nastery, by Ethelwold, and appears to
have been zealous in his duty; he governed the house eleven years, but
in the year 981 he met an untimely death at the instigation of
Elfrida, queen dowager of king Edgar. He was succeeded by Elsin,
Leofric, Leofsin, Wilfric, Thurstan, (the last Saxon abbot, who
surrendered the monastery to the Conqueror in 1071,) Theodwin,
Godfrey, (a monk, as Administrator _ad interim_,) and Simeon, the
ninth abbot, who was a relative of king William, and prior of
Winchester; he recovered for his monastery some of the lands which had
been given to the Normans during the siege of the fen district. This
was the "Camp of Refuge" for all the English who refused submission to
the arbitrary rule of the foreigners, and thus it was the last strong
hold of the Saxons, and cost the Norman king much loss of time, blood,
and treasure, before he obtained possession, which was, however, at
last effected by the treachery of the abbot Thurstan. Simeon, though a
very old man when he was appointed abbot, laid the foundation of a new
church (the present Cathedral) A.D. 1083, as his brother Walkelin,
bishop of Winchester, had done there about four years before; he lived
to the age of one hundred years, and died in 1093; after this a
vacancy of seven years occurred, during which the revenues were
claimed for the use of the king (William II.) after whose death the
work was continued by Richard, the tenth and last abbot, who was
appointed on the accession of Henry I. A.D. 1100, and governed the
monastery seven years, and his church is said by Thomas of Ely[5] to
have been one of the noblest in the kingdom, and a marvel of
architectural skill; and was sufficiently far advanced to allow him to
translate into it on the 17th of October, 1106, the remains of
Etheldreda and her companions and canonized successors, placing them
behind the high altar in the new presbytery, with great pomp and
ceremony. Further progress was made under Herve le Breton, formerly
Bishop of Bangor, who was appointed administrator to the monastery
after the death of Richard.

[Footnote 5: Liber Eliensis, ii.]

Hitherto, spiritual jurisdiction over the Isle of Ely had been claimed
by the Bishop of Lincoln, but Abbot Richard obtained the consent of
the king (Henry I.) to a scheme for converting the abbacy into a
bishopric; and after much negociation, the change was effected in
1109, by the appointment of Herve (then administrator) as the first
Bisho