A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



derived from confiscation. And he, of course, also became possessed of 

 all the hunting rights previously exercised in the woodlands and the open 

 stretches comprised within the ' royal hunting-grounds.' 



In making the New Forest, in 1079, William the Conqueror greatly 

 enlarged the extent of the ' royal hunting-grounds ' previously appro- 

 priated by the Saxon and the Danish kings, formed them into a compact 

 block, and applied to their administration certain new forest laws, which 

 were exercised in a way that entailed much oppression upon the 

 villeins forming the rural population locally. The tracts to which the 

 forest laws were made to apply became ' afforested,' and whole manors and 

 villages were altogether included instead of only a portion as formerly. 

 But just as the Norman fraud connected with the supposititious statute of 

 Canute was not suspected for many centuries, so too were the exaggerated 

 versions of the tyranny of William I. in the making of the New Forest 

 accepted for a still longer time as truthful historical statements of what 

 had really taken place. It seems unnecessary to quote at full length these 

 various highly coloured monkish versions of the matter merely for the 

 purpose of immediately showing that they must indeed be exaggerations 

 and misrepresentations of the measures, harsh enough in themselves, 

 which were actually carried out. What Henry of Huntingdon wrote 

 (in Latin) in his history, apparently completed soon after 1135, may be 

 taken as a sample of all these historians, and more especially because it 

 formed the original text upon which many later monkish chroniclers 

 merely rang slight changes : 



He (William the Conqueror) wrung thousands of gold and silver from his most 

 powerful vassals, and harassed his subjects with the toil of building castles for himself. 

 If any one killed a stag or a wild boar his eyes were put out, and no one presumed 

 to complain. But beasts of chase he cherished as if they were his children ; so that to 

 form the hunting-ground of the New Forest he caused churches and villages to be 

 destroyed, and, driving out the people, made it a habitation for deer. 



That no official or unofficial denial of the above exists can easily be 

 explained, seeing that the books then written were neither published nor 

 criticized like works that have appeared since the invention of printing. 



Henry of Huntingdon's version was repeated shortly afterwards by 

 Walter Mapes, chaplain to Henry II., and again by John of Brompton, 

 who wrote in the reign of Edward III. 1 For more than six and a half 



1 The most vituperative of these monkish historians was John of Brompton, who wrote thus 

 (Chronlcon Johannit Bromton, col. 981 of Twysden's Historic Anglican* Scriptures X. Antiqui, 1652) : 



Erat autem iste supradictus rex Willielmus sapiens sed hastutus, locuples sed cupidus, glorio- 

 sus sed fanue deditus, afFabilis quidem et humilis Deo servientibus, sed durus et severus sibi 

 resistentibus : Principes namque et Consules in carcerem posuerat, Episcopos et Abbates posses- 

 sionibus suis privaverat, fratri proprio non pepercerat, nee qui resisteret sibi erat. Potentissimus 

 eciam auri et argenti multa bona ab aliis auferebat. Ad castella construenda solus omnes fatige- 

 bat. Si cervum quis caperet aut aprum, oculos ei evellebat, nee erat qui murmurat : Feras 

 namque tanquam pater earum erat, amavit, Unde in silva venationis quae nunc Nova Foreila 

 vocatur, villas et ecclesias plures eradicari, gentem extirpari et a feris inhabitari fecit ; nam 

 Deus ad exterminium Anglorum praeordinaverat ferocem populum Normannorum quadam przro- 

 gativa szviciei singularis praeminentem, quorum natura est, ut cum hostes sues adeo depresserint 

 quod adicere non possum, ipsi se deprimant, et terras proprias $t substancias suas in vastitatem et 



418 



