1124.
All this year King Henry was in Normandy, being detained there by his great wars with Louis King of France, and the Earl of Anjou, and with his own subjects most of all. Then it befel on the day of St. Mary’s Annunciation that Waleram Earl of Mellent was going from one of his castles called Beaumont, to another, Watteville, and Amalri the steward of the King of France, and Hugh the son of Gervais, and Hugh of Montfort, and many other good Knights went with him. Then the King’s Knights from all the neighbouring castles came against them, and fought with them, and put them to flight, and they took the Earl Waleram, and Hugh the son of Gervais, and Hugh of Montfort, and five and twenty other Knights, and brought them to the King; and the King caused Earl Waleram and Hugh the son of Gervais to be confined in the castle of Rouen, and he sent Hugh of Montfort to England, and caused him to be put in evil bonds in that of Gloucester, and as many of the others as he thought fit he sent north and southto his castles for confinement. Then the King went on, and won all Earl Waleram’s castles in Normandy, and all the others which his enemies held against him. All this was on account of the son of Robert Earl of Normandy named William. The same William had married the younger daughter of Fulk Earl of Anjou, and for this cause the King of France, and all the Earls and great men held with him, and said that the King did wrongfully keep his brother Robert in confinement, and that he had unjustly driven his son William out of Normandy. This year there was much unseasonable weather which injured the corn and all fruits in England, so that, between Christmas and Candlemas, one acre’s seed of wheat, that is two seedlips, sold for six shillings, and one of barley, that is three seedlips, for six shillings, and one acre’s seed of oats, being four seedlips, for four shillings. It was thus, because corn was scarce, and the penny was so bad, that the man who had a pound at the market, could hardly, for any thing, pass twelve of these pennies. The same year, the holy Bishop of Rochester Ernulf, who had been Abbot of Peterborough, died on the ides of March. Thereafter died Alexander King of Scotland, on the 9th of the calends of May, and his brother David, thenEarl of Northamptonshire, succeeded him, and held at the same time both the kingdom of Scotland and the English earldom. And the Pope of Rome called Calixtus died on the 19th of the calends of January, and Honorius succeeded to the Popedom. The same year, after St. Andrew’s day, and before Christmas, Ralph Basset, and the King’s Thanes held a Witenagemot at Hundhoge (Huncot), in Leicestershire, and there they hanged more thieves than had ever before been executed within so short a time, being in all four and forty men: and they put out the eyes of six.—Many men of truth said that several there suffered with great injustice, but our Lord God Almighty who seeth and knoweth all hidden things, seeth that the miserable people is oppressed with all unrighteousness; first men are bereaved of their own, and then they are slain. Full heavy a year was this; he who had any property was bereaved of it by heavy taxes and assessments, and he who had none, starved with hunger.
1125.
Before Christmas, this year, King Henry sent from Normandy to England, and commanded that all the moneyers of England should be deprived of their limbs, namely of their right hands.—Andthis, because a man might have a pound, and yet not be able to spend one penny at a market. And Roger Bishop of Salisbury sent over all England, and desired all of them to come to Winchester at Christmas; and when they came thither his men took them one by one, and cut off their right hands. All this was done within the twelve days, and with much justice, because they had ruined this land with the great quantity of bad metal which they all bought. This year the Pope of Rome sent John of Crema, a Cardinal, to this land. He first came to the King in Normandy, and the King received him with much honour, and commended him to William Archbishop of Canterbury, who conducted him to Canterbury; and he was there received with much pomp, and a great procession, and he sang the high mass at Christ’s altar on Easter day; and then he journeyed over all England, to all the Bishopricks and Abbacies, and he was honourably received every where, and all gave him great and handsome gifts; and in September he held his council in London full three days (beginning) on the Nativity of St. Mary, with the Archbishops, Bishops, and Abbots, and the clergy and laity, and he sanctioned the laws which Archbishop Anselm had made, and he enacted many others, thoughthey remained in force but a little while.—Thence he went over sea soon after Michaelmas, and so to Rome. William Archbishop of Canterbury, and Thurstan Archbishop of York, and Alexander Bishop of Lincoln, and John Bishop of Lothene (Glasgow), and Geoffrey Abbot of St. Alban’s, accompanied him, and were received with great honour by the Pope Honorius, and they remained there the whole winter. The same year there was so great a flood on St. Lawrence’s day, that many towns were deluged, and men drowned, the bridges were broken up, and, the corn fields and meadows spoiled; and there was famine and disease upon men and cattle; and it was so bad a season for all fruits as had not been for many years before. The same year John Abbot of Peterborough died on the 2d of the ides of October.
