A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



its non-existence. About two-fifths of the total rental of the county 

 then belonged to the Church. 



It was not until 1093 that the new cathedral church, with its 

 accompanying conventual buildings, was sufficiently completed for con- 

 secration in the presence of nearly all the bishops and abbots of the 

 kingdom. Walkelin was present at the consecration of Battle Abbey in 

 the following year, when the Red King granted him St. Giles fair and all 

 the royal rents in Winchester. But though Walkelin was a great bishop 

 as a builder, and in some respects as a diocesan, his intimacy with Rufus 

 made him a zealous supporter of the royal caprice and a staunch oppo- 

 nent of the saintly Anselm. At the council held at Winchester on 

 15 October, 1097, Walkelin was vehement against the archbishop and 

 his proposed appeal to Rome. ' Walkelin,' says Dean Kitchin, ' does 

 not come out well by the side of this strong hero of the church. 

 Anselm lost all of what was right, and, as his protest against the scandals 

 for the reign, Walkelin was made joint regent with Ranulph Flambard, 

 and became partaker of his iniquities.' 1 Flambard, the king's friend and 

 evil genius, had long made Winchester his home, where he presided 

 over the royal treasury. He was the chief abettor of the king's 

 favourite plans of keeping the preferments of the church vacant and 

 taking the revenue, or else of selling them unblushingly to the highest 

 bidder. When Walkelin died, in 1098, this wealthy and most important 

 see remained unfilled till after the death of Rufus in iioo, whilst the 

 unprincipled Flambard was made Bishop of Durham (1099-1 133). 



When Henry heard of the death of Rufus he hurried to Win- 

 chester, and was elected king by the Witan on the very day of his 

 brother's unhonoured burial. His first act as king-elect was to fill up 

 the vacant see of Winchester by the appointment of William GifFard, a 

 Norman of noble birth, well versed in the court life and statecraft of the 

 day. GifFard was the first Bishop of Winchester who was also chan- 

 cellor of the kingdom, an office that was filled by nine of his successors, 

 this diocese being the most prolific in supplying statesmen of the first 

 rank from among its prelates. 



The king's next step was to recall Anselm. The first important 

 act of the archbishop on his return was closely connected with Hamp- 

 shire. Edith (who afterwards took the name of Maud), the great- 

 granddaughter of Edmund Ironsides, was living in the abbey of Romsey, 

 over which her aunt Christine presided. The king desired to marry 

 Edith, urged thereto by reasons of policy as well as of affection. The 

 abbess warmly protested, asserting that the girl had made her profession 

 as a nun ; this was as warmly denied by Edith, who said that she only 

 occasionally wore a religious habit to pacify her aunt, but when the 

 abbess had left her she would throw it on the ground and trample on it. 

 The matter was referred to Anselm, who frankly accepted the girl's 

 story, and married the royal couple on St. Martin's Day, 1 1 oo, thus 

 uniting the houses of Rolf and Cerdic. 



1 Historic Towns, Winchtster, p. 66. 

 10 



