incensed King William that speedily raising an Army he entered Northumberland pittifully wasted by the Danes and made spoil of all and with a good summe of money purchased the departure of the Danes These devastations in sundry Counties made such a Dearth that the People were forced to eat Horses Dogs Cats Rats c. and between York and Durham for the space of sixty miles for nine years together there was such an utter desolation that neither House was left standing nor field tilled After this great defeat most of the Lords came in upon the publick Faith and were conducted to Barkhansted by the Abbot Frederick where upon their submission and Oath of Allegiance retaken they were restored to his favour and to give them satisfaction King William before the Archbishop Lankfranc and the Lords again sware to observe the antient Laws of the Realm established by his Noble Predecessors especialy those of Saint Edward Yet not long after these Lords upon new discontents brake out again But Earl Edwin making towards Scotland was murthered by the way by his own men The Lords Morchar and Hereward betook themselves to the Isle of Ely intending to secure themselves there for that Winter to whom also repaired Earl Syward and the Bishop of Durham out of Scotland But the King who was no time giver presently besieged them with flat Boats on the East and made a Bridge two miles long on the West and so brought his men upon them who seeing themselves surprised yielded to the Kings mercy Only Hereward desperatly marched with his People through the Fens and fled into Scotland the rest were sent to diverse Prisons where they dyed or remained during the Kings life Those Lords that continued Loyal upon the late submission were imployed and preferred by the King As Edric the Forrester And Gospatrice was made Earl of Northumberland and sent against King Malcolme who wasted the Countries of Tisdale Cleaveland and Cumberland Waltheoff the Son of Earl Syward he married to his Neece Judith a very valiant man shewing a Noble nature to love vertue even in his enemies And now King William finding Scotland to be a place of retreat for all his discontented Subjects and where his Competitor Edgar lived he entered the Kingdom with a great Army which encountring more with wants than Forces and both Kings considering the uncertain events of War upon fair overtures concluded a Peace agreeing upon the bounds of each Kingdom and Delinquents with their partakers were generally pardoned And shortly after Edgar Etheling came in volutarily and was restored to the Kings favour who allowed him a liberal maintenance which held him ever after quiet King William being now gone into Normandy there was amost dangerous Conspiracy begun against him by Ralph de Waher Earl of Suffolk and Norfolk Roger Fitz Aubre or Osburne Earl of Hereford Waltheoff Earl of Northumberland with Eustace Earl of Bulloine suborned as it was thought by the King of France there unto These Lords conspired to keep William in Normandy and to dispossess him of his Kingdom for which end they agreed to joyn theirs with the Danish Forces whom they intended to call in This was a dangerous Combination the King being in Normandy besieging the Castle of Dole in Britaine belonging unto Ralph Waher and defended against him by the King of France and at such a time when all his Neighbor Princes were jealous of him and ill affected to him The King of Scotland and the Princes of Wales ready to joyn with them at home Swaine King of Denmark with a Navy of two hundred sail ready to invade England to which Drone King of Ireland joyned sixty five ships And this did more distract and incense him because most of these great Lords were either his kinsmen or nearly allied to him This grand Conspiracy was discovered by Waltheoff to Archbishop Lankfranc who perswaded the Earl to go to the King and to inform him of the greatness of his danger Yet notwithstanding this discoverie Roger and Ralph proceed in their intentions and raise Forces But by the diligence of Odo Bishop of Baiaux the Kings Brother the Bishop of Worcester and the Abbot of Evesham they were so prevented that they could never unite their Forces Whereupon Ralph fled into France Roger was taken and imprisoned Waltheoff was beheaded and so this flame was extinct The greatest and last insurrection was in Normandy by King William's own Son Robert who by the instigation and assistance of Philip King of France envying Williams greatness entered Normandy and claimed it as his own right His Father indeed had promised him it long before but Robert impatient of delaies endeavored by a strong hand to wrest it from his Father King William hearing hereof passed with a strong Army over