Note 62 — Chapter III · INDEPENDENT RULE, 1087-95

Ibid., pp. 319-320; De Controversia Guillelmi Rotomagensis Archiepiscopi, in H. F., xiv, p. 68, and in Gallia Christiana, xi, instr., col. 18. The work of corrupting the Norman baronage and winning them away from their allegiance to the duke was accomplished in 1089-90. Freeman assumes the Winchester assembly above mentioned to have been the Easter Gemot of 1090. William Rufus, i, pp. 222, and n. 1. But Ordericus seems to assign it to 1089—he records the death of William of Warenne, 24 June 1089, immediately after it—and we know from the De Controversia Guillelmi that the struggle had already begun in Normandy in 1089, when Robert Curthose and King Philip besieged La Ferté-en-Bray. Further, the siege of Eu by Duke Robert in 1089 is probably to be connected in some way with the activities of William Rufus against him. Davis, Regesta, no. 310.