Welsh attacked him, and he fell beneath a shower of arrows; "for none dared personally to approach him with their sword;" and his head was instantly cut off, and taken to their ships, before the soldiers whom his zeal had so far outstripped could come to his rescue. His body was conveyed to the monastery of St. Warburgh, at Chester, and there interred, according to Ordericus, "amid the lamentations of both English and Normans." See Vital. 670 and 671.

There were also several ecclesiastics in the Earl's parliament, who assisted in the deliberations upon spiritual affairs. Their exact number is not known, but most probably it was no less than that of the temporal barons.

First among them was the Bishop of Chester;* and, next in order, the Bishop of Bangor, whose diocese comprehended the Welsh lands conquered by Robert de Rodelent, extending from Chester to the Straits of Menai. The seal of Hervei Episcopi of Bangor is attached to the foundation charter of the monastery of St. Warburgh. The Abbot of Chester is always mentioned as the third spiritual peer; the others following in the order of the foundation of their respective monasteries. They consisted of the Abbot of Norton, founded on the removal of the monks from Runcorn, in the reign of king Stephen, who died in 1134, and that of Combermere, founded in 1130. The foundation of the priory of Birkenhead is more uncertain; but for reasons that will be mentioned in treating of that town, it is probable it was anterior to that of Stanlaw, founded in 1178. To these seven there is added by several writers upon this subject, an eighth, the Abbot of Vale Royal; but this is undoubtedly an error, for it was not until after king Edward I., had become possessed of the estate of Darnhall, that he granted it to the monks of Done Abbey, in Herefordshire, for whom he afterwards built the Abbey of Vale Royal, on the banks of the Weaver; the first stone of which was laid by queen Eleanor, in 1277, though the works were of such magnitude that they were not completed till 1330, a temporary erection having been used in the intermediate time. There is evidence of the ceremonies used at the commencement

of the building of this magnificent Abbey in the Chronicle of Vale Royal, and of the

* Peter, bishop of Lichfield, A. D. 1075, removed his seat from Lichfield to Chester, and was thenceforward commonly styled Bishop of Chester.

Now although the two bishops, in addition to the six abbots, were not all extant at the time of the first Earl, yet before the decease of Ranulph, the second of that name, earl of Chester, they were all, viz. the eight above named, fixed in their pontificalibus. Hemingway's Chester, i. p. 111.

unequalled influx of visitors at its completion, so abundant as to place the date beyond all dispute; yet forty years before one single stone of the edifice had been laid, the Earldom of Chester had fallen into the hands of the king, on the death of John the Scot, eighth and last Earl, in June 1237. It is, therefore, impossible that the Abbot of Vale Royal could have formed one of the Barons' parliament.

At the period of the Conquest, the building of churches and the endowment of religious establishments were considered equal, if not superior, to all other christian virtues, and as such infallibly leading to eternal happiness; and by no class of people was this belief more firmly maintained than the Normans. It will be found that in almost every instance as they saw their end approaching, or were seized with sickness, they appeared desirous to make some commutation for their past crimes. Such appears to have been the conduct of Hugh Lupus. For centuries previous to his acquiring the earldom, an establishment for Nuns is supposed to have existed at Chester, originally founded by Wulpherus, king of the Mercians, in honour of his daughter Warburgh,* who subsequently was canonized as the patron saint of that city. Though her history is involved in great obscurity, and much uncertainty exists as to the Nunnery, there can be little doubt that about the year 870 there was a monastery in Chester, to which her reliques were removed, in order to preserve them from polution by the Danes. Numerous and minute are the traditions and details of the miracles performed at her tomb; the mere mention of one noticed by Henry Bradshaw the monk, in his "Life of St. Warburgh," who therein narrates that an entire army of Welshmen, under Griffyn king of Wales, were struck with blindness, by the exhibition of her shrine on the walls of the city, will be a sufficient excuse for omitting others.

A charter is yet extant from Edgar, dated 959, in which, for the alleged benefit or good health of the souls of his deceased father and uncle, that monarch bequeathed eighteen houses, in various places, to this convent. It was rebuilt by Ethelfleda the Ladye of Mercia, until whose time it had been dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul; but she transferred its patronage to the Virgin Mary and St. Oswald. The Nuns remained in possession of the convent until the reign of Athelstane, when they were dispossessed, and canons secular introduced in their place. These continued until the

* William of Malmesbury distinctly says, "That the Father of Warburgh, perceiving her attachment to a religious life, caused her to take the veil, and built the Convent for her and such other pious Ladies as would join her in dedicating their lives to serving God therein."

He

Earl Hugh, in the sixth year of the reign of William Rufus, expelled them. transferred their possessions to the regular monks of the order of St. Benedict, having invited the celebrated Anselm, then abbot of Bec, from Normandy, to assist him in the foundation. The original charter of Hugh Lupus containing the endowment of this celebrated monastery, is still in existence, in possession of the Marquis of Westminster, at Eaton. The Earl was at this period, 1093, suffering from sickness, the severity of which, it may not be uncharitable to infer, regulated his donations. Magnificent indeed were the endowments he conferred on the abbey; they were followed by donations from numerous benefactors, who were actuated by the religious feeling that then so generally prevailed. Most of the expelled secular canons were appointed regular monks. The nomination of the abbey having been given by Hugh Lupus to Anselm, he appointed Richard, his own chaplain, the first abbot; Anselm being in the same year translated to the archbishopric of Canterbury, where he died in 1105.

