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From The Annals of Roger de Hoveden, Comprising the History of England and of Other Countries of Europe from A.D. 732 to A.D. 1201, Translated from the Latin with Notes and Illustrations by Henry T. Riley, Esq., Volume I, London: H.G. Bohn, 1853; pp. 182-191.
In the year 1095, at the middle of the seventh hour, on the night of Saturday, the eighteenth day of the month of January, Wulstan, the bishop of Worcester, was removed from this world; a venerable man, and one of most exemplary life, who from his youth had entirely devoted himself to his religious duties, and who, bent upon gaining the glory of the heavenly kingdom, with great devotion and humility of mind had carefully served God with the utmost zeal, and departed after many struggles of pious agony. This took place in the year, from the first day of the world, according to the assured account contained in the Holy Scriptures, five thousand two hundred and ninety-nine,1 in the four hundred and seventy-sixth year of the present great year2 from the beginning of the world, in the one thousand and eighty-fourth from the Passion of our Lord according to the Gospels, in the one thousand and sixty-sixth year according to the Chronicle of Bede, in the thousand and sixty-first year according to Dionysius,3 in the year from the arrival of the Angles in Britain seven hundred and forty-five, from the arrival of Saint Augustine four hundred and ninety-eight, from the death of Saint Oswald the archbishop, one hundred and three, in the thirty-second year of the eleventh great Paschal cycle, in the five hundred and tenth year of the tenth from the beginning4 of the world, in the fourth year of the second Solar cycle,5 in the third year of the Bissextile cycle, in the third year of the second Nineteen year cycle, in the tenth year of the second Lunar cycle,6 in the fifth year of the Hendecad,7 in the third year of the cycle of Indiction, in the eighteenth lustrum of his age, and in the third year of the seventh lustrum8 of his pontificate.
In a wondrous manner, at the very hour of his departure, he appeared in a vision to his friend, Robert, the bishop of Hereford, to whom he was especially attached, at a town
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called Cricklade, and ordered him to make haste to Worcester, to bury him. The ring, also, with which he had received the pontifical benediction, God would allow no one to draw from off his finger, lest, after his death, the holy man should appear to have deceived his friends, to whom he had frequently foretold that he would not part with it, either in his lifetime or at the day of his burial.
On the day before the nones of April, it seemed at night as though stars were falling from heaven. Walter, bishop of Albano, legate from the Holy Church of Rome, being sent by pope Urban, came to England before Easter, to bring the pall to king William, for which he had sent the year before; which, according to order, was, on the Lord’s day, being the fourth day before the ides of June, taken by him to Canterbury, and laid upon the altar of our Saviour, and then assumed by Anselm, and suppliantly kissed by all, as a mark of reverence to Saint Peter.
On the sixth day before the calends of July, being the third day of the week, Robert, bishop of Hereford, a man of extreme piety, departed this life. The above-named Wulstan, bishop of Worcester, appeared to him in a vision, on the thirty-second day after he had departed from this world, and sharply rebuked him for his negligence and heedlessness, admonishing him to use his best endeavours to amend both his own life and those of his flock, with the utmost vigilance: if he did this, he affirmed that he would soon obtain pardon of God for all his sins, and added, that he would not long retain his seat in the chair in which he then sat, but that, if he should choose to be more vigilant, he would be enabled to rejoice with himself in the presence of God. For both of these fathers had been most zealous in their love of God, and most attached to each other; therefore we have reason to believe that he who was the first to take his departure from this world unto God, felt an anxiety for his most beloved friend, whom he had left in this world, and used his best endeavours that he might, as soon as possible, together with himself, rejoice in the presence of God.
At this period, Robert de Mowbray, earl of Northumbria, and William de Eu, with many others, attempted to deprive king William of his kingdom and life, and to make Stephen de Albemarle, his aunt’s son, king, but were disappointed. For, on learning this, the king levied an army
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throughout the whole of England, and, during two months, besieged the castle of the above-named earl Robert, at Tynemouth; and, having in the mean time taken a certain small fortress, he captured almost all the earl’s bravest soldiers, and placed them in confinement, and then, laying siege to the castle, took it, and placed in custody the earl’s brother, and the knights whom he found there. After this, over against Bebbanbirg,9 that is to say, the city of Bebba, whither the earl had fled, he erected a castle, and called it “Malvoisin,”10 and, having placed soldiers therein, returned to the country south of the Humber.
After the king’s departure, the garrison of Newcastle11 promised earl Robert that they would allow him to enter it if he came secretly. Being overjoyed at this, he went forth on a certain night for that purpose, with thirty knights; on learning which, the knights who garrisoned the castle followed him, and, through messengers, made known his departure to the garrison of Newcastle. Not aware of this, on a certain Sunday, he made the attempt to carry out his plans, but failed, having been thus detected; on which, he fled to the monastery of Saint Oswin, the king and martyr:12 where, on the sixth day of the siege, he was severely wounded in the thigh, while fighting with his adversaries, many of whom were also wounded, and many slain. Some of his men were also wounded, but all were captured, and he himself took refuge in the church; from which, being dragged forth, he was placed in confinement.
