weeks; and the devil frequently appeared in the woods in a horrible form to many Normans, and spoke with them much concerning the king, and Ralph, and some others. Nor is it to be wondered at; for in their time law was almost silenced, and money ruled supreme in all appeals to justice. In their time, some men obeyed the will of the king rather than justice; and Ralph-disregarding the ecclesiastical law and all the rules of his order, for he was a priest,-received from the king, first the abbeys, and then the bishoprics, whose pastors had recently died, that he might put them up for sale; and from this source he was enabled to pay a large sum of money annually to the king, and as his cunning and shrewdness were great, in a short time he so increased, that the king appointed him pleader and taxer for the whole kingdom. When he had at length acquired this power, he pillaged all the richer Englishmen in the kingdom, by depriving them of their goods and lands: and he unceasingly oppressed the poorer by a heavy and unjust tax, and, in many ways, both before he obtained his bishopric and even while he possessed it,-did he vex both great and small, even up to the time of the king's decease; for on the very day of his death, he held in his own hands the archbishopric of Canterbury, and the bishoprics of Winchester and Salisbury. This king reigned thirteen years, all but thirty-eight days; his younger brother Henry succeeded him; and on Sunday, the nones of August [5th Aug.], was consecrated king in Westminster, by Maurice, bishop of London. On the day of his consecration he made free the holy church of God, which in his brother's time had been sold and placed to farm; he removed all the evil customs and unjust exactions, by which the kingdom of England had been oppressed; he established a firm peace in his dominions, and commanded its preservation; he restored the law of king Eadward to all in common, with the emendations which his father had made; but he retained in his own hands the forests, which he had established and of which he had taken possession. Not long after he committed to custody in the Tower of London, Ralph, bishop of Durham, and recalled Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, from France. Meanwhile Robert, earl of Flanders, and Eustace, earl of Boulogne, returned home from Jerusalem, and were followed by Robert, earl of Normandy, with his wife, whom he had married in Sicily. During this, Henry, king of England, assembled the chief men of England at London, and took to wife Mathilda, daughter of Malcolm, king of the Scots, and queen Margaret; she was consecrated queen and crowned by Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury. On Sunday, being the feast of St. Martin [11th Nov.], Thomas, archbishop of York, a man of venerated memory, and extraordinary piety, affable and beloved by all, departed this life at York, on Sunday, the 14th of the kalends of December [18th Nov.], and was succeeded by Gerhard, bishop of Hereford.

A.D. 1101. Ralph, bishop of Durham, after Christmas, with great cunning made his escape from prison, crossed the sea, and going over to Robert, count of Normandy, persuaded him to invade England. And many of the nobles of this land sent messengers to

him, and prayed him to come speedily to England, promising him the crown of England. The city of Gloucester was consumed by fire, with the chief monastery, and others, on Friday, the 8th of the ides of June [6th June]. Robert, earl of Normandy, assembled a great number of horsemen, archers, and footmen, and collected his ships at a place called in the Norman tongue, Ultresporte. When the king gained intelligence of this, he ordered his sailors to guard the sea, and to see that no one approached England from the coast of Normandy. And having assembled an immense army from the whole of England, he encamped not far from Hastings in Sussex; for he thought for certain that his brother would land on that part of the coast. But by the advice of bishop Ranulph, earl Robert so worked upon the minds of some of the king's sailors by promises of all kinds, that, setting aside their allegiance, they deserted to his enemies, and became their pilots to England. All being ready, Robert embarked with his army, and about the feast of St. Peter ad Vincula [1st Aug.], he landed in a place called Portesmuth; and straightway marching his army to Winchester, he encamped in a convenient position. When his arrival was known, some of the English nobles deserted to him, as they had previously intended; others concealed their intentions and remained with the king; but the bishops, the mercenary soldiers, and the English remained faithful to him, agreeing among themselves that they were ready to go to battle with him. The wiser men of both sides, having taken wholesome counsel together, brought about a peace between the brothers, on condition that the king should pay annually to the earl a sum of three thousand marks, that is, two thousand pounds of silver, and should restore freely to every one the honours which he had formerly possessed in England and might have lost by reason of his allegiance to the earl; while it was agreed that Robert should make restitution to all who had been deprived of honours in Normandy in the king's cause, and this he was to do free of all cost. The peace being concluded, the king's army returned home; but part of the earl's returned to Normandy, and part remained with him in England. Godfrey, king of Jerusalem, the powerful duke of Lorraine, son of Eustace the elder, earl of Boulogne, died, and lies buried in the church of the Golgotha. After his death, the Christians unanimously chose his brother Baldwin for their king. Robert de Belesme, earl of Shrewsbury, son of earl Roger, began to fortify with a wide, deep, and lofty wall, the bridge which Aegelfled, queen of the Mercians, had built during the reign of her brother Eadward the elder, on the western bank of the river Severn, in a place called in the Saxon tongue, Brycge. And this he did against the king, as the issue proved. He commenced the construction of another also in Wales, in a place called Caroclove.