into Normandy where in a Battel meeting with his Son hand to hand he was by him unhorsed and hurt in the arm But his Son perceiving by his voice that it was his Father suddenly leaped off his Horse took him up in his armes fell down at his feet and humbly intreated his pardon which his Father easily granted embraced his Son and ever after they lived in mutual love After this King William sent this his Son Robert with an Army against Malcolm King of Scots who had invaded Northumberland who at the coming of Duke Robert retired At which time Duke Robert began to found a Castle upon the River of Tine whereof the Town of Newcastle did take its beginning and Name which formerly was called Moncaster These frequent Wars put the State to an infinite charge the King entertaining all this while besides Normans very many French Finding the English in respect of many great Families that were allied to the Danes rather to incline to that Nation than to the Normans In the fifteenth year of his Reign he subdued Wales and brought the King thereof to do him Homage And presently after quarrels arose between King William and the King of France The King of France invades Normandy and takes the City of Vernon The King of England invades France and subdued the Country of Xantoigne and Poicton and so returned to Roan Then did the King of France summon our King to do him Homage for England which he refused saying he held it of none but God and his sword But for the Dutchy of Normandy he offered him Homage which yet would not satisfie the King of France Whereupon he made a new invasion but with more loss than profit In the end they concluded a crazy Peace which held only till King William had recovered a sickness whereinto through his travel age and corpulency he was faln which occasioned the young and lusty King of France jeeringly to say that he lay in of his great belly in Roan This so irritated King William that so soon as he was recovered he gathered a very strong Army with which he entered France in
he overcame Herald The Abbey of Selby in Yorkshire And a third near London called Saint Saviours He founded also the Priory of Saint Nicholas at Exeter and gave great Priviledges to Saint Martins Le Grand in London In Normandy he founded an Abby at Caen and he gave to the Church of Saint Stephens there two Mannors in Dorsetshire one in Devonshire an other in Essex much Land in Bark shire some in Norfolk an house in Woodstreet London with many Avowsions of Churches In his time Saint Pauls Church being burnt down Maurice Bishop of London began this which is now standing A work so admirable and stupendious that many thought it would never have been finished Towards the building of the East end of it the King gave the choice Stones of his Castle in the West end of the City in which place afterwards was founded a Monastery of Black Friers And after the death of Maurice Richard his next successor gave all the Rents of his Bishoprick towards the building of this Church yet the finishing of it was left to his successors About the same time William Bishop of Durham founded University Colledge in Oxford In the twentieth year of his Reign their happened so great a fire in London that from the West Gate to the East Gate it consumed all the Houses and Churches at which time as was said before Pauls Church was burnt down Burning Feavers also consumed the People Murrains devoured an infinite number of Cattel great Rains and Floods destroyed the Fruites of the Earth whence ensued a great Famine and by them the Hills were so softned and undermined that some of them fell and overwhelmed the Neighbouring Villages Tame Fowls as Hens Geese Peacocks c. fled into the Woods and Forests and turned wild Odo the Kings Brother Bishop of Bayeux hoping to obtain the Popedom had heaped up vast Treasures for the purchasing of it But as he was about to begin his journey he was seized upon by the King and imprisoned and his House being searched there were found such heaps of Gold as caused admiration in all that saw it and many of his Bags were drawn out of Rivers where they were laid full of Gold beaten to Powder King William wanting mony seized upon the Plate Jewels and Treasure within all the Monastries in England Pretending that the Rebels had conveyed their Riches into these Religous Houses as into Sanctuaries and priviledged places to defraud him thereof He made also all Bishopricks and Abbyes that held Baronies alwayes free before to contribute to his Wars and other occasions We left King William sick at Roan occasioned partly by heat and partly by the leap of his Horse which brake the inward Rim of his Belly And perceiving his approaching Death he made his Will wherein he