The Chronicle of the Norman Conquest Part 24

Auquanz quident estre mange Pur le cheval q'issi baout.

Li jugleour enpres venout, Del espee fiert un Engleis, Le poign li fet voler maneis; Un autre ferit tant c.u.m il pout, Mau guerdon le jour en out; Car li Englois de totes parz Li launcent gavelocs et darz, Si l'occistrent et son destrer: Mar demanda le coup primer.

PAGE 210. Greater authority should, perhaps, be a.s.signed to the Bec record, from the fact that the author of part of it was one of the family, namely, Milo Crespin, cantor Becci, probably before 1150.

PAGE 211. The pedigree of the Roumares, and their ill.u.s.trious connections, is now fully elucidated, in correction of Dugdale, &c. by Mr. Stapleton, in Bowles's _History of Lac.o.c.k Abbey_. Wace lived in the time of all three of the Williams. The second died in 1152, before his father the earl, who made a pilgrimage to St. James. Both Roger (or more properly Robert) and his father Gerold the dapifer, were living at the conquest. Robert is the Robertus filius Giroldi of Domesday, then possessor of Corfe Castle.

PAGE 213. In the Adas to vol. viii. of _Memoires des Antiquaires Norm._ there are two seals of Fulks D'Aunou, from charters to the abbey of Gouffern. In the first, of the twelfth century, the name is written FULCONIS DE ALNUIO; in the second, of the thirteenth century, it stands FULCONIS DnI DE ALNETO, MILITIS.

PAGE 213. See the descent of Tancarville, in common with that of Roumare, elucidated by Mr. Stapleton's evidence in Bowles's _Hist. of Lac.o.c.k Abbey_, p. 69.

PAGE 221--236. See considerable information as to the family of VITRe in the _Hist. of Lac.o.c.k_, p. 264.

PAGE 222. The Epinay here referred to must clearly be Epinay-Tesson, arrondiss.e.m.e.nt of Bayeux. Our reference to Hardy's _Rot. Norm_, should be to p. 16, as quoted before at p. 208.

PAGE 227. As to Brix and Bruis, see further Mr. Stapleton, in Bowles's _Hist. of Lac.o.c.k Abbey_, p. 76.

PAGE 231. Robert de Oilgi and Roger de Ivri furnish an instance of the sworn brotherhood in arms, which occurs among the early Normans; see _Introd. Domesday_, i. 458. Eudo filius Spirewic, the ancestor of the Tateshalls, is another well known example. He fraternized with Pinco; and they received a joint reward, comprising the barony of Tateshall in Lincolns.h.i.+re.

PAGE 232. The families holding Sap and Gloz figure repeatedly in _Orderic. Vital._ who was their neighbour at St. Evroult. William de Gloz, the dapifer, is an important person in Orderic's strange story (lib. viii. 695.) of the monk who saw the ghosts of the evil doers suffering their penances.

PAGE 234. For _Werlene_, read _Werlenc_.

PAGE 237. In the sixth line of the notes _Dunfront_ should be _Domfront_; and in the ninth line for _and_, read _who_.

PAGE 244. See the quotation above, in this appendix, in reference to page 118.

PAGE 252. The Bayeux Tapestry exhibits,--both as borne aloft near Harold and also as lying by his feet,--a curious sort of ensign, standard, or military ornament, apparently representing a DRAGON. The CROSS generally appears on its Norman gonfanons. It may be here noticed that Wace, vol.

i. p. 201, mentions that the gonfanon borne by the baron appointed to lead the Normans in 945 under Richard I. was 'vermeille d'Espagne.'

PAGE 254. _Benoit's_ account of the result of the battle:

Ainz que partist icil tooilz, Fu reis Heraut morz abatuz, Par mi les deus costez feruz De treis granz lances acerees, E par le chef de dous espees Qui entrerent jusqu'as oreilles Que les plantes en out vermeilles.

In _L'Estoire de Seint Edward_ we only find,

Li rois feruz en l'oil d'unt dart Chet e tost est defulez, Periz, ocist e adirez; E sun estandart abatuz, E li ostz d'Engleiz vencus; E murut i quens Gruith si frere, E quens Leuwine.

PAGE 258. _Benoit's_ account of Harold's interment:

Li reis Heraut fu seveliz; E si me retrait li escriz Que sa mere por lui aveir Vout au due doner grant aveir; Mais n'en vout unques dener prendre Ne por riens nule le cors rendre; Mais a un Guillaume Malet, Qui n'ert tosel pas ne vaslet, Mais chevaliers dura e vaillanz.

Icist l'en fu taut depreianz Qu'il li dona a enfor La ou li vendreit a plaisir.

