The Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond Part 14

71, 19. _Icklingham._ This appears to be the transaction referred to in a Charter of 1200, granted by Samson (confirmed by King John 15th March, 1200):--"We further give and grant to the said Hospital of St.

Saviour, for the maintenance of the poor folk, 12 in money from our town of Icklingham, to be annually received through our sacrist." The signatures to this Charter (given in Parker's _Melford_, p. 9) are interesting. They include "Herbert, the prior," "Hermer, the sub-prior" (see chapter xvi. of this book), and "Jocelin, the almoner"

(our Chronicler).

72, 4. _confirmed by the King's Charter._ Richard I. signed at Chateau Galliard on 18th July, 1198, two charters (1) confirming to Abbot Samson the manor and advowson of Mildenhall; (2) placing the manor, except Icklingham, at the disposal of the sacrist on certain conditions. At the accession of King John, Samson gave the King 200 for a confirmation of the first Charter, and especially of Mildenhall (cf. Rokewode, pp. 124-5).

72, 15. _Walter of Coutances._ The Church at Woolpit was the first piece of preferment of this famous Archbishop. Walter apparently succeeded, at Woolpit, Geoffrey Ridel, made Bishop of Ely in 1173 (see note on page 237). Rokewode says (p. 126): "Henry II. obtained from Hugh, Abbot of St. Edmund's, in free alms, the Church of Woolpit for his clerk, Walter de Coutances, and in consideration thereof, by charter dated at Winchester, granted that after the decease of Walter or his resignation, the Church should be appropriated to the use of the sick monks" (_Reg. Nigr._ fol. 104 v.). Walter obtained several other appointments, but seems from the text to have retained the Church at Woolpit till 1183, when he was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln. Next year (1184) he was elected Archbishop of Rouen. He took a prominent part in the troubles of the reigns of Richard I. and John, and died at Rouen on 16th November, 1207.

72, 22. _Pope Alexander and Octavian._ Alexander III., elected Pope on 7 September, 1159, was obliged to leave Italy in 1162, on account of the power of the Anti-Pope Octavian, and did not return until the decease of the latter in 1164. Samson's journey to Rome was, therefore, between 1159 and 1162, before he became a professed monk.

73, 3. _Pretended to be Scotch._ Mr. Arnold gives as the reason for this that "the Scottish kingdom at this time naturally sided with Octavian, England being in favour of Alexander" (I. xliii.). It has been suggested that "simulavi me esse Scottum" in the text means that Samson pretended to be an _Irishman_, the name Scotus having originally signified Irish, only acquiring its present meaning with the immigration of the Scots from the North of Ireland into Argyll, and their growth into a powerful nation. Bromton, speaking of Ireland, says:--"Dicta est eciam aliquando Scotia a Scotis eam inhabitantibus, priusquam ad aliam Scotiam Britannicam devenerunt; unde in Martirologio legitur: Tali die apud Scotiam natalis Sanctae Brigidae: quod est, apud Hiberniam" (see Twysden, _Historiae Anglicanae Scriptores X_, London 1652: vol. I., col. 1072, l. 11). When therefore this pa.s.sage was written (the fourteenth century) it is clear that the usage of Scot as meaning Irishman was not understood, and was regarded as needing explanation. Samson's contemporary, Ralph de Diceto, following the account of Henry of Huntingdon, twice explains that the Scots came from Ireland (ed. Stubbs 1876, I. 10; II. 34). This explanation again implies that by the middle and end of the twelfth century the word had come to mean exclusively "Scotsman." The same opinion is expressed by Burton: "It is not safe to count that the word Scot must mean a native of present Scotland, when the period dealt with is earlier than the middle of the twelfth century" (_History of Scotland_, 1873, I. 207). In that part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which was compiled during the reign of King Alfred, Scot regularly means Irishman. In A.D. 903 the death is noted of Virgil, abbot of the Scots, i.e. Irish: but this appears to be the last instance of the use of the word in the Chronicle in that sense. Between the years 924 and 1138 the word Scot occurs fourteen and Scotland twenty-six times in the Chronicle, always with the modern significance.

73, 6. _Gaveloc._ Javelin, a word of Celtic origin, but not specifically Scotch. Matthew Paris speaks of it in 1256 as a Frisian weapon: "Frisiones c.u.m jaculis quae vulgariter gavelocos appellant."

(Chr. Maj. ed. Luard. v. 550.) In the Romance of Percival by Chrestien de Troyes, is the couplet, "Et il, qui bien lancier savoit, De gaverlos que il avoit." (Ed. Potvin, Tome I. lines 1309-10. Mons, 1866).