The endowments of the abbey were upon a scale commensurate with the munificence exhibited by the Earl in all religious affairs. In the foundation charter referred to, after enumerating fourteen large townships in different parts of the county, various manors in Wales, grants of detached lands, tithes of corn and of fish, mills, fisheries and other properties, given by him, with a number of other endowments from his barons and knights, he permits them to dispose of their bodies and to have sepulture therein, and to give one-third part of their goods, and a similar permission is given to all burgesses and freemen; the toll, and all the profits of the fair at the feast of St. Warburgh, for three days, is also given to the abbot; and he orders that for all forfeitures in the fair, trial shall be had in the court of the Saint, and all such forfeitures and fees be for the benefit of the monks. And he also granted, that whatever thief or malefactor went to the solemnity should not be attacked while he continued there, provided he committed no new offence in the city.

This latter privilege he afterwards greatly extended; for in the devastations attendant upon the war that had ranged throughout his dominions, depopulation was a natural result; and he was anxious to supply that which is not, indeed, the ornament or the splendour, but the positive basis of every state. "Romulus," says the enthusiastic Dr. Gower, "in order to furnish his new city with inhabitants, opened an asylum for the fugitives of all nations. Lupus did the same; but as his territories were much more extensive than even those of the Empress of the world, in her earlier days, he

opened three asylums instead of one: two of them near the confines of Wales, where the addition of every single subject added a double portion of domestic strength; and a third was in the centre of his dominions. Mr. Pennant, in his "Tour" of 1772, says, "About two miles from Chester, we passed over Hoole heath, noted for having been one of the places of reception for strangers established by Hugh Lupus, in order to people his new dominions. This in particular was the asylum allotted for the fugitives of Wales, and in its results it exceeded the warmest expectations of this politic earl. Numbers of the discontented noblesse of my ancient county resorted there, made alliances with the victorious Normans and conquered Saxons, which sublimed the race into that degree of valour, that in after times gave to the men of Cheshire the distinguishing title of chief of men,' and made its land the very seed plot of gentility." In a return to an inquisition ordered by Edward II., relative to Hoole heath, it is certified that "a certain large piece of waste was in ancient times ordained for strangers of what country soever, and assigned to such as came to the peace of the earl of Chester or to his aid, resorting there to form dwellings, but without building any fixed houses by the means of nails or pins, save only booths and tents to dwell in ;" and there are similar returns as to the other two asylums.

6

Hugh Lupus died in 1101, having, it is said, previously become a monk; and his bones were transferred from the burial ground of the monastery to the chapterhouse, by his nephew Randal, the first earl of that name. About a century since a stone coffin was found, having a wolf's head erased, enclosing the remains of a human body wrapped in gilt leather. The crest led many to believe it was the body of Lupus the Wolf; but the initials "R. S." would tend to a different opinion. At the same time were found several other coffins, containing, as it is supposed, the remains of various earls, their countesses, and the ancient abbots; but time had done its office, -they were reduced to indistinguishable dust.

Historians differ much as to the character of earl Lupus; by some he is described as possessing every virtue, by others as exercising every vice. According to Ordericus, in the fourth book of his Eccles. Hist., "He was not abundantly liberal, but profusely prodigal, and carried not so much a family as an army still along with him. He daily wasted his estate; and delighted more in falconers and huntsmen than in the tillers of his lands, or heaven's orators, the ministers. whereby he grew so fat that he could scarcely crawl.

He was much given to eating, He had many natural sons and

P

daughters, but they were almost all swept away by sundry misfortunes." Lib. iv. Lib. iv. p. 522.

The Welsh, probably smarting under the severities he had inflicted upon them, invariably call him Hugh Fras, Hugh the Fat, or Hugh Dirgane, which signifies Hugh the Gross, on account of his great corpulency, which among warlike nations is generally regarded with contempt or aversion. Upon one point all writers agree, namely, his great exertions to consolidate his power, and to increase his enormous wealth and possessions, and in this he was eminently successful. His demesnes in Normandy were very extensive; all the county of Chester, except a small portion belonging to the Bishop, was held by him or his tenants, forty-eight townships being in his own personal possession; and by Doomsday Book he appears to have had lands in no less than nineteen different counties.

That in his early days he was a brave, active, and prudent prince, is clearly authenticated, not only by the choice made of him for so high a station by his politic uncle, the Conqueror, but by the general character of his government; and this is perfectly consistent with his having, toward the close of his life, sunk into a state of criminal and excessive voluptuousness. He must certainly have possessed great strength, for his sword, now in the British Museum, the blade of which is four feet long, is so weighty as to require both hands of a strong man to wield it. In an ancient manuscript poem, quoted in "Willis's Cathedrals," he is described as

"Hugh Lupe by name,

Sunne to the Duke of Brittagne,

Of Chivalric then being flower,

And sister's sunne to William Eonquerour."

During the life of the earl Hugh, Chester carried on a considerable traffic, which is related by many writers, one of whom, LUCIAN a monk, is quoted by Camden as being a rare author, that lived a little after the conquest.' Lucian says, "Chester is built as a city, the site whereof inviteth and allureth the eye; which being situate in the west parts of Britain was in times past a place of receipt to the legions coming afar off to repose themselves, and served sufficiently to keep the keys, as I may say, of Ireland, for the Romans to preserve the limits of their empire; for being opposite to the northeast part of Ireland, it openeth the way for passage of ships and mariners with spread sails, passing, not often but continually, to and fro; as also for the commodities of sundry sorts of merchandize. Which city having four gates, from the four cardinal winds; on the east side hath a prospect toward India; on the west toward Ireland;