1126.
This year King Henry was in Normandy till after harvest; and he came to this land between the Nativity of St. Mary, and Michaelmas, accompanied by the Queen, and by his daughter whom he had before given in marriage to the Emperor Henry of Lorrain. He brought with him the Earl Waleram, and Hugh the son of Gervais, and he imprisoned the Earl at Bridgenorth,and he afterwards sent him to Wallingford, and he sent Hugh to Windsor, and caused him to be put into hard bonds. And after Michaelmas David King of Scotland came hither, and King Henry received him with much honour, and he abode through the year in this land.—The same year the King caused his brother Robert to be taken from Roger Bishop of Salisbury, and delivered to his son Robert Earl of Gloucester, and he caused him to be removed to Bristol, and put into the castle. All this was done through the advice of his daughter, and of her uncle David King of Scotland.
1127.
This year, at Christmas, King Henry held his Court at Windsor, and David King of Scotland was there, and all the head men of England, both clergy and laity. And the King caused the Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Earls, and all the Thanes who were present, to swear to place England and Normandy after his death in the hands of his daughter the Princess, who had been the wife of the Emperor of Saxony. And then he sent her to Normandy, accompanied by her brother Robert Earl of Gloucester, and by Brian the son of the Earl Alein Fergan; and he caused her to be wedded to the son of the Earl of Anjou,named Geoffrey Martel. Howbeit this displeased all the French and the English, but the King did it to obtain peace from the Earl of Anjou and aid against his nephew William. The same year Charles Earl of Flanders was slain in Lent, by his own men, as he lay before the altar in a church, and prayed to God during mass. And the King of France brought William the son of the Earl of Normandy, and gave him the earldom, and the men of Flanders received him.—The same William had before taken to wife the daughter of the Earl of Anjou, but they were afterwards divorced because of their nearness of kin, and this through the interference of Henry King of England; he afterwards married the sister of the King of France, and on this account the King gave him the earldom of Flanders.—The same year Henry gave the Abbacy of Peterborough to an Abbot named Henry of Poitou, who was in possession of the Abbacy of St. Jean d’Angely; and all the Archbishops and Bishops said that this grant was against right, and that he could not have in hand two Abbacies. But the same Henry made the King believe that he had given up his Abbey on account of the great disquietude of the land, and that he had done so by the order and with the leave of thePope of Rome, and of the Abbot of Cluny, and because he was Legate for collecting the Romescot. Nevertheless it was not so, but he wished to keep both Abbeys in his own hands, and he did hold them as long as it was the will of God. In his clerkship he was Bishop of Scesscuns (Soissons), afterwards he was a monk at Cluny, then Prior of the same monastery, and next he was Prior of Savenay; after this, being related to the King of England and to the Earl of Poitou, the Earl gave him the Abbey of St Jean d’Angely. Afterwards by his great craft he obtained the Archbisboprick of Besançon, and kept possession of it three days; and then lost he it right worthily, in that he had gotten it with all injustice. He then obtained the Bishoprick of Saintes, which was five miles from his own Abbey, and he kept this for nearly a week, but here again the Abbot of Cluny displaced him, as he had before removed him from Besançon. Now he bethought himself that if he could be sheltered in England, he might have all his will, on which he besought the King, and said to him that he was an old man, and a broken-down, and that he could not endure the wrongs and oppressions of that land, and he asked the King, himself, and through all his friends, by name for theAbbacy of Peterborough. And the King granted it to him, forasmuch as he was his kinsman, and in that he had been one of the first to swear oaths, and to bear witness, when the son of the Earl of Normandy and the daughter of the Earl of Anjou were divorced on the plea of kindred.—Thus vexatiously was the Abbacy of Peterborough given away at London, between Christmas and Candlemas; and so Henry went with the King to Winchester, and thence he came to Peterborough, and there he lived even as a drone in a hive; as the drone eateth and draggeth forward to himself all that is brought near, even so did he; and thus he sent over sea all that he could take from religious or from secular, both within and without; no good there he did, nor any did he leave there. Let no man think lightly of the marvel that we are about to relate as a truth, for it was full well known over all the country. It is this; that as soon as he came to Peterborough; it was on the Sunday when men sing “Exsurge quare O Domine;” several persons saw and heard many hunters hunting.