By the Bev. J. E. Jackson. 



29 



the Bishop had in it, but in the passages I quoted before, Wm. of 

 , Malmesbury says that the church which the monks frequented in 



his time was at all events as old as the time of .iElfric, 90 years 



before the Conquest, if not much older. 



King Henry I. had an only son, who was drowned. He wished 

 ; to secure the crown to his daughter, the Countess of Anjou, after- 

 | wards called the Empress Maud, or the Empress. Roger, Bishop 

 I of Sarum had sworn to be faithful to her ; but afterwards, declaring 



that the conditions on which he had sworn were not observed, he 

 ' endeavoured to place Stephen on the throne. Stephen, thinking 



him a dangerous man, shut him up in prison where he died ; and 



took possession of all his castles, among the rest, that of 



Malmesbury. 



Then began the war between Stephen and the Countess of Anjou, 

 j in 1139 ; Stephen holding Malmesbury. In October of that year, 

 one Fitz-Hubert, a cruel and blasphemous partizan on the side of 

 the Countess, clandestinely entered Malmesbury Castle, and burned 

 the houses of the town. Stephen returned and got possession 

 again, restoring the monks (1140). Fitz-Hubert then seized 

 Devizes Castle, and vowed that before he had done he would burn 

 every monastery and monk in Wiltshire; but luckily for the 

 monasteries and monks of Wiltshire, he was taken and hanged at 

 Marlborough. 



The country all round was overrun by troops of both sides. On 

 the Countess's side were two men of notoriety, Milo, Earl of 

 Gloucester, and William of Dover. William of Dover took posses- 

 sion of Cricklade and built a castle there, which was probably 

 Castle Eaton, near Cricklade. The burgesses of Malmesbury, shut 

 up in the town, suffered great inconvenience. They could not 

 even get out to look after their cattle on the King's Heath, for the 

 Earl of Gloucester ran up three forts near the town and determined 

 to starve them all. Where these forts stood, is not quite certain, 

 but there are remains of something of this kind, in a field called 

 Castle Field, and also on Camp Hill, near Burton Hill. The Earl 

 was driven off and went to Tetbury. His party however returned, 

 ittacked Malmesbury once more, and took the governor, Walter de 



I 



