very good, which gallop under them." Throughout the poem we feel how enormous was the value of the horse 2 the loss of the war horse is as serious as the loss of many soldiers who do not wear armour. The young king, on his part, sends messengers to Scotland; he writes a letter in French (en Romanz) and seals it with a ring.3 He has a friend in Count Philip of Flanders, who sends. Flemings to help King William of Scotland; and hundreds more are with the earl of Leicester. How the English hate the Flemings! They come for wool; they are mostly weavers, not true knights; they are mercenaries in a strange land. They are a bold race, and good fighters, but they are destroyed; they will never again cry 'Arras.' the battle of Fornham "they gathered the wool of England very late. Upon their bodies crows and buzzards descend, who carry their souls to the fire which never burns . . There was not in the country a villein or clown who did not go to kill Flemings with fork and flail. The armed knights intermeddled with nothing except the knocking down, and the villeins did the killing. By fifteens, by forties, by hundreds and by thousands they made them by main force tumble into the ditches. "4 While the earl of .... Leicester fails in the Midlands, the king of Scotland goes from castle to castle in the north country. We see how casual an ordinary siege is, how easily the besiegers are diverted if they meet with resistance, if the castle is well stocked with corn and wine and the commander is loyal. Council is taken, the marshals come and go among the tents, serjeants and esquires fold the tents and take down the pavilions, and the huts are burnt. At Appleby there 1. ll. 317-9, p. 230. Here, as elsewhere, I give Howlett's translation. 2. Compare the reference to Odinel of Umfraville's horse, 11. 1669, 1671, p. 342; and Howden's remarks on the old horse of Philip Augustus: "super Morellem senem, quem, inquiuut, decem annos habuit" (iv, 59). The value of the war horse as a prize won in war or the tourney might be illustrated from the Marshal's life and from the rolls. 3. Chronique de Fantosme, 1. 246, p. 224. 4. 11. 1060-2, 1085-91, pp. 292, 294. is only an aged castellan, Gospatric the Englishman, and the castle is not properly garrisoned; it is soon taken. At Brough there is a small number of knights. They are driven from the stockade into the keep, and are burnt out; they have to surrender; but a knight who has newly arrived, goes back, hangs two shields on the battlements, and until the fire destroys them, hurls javelins and sharp stakes at the Scots. As a result of the capture of Appleby and Brough Carlisle is cut off from Richmond; corn and wine cannot reach it, and it is in great danger. We see, too, how the open country fares. The plan everywhere is-first destroy the land, then one's foe.'1 At Prudhoe they do not lose inside as much as might amount to a silver penny; "but their fields they have lost with all their corn, and their gardens were stripped by those bad people; and he who could do no more damage took it into his head to bark the apple-trees; it was a mean revenge." We see the desecration of churches, and women fleeing to the monastery, and peasants led by ropes. Then the army of relief is got together, four hundred knights and more; the archbishop of York sends sixty. King William is surprised at the siege of Alnwick. There is much good fighting; but the king and his knights have to surrender. The victors send a messenger, who rides hard for three days, 'by day and night he fatigues himself with journeying.' Meanwhile King Henry has crossed the Channel and has been met by the loyal Londoners. He is at Westminster, heavy of heart. All his knights have gone to rest when the news comes: "the king was leaning on his elbow, and slept a little, a servant at his feet was gently rubbing them; there was neither noise nor cry, nor any who were speaking there, neither harp nor viols nor anything was sounding at that hour, when the messenger came to the door and gently called." 3 1. "Primes guaster la terre et e puis ses enemis," 1. 451, p. 242. 2. 11. 1682-1685, pp. 342, 344. 3. II. 1960, 1962-6, p. 366. NOTES TO CHAPTER VII. NOTE A. EXPENDITURE AT CHATEAU-GAILLARD, 1197-8. (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae, ii, 309–310.) In operationibus Belli Castri de Roka1 et Castri de Insula et domorum Regis de Insula et [in] operationibus domorum et hericonorum et fossatorum de Cultura et in operationibus domorum Ville de subtus Rokam et in operationibus de pontibus et breticis et hericonibus de versus Toenie, scilicet: In virga et palo Boskeroniis 2 Regise qui prostrabant et escaplebant maremia ad predictas operationesCarpentariis qui operabantur predicta maremia postquam fuerunt in platea apportata ad faciendas predictas operationes Minutis operariis, scilicet, hotariis oisereorum, mortereorum, chivereorum, baiardeorum,3 portatoribus aque in barillis et custodibus predictorum operariorum Portatoribus maremiorum et quarellorum taillatorum Fabris et in carbone forgeriarum ad predictas operationes faciendas 1. This gives us the first official name of the new castle. The name Castrum Gaillart appears in official acts of King Philip from 1203. See Eng. Hist. Rev. (1912), xxvii, 117. 2. Woodmen. 3. Hodmen with baskets, mortars, handbarrows, tubs. Pro sablone trahendo et apportando 1500 00 et 455 0 0,, 80 0 0 99 2. Probably the cellars under the courtyard, opening on to the fossé between the court and the castle proper. Both this fossé and the great fossés before and behind the triangular advance work had to be cut in the rock. 3. Cartage. 4. Lime workers. 5. Steel. 6. Tin. 7. Locks and bolts. 8. Plastering chimney pieces and floors. Pro iij navibus emptis The rest of the money in the hands of the clerks was expended in pensions, the wages of soldiers, and at outlying places. 1. For the three wells, cut through the rock, see Coutil, p. 66. 2. The bridge at the south end of the new town over the main stream of the Gambon. 3. According to Stapleton and Coutil, not the bridge between the Isle and the island of Gardon, but between the Isle and the new town. 4. The bridge at the north end of the new town over the other stream of the Gambon: according to Stapleton, named after the mercenary Mercadier. : 5. Stapleton regards the pond as the same as the pool behind the new town. In this case the name Andeli was at once given to the new town, otherwise described as the villa de subtus Rokam.' This seems to me to be very unlikely it would mean that the new town was separated financially from the Isle and the rock, since the villa de Andele accounted separately at the Exchequer for the year 1197-8 (Rot. Scacc., ii, 449), whereas town and castle usually formed a single prepositura in Normandy. Again, it is unlikely that rents were collected at the new town as early as the autumn of 1197, although they would naturally be collected at the old town as soon as the agreement between the king and the archbishop of Rouen had been reached. I conclude, therefore, that the store pond in question was made above the old town. U |