Note 911 — Chapter IV

See Appendix S. The story about Flambard’s mother, which Sir Francis Palgrave suggests may have come from a ballad, is told by Orderic in another place (787 A); “Mater, quæ sortilega erat et cum dæmone crebro locuta, ex cujus nefaria familiaritate unum oculum amiserat,” One thinks of a later dabbler in mischief; “Our minnie’s sair mis-set, after her ordinar, sir—​she’ll hae had some quarrel wi’ her auld gudeman—​that’s Satan, ye ken, sirs.” William of Malmesbury (Gesta Regum, iv. 314) calls him “fomes cupiditatum, Ranulfus clericus, ex infimo genere hominum lingua et calliditate provectus ad summum.” In the Gesta Pontificum, 274, he is more guarded, and says only “ex quo ambiguum genere.”