flames, was despatched in the porch by the hand of Osulf himself, who severed his head from his body." Osulf did not long survive him, being slain the following autumn by a robber of whom he was in pursuit. "On his death," continues our authority, "Gospatric, the son of Maldred, the son of Crinan, going to the king, obtained the earldom by purchase, paying for it a large sum of money." Copsi's death took place on the 12th of March 1067. Osulf's, as we have seen, in the autumn of the same year; and as the king was in Normandy all the summer and autumn, Gospatric's appointment could hardly take place till after his return on the 6th of December.

In

The new earl must either have solicited the appointment with a deliberate intention of betraying his trust, or must at all events have been very deficient in those qualities which enabled Copsi, under similar circumstances, to withstand the solicitations of his friends. Early in the ensuing year a most formidable conspiracy was discovered, of which the Earls Edwine and Morcar were at the head, supported by the King of Scotland and the Bishop of Durham.* this Gospatric was implicated; and finding that the king had had the address to detach all these powerful parties, he was compelled to desist from the enterprise and to look to his own safety. Deserted by his confederates, we read that "the Earl Gospatric with all the best men fled into Scotland." The king acted with his usual promptitude, appointing to the vacated earldom a Norman knight, Robert Cumyn, distinguished for his energy and resolution. In the month of February 1069 the Northumbrians received the startling intelligence that their new ruler had entered the province, and was approaching the city of Durham. Their first impulse was flight; but this was rendered impracticable by an unprecedentedly heavy fall of snow. Under these circumstances they came to the conclusion that they could only effectually secure themselves by the destruction of Cumyn, and they proceeded to concert measures accordingly. This resolution being known to Egelwine the bishop, he hastily communicated it to the earl, urging him to ward off the danger by an immediate re

The particulars of this conspiracy, and the measures taken by the king, are detailed by Ordericus Vitalis.

† Saxon Chronicle.

mines.

Ordericus calls him Robert de Co

treat. This counsel was treated with contempt, and only tended to increase the insolence and cruelty of the Norman knight and his followers, who, amongst other atrocities, slew several of the vassals on the Church estates.*

On the 27th he entered Durham with a retinue of seven hundred men-at-arms. By daybreak the following morning the city was completely occupied by an immense multitude, who, assembling from all sides, broke open the gates and made themselves masters of the place. Many of the soldiers were butchered in the streets; the remainder, with their leader, perished in the flames by which their quarters were consumed, the mob having set fire to them when they failed to dislodge them by other means. The cathedral, which was adjacent, was in imminent danger, being saved only, according to Symeon, by the interposition of St. Cuthbert and the devout prayers of his people. One only of the intruders escaped with life, and he was wounded.†

Enraged at this open defiance of his authority and the murder of his deputy, the king despatched an officer at the head of a large force to avenge the affront. He was, however, unable to advance beyond Northallerton, where the patron saint is said to have again interfered, and obstructed the prosecution of the expedition by the agency of impenetrable mists.

When, however, the king himself advanced to the north the same year at the head of a large army, the bishop and his clergy resolved to rely no longer on mere spiritual protection, but betook themselves to flight, carrying with them the body of St. Cuthbert to Lindisfern, where they remained till the danger had passed away. Gospatric is accused of having counselled this flight, and then to have taken advantage of the bishop's absence to plunder his church. Warned by a supernatural visitation, we are told that he humbled himself and made restitution; but that the anger of the offended saint pursued him; he was driven from his earldom, and was never restored to his former prosperity.

This northern expedition of William was preceded by the most formidable invasion to which his recently-acquired kingdom had hitherto been exposed.

Sweine, king of Denmark, having been invited by the

* Symeon, Historia Ecclesiæ Dunelm. †This account is from Symeon. Or

dericus mentions two soldiers having escaped out of a total of five hundred.

