Chapter 24

[188]Who had been put in possession of the ancient manor of Brictric in the way already mentioned.[189]In his observations on the value of silver at the time of the Survey, 1086, Sir Robert Atkyns gives the following statement:—The rate of necessaries which subsist human life is the true estimate of money. Since, therefore, wheat-corn seems to be themostnecessary of anything, we may best valuecoinby the price of wheat in the several ages. A bushel of wheat, soon after the Norman Conquest, was sold for a penny, which was equal in weight to our threepence. At this day (1729) a bushel of wheat, one year with another, may be valued at four shillings, which is sixteen times the value of it six or seven hundred years ago. The conclusion will be, that a man might live in that time as well on twenty shillings a year of our money, as on sixteen pounds a year at present. And, to carry it further,twopounds money would buy as much wheat asninety-sixpounds of the present.—Dydeon Atkyns’ Hist. Gloucest. 142. Hist. of the Abbey.[190]“Anno Domini M.C. Nam idemRexpridie ante necem suam, vidit per somnum sese fleubotomiæ ictu sanguinem emittere, et radium cruoris in cœlum usque extentum, lucem obnubilare, et Dei interpellare claritatem. Rex autem Sancta Maria invocata et somno excussus, lumen inferri præcepit, et cubicularios à se discedere non permittens, residuum noctis insomne peregit. Mane verò cùm aurora illuxisset, Monachus quidam transmarinus, qui pro ecclesiæ suæ negotiis Regis curiam sequebatur,Roberto filio Hamonisviro potenti et Regi familiari somnium retulit, quod nocte eadem viderat mirificum et horrendum. Vidit enim per somnum Regem in quandam venire ecclesiam, gestuque superbo et insolenti (ut solebat) cœpit despicere circumstantes, ubi crucifixum dentibus apprehendens, brachia illius corrosit, et crura pene detruncavit. Quod crucifixus cum diu tolerasset, Regem demum dextro pede ita depulit, ut caderet in pavimentum supinus: et ex ore jacentis tantam exire flammam conspexit, et ita diffusam, ut fumorū nebula, quasi chaos magnum usque ad sidera volitarat. Hanc visionem cùmRobertusRegi retulisset, cachinnos ingeminans ait: Monachus est, et lucri causamonachilitersomniavit: da ei centum solidos, ne videatur inaniter somniasse. Item videbatur Regi per somnium nocte proxima ante diem mortis suæ, quòd vidit unumInfantempulcherrimum super altare quoddam, et cupiens et esuriens supra modum, adiit et corrosit de carne infantis, et videbatur ei prædulce quod gustaverat: et volens plus avidius sumere, infans torvo aspectu et voce minaci ait: Desisti, nimis accepisti. Expergefactus à somno Rex, consoluit mane super hæc quendam episcopum. Episcopus autem suspicans judicium vindictæ, ait: Desine Rex bone à persecutione ecclesiæ præmonitio enim hæc Dei est, et beniga castigatio; nec ut proposuisti, venatum eas. Rex contemnens salutaria monita, in sylvas venatum ivit. Et ecce casu, cervus magnus cum ante eum transiret, ait Rex cuidam militi, scilicet Waltero Tyrell: Trahe, diabole. Exiit ergò telum volatile, de quo bene et vere potuit dici, et vaticinio denotari,Et semel emissum volat irrevocabile telum.Et obstante arbore, in obliquum reflexum faciens, per medium cordis Regem sauciavit, qui subito mortuus corruit. Sui autem, et præcipuè miles ille, in partes fugerunt. Aliqui tum redeuntes corpus in sanguine suo circumvolutum et tabefactum, supra bigam cujusdam carbonatoris imposuerunt fragilem, et macilentissimo jumento vno tractam. Rusticulus igitur coactus corpus ad civitatem transportare, dum transiret per quandam profundam et lutosam viam, fracta biga sua debili, corpus, immo cadaver rigidum et fœtens, in luto circumvolutum, volentibus asportare dereliquit. Eadem hora Comes Cornubiæ, in sylva, ab illa in qua hæc acciderant per duas dietas distante, dum venatum iret, et solus casu à suis sodalibus relinqueretur, obviavitmagno piloso et nigro hirco, ferenti Regem nigrum et nudum per medium pectoris sauciatum. Et adjuratus hircus per Deum-trinum-et-unum quid hoc esset, respondit: Fero ad judicium suum Regem Vestrum, immo tyrannumWillielmum Rufum. Malignus enim spiritus sum, et ultor maliciæ suæ, qua desævit in ecclesiam Christi, et hanc suam necem procuravi, imperante promartyre Angliæ beato Albano, qui questus est Domino, quòd in sula Britanniæ, cujus ipse fuit primus sacrator, supra modum grassaretur. Comes igitur hæc sociis statim narravit. Infra triduum autem hæc omnia vera reperit, per mediatores oculata fide expertus.”—Matth. Par. p. 51-2, fol. ed. 1565.[191]“The Dictum de Kenilworth,” here referred to, was made by twelve persons, bishops and peers of the king’s selection; the object of which was to soften the severity of the parliament holden at Winchester, which had entirely confiscated the estates of the rebels and their adherents; instead of which, this decree—that they might not be rendered desperate—sentenced them only to a pecuniary fine of not more than five years’ income of their estates, nor less than two.—Hist.[192]“Of this Erle speaketh Ranulph, Monke of Chester, in his Policronion, and calleth him Symon the ryghtwise, sayinge that God wrought for himmiraclesafter his deth: The whyche, for fere of the kynge and Sir Edwarde, his sonne, were kept close and secret, so that no man durst speke of theym.” Fabyan. 358. Not only the Monk of Chester, however, but also Matthew of St. Albans, gravely records the same popular belief; for it was supposed that, having fallen in defence of the national liberty and in the performance of his oath, his death was that of a martyr: and afterwards, when free utterance could be given to this opinion without fear of the court, the clergy was reviled for not granting him the honours of canonization. “Sir Symon” was a brave soldier; and, compared with other saints of his day, would have been no disgrace to the calendar.