A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



the valley of the Tees. Then dividing his forces, he ordered part to 

 retire the way they came. Hearing of this retirement the inhabitants left 

 their hiding places and were surprised by the remainder of the Scottish 

 army. 16 



The flight of Bishop ^Ethelwin, 1070, gave the Conqueror an opportunity 

 by the appointment of Bishop Walcher of introducing a foreign influence 

 less likely to irritate the Northumbrians than Cumin and his uncontrolled 

 troopers. Walcher's success as an ecclesiastic tempted the Conqueror in 1075 

 on Waltheof 's execution to appoint the bishop as his successor in the earldom 

 of Northumberland. The selection was an unfortunate one, for the saint-like 

 but irresolute bishop was not the man either to rule the turbulent Northum- 

 brians, or to control the officials whom he appointed. Five years elapsed 

 before he met, with his Norman followers, the same fate as Cumin. This 

 event was brought about by a quarrel between Ligulf an Anglo-Saxon 

 noble, and Leobwin chaplain to the bishop and his councillor in matters 

 secular as well as ecclesiastical. Leobwin resented the influence of Ligulf 

 with the bishop, who consulted him in all secular business. Frequent disputes 

 took place between the two, and at last Leobwin, stung by some retort of 

 Ligulf, determined to be revenged on his opponent. He accordingly called 

 to his aid Gilbert, a relation of the bishop and sheriff of the earldom. 

 Gilbert readily assented, and with his own troops and some of those of the 

 bishop and Leobwin, marched by night to the place were Ligulf resided and 

 murdered him and almost all his family. The crime called for immediate retribu- 

 tion, but the bishop temporized. Instead of punishing he merely threatened 

 punishment, protesting that he was not privy to the murder, and retired to 

 his castle at Durham. He arranged a conference with the relatives of Ligulf 

 at Gateshead. On his arrival there the bishop and the principal members of 

 his party retired to the church whilst the friends of the murdered man 

 remained outside. Several overtures were made, but when it became known 

 that, after the murder, the bishop had amicably received Gilbert and his 

 associates all hopes of a compromise were at an end. First the bishop's 

 retainers outside the church were killed and then the church itself was 

 attacked and set fire to. The bishop vainly attempted to appease the infu- 

 riated mob by sacrificing the guilty Gilbert, but was himself slain as he 

 attempted to leave the burning church. 



Immediately after the bishop's murder the insurgents attempted to seize 

 the newly founded castle at Durham, but the garrison defended it with such 

 success that after four days' siege the assailants withdrew, but not without 

 loss. 17 This second revolt was speedily and terribly punished. 



Odo, bishop of Bayeux, at the head of a large force, devasted the whole 

 district, both innocent and guilty suffering alike; ' they reduced nearly the 

 whole land into a wilderness. The miserable inhabitants, who trusting in their 

 innocence had remained in their homes, were either beheaded as criminals or 

 mutilated by the loss of some of their members.' 18 The attempt to combine 

 the ecclesiastical and civil control of the country to the north of the Tees in the 

 person of the bishop was not repeated in the case of Walcher's successor, William 

 of St. Carileph, a man of very different character from his saintly but weak pre- 



16 Simeon, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 90. " Ibid, i, 1 1 6, 208 ; Arch. del. xx, 48. 



ls Simeon, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), i, 1187. 



I 3 6 



