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John of Worcester. 23rd May 1070. On Whitsunday [3rd May] the king (age 42), at Windsor, Berkshire [Map], gave the archbishopric of York to the venerable Thomas, canon of Bayeux, and the bishopric of Winchester to his chaplain, Walkeline. On the following day, by the king's command, Ermenfrid, bishop of Sion, held a synod, [the other legates] the cardinals John and Peter having returned to Rome. At this synod, Ethelric, bishop of Sussex, was uncanonically deposed; and although he was guilty of no crime, the king soon afterwards placed him in confinement at Marlborough, Wiltshire [Map]; several abbots were also deprived. After these depositions, the king gave the bishopric of East-Anglia to Arfast, and the bishopric of Sussex to Stigand79, who were both his chaplains; which Stigand transferred his see to Chichester, the chief city in his diocese: the king also gave abbeys to some Norman monks. The archbishop of Canterbury being degraded, and the archbishop of York dead, Walkeline was, by the king's command, consecrated by the same Ermenfrid, bishop of Sion, on the octave of Whitsunday [30th May].
Note 79. This first bishop of Chichester must not be confounded with the archbishop of the same name.
On 23rd May 1070 Bishop Walkelin was elected Bishop of Winchester.
On 30th May 1070 Bishop Walkelin was consecrated Bishop of Winchester.
In 1079 Bishop Walkelin commissioned the building of Winchester Cathedral [Map].
. On Monday the nones [5th April 1092] of April, Osmund, bishop of Salisbury, assisted by Walkelin, bishop of Winchester, and John, bishop of Bath, consecrated the church which he had built in the castle of Sarum. Remi, who by license from William the Elder had transferred the seat of his bishopric from Dorchester [Map] to Lincoln, was desirous of consecrating the church which he had built at Lincoln, worthy indeed to be the cathedral of a bishop's see1, because he felt that the day of his death was at hand; but Thomas, archbishop of York, opposed him, asserting that the church was built within his diocese. However, king William the younger, for a sum of money paid to him by Remi, summoned nearly all the bishops of England to assemble together on the twentieth of the ides [the 9th] of May, and dedicate the church; but two days before the time fixed, by the mysterious providence of God, bishop Remi himself departed from the world, and in consequence the consecration of the church was deferred. After this the king went into Northumbria, and restored the city which is called in the British tongue Cairleii, and in Latin Lugubalia (Carlisle [Map]), and built a castle there; for this city, like some others in that quarter, had been laid in ruins by the heathen Danes two hundred years before, and had been uninhabited up to this time.
Note 1. Cf. Henry of Huntingdon, pp. 219, 220, Antiq. Lib.
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 1098. In this year at Christmas was the King William (age 42) in Normandy; and Walkelin, Bishop of Winchester, and Baldwin, Abbot of St. Edmund's, within this tide128 both departed. And in this year also died Turold, Abbot of Peterborough. In the summer of this year also, at Finchamstead in Berkshire, a pool welled with blood, as many true men said that should see it. And Earl Hugh was slain in Anglesey by foreign pirates129, and his brother Robert was his heir, as he had settled it before with the king. Before Michaelmas the heaven was of such an hue, as if it were burning, nearly all the night. This was a very troublesome year through manifold impositions; and from the abundant rains, that ceased not all the year, nearly all the tilth in the marsh-lands perished.
Note 128. That is, within the twelve days after Christmas, or the interval between Christmas day, properly called the Nativity, and the Epiphany, the whole of which was called Christmas-tide or Yule-tide, and was dedicated to feasting and mirth.
Note 129. The King of Norway and his men. "Vid. Flor."
On 3rd January 1098 Bishop Walkelin died.
All About History Books
The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
Flowers of History by Roger of Wendover 1138. Of the enmity of the Scots towards king Stephen. A. D. 1138.