[193]“He spent,” says Lombard, “greatlie upon it; in so much, as Leland wryteth, that he consumed a round table and tresselles of massie golde, which the same King Edward had not long before made to honoure the knighthood of that order withall.”[194]In the old Baronage, vol. i., p. 143, the circumstances attending this splendid fête are thus somewhat differently and more fully related:—Having procured the honour of knighthood to be conferred upon him by Edward the First, Mortimer, at his own cost, caused a tournament to be held at Kenilworth, where he sumptuously entertained a hundred knights and as many ladies for three days, the like whereof was never before in England; and there began the Round-table—so called by reason that the place wherein they practised those feats was environed with a strong wall, made in a round form. Upon the fourth day, at the close of the fête, the golden lion, in sign of triumph, being yielded to him, he carried it, with all the company, to Warwick. The fame thereof being spread into foreign countries, occasioned the Queen of Navarre to send unto him certain wooden bottles, bound with golden bars and wax, under the pretence of wine, which, in truth, were allfilled with gold, and for many ages after were kept in the Abbey of Wigmore—whereupon, for the love of that queen, the said Sir Roger Mortimer added a carbuncle to his arms.[195]Of both these apartments, as of the White Hall, nothing now remains but fragments of walls and staircases, and a part of two large bow windows; the inner of which, like those of the hall, is picturesquely festooned with ivy.—Notes.[196]Isabel, daughter of Philip the Fair, King of France, married in her twelfth year to Edward, Jan. 22, 1308, in the church of Our Lady at Boulogne, was “his wife twenty years, his widow thirty, and died at the age of sixty-three.”—SeeEltham Hall, in this work.[197]By his first wife, the countess of Kenilworth, he had, besides his son and heir (Henry de Bolingbroke), two daughters, Philippa, Queen of Portugal, and Elizabeth, Countess of Pembroke. By his second wife, Constance, daughter of the King of Portugal, he had another daughter, Catherine, who became consort of the Spanish king. And by Catherine Swinford, his third wife, he had five sons, namely, John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset; Henry, Bishop of Winchester; Thomas, Earl of Dorset, afterwards Duke of Exeter; and a daughter, Joan, who married, first, Sir Robert Ferrers, and secondly, the Earl of Westmoreland.—Dugd. Bar. art. Lancast.[198]Harrison.[199]Holinshed.[200]Among other repairs and alterations, he is said to have caused the “banqueting-house,” erected by Henry the Fifth, to be taken down, and part of it to be rebuilt within the base-court, near the Swan Tower. But the “banqueting-house” here mentioned, appears to have been the same as that already noticed as “le Plaisant Marais.”[201]Book ii. Chap. 15. Surely one may say of such a guest, what Cicero says to Atticus on occasion of a visit paid him by Cæsar: “Hospes tamen non es cui diceres, Amabo te, eodem ad me cùm revertere.” Lib. xiii. Ep. 52. If she relieved the people from oppressions (to whom it seems the law could give no relief), her visits were a great oppression on the nobility.—See Hume.[202]Among other embellishments of the “great chamber of state,” was a most sumptuousChimney-piece, composed of alabaster or marble, richly carved and gilt. It was usually of very large dimensions, widely spread, and reaching from the floor to the ceiling. There were sometimes statues placed within columns and niches, which represented some of the cardinal virtues, or grotesque termini, in the Roman manner, then lately introduced into this country. The whole was painted with gaudy colours; and the armorial bearings of the family, in one large escóchéon, or the quarterings dispersed into many others, were an indispensable decoration. In certain instances, the chimney-piece was of carved freestone, left plain. The almost perfect resemblance of these to the superb monuments which in that age were dedicated to the memory of the dead, leave no doubt that the original idea had the same analogy. Of this opinion one most splendid instance will suffice—that of the mausoleum of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in the Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick, and theCHIMNEY-PIECE(see preceding Woodcut) of Kenilworth Castle.—Dallaway’s Discourses, page 363, 364.[203]Hock-Tuesday, Hoke-day, or Hoke-tide. The origin of this once popular game, or play, which the author of Kenilworth describes as being represented to the Queen by the men of Coventry, is involved in considerable obscurity. By some writers it is supposed to be commemorative of the massacre of the Danes, in the reign of Ethelred, on the 13th of November, 1002; whilst by others, the deliverance of the English from the tyranny of the Danes by the death of Hardicanute, on Tuesday, the 8th of June, 1042, is pointed out as its origin. The weight of argument preponderates in favour of the national deliverance by Hardicanute’s death: and it must not be forgotten, that the festival was celebrated on a Tuesday, and that Hoke-Tuesday was the Tuesday in the second week after Easter. Spelman derives the term from the German Hocken, in reference to the act of binding, which was formerly practised by the women upon the men on Hoke-Tuesday; an opinion which Mr. Denne has well supported. [Archæolog. vol vii. p. 244.] A payment, called Hock-Tuesday money, was anciently made by the tenant to the landlord, for the permission given by the latter to the former to celebrate the festivities of this memorable day. [Jac. Law Dic. in verb.] Whatever the etymology of its name, or the origin of the game itself might be, its subject was the massacre of the Danes, expressed in actions and rhymes, and acted annually in the town of Coventry, till its suppression, shortly after the Reformation. It consisted of fierce sham contests between the English and Danish forces; first by the “launce knights,” on horseback, armed with spears and shields, who, being many of them dismounted, then fought with swords and targets. Afterwards succeeded two “hosts of footmen,” one after the other; first marching in ranks, then facing about in military array, then changing their form from ranks into squadrons, then into triangles, then into rings, and then, “winding out again, they joined in battle. Twice the Danes had the better; but at the last conflict they were beaten down, overcome, and many of them led captive for triumph by our English women.”