In the meantime the Welch stormed the castle of Montgomery, and slew there some of the men of Hugh, earl of Shrewsbury; at which the king being exasperated, he immediately commanded an expedition to be directed against it; and after the feast of Saint Michael, led an army into Wales, and there lost many men and horses. On his return thence, he ordered earl Robert to be taken to Bamborough, and his eyes to be put out, unless his wife and his neighbour, Morel,13 would surrender the castle. Compelled by this necessity, they
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forthwith surrendered the castle. The earl, being placed in close confinement, was led to Windsor; on which, Morell disclosed to the king the causes of the conspiracy taking place.
In the year 1096, William, bishop of Durham, died at Windsor, the royal palace, on the fourth day before the nones of January, being the second day of the week, but was buried at Durham, in the chapter-house there, on the northern side, having on the south the body of bishop Walcher; in the middle rests the body of Turgot, formerly bishop of the Scots, and prior of that church.
On the octave of the Epiphany, a council was held at Salisbury, and the king ordered William de Eu, who had been conquered in single combat, to be deprived of his eyes and his virility, and William Deandri, his sewer, his aunt’s son, who had been privy to his treason, he ordered to be hanged; earl Odo of Champagne, who was the father of the above-named Stephen, and Philip, son of Roger earl of Shrewsbury, and some others, who had a guilty knowledge of the plot, he placed in confinement.
In this year, pope Urban came into France, and a synod was held at Clermont,14 during Lent. He exhorted the Christians to set out for Jerusalem, for the purpose of waging war against the Turks, Saracens, Turcopoles,15 Persians, and other pagans, who at that period had overrun Jerusalem, and, having expelled the Christians, were in possession of Judæa. Immediately after his exhortation, at the same synod, Raymond, earl of Saint Gilles, and many others with him, assuming the emblem of the cross of Christ, engaged to undertake this pilgrimage in the cause of God, and to do what he had invited them to do: on hearing of which, other Christians in Italy, Germany, France and England, vying with each other, made preparations for the same expedition. The chiefs and leaders of these were Adimar, bishop of Puy, with a great number of other prelates, Peter the Hermit, Hugh the Great, brother to Philip, king of the Franks, Godfrey, duke of Lorraine, Stephen, count of Chartres, Robert, duke of Normandy, Robert, earl of Flanders, the two brothers of duke Godfrey,
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namely, Eustace, earl of Boulogne, and Baldwin, Raymond, the above-named earl, and Boamond, the son of Robert Guiscard; and with these followed an immense multitude of people of all languages.
On the seventeenth day before the calends of July, being the Lord’s day, Sampson was consecrated bishop of Worcester, in the church of St. Paul, at London, by Anselm, the archbishop of Canterbury. After this, Robert, duke of Normandy, having determined to set out for Jerusalem with the rest, sent ambassadors to England, and requested his brother William to renew the treaty of peace between them, and to lend him ten thousand marks of silver and receive from him the dukedom of Normandy as a security; upon which, the king, being desirous to comply with his request, gave orders to the nobles of England that each one should, to the best of his ability, supply him with money with all possible haste. Accordingly, the bishops, abbats, and abbesses, broke up the golden and other ornaments of the churches; the earls, barons, and sheriffs stripped their soldiers and villains, and supplied the king with no small amount of gold and silver. In the month of September the king crossed the sea and made peace with his brother, giving him six thousand six hundred and sixty-six pounds of silver, and receiving from him Normandy in pledge.
In the year 1097, William, king of the English, returned to England at the season of Lent, and, after Easter, set out a second time16 for Wales, with an army of horse and foot, with the intention of destroying all persons of the male sex. However, he was unable to take or slay hardly any of them, but lost some of his own men, and a great number of horses. After this, he sent the Clito Edgar to Scotland, with an army, in order that, after expelling his uncle, Dufenald, who had usurped the throne, he might make his cousin Edgar, the son of king Malcolm, king in his stead.
On the thirteenth day before the calends of July, being Saturday, the Christians took the city of Nice. On the third day before the calends of October, and the fifteen days following, a comet appeared. Some persons at this period affirmed that they had seen in the heavens a wonderful sign, like a fire burning in the shape of a cross.
