BATH— ITS GENERAL HISTORY FROM THE 

 NORMAN CONQUEST TO THE NINETEENTH 

 CENTURY. 



Austin J. King. 



The Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth 

 Centuries. 



The Norman 'T'HE practical cffcct of the Conquest, as 

 Settlement. regards Bath, was probably not much 



felt during the life of William. 'Gisa, the Bishop of Somerset, 

 was by birth a Belgian, and had not therefore the strong 

 national feeling which made some of the other Bishops so 

 hostile to the invader. He had quarrelled bitterly with 

 Harold, rejoiced at his discomfiture, and looked with favour 

 upon the new order of things. Accordingly, we find that 

 he was not only not deprived, but favoured by the Con- 

 queror, and that additions were made by the King to the 

 possessions of the See. 



Concerning the Benedictine Monastery of Bath during 

 the first years of the Conqueror's reign, there is some little 

 uncertainty ; but, apart from • the suggestion, made on very 

 insufficient grounds, that the uncanonical Archbishop Stigand 

 held for a time the Abbey in commendam, there is no reason 

 to believe in any Norman interference. At all events, in or 

 about 1075, ^Ifsig, an Enghshman, was elected Abbot. 

 Several deeds of enfranchisement of villains or serfs executed 



