Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/27

Rh men, both free men and husbandmen, living under his rule in Blosseville and Le Mesnil Enard and Neuvillette, and in Lescure and Eauplet, as well as of his own house situate in the city of Rouen, for seven pounds, with the consent of his wife Odain, and their sons William and Hugh. In like manner Ralph de Warren sold for the same sum to the aforesaid abbot the multure of all the men belonging to him in the same villages. The last mention of this baron in the same cartulary occurs in this form, and from it we may infer that he had not been present at the battle of Hastings.

Ea tempestate qua Guillelmus, dux Normannorum egregius, cum classico apparatu ingentique exercitu, Anglorum terram expetiit, quidam miles, nomine Osmundus de Bodes, cum aliis illuc profectus, et langore correptus atque ad extrema perductus, pro animæ suæ remedio, dedit sanctæ Trinitati omnem decimam terræ suæ in alodio, quam domini sui Rodulfi de Warenna tenebat beneficio. Unde et eidem domino suo Rodulfo, ut hoc annueret, xxx solidos dedimus; quod et fecit ante altare Sanctæ Trinitatis.

Signum Rodulfi de Warenna. Signum ejusdem Osmundi. Signum Rodulfi heredis Osmundi. Testes, Alveredus de la Bruere; Goiffredus del Busc; Ricardus de Drincurt; Ilbertus de Longocampo, Bernardus cocus; Robertus pistor.

From these evidences we are able to deduce these facts; that Ralph or Rodulf, son of the bishop, was twice married, and that his two sons were the issue of his first wife, Beatrice, as otherwise they would not have attained sufficient age to have been in arms as early as the year 1055, the exact date of the battle of Mortemer, both according to Ordericus Vitalis, who states it to have occurred in the eighth year after the battle of Val-es-dunes, in 1047, and according to Robert du Mont, who has inserted an account of it in his additions to the chronicle of Sigebert, monk of the abbey of Gemblours in Brabant, under that year. The account of the former writer is put into the discourse, which he attributes to William the Conqueror on his death-bed, in these words; "in time past King Henry (of France) highly incensed against me dispatched a vast army of Franks in two divisions, in order to overwhelm our territories by a double invasion. He himself introduced one phalanx into the diocese of Evreux, in order that he might devastate every thing as far as the river Seine, and entrusted another to Odo his brother, and Reginald de Clermont, and to two counts, Ralph de Montdidier and Guy of Ponthieu, that they might quickly enter Normandy by the fords of the Epte, and lay