A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



advanced to the battle of the Standard, or fled 

 from it through Durham in confusion. A truce 

 was ratified in Durham in the same year, and in 

 1 139 peace was signed in the castle. By this 

 Treaty of Durham the bishopric became for a 

 time an oasis in a Scottish Northumbria, for 

 whilst the Scottish boundary was now to be the 

 Tees, the rights of the territory of St. Cuthbert 

 were respected.'" Then came the clever and 

 unscrupulous attempt of David's Chancellor to 

 annex Durham and the Cuthbertine territory 

 under cover of law.'** Cumin the usurper had 

 laid his plans before the bishop's death, and all 

 was ready when the prelate drew his last breath 

 in the castle. The fortress was betrayed by the 

 dead man's nephew, and most of the bishopric 

 barons declared for Cumin.''* The usurper 

 commenced his turbulent three years' reign in the 

 castle. At first he was affable enough and tried 

 to cajole the monks into acquiescence.*" When 

 at the end of two years a band of them managed 

 to get to York and there to elect a lawful bishop 

 the rage of Cumin knew no bounds. He now 

 showed himself in his true colours as a savage 

 and rapacious tyrant. Within the city the monks 

 who would not swear allegiance were ejected, 

 and the citizens were put to the most cruel 

 torture. Outside, his mercenary troops pillaged 

 in every direction, sallying forth from the castle 

 and returning to it laden with their booty, 

 making it a den of thieves. The misery of the 

 city was intense and its general aspect, says the 

 chronicler,*^ was as if all the tyrants that had 

 injured it at different times had united to do 

 their worst. Every house in the place was visited 

 and the most cruel tortures were invented for 

 those still loyal to the true bishop. Meanwhile 

 the lawful prelate, William of Ste. Barbe, had to 

 fight for his see. He was eagerly joined by a 

 growing band of supporters and took up his posi- 

 tion on the hill-top a mile from castle and cathe- 

 dral, where a suburb had already sprung up 

 round the Church and Hospital of St. Giles. Here 

 fortifications were erected, and the two armies 

 watched each other from neighbouring heights. 

 Il was now that the desolation of the cathedral 

 took place, which has been described for us by 

 one of the monks who was evidently an eye- 

 witness. It was the result of a regular siege of 

 the building where the faithful monks were col- 

 lected together in prayer. Suddenly the soldiers 

 of Cumin burst open the doors, set ladders to the 



" F.C.H.DuT.ii, 139. 



*' The main authority for the usurpation is the 

 continuation of Simeon, which is probably the work of 

 Laurence, who became Prior of Durham. See Simeon 

 of Dur. op. cit. i, 143-60. The poem of Laurence 

 mentioned in the next paragraph was written close to 

 the events of the Cumin episode. 



*' Simeon of Dur. op cit. i, 164. 



»« Ibid. 162. 61 Ibid. 164. 



windows, swarmed in at every point and easily 

 overpowered the very thought of resistance from 

 the unarmed men. The voice of prayer and 

 praise was silenced and so continued until a year 

 and seven weeks had passed. Then a truce 

 brought respite for seven months in all, but no 

 cessation of hostilities. At last in 1144 Earl 

 Henry of Northumberland advanced to ter- 

 minate the situation and to place the true bishop 

 in his see and castle. As he drew near Cumin 

 wreaked his last act of vengeance, burning the 

 suburb of St. Giles which had so recently been 

 the camp of his opponent's forces, and likewise 

 setting fire to the district of Elvet, which, as we 

 have seen, was a peculiar possession of the 

 monks.*^ 



We are fortunate in possessing a curious Latin 

 poem written by Laurence, later Prior of Dur- 

 ham (1149). As chaplain of Bishop Geoffrey 

 Rufus (1133) he lived in the castle, and on the 

 death of his master became precentor of the 

 cathedral, and actually witnessed some of the 

 events of Cumin's usurpation. With much feel- 

 ing he tells the story of those days of blasphemy 

 and rebuke. Incidentally he works into his 

 narrative some description of the city in general, 

 and of the castle in particular. Unfortunately 

 the exigencies of metre make it difficult, some- 

 times, to follow the description given, but the 

 main features are clear enough. He mentions 

 in turgid verse the lofty situation, the horse- 

 shoe bend of the river, the precipitous banks, the 

 impregnable character of the position.*^ To 

 this last feature he recurs.** Palace Green 

 with its opportunities of fun and laughter is 

 there, and the town wall surrounding the penin- 

 sula, and pierced by at least three gates. Special 

 attention is paid by the poet to the castle he knew 

 so well and a rather detailed inventory is given of 

 its parts.** 



Pudsey's long episcopate (1153-95) carried on 

 the work of Flambard, which had been inter- 

 rupted by the anarchy of Stephen's reign. At 

 the outset the new bishop had to face the great 

 ruin of the city, which the reign of William de 

 Ste. Barbe had scarcely begun to repair. More- 

 over at the commencement of Pudsey's con- 

 nexion with Durham a terrible fire seems to 

 have burnt down the northern wing of the castle.*' 

 It is apparently described in two more or less 

 contemporary documents *' from which we 

 gather that it broke out in Silver Street and 

 being fanned by a north wind quickly overleaped 



*- Simeon of Dur. op. cit. i, 159. 



*' Laurence, Dialogi (Surt. Soc), 8. 



*'' Ibid. 27. *'' See below, p. 65."' 



*' Mentioned in Hist. Dunelm. Scriptores Tres (Surt. 

 Soc), 12. 



*' In the Life of St. Godric (Surt. Soc), 182, and in 

 Reginald of Durham, Libellus de admirandis Beati 

 Cuthberti tiirtutibus (Surt. Soc), cap. xxxix. 



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