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 to hinder the archbishop from escaping. When the knights went out to arm and post their guards, Reginald compelled one of the Archbishop's men to fasten his armour, and snatched an axe from a carpenter who was engaged on some repairs. While Thomas was being forced by his monks to enter the church, the knights entered the cloister, and Reginald was foremost in bursting into the church, shouting ‘King's men!’ He met the archbishop, and after some words tried to drag him out of the church. Thomas called him ‘pander,’ and said that he ought not to touch him, for he owed him fealty [for the whole story of the murder see ]. After the murder had been done the knights rode to Saltwood, glorying, it is said, in their deed (Becket, iv. 158), though William de Tracy afterwards declared that they were overwhelmed with a sense of their guilt. On the 3lst they proceeded to South Malling, near Lewes, one of the archiepiscopal manors, and there it is said a table cast their armour from off it (ib. ii. 285). They were excommunicated by the pope, and the king advised them to flee into Scotland. There, however, the king and people were for hanging them, so they were forced to return into England (ib. iv. 162). They took shelter in Knaresborough, which belonged to Hugh Morville, and remained there a year (, i. 13). All shunned them and even dogs refused to eat morsels of their meat (ib. p. 14). At last they were forced by hunger and misery to give themselves up to the king. He did not know what to do with them, for as murderers of a priest they were not amenable to lay jurisdiction (, ii. 157;, Epp. ii. 273); so he sent them to the pope, who could inflict no heavier penalty than fasting and banishment to the Holy Land. Before he left Reginald Fitzurse gave half his manor of Williton to his brother and half to the nights of St. John. He and his companions are said to have performed their penance in the ‘Black Mountain’ (various explanations of this name have been given; none are satisfactory; it evidently intended to indicate some place, probably a religious house, near Jerusalem), to have died there, and to have been buried before the door of the Templars' church (, ii, 17). It was believed that all died within three years of the date of their crime. There are some legends about their fate (. Reginald Fitzurse is said to have gone to Ireland and to have there founded the family of McMahon (Fate of Sacrilege, p. 183).



FITZWALTER, (d. 1495). [See .]

FITZWALTER, ROBERT (d. 1235), baronial leader, lord of Dunmow and Baynard's Castle, was the son of Walter Fitzrobert, by his wife Matilda, daughter of Richard de Lucy, the faithful justiciar of Henry II. Walter was the son of Robert, steward of Henry I, to whom the king had granted the lordship of Dunmow and of the honour or soke of Baynard's Castle in the south-west angle of the city of London, both of which had become forfeited to the crown by William Baynard. Robert is generally described as the younger son of Richard Fitzgilbert, founder of the great house of Clare [see, d. 1090?], who certainly had a son of that name (, ii. 344, ed. Le Prévost, Soc. de l'Histoire de France). This genealogy was accepted by Dugdale (Baronage, i. 218), but some doubt has been thrown upon it on chronological grounds by Mr. Eyton (Addit. MS. 31938, f. 98). If it be true, it connects Robert Fitzwalter with the Norman counts of Brionne, descendants of Richard the Fearless, and therefore with the higher ranks of the nobility of the Conquest [see ]. But in any case the house of Fitzwalter belongs properly to the administrative families, who in the latter part of the twelfth century had stepped into the place of the old feudal houses. Its possession of the soke of Baynard's Castle, to which the hereditary office of standard-bearer of the city was annexed, and which grew into an ordinary ward, London, pp. 74-80, Historic Towns Series), brought it into intimate relations with the Londoners. Robert Fitzwalter was himself engaged in trade, and owned wine ships which received special privileges from King John (''Rot. Lit. Pat. i. 73 b.'').

Baron Walter died in 1198, and was buried at Little Dunmow, in the choir of the priory of Austin canons (, Monasticon, vi. 147, ed. Caley). Robert Fitzwalter now succeeded to his estates, being already more than of full age. His mother and father