Shortly after this, a misunderstanding arose between the king and Anselm, the archbishop of Canterbury, because, from the time he was made archbishop, he had not been allowed to hold a synod and correct the evils which had sprung up throughout England; on which he crossed the sea, and remaining for a time in France, afterwards proceeded to pope Urban at Rome. About the time of the feast of Saint Andrew, the king set out from England for Normandy. On the second day before the calends of January, Baldwin, abbat of the monastery of Saint Edmund, a man of exemplary piety and of French extraction, departed this life.
In the year 1098, on the third day before the nones of January, being Sunday, Valcelline, the bishop of Winchester, departed this life. In the spring of this year, William the Younger, king of the English, subdued the city which is called Le Mans, and by force reduced a great part of that province to subjection. In the meantime, Hugh, earl of Shrewsbury, and with him Hugh, earl of Chester, made a descent upon the island of Mevania, which is usually called Anglesey, with a body of troops, and slew many of the Welch whom they there captured, and of others they cut off the hands or feet, and then, depriving them of their virility, put out their eyes. A certain priest also, named Kenred, a man of advanced age, from whom the Welch had received advice in their affairs, they dragged out of his church, and, having deprived him of his virility and put out one of his eyes, cut out his tongue; but, on the third day after, by the Divine mercy, his speech was restored to him.
At this period, Magnus, king of Norway, son of king Olaf, the son of king Harold Harfager, wishing to add the islands of Orkney and Anglesey to his realms, came thither,17 with a few ships; but, on his making an attempt to land, Hugh, earl of Shrewsbury, accompanied by a great number of armed knights, met him on the sea-shore; and, according to general report, being struck by an arrow from the king’s own hand, was slain on the seventh day after he had exercised his cruelty on the above-named priest.
On the third day before the nones of July, being the fourth day of the week, the city of Antioch was taken by the Christians; a few days after which, the spear with which, while
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suspended on the cross, the Saviour of the world was pierced, was, through the revelation of the Apostle Andrew, the most meek of the Saints, discovered in the church of Saint Peter the Apostle. Being encouraged on finding this, on the fourth day before the calends of July, being the second day of the week, the Christians, carrying it with them, marched forth from the city, and, engaging with the pagans, put to flight Corbaran, the commander of the soldiers of Soldan, the king of Persia, and the Turks, Arabs, Saracens, and many other nations, at the edge of the sword, and, after slaying many thousands, by the aid of God gained a complete victory.
Throughout the whole of the night of the fifth day before the calends of October in this year, there was an extraordinary brightness. In the same year, the bones of Canute, the king and martyr, were raised from the tomb, and, with due honor, placed in a shrine. Roger, the duke of Apulia, having assembled a great army, laid siege to the city of Capua, which had revolted against his authority. Pope Urban, attended, according to his command, by Anselm, the archbishop of Canterbury, set out for the council which he had appointed to be held at Bar, on the calends of October. At this council, many points of the Catholic faith were discoursed upon by the successor of the Apostles, with great eloquence. Here also, a question being mooted on the part of the Greeks, who wished to prove, on the authority of the Evangelists, that the Holy Ghost proceeded only from the Father, the above-named Anselm treated and discoursed and explained so admirably on the subject, that there was no one at the meeting who did not pronounce himself satisfied thereby.
In the year 1099, in the third week after Easter, pope Urban held a great council at Rome, at which he excommunicated all laymen who gave investiture to churches, and all who received investiture from the hands of laymen, as well as all those who consecrated persons for the duties of the office so bestowed. He also excommunicated those who, to gain ecclesiastical honors, did homage to laymen; affirming that it seemed most shocking that hands which had attained a distinction so high that it was granted to none of the angels, namely, by their touch,18 to create the God who created all
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things, and in the presence of God the Father, to offer up his own self for the salvation of the whole world, should be reduced to such a pitch of disgracefulness or folly as to become the handmaids of those hands which by day and night are defiled by obscene contact, or, used to rapine and the unrighteous shedding of blood, are stained thereby; upon which, all shouted with one consent, “So be it! So be it!” and thereupon the council was concluded. After this, the archbishop19 proceeded to Lyons.
William the Younger, king of the English, returned to England from Normandy, and, at Pentecost, held his court at London, and gave the bishopric of Durham to Ranulph, whom he had appointed manager of the affairs of the whole kingdom; and, shortly afterwards, he was consecrated there by Thomas, archbishop of York.
On the ides of July, being the sixth day of the week, Jerusalem was taken by the Christians; and, soon after, on the eleventh day before the calends of August, Godfrey, duke of Lorraine, was elected king by the whole army. On the fourth day before the calends of August, being the fifth day of the week, pope Urban departed this life. On the second day before the ides of August, being the same day of the week, the Christians fought a very great battle before the city of Ascalon, with Lavedal,20 the commander of the army and second in rank in the whole kingdom of Babylon,21 and, by the exceeding bounty of Christ, gained a wondrous victory. Paschal, a venerable man, who had been ordained priest by pope Hildebrand, having been elected pope by the Roman people, was consecrated on the following day. On the third day before the nones of November, the sea overflowed the land, and swept away a great number of towns and men, and oxen and sheep innumerable.