malcontents in England to attempt the recovery of a country which had during several reigns been enjoyed by his predecessors on the Danish throne, fitted out an immense. expedition, consisting of no less than 240 ships, under the command of his three sons, aided by the counsel of the Earls Osbern and Thorhil. These having entered the Humber were joined by Edgar Atheling, Waltheof earl of Huntingdon and Northampton, the son of the great Siward, and Merlesweyne, also by Earl Gospatric and the men of Northumberland.* Archil, who had been concerned in the projected rebellion of Edwine and Morcar, at which time he is described as the most powerful chieftain in Northumberland, and had made his peace with the king, also joined the insurgents, with Elnoc and the four sons of Carl.† This formidable gathering, like all preceding attempts, was crushed by the indomitable energy and unfailing fortune of William, who advanced northward to the Tees. Here he received the submission of Waltheof in person, and of Gospatric by his deputies, and extended his pardon to both.‡ From the Tees he returned to York by a road hitherto supposed to be inaccessible to an army, especially at a season when the hills were covered with snow. This route is described in our copies of Ordericus as passing by Hexham, which is clearly a mistake, Hexham lying in a completely opposite direction. The place really indicated is Helmsley, through which the direct road lies from the lower district of the Tees to York, over the precipitous heights of the Hambleton Hills. Gospatric, according to one authority,§ is said to have retained his earldom till the year 1072, when it was taken from him on suspicion that he was concerned in the murder of Robert Cumyn, although that event took place previous to the Danish invasion in which he was engaged, and after which he was pardoned.

His successor was Waltheoff, with whose valour, as displayed during the Danish invasion, the king was so much pleased, that he forgave him his disloyalty, and receiving him into favour, gave him his niece Judith in marriage.

Saxon Chronicle.

† Ordericus Vitalis. Ibid.

Historia de Gestis Regum Anglorum, attributed to Symeon of Durham. The statement seems inconsistent with

that before cited from Symeon's undoubted work, the History of the Church of Durham, which places Gospatric's expulsion from the earldom immediately after the flight of Bishop Egelwine to Lindisfern, A.D. 1069.

The alliance was, however, unfortunate. Through his wife's means he was convicted of a conspiracy, of which he appears to have been only passively cognisant, and in which he refused to take any part. His execution, which took place in May 1075, has ever been looked upon as one of the darkest passages in the reign of King William, and his death was lamented as one of the last of the great nobles of the old English stock. Edwine and Morcar had already fallen. The support of the former had been obtained by the Conqueror, who promised him his daughter in marriage. This promise was broken at the instance of some of the Norman courtiers, who represented the alliance as unworthy of the family of so great a sovereign. Edwine, who had secured his brother's acquiescence as well as his own in the new order of things, bitterly felt this indignity, and waited an occasion of revenge. Always timid, however, in his counsels, he allowed favourable opportunities to pass by, and was ultimately assassinated by some of his own followers; whilst his brother Morcar, who had fled to the swamps of the Isle of Ely, was taken prisoner with Egelwine bishop of Durham, and spent the remainder of his life in captivity. It is said, indeed, that a late repentance induced the king on his deathbed to order his liberation; but the order was revoked by his successor, and the earl died in prison. His fellow-captive Egelwine had a less tedious confinement, dying of hardship and distress of mind the year in which he was taken, A.D. 1071.

Walcher, who succeeded him in the bishopric, was also, on the death of Waltheof, advanced to the earldom; thus uniting in his own person the supreme spiritual and temporal dignities of the province. Nor does the selection of this prelate seem to have been an unwise one in either capacity.

CHAPTER V.

BARONY OF ALNWICK.

THE first lord of Alnwick on record after the Conquest is Yvo de Vescy, whose name occurs in a confirmation charter from Henry II. to his grandson William de Vescy. Having no surviving male issue, he was succeeded by Eustace Fitz-John, his daughter's husband, whose name occurs in the same charter, as the father of William de Vescy. This Eustace was justice-itinerant with Walter Espec in the northern counties in the latter part of the reign of Henry I., as appears by the Pipe Roll of the thirty-first year. He had grants from the same king of the barony of Ellingham in Northumberland, late the property of Ralph de Guagi; of Budle, Spindleston, and other manors and lands in the same county; and of the barony of Malton in Yorkshire. He had also large possessions under David king of Scotland and Earl Henry his son, under the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of Durham, Roger de Mowbray, and others. In the beginning of the reign of Stephen he was sheriff of Northumberland, in which capacity he had the custody of Bamburgh Castle. Being suspected of favouring the cause of David king of Scotland, he was deprived of this charge; when he went over to him with all the forces in his power, and rendered up his own castle of Alnwick. He would also have surrendered his castle of Malton; but this was prevented by the vigilance of Stephen's adherents. He was slain in an expedition into Wales in the 3d of Henry II.

William de Vescy had a charter of confirmation of the barony of Alnwick, formerly the property of his grandfather, and of the barony of Malton, and of all other the lands and possessions of his father, which are enumerated