for the due maintenance of the fabric, furniture, and services of the church; the Almoner, who distributed the doles; the Chamberlain, who provided all needful clothing and bedding; the Treasurer, or Bursar; and the Cellarer, to whom fell the duty of provisioning the whole vast establishment. This was chiefly accomplished by distributing the burden amongst the various "manors" belonging to the abbey; thus, Cottenham furnished provisions for one week in each year, as did also Hauxton, Newton, Toft, Stapleford, and others; while larger villages, such as Balsham, Horningsea, Shelford, and Triplow, were assessed at two weeks apiece.1 The other offices were financed in like manner, the revenues arising from particular manors being annexed to them. Those of Foxton, for example, provided the candles for the High Altar. These arrangements, begun at this early period, continued, with little alteration, until the suppression of the abbey by Henry VIII. $44. Such was Ely in the last days before the Conquest. So great was the reputation of the house as a seminary for high-born youth that it was chosen by Queen Emma as the place where her son Edward, afterwards the Confessor, should receive his education. He had indeed been "presented" there at the altar in infancy, the mantle in which he was wrapped being long preserved as a memorial of the event. A very similar ceremony had taken place in the case of his father before him. The special aptitude shown by the future saint for the psalms and hymns which he learnt "in the cloister, amongst the children of his own age," was also a constant tradition amongst the brethren. § 45. It was perhaps on account of this hereditary connection of the House of Ethelred with the abbey 1 Bentham, "Hist. of Ely,” p. 94. 2 "Liber Eliensis," ii. 80. 3 Ibid., ii. 78. that Ely was chosen as the scene of the horrible deed which shortly stained our annals. Amongst the various pretensions set up, on the death of Canute, to the various crowns of his great empire, the sons of Ethelred seem to have made some kind of bid for their father's throne.1 These two young Ethelings, Edward and Alfred, who for some years had lived in Normandy (where their cousin Robert was Duke), came, in A.D. 1036, to plead their claims with their mother Emma, now Regent of Wessex for their stepbrother Harthacnut, King of Denmark (her son by Canute), between whom and Harold Harefoot (Canute's elder and illegitimate offspring) England had been divided for the moment. Emma's chief Minister, the great Earl Godwin, whose house played so prominent a part in the next half-century of English politics, seems at first to have favoured their pretensions, but shortly to have chosen another line of action. Any way, it is on him that the contemporary authorities throw the blame for the cruel tragedy which followed. Edward escaped, to reign ere long as "the Confessor "; but Alfred," the innocent Etheling," was treacherously seized at Guildford, and, after witnessing the tortures inflicted on his supporters, was taken in bonds "to Elybury." There, before being set on shore, he was blinded with such brutality that he shortly died of the shock, and was buried in the conventual church, "As he worthy was, At the west end, The pathetic ballad, preserved in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which tells us this, adds that all the horrors which had marked the Danish invasions of England for three hundred years had shown no cruelty more ghastly: 1 See Freeman, "Norman Conquest,” vol. i., p. 484. "Nor was drearier1 deed Done in this land Since Danes have come." 46. We have now reached the conclusion of this period of our history. Since Assandun it has been concerned with Ely alone. But incidentally we have seen that the good government of Canute had brought prosperity to the county at large. The various parishes must have recovered from the ravages which followed Ringmere, to have been able to discharge their obligations to the great abbey. Even the name of Balsham itself is found amongst them. And there is reason to believe that not only was Cambridge speedily rebuilt after the destruction of 1010, but that this century saw the first settlement of the townsmen on that bank of the river where they now mainly dwell. The "Saxon" tower of St. Benet's Church must have been built about this date and shows that at least a certain number of the inhabitants of Cambridge were to be found around it, the first beginning of that great expansion of the town which has since carried the name itself to the eastern side of the river, leaving the original "borough" on the western as "Castle End." How it came to be called by this name our next chapter will relate. 1 A.-S. "dreorlicre." 2 See § 30. § 1-8. Cambridgeshire specially ruined by Conquest-Doomsday No Thanes in county-No English landholders-Destruction and oppression of Cambridge. § 9-12. Reasons for this-William's theoretical position-Wholesale confiscation of land. § 13-25. Revolt of Fenland-Danes at Ely-Camp of RefugeHereward-Capture of Ely-Tabula Eliensis-NomenclatureEnglish stamped out. § 26-30. Good results of Conquest-Extinction of slavery-Revival of religion- William of Malmesbury. § 31-37. Norman churches-Ely a bishopric-New cathedralRoyston-Thomas à Becket. § 38-47. Anarchy under Stephen-Galfrid de Maundeville-Bishop Nigel-Rise of existing Cambridge. SI. "DUM UM Angli regnaverunt laus Grantabrigiensis provinciæ splendide floruit." Writing thus, early in the twelfth century, Henry of Huntingdon evidently implies that the glory of Cambridgeshire was then a thing of the past, fallen with the fall of the native English monarchy. § 2. And when we turn to the pages of Doomsday1 we 1 I prefer this spelling of the word. The name is less probably derived from Domus Dei (though such official documents were usually deposited for reference in churches) than from Dooms' Day, the occasions on which it would be used for the settlement of disputes by legal authority. see that this was so indeed. In no county of England does its dry, passionless record present us with a more vivid picture of the wholesale break-up of the earlier social fabric than here. The squires and country gentlemen who had led their tenants so valiantly at Ringmere and Ashdon have disappeared altogether. In the whole survey of the county we do not find a single "King's Thane." This fact alone shows how widespread had been the ruin wrought. § 3. These "King's Thanes" were the small local aristocracy, who had stepped into the place of the original Anglo-Saxon "Eorls "-some of them, perhaps, actual descendants of those Eorls, some, of lower lineage, raised to the Thanehood by their own or their forefathers' merits and claims to royal favour. From very early times this process had been in operation. The leading Thanes (or servants, the name being akin to the German Dienen) of each local ruler tended inevitably to form a minor local aristocracy in each district; while, as the various districts became welded into a single monarchy, these local aristocracies became, in like manner, merged in the general body of "King's Thanes," who formed the squirearchy throughout the whole realm. And a place in this aristocracy was attainable by any able and forward man, whatever might be his birth. Eorls and Ceorls were divided by an impassable bar of lineage, but any Ceorl might become a Thane, and thus be the social equal of an Eorl. In process of time the use of the latter word died out altogether, and "Thane" became practically equivalent to "gentleman," as, by an almost identical process, the word "Esquire" has become since. The regulation of Alfred, which decrees that all parish priests shall be held King's Thanes, at once illustrates this, and in a striking manner sets forth that social status. of the parochial clergy which is still the distinctive mark of the Anglican Church. |