73, 10. _Ride, Ride Rome, turn Cantwereberi_, This is written in English by Jocelin; and its meaning seems to be "I am riding towards Rome, turning from Canterbury." Arnold (I. xliii.) says, "If he had meant to say 'returning to Canterbury,' he would at once have been taken for an English adherent of Alexander."

74, 12. _Geoffrey Ridel._ This presentation appears to have been made (c. 1161) by Henry II., perhaps during Samson's journey abroad. In 1163 Geoffrey became Archdeacon of Canterbury in succession to Thomas a Becket, appointed Archbishop, and for the next eight years was in violent opposition to his primate, who called him "our arch-devil,"

and excommunicated him. On May 1, 1173, Geoffrey was chosen Bishop of Ely, and died at Winchester, 27 July, 1189. As Geoffrey from the chronicles seems to have been of a masterful and contumacious spirit, it must have given Abbot Samson peculiar satisfaction to have got the better of him over the timber referred to on page 106.

74, 19. _Acre._ This was Samson's first imprisonment at Castleacre (circ. 1161, before he became a monk). His second imprisonment probably took place about 1173, as on page 6 he speaks of it to Jocelin, then a novice, as something quite recent. As to Castleacre, see note on pages 223-4.

CHAPTER VII.

77, 23. _Charters of the King._ This dispute with the monks of Canterbury, heard before King Henry II. on the 11th February, 1187, raised the whole question of the Liberty of St. Edmund, a matter respecting which the Bury monastery was extremely tenacious. A marginal note in the original MS. of the Chronicle, against the puzzled phrase of the King (see page 78, lines 1-3), says: "Our Charter speaks of the time of King Edward, and of the time of his mother, Queen Emma, who had eight and a half hundreds as a marriage portion before the time of King Edward, besides Mildenhall." According to the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, the Confessor, after his coronation in 1043, seized the possessions of his mother, "because she was formerly very hard on the King her son, and did less for him than he wished before he was King, and also since." The Franchise having thus come into the Confessor's hands, was granted to the Abbots and Monks of Bury shortly after his accession. Under a Charter of King Edmund granted about 945, and Charters of Canute and Hardicanute, the jurisdiction of Bury Abbey had been restricted to the town, and the circuit indicated by the four crosses placed at the distance of a mile from the extremities of the town: but by the Confessor's Charter, it was enlarged to a district extending over about two-fifths of the whole county of Suffolk. (For names of the 8-1/2 hundreds included in the Liberty see note on page 232, 14.)

Edward the Confessor paid a visit to the shrine of St. Edmund in 1044, and when he had come within a mile of it, dismounted from his horse and accomplished the rest of the journey on foot. Herman the archdeacon, who wrote about half a century later, is the first to relate this fact, and also the grant by the King to the abbey of the 8-1/2 hundreds: "Qua tunc suffragatorem reditibus imperialibus honorat, centurias quas Anglice hundrez vocant, octo et semis sibi circ.u.m-circa se donat, regiamque mansionem nomine Mildenhall his adauget" (Arnold, I. 48). The original grant of Edward the Confessor gave the abbey jura regalia in wide loose general terms. Later, Charters became gradually more explicit as to the extent of jurisdiction (civil and criminal) conferred. Later still, the Royal justices in eyre supervened. The inst.i.tution of the circuits and a.s.sizes had to be fitted into the exempt jurisdiction: so the Liberty had its own a.s.sizes, etc., but outside the interior special and inviolable circuit of the bannaleuca or limits of St. Edmundsbury itself.

Lord Francis Hervey, who has made a special study of the subject, gives hope on page 250 of his notes to the _Breviary of Suffolk_ (1902), of his undertaking "a detailed examination of the history and incidents of the great Liberty of St. Edmund, which remained in the hands of its monastic rulers till the day when Abbot Reeve surrendered his Abbey to Henry VIII., November 4, 1539."

78, 15. Matthew xix. 12.

78, 16. _the matter was put off._ This dispute between Bury and Canterbury was not, as a matter of fact, ultimately composed till over 200 years later. Amongst Dr. Yates' ma.n.u.script materials for the never completed Part II. of his _History of Bury_ is a memorandum (now amongst the Egerton MSS. in the British Museum) in the following words:--

"The Letters Patent of King Henry 4th the 25th Nov. 1408 confirm and ratify an Indenture of three parts between the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, and the Abbot of Bury St. Edmund's, by which it is determined that the parishes of Hadleygh et Illeygh being within the eight hundreds and an half called the Liberty or Franchise of St. Edmund should be subject to the Abbot's Seneschallus, or High Steward of the Franchise, and that the return of the writs of the Seneschal's Great Court with the rolls fines and other rights and privileges should be regarded in those parishes in the same manner as in the other parts of the Liberty. An exemption on the part of the Archbishop having been claimed, this indenture terminated a dispute that had been above 160 years [cf.

