400 ROYAL CHARTERS TO WINCHESTER July vicecomitibus et omnibus ministris suis Anglie salutem. Sciatis q[uod] ecclesia beati Swithuni Wint[onie] et Robertus prior et monachi ibidem deo servientes et omnes res et possessiones sue sunt in mea manu et custodia et protectione Et ideo volo et firmiter precipio ut ecclesiam illam et priorem et monachos ipsiiis ecclesie et omnes res et possessiones suas custodiatis et manuteneatis et protegatis ita quod nullam eis iniuriam vel contumeliam faciatis nee fieri permittatis Et siquis super hoc eis in aliquo forisfacere presumpserit sine dilatione eis inde iusticiam faciatis T. G[aufrido] Arch[idiacono] apud Wudestoke. XLIX fo. 21. [1154-78.] H[enricus] rex Angl[ie] et dux Normann[ie] et Aquit[annie] et com[es] Andeg[avie] iusticiariis vicecomitibus et ministris suis de Dorseta salutem. Precipio firmiter quod omnes terre et homines episcopi et monachorum Winton[ie] sint ita liberi et qmeti de sciris et hundredis et placitis et querelis et omnibus geldis et consuetudinibus sicut unquam inde liberiores et quietiores fuerunt tempore regis H. avi mei. Et prohibeo ne quis eis super hoc iniuriam vel contumeliam faciat. T. Ric[ardo] de Hum[eto] constab[ulario] apud Ware[n]g'. Castle Watchmen In dealing with Mr. Lapsley's paper on * The StafE of a Castle in the Twelfth Century '/ I seem to have omitted the watchmen (vigiles), because there was nothing much to be said about them. There is, however, some special evidence on the watchmen of Norwich castle which is worth putting together. Towards the end of the twelfth century Jocelin de Brakelonde mentions the payment of Waite-fe to the watchmen of Norwich castle from land of the abbot of St. Edmund's at Tivetshall (Norfolk). He speaks of it as a prescriptive payment : Est autem quaedam terra in Tiretteshale de feudo abbatis quae reddere solet vigilibus de castello Norwici Waite-fe, id est xx solidos per annum, scilicet quinque solidos in quolibet ieiunio quatuor temporum. Antiqua est haec consuetudo, &c.* Jocelin's editor describes it as * the ancient payment of Waite-fe to the guards of Norwich castle ' ; but it was paid, not to the guards but to the watchmen {vigilibtLs) of the castle. One has to insist on this distinction because the editor of the Red Book, referring to this passage (p. ccxl), writes : Why were not the Castle-ward rents of Rochester also entered here, » Ante, XXXV. 90.
- Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey (ed. Arnold), i. 271.