Conrad obtained the Roman empire, and reigned fifteen years. The same year king Stephen, on his birth-day, besieged Bedford castle, saying, that one's enemies should never be let rest for even an hour but before he could reduce the castle, the Scots, with their king, led an army into Northumberland, and perpetrated a most execrable deed. For because their king had sworn fealty to the empress, they now avenged her cause by tearing children from their mother's womb, and tossing them upon the points of their lances: they slew priests upon the altars, cut off the heads of the crucifixes, and placed them on the decapitated corpses, putting in their places the bloody heads of their victims; wherever they went, it was one scene of cruelty and terror; women shrieking, old men lamenting, and every living being in despair. King Stephen, therefore, marched with his troops towards Scotland; but before he reached that country, the Scottish king retired into his own dominions and withdrew to his fastnesses. King Stephen, having ravaged the south of Scotland, returned to England. There was at this time so violent a fury against him among the nobles, that he was disturbed on almost every side. William Talbot held Hereford castle against him; Robert earl of Gloucester, illegitimate son of king Henry, held the castles of Leeds and Bristol; William Luvell held Castle Cary; Paganel held Ludlow; William de Moiun held Dunster castle; Robert of Lincoln held Warham; Eustace Fitz-John held Melton; William Fitz-Alan held Shrewsbury. The king took the last-named of these fortresses by storm, and hanged some of the garrison; which coming to the ears of Walkeline, who held Dover castle, he immediately surrendered it to the queen who was besieging it.
The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy by Orderic Vitalis. On the king's death, many of the nobles hastened at once from the forest to their own abodes, and began to put their affairs in order, in anticipation of the troubles which they feared would follow. Some of the servants wrapped the king's bloody corpse in a mean covering, and brought it, like a wild boar pierced by the hunters, to the city of Winchester. The clergy, the monks and citizens, with the poor widows and mendicants, went in procession without delay to meet the body, from respect to the royal dignity, and buried it in the old minster of St. Peter1. Notwithstanding, the doctors and prelates of the church, taking into consideration his debauched life and tragical end, did not hesitate to pass sentence upon him, and thought, that as they had been unable to inflict salutary punishment upon him for his iniquities while he lived, he must be treated as a reprobate2, and one who did not merit absolution. In some churches the bells did not ring his knell, although they often are tolled long for paupers and women of the lowest rank. Of the immense treasure he had amassed, wrung from the labours of the wretched people, no alms were given to the poor for the soul of their former avaricious owner. The soldiers who served for hire, the bullies and common whores missed their gains at the death of the debauched king, and lamenting his miserable end, not so much from regard, as from their loss of the supplies which ministered to their detestable vices, sought carefully for Walter Tirel3, threatening to tear him in pieces in revenge for the death of their patron. However, the moment the deed was done he hurried to the coast, and crossing the sea took repose in his castles in France, where he laughed in security at the threats and curses of his malevolent enemies. He married Alice, daughter of Richard, of the noble family of Giffard, who bore to her husband Hugh de Poix, a very valiant knight. Many years afterwards Walter went in pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and died penitent on the holy journey.
Note 1. The king was interred within the court of the castle. That part of the building soon afterwards fell to the ground, and it was regarded as a sign of the divine wrath against the king. It was rebuilt from funds left by Bishop Walkelin. The funeral procession was not so mean as our author infers: multorum procerum conventu, paucorum planctu [the assembly of many nobles, the lamentation of a few]. Many of the nobility attended, though there were few mourners.
Note 2. Biothanatum. The portrait of this king thus drawn by a contemporary writer: "He was square-built, the colour of his skin red, and his hair of a yellowish tint, his brow was open, his eyes were of different shades, varying with certain glittering specks. His strength was prodigious, though his frame was not large, and his belly was rather protuberant. He had no pretensions to eloquence, but was remarkable for stammering in his speech especially when angry. He had so little inclination or leisure for learning that he never attended to it. ” — Malmesbury.
It appears, therefore, that his surname was given him more from the florid tint of his face than the colour of his hair. He was more than forty years old at the time of his death. One of the principal grievances of the Anglo-Saxon people in his time, as well as his father's, was the destruction of churches and churchyards in extending the forests. Stephen Berchington, Vita Archiepiscop. Cantuar. attributes to him no less than twenty desecrations of this sort.
Note 3. It appears that Walter Tirel denied to the last his having been the person by whose hand William Rufus fell. Suger, a cotemporary historian, and, as it seems, a friend of Tirel, in his Life of Louis-le-Gros, king of France, alluding to the death of Rufus, remarks: "One Walter Tirel, a nobleman, was accused of shooting the king with an arrow; but I have often heard him assert on his solemn oath, at a time when he had nothing either to fear or hope, that on that day he was neither in the part of the forest where the king was hunting, nor saw him at all while he was in the wood." This testimony, however, can hardly avail against the concurrent agreement of tradition and history.
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