commanded that all his Treasure should be distributed to Churches Ministers and the Poor appointing to each their several portions His Dukedom of Normandy he left to his eldest Son Robert to whom he had formerly given it His Kingdom of England he left to his second Son William And Henry his youngest Son surnamed Beauclark hearing himself neglected by his Father with tears said And what Father do you give me the King answered Five thousand pounds of Silver out of my Treasury But replied he what shall I do with the Treasure if I want an Habitation His Father answered Be patient my son and comfort thyself in God suffer quietly thy Elder Brothers to go before thee Robert shall have Normandy and William England but thou in time shalt have intirely all the honour that I have gotten and shalt excell thy Brethren in Riches and Power His Son William he sent away into England and by him Letters to Archbishop Lanfranc His Prisoners he commanded to be set at liberty and then dyed September the ninth in the fifty sixth year of his Dutchy the twenty first of his Kingdom and the sixty fourth of his age Anno Christi 1087. No sooner had this late Glorious Princes Soul left his Body but his Dead Corps was presently abandoned by his chiefest Followers who posted away every one to defend his own whilst his menial Servants despoiled him of his Armor Vessels Apparel and all princely furniture leaving his Dead Body naked upon the floor where it lay stinking till one Harluins a poor Country Knight at his own cost undertook to cary it to Caen unto Saint Stevens Church formerly founded by this King At his entrance into Caen the Monks came forth to meet him But at the very instant a sudden fire happening presently invaded a great part of the City whereupon his Hearse was forsaken by all every one applying himself to help to quench the fire After which being carried to Church and the Stone Coffin set ready which was to receive the Body one Ascelinus Fitz-Arthur stood up and forbad the burial saying This very place was the floor of my Fathers House which this dead Duke violently took from him and here upon part of my Inheritance founded this Church This ground therefore I challenge and in Gods behalf forbid that the Body of my Despoiler he covered in my Earth neither shall it be interred within the precincts of my right Whereupon they were forced to compound with him for a present sum of money and for one hundred pound weight of Silver afterwards to be paid and so the Exequies went forward But when the Corps came to be laid into the Tomb it proved too litle and the belly being pressed and not bowelled brake and with an intollerable stink so offended the by-standers that with great amazement they all hasted away and the poor Monks were left to shuffle up the Burial who also were glad when they gat to their Cells He was of an indifferent stature of a comly person of a good presence till his corpulency increasing with age made him unweildy of so strong a constitution that he was never sick till a litle before his Death His strength such that few men could draw his Bow Of wit ready and very Politick In Speech Eloquent Resolute in attempts In hazards valiant A great Souldier and very successful His Charters of an other tenour and very brief as may appear by one that run thus 1 William the third year of my Reign Give to thee Norman Hunter to me that art both leese and Deer The Hop and the Hopton and all the Bounds up and down Under Earth to Hell above the Earth to Heaven From me and mine to thee and thine As good and as faire as ever they mine wear To witness that this is sooth I bite the whitewax with my Tooth Before Jugg Maud and Marjery and my youngest Son Henry For a Bow and a broad Arrow when I come to hunt upon Yarrow His only wife was Mathilda or Maud Daughter to Baldwin the fifth surnamed the Gentle Earl of Flanders by whom he had Robert surnamed Curtois or Short Thighs who
succeeded his Father in the Dutchy of Normandy whereof he was dispossessed by his Brother Henry King of England at the Battel of Ednarchbray Anno. 1106. where being taken Prisoner his eyes were put out and he was sent to the Castle of Cardiff in Wales and after twenty years imprisonment died there William the elder surnamed Miser who in the right of Queen Maud was Earl of Flanders who died six years before his Father Richard was born in Normandy and as he was hunting in the new Forrest whilst he was young was slain by a Stag. William surnamed Rufus who succeeded his Father in the Kingdom of England Henry surnamed Beau-clerk or the Fine Schollar who after his Brothers Death came to be King of England and Duke of Normandy Cicily his eldest Daughter was by her Father made a Nun and