—These hunters were black and large and loathly, and their hounds were all black, with wide eyes and loathly, and they rode on black horses and on black bucks. This was seen in the very deer-parkof the town of Peterborough, and in all the woods from the same town to Stamford; and the monks heard the blasts of the horns which they blew in the night. Men of truth kept in the night their watch on them, and said that there might well be about 20 or 30 horn-blowers.—This was seen and heard from the time that the Abbot came thither, all that Lent, until Easter. Such was his entrance, of his exit we can say nothing yet: God knoweth it.
1128.
All this year King Henry was in Normandy, on account of the war between him and his nephew the Earl of Flanders; but the Earl was wounded in battle by a servant, and being so wounded he went to the monastery of St. Bertin, and forthwith he was made a monk, and lived five days after, and then died, and was buried there: God rest his soul! He was buried on the 6th of the calends of August. The same year died Randulf Passeflambard Bishop of Durham, and he was buried there on the nones of September. And this year the aforesaid Abbot Henry went home to his own monastery in Poitou, with the King’s leave. He had given the King to understand that he would wholly quit that monastery, and that country, and abide with him inEngland, and at his monastery of Peterborough. But so it was not, for he spake thus guilefully, wishing to remain there a twelvemonth or more, and then to return again. May Almighty God have mercy upon this wretched place. The same year Hugh of the Temple came from Jerusalem to the King in Normandy, and the King received him with much honour, and gave him much treasure in gold and silver, and afterwards he sent him to England, and there he was well received by all good men, and all gave him treasures; and in Scotland also: and they sent in all a great sum of gold and silver by him to Jerusalem. And he invited the people out to Jerusalem, and there went with him and after him so great a number, as never before since the first expedition in the days of Pope Urban. Yet this availed little: he said that there was a furious war between the christians and the heathens, and when they came there it was nothing but leasing.—Thus were all these people miserably betrayed.
1129.
This year the King sent to England after Earl Waleram, and after Hugh the son of Gervais; and there they gave him hostages, and Hugh went home to France his own country, and Waleram remained with the King, and the Kinggave him all his lands, excepting his castle alone. Then the King came to England in harvest, and the Earl came with him, and they were as great friends as they had been enemies before. Then soon, by the King’s counsel and consent, William Archbishop of Canterbury sent over all England, and commanded the Bishops, and Abbots, and Archdeacons, and all the Priors, Monks, and Canons of all the cells of England, and all who had the charge and oversight of the Christian religion, that they should come to London at Michaelmas, to hold conference upon all God’s rights. When they came thither, the meeting began on the Monday and lasted till the Friday, and it came out that it was all concerning the wives of Archdeacons and Priests, that they should part with them by St. Andrew’s day; and that he who would not do this, should forego his church, his house, and his home, and never be permitted again to claim them. This was ordered by William Archbishop of Canterbury, and all the Bishops of England; and the King gave them leave to depart, and so they went home, and these decrees were in no respect observed, for all kept their wives, by the King’s permission, even as before. The same year William Giffard Bishop of Winchester died, andwas buried there on the 8th of the calends of February; and after Michaelmas the King gave the Bishoprick to his Nephew Henry Abbot of Glastonbury, and he was consecrated by William Archbishop of Canterbury on the 15th of the calends of December. The same year died Pope Honorius, and before he was well dead, two Popes were chosen. The one was named Peter, he was a monk of Cluny, and descended from the greatest men of Rome, and the Romans and the Duke of Sicily held with him; the other was named Gregory, he was a clerk, and he was driven from Rome by the other Pope and his kinsmen, and he was acknowledged by the Emperor of Saxony, by the King of France, by Henry King of England, and by all on this side the mountains. There was now so great a division in Christendom, that the like had never been before: May Christ appoint good counsel for his miserable people! The same year there was a great earthquake on St. Nicholas’ night, a little before day.