—Illustration of the Waverley Novels, vol. iii. p. 45.[204]In Lands, £16,431 9s.In Woods, £11,722 2s.The Castle, £10,401 4s.—Total, £38,554 15s.Thus the whole demesne, including the Castle, is valued little more than the half of what, only a few years previously, Dudley had expended in improvements.[205]The romance of this story is certainly not improved by the fact, that the gallant knight had left behind him one who justly claimed him as her husband, namely, the Lady Alice Leigh. “But,” says the author of the Baronage, “to countenance his marriage with Mistress Southwell, he did allege his marriage with the said Lady Alice Leigh to be by the canon law illegal, inasmuch as, &c.,” and obtaining a papaldispensationfor that purpose, espoused [Biog.] “the said Blanche Southwell at Florence, who, as well as other members of her family, was not aware,” according to the MS., “of the Knight’s previous engagement.”—Ed.[206]This was Doctor Julio, or Giuglio. Camden says that the disgrace of Archbishop Grindal was owing “to his having condemned the unlawful marriage of this Julio, an Italian physician, with another man’s wife, while Leicester in vain opposed his proceedings therein.”[207]This legend is preserved in two manuscripts now in the British Museum (MS. Harl. No. 3776, and MS. Cotton., Julius, D VI.), both of which formerly belonged to Waltham Abbey, and were written in the twelfth century, the date of both the manuscripts. It was to the following effect:—In the time of King Canute, there lived at Lutegaresberi a smith, a man remarkable for the simplicity of his life, and respected amongst his neighbours for his virtues. One night he had a vision—an angel appeared to him, and directed him to repair early in the morning to the priest, and exhort him to proceed in solemn procession to the top of the hill, and there dig. The smith passed it over as a mere dream; but the warning was repeated the following night. He then consulted his wife, and by her advice again disregarded the injunction of the angel; but the latter repeated his visit on the third night, and threatened him with severe punishment for his continued disobedience. On the morrow the smith arose, and told his dream to the priest, who proceeded immediately with the town’s people to the summit of the hill, where, after digging according to their directions, they found a large cross, with a smaller one, a little bell, and a book. (Ecce repentè apparuit oculis intuentium inestimabilis imago decoris crucifixi Salvatoris ex atro silice sic manuum extensione et omnium corporis liniamentorum compositione miro fabrili et inaudito opere composita, ut ipsius summi artificis manibus perpendens operatam, et sub dextro ipsius brachiis alteram crucifixi effigiem modicam in sinistra parte, nolam antiqui operis quales bestiarum collo applicare solet antiquitas, ne iudesuetione insolescant, librum etiam cognomentoNigrum Tertumsicut vix perpendere possumus Evangeliorum quem usque hodiè celebrem habet Walthamensis ecclesia propter multa quæ ipsi oculis nostris perspeximus miracula.) Having made known their discovery to Earl Tovi, they placed the cross on a cart, to which they yoked three red oxen and three white cows. Uncertain whither to convey their precious burden, the priest uttered in succession the names of the most famous monasteries of that day, such as Dover, Winchester, Glastonbury, London, &c., but the oxen and cows remained fixed to the spot. At length some one mentioned by accident the name of Waltham, when the animals immediately put themselves in motion, and conducted the cart to that place, amid the acclamations of the people, and of the crowds of cripples and invalids who were cured on the way by the miraculous influence of the cross. This story was long implicitly believed by our superstitious forefathers.[208]See the Vita Haroldi, in the Chroniques Anglo-Normandes, Rouen, 1836, tom. ii. p. 156. The portions of the other Waltham Legend (De Inventione Sanctæ Crucis Walthamensis), which relate more particularly to the history of Harold, are printed in the same work.[209]Jaciuntur festinato ecclesiæ amplioris fundamenta, surgunt parietes, columpuæ sublimes distantes ab invicem, parietes arcuum aut testudinum emicidiis mutuo fœderantur, culmen impositum æris ab introgressis plumbei objectivæ laminis variam secludit intemperiem.—Vita Haroldi, p. 161.[210]Venusto enim admodum opere ecclesiam à fundamentis constructam laminis æreis, auro undique superducto, capita columnarum et bases flexurasque arcuum ornare fecit mirâ distinctione.—De Invent. Sanct. Cr. Waltham.[211]De Invent. Sanctæ Crucis Waltham. p. 231.[212]Decano cessit præ cæteris Westwaltham, ut aliis in eo præcelleret, qui primatum et regimen cæterorum habebat, in victualibus etiam aliquantisper magis auctus,quid pluribus habebat benefacere quam simplex canonicus.[213]Ailric was probably the schoolmaster of the Abbey, for we know that a school was part of Harold’s foundation.[214]This is the story given in the treatise, De Inventione Sanctæ Crucis Walthamensis.[215]This legend forms the body of the Vita Haroldi, printed, with the treatise De Invent. Sanct. Cr. Waltham., in the Chroniques Anglo-Normandes.[216]Vita Haroldi, pp. 162, 163. De Invent. S. Crucis, pp. 252, 253.[217]MS. Harl. No. 3776, fol. 3, iº and vº.[218]Hanc insuper ecclesiam, quasi novam Christi sponsam nova dote, sicut decebat, dignum duximus esse ditandam.