II. bishopric, we have no means of accurately tracing his history, CHAP. or explaining the fact of a German Bishop being an English Chancellor we can only conjecture that he was one of the crowd of ecclesiastical adventurers who ranged themselves under the standard which the Pope had blessed when William proclaimed his grand enterprise.* Of his successor we know little but the name, there being BALDRICK. no description added to it to tell us from what country he sprang, or what other office he ever filled; but a charter granted at this time by the Conqueror to the monks of St. Florentius of Andover is witnessed and authenticated by BALDRICK as King's Chancellor.† He was no doubt King's Chaplain, but does not seem to have reached any higher ecclesiastical dignity. Although the custody of the great seal was in those days considered a certain step to a bishopric, premature death or loss of power had disappointed the hopes of this aspirant.‡ Next came HERMAN, with whose origin and history we HERMAN. are well acquainted. He was a Norman by birth, and before the coming in of William he had been promoted to the bishopric of Sherborne. It is a curious consideration, that in the reign of the Confessor there was the most familiar intercourse between England and Normandy; the French language was spoken at his Court §, and many Normans were employed by him. Of these Herman was one of the most favoured, and he is supposed to have assisted in the artifices which his native prince resorted to for the purpose of being designated heir to the crown of England, in derogation of the rights of the true representative of the line of Cerdic, and of the claims of Harold, who aspired to be the founder of a new Saxon *See Spelman, Gloss. 109., where he is stated to have been twice Chancellor. + Inspex. Pat. Ed. 2. p. 2. MS. Lold. Chron. Ser. 1. It is said that the poetical name for a belt or girdle was taken from this Chancellor, who is supposed to have worn one of uncommon magnificence. "Athwart his breast a BALDRICK brave he ware That shined like twinkling stars with stones most precious rare." "A radiant BALDRICK o'er his shoulders tied SPENSER. POPE. But this probably arose from the difficulty of finding any other etymology for the word. § See Thiery's History of the Norman Conquest. II. CHAP. dynasty. Immediately after the battle of Hastings he sent in his adhesion to William, and he steadily supported him in the protracted struggle which took place before the Norman yoke was imposed upon the whole of England. For reasons not explained to us, he wished to remove his episcopal see from Sherborne to Old Sarum, which has been so often talked of as a decayed borough, but which William of Malmesbury describes as being at this time such a wretched place, that " a miserable commerce was carried on there in water." He was gratified in this whim, and his services were farther rewarded with the custody of the great seal. WELSON. W. GIF- under three reigns. His charac ter. He was succeeded by WILLIAM WELSON, who being appointed Bishop of Thetford soon gave up the office of Chancellor, and retired to the discharge of his spiritual duties. † The Conqueror's last Chancellor was WILLIAM GIFFARD, who, though promoted to the rich See of Winchester, eagerly retained the great seal. He was a very dexterous man, who could accommodate himself to the various tastes of persons and times. Though once deprived of office by an unexpected turn of affairs, and for a considerable interval baffled in his schemes for recovering it, he at last contrived to be reinstated; and he was Chancellor under three successive sovereigns. He was not incapable of giving good advice, and of taking the liberal side when it suited his interest. Although he had heartily concurred in the oppression of the Saxons in the early part of William's reign, and had declared that they were to be considered aliens in their native land, and had assisted in the measures for upsetting English law and extirpating the English language, yet, when the two great Earls, Morcar and Edwin, appeared still formidable, and discontent among the natives had become so deep and general as to threaten a dangerous revolt, the Chancellor joined with several other prelates in praying that the conquered people might be emancipated from some of the galling disabilities which had been inflicted upon them, and he induced the Conqueror to restore a few of the laws of the Confessor, which, though II. seemingly of no great importance for the protection of general CHAP. liberty, gave extreme satisfaction by creating the hope of farther concessions. He was associated with Godfrey, Bishop of Constance, the grand Justiciary, in the government of the A. D. 1087. country while the Conqueror was engaged in his last fatal campaign against the French King. death of to William Rufus. When Rufus suddenly presented himself in England, Conduct of announcing his father's death and claiming the crown, Gif- Giffard on fard at first cordially supported him, and gained him the Conqueror. good will of the native English by promises to them of good treatment and of enjoying the licence of hunting in the royal forests. As a reward for his services he was con- Chancellor firmed in the office of Chancellor. This, however, he did not then long hold. It is suspected that, thinking he discovered in the public mind a strong feeling for the rights of primogeniture, and influenced by the promise of still higher promotion from Prince Robert, he was engaged in the abortive conspiracy among the Barons in favour of that unfortunate prince. Whatever might be the cause, the great Dismissed. seal was taken from him, and he was relegated to his see during the remainder of this reign. We take leave of him for the present. BLOET, Rufus. He was succeeded by a man more unscrupulous than him- A. D. 1088. self, ROBERT BLOET, a Norman who, with several brothers, Chancellor had come over with the Conqueror.