POLITICAL HISTORY 



of Norwich, and we know from Domesday that no less than 113 houses 

 were destroyed to provide a site.^ It may be noted here that the Conqueror 

 in 1067 left William FitzOsbern at Norwich^ 'to preside in the place of 

 himself over all the kingdom toward the North.' 



Soon after the Conquest Ralph Guader or Wader, who is said to have 

 been of an English father and Breton mother,** and had commanded a band 

 of Bretons at Hastings, received a grant of the consulate or earldom of the 

 East Angles, viz. of Norfolk, Suffolk, and part of Cambridge, and was in 

 1071 styled 'Earl of Norwich.'* 



Before he attained to this title he had, in April, 1069, repelled the 

 Danes when they came up the Wensum and attacked Norwich.^ In 1075 he 

 married Emma, daughter of William FitzOsbern, earl of Hereford, and of 

 Adeliza, daughter of Roger de Toni. At the banquet following his wedding 

 he conspired ° with Waltheof, earl of Northumberland, his brother-in-law 

 Roger, earl of Hereford, and others, to rebel against the king. The rebellion 

 took place but proved a failure, and Waltheof^ went over to Normandy to 

 plead for pardon. Wader retired to Norwich, whence he took shipping and 

 fled to Brittany, leaving his wife to defend the castle against the king. The 

 lady * held out for some time, but was eventually allowed to withdraw to 

 Brittany with her men. The king' subsequently followed Wader to Brittany 

 and besieged him in his castle of Dol, but was obliged to retreat with heavy 

 loss owing to the advance of the king of France. After the earl's flight 

 Hubert de Rye is said to have been made castellan, but the greater part 

 of Ralph's lands went to enrich the house of Bigod, which succeeded 

 to the earldom some generations later.^° During the siege the city suffered 

 greatly, for Domesday " says of the burgesses that those who had fled to 

 other places and those remaining were altogether wasted, partly through 

 Earl Ralph's forfeiture and partly through tire. Domesday'^ (1086) also 

 mentions that in the New Burgh ^^ (land to the west of the castle carved out 

 of Ralph's demesne and occupied by Frenchmen) there were 36 French 

 burgesses, but at the time of the survey this number was largely increased. 

 On the Conqueror's death in 1087 Roger Bigod, who was then sheriff, at 

 once garrisoned the castle of Norwich in the interests of Robert Curthose, 

 and wasted the city and surrounding country,^* possibly for the purpose of 

 provisioning the castle. For this he would seem to have forfeited his posses- 

 sions here ; for when, in 1091, William Rufus made terms with his brother, 

 one stipulation was that the adherents of Robert should be restored to their 

 lands." 



' See En^/. Hist. Rev. xix, 240, for further particulars as to Norwich Castle, which was always a royal 

 possession, and consequently in the hands of the sheriff. It was never the property of the Bigods. 



^ WiUiam of Poictiers, Gesta, 149. W. FitzOsbern's sphere of authority also included the western 

 marches. 



' Angl.-Zax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 348. * Ordericus Vitalis, Hist. Eccl. (Migne), 332. 



^ Ibid. 35r. 



' Hen. of Hunt. Hist. Angl. 206. William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum (Rolls Ser.), ii, 314. 



' Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 348. « Ibid. 



' Ibid, i, 350. '" Freeman, Hist, of the Normr.n Conq. iv, 591. 



"fol.117^. "fol. 118. 



" For the origin and significance of the new or French Burgh see Hudson, Records of the City of Norwich, i, 

 p. vii, and for its amalgamation with the old Burgh, pp. xvii, xxi, and xxii. 



■' Will, of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum (Rolls Ser.), ii, 361. 



'^ Freeman, op. cit. v, 87. 



469 



