Note 1206 — EXCURSUS.

This, the important word, is unfortunately doubtful.

[1207] "He was advanced to the earldom of Gloucester by the king (his father). After which, in Anno 1119 (20 Hen. I.), he attended him in that famous battle at Brennevill," etc., etc. (Baronage, i. 534).

[1208] A paper on the earldom was read by the late Mr. J. G. Nichols, at the Gloucester Congress of the Institute (1851), but I do not find that it was ever printed, so that I cannot give the date which he assigned.

[1209] Athenæum, May 9 and June 27, 1885.

[1210] Academy, September 29, 1883 (p. 207).

[1211] v. 199.

[1212] iv. 302.

[1213] The king promised the charter on the occasion of his visit (February 3, 1113), and when it had been drawn up, it received his formal approval at Rouen, "Anno quo comes Andegavensis mecum pacem fecit et Cenomanniam de me, meus homo factus, recepit."

[1214] Abingdon Cartulary, ii. 77.

[1215] Henry remained abroad between the above dates.

[1216] Gallia Christiana, xi. (Instrumenta), pp. 111-112. The charter is there assigned, but without any reason being given, to 1118. A collation, however, of this record with the names given by Ordericus Vitalis (iv. 329) of those present at the Council of Rouen, October 7, 1118, makes it all but certain that it passed on that occasion.

[1217] Academy, No. 645.

[1218] Duchy of Lancaster: Royal Charters, No. 6.

[1219] Compare the Rouen charter (1113) to St. Evroul, where the clause is "Anno quo comes Andegavensis mecum pacem fecit," etc., etc. (see p. 423).

[1220] This is specially applicable to the insertion of the year in numerals. Such date would be, though actually an addition, yet a legitimate inference from the event alluded to in the charter. It may be worth alluding to another case, though it stands on somewhat a different footing, to illustrate the infinite variety of treatment to which such charters were subjected, even when there were neither occasion nor intention to deceive. This is that of the final agreement between the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, of which the record is preserved at Canterbury. It has been discovered that the document from which historians have quoted (A. 1) is not really the original, but a copy "which was plainly intended for public exhibition" (Fifth Report Hist. MSS., App. i. p. 452). Moreover, the real original (A. 2) was found not to contain the final clause (narrating the place and circumstances of the agreement), which is hence supposed to have been subsequently added, for the sake of convenience, by the clerk. (See my letter in Athenæum, December 19, 1891.)

[1221] Natural son of Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, the Conqueror's half-brother.

[1222] "Nigellus de Calna reddit compotum de j marca argenti pro Willelmo nepote suo" (Rot. Pip., 31 Hen. I., p. 18).

[1223] Made Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry early in 1121.

[1224] Alias "de Sigillo." He was made Bishop of Hereford in January, 1121, as "Ricardus qui regii sigilli sub cancellario custos erat" (Eadmer).

[1225] In both we have the same three earls, neither more nor less; in both we have the same two filii regis, Robert and Richard; in both we have Richard de Tankerville and Nigel de Albini and Roger fitz Richard.

[1226] "Willelmum jam olim regni hæredem designatum" (p. 290). Compare the Continuator of Florence of Worcester, who, speaking of the very event (1119) by which this charter is dated, describes him as William "quem jam [i.e. 1116] hæredem totius regni sui constituerat" (ii. 72).

[1227] Florence of Worcester, ii. 72.

[1228] Ordericus Vitalis (ed. Société de l'Histoire de France), iv. 371.

[1229] Henry of Huntingdon.

[1230] Cont. Flor. Wig., ii. 75; Eadmer, 290.

[1231] "Sciatis me dedisse et concessisse Ricardo episcopo episcopatum de Hereford," etc., etc.

[1232] Five of them joined the primate in the consecration of the Bishop of Hereford (January 16). The Archbishop of York was not at the council, being still in disgrace with the king for his conduct at the Council of Rheims (October, 1119).

[1233] Journ. Brit. Arch. Ass., xxix. 258, 259.

[1234] Reading "Willelmo, & Ricardo filiis Baldewini," where the charter has:—"(1) William de Tankerville, (2) William de Albini, (3) Walter de Gloucester, (4) Adam de Port, (5) William de Pirou, (6) Walter de Gant, (7) Richard fitz Baldwin.

[1235] The Count of Mortain, and the Earl of Chester. The latter was, of course, now Randolf, who had succeeded his cousin Richard, drowned in the White Ship.

[1236] Vide supra, p. 423.

[1237] "Anno MCXXI Concilio totius Angliæ ante purificationem ... apud Winderesoram adunato, Henricus rex ... Adelinam matrimonio sibi junxit" (ii. 219).

[1238] Formularium Anglicanum, No. lxv. (p 39).