Arnold, III. 188] in agitation. During this dispute it was agreed that the Sheriff of Suffolk should act till its termination as Seneschal of these Parishes. A patent was addressed to the Sheriff of Suffolk dated 27th November in the same year, commanding him no longer to intromit within the Franchise of St. Edmund, but to preserve inviolate the Liberties and immunities of the Abbot and Monastery.--_Registrum Rubrum in Collect, Burien._: 317 _to_ 328 _inclusive._"

78, 16. Et adhuc sub judice lis est. Horace, _Arte Poet._, 78.

79, 6. _Bishop of Ely._ This was William of Longchamp (d. 1197), once described by Henry II. as a "son of two traitors." He fled the kingdom in 1191 on his fall from power, came to England in 1192, but was not permitted to proceed further than Canterbury, and crossed the seas again. In 1193 he returned, bearing letters from the Emperor, and met the Regency at St. Albans. It was on this occasion that he pa.s.sed through St. Edmundsbury, as recorded on page 80. In Normandy, at the instigation of the Archbishop of Rouen, he had been everywhere received as an excommunicated person (cf. Rokewode, page 127).

79, 10. _Archbishopric vacant._ Archbishop Baldwin died at Acre, in November, 1190; his successor Reginald, Bishop of Bath, was elected in December, 1191, and died after a few days. Hubert Walter, with whom Samson afterwards came into conflict, was elected Archbishop in May, 1192 (see note on page 245).

80, 12. _Archbishop of York._ This was Geoffrey, the half-brother of Richard I., to whom he had sworn that he would not return to England without the King's leave. Having returned, he was, on his landing at Dover in September, 1191, arrested by Longchamp's orders, and thrown into prison.

80, 24. _King Henry had taken the Cross._ At the interview of Henry II. with Philip of France, between Trie and Gisors, the two Kings took the cross upon the Feast of St Agnes, 21 January, 1188.

82, 8. _War throughout England._ After John's return from France in 1193, the country was in a state of general warfare; and Windsor was besieged by the Regency with the King's other castles.

82, 16. _His own standard._ See note to p. 85, l. 25, below.

83, 1. _Licence for holding tournaments._ This was little more than a device for raising money. In 1194 Richard ordered tournaments to be held, in order to practise the knights in warfare. No one could joust at a tournament without a licence; and the price of the licence varied with the rank of the holder.

85, 12. _Withgar._ This great thane, who is styled in the Cartulary of Abbot John of Northwold "the famous Earl," had the custody for Queen Emma, mother of Edward the Confessor, of the franchise of the eight hundreds and a half which subsequently const.i.tuted the Liberty of St.

Edmund (see notes on pages 232 and 238). Mr. Rokewode says (p. 129): "The honour of Clare was composed chiefly of the great possessions in Suffolk and Ess.e.x of Alfric, son of Withgar or Wisgar (_Liber Domesday_)."

85, 25. _Standard of St. Edmund._ In the famous Harleian MS. 2278, the original book containing the metrical life of St. Edmund by John Lydgate, presented to Henry VI. by Bury Abbey after his visit to the monastery in 1433, there is a pictorial representation of this Standard. It depicts Adam and Eve on either side of the Tree of Knowledge, and the devil with a human face and a serpent's body curled round the tree. Above the tree is a lamb and a cross, with crescents in the background. The counterseal of Abbot Samson also has the lamb and cross (see page 229).

86, 6. _Earl Roger Bigot._ This Earl was son of Hugh, the rebellious baron. It appears from the text that the Standard of St. Edmund was carried by him into the fight at the battle of Fornham, in October, 1173 (see p. 1).

86, 18. _Robert of c.o.c.kfield._ References to members of this family of c.o.c.kfield, or c.o.kefield, appear often in the _Chronicle_. The dispute as to rights which arose on Robert's death is told again in greater detail at the end of the _Chronicle_, by William of Diss (see pp.

254-6), and the dispute as to the wardship of the daughter of Adam, son of Robert, on pages 187-8. Nothing here arises except Samson's denial of Adam's right of hereditary tenure, in which he was successful.

87, 16. _Eight and a half hundreds._ See notes to p. 44, l. 14, and p.

77, l. 23, on the Liberty of St. Edmund (pp. 232, 238).

88, 16. _Haberdon._ This is a field (still called by the same name) in the south-east corner of the town, with remains of earthworks. It was held in monastic times of the sacrist by the singular tenure, that the tenant should find a white bull as often as a gentlewoman should visit the shrine of St. Edmund "to make the oblation of the said white bull," with a view to secure a favourable answer to her prayers for offspring. On these occasions the bull was led from his pasture on the Haberdon through the princ.i.p.al streets of the town in procession to the Church of St. Edmund.