—The alliteration in this passage is remarkable.[219]Matthew Paris, sub ann. See Fuller’s History of Waltham Abbey, p. 21.[220]The account of these disputes is chiefly taken from Fuller, and from Farmer’s History of Waltham Abbey.[221]Farmer’s History of Waltham Abbey, p. 100.[222]A dark vaulted structure of two divisions connected with the Convent Garden, is all that remains of the old Abbey House, the residence of the Dennys; even the large mansion erected on its site, of which a view is given in Farmer’s History of Waltham Abbey, has been long demolished. In the Convent Garden, which is now tenanted by a market-gardener, there is a tulip-tree, remarkable equally for its magnitude and antiquity. The Abbey mills are still used as a cornmill.[223]Cujus corporis translationi, quum sic se habebat status ecclesiæ fabricandi, vel devotio fratrum reverentiam corpori exhibentium, nunc extremæ memini me tertio affuisse, et, sicut vulgo celebre est et attestationes antiquorum audivimus, plagas ipsis ossibus impressas oculis corporeis et vidisse et manibus contrectam.—Chron. Anglo-Norm, tom. ii. p. 250.[224]The following attested account of this discovery is preserved by Fuller, in his Worthies:—“The ensuing relation, written by the pen of Master Thomas Smith, of Sewarstone, in the parish of Waltham Abbey, a discreet person, not long since deceased.“It so fell out that I served Sir Edward Denny (towards the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory), who lived in the Abbey of Waltham Cross, in the county of Essex, which at that time lay in ruinous heaps; and then Sir Edward began slowly now and then to make even and re-edify some of that chaos. In doing whereof, Tomkins, his gardener, came to discover (among other things) a fair marble stone, the cover of a tomb hewed out in hard stone: this cover, with some help, he removed from off the tomb; which having done, there appeared to the view of the gardener, and Master Baker, minister of the town (who died long since), and to myself and Master Henry Knagg (Sir Edward’s bailiff), the anatomy of a man lying in the tomb abovesaid, only the bones remaining, bone to his bone, not one bone dislocated. In observation whereof, we wondered to see the bones still remaining in such due order, and no dust or other filth besides them to be seen in the tomb: we could not conceive that it had been an anatomy of bones only, laid at first in the tomb; yet if it had been the whole carcass of a man, what became of his flesh and entrails? For (as I have said above) the tomb was clean from all filth and dust, besides bones. This when we had all observed, I told them, that if they did but touch any part thereof, that all would fall asunder, for I had only heard somewhat formerly of the like accident. Trial was made, and so it came to pass. For my own part, I am persuaded, that as the flesh of this anatomy to us became invisible, so likewise would the bones have been in some longer continuance of time. O! what is man then, which vanisheth thus away, like unto smoke or vapour, and is no more seen! Whosoever thou art that shalt read this passage, thou mayst find cause of humility sufficient.”In Mr. Edgar Taylor’s translation of “Master Wace, his Chronicle of the Norman Conquest,” (London, 1837,) p. 259, is given a beautiful drawing from a manuscript of the thirteenth century, representing the deposition of the body of King Harold in his tomb at Waltham.[225]According to the parish books, quoted by Farmer, (History of Waltham Abbey,) p. 149, the sum of £100 was expended between 1669 and 1672; £46 4s.10d.in 1674; £64 13s.5-1/2d.in 1679; and £78 5s.2d.in 1680.[226]MS. Cotton. Julius D. VI. fol. 117, vº, nearly contemporary.[227]Ricardus Pungiant tenet Latelie. Aluuardus tenuit de Rege Eadwardo, et potuit ire quo voluit.[228]This matrix was exhibited before the Society of Antiquaries of London, by the Rev. John Brand, Jan. 26, 1797. An account of it, and the other seals, will be found in the thirteenth volume of the Archæologia.[229]This grant is mentioned in the Placit. de Quo Warranto, of the 9th Edw. I.; but in the original document the name isNottele(not, as quoted in the common books,Notele), and it is probable that the grant has no reference to Netley in Hampshire.[230]The legend says it was the key-stone of the east window; but that is still standing.[231]The college Combination-Rooms were formerly called Parlours (parluræ).[232]The work from which this anecdote is taken is inedited, and exists only in one contemporary manuscript. The story has been printed from it in the first volume of the Reliquiæ Antiquæ, by Wright and Halliwell.[233]J. Bullar’s Companion in a Visit to Netley Abbey, p. 10.[234]Tot enim videas piscium genera, assa quidem et elixa, farta et frixa; tot ovis et pipere cibaria cocorum arte confecta; tot sapores et salsamenta ad gulam irritandam et appetitum excitandum eorundem arte composita. Ad hæc etiam in tanta abunduntia vinum hic videas et ciceram, pigmentum, claretum, mustum, et medonem, atque moretum, et omne quod inebriare potest, adeo ut cervisia qualis in Anglia fieri solet optima, et præcipue in Cantia, locum inter cætera nou haberet; sed hoc ibi cervisia inter pocula, quod olus inter fercula.—Giraldus Cambr. Specul. Eccles. in MS. Cotton. He is here speaking of the Cistercian monks of Canterbury.[235]“And the wicked Ham with his people drew him towards the wood:—Arviragus followed him, and continually struck [his men] to the ground. At last he gained very little by his treason; he overtook him at a haven, and slew him right there:—it were little harm if all traitors were served so. The haven where he was slain, after Ham’s name truly, was called Hampton, as it is called yet,—for it is called Southhampton, and will be evermore.”—Robert of Gloucester’s Chronicle, ed. Hearne, p. 64.[236]Of which a description and view will be found in the present volume, p. 37. See also Appendix, p. 338.

