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A REMARKABLE OCCURRENCE.

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Death of Walter, earl marshal.

On the 4th of December in this same year, or as others say, on the 24th of November, Walter, earl marshal, went the way of all flesh at London, and was buried at Tintern, near Strigoil, where many of his noble ancestors were entombed.

Death of Anselm, brother of the above.

Soon afterwards, on the third day before Christmas-day, died Anselm, the next younger brother of the above; and as both these two died without any children, that noble inheritance was scattered about in manifold ways, and fell to the possession of many, by reason of their sisters, to whom it severally belonged.

The scutcheons which, alas! were at this time laid low in England.

A remarkable occurrence connected with the great W. Marshal and his five sons.

A wretched and lamentable misfortune, and one hitherto unheard of, happened to the five sons of the great W. Marshal, who were all, in the order of their birth, taken from amongst us childless, whilst prosperity was smiling upon them in the midst of their possessions, and in the prime of life, which accorded with a prophecy of their mother, who said, that "all of them would be earls of one earldom," for, although Anselm was not invested with the earldom, it devolved on him; and thus their mother proved herself a sibyl. I do not think, however, that we should believe that this occurred without the divine interposition, and as this occurrence is worthy of mention, we have thought fit to

1

When the aforesaid

insert an account of it in this work.
brave and warlike William, surnamed the "Mareschal” (as
though "Seneschal of Mars"), was indulging in slaughter and
pillage in Ireland, and was acquiring a large territory, he
presumptuously and by force took away from a certain holy
bishop two manors which belonged to his church, and held
possession of them as if they were his own by a just claim,
because they were acquired in war. The bishop in conse-
quence, after frequent warnings, to which the earl replied
with insolence, still retaining possession of the said manors,
and contumaciously persisting in his sin, fulminated sentence
of excommunication against him, and with good cause; but
this the earl despised, and, pleading as an excuse that it was
in the time of war, he heaped injury on injury. It was owing
to these proceedings of his, that one Master Gervase de
Melkeley, composing verses on him, and speaking as if in
the person of the earl, said,-

Sum quem Saturnum sibi sensit Hybernia; Solem
Anglia; Mercurium Normannia; Gallia Martem.

[In Ireland I am Saturn; in England the Sun's rays surround me :
In Normandy I'm Mercury, but France for ever Mars has found me.]

The said earl, then, held these manors under his jurisdiction all his life. After some years he died, and was buried at the New Temple, in London, which circumstance coming to the knowledge of the aforesaid bishop (it was the bishop of Fernes, who had been a monk of the Cistercian order, anl Irishman by birth, and a man of remarkable sanctity), he, though not without much personal labour, went to the king, who was at the time staying at London, and, making a heavy complaint of the abovementioned injury done to him, declared that he had excommunicated the said earl for the same, not without good cause: he then begged of the king, by his royal authority and warrant, for the release of the soul of the said Earl William, to restore his manors to him, that the deceased might obtain the benefit of absolution. The king, touched with sorrow at hearing this, asked the bishop to go to the earl's tomb and absolve him, promising that he would himself see that satisfaction was given him. The bishop therefore went to the tomb, and, in the presence of the king and many other persons, as if a live person was

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addressing a living one in the tomb, said, "William, you who are entombed here, bound with the bonds of excommunication, if the possessions which you wrongfully deprived my church of be restored, with adequate satisfaction, by the agency of the king, or by your heir, or any one of your relations, I absolve you; if otherwise, I confirm the said sentence, that, being involved in your sins, you may remain in hell a condemned man for ever." The king, on hearing this, became angry, and reproved the immoderate severity of the bishop. To this the latter replied, "Do not be astonished, my lord, if I am excited; for he despoiled my church of its greatest advantage." The king then, privately, spoke to William, the earl's eldest son, and heir of all his property, who was now invested with the earldom, and also to some of his brothers, and begged of them, by restoring the aforesaid manors, which had been unjustly taken away, to release the soul of their father. To this William replied, "I do not believe, neither ought it to be believed, that my father took them away wrongfully; for what is taken in time of war becomes a just possession. If that old and foolish bishop has pronounced the sentence unjustly, may it be hurled back on his own head; I do not choose to diminish the inheritance with which I am invested. My father died seised of these manors, and I, with good right, entered into possession of what I found." In this decision all the brothers agreed, and the king, being at the time a young man, and under a guardian, would not on any account give offence to such a powerful noble. When this afterwards became known to the bishop, he grieved more at the contumacy of the sons, than at the injury done him in the first place by the father he then went before the king, and said to him, "What I have said, I have said; and what I have written, I have written indelibly. The sentence is confirmed. A punishment has been inflicted on malefactors by the Lord, and the malediction which is described in the psalm is imposed in a heavy degree on Earl William, of whom I complain,-‘In one generation his name shall be destroyed,' and his sons shall be without share in that benediction of the Lord, 'Increase and multiply! Some of them will die by a lamentable death, and their inheritance will be scattered; and all this, my lord king, you will see in your lifetime, ay, in the prime of