* He laughed at the con- to William ciliatory policy which had been lately adopted, and keenly abetted the King in all the arbitrary proceedings now resorted to for the purpose of breaking the spirit of the English. Although in high favour, he could not obtain a mitre till he had been Chancellor five years, and then he owed his promotion to a dangerous illness with which the King was visited. The sees of Canterbury and Lincoln had been kept long vacant, that their rich temporalities might swell the royal revenue. The Keeper of the King's Conscience had in vain pointed out to him the impiety of this practice, till his arguments were enforced by a disease which left the royal The family still subsists in Monmouthshire, the name being now spelt Bluet. II. CHAP. spoliator little hope of recovery. Now, for the good of his soul, he bestowed the primacy on Anselm, who afterwards became so famous a champion of the church, and Lincoln was the prize of the Chancellor himself. But there was still much difficulty in getting possession of the see; for no sooner did the penitent monarch become convalescent than his appetite for ecclesiastical property returned in full force, and it was only on the condition of large pecuniary contributions that he would accept the homage of the new bishop." The better to enable him to support these, Bloet himself set up as a wholesale dealer in church preferment, while he was guilty of great extortion in his office of Chancellor; and he became famous above all his predecessors for venality and oppression. Death and character of Bloet. Authors differ as to the circumstances of his end. Some assert that for his crimes he was thrown into prison by the King, where he died; while others circumstantially state that he contrived to keep the King in good humour by large presents; that riding together near Woodstock, the Chancellor fell from his horse in an apoplectic fit; and that being carried into the palace, he presently died, the King lamenting over him. Lord Coke dryly observes of him, "that he lived without love, and died without pity, save of those who thought it pity he lived so long." Yet he is not without admirers; he was of agreeable manners, and he softened censure by an ostentatious disclaimer of principle, so that the world, seeing that he was not so profligate as he pretended to be, gave him credit for some portion of latent honesty. By one writer he is characterised as "a handsome man, well spoken, and of a serene mind." His death happened in 1090. † * "Afterwards repenting himself of such liberality in that he had not kept it longer in his hands towards the inriching of his coffers, he devised a shift how to wipe the bishop's nose of some of his gold, which he performed after this manner. He caused the bishop to be sued, quarelinglie charging him that he had wrongfullie usurped certeine possessions together with the citie of Lincoln, which apperteined to the see of Yorke. Which although it was but a forged cavillation and a shamefull untruth; yet could not the bishop be delivered out of that trouble till he had paid to the king 5000l." Hollinsh. ii. 34. Anglia Sacra, vol. ii. 694. Hunt. De Contemptu Mundi, 698. Spel. Gloss. 109. Or. Jur. 1. Turner's History of England, i. 406. Lives of Chancellors, i. 4. Parkes, 22. CHAP. II. FLAMBARD. The odium which Bloet excited was much softened by his successor, Chancellor FLAMBARD, a monster unredeemed from his vices by any virtue or agreeable quality. His original name was Ranulphus or Ralfe, but he afterwards acquired the nickname of Flambard or "devouring torch," which stuck to him, and by which he is known in history. Of the lowest origin, he reached high station by extreme subtlety and by a combination of all sorts of evil arts. I am sorry to say he is the first practising advocate I read of who was made Chancellor. Having begun his career as a common informer, he took to the practice of the law, and being "a pleader never to be daunted, as unrestrained in his words as in his actions, and equally furious against the meek as the turbulent," he rose to great eminence both in the civil and ecclesiastical courts. Of course he was a priest.† Bred in Normandy, he was familiar with the language as well as the law, now introduced into England. He succeeded in making himself useful to the Ex-chancellor Maurice, Bishop of London, who employed him and introduced him at Court. There he was found a ready and efficient instrument of extortion and tyranny, and he was rapidly promoted. He first acted as chaplain and private secretary to the King; on the disgrace or death of Bloet the great seal was delivered to him. His ingenuity was now sedulously employed in Oppres devising new methods of raising money for his rapacious em- Flambard. ployer. The liberty of hunting was circumscribed by additional penalties; new offences were created to multiply fines; capital punishments were commuted by pecuniary mulets, and a fresh survey of the kingdom was ordered to raise the renders to the Crown of those estates which were alleged to have been underrated in the Record of Domesday, and to discover ancient encroachments on the royal domains. Though a churchman, he openly advised the King to apply the revenues of the church to his own use. So greatly was Rufus • William of Malmesbury. The true maxim was "nullus causidicus nisi clerus.” Hic juvenem fraudulentis stimulationibus inquietavit Regem, incitans ut totius Angliæ reviserat descriptionem, Anglicæque telluris comprobans iteraret partitionem, subditisque reciderit, tam advenis quam indigenis quicquid inveneretur ultra certam dimensionem. Ord. Vital. 678. sions of |