His burial at Chester. A crowd came together on the shore; but it was too late; the lord of Rhuddlan was already slain. By this time the invaders were able to put to sea, and the followers of Robert were also able to get their ships together and follow them. They followed in wrath and sorrow, as they saw the head of their chief on the mast.[1] Gruffydd must have felt himself the weaker. He ordered the head to be taken down and cast into the sea. On this the pursuers gave up the chase; they took up the body of the slain Marquess, and, amidst much grief of Normans and English,[2] buried him in Saint Werburh's minster at Chester.[3]
Connexion of Robert with Saint Evroul. We are well pleased to have preserved to us this living piece of personal anecdote, which reminds us for a moment of the deaths of Harold and of Hereward. Its preservation we doubtless owe to the connexion of Robert of Rhuddlan with the house of Saint Evroul. Otherwise we might have known no more of the conqueror of North Wales than we can learn from the entries in Domesday which record his possessions.[4] But Robert, nephew of Hugh of Grantmesnil, had enriched his uncle's foundation with estates in England, and in the city of Chester itself.[5] He was therefore
- ↑ Ord. Vit. 670 D. "Classe parata piratas per mare fugientes persequebantur nimis tristes, dum caput principis sui super malum puppis intuebantur."
- ↑ Ib. 671 A. "Cum nimio luctu Anglorum et Normannorum." This may be well believed. Normans and English soon forgot their own differences in warfare with the Welsh.
- ↑ But Orderic has forgotten his dates when he says, "Nuper illud cœnobium Hugo Cestrensis consul construxerat, eique Ricardus Beccensis monachus abbas præerat." We shall see as we go on that the monks were not planted at Saint Werburh's till 1092 (see N. C. vol. iv. pp. 312, 491). It is now that Orderic speaks of the "belluini cœtus"—we are not told whether they were Norman, English, or Welsh—among whom Abbot Richard had to labour.
- ↑ See N. C. vol. iv. p. 489.
- ↑ His gifts in lands, tithes, and villains, in Normandy and in England, are reckoned up by Orderic, 669 C, D. Among them was "in civitate Cestra ecclesiam sancti Petri de mercato et tres hospites."
