Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/82

Loyalty of Earl Hugh.

Rebellion of Robert of Rhuddlan;

of Roger the Bigod;

of Bishop Geoffrey of Coutances; name carries us back to times that now seem far away.^[1] With Osbern came his son-in-law Bernard of Neufmarché or Newmarch, sister's son to the noble Gulbert of Hugleville, the man who was soon to stamp his memory on the mountain land of Brecheiniog.^[2] From the same border too came the lord of Wigmore, Ralph of Mortemer.^[3] But the treason of the great Earl of the central march was not followed by his northern neighbour. Hugh of Chester clave to the King, while the mightiest of his tenants joined the rebels. For the old Hugh of Grantmesnil raised the standard of revolt in Northhamptonshire, and in Leicestershire, the land of his sheriffdom.^[4] And his rebellion seems to have carried with it that of his nephew the Marquess Robert of Rhuddlan, the terror of the northern Cymry.^[5] Robert thus found himself in arms, not only against his king, but against his immediate and powerful neighbour and lord Earl Hugh. But the tie which bound a man to his mother's brother was perhaps felt to be stronger than duty towards either king or earl. Along with the lords of the British marches stood the guardian of the eastern coast of England against the Dane, Roger the Bigod, father of earls, whose name, fated to be so renowned in later times, appears in the records of these days with a special brand of evil.^[6] And with Odo and William of Durham a third prelate joined in the unrede, a prelate the worthy compeer of Odo, the warrior Geoffrey of Coutances, the bishop who knew better how to marshal mailed knights for the battle than to teach surpliced clerks to chant their psalms in the choir.^[7] He brought with*

1. See N. C. vol. ii. pp. 138, 352.
2. Ib. vol. iii. p. 132; iv. p. 448.
3. Ib. vol. iii. p. 737.
4. Ib. vol. iii. p. 233.
5. Ord. Vit. 666 D. See N. C. vol. iv. pp. 74, 489.
6. See below, p. 36.
7. See his picture in Orderic, 703 B. "Præfatus præsul nobilitate cluebat, magisque peritia militari quam clericali vigebat. Ideoque loricatos milites