held of St. John of Beverley; in those held by the Bishop of Durham, a part of which had been Earl Morcar's; in Earl Alan's lands in Richmondshire; in the lands of Robert Malet; and in those given to William de Percy,' similar instances will be found. In fact, within the short space of ten years from the conquest, nearly the whole of the lands, not only in Cleveland and the north of Yorkshire, but throughout all England, were forcibly alienated from the old Saxon possessors, and conferred on favourites and companions in arms of the Conqueror.

In order to ascertain the exact value of every man's estate, William commanded a survey to be made by counties, hundreds, towns, and manors, of all the acres of land, meadow, pasture, and wood; also of mills, fisheries, &c.; of socmen, villains, bordars, servants, young cattle, horses, and sheep, in the kingdom; and an account was even taken of what a man owed and what was owing to him.

The result of this inquisitorial survey was recorded in the impiously styled Doomsday Book, or "Book of the Day of Judgment:" King William being supreme governor, and possessing all the lands and lives in England at his absolute command. Of this book, invaluable at the present time as an index to the past, the sole register, indeed, from which judgment was to be given upon the value, tenure, and services of land, it may be necessary to say a few words. For the adjusting of the survey (finally published in 1086-7), certain commissioners, called the king's justiciaries, were appointed. The original uses and consequences of the survey were of the last importance to the monarch, whether it regarded his interest or security. By its completion he obtained an exact knowledge of his newly acquired dominions, and could "readily know," as the historian expresses it," of how much more wool the English flocks might be fleeced." It furnished him with the means of ascertaining the exact military strength of the country, and to distinguish to a hair's breadth what additional number of Norman vassals he might palm upon his distressed subjects. By this means he could regulate the taxes, increase the revenues where insufficient, and to a nicety "apply the screw" to the pockets of the people. By this survey he could fix the proportion of the hateful Danegelt upon each landholder, this tax so detested and abhorred by all classes of Englishmen, the repealing of which had won for Edward the Confessor a large share of popularity. The parties exempted from this latter tax (for William, whilst up to the ears in blood, still made a shew of devotion, and “ gave

multos exhæreditavi; innumeros, maxime in pago Eborensi, fame seu ferro mortificavi."-Thoresby's Duc. Pref. xi. We earnestly trust that his repentance was as sincere as it was necessary.

1 William de Perci held extensive lands in Fyling, Hinderwell, Marske, and Kirkleatham; the Earl of Morton possessed lands at Egton, Seaton, near Hinderwell, Stanghow, Moorsholm, Kilton, Brotton, Skelton, Guisborough, Toccotes, Kirkleatham, Wilton, Lackenby, Eston, Barnaby, Ayton, and Great Broughton; Robert Malet, mentioned above, had property at Guisborough, Normanby, Nunthorp, Pinchinthorpe, Great and Little Ayton, and Marton. In the "Land of the King's Thanes," we find Wilton, Ormesby, Kildale, Marton, and Stokesley. We shall recur to these matters when the towns and villages are described seriatim.

largely to the church") were clergymen of all degrees, barons of exchequer, sheriffs of counties, and collectors of taxes!

But Northumbria did not suffer alone from the grinding oppressions and tyranny of the Normans. As if the Almighty had determined to inflict retribution on this devoted kingdom for its past cruelties and obstinate impiety, He allowed a fresh pestilence to overtake them from their old enemies in the north. Malcolm Can-more (Great-Head) having married the Princess Margaret, sister of Edgar Atheling, the near kinsman of Edward the Confessor, and "a woman," says Sir Walter Scott, "of such a gentle, amiable disposition, that she often prevailed upon her husband, who was a fierce and passionate man," undertook the wild and impracticable scheme of placing his brother-in-law, Edgar, on the throne, and chasing the Normans out of England. Alas! when Harold, the flower of Saxon chivalry, and the loyal patriots of Northumbria, were unable to prevail, was it probable that a few "ragged regiments" of lawless, shirtless Highlanders could overturn the rock-set throne of the Norman ?

Malcolm Canmore had neither forces nor military talent to shake the power of the Normans; but having made the attempt, he directed his arms against his own friends, and the bitterest enemies of the Normans, devastated Yorkshire and Durham from end to end, outstripped the Conqueror in his work of desolation along the Tees and in "the inaccessible angle" of Cleveland, and hurried back into Scotland with all the plunder he could seize, and an immense multitude of prisoners of war!

