Page:VCH Norfolk 2.djvu/40

A HISTORY OF NORFOLK the boroughs, is concerned with the estates which the king held as his own demesne, and for which the sheriff was doubtless responsible. After the boroughs we have an account of two great escheats, the lands formerly held by Earl Ralf, and those held by Stigand. The former were farmed by Godric ' dapifer,' the latter by William de Noyers. Over the survey of East Anglia, and more especially that of Norfolk, there hangs the shadow of a great catastrophe, the forfeiture of ' Earl Ralf.' ' Although the revolt of the earls in 1075, of which this forfeiture was the fruit, belongs more properly to the section on political history, it may briefly be explained that Ralf, earl of East Anglia, having married in 1075 Emma, sister of Roger earl of Hereford, rose with him against the king, but fleeing from the forces sent against him hurried oversea, leaving his bride to defend Norwich Castle. Although she made a stout defence with the help of her husband's Breton followers, the king's forces prevailed, and Lanfranc wrote to congratulate William on the cleansing of the realm from the filth of the Bretons {spurcitia Britonum), of whom Ralf's mercenaries were expelled at short notice, while those who held land had to leave shortly after them. It is the writer's opinion that the Bretons who are mentioned in Domesday as former holders of fiefs in the county lost them on this occasion. Such were Eudes son of Glamahoc, Wihenoc, and Walter de Dol. Of Earl Ralf himself and of his father and namesake the history is so difficult that Mr. Freeman, who gave to it special attention, changed his view while his work on the history of the Norman Conquest was actually in course of publication.* Eventually he wrote : I believe that I have gradually felt my way to the true history and position of a some- what mysterious person of whom we get glimpses in the reign of Eadward, and who becomes prominent under William ; this is Ralph, called of Gael or of Wader, afterwards earl of Norfolk or of the East Angles. I believe him to have been of English birth, and I therefore have not scrupled to speak of him in the text as an English traitor.' Nevertheless, the evidence is so curiously puzzling that Mr. Freeman, evidently, was still somewhat confused as to who the English traitor was. In his summary,* however, he identifies him absolutely with the younger Ralph : The evidence seems quite distinct. There were two Ralphs in Norfolk, father and son, the younger being the son of a Breton mother. The elder was staller under Eadward and earl under William * . . . there is nothing to show that he was ever dispossessed of his lands or office. But, as we find his son fighting among his mother's countrymen on William's side at Senlac, it is plain that the younger Ralph must have been outlawed either by Eadward or by Harold for some unrecorded treason or other crime, whether for a share in the enterprise of Tostig or for anything else it is hopeless to guess. In his exile he evidently migrated to his mother's country and joined himself to the Breton followers of William. At the battle of Hastings, if Wace can be trusted, E Raol i vint de Gael, E maint Breton de maint chastel, • • • • Chevalcha Raol de Gael ; Bret esteit e Bretons menout. * ' This and the following six paragraphs are contributed by Mr. Round. ' See vol. ill (ist ed.), 752, 753 ; (2nd ed.) 773-776 ; vol. iv, 253, 573, 727. ' Vol. iii (2nd ed.), p. 773. * Vol. iii (2nd ed.), p. 776. ' This seems to be the Ralph of the previous quotation, who is therein described as the English traitor. ^ Roman de Rou, 11. 11,512, 13,627. Gael lay west of Rennes in the extreme west of what is now Ille-et-Vilaine. He is more usually styled ' de Guader' as (by Orderic) when repelling the Danish attack on Norwich in 1069 or in the writer's Calendar of Documents preserved in France (p. 400.) ; de Wader, as by Robert of Torigny ; or de Waer, as in the Norfolk Domesday. 10