Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/26

18 county'. To continue the above quotation from p. 17, we are told of this appointment, that 'unluckily no reference is given for this statement, but it is very probable'! Mr. Rye's curious argument fares badly here; for, as William Fitz Osbern left England late in 1070 and was slain at the battle of Cassel early in 1071, even Mr. Rye can hardly claim it as 'very probable' that he was given charge of Norfolk in 1075.

Mr. Rye demands that I should 'give some further and better particulars' of the Chronicle's errors. By all means.

1. The very statement therein which led him to defend its accuracy is itself an instance of its errors. For there is not only no corroboration of its statement that Hubert de Rye (Eudo's brother) was placed in charge of 'the Tower of Norwich' after the flight of Ralph: there is actually evidence as to the garrison (and the commanders of that garrison) left in charge of Norwich Castle after its surrender to the royal forces in 1075. Freeman sets forth, quite accurately, the evidence on both these points, and—unluckily for his critic—it is absolutely certain that Mr. Rye must have been well aware that the historian had done so. For he himself, in another place, actually claims as a

"corroboration of the statement that the Castellanship of Norwich was granted to Hubert de Rye … that Robert Malet, who was one of those who took a leading part in the attack of the castle, when held by Ralph de Guader, was one of those entrusted with the duty of garrisoning it (Freeman's Norman Conquest)."

On verifying this reference, we find that the passage is that which I have already quoted in the text. It seems to be the source of Mr. Rye's anger that Freeman here relies on the well-known chroniclers' statements, as to the strong garrison left