1130.
This year the monastery of Canterbury was consecrated by Archbishop William, on the 4th of the nones of May. The following Bishops were there: John of Rochester, Gilbert Universalisof London, Henry of Winchester, Alexander of Lincoln, Roger of Salisbury, Simon of Worcester, Roger of Coventry, Godfrey of Bath, Everard of Norwich, Sigefrid of Chichester, Bernard of St. David’s, Audoenus of Evreux, in Normandy, and John of Seez. On the 4th day after this, King Henry was at Rochester, and nearly the whole town was burnt down; and Archbishop William and the aforesaid Bishops consecrated St. Andrew’s monastery. And King Henry went over sea to Normandy during harvest. The same year Henry Abbot of Angely came to Peterborough after Easter, and said that he had wholly given up that monastery. After him, the Abbot of Cluny named Peter came to England with the King’s leave, and he was received with much honour wherever he went; he came to Peterborough, and there the Abbot Henry promised that he would obtain for him the monastery of Peterborough, and that it should be annexed to Cluny; but as it is said in the proverb, “The Hedge still stands—That parts the Lands.” May Almighty God frustrate evil counsels! And soon afterwards the Abbot of Cluny went home to his own country.
1131.
This year, on a moonlight night after Christmas,during the first sleep, the northern half of the heaven was, as it were, a burning fire; so that all who saw it were more affrighted than ever they were before; this happened on the 3d of the ides of January. The same year there was so great a pestilence amongst animals over all England, as had not been in the memory of man; it chiefly fell on cattle and on swine, so that in the town where ten or twelve ploughs had been going, not one remained, and the man, who had possessed two or three hundred swine, had not one left him. After this the hens died; and flesh-meat became scarce, and cheese, and butter. God mend the state of things when such is his will! And King Henry came home to England before harvest, after the latter feast of St. Peter. The same year before Easter the Abbot Henry went from Peterborough over sea to Normandy, and there he spoke with the King, and told him that the Abbot of Cluny had commanded him to come over, and resign to him the Abbey of Angely; and that then, with his leave, he would return home: and so he went to his own monastery and abode there till Midsummer day. And, on the day after the feast of St. John, the monks chose an Abbot from among themselves, and brought him into the church in procession; they sangTe Deum laudamus, they rang the bells, and they set him on the Abbot’s seat, and they did all obedience to him, even as they would to their Abbot; and the Earl and all the chief men and the monks drove the other Abbot Henry out of the monastery, and well they might, for in five and twenty years they had never known a good day. All his great craftiness failed him here, and now it behoved him to creep into any corner, and to consider if perchance there yet remained some slippery device, by which he might once more betray Christ and all christian people. Then went he to Cluny, and there they kept him, so that he could go neither east nor west; the Abbot of Cluny saying that they had lost St. Jean through him, and his great sottishness; wherefore seeing he could give no better compensation, he promised and swore on the holy relics, that if he might proceed to England he would obtain for them the monastery of Peterborough, and would establish there a Prior of Cluny, a church-warden, a treasurer, and a keeper of the robes, and that he would make over to them all things both within and without the monastery. Thus he went into France and abode there all the year. May Christ provide for the wretched monks of Peterborough, and for that miserableplace, for now do they stand in need of the help of Christ and of all christian people.
