One of these men was a

receive aid in some shape or other. butcher of Rouen, of the name of Berold; the other a young man of gentle birth whose name was Geoffrey, the son of Gilbert de l'Aigle.

The melancholy news soon got abroad among the common people, and, spreading along the sea-coast, came to the ears of Count Theobald and other lords of the court; but for that day no one ventured to make it known to the king, who was in a state of great anxiety and made many inquiries. The nobles shed many tears in private, and were inconsolable for the loss of their friends and relations; but in the king's presence, severe as was the struggle, they concealed their grief lest its cause should be discovered. On the day following, by a well-devised plan of Count Theobald's, a boy threw himself at the king's feet, weeping bitterly, and upon his being questioned as to the cause of his sorrow, the king learnt from him the shipwreck of the Blanche-Nef. So sudden was the shock, and so severe his anguish, that he instantly fell to the ground, but being raised up by his friends, he was conducted to his chamber, and gave free course to the bitterness of his grief. Not Jacob was more woe-stricken for the loss of Joseph, nor did David give vent to more woeful lamentations for the murder of Ammon or Absalom....

What mortal tongue can fully recount the numbers of those who had to mourn this fatal disaster, or the numerous domains which were deprived of their lawful heirs, to the great detriment of many persons? As we have already said, the king's sons, William and Richard, were amongst those who perished, with their sister Matilda, wife of Rotrou, Count of Mortain. There were also Richard, the young Earl of Chester, distinguished for his bravery and kindness of heart, with his wife Matilda, sister of Theobald, Count Palatine. Othere, his brother, son of Hugh, Earl of Chester, and governor and tutor of the king's youngest son, at the moment when the BlancheNef went down, and the nobles were hopelessly buried in the waves, took, as it is reported, the young prince in his arms, and sinking with him, they were never again seen. Theodoric, the nephew of Henry, emperor of Germany, a mere boy; also two beautiful sons of Ives de Grantmesnil, with their cousin William de Rhuddlan, who was proceeding to England by the king's command to take possession of the inheritance of his ancestors in that country; William, surnamed Bigod, William de Pirou, the king's steward; Geoffrey Ridel, Hugh de Moulins, Robert.

Mauconduit, and Gisulf, the king's iniquitous secretary; all these, and many other persons of distinction were swallowed up by the sea. Relations and acquaintances, comrades and friends, wailed their miserable fate, when, in different countries, they learnt the desolation and bereavements occasioned by their death. It is said of those who perished that there were no less than eighteen females who were either daughters, sisters, nieces, or wives of kings or earls.

Concern for others has been my only motive in furnishing these details, which, having collected from authentic information, I am induced to record for the benefit of future ages. For myself I have none to mourn, except from common feelings of pity, as no one of my kindred was swallowed up in that horrible gulf, for whom I had to shed the tears which flow for the loss of those who are of our own blood.

21. ADULTERINE CASTLES IN THE REIGN OF STEPHEN

(1135-1154).

The erection of castles began immediately after the Conquest, and the Norman keep with its "rocky solidity" was alike a means and a symbol of enslavement. A stronghold which protected its owner from attack, could hardly fail to beget tyranny or to promote rebellion against the crown. Under the Conqueror and his sons a certain degree of control over such building was exercised, but during the civil war between Stephen and Maud no power in the land existed which could prevent a noble from doing what he chose. Among the first results of this feudal anarchy was the appearance of adulterine, or illegal, castles, raised by the forced labour of serfs. There were hundreds of them, and the Saxon Chronicle (now drawing to a close) furnishes a startling glimpse of what was practised behind their walls.

SOURCE.-Saxon Chronicle. Trans. J. A. Giles. London, 1847. P. 502.

When king Stephen came to England, he held an assembly at Oxford; and there he seized Roger bishop of Salisbury, and Alexander bishop of Lincoln, and Roger the chancellor, his nephew, and he kept them all in prison till they gave up their castles. When the traitors perceived that he was a mild man,

and a soft and a good, and that he did not enforce justice, they did all wonder. They had done homage to him, and sworn oaths, but they no faith kept; all became forsworn, and broke their allegiance, for every rich man built his castles, and defended them against him, and they filled the land full of castles. They greatly oppressed the wretched people by making them work at these castles, and when the castles were finished they filled them with devils and evil men. Then they took those whom they suspected to have any goods, by night and by day, seizing both men and women, and they put them in prison for their gold and silver, and tortured them with pains unspeakable, for never were any martyrs tormented as these were. They hung some up by their feet, and smoked them with foul smoke; some by their thumbs, or by the head, and they hung burning things on their feet. They put a knotted string about their heads, and twisted it till it went into the brain. They put them into dungeons wherein were adders and snakes and toads, and thus wore them out. Some they put into a crucet-house, that is, into a chest that was short and narrow, and not deep, and they put sharp stones in it, and crushed the man therein so that they broke all his limbs. There were hateful and grim things called sachenteges in many of the castles, and which two or three men had enough to do to carry. The sachentege was made thus it was fastened to a beam, having a sharp iron to go around a man's throat and neck, so that he might no ways sit, nor lie, nor sleep, but that he must bear all the iron. Many thousands they exhausted with hunger. I cannot and I may not tell of all the wounds and all the tortures that they inflicted upon the wretched men of this land; and this state of things lasted the nineteen years that Stephen was king, and ever grew worse and worse.