A.D. 1102. The aforesaid Robert, earl of Belesme, who at that time governed the county of Ponthieu, and possessed many castles in Normandy, fortified strongly, against king Henry, the city of Shrewsbury, the castle therein, and the castles of Arundel and Tyckyll, supplying them with provisions, machines, arms, horse

soldiers, and footmen. He also hastened the completion of the walls and towers of the castles of Brycge and Caroclove, by carrying on the works night and day; and he excited the Welchmen, who were in subjection to him, to the more prompt, faithful, and speedy performance of his wishes, by awarding to them with a liberal hand honours, lands, horses, arms, and gifts of all sorts. His project, however, was speedily interrupted, for his designs being discovered and clearly published, the king declared him to be a public enemy. Wherefore, having assembled together as many Welchmen and Normans as they could muster, he and his brother Arnold laid waste a part of the county of Stafford, and carried away into Wales many horses and cattle, and some few men. But the king without delay besieged his castle of Arundel, and after having erected fortresses before it, he went away. Then he commanded Robert, bishop of Lincoln, to besiege Tyckyll with a part of his forces; and he himself besieged Brycge with the army of nearly all England, and began to construct there machines and a fortress. Meanwhile he very easily bribed the Welch, by moderate presents, in whom Robert had great confidence, to break their oaths, and to desert from him and join against him. Within thirty days the city and all the castles having been surrendered, he subdued his enemy Robert and drove him ignominiously out of England; and punished his brother Arnold shortly afterwards for his perfidy by a similar expulsion.

After this the king was at London, at Michaelmas [29th Sept.], with all his nobles, ecclesiastical and secular; where he invested two of the clergy with bishoprics, namely, Roger, his chancellor, with the see of Salisbury, and Roger, his larderer, with that of Hereford. Here also archbishop Anselm held a great council on questions pertaining to the christian faith, in which he associated with himself Gerard, archbishop of York, Maurice, bishop of London, William, bishop elect of Winchester, Robert, bishop of Lincoln, Samson, bishop of Worcester, Robert, bishop of Chester, John, bishop of Bath, Herbert, bishop of Norwich, Ralph, bishop of Chichester, Gundulf, bishop of Rochester, Harvey, bishop of Bangor, and the two recently invested bishops, viz. Roger, bishop of Salisbury, and Roger, bishop of Hereford; Osbern, bishop of Exeter, was detained by infirmity, and unable to attend the meeting. In this council many abbots, both French as well as English, were deposed and deprived of the preferments of which they had unjustly become possessed, or in which they had lived unrighteously; namely, Guy, abbot of Pershore, Aldwin of Ramsey, the abbot of Tavistock, Haimoe of Cerne, the abbot of Micelenei, Aegelric of Middleton, Godric of Peterborough, Richard of Ely, Robert of St. Edmund's. Roger, bishop elect of Hereford, aforesaid, was taken ill at London, and died; and the queen's chancellor, named Reignelm, was promoted in his stead by a similar investiture. Henry, king of the English, gave Mary, the queen's sister, in marriage to Eustace, earl of Boulogne.

A.D. 1103. A great dissension arose between king Henry and archbishop Anselm, the archbishop refusing to consent to the