CHAPTER VIII.

101-105. The whole of this Chapter is obviously an interpolation in the Chronicle by some monk other than Jocelin himself. The story of Henry of Ess.e.x is included in the long and elaborate "vita et pa.s.sio c.u.m miraculis Sancti Edmundi" prepared in the fourteenth century in the monastery at Bury, and now preserved in the Bodleian Library (MS.

240); and at the end of this transcript the compiler adds, "Cuius narracionem Jocelinus audiens, in scriptis redegit" (_Nova Legenda Anglie_, ed. Horstman, 1901, II. 637). It is apparent from the opening phrase of the text (p. 105) that Jocelin, who most probably went to Reading in the train of the Abbot, commenced to set down the story at the bidding of Samson, but left its completion to some other monk of inferior degree. Perhaps this was William of Diss, who added at the end of the Chronicle (see pages 254-6) a declaration as to the lands of Robert of c.o.c.kfield.

101, 10. _precept of Seneca._ Mr. Arnold says: "Many things resembling this sentiment occur in the 109th Epistle of Seneca; but probably the pa.s.sage is somewhere else in his works."

103, 18. _thrown down the standard._ Henry of Ess.e.x's act of cowardice took place in 1157, during an expedition into Flintshire, when the Welsh made a sudden attack. His dropping the standard brought King Henry II. and the Royal army into great peril (Gervase, i. 165, Rolls ed.).

104, 1. _Roger Earl of Clare._ There seems to be an attempt at punning, at this point, by the monk who wrote the original story in Latin: "Rogerus comes Clarensis, clarus genere et militari clarior exercitis, c.u.m suis Clarensibus maturius occurrisset."

104, 9. _trial of battle._ This fight between Henry of Ess.e.x and Robert de Montfort took place in 1163 (Ralph de Diceto, _Ymag. Hist_.

i. 310, Rolls ed.), on an eyot in the Thames, and is still traditionally remembered at Reading.

CHAPTER IX

106, 6. _stay at Melford._ The manor of Melford was given to the monastery in the time of Leofstan (second Abbot) by Earl Alfric, the son of Withgar (Parker's _History of Long Melford_, p. 1). At Long Melford, 13 miles south of Bury, was a country house belonging to the Abbots of Bury; and at the present Melford Hall there are said to be still some relics of this occupancy. After Samson died, in 1211, there was a dispute that lasted a considerable time as to the validity of the election of Hugo, his successor; and the Papal Legate, Nicholas, Bishop of Tusculum, who tried vainly to compose it, stayed for some time at Melford (Arnold, ii. 46). Abbot Simon of Luton died at his manor of Melford in April, 1279.

108, 8, 13. _forty pounds a year from the town._ Battely prints (_App._ xvii. 149) a letter from Pope Eugenius III. (no date) addressed to Helyas, the sacrist (Ording's nephew), confirming Ording's instructions as to the rents of the town being applied to the service of the Altar.

112, 8. _Charter from King Henry the Second._ "All the men of London shall be quit and free, and all their goods throughout England, and the ports of the sea, of and from all toll and pa.s.sage and lestage and all other customs" (Charter Henry I.). "All the citizens of London shall be quit from toll and lastage throughout all England and the ports of the sea" (Charter of Henry II.--confirmed by Charter of Richard I., 23 April, 1194, and by Charter of John, 17 June, 1199).

(Birch's _Historical Charters of the City of London_, 1887, pp. 3, 5.)

112, 15. _theam_ (Lat. themus, team). The right of compelling a person in whose hands stolen property was found to say from whom he received it (Glossary in Stubbs's _Select Charters_).

113, 10. Judges xvi. 9.

116, 15. _A charter was made._ The text of this Charter of 1194, granted by Samson to the Burgesses, will be found in Battely (_App._ xxii. 155-6) and in the _Monasticon_, iii. 153. It confirms to the town all the customs and liberties which it had in the times of Henry II. and his predecessors; and it declares that with regard to watch and ward and the custody of the gates, the ancient custom is that the town shall furnish eight watchmen night by night, all the year round, two for each ward, and a larger number at Christmas and on St.

Edmund's Day [20 November]; also that the town should find four gatekeepers for the four gates, the fifth or eastern gate being in the custody of the Abbot. Nothing is said in the Charter about the appointment of the portreeves; but the right of burgesses to sue and be sued in their own borough-court (portmanne-mot), instead of going outside the borough to the hundred-mot or the shire-mot, is insisted upon. "What is evidently a.s.sumed is that the portreeve is the Abbot's servant, and administers justice in the Abbot's name" (Arnold, II.