Note 23 — Chapter III · INDEPENDENT RULE, 1087-95

The early writers are sharply divided in their account of William of Saint-Calais in connection with the rebellion of 1088. The southern English writers believed him guilty of treason. A.-S. C., a. 1087; Florence of Worcester, ii, pp. 21-22; Henry of Huntingdon, p. 214; William of Malmesbury, G. R., ii, p. 360. But a contemporary narrative by a Durham writer, who was an eyewitness of the bishop’s trial, represents him as the persecuted victim of malicious enemies who had poisoned the king’s mind against him. De Iniusta Vexatione Willelmi Episcopi Primi, in Simeon of Durham, Opera Omnia, ed. Thomas Arnold (London, 1882-85), i, pp. 170-195. And it should be remembered that his condemnation by the curia regis was not for the treason with which he was charged, but for his refusal to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the court. On the treatise De Iniusta Vexatione see Appendix B.