of &o*amon&'$ Srabe, 101 



mother. The book tells merely, that King Richard bestowed 

 her hand on his brother Longespe, and with it the vast pos- 

 sessions and the title of the Earl of Salisbury. Longespe was 

 then a youth, just rising into manhood,* and happy was 

 it for the orphan heiress that King Richard gave her to 

 one whom she could love. For it happened not unfre- 

 quently that great heiresses were married to stern men, 

 either that their lands might enrich the younger sons of 

 royalty, or else to repay services that had been rendered 

 the crown. It is generally conjectured, that Richard 

 designed the Lady Ela for his brother from the period of his 

 father's death, when the hostile conduct of her uncle 

 occasioned the young child to be sent away. His faith- 

 ful Talbot sought and found her, most probably by the 

 desire of the king, for he was loyal and experienced, and 

 in none of the minstrel knights whom he admitted as 

 companions to the festive board, did King Richard more 

 unreservedly confide. He was proud, also, to be num- 

 bered among the devoted friends of the youthful 

 Longespe, and in after years his name occurs among 

 the witnesses to several charters given by the earl.f 

 Whether, therefore, he was a friend of Longespe from 

 his days of boyhood, or whether he had earned that 

 friendship by his services in recovering the lovely Ela, cer- 

 tain it is, that neither his friendship nor his services were 

 forgotten, and that when Longespe obtained the honours 



* Book of Lacock. 



t Close Rolls, May 2. Rhymer's Fosdore, 1207. 