[1239] This would give us, as the principal guests assembled at the king's wedding, his brother-in-law, Earl David, his nephews Theobald, Count of Blois, and Stephen, Count of Mortain, with the primates of England and of Normandy.

[1240] Madox's Formularium Anglicanum, No. ccccxcvi. (p. 292).

[1241] Earl David and the Count of Blois.

[1242] Duchy of Lancaster: Royal Charters, No. 6.

[1243] Supra, p. 426.

[1244] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

[1245] Winchester, who had attested the Windsor charters, and who here attests in his own city; and St. David's, who is constantly found at Court, and who had attested, in January, the charter at Westminster, to the Bishop of Hereford (supra, p. 428).

[1246] "Concessio Manerii de clara Archiepiscopo Rothomagensi."

[1247] Mon. Ang., i. 629.

[1248] Add. MSS., 31,937, fol. 130.

[1249] Cart., 5 Edw. III., n. 10.

[1250] The chancellor and three bishops.

[1251] Duchy of Lancaster: Royal Charters, No. 6.

[1252] Monasticon Anglicanum, ii. 66.

[1253] Addl. MSS., 31,943, fol. 68, b.

[1254] Survey of Lindsey, p. 3. See my paper on "The spurious Tewkesbury Charter" in Genealogist, October, 1891.

[1255] "Rex Anglorum" was the normal style employed in the English charters of Henry I.: "Dux Normannorum," etc., was added by Henry II.

[1256] Academy, June 27, 1885.

[1257] Notes and Queries, 6th series, i. 6.

[1258] Athenæum, Dec. 19, 1885.

[1259] Duchy of Lancaster: Royal Charters, No. 5.

[1260] Cartæ Antiquæ, R. 5.

[1261] It is dated 1121, and in the twenty-second year of the reign.

[1262] That is, if Archbishop Thurstan was yet restored to favour.

[1263] The chancellor, for instance, instead of attesting after the bishops and before the laity, actually follows immediately after the archbishops, and precedes the whole "bench of bishops." I have been amazed to find antiquaries who thought nothing of this matter of precedence.

[1264] Robert and Richard are the two of Henry's natural sons, who are mentioned as with him in Normandy, and fighting beneath his standard at Noyon (1119).

[1265] If, as suggested by the narrative in the Monasticon of the foundation of Osney Abbey, her father's name was "Forne," one is tempted to ask if the bearer of so uncommon a name was identical with the Forn Ligulfson ("Forne filius Ligulfi"), who is mentioned by Simeon of Durham, in 1121, as one of the magnates of Northumbria, and if so, whether the latter was son of the wealthy but ill-fated Ligulf, murdered near Durham in 1080. Should both these queries be answered in the affirmative, Edith would have been named after her grandmother "Eadgyth," the highly born wife of Ligulf. Writing at a distance from works of reference I cannot tell whether such a descent has been suggested before, but it would certainly, could it be proved, be of quite exceptional interest. Edith, as is tolerably well known, was first the mistress of Henry, and then the wife of Robert D'Oilli. Thus her son by the former, Robert fitz Edith (see p. 94, n. 4), was (half)-brother to Henry D'Oilli, and is so described by the latter in one of his grants to Osney (Dugdale's Baronage, i. 460). It should be added that an "Ivo fil' Forn" appears in the Pipe-Roll of 1130 (p. 25). Was he brother to Edith?

[1266] Charter to the church of Durham, printed in Rymer's Fœdera (Record edition), i. 13, and assigned by Sir T. D. Hardy (Syllabus) to "1134." It was, in any case, subsequent to Flambard's death (September 5, 1128).

[1267] Ninth Report Hist. MSS., App. i. p. 56.

[1268] Historic Towns: London.

[1269] Mr. Loftie elsewhere tells us (p. 27) that Reinmund "was succeeded by his more eminent son Azo, the goldsmith, whom it would be interesting to identify with one of the Azors of Domesday." How does Mr. Loftie know that Azo was "more eminent" than his father, or that he was a "goldsmith"? On one point we can certainly agree with him. It would be most "interesting" to identify a Domesday tenant in a man whose father was living in 1132!

[1270] Ninth Report (ut supra), p. 67 b. For similar instances of eccentric statements on the City fathers in Mr. Loftie's book, see p. 355, and my paper on "The First Mayor of London" (Antiquary, March, 1887). They throw, it will be found, a strange light on Mr. Elton's unfortunate remark that "Mr. Loftie makes good use of the documents discovered at St. Paul's" (Academy, April 30, 1887, p. 301).

[1271] "Socce Comitis Gloecestrie."

[1272] Cf. pp. 305, 306.

[1273] Ralf fitz "Algod," Robert fitz Gosbert, and Robert d'Ou occur in a deed of 1132 (Ninth Report Hist. MSS., App. i. p. 67 b), and Osbert Masculus in one of 1142 (ibid., p. 40 b).