Page:The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Giles).djvu/202

184 also, the winter being severe and long, it was a very heavy time for the cattle and all things. And soon after Easter the king went over sea, and much treachery was practised, and there was plundering and taking of castles between France and Normandy. The chief cause of enmity was that king Henry aided his nephew earl Theobald de Blois, who was then at war with his lord Louis king of France. This was a very calamitous year, the crops being spoiled by the heavy rains, which came on just before August and lasted till Candlemas. Mast also was so scarce this year that none was to be heard of in all this land, or in Wales: moreover this land and nation were many times sorely oppressed by the taxes which the king raised both within the towns and out of them. This year also the whole of the monastery of Peterborough was burnt, with all the houses, excepting the chapter-house and the dormitory: and the greater part of the town was burnt also. All this happened on a Friday, being the 2nd day before the Nones of August.

A. 1117. All this year king Henry abode in Normandy, because of the war with the king of France and his other neighbours: then in the summer the king of France, and the earl of Flanders with him, entered Normandy with an army and remained in the country one night, and went away again in the morning without fighting. And Normandy was greatly oppressed by taxes and by the levies of troops that king Henry raised to oppose them. This nation also v/as sorely aggrieved in like manner, to wit, by the manifold taxes. This year also there was a violent storm of thunder and lightning, rain and hail, on the night before the Kalends of December; and on the 3rd night before the Ides of December the moon appeared for a long time as it were bloody, and then it was darkened. Also, on the night of the 17th before the Kalends of January the heaven appeared very red, as if it were burning. And on the octave of St. John the Evangelist's day there was a great earthquake in Lombardy, by which many monasteries, towers, and houses were thrown down, and the inhabitants suffered greatly. This was a very bad year for the corn, through the rains which ceased scarcely at all. And Gilbert abbat of Westminster died on the 8th before the Ides of December, and Farit abbat of Abingdon