The continuer of Wace's _Brut_ says:

Ki ke volt ceo saver A Walteham, ultra le haut auter, Meimes cel croiz purra trover, E roi Harau gisant en quer;

and afterwards,

Heraud a Walteham fu porte Ilokes gist enterre.

The following is the account in L'_Estoire de Seint aedward le rei_:

Le cors le roi Haraud unt quis E truve entre les ocis; E pur co ke il rois esteit, Grante est k'enterrez seit.

Par la priere sa mere, Porte fu le cors en bere, A Wautham est mis en carcu; Kar de la maisun fundur fu.

The life of Harold in the Harl. MSS. 3776, will, we believe, be given in the _Chroniques Anglo-Normandes_, now publis.h.i.+ng at Rouen. It is a very interesting story; though, as to the tale it records of Harold's escape, we may say with _Knyghton_, 'de ista opinione fiat qualiter poterit.' It may be worth while to quote the following summary of that part of the legend which relates to this subject. "Harold was thought by his companions to be mortally wounded, and was, to all appearance, dead; but when the field of battle was examined, by some women searching for their friends, it was discovered that life still lingered in the body. By the care of two English franklins he was removed to Winchester, where his wounds were healed by the surgical skill of a certain cunning woman of oriental extraction; and, during two long years, he remained in concealment in an obscure dwelling. With the return of his wonted strength of body and energy of mind, a melancholy spectacle presented itself to him. He saw his kingdom under the dominion of a foreign enemy; he noticed the firmness with which the policy and courage of William had established him on the throne; and he every where marked the wide-spreading ramifications of the feudal system; attaching, by military tenure and self-interest, a st.u.r.dy Norman holder to each rood of subjugated England. His n.o.bles were now petty franklins; his subjects were hereditary bondsmen. They had lost much of that independence of spirit which is born and dies with liberty; and they were contented hewers of wood, and drawers of water, for their new masters. They had made no effort to throw off the yoke which had been placed on their necks; town after town, and county after county, had submitted without opposition; and William, the conqueror of England, was now its crowned and acknowledged sovereign. Harold saw that foreign a.s.sistance was necessary, ere he could hope to redeem his country from the bondage of the invaders. His first attempt was to obtain aid from Saxony: in this he was unsuccessful. Thence he proceeded to Denmark, but found that a mission from William had secured the good graces, or, at least, the neutrality of that kingdom. The bitter disappointment originating in this ruin of his hopes was succeeded by another feeling; he recognised, in these baffled attempts, the workings of a superior power, admonis.h.i.+ng him to abandon all idea of a restoration to the throne of England. New ideas and feelings awoke in his heart; his dreams of ambition and revenge were succeeded by humiliation and penance; he threw the helmet from his brow, and the mail from his breast, and went, a barefooted pilgrim, to the land of Palestine. During many years spent in this pious occupation, he subjected himself to the greatest privations and austerities. Warned by the approaching weakness of old age that his dissolution was at hand, he yielded to the desire which now haunted him of dying in the island which gave him birth. He landed at Dover; he climbed the lofty cliff; and again he saw the land which was once his own. Our legend does not expatiate upon the feelings which must have swelled within his breast as he gazed: we are told, however, that they were checked and subdued by the pre-dominating influence of religion, which had taught him to understand the relative happiness of his former and his present condition. Having a.s.sumed the name of Christian, and concealed his scarred features beneath a cowl, he journeyed through Kent, and arrived at a secluded spot in Shrops.h.i.+re, which the legend names Ceswrthin. Here he constructed himself a cell, in which he remained ten years; but at length he was compelled to seek some other abode; 'not,' says the legend, 'because he shrank from enduring the annoyances to which the Welsh frequently exposed him by beating him and stealing his clothes, but because he wished to devote the remainder of his existence to undisturbed meditation and prayer.' He left this cell without any definite idea as to his future residence; but having wandered to Chester, he there received a supernatural intimation that he would find a dwelling prepared for him in the chapel of St. James, within the churchyard of St. John the Baptist, situated upon the banks of the river Dee, a little beyond the walls of that city. Upon arriving at the spot thus pointed out, he found that a hermit, the late tenant of the cell, had recently expired, and he gladly took possession of the new residence thus provided for him. During the s.p.a.ce of seven years which he spent in Chester, circ.u.mstances occurred which originated and gradually strengthened into certainty the suspicion that this recluse was a Saxon chief of former importance, if not Harold himself. When questioned as to his name and origin, he returned evasive answers, but never a direct negative to those who a.s.serted that he was once the king of England. He admitted that he had been present at the battle of Hastings; and that no one was nearer or dearer to Harold the king than was Christian the hermit. But the approach of death revealed the secret, and converted doubt into certainty; for he acknowledged in his last confession that he was indeed the last Saxon king of England."