A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Furness was thrown violently into the conflict 

 which made the whole of Northumbria and 

 Cumbria a battle-ground between the scarcely 

 defined nations. The sympathies of the monks 

 themselves were as much Scottish as English. 

 The Furness historian Jocelin wrote under the 

 patronage of Scottish and Irish prelates the lives of 

 northern saints. Pilgrims from Furness journeyed 

 to their shrines." As late as 12 1 1 an abbot of 

 Furness was consecrated at Melrose by a bishop 

 of Down.^' And when Carlisle was handed over 

 to King David of Scotland, Furness must early 

 have been included in a sphere of influence 

 which embraced the barony of Skipton and the 

 honour of Lancaster itself." The abbey did 

 not share in the peace which the Scottish king 

 gave to more northern parts of England. In 

 the year 1 138, some months before the battle of 

 the Standard, David's nephew, William Fitz 

 Duncan, invaded Yorkshire and cruelly wasted 

 Craven, where his own honour of Skipton lay ; 

 the lands owned there by the abbey of Furness 

 were not spared.*" A few years later the monks 

 suffered from the tyranny of a man whose strange 

 career stands out in history in a light only too 

 fitful and puzzling. Among the earliest disciples 

 of the new abbey was a youth named Wimund. 

 He was of humble birth, but a lad of ready mind 

 and strong memory, of noble presence, and with 

 a latent power of stirring speech. He began his 

 career as a copyist for some monks, and entered 

 the abbey of Furness, where he soon made his 

 mark, and when it was needful to send men to 

 manage the affairs of the abbey in the Isle of 

 Man, Wimund was chosen as leader. He won 

 such favour with the islanders that they begged 

 for him as their bishop, and bishop he became. 

 The exercise of authority revealed his powers of 

 speech and leadership ; his desires and ambitions 

 grew apace. Throwing aside his episcopal 

 duties he collected a host, equipped a fleet, and 

 sailed for the shores of Scotland. For long he 



" Reginald of Durham, Libellus (Surtees Sec), c. Ivi. 

 Jocelin's life of St. Waltheof of Melrose illustrates 

 the intimate connexion between Scottish and English 

 houses of the order ; Acta Sanctorum, Aug. i, esp. 

 26+ E, 276 A. 



" Chron. di Mailros (ed. Stevenson), ill. 



'" John of Hexham, Hist. (ed. Raine), 163; Robert- 

 son, Sco//<2wa' aw^aVr htr Early Kings, 1,223; ^ee 'Poli- 

 tical History,' 185. There was no break in the 

 Scottish occupation of Carlisle from 1136-57. Abbot 

 Peter was entrusted with papal letters to the king 

 of Scots c. 1 14.9 ; Joum. Brit. Arck. Assoc, vi, 4.20. 

 As late as 1 1 74 the abbey received letters of pro- 

 tection from King William of Scotland, Lanes. 

 Pipe R. 314. 



^ Ric. of Hexham, Hist. Reg. Stephani, 82 ; Whi ta- 

 ker. Hist, of Craven, 13. This is interesting for 

 the light it throws on early acquisitions of the 

 abbey in Yorkshire. It was William's daughter 

 Alicia de Rumeli who afterwards gave Borrowdale to 

 the abbey. 



116 



was a terror to the people, and a thorn in the 

 side of King David. David at last handed over 

 to his care the province of which the monastery 

 of Furness was lord. The raids ceased, and 

 Wimund ruled over the scene of his earlier and 

 less worldly life with the power of a king and the- 

 insolence of a bandit. The people rose, with 

 the ready consent of the lords of the district ; 

 and one day, as the warrior followed his host on 

 foot, they burst out upon him. Blinded and 

 mutilated ' pro pace regni Scottorum,' Wimund 

 ended his life at Byland, an object of curiosity to 

 visitors, confident and boastful to the end. 

 'Even then he is said to have exclaimed, that if 

 he had but the eye of a sparrow, his enemies 

 would have small cause to rejoice over their 

 work.' 21 



If we accept William of Newburgh's account 

 of Wimund's youth,** we must date his mission 

 to the Isle of Man soon after 1 1 34, when the 

 important connexion between the abbey and 

 island began. In that year King Olaf granted 

 land in the island for the foundation of a daughter 

 house. The grant had apparently first been 

 made to Rievaulx, but was not acted upon, nor 

 indeed was the abbey founded until a century 

 later.*' In the same charter Olaf gave to the 

 abbey the control of elections to the new 

 bishopric of Sodor and Man ; and this curious 

 privilege was exercised by Furness with papal 

 approval, but with growing opposition until the 



" William of Newburgh, Chron. of Stephen, &c. 

 (Rolls Ser.), i, 73-6. William, who saw him at 

 Byland, brings Wimund into his story before the acces- 

 sion of Malcolm IV in 1 1 5 3 ; his successor as bishop 

 of Man was elected in 1 1 5 2 {Chron. Steph. [Rolls 

 Ser.], iv, 167) ; Mr. Skene tries to identify him with 

 Malcolm Macbeth (Fordun, Chron. Gentis Scotorum, 

 ii, 428-30) ; but since Malcolm was imprisoned for 

 twenty years before I 156 (Robertson, op. cit. i, 

 219-21), and Carlisle was surrendered in 1 1 57, this is 

 obviously impossible. Again, Ailred of Rievaulx, in his 

 account of David, quoted by Fordun (op. cit. i, 242), 

 distinguishes the bishop from Malcolm. There is no 

 need to reject the story altogether, with Beck. 



" Both Robert of Torigni {Chron. [ed. Delisle], i, 

 263) and Roger of Wendover {Flor. Hist. [ed. Engl. 

 Hist. Soc.], ii, 250) seem to identify him with a monk 

 of Savlgny. ' Primus autem ibi fuerat episcopus 

 Winmundus, monachus Saviniensis, sed propter ejus 

 importunitatem privatus fuit oculis et expulsus.' At 

 this time Furness was still Savigniac ; but, on the 

 other hand, the tradition about Wimund's career is by 

 no means easy to understand, and recalls suspiciously 

 the history of Donaldbane. It is impossible to re- 

 concile the Newburgh version with the statement in 

 the Chron. Fontif. Eccl. Ebor. : 'Winmundum quoque 

 Insularum episcopum idem Thomas [d. 1 114] ordi- 

 navit, qui ei professionem scriptam tradidit, quae sic 

 incipit — Ego Winmundus sanctae eccksiae de Schith ' ; 

 Hist. ofCh. of fork (ed. Raine), ii, 372. This state- 

 ment, however, is also opposed to the account of 

 King Olafs creation of a bishopric in 1 134. 



" Chron. Manniae, a. 1134 ; Ccucher, 11, 594. 