1132.
This year King Henry returned to this land: then the Abbot Henry came, and accused the monks of Peterborough to the King, because he desired to subject that monastery to Cluny; so that the King was well nigh beguiled, and sent for the monks; but by God’s mercy, and through the Bishops of Salisbury and Lincoln, and the other great men who were there, he found out that the Abbot dealt treacherously. When he could do no more, he wished that his nephew might be Abbot of Peterborough, but this was not the will of Christ. It was not very long after this that the King sent for him, and made him give up the Abbey of Peterborough, and depart out of the country, and the King granted the Abbacy to a Prior of St. Neot’s named Martin, and he came to the monastery, right worshipfully attended, on St. Peter’s day.
1135.
This year, at Lammas, King Henry went over sea: and on the second day, as he lay asleep in the ship, the day was darkened universally, and the sun became as if it were a moon three nights old, with the stars shining round it at mid-day.Men greatly marvelled, and great fear fell on them, and they said that some great event should follow thereafter—and so it was, for the same year the King died in Normandy, on the day after the feast of St. Andrew. Soon did this land fall into trouble, for every man quickly began to rob his neighbour as he might. Then King Henry’s sons and his friends took his body, and brought it to England, and buried it at Reading. He was a good man, and great was the awe of him; no man durst ill treat another in his time: he made peace for men and deer. Whoso bare his burden of gold and silver, no man durst say to him aught but good. In the mean time his nephew Stephen de Blois had arrived in England, and he came to London, and the inhabitants received him, and sent for the Archbishop William Corboyl, who consecrated him King on midwinter-day. In this King’s time was all discord, and evil-doing, and robbery; for the powerful men who had kept aloof, soon rose up against him; the first was Baldwin de Redvers, and he held Exeter against the King, and Stephen besieged him, and afterwards Baldwin made terms with him. Then the others took their castles, and held them against the King, and David King of Scotland betook him toWessien,[BJ]but, notwithstanding his array, messengers passed between them, and they came together, and made an agreement, though it availed little.
1137.
This year King Stephen went over sea to Normandy, and he was received there because it was expected that he would be altogether like his uncle, and because he had gotten possession of his treasure, but this he distributed and scattered foolishly. King Henry had gathered together much gold and silver, yet did he no good for his soul’s sake with the same. When King Stephen came to England he held an assembly at Oxford; and there he seized Roger Bishop of Salisbury, and Alexander Bishop of Lincoln, and Roger the Chancellor, his nephew, and he kept them all in prison till they gave up their castles. When the traitors perceived that he was a mild man, and a soft, and a good, and that he did not enforce justice, they did all wonder. They had done homage to him, and sworn oaths, but no faith kept they; all became forsworn, and broke their allegiance, for every rich man built his castles, and defended them against him,and they filled the land full of castles. They greatly oppressed the wretched people by making them work at these castles, and when the castles were finished they filled them with devils and evil men. Then they took those whom they suspected to have any goods, by night and by day, seizing both men and women, and they put them in prison for their gold and silver, and tortured them with pains unspeakable, for never were any martyrs tormented as these were. They hung some up by their feet, and smoked them with foul smoke; some by their thumbs, or by the head, and they hung burning things on their feet. They put a knotted string about their heads, and writhed it till it went into the brain. They put them into dungeons wherein were adders and snakes and toads, and thus wore them out. Some they put into a crucet-house, that is, into a chest that was short and narrow, and not deep, and they put sharp stones in it, and crushed the man therein so that they broke all his limbs. There were hateful and grim things called Sachenteges in many of the castles, and which two or three men had enough to do to carry. The Sachentege was made thus: it was fastened to a beam, having a sharp iron to go round a man’s throat and neck, so that he might no ways sit, nor lie, norsleep, but that he must bear all the iron. Many thousands they exhausted with hunger. I cannot and I may not tell of all the wounds, and all the tortures that they inflicted upon the wretched men of this land; and this state of things lasted the 19 years that Stephen was King, and ever grew worse and worse. They were continually levying an exaction from the towns, which they called Tensery,[BK]and when the miserable inhabitants had no more to give, then plundered they, and burnt all the towns, so that well mightest thou walk a whole day’s journey nor ever shouldest thou find a man seated in a town, or its lands tilled.
