Note 880 — Chapter VII · (continued 2)

Orderic (783 C, D) mentions all these appointments to abbeys along with the appointment of William Giffard to Winchester and that of Gerard to York. It will be remembered that he fancied that Archbishop Thomas was dead before the coronation. “Eliense cœnobium dedit Ricardo, Ricardi de Benefacta filio, Beccensi monacho, et abbatiam Sancti Edmundi regis et martyris Rodberto juveni Uticensi monacho, Hugonis Cestrensis comitis filio. Glastoniam quoque commisit Herluino Cadomensi, et Habundoniam Farisio Malmesburiensi.” That the appointments were made on the day of the coronation appears from the two local histories, the Annals of Saint Eadmund’s in Liebermann, 130, and the two Ely histories, that in Anglia Sacra, i. 613, and the Liber Eliensis (Stewart, 284), which largely copies Florence. As Richard the second Earl of Chester was “filius unicus Hugonis consulis” (Hen. Hunt. De Contemptu Mundi, 304), and as Orderic (787 C) calls him “Pulcherrimus puer, quem solum ex Ermentrude filia Hugonis de Claromonte genuit [Hugo],” it would follow that Abbot Robert was one of the many natural children of Earl Hugh. See N. C. vol. v. p. 490. He was appointed, say the local Annals, “renitentibus monachis.”