers, and unsuspected by Mr. Freeman, who held that he found no favour in William's eyes.

The great length of this document-so important for its bearing on Domesday-precludes its discussion in detail. But its opening clause must be given and some of its features pointed out.

Ad illud placitum quo pontifices Gosfridus et Remigius, consul vero Waltheuus, necnon vicecom [ites] Picotus atque Ilbertus jussu Willelmi Dei dispositione Anglor[um] regis, cum omni vicecomitatu sicut rex preceperat, convenerunt, testimonio hominum rei veritatem cognoscentium determinaverunt terras que injuste fuerant ablate ab ecclesia sancte Dei genitricis Marie de insulâ ely

quatinus de dominio fuerant, tempore videlicet regis Edwardi, ad dominium sine alicujus contradictione redirent quicunque eas possideret.

The mention of Count Eustace among those withholding lands proves that at the date of this document he was already restored to his possessions. Another individual whose name occurs several times in this document is Lisois ("De Monasteriis "), the hero of the passage of the Aire. Collating its evidence with that of Domesday, we find that Lisois had been succeeded, at the date of the great record, by the well-known Eudo Dapifer in a fief, ranging over at least five counties-Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex--in all of which Domesday records his name as the predecessor of Eudo. This is of the more interest because Mr. Freeman wrote :

The only notice of this Lisois which I can find in Domesday is in ii. 496, where he appears in possession, but seemingly illegal possession, of a small holding in Essex.

So again we have in our document this passage relating to Stigand:

He sunt proprie ville monasterii insule Ely quos Stigandus archipresul tenebat, unde per annum victum fratribus reddidit tantum quantum pertinet ad hoc. Has vero tenet rex noster W. post obitum illius, Methelwald et Crokestune et Snegelwelle et Dictun.

Features of the Record

461

Now Stigand, according to the Liber Eliensis, "quasdam illius optimas possessiones sicut Liber Terrarum insinuat, ad maximum loci dispendium retinuit." Our document identifies these "possessiones" with Methwold and Croxton in Norfolk, Snailwell and Ditton in Cambridgeshire, and thus disposes of Mr. Freeman's very unfortunate suggestion—advanced, of course, to justify Stigand—that the Liber Eliensis here referred to a tiny Hampshire estate, which the Abbey had held under Stigand T.R.E.1

In my paper on Domesday I have pointed out the importance of this document in its bearing on socmen and their services, while we saw in investigating knight-service that its language affords, in this matter, a valuable gloss on that of Domesday. Close examination of its details shows that the aggressions on the Abbey's property which it records, were, in spite of the verdict on this occasion, persisted in, if not increased. Those, for instance, of Hardwin may be recognised in the duplicate entries in Domesday Book, representing the conflicting claims.2 On persons as on lands we have some fresh information. Ilbert the Sheriff was, I believe, identical with that "Ilbert de Hertford," who is alluded to in Domesday (i. 200), and would thus be a pre-Domesday Sheriff of Herts. The entry, "tenet Rotbertus homo Bainardi in Reoden de soca," when compared with the holding of "Rienduna " by Ralf "Baignardi" in Domesday (ii. 414), suggests that we have in Bainard the father (hitherto unknown) of this Domesday tenant-in-chief. Bainard would thus be a Christian name, as was also Mainard, which occurs in this same document.

1 D.B., i. 40b.

3

2 See p. 23 supra.

3 Domesday (i. 2006) styles him, "Ilbertus de Hertford," and connects him with "Risedene," a Hertfordshire Manor. On the other hand, the I.C.C. makes him "Ilbertus de Hereforda" (p. 56), and “Ilbertus vice" is actually found in Herefordshire (D.B., i. 1796). But what could he be doing in Cambridgeshire?

comes

THE LORDS OF ARDRES

IN tad of Eustace of Boulogne

N the History of the Norman Conquest (2nd Ed.) we

An incidental notice of one of his followers throws some light on the class of men who flocked to William's banners, and on the rewards which they received. One Geoffrey, an officer of the Abbey of Saint Bertin at Saint Omer, who had the charge of its possessions in the County of Guines, sent his sons, Arnold and Geoffrey, to the and in the end they received a grant of lands both in Essex and in the border shires of Mercia and East-Anglia, under the superiority of their patron Count Eustace (iii. 314).

war .

