asked forgiveness and offered a ransom. The king let him off lightly until he came to England, when he had him seized. And soon afterwards two hundred ships arrived from Denmark, commanded by two chieftains, Canute the son of Sweyn, and earl Hacco, but they durst not risk a battle with king William, but chose rather to go to York, where they broke into St. Peter's minster, and having taken thence much treasure, went away again. They then crossed over the sea to Flanders, but all who had been concerned in the act perished, namely earl Hacco and many others with him. And the lady Edgitha died at Winchester seven nights before Christmas, and the king caused her to be brought to Westminster with great pomp, and to be laid by her lord king Edward. And the king was at Westminster during Christmas, and there all the Britons who had been at the bridal feast at Norwich were brought to justice; some were blinded, and others banished. Thus were the traitors to William subdued.
1076. This year Sweyn king of Denmark died, and Harold his son succeeded to the kingdom. And the king gave Westminster to Vitalis, who had before been abbat of Bernay.[1] Earl Waltheof was beheaded at Winchester on the mass-day of St. Petronilla,[2] and his body was carried to Croyland, where it now lies. And the king went over sea and led his army into Brittany, and besieged the castle of Dol, and the Britons defended it till the king of France came up, and then William departed, having lost both men and horses and much treasure.
- ↑ Or Berneges. A cell to the abbey of Fescamp, in Normandy.
- ↑ "II. Kal. Jun. or the 31st of May. This notice of St. Petronilla, whose name and existence seem scarcely to have been known to the Latin historians, we owe exclusively to the valuable MS. c. t. b. iv. Yet if ever female saint deserved to be commemorated as a conspicuous example of early piety and Christian zeal, it must be Petronilla. She was no less a person than the daughter of St. Peter himself; who, being solicited to marry a nobleman at Rome of the name of Flaccus, and on her refusal allowed three days to deliberate, after passing the whole time in fasting and prayer, and receiving the sacrament at the hands of Nicomedes the priest expired on the third day! This is no Romish legend of modern growth, for her name appears in the martyrology of Bede, and in the most venerable records of primitive Christianity."—Ingram. And yet, the reader, who shall receive even the existence of Petronilla in any other light that as a fable, must possess a credulity which will enable him to realize all the impostures with which ecclesiastical history abounds.