[188]Who had been put in possession of the ancient manor of Brictric in the way already mentioned.

[189]In his observations on the value of silver at the time of the Survey, 1086, Sir Robert Atkyns gives the following statement:—The rate of necessaries which subsist human life is the true estimate of money. Since, therefore, wheat-corn seems to be themostnecessary of anything, we may best valuecoinby the price of wheat in the several ages. A bushel of wheat, soon after the Norman Conquest, was sold for a penny, which was equal in weight to our threepence. At this day (1729) a bushel of wheat, one year with another, may be valued at four shillings, which is sixteen times the value of it six or seven hundred years ago. The conclusion will be, that a man might live in that time as well on twenty shillings a year of our money, as on sixteen pounds a year at present. And, to carry it further,twopounds money would buy as much wheat asninety-sixpounds of the present.—Dydeon Atkyns’ Hist. Gloucest. 142. Hist. of the Abbey.

[190]“Anno Domini M.C. Nam idemRexpridie ante necem suam, vidit per somnum sese fleubotomiæ ictu sanguinem emittere, et radium cruoris in cœlum usque extentum, lucem obnubilare, et Dei interpellare claritatem. Rex autem Sancta Maria invocata et somno excussus, lumen inferri præcepit, et cubicularios à se discedere non permittens, residuum noctis insomne peregit. Mane verò cùm aurora illuxisset, Monachus quidam transmarinus, qui pro ecclesiæ suæ negotiis Regis curiam sequebatur,Roberto filio Hamonisviro potenti et Regi familiari somnium retulit, quod nocte eadem viderat mirificum et horrendum. Vidit enim per somnum Regem in quandam venire ecclesiam, gestuque superbo et insolenti (ut solebat) cœpit despicere circumstantes, ubi crucifixum dentibus apprehendens, brachia illius corrosit, et crura pene detruncavit. Quod crucifixus cum diu tolerasset, Regem demum dextro pede ita depulit, ut caderet in pavimentum supinus: et ex ore jacentis tantam exire flammam conspexit, et ita diffusam, ut fumorū nebula, quasi chaos magnum usque ad sidera volitarat. Hanc visionem cùmRobertusRegi retulisset, cachinnos ingeminans ait: Monachus est, et lucri causamonachilitersomniavit: da ei centum solidos, ne videatur inaniter somniasse. Item videbatur Regi per somnium nocte proxima ante diem mortis suæ, quòd vidit unumInfantempulcherrimum super altare quoddam, et cupiens et esuriens supra modum, adiit et corrosit de carne infantis, et videbatur ei prædulce quod gustaverat: et volens plus avidius sumere, infans torvo aspectu et voce minaci ait: Desisti, nimis accepisti. Expergefactus à somno Rex, consoluit mane super hæc quendam episcopum. Episcopus autem suspicans judicium vindictæ, ait: Desine Rex bone à persecutione ecclesiæ præmonitio enim hæc Dei est, et beniga castigatio; nec ut proposuisti, venatum eas. Rex contemnens salutaria monita, in sylvas venatum ivit. Et ecce casu, cervus magnus cum ante eum transiret, ait Rex cuidam militi, scilicet Waltero Tyrell: Trahe, diabole. Exiit ergò telum volatile, de quo bene et vere potuit dici, et vaticinio denotari,Et semel emissum volat irrevocabile telum.Et obstante arbore, in obliquum reflexum faciens, per medium cordis Regem sauciavit, qui subito mortuus corruit. Sui autem, et præcipuè miles ille, in partes fugerunt. Aliqui tum redeuntes corpus in sanguine suo circumvolutum et tabefactum, supra bigam cujusdam carbonatoris imposuerunt fragilem, et macilentissimo jumento vno tractam. Rusticulus igitur coactus corpus ad civitatem transportare, dum transiret per quandam profundam et lutosam viam, fracta biga sua debili, corpus, immo cadaver rigidum et fœtens, in luto circumvolutum, volentibus asportare dereliquit. Eadem hora Comes Cornubiæ, in sylva, ab illa in qua hæc acciderant per duas dietas distante, dum venatum iret, et solus casu à suis sodalibus relinqueretur, obviavitmagno piloso et nigro hirco, ferenti Regem nigrum et nudum per medium pectoris sauciatum. Et adjuratus hircus per Deum-trinum-et-unum quid hoc esset, respondit: Fero ad judicium suum Regem Vestrum, immo tyrannumWillielmum Rufum. Malignus enim spiritus sum, et ultor maliciæ suæ, qua desævit in ecclesiam Christi, et hanc suam necem procuravi, imperante promartyre Angliæ beato Albano, qui questus est Domino, quòd in sula Britanniæ, cujus ipse fuit primus sacrator, supra modum grassaretur. Comes igitur hæc sociis statim narravit. Infra triduum autem hæc omnia vera reperit, per mediatores oculata fide expertus.”—Matth. Par. p. 51-2, fol. ed. 1565.

Et semel emissum volat irrevocabile telum.

Et obstante arbore, in obliquum reflexum faciens, per medium cordis Regem sauciavit, qui subito mortuus corruit. Sui autem, et præcipuè miles ille, in partes fugerunt. Aliqui tum redeuntes corpus in sanguine suo circumvolutum et tabefactum, supra bigam cujusdam carbonatoris imposuerunt fragilem, et macilentissimo jumento vno tractam. Rusticulus igitur coactus corpus ad civitatem transportare, dum transiret per quandam profundam et lutosam viam, fracta biga sua debili, corpus, immo cadaver rigidum et fœtens, in luto circumvolutum, volentibus asportare dereliquit. Eadem hora Comes Cornubiæ, in sylva, ab illa in qua hæc acciderant per duas dietas distante, dum venatum iret, et solus casu à suis sodalibus relinqueretur, obviavitmagno piloso et nigro hirco, ferenti Regem nigrum et nudum per medium pectoris sauciatum. Et adjuratus hircus per Deum-trinum-et-unum quid hoc esset, respondit: Fero ad judicium suum Regem Vestrum, immo tyrannumWillielmum Rufum. Malignus enim spiritus sum, et ultor maliciæ suæ, qua desævit in ecclesiam Christi, et hanc suam necem procuravi, imperante promartyre Angliæ beato Albano, qui questus est Domino, quòd in sula Britanniæ, cujus ipse fuit primus sacrator, supra modum grassaretur. Comes igitur hæc sociis statim narravit. Infra triduum autem hæc omnia vera reperit, per mediatores oculata fide expertus.”—Matth. Par. p. 51-2, fol. ed. 1565.

[191]“The Dictum de Kenilworth,” here referred to, was made by twelve persons, bishops and peers of the king’s selection; the object of which was to soften the severity of the parliament holden at Winchester, which had entirely confiscated the estates of the rebels and their adherents; instead of which, this decree—that they might not be rendered desperate—sentenced them only to a pecuniary fine of not more than five years’ income of their estates, nor less than two.—Hist.

[192]“Of this Erle speaketh Ranulph, Monke of Chester, in his Policronion, and calleth him Symon the ryghtwise, sayinge that God wrought for himmiraclesafter his deth: The whyche, for fere of the kynge and Sir Edwarde, his sonne, were kept close and secret, so that no man durst speke of theym.” Fabyan. 358. Not only the Monk of Chester, however, but also Matthew of St. Albans, gravely records the same popular belief; for it was supposed that, having fallen in defence of the national liberty and in the performance of his oath, his death was that of a martyr: and afterwards, when free utterance could be given to this opinion without fear of the court, the clergy was reviled for not granting him the honours of canonization. “Sir Symon” was a brave soldier; and, compared with other saints of his day, would have been no disgrace to the calendar.

[193]“He spent,” says Lombard, “greatlie upon it; in so much, as Leland wryteth, that he consumed a round table and tresselles of massie golde, which the same King Edward had not long before made to honoure the knighthood of that order withall.”

