DATE OF MEI.r.OURNE PARISH CHURCH. 93 



Melburn." The itinerary of King John, compiled by Sir Thomas 

 Duftus Hardy from the dates of the Charters that King granted, 

 shows that he "lay" at Melbourne on five different occasions in 

 his reign of seventeen years. It appears in the Close Rolls that 

 twice he ordered casks of wine to be sent from Nottingham 

 to Melbourne, but the house at the latter place is not designated, 

 as are his castles at Nottingham, the Peak, and Hareston, in the 

 same orders. It is possible, however, that, as King John kept 

 the Bishopric of Carlisle vacant, and its temporalities in the hands 

 of his own officers, he may have used the Episcopal Rectory 

 House for his own place of abode while at Melbourne. 



The lordship of so important a Manor — the ownership of a 

 considerable estate — the patronage of the Rectory — may have 

 rendered Melbourne a place so considerable amongst the Royal 

 possessions as to cause a Church to be built there of the grandeur 

 we now see, with Royal funds. 



But in what reign was the Church built ? 



Venturing to the extreme limit of conjecture, let it be remarked 

 that King Canute during his reign of twenty years (a.d. ioi6- 

 1036) built churches in England, and founded the Monastery of 

 Bury St. Edmunds. He made a journey to Rome (in the interests 

 of pilgrims from England), in which he might have become familiar 

 with the Rhineland Romanesque churches, and he had for wife 

 Emma, sister of the Duke of Normandy. 



As difficulty may be felt in attributing the building of this 

 Church to so early a king as Canute, it has next to be observed 

 that King Edward (the Confessor) was the son of Emma of Nor- 

 mandy, and resided in that Duchy for many years before his 

 accession in a.d. 1042. The favour shown by him to Normans 

 who resorted to his court was the cause of the insurrection of Earl 

 Godwin and his sons. 



If either Canute or Edward caused a church to be built on 

 his demesne at Melbourne, it would very probably be of this 

 early Romanesque type. 



The peaceful periods in those two reigns are followed by times 

 less settled during the reigns of the two Williams, "the Conqueror" 



