:CD ;00 100 •OJ !oo CjD oo /!^ REGESTA WILLELMI CONQUESTORIS ET WILLELMI RUFI 1066-1100 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE BOMBAY HUMPHREY MILFORD M.A. PUBHSHER TO THE UNIVERSITY REGESTA REGUM ANGLO -NORMANNORUM 1066-1154 VOLUME I REGESTA WILLELMI CONQUESTORIS ET WILLELMI RUFI 1066-1100 EDITED VVITH INTRODUCTIONS NOTES AND INDEXES BY H. W. C. DAVIS, M.A. FELLOW AND TUTOR OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD SOiAIETIME FELLOW OF ALL SOULS COLLEGE WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF R J. WHITWELL, B.Litt. OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS M UCCCC XIII 190 J)37 Y.l PREFACE This is the first of three volumes covering the period of the Anglo-Norman kings (1066-1154). The second and third volumes are far advanced, and will shortly be in the press. The object of ^ the series is to give a calendar, chronologically arranged and the of critically annotated, of the royal acts of period, and some cognate documents which are valuable for the historian. The first care of the editor has been to call attention to materials which iUustrate the development of law and institutions. But the interests of the genealogist and the topographer have not been neglected. Pains have been taken to record the names of persons, and the more important names of places, which are mentioned in the docu- ments. The collection includes charters issued in and for Normandy. Norman archives have not been searched for the purpose, since the Norman material is being coUected by Professor Haskins. But it seemed advisable to calendar such Norman charters as have been or are to be found in for of printed EngUsh manuscripts ; many these charters throw useful sideUghts upon EngUsh history. A few letters and charters which do not emanate from the royal or ducal chancery, and which are not even attested by a sovereign, have been added on account of their intrinsic interest. It seemed best, for in to practical purposes, to cast a wide net coUecting materials, and include any documents which were of obvious historical importance. The present volume is the shortest of the three. The charters II few and have of WiUiam I and WiUiam are relatively ; they attracted the curiosity of EngUsh and French scholars from the seventeenth century onwards. StiU there are gleanings of unpub- lished material to be made, even for these reigns. It wiU be found that our appendix contains ninety-two documents, of which most are here edited for the first time. The second volume, containing richer in new the charters of Henry I, wiU be considerably 1 is but tliis is an In tlie pvesenfc volume the order not always strictly chronological ; accident due to tlie fact that certain charters could not be finally dated tillthe whole series was in print. VI PREFACE docunients. The chartei-s of Stephen form a smaller and less third volume will also contain the charters vakiable series ; but the issued by the Empress Matilda and by Henry of Anjou in the years 1135-54. No collection of this kind can boast of being definitive. But this calendar embodies the results of considerable researches among the manuscript sources to be found in the Kecord Office, the British Museum, the Bodleian Library, the muniments of Lincoln, Ely, Canterbury, York, Durham, and Westminster Abbey. From the responsible officials of these coUections the editor has received much and counsel it is not their fault if he or his vahiable information ; helpers have failed to notice relevant documents. Whatever lacunae may be detected in the calendar, he hopes that it will at least sei*ve as a basis for future research. And it may be claimed that, even where the calendar deals with material ah*eady known and printed, it will be found useful as calHng attention to errors of the printed texts, as correcting accepted dates, and as discussing the authenticity of questionable charters. The calendar was planned in 1904 by a group of Oxford mediae- valists, who at that time felt the need of such a guide to assist them in their private researches. The original idea was to make a hand-hst of the documents the interested were printed ; persons each asked to undertake the examination of some definite part of the relevant Hterature. The present editor undertook to direct the work and to co-ordinate the material. But the pressure of other duties prevented all but one of his collaborators from giving regular assistance, after the preliminary stages of the vvork were finished. came to his aid and to their Others, however, ; owing friendly encouragement the scheme developed. He is under obHgations to many scholars for copies of documents, for notices of printed material, and for critical observations. He would in particular ofPer his thanks to Mr. F. of Keble Professor Stenton of Morgan CoUege ; Mr, Craster of ; the Bodleian the Rev. H. E. Salter Reading Library ; of the Oxford Historical Society (who lent most HberaHy from his invaluable store of