NORMAN KNIGHTS AND MONKS OF ELY.
After the accession of William the Conquerer, in 1066, some noblemen took refuge in the monastery of Ely, and continued for several years to maintain it, against his jurisdiction. When it was reduced to subjection, he placed a band of Norman knights there, to check its contumacy, and to evince his displeasure. But contrary to his expectation, a vivid friendship sprang up between them and the monks, and when at the expiration of five years they were recalled, the parting was with mutual grief. As an emblem of their continued attachment, the arms of each knight, quartered with those of his favourite monastic friend, were painted on the walls of the banqueting-hall. An engraving of these singular heraldic devices is preserved in Fuller's Church History, from whence this statement is also derived.
They came.—The plumed casque shone bright
In Ely's cloistered bower,
And darkly on each Norman knight
Did monkish visage lower;
Even 'midst the vesper's holy strain
A hatred, ill represt,
Frowned from the cowled and mitred train,
On such unwonted guest.
Years held their course—and friendship's spell,
That sternest hearts controls,
With soft, cementing influence fell
On uncongenial souls.
No more the British friar feared
The mirth of foreign lays,
Nor the gay knight the legend 'jur'd
Of Etheldreda's*[1] praise.
- ↑ * The daughter of the king of East-Anglia, who founded this institution in 673.