[194]In the old Baronage, vol. i., p. 143, the circumstances attending this splendid fête are thus somewhat differently and more fully related:—Having procured the honour of knighthood to be conferred upon him by Edward the First, Mortimer, at his own cost, caused a tournament to be held at Kenilworth, where he sumptuously entertained a hundred knights and as many ladies for three days, the like whereof was never before in England; and there began the Round-table—so called by reason that the place wherein they practised those feats was environed with a strong wall, made in a round form. Upon the fourth day, at the close of the fête, the golden lion, in sign of triumph, being yielded to him, he carried it, with all the company, to Warwick. The fame thereof being spread into foreign countries, occasioned the Queen of Navarre to send unto him certain wooden bottles, bound with golden bars and wax, under the pretence of wine, which, in truth, were allfilled with gold, and for many ages after were kept in the Abbey of Wigmore—whereupon, for the love of that queen, the said Sir Roger Mortimer added a carbuncle to his arms.

[195]Of both these apartments, as of the White Hall, nothing now remains but fragments of walls and staircases, and a part of two large bow windows; the inner of which, like those of the hall, is picturesquely festooned with ivy.—Notes.

[196]Isabel, daughter of Philip the Fair, King of France, married in her twelfth year to Edward, Jan. 22, 1308, in the church of Our Lady at Boulogne, was “his wife twenty years, his widow thirty, and died at the age of sixty-three.”—SeeEltham Hall, in this work.

[197]By his first wife, the countess of Kenilworth, he had, besides his son and heir (Henry de Bolingbroke), two daughters, Philippa, Queen of Portugal, and Elizabeth, Countess of Pembroke. By his second wife, Constance, daughter of the King of Portugal, he had another daughter, Catherine, who became consort of the Spanish king. And by Catherine Swinford, his third wife, he had five sons, namely, John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset; Henry, Bishop of Winchester; Thomas, Earl of Dorset, afterwards Duke of Exeter; and a daughter, Joan, who married, first, Sir Robert Ferrers, and secondly, the Earl of Westmoreland.—Dugd. Bar. art. Lancast.

[198]Harrison.

[199]Holinshed.

[200]Among other repairs and alterations, he is said to have caused the “banqueting-house,” erected by Henry the Fifth, to be taken down, and part of it to be rebuilt within the base-court, near the Swan Tower. But the “banqueting-house” here mentioned, appears to have been the same as that already noticed as “le Plaisant Marais.”

[201]Book ii. Chap. 15. Surely one may say of such a guest, what Cicero says to Atticus on occasion of a visit paid him by Cæsar: “Hospes tamen non es cui diceres, Amabo te, eodem ad me cùm revertere.” Lib. xiii. Ep. 52. If she relieved the people from oppressions (to whom it seems the law could give no relief), her visits were a great oppression on the nobility.—See Hume.

[202]Among other embellishments of the “great chamber of state,” was a most sumptuousChimney-piece, composed of alabaster or marble, richly carved and gilt. It was usually of very large dimensions, widely spread, and reaching from the floor to the ceiling. There were sometimes statues placed within columns and niches, which represented some of the cardinal virtues, or grotesque termini, in the Roman manner, then lately introduced into this country. The whole was painted with gaudy colours; and the armorial bearings of the family, in one large escóchéon, or the quarterings dispersed into many others, were an indispensable decoration. In certain instances, the chimney-piece was of carved freestone, left plain. The almost perfect resemblance of these to the superb monuments which in that age were dedicated to the memory of the dead, leave no doubt that the original idea had the same analogy. Of this opinion one most splendid instance will suffice—that of the mausoleum of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in the Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick, and theCHIMNEY-PIECE(see preceding Woodcut) of Kenilworth Castle.—Dallaway’s Discourses, page 363, 364.

[203]Hock-Tuesday, Hoke-day, or Hoke-tide. The origin of this once popular game, or play, which the author of Kenilworth describes as being represented to the Queen by the men of Coventry, is involved in considerable obscurity. By some writers it is supposed to be commemorative of the massacre of the Danes, in the reign of Ethelred, on the 13th of November, 1002; whilst by others, the deliverance of the English from the tyranny of the Danes by the death of Hardicanute, on Tuesday, the 8th of June, 1042, is pointed out as its origin. The weight of argument preponderates in favour of the national deliverance by Hardicanute’s death: and it must not be forgotten, that the festival was celebrated on a Tuesday, and that Hoke-Tuesday was the Tuesday in the second week after Easter. Spelman derives the term from the German Hocken, in reference to the act of binding, which was formerly practised by the women upon the men on Hoke-Tuesday; an opinion which Mr. Denne has well supported. [Archæolog. vol vii. p. 244.] A payment, called Hock-Tuesday money, was anciently made by the tenant to the landlord, for the permission given by the latter to the former to celebrate the festivities of this memorable day. [Jac. Law Dic. in verb.] Whatever the etymology of its name, or the origin of the game itself might be, its subject was the massacre of the Danes, expressed in actions and rhymes, and acted annually in the town of Coventry, till its suppression, shortly after the Reformation. It consisted of fierce sham contests between the English and Danish forces; first by the “launce knights,” on horseback, armed with spears and shields, who, being many of them dismounted, then fought with swords and targets. Afterwards succeeded two “hosts of footmen,” one after the other; first marching in ranks, then facing about in military array, then changing their form from ranks into squadrons, then into triangles, then into rings, and then, “winding out again, they joined in battle. Twice the Danes had the better; but at the last conflict they were beaten down, overcome, and many of them led captive for triumph by our English women.”—Illustration of the Waverley Novels, vol. iii. p. 45.

[204]In Lands, £16,431 9s.In Woods, £11,722 2s.The Castle, £10,401 4s.—Total, £38,554 15s.Thus the whole demesne, including the Castle, is valued little more than the half of what, only a few years previously, Dudley had expended in improvements.

[205]The romance of this story is certainly not improved by the fact, that the gallant knight had left behind him one who justly claimed him as her husband, namely, the Lady Alice Leigh. “But,” says the author of the Baronage, “to countenance his marriage with Mistress Southwell, he did allege his marriage with the said Lady Alice Leigh to be by the canon law illegal, inasmuch as, &c.,” and obtaining a papaldispensationfor that purpose, espoused [Biog.] “the said Blanche Southwell at Florence, who, as well as other members of her family, was not aware,” according to the MS., “of the Knight’s previous engagement.”—Ed.