Messrs. transcripts) ; Crump, Fowler, and Johnson of the PubHc Record Office Mr. the ; K. Bayley, keeper of the Durham muniments ; Dr. Dean of Armitage Robinson, WeUs ; Canon Moore of Dr. R. L. Canterbury ; Poole, the editor of the PREFACE vii Englisli Historical Revietv. Professor Tait of Manchester and Pro- fessor Haskins of Harvard, U.S.A., undertook the thankless work of proof-reading, and gave inestimable help both in pointing out new materials and in criticizing the calendar. Last, but by no means least, Mr. R. J. Whitwell, one of the original band who projected the calendar, has assisted continuously in the search for documents, and has compiled the index of places. It is to be feared that the work, to which so many scholars have contributed, may disappoint their legitimate expectations. The editor can only ask for that degree of indulgence which is due to a labour of love, undertaken in the interests of historical scholarship. H. W. C. DAVIS. ERRATA AND ADDENDA ' ' ' Ciilendar No. 4. For Robert Berhan read Robert Bertran '. ' ' ' Calendar No. 22. For Turstin Abbot [of Glastonbury] read Turstin, Abbot [of Ely] '. ' ' ' Calendar No. 34. For June 27 read May 27 '. ' ' ' Calendar No. 40. For is to hold read is to hand over to the King '. ' ' ' Calendar No. 1.32 )iote. For Cnria Regis read Curia Diicis \ ' ' Calendar No. 149. ' Gonstard in the list of witnesses may be a scribe's error for Con- stant[inensis] '. xxi. Calendar No. 153. This charter is printed also in Iiiq. Com. Cantabrigiensis, p. ' ' ' Calendar No. 183 a. Before Auquainville read of '. Calendar No. 207. A more correct text, with facsimile, in Chevreux and Vernier, Les Archives de Normandie et de ia Seine-Inferieure, No. 7. ' ' ' Calendar No. 2'24. For 1066-8 read 1066-86 '. ' ' ' Calendar No. 309. For Witnesses read Signa '. ' ' ' Calendar No. 439. For hamsoen read hamsocn '. Calendar No. 455. After 'justificatoribus' inseH 'present'. ' ' ' Appendix No. VI. In the translation/or hand to me read hand over to me '. TABLE Or CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE ............ V INTRODUCTION The Old English Chancery, §§ 1-8 xi § 1. Origin. § 2. Duties. §§ 3, 4. Foreign Chaplains. §§ 5-7. Early chan- cellors of the Confessor. § 8. Regenbald the Chancellor. ThE ChANCERY OF WiLLIAM I AND WlLLIAM II, §§ 9-14 XVI § 9. The English Element. §§ 10-12. The Chancellors. §§ 13, 14. The Chaplains. ThE ItINERARY OF WlLLIAM I, § 15 XXI ThE HoUSEHOLD OfFICIALS OF WiLLIAM I AND WlLLIAM II, §§ 16-22 xxii § 16. Stallers. § 17. Dapifers. § 18. Chamberlains. § 19. Constables. § 20. Marshals. § 21. Pincernae. § 22. Dispensers. JusTiCE AND Administration in the Charters, §§ 23-32 . xxviii § 23. Justiciars. § 24. Judges of the Curia Regis. §§ 25-8. Local Adminis- tration : shire-courts, hundred-courts, justiciars ; palatinates ; forest-ofBcials. § 29. Missi Dominici. § 30. Private jurisdictions and fiscal immunities, 31. mints toUs. § Fairs, markets; private boroughs, private ; exemptions from § 32. Ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Plan of the Calendar, § 33 . xxxv Manuscript Sources, § 34 . XXXVl BlBLIOGRAPHY OF PrINTED BOOKS, § 35 . xxxvii Index of Grantees and Beneficiaries, § 36 xli CALENDAR 1 INDEX OF PERSONS 143 INDEX OF PLACES . 155 INTRODUCTION The Old English Chancery. § 1. The "West-Saxon kings of the tenth. century must have maintained a staff of clerks to draft their charters and to make official copies of their ordinances. The charters of Athelstan and his successors are highly technical compositions, framed on a set plan and constantly using stereo- typed formulas.^ That a copy of every new law was transmitted to each shire-moot, we learn from the well-known letter of the Kentish shire- moot to King Athelstan, which acknowledges the receipt of such a com- munication - and it is that hundred-moots and individuals of ; probable local importance were kept in touch with the resolutions of the Witan by such means. For our earliest copies of Old English laws are contained in books which to ecclesiastical foundations and we know of belonged ; one case in which Edgar commanded that many copies of certain enact- ments should be sent to the aldermen of Mercia and East Anglia, to be distributed within their jurisdictions.^ On the Continent, in states of Frankish origin, the secretarial work which such a system of promulga- tion implies was performed by the court chaplains. It is probable that the case was the same in "Wessex, at least from the days of Edward the Elder. His charters are regularly attested by a small number of presbyters, some at least of whom were in regular attendance on his person. These ' ' king's priests have become, by the time of Cnut, a numerous and highly favoured body,* from whose ranks it is usual to nominate bishops and abbots. Upwards of a dozen bishoprics fell to king's priests in the days of Cnut and Edward the Confessor.^ Such rewards to royal chaplains are not without earlier precedents.