In an Appendix on "Arnold of Ardres," which Mr. Freeman devoted to this subject (iii. 725-26), he gave the "Historia Comitum Ardensium " (of Lambert of Ardres) for his authority, and he verified, by Domesday, the Manors which Lambert assigns to "these adventurers," holding that a Bedfordshire estate was omitted, while "Stebintonia," which he identified with Stibbington, Hunts, was wrongly included, as it was "held of Count Eustace by Lunen."

The first point to be noticed here is that "these adventurers" were the sons (as Lambert explains) not of any "Geoffrey," a mere Abbey officer, but of a local magnate, Arnold, Lord of Ardres. The next is that Lambert was quite correct in his list of Manors.

In the fourth series of his historical essays Mr. Freeman included a paper on "The Lords of Ardres," for which he availed himself of Dr. Heller's edition of Lambert in the Monumenta (vol. xxiv.). In this edition the passage runs:

Their English Fief

463

Feodum Stevintoniam et pertinencias eius, Dokeswordiam, Tropintoniam, Leilefordiam, Toleshondiam, et Hoilandiam (cap. 113, p. 615).

Dr. Heller, on this, notes:

Secundum "Domesday Book" recepit Ernulfus de Arda Dochesworde, Trupintone (com. Cantabrig.) et Stiventone (comit. Bedford) a comite Eustacio e contra Toheshunt [sic] Hoiland, Lele

ford recepit ab eodem comite Adelolfus de Merc (prope Calais). This note enabled Mr. Freeman to identify "Adelolfus" (which he had failed to do in the Norman Conquest), though he must have overlooked the identification of "Stevintonia" (namely Stevington, Beds.), for we find him still writing :

But of the English possessions reckoned up by our author two only can be identified in Domesday as held by Arnold The local writer seems to have mixed up the possessions of Arnold with those of a less famous adventurer from the same reign, Adelolf-our Athelwulf of Merck (pp. 184-5).

And he again insisted that "Arnold had other lands in Bedfordshire."

We will now turn to an entry in the Testa de Nevill from the "milites tenentes de honore Bononie":

Comes de Gines tenet xii. milites, scilicet-in Bedefordescire, in Stiveton et Parva Wahull 111 milites, in Cantabr' in Dukesword, et Trumpeton III milites . . in Essex, Tholehunt et Galdhangr' III milites, in Hoyland' et Lalesford ibidem III milites.

Here we have all the Manors mentioned by Lambert (with their appurtenances) assigned to the Count of Guines, the heir of Arnold of Ardres; and we can thus believe the Testa entry (p. 272) of Tolleshunt and Holland, "quas idem comes et antecessores sui tenuerunt de conquestu Angliæ." But the Testa does more than this; it informs us that Holland and Lawford were held of the Count by "Henry de Merk." Now, "Adelolf" de Merk is found in Domesday holding many Manors direct from Eustace of Boulogne,

and these Manors are divided in the Testa between his descendants Simon and Henry de Merk.1 It is, therefore, possible that he held the three Essex Manors in 1086, not directly from Count Eustace, but, like his descendant, from their under-tenant (Arnold). This raises, of course, an important question as to Domesday."

It is interesting to observe that the village of Marck in the Pas de Calais has, through Adelolf and his heirs, transferred its name to the Essex parish of Mark's Tey, though not to that of Marks Hall (so named in Domesday).

While on the subject of the Lords of Ardres, it may be convenient to give the reference to a letter of mine to the Academy (28th May, 1892), explaining that Lambert's "Albericus Aper," who puzzled Dr. Heller and Mr. Freeman, was our own Aubrey de Vere, first Earl of Oxford, and that Lambert's statement (accepted by Mr. Freeman) as to the parentage of Emma, wife of Count Manasses, had been disproved by Stapleton.

1 An interesting charter belonging to the close of Stephen's reign shows us Queen Matilda compensating Henry "de Merch" for his land at Donyland (one of these Manors)—which she was giving to St. John's, Colchester-" de redditibus transmarinis ad suam voluntatem." Another and earlier charter from her father and mother (printed by Mr. E. J. L. Scott in the Athenæum of 2nd December, 1893) has Fulco de merc and M. de merc among the witnesses.

2 The non-appearance of Arnold's brother, "Geoffrey," in Domesday which has been deemed a difficulty, is accounted for by Lambert's statement that he made over his English possessions to Arnold.