giving of investitures by the king, and to consecrate or communicate with those to whom the king had already given churches, because the apostolic pope had interdicted this as well to himself as to all others. Wherefore the king commanded Gerard, the archbishop of York, to consecrate the bishops to whom he had given investitures, namely, William Giffard and Roger, who was his chaplain, to whom the king had already given the church of Salisbury. Gerard performed the command of the king, but William set both that and the benediction of archbishop Gerard at defiance, having regard to the justice of the case. Wherefore, by the command of the king, he was despoiled of all his possessions and sent out of the kingdom; the others remained unconsecrated. But Reignelm shortly before this had surrendered the bishopric of Hereford to the king, believing that he had given offence to God in receiving the investiture of a church from the hands of a layman. After this the king held his court in Easter [29th March], at Winchester. Archbishop Anselm, after the many insults and contumelies of all kinds which he had suffered, by the request of the king proceeded to Rome on the 5th of the kalends of May [27th April], in accordance with an agreement made between himself and the king, taking in his suite William, bishop elect of Winchester, and the abbots who had been deprived of their abbeys, namely, Richard, abbot of Ely, and Aldwin of Ramsey. Robert, earl of Normandy, came into England to confer with his brother, and before he returned he remitted to William the three thousand marks of silver which that king was bound to pay annually to him according to their agreement. In the province called Berkshire, in a place called Heamstede, blood was seen by many to flow out of the ground. In the same year, on the 3d ides of August [11th Aug.], a great storm of wind arose, which caused damage to the fruits of the earth throughout England, such as the men then alive had never seen in past times.

A.D. 1104. Walter, abbot of Evesham, died on the 13th of the kalends of February [20th Jan.], and Serlo, abbot of Gloucester, on the 4th nones of March [4th March]. Henry, king of the English, held his court at Westminster at Whitsuntide. On Tuesday, the 7th of the ides of June [7th June], four circles of a white colour were seen round the sun, about the sixth hour, one under the other, as if they had been painted. All who saw it marvelled, because such things had never been seen before by any one of them. William, earl of Moreton, was disinherited of all the land which he possessed in England. It would be difficult to describe the misery which the land suffered at that time by reason of the exactions of the king. The body of St. Cuthbert the bishop, by reason of the incredulity of certain abbots, during the pontificate of bishop Ralph, was exhumed, and it, as well as the head of St. Oswald, king and martyr, and of St. Beda, and the relics of many saints, was found to be evidently uncorrupted. This was done by Ralph, abbot of Seez, afterwards bishop of Rochester, and by the brethren of Durham, in presence of earl Alexander, brother of Eadgar, king of Scots, afterwards king. And because it was permitted to

him to be present at so sacred a ceremony, he gave many marks of gold and silver, and caused to be prepared a shrine, in which the sacred body, enveloped in new vestments, was honourably preserved.

A.D. 1105. King Henry crossed the sea, and nearly all the Norman nobles, as soon as he arrived, despising the earl, their lord, and unmindful of the allegiance which they owed him, grasped the gold and silver which the king had brought with him out of England, and surrendered to him their castles and the fortified cities and towns. And he burned Bayeux and the church of St. Mary there, and took Caen from his brother; he then returned to England, because he was unable to reduce the whole of Normandy, intending however to return next year with a larger supply of money, and subdue the remainder, to the disinheritance of his brother. Earl William de Moreteon injured the property and men of the king, wherever he could lay hands on them, in revenge for the loss of his possessions in England.

A.D. 1106. Robert, earl of Normandy, came to England to confer with his brother Henry, whom he found at Northampton. Then the earl requested him to restore what he had taken from him in Normandy; but the king said no to everything; and the earl retired enraged, and crossed the sea. In the Friday of the first week of Lent, the 14th of the kalends of March [16th Feb.], in the evening, an extraordinary star appeared, and shone for twenty-five days, in the same form and at the same hour, between the south and west. It was itself small and dim, but the light which issued from it was exceedingly clear, and a brilliancy like a large beam darted into the star itself from the east and north. Many affirmed that they saw at that time several extraordinary stars. On Holy Thursday two moons were visible at night, shortly before daybreak, one in the east and one in the west, both being full, and on that day the moon was fourteen days old. In this year arose a most execrable dissension between the emperor of Germany and his son. Henry, king of England, crossed the sea before the month of August, proceeding into Normandy, and nearly all the Norman chiefs surrendered to him, except Robert de Belesme, William de Moreteon, and a few others who remained steady to earl Robert.

Henry, king of England, on the Assumption of St. Mary [15th Aug.], came to Bec, where he and archbishop Anselm met, and all the disputes which had hitherto divided them at length came to a peaceable termination. Not long after this the archbishop, by the command and request of the king, returned to England. An army was assembled, and the king marched to a castle belonging to the earl of Moreteon, called Tenercebrei, and besieged it. While he was thus engaged, earl Robert, the king's brother, came up against him with his army on the vigil of St. Michael [28th Sept.], and with him Robert de Beleasme, and William, earl of Moreton; but the right and the victory were on the king's side. Robert, earl of Normandy, William, earl of Moreteon, and Robert de Stuteville were taken prisoners there; but Robert de Beleasme escaped by flight. William Crispin and many others were also taken prisoners.