[72] I have known, myself, great mistakes in calculation by computing,
as the produce of every day in the year, that of one extraordinary day.

[73] The Bishop of Winchester fined for not putting the king in mind to
give a girdle to the Countess of Albemarle.--Robertus de Vallibus debet
quinque optimos palafredos, ut rex taceret de uxore Henrici Pinel.--The
wife of Hugh do Nevil fined in two hundred hens, that she might lie
with, her husband for one night; another, that he might rise from, his
infirmity; a third, that he might eat.

[74] For some particulars of the condition of the English of this time,
vide Eadmer, p. 110.

[75] Upon occasion of a ward refused in marriage. Wright thinks the
feudal right of marriage not then introduced.




CHAPTER III.

REIGN OF WILLIAM THE SECOND, SURNAMED RUFUS.


[Sidenote: A.D. 1087.]

William had by his queen Matilda three sons, who survived him,--Robert,
William, and Henry. Robert, though in an advanced age at his father's
death, was even then more remarkable for those virtues which make us
entertain hopes of a young man than for that steady prudence which is