And now, for the last time in this sad and melancholy panorama of events, we behold gliding before us with slow and solemn motion the warrior-forms of Northumbria's last lights of expiring liberty, Earls Edwin and Morcar. We shall quote the quaint and expressive language of the Saxon chronicle:-" This year (1071) Edwin and Morcar fled away and roamed in the fields and woods. Then went Earl Morcar to Ely by ship, but Earl Edwin was treacherously slain by his own men. Then came Bishop Aylwine and Siward Barn, and many hundred more of them, into Ely. When King William heard that, then ordered he out a naval force and land force, and beset the land all about, and wrought a bridge and went in, and the naval force at the same time on the sea-side. And the outlaws then all surrendered; that was Bishop Aylwine and Earl Morcar, and all that were with him, except Hereward alone and all that would join him, whom he led out triumphantly. And the king took their ships and weapons, and many treasures, and all the men

Ord. Vitalis.

2 Siward Barn appears, from Domesday Book, to have possessed extensive manors in Yorkshire, Warwickshire, Lincolnshire, and Nottinghamshire. I have not been able to ascertain his relationship to Earl Siward. Siward Barn is also mentioned in the Metrical History of England, by Geoffrey Gaimar, MS., R.B.M. vol. iv. chap. 11.

he disposed of as he thought proper.
he died in the beginning of winter."
Ireland, Denmark, and Norway. William now sent a herald to demand Edgar,
denouncing war against Scotland unless he were surrendered up. Malcolm justly
considering it a cruel and faithless breach of hospitality to betray his kinsman, resolved
to suffer any calamity rather than sacrifice Edgar to certain death."

Bishop Aylwine he sent to Abingdon, where
Edgar fled into Scotland, and the rest to

"He wasted

Malcolm therefore continued his ravages with great barbarity. Cleveland, Teesdale, and all the neighbouring parts; burnt several churches, and killed abundance of noblemen." The cruelty of the Scots was excessive. According to the English historians," they ripped up the bellies of women with child, cut the throats of the old men, and tossed young children in the air to receive them on the points of their swords." Gospatric, now earl of Northumbria, in return, made an incursion into Cumberland, where he revenged on the Scots the calamities inflicted on the English; and William, having quieted the revolt in Ely, marched into Scotland, and compelled Malcolm by treaty to do him homage for his crown. William, however, shewed his usual ingratitude towards his friends; Gospatric, who had rendered such important services in the wars, was banished, and Waltheof reinstated in the vacant earldom. At this time, about 1073, many noble English families (among others the Foulis's, Lindsays, Ramsays, &c.) were forced to flee into Scotland to escape the king's cruelty.

Matters being settled in England and Scotland, the king proceeded to visit his kingdom in Normandy. During his absence Ralph de Gauder, a Breton, earl of Suffolk, Roger de Bretevil, earl of Hereford, and other Norman lords, entered into a conspiracy to dethrone the Conqueror, or at least prevent his return to England. They made a splendid entertainment, to which they invited several persons of distinction, and, among the rest, Earl Waltheof. When heated with wine, the object of the meeting was broached by the conspirators, and Waltheof rashly promised to join in the design. In the morning, however, Waltheof saw the full danger of his indiscretion, hastened immediately to the king in Normandy, threw himself at his feet, revealed the whole plot, and received pardon for the present. The conspiracy was forthwith crushed by the king's speedy arrival in England, and all the principal leaders imprisoned, beheaded, or banished. Nor did Waltheof escape. The danger

being over, with his usual perfidy and blood-thirstiness, the king issued orders for the apprehension of that nobleman, who was publicly beheaded at Winchester, May 31, 1075, and ignominiously buried under the scaffold. Afterwards his body was removed to Croyland Abbey, where he was accounted by the people a true martyr, 1 Sax. Chron. Ing. pp. 276, 277. 2 Buchanan, p. 216, English edit. folio.

3 S. Dunelm, p. 200; Brompton, p. 966.

4 The government was certainly due to him both on the father's and mother's side, being son of Earl Siward by Elfreda, daughter of Earl Aldred. S. Dunelm, p. 205.

and many miracles were supposed to be worked at his shrine. All the historians unanimously upbraid William for the murder of Waltheof, inasmuch as he beheaded him for an offence which he had already pardoned. But it was part of his character to sweep away all obstacles which interfered with his boundless ambition; and no man who rose to eminence, or exhibited an independent front, ever was pardoned by this selfish and unscrupulous tyrant. To Waltheof alone, of all the English lords, had he shewn the slightest affection. They were bound by the tenderest ties of relationship; in his faithfulness to the king he had even stained the honour of a true knight by the betrayal of his companions and friends (the only unworthy action in a long and distinguished career); and yet, the moment he fell into the monarch's power, the moment a fair plea could be urged against him, this last remaining pillar of Northumbrian liberty was remorselessly sacrificed.

In the year 1079 Malcolm again broke the treaty, during the absence of the king, invaded Northumberland, killed a great many men, carried away multitudes of prisoners, and returned laden with vast spoil.