Then was corn dear, and flesh, and cheese, and butter, for there was none in the land—wretched men starved with hunger—some lived on alms who had been erewhile rich: some fled the country—never was there more misery, and never acted heathens worse than these. At length they spared neither church nor churchyard, but they took all that was valuable therein, and then burned the church and all together. Neither did they spare the lands of Bishops, nor of Abbots, nor of Priests; but they robbed the monks and the clergy, and every man plunderedhis neighbour inasmuch as he might. If two or three men came riding to a town, all the township fled before them, and thought that they were robbers. The Bishops and clergy were ever cursing them, but this to them was nothing, for they were all accursed, and forsworn, and reprobate. The earth bare no corn, you might as well have tilled the sea, for the land was all ruined by such deeds, and it was said openly that Christ and his Saints slept. These things, and more than we can say, did we suffer during 19 years because of our sins. Through all this evil time the Abbot Martin held his Abbacy for 20 years, and a half, and eight days, with many difficulties: and he provided the monks and guests with all necessaries, and kept up much alms in the house; and withal he wrought upon the church, and annexed thereto lands and rents, and enriched it greatly, and furnished it with robes: and he brought the monks into the new monastery on St. Peter’s day with much pomp. This was in the year 1140 of our Lord’s incarnation, the 23d year after the fire. And he went to Rome and was well received there by Pope Eugenius, and he obtained sundry privileges, to wit, one for all the abbey lands, and another for the lands that adjoin the monastery, and hadhe lived longer he meant to have done as much for the treasurer’s house. And he regained certain lands that powerful men possessed by force; he won Cottingham and Easton from William Malduit, who held Rockingham castle, and from Hugh of Waltville he won Hyrtlingberi (Artleborough), and Stanwick, and sixty shillings yearly out of Aldewingle (Oldwincle). And he increased the number of monks, and planted a vineyard, and made many works, and improved the town; and he was a good monk and a good man, and therefore God and good men loved him.—Now will we relate some part of what befel in King Stephen’s time. In his reign the Jews of Norwich bought a Christian child before Easter, and tortured him with all the torments wherewith our Lord was tortured, and they crucified him on Good Friday for the love of our Lord, and afterwards buried him. They believed that this would be kept secret, but our Lord made manifest that he was a holy martyr, and the monks took him and buried him honourably in the monastery, and he performed manifold and wonderful miracles through the power of our Lord, and is called St. William.
1138.
This year David King of Scotland entered thisland with an immense army resolving to conquer it, and William Earl of Albemarle, to whose charge the King had committed York, and other trusty men, came against him with few troops, and fought with him, and they put the King to flight at the Standard, and slew a great part of his followers.
1140.
