Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/392

 384 ROYAL CHARTERS TO WINCHESTER July Ulward the monk (who is now dead) for life. This claim, it adds, was upheld by Aelsi, abbot of Ramsey, and the whole hundred.* The natural inference to be drawn from this writ, viz. that the monks had now made good their claim, is apparently contradicted by a charter of 1139-42 by which they expressly resigned all claims upon a * portion of Hayling Island which the church of Jumieges had long possessed '.^ Another puzzling writ (no. 10) is explained by a well-known passage in the Exon Domesday : De his terris [Lydeard St. Lawrence and Angersleigh] semper iacuenmt consuetudines et servitium in Tantone et rex W. concessit istas terras S(ancto) Petro et Walchelino episcopo sicut ipse recognovit apud Saris- buriam audiente episcopo Dunelmensi cui precepit ut hanc ipsam con- cessionem suam in brevibus scriberet.' Stephen's charters * are remarkable for their liberality, and bear witness both to the weakness of his position at his accession and the high value he set upon the support of his brother, to whom already ( 1 136) he owed so much. The Old Minster now recovered the manors of Crowcombe, Meon, and Wergrave, and the lands of Norton, Bradford, and Heal, all of which had been lost prior to the accession of Bishop Walkelin. The authenticity of two of these charters (nos. 34 and 36), at first sight doubtful, is confirmed partly by nos. 37 and 38 and partly by their similarity to other charters of 1136.^ No. 35 on its own merits can hardly be accepted as genuine. The attestations of nos. 34 and 36 raise a point of interest regarding Robert earl of Gloucester. There can be little doubt that they were given at the Easter court of 1136, yet both are witnessed by the earl of Gloucester, who may thus be supposed to have joined the court before its removal to Oxford.* Two writs of Queen Adeliza (nos. 41 and 42) which belong to this year seem to show by their style that she had not yet married William d'Albigni.' A few writs of Henry II are added. They go to prove that he was no whit behind his predecessors in preserving the rights of Winchester, though a hint of the growing centralization is given by the special exemption ' de tota assisa quam per iusticias meas facta est per Angliam '.® Finally attention may be drawn to no. 43, a curiously worded writ if the word * anglicus ' is used ' Domesday Book, fo. 43 b. 15350. Where the two differ, the earlier text has been preferred. From a companson with the charters of Stephen printed in the Cal. of Charter Rolls, it appears that the lists of witnesses in Add. MS. 15350 (which gives more than 29436) are incomplete. » Round, Geoffrey de MandeviUe, pp. 18 and 262. are genuine they support the authenticity of no. 35. ^ These also support nos. 34 and 36. * No. 46.
 * Calendar of Documents preserved in France, no. 157.
 * Exon Domesday, fo. 175 b.
 * Most of Stephen's charters here printed are f oimd both in Add. MSS. 29436 and
 * Ibid. pp. 22-3 ; Cal. of Charter Rolls, iii. 352, nofl. 4 and 5. If these charters