St. Martin's day, there was so very high a tide, and the damage was so great in consequence, that men remembered not the like to have ever happened before, and the same day was the first of the new moon. And Osmond bishop of Salisbury died during Advent.
A. 1100. This year, at Christmas, king William held his court in Gloucester; and at Easter in Winchester; and at Pentecost in Westminster. And at Pentecost blood was observed gushing from the earth, at a certain town of Berkshire, even as many asserted who declared that they had seen it. And after this, on the morning after Lammas-day, king William was shot with an arrow by his own men, as he was hunting, and he was carried to Winchester and buried there.[1] This was in the thirteenth year from his accession. He was very powerful, and stern over his lands and subjects, and towards all his neighbours, and much to be dreaded, and through the counsels of evil men which were always pleasing to him, and through his own avarice, he was ever vexing the people with armies and with cruel taxes; for in his days all justice sank, and all unrighteousness arose, in the sight of God and the world. He trampled on the church of God, and as to the bishoprics and abbacies, the incumbents of which died in his reign, he either sold them outright, or kept them in his own hands, and set them out to renters; for he desired to be the heir of every one, churchman or layman, so that the day on which he was killed he had in his own hands the archbishopric of Canterbury, the bishoprics of Winchester and Salisbury, and eleven abbacies, all let out to farm, and in fine, however long I may delay mention of it,[2] all that was abominable to God and oppressive to men was common in this island in William's time: and therefore he was hated by almost all his people, and abhorred by God as his end showeth, in that he died in the midst of his unrighteousness, without repentance or any reparation made for his evil deeds. He was slain on a Thursday, and buried the next morning: and after he was buried, the witan who were then near at hand, chose his brother Henry as king,
- ↑ His monument is still to be seen there, a plain gravestone of black marble, of the common shape called "dos d'âne," such as are now frequently seen, though of inferior materials, in the church-yards of villages, and are only one remove from the grassy sod.—Ingram.
- ↑ Ingram renders this, "though I may be tedious."
