Note 583 — Chapter VIII · THE EARLY YEARS OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.[497] A.D. 1028–1051.

This is the way in which I read the story in William of Jumièges (vii. 2), compared with that put into Duke William’s own mouth by Orderic (656 C). Sir Francis Palgrave seems to make Thorold and Osbern be murdered at once (199). But William of Jumièges seems to make these murders two distinct events. After the passage just quoted he goes on, “Osbernus quoque ... quâdam nocte, dum in cubiculo Ducis cum ipso in Valle Rodoili securus soporatur, repente in stratu suo à Willelmo Rogerii de Monte-gumeri filio jugulatus.” Orderic puts the murders of Gilbert, Thorold (or Thurcytel), and Osbern together in general terms; “Turchetillum nutricium meum et Osbernum Herfasti filium, Normanniæ dapiferum, Comitemque Gislebertum patrem patriæ, cum multis aliis reipublicæ necessariis fraudulenter interfecerunt.” The murder of Osbern can hardly fail to have been one of the occasions so pathetically referred to in Orderic; “Noctibus multotiens cognatorum timore meorum à Gualterio avunculo meo de camerâ principali furtim exportatus sum, ac ad domicilia latebrasque pauperum, ne à perfidis, qui ad mortem me quærebant, invenirer, translatus sum.”