Note 422 — Chapter VII · FROM THE ELECTION OF EADWARD TO THE BANISHMENT OF GODWINE.[1] 1042–1051. (continued 3)

Chron. Petrib. 1048. “þa hæfdon þa Welisce menn gewroht ænne castel on Herefordscire on Swegenes eorles folgoðe, and wrohton ælc þæra harme and bismere þæs cynges mannan þær abutan þe hi mihton.” These Welshmen are undoubtedly Frenchmen (see Earle, p. 345. Lingard, i. 337. Lappenberg, 508); Britons did not build castles, nor were they on such terms of friendly intercourse with King Eadward. William of Malmesbury’s misconception of the whole passage (ii. 199) is amusing; “ut Walenses compescerent qui, tyrannidem in Regem meditantes, oppidum in pago Herefordensi obfirmaverant, ubi tunc Swanus, unus ex filiis Godwini, militiæ prætendebat excubias.” This last is simply a misunderstanding of the words “on Swegenes eorles folgoðe,” which seems merely to mean “within Swegen’s government.”