your life." After delivering this speech in the bitterness of his heart, as if inspired by a prophetic spirit, the bishop went away in sorrow. Thus was the noble Earl William Marshal, who had placed his confidence on an arm of flesh, left entangled in the bonds of the anathema. As an evident proof of this circumstance, some years afterwards, after the death of all his sons, when the church of the New Temple was dedicated, in the year 1200, the body of the said earl, which had been sewn up in a bull's hide, was found entire, but rotten, and loathsome to the sight. The last of the brothers but one, Earl Walter Marshal, followed in his steps; for although he had most faithfully promised a revenue of sixty shillings to the house of St. Mary, belonging to the monks of Hertford, and had given a written promise thereof, because his brother Earl Gilbert died there, and his bowels still remained buried there, he forgot the pledge and promise which he had made for the redemption of his brother, and, after causing much useless vexation to the prior of the said house, he proved himself a manifest deceiver and transgressor.

How the emperor Frederick proceeded against the Milanese. About this time, the pope having persuaded the nobles of Germany, to whom the right of election belonged, to elect a new emperor over them, some of them, the chief of whom was Conrad, archbishop of Cologne, agreed in fixing on the landgrave of Thuringia, who, however, refused to acquiesce or agree to such a piece of temerity, being content with his own duchy, and preferring to enjoy peace and security rather than trust to the risks and dangers of a doubtful war, especially against the emperor Frederick, whose prowess he had often tried, and whom he had found to be full of fox-like cunning. The pope, however, to encourage and inspirit him, promised him his protection, and that of the universal Church; the Milanese, also, and the Italians allied with them, sent their special messengers, and, calling his prudence pusillanimity, promised him their effectual assistance and counsel in everything, if he would consent to this election in the place of the said Frederick, an apostate, an excommunicated and deposed man, and one ignominiously reprobated by God and the Church. The emperor Frederick, on hearing of this proceeding, ground his teeth with rage, and

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grieved to see that his enemies raised their heads from his adversity, and heaped insult on insult, and threat upon threat on him; and, aiming wholly at vengeance, he drew out his troops in order, and being aware of their movements beforehand, cunningly placed an ambuscade in the rear of the enemy, under the command of his son Henry, king of Sardinia, and provoked the Milanese to battle as they were about to sally forth in their usual way. The Milanese, sallying forth in crowds, and unaware of the ambuscade, rushed undismayed and with alacrity on the emperor Frederick; seeing which, the king of Sardinia interposed his army between the Milanese and their city, and attacked them at the sword's point, committing a great and pitiable slaughter amongst them. The citizens, on looking back and seeing the means of retreat cut off, and the approach to their city blocked up, were thrown into despair, and numbers of them fell slain, leaving, however, a bloody victory to the emperor. Countless numbers fell on both sides, and people, on hearing of it, inconsolably lamented the slaughter of so many Christians.

The archdeacon of York murdered in the vestibule of the church.

About this time, a canon of the church of York having, by insults and reproaches, provoked the anger of a certain knight, was slain by him in the vestibule of the church. The knight, who was not of ignoble descent, was taken and committed to prison, where he awaited the punishment to be inflicted on him for his crime.

The ill-usage of the Poitevins by the French.

During all this time, the wretched, although not to be pitied, Poitevins, in whom treachery was innate, became so loathsome in the sight of the French, that they did not dare, nor were they allowed, to give their daughters in marriage, without permission of the French; and as they were lorded over by people who hated them, they fell into the very lowest condition, and deservedly reaped the fruits of their ways under the manifold yoke of Egyptian slavery. Now, therefore, they repented of having traitorously received such large sums of money from both kings, and of having deceived and expelled from his territories their natural lord, who believed that he had found faith in faithless men, who, as they thirsted