afterwards was chosen Abbess in the Monastery built by her father in Caen. Constance his second Daughter was first married to Allain Earle of Little Britaine who was afterwards by King William made Earl of Richmond Alice his third Daughter was married to Steven Earl of Bloys Gundred his fourth Daughter was married to William Warren who was the first Earl of Surry in England Ella his fifth Daughter some say she dyed young Margeret his youngest Daughter who was contracted to Alphonso King of Galicia in Spain but dyed before the marriage was consummated There was one Randolph Peverel to whom Edward the Confessor was very bountifull because he had married his kinswoman the Daughter of Ingelrick a man of great Nobility among the English Saxons A Lady of that admirable beauty that with her looks she conquered the Conquerour William who desired nothing more than to be her Prisoner in Armes which to effect he begins to express a kind of love to the remembrance of her deceased Father Ingelrick enriching the Colledge of Martins Le Grand in London first founded by him and her Uncle Edward Then he honours and advances her two Brethren William Peverel Castellane or keeper of Dover Castle and Payne Peverel Baron of Bourn in Cambridgshire the Founder of Barnwell Abbey and Standard-bearer to Robert Duke of Normandy in the Holy War against the Infidels He prefers her kindred and Friends He sollicites her by the Messengers of the Devils Bedchamber his fly Enchanting Bawdes and comes sometimes himself like Jupiter in a Golden shower Thus by these forcible demonstrations of his love and unavoidable allurements especially from a King she was brought at length to his unlawfull Bed unto whom she bare a Son named William who was Lord of Nottingham and Founder of Lenton Abby The Lady his Mother touched with remorse of Conscience for her sin to expiate her guilt for such was the Doctrine taught in those dayes founded a College in Hatfield Peverel in Essex wherein setting apart all worldly imployments she spent the remainder of her dayes King William having once setled himself in the Kingdom divided a great part of it among his followers To Allen surnamed the Red Earl of Britain who came into England with him and was his Son in Law he gave the Honour and County of Edwin within the Province of York by his Charter in these words I William surnamed the Bastard King of England give and grant to thee my Nephew Allen Earl of Britain and to thy Heirs for ever all those Villages Towns and Lands which were late in the possession of Earl Edwin in Yorkshire with Knights Fees Churches and other liberties and customes as freely and as honourably as the said Edwin held them Given at the siege before York FINIS His Pedigree * or Rolls His Birth and Parentage He is made Duke of Normandy and commited to the French King He comes into Normandy His troubles by Competitors The King of France against him New troubles Treason against him A special Providence He retires to the French King His Valour and Victory His meekness His new troubles He recovers his Towns His Valour A new Conspiracy He calls a Parlament His Marriage He is envied by the French King who invades his Country The French beaten The King of France invades his Country again and is again beaten The King of France dies He goes into England His preparations His Policy His subtilty The affairs in England Herald made King An. 1066. His prudence and policy His opposition and successe His victory Duke William comes into England His policy The Battel between him and Herald Their mutual valour Herald slain Englands sins Duke Williams victory His Progress The English submit to him A stout Abbot He comes to London Is received with Joy His Coronation No Conquerour His Prudence The Kentish mens Policy * or Fitz-Osburne King William goes into Normandy Returns into England His Prudence and Policy The English rebel * or Malcolâ—â— He built 4 Castles Troubles out of Ireland In the West and North. England invaded by the Danes and Scots York burnt King William goes against them Woful devastations The King Conquers New discontents Ely taken King William's clemency Peace with Scotland A new Conspiracy Discovered Prevented His son Robert rebels Is reconciled to his Father New-Castle built Quarrels with France The French King jeers him His reveng His sickness The Tower built England surveied Dooms-day Book New forrest made Remarkable Judgments The Laws in French Bishops Power abated His houshold Provision The Charter of London renewed Bishops Sees Changed his works of Piety Pauls Church burnt and reedified Great Judgments He despoiles the Monasseries His last VVill. His Death Vanity of Vanties His Charecter His Wife His Sons His Daugters