A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



of travellers and pilgrims to St. Albans by 

 repairing W'atling Street and the bridges on it. 

 That the road might be maintained in safety 

 he granted the manor of Flamstead to Turmot, 

 a knight, who with two feUow knights was 

 bound to keep those parts free from thieves and 

 wild beasts. Leofstan died 'immediately after'" 

 Edward the Confessor (5 January 1065-6), 

 leaving the abbey ' overflowing with all good 

 things.' *" 



After, or perhaps a little before, the death of 

 Leofstan the abbey seems to have been seized 

 by that rapacious prelate Stigand, Archbishop 

 of Canterbury,*^ who at this time was obtaining 

 the revenues of many of the larger monasteries. 

 Besides St. Albans he held in this way the 

 abbeys of Winchester, Glastonbury, St. Augus- 

 tine and Ely.*^ They did not, however, remain 

 with him for many months, for Harold seems to 

 have filled the vacancies. To St. Albans he 

 appointed Frederic, who was descended from 

 the old Saxon nobility, and was also a kinsman 

 of King Cnut and a friend of King Edward and 

 of Harold. We know nothing of what hap- 

 pened at St. Albans during Harold's brief reign. 

 William the Conqueror must at once have 

 recognized the abbey as a source of danger. Its 

 great wealth and reputation and the intensely 

 national and aristocratic tendency of its 

 inmates, many of whom were of noble blood, 

 compelled him to lessen its power and influence.® 

 It is clear that he promoted the rivalry between 

 St. Albans and Westminster by conveying to 

 the latter much of the St. Albans property and 

 giving to it lands adjoining those of St. Albans. 

 In this way and by grants to his Norman fol- 

 lowers William impoverished the abbey. Thus 

 St. Albans lost its property in Middlesex, at 

 Flamstead, Studham, Bushey, and probably 

 Aldenham and other places in Hertfordshire.'^ 



Abbot Frederic was openly opposed to 

 U'ilHam, and immediately after the battle of 

 Hastings and the death of Harold he gave the 

 influence of his birth, position and wealth to 

 the English party, headed by Aldred Arch- 

 bishop of York, Earls Edwin and Morcar and 



" ' Cito post ' {Gesta Abbat. i, 41). " Ibid. 



" This may account for the terms of William's 

 charter to St. Albans, whereby the abbey was to hold 

 such liberties in such places as Stigand had on the 

 day King Edward died (Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. 

 i, 33). From this it would appear that Leofstan 

 died before Edward or that Stigand held the abbey 

 before Leofstan died. This theory is confirmed 

 by Domesday, where, under the abbot's manor of 

 Redbourn, it is stated that Stigand held it at the time 

 King Edward died, but he could not alienate it 

 from the abbey, and Napsbury was held by a man 

 of Stigand on the same terms {V.C.H. Herts, i, 



^75. 3I5)- 



" Historiae AngFicanae Scripl. Vet. (Hist. Eliensis, 



c. 41), iii, 5'4- 



" Gtsta Abbat. i, 50. " See under Topography. 



the townsmen of London to place Edgar 

 Etheling on the throne." At that memorable 

 occasion when William was met at Berkhamp- 

 stead by Aldred Archbishop of York, Edgar 

 Ethehng, Edwin and Morcar and all the chief 

 men of London " who submitted to him. 

 Abbot Frederic, according to Matthew Paris, 

 administered the oath " whereby William 

 swore on the relics of St. Alban that he would 

 be a loving lord to them. 



Abbot Frederic appears to have been looked 

 upon as one of the leaders and spokesmen of 

 the English party. A story is told that 

 WiUiam one day taunted the English with being 

 so easily conquered, and the English knights 

 and nobles not being ready with an answer 

 Frederic repUed for them that the king owed 

 the easiness of his conquest to the Church, which, 

 by the gifts of his predecessors, held so much 

 of the land and could not rebel against him. 

 The king made answer that if that was the case 

 he would not be safe from the King of Denmark, 

 or any other who might wage war upon him, 

 and therefore * out of your own mouth I judge 

 you, and I begin with you, resuming the posses- 

 sions with which you are so abundantly supphed, 

 that knights may be provided from them for the 

 defence of the kingdom.' The king thereupon 

 seized all the lands which the abbey held 

 between Barnet and London to a place called 

 ' Londonestone.' •* Whether this story is true 

 or not is uncertain, but there is no doubt that 

 WilUam did seize extensive property of St. 

 Alban in Middlesex. Frederic was evidently 

 the cause of suspicion with William and Arch- 

 bishop Lanfranc, as one of the chief favourers 

 of the EngUsh. It is possible that he was con- 

 nected with the rebellions of Earl Waltheof, 

 Roger Earl of Hereford and Ralph Earl of 

 Norfolk in 1075-6, for Wulfstan Bishop of 

 Worcester, who had taken part against the 

 earls, offered to make peace between him and 

 the king and Lanfranc. The abbot, however, 

 fearing treachery and that he might be im- 

 prisoned or put to death, in 1077 suggested 

 to the chapter that he should flee from his 

 persecutors. By the licence and advice, there- 

 fore, of the convent he fled to the Isle of Ely, 

 where a few days afterwards he was taken ill 

 and died.*' 



AFTER THE CONQtJEST 



A new era was introduced by the appointment as 

 abbot of Lanfranc's kinsman Paul,'" an energetic 



" Gesta Abbat. i, 47. 



** Anglo-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 339. 



" Gesta Abbat. i, 47. 



** Ibid. 49, 50. William of Malmesbury {De 

 Gestis Regum Anghrum [Rolls Ser.], ii, 349-52) 

 mentions Frederic's presence at the council of 1072. 



^ Gesta Abbat. i, 50, 51. 



" Ibid. 51. Some said he was Lanfranc'i son. 



372 