[206]This was Doctor Julio, or Giuglio. Camden says that the disgrace of Archbishop Grindal was owing “to his having condemned the unlawful marriage of this Julio, an Italian physician, with another man’s wife, while Leicester in vain opposed his proceedings therein.”

[207]This legend is preserved in two manuscripts now in the British Museum (MS. Harl. No. 3776, and MS. Cotton., Julius, D VI.), both of which formerly belonged to Waltham Abbey, and were written in the twelfth century, the date of both the manuscripts. It was to the following effect:—In the time of King Canute, there lived at Lutegaresberi a smith, a man remarkable for the simplicity of his life, and respected amongst his neighbours for his virtues. One night he had a vision—an angel appeared to him, and directed him to repair early in the morning to the priest, and exhort him to proceed in solemn procession to the top of the hill, and there dig. The smith passed it over as a mere dream; but the warning was repeated the following night. He then consulted his wife, and by her advice again disregarded the injunction of the angel; but the latter repeated his visit on the third night, and threatened him with severe punishment for his continued disobedience. On the morrow the smith arose, and told his dream to the priest, who proceeded immediately with the town’s people to the summit of the hill, where, after digging according to their directions, they found a large cross, with a smaller one, a little bell, and a book. (Ecce repentè apparuit oculis intuentium inestimabilis imago decoris crucifixi Salvatoris ex atro silice sic manuum extensione et omnium corporis liniamentorum compositione miro fabrili et inaudito opere composita, ut ipsius summi artificis manibus perpendens operatam, et sub dextro ipsius brachiis alteram crucifixi effigiem modicam in sinistra parte, nolam antiqui operis quales bestiarum collo applicare solet antiquitas, ne iudesuetione insolescant, librum etiam cognomentoNigrum Tertumsicut vix perpendere possumus Evangeliorum quem usque hodiè celebrem habet Walthamensis ecclesia propter multa quæ ipsi oculis nostris perspeximus miracula.) Having made known their discovery to Earl Tovi, they placed the cross on a cart, to which they yoked three red oxen and three white cows. Uncertain whither to convey their precious burden, the priest uttered in succession the names of the most famous monasteries of that day, such as Dover, Winchester, Glastonbury, London, &c., but the oxen and cows remained fixed to the spot. At length some one mentioned by accident the name of Waltham, when the animals immediately put themselves in motion, and conducted the cart to that place, amid the acclamations of the people, and of the crowds of cripples and invalids who were cured on the way by the miraculous influence of the cross. This story was long implicitly believed by our superstitious forefathers.

[208]See the Vita Haroldi, in the Chroniques Anglo-Normandes, Rouen, 1836, tom. ii. p. 156. The portions of the other Waltham Legend (De Inventione Sanctæ Crucis Walthamensis), which relate more particularly to the history of Harold, are printed in the same work.

[209]Jaciuntur festinato ecclesiæ amplioris fundamenta, surgunt parietes, columpuæ sublimes distantes ab invicem, parietes arcuum aut testudinum emicidiis mutuo fœderantur, culmen impositum æris ab introgressis plumbei objectivæ laminis variam secludit intemperiem.—Vita Haroldi, p. 161.

[210]Venusto enim admodum opere ecclesiam à fundamentis constructam laminis æreis, auro undique superducto, capita columnarum et bases flexurasque arcuum ornare fecit mirâ distinctione.—De Invent. Sanct. Cr. Waltham.

[211]De Invent. Sanctæ Crucis Waltham. p. 231.

[212]Decano cessit præ cæteris Westwaltham, ut aliis in eo præcelleret, qui primatum et regimen cæterorum habebat, in victualibus etiam aliquantisper magis auctus,quid pluribus habebat benefacere quam simplex canonicus.

[213]Ailric was probably the schoolmaster of the Abbey, for we know that a school was part of Harold’s foundation.

[214]This is the story given in the treatise, De Inventione Sanctæ Crucis Walthamensis.

[215]This legend forms the body of the Vita Haroldi, printed, with the treatise De Invent. Sanct. Cr. Waltham., in the Chroniques Anglo-Normandes.

[216]Vita Haroldi, pp. 162, 163. De Invent. S. Crucis, pp. 252, 253.

[217]MS. Harl. No. 3776, fol. 3, iº and vº.

[218]Hanc insuper ecclesiam, quasi novam Christi sponsam nova dote, sicut decebat, dignum duximus esse ditandam.—The alliteration in this passage is remarkable.

[219]Matthew Paris, sub ann. See Fuller’s History of Waltham Abbey, p. 21.

[220]The account of these disputes is chiefly taken from Fuller, and from Farmer’s History of Waltham Abbey.

[221]Farmer’s History of Waltham Abbey, p. 100.

[222]A dark vaulted structure of two divisions connected with the Convent Garden, is all that remains of the old Abbey House, the residence of the Dennys; even the large mansion erected on its site, of which a view is given in Farmer’s History of Waltham Abbey, has been long demolished. In the Convent Garden, which is now tenanted by a market-gardener, there is a tulip-tree, remarkable equally for its magnitude and antiquity. The Abbey mills are still used as a cornmill.

[223]Cujus corporis translationi, quum sic se habebat status ecclesiæ fabricandi, vel devotio fratrum reverentiam corpori exhibentium, nunc extremæ memini me tertio affuisse, et, sicut vulgo celebre est et attestationes antiquorum audivimus, plagas ipsis ossibus impressas oculis corporeis et vidisse et manibus contrectam.—Chron. Anglo-Norm, tom. ii. p. 250.