In the year from the incarnation of our Lord 1100, pope Clement, who was also named Wibert, departed this life.
William the Younger, king of the English, while engaged in hunting in the New Forest, which in the English language is called Itene,22 was struck by an arrow incautiously aimed by Walter, a Frank, surnamed Tyrell, and died, in
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consequence, on the fourth day before the nones of August, being the fifth day of the week, in the eighth year of the indiction. The body was carried to Winchester, and buried at the old monastery there, in the church of Saint Peter. And not undeservedly did this befall him, for, as popular rumour affirmed, this was undoubtedly the great might of God and his vengeance. For, in ancient times, that is to say, in the days of king Edward and the other kings of England, his predecessors, that same district flourished most abundantly in inhabitants, and worshippers of God, and churches, but, by the command of king William the Elder, the people being driven away, the houses half destroyed, and the churches pulled down, the land was rendered fit only for the habitation of wild beasts; and this, according to general belief, was the cause of the mishap; for it was the fact that, some time before, Richard, the brother of this same king William the Younger, lost his life in the same forest; and a short time previously, his cousin Richard, son of Robert duke of Normandy, while hunting there, was pierced by an arrow discharged by one of his knights, of which wound he died. In the place, also, where the king fell, in former times a church had been built, but, as previously stated, in his father’s time, it was levelled with the ground.
In the days of this king, as in part already mentioned, there were many portentous signs beheld in the sun, moon, and stars; the sea, also, frequently flowed beyond its usual limits on the shore, and swept away men and animals, towns, and a vast number of houses. In a village which is called Berkshire,23 just before the king’s death, blood flowed from a spring during a period of three weeks.24 The devil, also, showed himself frequently, in a frightful shape, to many Normans in the woods, and made many communications to them respecting the king and Ranulph and some other persons. Nor is this to be wondered at, for in their time almost all equity on part of the laws was silent, and all grounds for justice being suppressed, money alone held sway with the men in power. In fine, at this period, some persons paid more obedience to the royal wishes than to justice; so much so, that Ranulph,
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contrary to ecclesiastical law and the prescribed rules of his order (for he was a priest), first put up to sale abbacies, and then bishoprics, the holders of which were dead, having lately received the presentations from the king, to whom he paid yearly no small sum of money. The influence of this man became so extensive, and so greatly did his power increase in a short space of time, that the king appointed him judge and general manager of the whole kingdom.
Having secured this extent of power, in every quarter throughout England he mulcted some of the richest and most wealthy by taking from them their property and lands. The poorer classes he unceasingly oppressed by heavy and unjust taxes, and, in many ways, both before he received his bishopric and after, persecuted both great and small in common, and ceased not to do so up to the period of the king’s death. For on the very day on which the king met with his death, he held in his own hands the archbishopric of Canterbury and the bishoprics of Winchester and Salisbury.
1 According to the computation mostly used in the middle ages, our Saviour was born A.M. 4204.
2 This seems to be a cycle of nearly eleven years.
3 Dionysius, the Areiopagite; whose supposed writings were much read in the middle ages.
4 This is, probably, a cycle of five hundred and thirty-two years.
5 The cycle of the sun, or of Sundays, is a period of twenty-eight years.
6 This would almost appear to be really the same cycle as the last; as the cycle of the moon, or of nineteen years, or of the golden number, is the same thing. Possibly the figures are incorrectly stated.
7 A cycle of eleven years.
8 These lustra consist of five years each.
9 Bamborough.
10 “Bad neighbour.”
11 “Novi castelli” must mean the fortress of Newcastle, which had been lately erected, and not the new castle of Malvoisin, although Holinshed seems so to understand it; the present passage will not, however, admit of that construction being put upon it.
12 At Tynemouth.
13 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that this Morel was his steward. “Propinquus” may possibly mean “relative” here.
14 This council at Clermont, in Auvergne, continued from the 18th to the 28th of November, A.D. 1095, and not in 1096.
15 Turcopoles are supposed to have been the children of Christian mothers and Turkish fathers.
16 This was his third expedition. See under the years 1094 and 1095.
17 To the isle of Anglesey.
18 “Signaculo;” probably in allusion to marking with the sign of the cross.
19 Probably Anselm.
20 Roger of Wendover says that his baptismal name was Emyreius, and that he was an Armenian, the son of Christian parents; and that on his apostatizing, he changed his name for that of Elafdal.
21 Persia.
22 More properly Utine.
23 Some words are evidently omitted in the text. William of Malmesbury says that this took place at the village of Finchampstead, in the county of Berks.
24 William of Malmesbury says fifteen days.