2

In the May of 1080, Walcher, bishop of Durham and earl of Northumbria, was slain at the porch of his own church in Gateshead, with all his men. William commissioned Odo, bishop of Bayeaux, to revenge this affront, who wasted a great part of Northumbria, killing all those who had any share in the massacre.3

And now Death, which is more omnipotent than all the Alexanders, and Cæsars, and other warlike conquerors, who assist during their life-time to feed his insatiate maw, took up his scythe against the mighty monarch, and called him away to that tribunal where he must answer for all his perfidies, his murders, his multitudinous crimes. On his death-bed he endeavoured to wipe out the black catalogue of his offences by liberating his prisoners (among the rest Earl Morcar); and when he was no longer able to prosecute his tyrannies, lamented bitterly his injustice to the Northumbrians; and having given large sums to the poor, whom he had plundered, and to the church of Mantes, which he had just burnt to the ground, so went to his final account. Such was the end of one of those wholesale murderers whom the world idolizes as heroes; whose entire moral, physical, and intellectual capabilities

1 We refer our readers to a long, valuable, and particularly interesting statement in the original Latin, in the Appendix to the fourth volume of Leland's Itinerary, pp. 146-159. It is headed: "Epitaphium Waldevi comitis, comprehendens summatim vitam et passionem, nec non et quædam miracula ejusdem comitis, editum a Gulielmo monacho Croilando," and is worthy of careful perusal. The vindictiveness of the Conqueror was so violent, that this monk was expelled from Croyland, and Ingulphus (the historian) put in his room. Ingulphus, notwithstanding his obligations to William, has not failed in his History of Croydon to attest numerous miracles wrought at Waltheof's tomb. Such were the superstitions of the age!

2 Sax. Ann. S. Dunelm, p. 210.

3 S. Dunelm, pp. 209, 211; Malmesbury, p. 110.

4 William Rufus was no sooner on the throne, than, fearing their influence with the English, he again seized Earl Morcar and Ulnoth (brother of king Harold), and imprisoned them in the castle of Winchester.

scarcely equal, and rarely surpass, those of the bloodhound; and who, during their brief existence on earth, dare insult God's majesty by defacing his handiwork, and mutilating and massacring by thousands the "express image of HIS person."

The reign of William Rufus, second son of the Conqueror, was ushered in with clouds and storms of ominous portent. Robert de Moubray' earl of Northumbria, with his uncle Geoffrey bishop of Constance, Roger Bigod, Hugh Meynil, William bishop of Durham, Roger Lacy, and many other nobles, entered into a plot, A.D. 1088, to place the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert, on the throne of England. This conspiracy was crushed in the bud, and, from what will be stated afterwards, it would appear Robert de Moubray and the others were pardoned.

In the year 1091, whilst the king was absent in Normandy, Malcolm, whom no treaties could bind, and no laws of honour regulate, made another incursion into Northumbria, destroying multitudes of people, and carrying off a vast amount of plunder. Rufus was dreadfully enraged at these repeated violations of their compact, and, with his brother Robert, returned to England, marched with a large army to Scotland, and, after devastating the country, obtained very advantageous terms from Malcolm, and another treaty.

This treaty, like the rest, was made to be broken. In the year 1093, Malcolm Canmore, for the fifth and last time, brought an army of marauders to ravage Northumberland. This lawless monarch, who for a long period had been the scourge of Northumbria, having proceeded to Alnwick, was suddenly confronted by the gallant Robert de Moubray (the last earl, or governor, of the province), his whole army utterly discomfited, and himself and his son Edward left dead on the field of battle,2 with a large number of the flower of the Scottish nobility.

1 This powerful Norman family resided in baronial pomp and magnificence at Thirsk, where they built a fortress of vast strength. For a second conspiracy, about the year 1095, when taken prisoner at Bamborough Castle, this valiant earl was imprisoned in Windsor Castle. It would appear the family estates reverted to the family, as Roger de Moubray afterwards ranked high with the monarch, and distinguished himself greatly at the Battle of the Standard, near Northallerton. The castle of Thirsk, with that of Northallerton, was finally razed to the ground in the reign of Henry II., A.D. 1176, and Roger de Moubray was further fined 1000 marks for joining in the rebellion of the Prince Henry against his father. The family, however, continued in great eminence for several centuries afterwards, and made a distinguished figure in all the striking events of that period.

2 An affecting story is told by Sir Walter Scott, in his interesting Tales of a Grandfather-tales written for his little grandchild, Hugh Littlejohn, son of J. G. Lockhart, Esq.; and which "children of a larger growth" may read with eminent advantage :-" Queen Margaret of Scotland was extremely ill at the time her husband marched against England. When she was lying on her death-bed, she saw her second son, who had escaped from the fatal battle, approach her bed. How fares it,' said the expiring queen, with your father and with your brother Edward?' The young man stood silent. I conjure you,' she added, 'by the holy cross, and by the duty you owe me, to tell me the truth.' 'Your husband and your son are both slain.' 'The will of God be done!' answered the queen, and expired with expressions of devout resignation to the pleasure of Heaven.