Page:The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Giles).djvu/209

A. D. 1124. five and twenty other knights, and brought them to the king; and the king caused earl Waleram and Hugh the son of Nervals to be confined in the castle of Rouen, and he pent Hugh of Montfort to England, and caused him to be put in wrong bonds in that of Gloucester, and as many of the others as he thought fit he sent north and south to his castles for confinement. Then the king went on, and won all earl Waleram's castles in Normandy, and all the others which his enemies held against him. All this was on account of the son of Robert earl of Normandy named William. The same William had married the younger daughter of Fulk earl of Anjou, and for this cause the king of France, and all the earls and great men held with him, and said that the king did wrongfully keep his brother Robert in confinement, and that he had unjustly driven his son William out of Normandy. This year there was much unseasonable weather which injured the corn and all fruits in England, so that, between Christmas and Candlemas, one acre's seed of wheat, that is, two seedlips, sold for six shillings, and one of barley, that is, three seedlips, for six shillings, and one acre's seed of oats, being four seedlips, for four shillings. It was thus, because corn was scarce, and the penny was so bad, that the man who had a pound at the market, could hardly, for any thing, pass twelve of these pennies. The same year, the holy bishop of Rochester Ernulf, who had been abbat of Peterborough, died on the Ides of March. After this died Alexander king of Scotland, on the 9th before the Kalends of May, and his brother David, then earl of Northamptonshire, succeeded him, and held at the same time both the kingdom of Scotland and the English earldom. And the pope of Rome called Calixtus died on the 19th before the Kalends of January, and Honorius succeeded to the popedom. The same year, after St. Andrew's day, and before Christmas, Ralph Basset, and the king's thanes held a witenagemot at Huncothoe, in Leicestershire, and there they hanged more thieves than had ever before been executed within so short a time, being in all four and forty men; and they deprived six men of their eyes and certain other members. Many