[224]The following attested account of this discovery is preserved by Fuller, in his Worthies:—“The ensuing relation, written by the pen of Master Thomas Smith, of Sewarstone, in the parish of Waltham Abbey, a discreet person, not long since deceased.“It so fell out that I served Sir Edward Denny (towards the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory), who lived in the Abbey of Waltham Cross, in the county of Essex, which at that time lay in ruinous heaps; and then Sir Edward began slowly now and then to make even and re-edify some of that chaos. In doing whereof, Tomkins, his gardener, came to discover (among other things) a fair marble stone, the cover of a tomb hewed out in hard stone: this cover, with some help, he removed from off the tomb; which having done, there appeared to the view of the gardener, and Master Baker, minister of the town (who died long since), and to myself and Master Henry Knagg (Sir Edward’s bailiff), the anatomy of a man lying in the tomb abovesaid, only the bones remaining, bone to his bone, not one bone dislocated. In observation whereof, we wondered to see the bones still remaining in such due order, and no dust or other filth besides them to be seen in the tomb: we could not conceive that it had been an anatomy of bones only, laid at first in the tomb; yet if it had been the whole carcass of a man, what became of his flesh and entrails? For (as I have said above) the tomb was clean from all filth and dust, besides bones. This when we had all observed, I told them, that if they did but touch any part thereof, that all would fall asunder, for I had only heard somewhat formerly of the like accident. Trial was made, and so it came to pass. For my own part, I am persuaded, that as the flesh of this anatomy to us became invisible, so likewise would the bones have been in some longer continuance of time. O! what is man then, which vanisheth thus away, like unto smoke or vapour, and is no more seen! Whosoever thou art that shalt read this passage, thou mayst find cause of humility sufficient.”In Mr. Edgar Taylor’s translation of “Master Wace, his Chronicle of the Norman Conquest,” (London, 1837,) p. 259, is given a beautiful drawing from a manuscript of the thirteenth century, representing the deposition of the body of King Harold in his tomb at Waltham.

[224]The following attested account of this discovery is preserved by Fuller, in his Worthies:—

“The ensuing relation, written by the pen of Master Thomas Smith, of Sewarstone, in the parish of Waltham Abbey, a discreet person, not long since deceased.

“It so fell out that I served Sir Edward Denny (towards the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory), who lived in the Abbey of Waltham Cross, in the county of Essex, which at that time lay in ruinous heaps; and then Sir Edward began slowly now and then to make even and re-edify some of that chaos. In doing whereof, Tomkins, his gardener, came to discover (among other things) a fair marble stone, the cover of a tomb hewed out in hard stone: this cover, with some help, he removed from off the tomb; which having done, there appeared to the view of the gardener, and Master Baker, minister of the town (who died long since), and to myself and Master Henry Knagg (Sir Edward’s bailiff), the anatomy of a man lying in the tomb abovesaid, only the bones remaining, bone to his bone, not one bone dislocated. In observation whereof, we wondered to see the bones still remaining in such due order, and no dust or other filth besides them to be seen in the tomb: we could not conceive that it had been an anatomy of bones only, laid at first in the tomb; yet if it had been the whole carcass of a man, what became of his flesh and entrails? For (as I have said above) the tomb was clean from all filth and dust, besides bones. This when we had all observed, I told them, that if they did but touch any part thereof, that all would fall asunder, for I had only heard somewhat formerly of the like accident. Trial was made, and so it came to pass. For my own part, I am persuaded, that as the flesh of this anatomy to us became invisible, so likewise would the bones have been in some longer continuance of time. O! what is man then, which vanisheth thus away, like unto smoke or vapour, and is no more seen! Whosoever thou art that shalt read this passage, thou mayst find cause of humility sufficient.”

In Mr. Edgar Taylor’s translation of “Master Wace, his Chronicle of the Norman Conquest,” (London, 1837,) p. 259, is given a beautiful drawing from a manuscript of the thirteenth century, representing the deposition of the body of King Harold in his tomb at Waltham.

[225]According to the parish books, quoted by Farmer, (History of Waltham Abbey,) p. 149, the sum of £100 was expended between 1669 and 1672; £46 4s.10d.in 1674; £64 13s.5-1/2d.in 1679; and £78 5s.2d.in 1680.

[226]MS. Cotton. Julius D. VI. fol. 117, vº, nearly contemporary.

[227]Ricardus Pungiant tenet Latelie. Aluuardus tenuit de Rege Eadwardo, et potuit ire quo voluit.

[228]This matrix was exhibited before the Society of Antiquaries of London, by the Rev. John Brand, Jan. 26, 1797. An account of it, and the other seals, will be found in the thirteenth volume of the Archæologia.

[229]This grant is mentioned in the Placit. de Quo Warranto, of the 9th Edw. I.; but in the original document the name isNottele(not, as quoted in the common books,Notele), and it is probable that the grant has no reference to Netley in Hampshire.

[230]The legend says it was the key-stone of the east window; but that is still standing.

[231]The college Combination-Rooms were formerly called Parlours (parluræ).

[232]The work from which this anecdote is taken is inedited, and exists only in one contemporary manuscript. The story has been printed from it in the first volume of the Reliquiæ Antiquæ, by Wright and Halliwell.

[233]J. Bullar’s Companion in a Visit to Netley Abbey, p. 10.

[234]Tot enim videas piscium genera, assa quidem et elixa, farta et frixa; tot ovis et pipere cibaria cocorum arte confecta; tot sapores et salsamenta ad gulam irritandam et appetitum excitandum eorundem arte composita. Ad hæc etiam in tanta abunduntia vinum hic videas et ciceram, pigmentum, claretum, mustum, et medonem, atque moretum, et omne quod inebriare potest, adeo ut cervisia qualis in Anglia fieri solet optima, et præcipue in Cantia, locum inter cætera nou haberet; sed hoc ibi cervisia inter pocula, quod olus inter fercula.—Giraldus Cambr. Specul. Eccles. in MS. Cotton. He is here speaking of the Cistercian monks of Canterbury.

[235]“And the wicked Ham with his people drew him towards the wood:—Arviragus followed him, and continually struck [his men] to the ground. At last he gained very little by his treason; he overtook him at a haven, and slew him right there:—it were little harm if all traitors were served so. The haven where he was slain, after Ham’s name truly, was called Hampton, as it is called yet,—for it is called Southhampton, and will be evermore.”—Robert of Gloucester’s Chronicle, ed. Hearne, p. 64.

[236]Of which a description and view will be found in the present volume, p. 37. See also Appendix, p. 338.

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