POLITICAL HISTORY of Norwich, and we know from Domesday that no less than 113 houses were destroyed to provide a site.^ It may be noted here that the Conqueror in 1067 left William FitzOsbern at Norwich^ 'to preside in the place of himself over all the kingdom toward the North.' Soon after the Conquest Ralph Guader or Wader, who is said to have been of an English father and Breton mother,** and had commanded a band of Bretons at Hastings, received a grant of the consulate or earldom of the East Angles, viz. of Norfolk, Suffolk, and part of Cambridge, and was in 1071 styled 'Earl of Norwich.'* Before he attained to this title he had, in April, 1069, repelled the Danes when they came up the Wensum and attacked Norwich.^ In 1075 he married Emma, daughter of William FitzOsbern, earl of Hereford, and of Adeliza, daughter of Roger de Toni. At the banquet following his wedding he conspired ° with Waltheof, earl of Northumberland, his brother-in-law Roger, earl of Hereford, and others, to rebel against the king. The rebellion took place but proved a failure, and Waltheof^ went over to Normandy to plead for pardon. Wader retired to Norwich, whence he took shipping and fled to Brittany, leaving his wife to defend the castle against the king. The lady * held out for some time, but was eventually allowed to withdraw to Brittany with her men. The king' subsequently followed Wader to Brittany and besieged him in his castle of Dol, but was obliged to retreat with heavy loss owing to the advance of the king of France. After the earl's flight Hubert de Rye is said to have been made castellan, but the greater part of Ralph's lands went to enrich the house of Bigod, which succeeded to the earldom some generations later.^° During the siege the city suffered greatly, for Domesday " says of the burgesses that those who had fled to other places and those remaining were altogether wasted, partly through Earl Ralph's forfeiture and partly through tire. Domesday'^ (1086) also mentions that in the New Burgh ^^ (land to the west of the castle carved out of Ralph's demesne and occupied by Frenchmen) there were 36 French burgesses, but at the time of the survey this number was largely increased. On the Conqueror's death in 1087 Roger Bigod, who was then sheriff, at once garrisoned the castle of Norwich in the interests of Robert Curthose, and wasted the city and surrounding country,^* possibly for the purpose of provisioning the castle. For this he would seem to have forfeited his posses- sions here ; for when, in 1091, William Rufus made terms with his brother, one stipulation was that the adherents of Robert should be restored to their lands." ' See En^/. Hist. Rev. xix, 240, for further particulars as to Norwich Castle, which was always a royal possession, and consequently in the hands of the sheriff. It was never the property of the Bigods. ^ WiUiam of Poictiers, Gesta, 149. W. FitzOsbern's sphere of authority also included the western marches. ' Angl.-Zax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 348. * Ordericus Vitalis, Hist. Eccl. (Migne), 332. ^ Ibid. 35r. ' Hen. of Hunt. Hist. Angl. 206. William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum (Rolls Ser.), ii, 314. ' Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 348. « Ibid. ' Ibid, i, 350. '" Freeman, Hist, of the Normr.n Conq. iv, 591. "fol.117^. "fol. 118. " For the origin and significance of the new or French Burgh see Hudson, Records of the City of Norwich, i, p. vii, and for its amalgamation with the old Burgh, pp. xvii, xxi, and xxii. ■' Will, of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum (Rolls Ser.), ii, 361. '^ Freeman, op. cit. v, 87. 469
