Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/20

12 muddles up two distinct propositions. Finally, although he records, in his preface, his special thanks to the officers of the Guildhall Record Office and the Guildhall Library for 'identifying the London properties of Eudo Dapifer, including 'the church of St. Mary, of West [sic] Cheping in London, called Niewechurch', we may be sure that the two charters '(nos. 246 and 272 )' cited can only 'have a bearing on the East [sic] Cheap property belonging to his father Hubert mentioned before' (p. 46 b) in Mr. Rye's inaccurate mind.

The second part of Mr. Rye's paper is devoted to 'Eudo Dapifer'. 'Having now dealt', he writes, 'with the elder Hubert', he turns to 'the personal history of his son Eudo Dapifer', the founder of St. John's Abbey, Colchester. 'I will now deal, he writes, 'with what we know of the life of Eudo Dapifer.' The most outstanding episode of Eudo's life—though one of which we know from Mr. Rye's 'Chronicle' alone—is the daring step by which, in 1087, he secured for William II the English crown. When the Conqueror was on his death-bed, he accompanied William Rufus, according to this evidence, in his dash for his father's crown. He was, Mr. Rye asserts, 'the instrument of placing William II on the throne'. Such, indeed, is the claim. What corroboration is there of this startling tale? Mr. Rye produces none. The only test that we can apply is afforded by the definite statement that William de Pont de l'Arche was in charge, at the time, of the treasury at Winchester. As there is no corroboration of this statement, Mr. Rye shifts the onus probandi by alleging that Freeman 'affected to doubt the existence of William de Pont de l'Arch and called him a "person I cannot find in Domesday"'. Now it is not the fact that Freeman doubted the 'existence' of William. What he had to deal with here was the Chronicle's statement that, at the Conqueror's death (1087), William held the keys of the treasury at Winchester. He contented himself, therefore, not unreasonably, with pointing out that he could not find William's name in Domesday (1086). Mr. Rye affects to