This year Stephen attempted to take Robert Earl of Gloucester the son of King Henry, but failed, for Robert was aware of his purpose.—After this, in Lent, the sun and the day were darkened about noon, when men eat, so that they lighted candles to eat by. This was on the 13th of the calends of April, and the people were greatly astonished. After this William Archbishop of Canterbury died, and the King made Theobald Abbot of Bec Archbishop. Then there arose a very great war between the King and Randolf Earl of Chester, not because the King did not give him all that he could ask, even as he did to all others, but that the more he gave them, the worse they always carried themselves to him. The Earl held Lincoln against the King, and seized all that belonged to the King there, and the King went thither, and besieged him and his brother William de Romarein the castle: and the Earl stole out and went for Robert Earl of Gloucester, and brought him thither with a large army; and they fought furiously against their Lord on Candlemas day, and they took him captive, for his men betrayed him and fled, and they led him to Bristol, and there they put him into prison and close confinement. Now was all England more disturbed than before, and all evil was in the land. After this, King Henry’s daughter, who had been Empress of Germany, and was now Countess of of Anjou, arrived, and she came to London, and the citizens would have seized her, but she fled with much loss. Then Henry Bishop of Winchester, King Stephen’s brother, spake with Earl Robert and with the Empress, and swore them oaths that he never more would hold with the King his brother, and he cursed all those that did hold with him, and he said that he would give up Winchester to them, and he made them come thither. But when they were in that place Stephen’s Queen brought up her strength and besieged them, till there was so great a famine in the town, they could endure it no longer. Then stole they out and fled, and the besiegers were aware of them, and followed them, and they took Robert Earl of Gloucester and led him toRochester, and imprisoned him there: and the Empress fled into a monastery. Then wise men, friends of the King and of the Earl, interfered between them, and they settled that the King should be let out of prison for the Earl, and the Earl for the King; and this was done. After this the King and Earl Randolf were reconciled at Stamford, and they took oaths and pledged their troth, that neither would betray the other: but this promise was set at nought, for the King afterwards seized the Earl in Northampton through wicked counsel, and put him in prison, but he set him free soon after, through worse, on condition that he should swear on the cross and find hostages that he would give up all his castles. Some he did deliver up, and others not; and he did worse than he should have done in this country. Now was England much divided, some held with the King and some with the Empress, for when the King was in prison the Earls and the great men thought that he would never more come out, and they treated with the Empress, and brought her to Oxford, and gave her the town. When the King was out of prison he heard this, and he took his army and besieged her in the tower, and they let her down from the tower by night with ropes, andshe stole away, and she fled: and she went on foot to Wallingford. After this she went over sea, and all the Normans turned from the King to the Earl of Anjou, some willingly, and some against their will; for he besieged them till they gave up their castles, and they had no help from the King. Then the King’s son Eustace went to France, and took to wife the sister of the King of France: he thought to obtain Normandy through this marriage, but little he sped, and that of right, for he was an evil man, and did more harm than good wherever he went: he spoiled the lands, and laid thereon heavy taxes: he brought his wife to England, and put her into the castle of ——; she was a good woman but she had little bliss with him, and it was not the will of Christ that he should bear rule long, and he died, and his mother also. And the Earl of Anjou died, and his son Henry succeeded him; and the Queen of France was divorced from the the King, and she went to the young Earl Henry and he took her to wife, and received all Poitou with her. Then he came into England with a great army and won castles; and the King marched against him with a much larger army, howbeit they did not fight, but the Archbishop and wise men went between them and made atreaty on these terms; that the King should be Lord and King while he lived, and that Henry should be King after his death, and that he should consider him as his father, and the King him as his son, and that peace and concord should be between them, and in all England. The King, and the Earl, and the Bishop, and the Earls, and all the great men swore to observe these and the other conditions that were then made. The Earl was received with much honour at Winchester and at London, and all did homage to him, and swore to keep the peace, and it soon became a very good peace, such as never was in this land. Then the King was more powerful here than ever he was; and the Earl went over sea, and all the people loved him, because he did good justice, and made peace.
1154.
This year King Stephen died, and he was buried with his wife and his son at Favres-field (Feversham); they had built that monastery.—When the King died the Earl was beyond sea, and no man durst do other than good for very dread of him. When he came to England he was received with much honour, and was consecrated King at London on the Sunday before Christmas, and he held a great Court there: and on thesame day that Martin Abbot of Peterborough should have gone thither he sickened, and he died on the 4th of the nones of January. And that day the monks chose another Abbot from among themselves. He is named William de Waltville, a good clerk, and a good man, and well beloved of the King and of all good people: and they buried the Abbot honourably in the Church, and soon afterwards the Abbot Elect and the monks went to the King at Oxford, and the King gave him the Abbacy, and thus he departed, having received * * * * * * *
Finis.