A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



incensed King William. The Conqueror was 

 not reconciled until a payment had been made of 

 forty marks of gold.^ Eventually William con- 

 firmed by charter the election of Brand, and 

 granted the monastery all the privileges it held in 

 the days of the Confessor.* Abbot Brand died 

 on 30 November, 1 069, and was succeeded by 

 Thorold, a Norman, appointed by the Conqueror.' 

 This appointment was the cause of much disaster 

 to the monastery. Gunton says, ' He, being a 

 stranger, neither loved his monastery, nor his 

 convent him.'* He conferred sixty-two hides of 

 church land on certain stipendiary knights that 

 they might defend him against Hereward the 

 Wake. At this time Osbern, a Danish chief or 

 earl, had taken possession of the Isle of Ely. 

 Hereward, indignant that the abbey had been 

 bestowed upon a Norman, stirred up Osbern's 

 forces to attack the monastery. Thorold was 

 then absent at Stamford, but the monks made a 

 strong resistance, and Hereward, to gain access, 

 set fire to houses adjoining the gateway, with the 

 result that the conventual buildings and all the 

 town save one house were destroyed by fire. The 

 abbey church escaped. The riches and relics, 

 together with Prior Athelwold and some of the 

 older monks, were carried off by the raiders to 

 Ely. Athelwold, however, during a carouse of 

 the Danes, managed to secure some of the prin- 

 cipal relics, including the arm of St. Oswald, 

 secreting them in the straw of his bed. A treaty 

 being made between the Conqueror and Sweyn, 

 the Danes leftEly,carrying with them many Peter- 

 borough relics. Some of them were lost at sea, 

 but others were eventually recovered by one of 

 the Peterborough monks who visited Denmark 

 for the purpose. 5 



Thorold returned to his monastery with 140 

 Normans, and strongly fortified it ; nevertheless, 

 he was subsequently taken prisoner by Hereward, 

 and only released on payment of a great ransom." 

 During his thirty-eight years' government of the 

 abbey, Thorold greatly impoverished its resources ; 

 he died in 1098. Hugh tells us that, on the 

 death of Thorold, the monks gave the king 300 

 marks to recover their right of election, and ap- 

 pointed Godric, the brother of Brand, Thorold's 

 predecessor, in 1099.^ The accounts of the brief 

 rule of this abbot are most conflicting. He was 

 certainly deposed, the chronicle of Abbot John 

 says ' in the same year,' ^ while Hugh says that 



1 J.S. Chron. p. 337. 



• Soc. of Antiq. MS. Ix. f. 64. The incidence of 

 the Conquest on the lands of the monastery, as shown 

 by the Domesday Survey, has been fully discussed by 

 Mr. Round, V.C.H. Northnnts, i. 282-4. 



3 Sparke, op. cit. p. 48 ; Abbot John's Chron. 47. 

 ■* Gunton, Hist. 17. 



6 Sparke, op. cit. pp. 49-51. Freeman, Norman 

 Conquest, iv. 335,457-461. 



" Sparke, op. cit. p. 63 ; Gunton, Hist. 17. 



7 Sparke, op. cit. pp. 64-5. 



* Chron. (ed. Sparke), 56. 



he was abbot ' only one year.' ' Both authorities 

 agree that he was deposed by Anselm with 

 several abbots who had been convicted of simony ; 

 that this was also his offence seems improbable 

 from Hugh's reference to him as probum virum, 

 and his statement that he was elected quamvis 

 invitum ; there is the further difficulty that all 

 these depositions, including Godric's, are assigned 

 by the best authorities to the year 1 102.^" 



During this unsettled period robbers broke 

 through a window of the church, over the altar 

 of SS. Philip and James, and stole a great cross of 

 gold studded with gems as well as two chalices 

 with patens and two candlesticks of the same 

 precious metal, the gift of Archbishop Elfric.'* 

 At last, on 21 October, 1103, Henry I 

 filled up the vacancy by appointing Matthias, 

 brother to Geoffrey, the king's justiciary, abbot 

 of Peterborough. Exactly a year from that date 

 he died, and was buried at Gloucester.'* After 

 another long vacancy Ernulf, prior of Canter- 

 bury, was recommended to the monks as their 

 superior by a council held at London in 1 107. 

 Ke ruled strenuously and happily, and in 11 14 

 was consecrated bishop of Rochester.^' John de 

 Siez, originally a monk of S^ez in Normandy — 

 erroneously called by Gunton ' John of Salisbury ' 

 — was the next abbot. The second disastrous 

 fire, which consumed almost the whole monastery, 

 as well as the town, occurred in August, 1 1 16. 

 Hugh gives a vivid account of the disaster. He 

 attributes its origin to Satanic agency, for Abbot 

 John, in his impatience at a servant failing to 

 kindle a fire, exclaimed, 'The Devil take it' [Feni 

 Diabole et inmffla ignem), whereupon the flames 

 instantly shot up to the very roof. During the re- 

 mainder of his abbacy John prosecuted the rebuild- 

 ing of the church and conventual buildings with 

 much diligence. He died of dropsy in 1 125.'* 



At the time of Abbot John's death the number 

 of monks in the abbey was 60. There was, in 

 addition, a considerable household. In the bake- 

 house there were two bakers who had the board 

 allotted to one knight ; also a winnower {vanna- 

 tor), who had the same ; two other bakers, who 

 had daily two white loaves and two brown loaves 

 {Ihsos) with beer ; two carriers {caratores) who 

 had four brown loaves and beer ; and two grin- 

 ders [servantes molantei), who had also the daily 

 supply of four brown loaves and beer. The other 

 food [mixtum) allotted to these nine servants of 

 the bakehouse amounted to 24X. 4.d. a year. In 

 the brewhouse there were six ser\'ants, whose 

 food, in addition to bread and beer, cost 16s. /^d. 

 a year. In the kitchen there was a master and an 



' Sparke, op. cit. 64. 



10 Eadmer, Hist. (Rolls Ser.), 142 ; Will, of Malmes- 

 bur)', Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 119. He is here said 

 not to have been consecrated. 



11 Sparke, op. cit. p. 64. The A.S. Chron. (Rolls 

 Ser. i, 366) gives the date of this robbery as Whitsun- 

 tide, 1 102. 1* Sparke, op. cit. p. 65. 



13 Ibid. pp. 66-8. 1* Ibid. pp. 71-2. 



86 



