Note 578 — Chapter VI · (continued 2)

The Biographer (Vet. An. 305) says nothing of the bargain with Ralph and the other lords; but he says that “rex Anglorum, cernens civitatem principis sui præsidio destitutam, quorumdam perfidorum civium assensu illuc accedere properavit.” We need not take “cives” too strictly; and if anything like the commune had been set up again, the lords would be “cives.”