Note 663 — Chapter VIII · THE EARLY YEARS OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.[497] A.D. 1028–1051. (continued 2)

Orderic’s description of him (519 A) begins, “Hic ex nobili parentelâ ortus, Papiæ urbis Italiæ civibus, ab annis infantiæ in scholis liberalium artium studuit, et secularium legum peritiam ad patriæ suæ morem intentione laicâ fervidus edidicit.” Gervase (X Scriptt. 1652), from whom we get the names of his parents, says, “natus in urbe Papiensi civibus egregiis et honestâ conditione; pater ipsius Hanbaldus, mater Roza vocabatur.” William of Malmesbury (Gest. Pont. 116 b) says only, “non adeò abjectâ et obscurâ progenie oriundus erat.” Milo’s description (i. 281) points to a sort of nobility of the robe; “Parentes illius, ejusdem urbis cives, magni et honorabiles habebantur inter suos concives. Nam, ut fertur, pater ejus de ordine illorum qui jura et leges civitatis asservabant fuit.” Dr. Hook (Archbishops, ii. 74) refers to his letter to Queen Margaret of Scotland (Giles, i. 59), in which he calls himself “hominem extraneum, vilem, ignobilem.” A sort of civic nobility seems to reconcile the different descriptions.