22. THE FIRST NORMAN INVASION OF IRELAND (1169).

Giraldus de Barri was born in Pembrokeshire shortly before the middle of the twelfth century, and is commonly called Giraldus Cambrensis-Gerald of Wales. He was a vain and aggressive, though clever, churchman, constantly quarrelling and disappointed in his expectations. The Conquest of Ireland is the best of his numerous writings, and can be heartily praised. At the age of thirty-eight Gerald was appointed a royal chaplain, and sent by Henry II. to Ireland in company

with Prince John. He arrived only fifteen years after the capture of Wexford, when the task of reduction was far from complete. The Welsh had been conspicuous in Strongbow's early battles, and Gerald's patriotism was perhaps kindled. Whatever his motive, his opportunities were exceptional and he turned them to advantage. His own criticisms, of which an example is given, are shrewd and practical.

SOURCE.-Expugnatio Hibernii. Giraldus Cambrensis (1146?-1220?). Trans. T. Wright. London, 1887. A. p. 311, B. p. 321.

(4) Fortunate would this island have been, and it would long since have been firmly and completely subjugated from one end to the other, and brought without difficulty under order and good government, with towns and castles built on all sides, in fitting places from sea to sea, had not the succours which should have followed the first adventurers been cut off by a royal proclamation; or, rather, if the king himself had not been prematurely recalled from his bold adventure by an intestine conspiracy which prevented his turning his enterprise to good account.1 Happy indeed would it have been if, the first conquerors being men of worth and valour, their merits had been duly weighed, and the government and administration of affairs had been placed in their hands. For the Irish people, who were so astounded and thrown into such consternation at the arrival of the first adventurers, by the novelty of the thing, and so terrified by flights of arrows shot by the English archers, and the might of the men-at-arms, soon took heart, through delays, which are always dangerous, the slow and feeble progress of the work of conquest, and the ignorance and cowardice of the governors and others in command. And becoming gradually expert in the use of arrows and other weapons, as well as being practised in stratagems and ambuscades by their frequent conflicts with our troops, and taught by their successes, although they might at first have been easily subjugated, they became in process of time able to make a stout resistance.

(B) The Normans, who are newly come among us, may be very good soldiers in their own country, and expert in the use of arms and armour after the French fashion, but every one knows how much that differs from the mode of warfare in Ireland and Wales. In France it is carried on in a champaign country,

1 1172.

here it is rough and mountainous; there you have open plains, here you find dense woods. In France it is counted an honour to wear armour, here it is found to be cumbersome; there victories are won by serried ranks and close fighting, here by the charges of light-armed troops; there, quarter is given, prisoners being taken and admitted to ransom, here their heads are chopped off as trophies and no one escapes. Where armies engage in a plain country, that heavy and complex armour, whether shirts of mail, or coat armour of steel, is both a splendid ornament of the knights and men-at-arms, and also necessary for their protection. But where you have to fight in narrow passes, and in woods and bogs, in which foot-soldiers are more serviceable than horsemen, a far lighter kind of armour is preferable. In fighting against naked and unarmed men, whose only hope of success lies in the impetuosity of their first attack, men in light armour can pursue the fugitives, an agile race, with more activity, and cut them down in narrow passes and amongst crags and mountains. The Normans, with this complex armour and their deeply curved saddles, find great difficulty in getting on horseback and dismounting; and still greater when occasion requires that they shall march on foot.

In all expeditions, therefore, either in Ireland or in Wales, the Welshmen bred in the marches, and accustomed to the continual wars in those parts, make the best troops. They are very brave, and, from their previous habits, bold and active; they are good horsemen and also light of foot, being equally suited to both services; and they are not nice in their appetites, and bear hunger and thirst well when provisions are not to be had. Such men and soldiers were they which took the lead in the conquest of Ireland, and by such men it must be finally and completely effected. Let each class of soldiers have its proper place. Against heavy-armed troops, depending upon their strength and complete armour, and fighting on a plain, you must oppose, I admit, men equal to them in the weight of their armour and strength of limb; but when you have to do with a race who are naturally agile and light of foot, and whose haunts are in steep and rocky places, you want light-armed troops, and especially such as have been trained by experience to fighting under such circumstances. And, in the Irish wars, particular care should be always used to mix bowmen with the other troops, in order to gall, by flights of arrows shot from a distance, the slingers who rush forward and heave stones on the heavy armed troops, and then retire with great agility, thus alternately advancing and retreating.