re as follows:--"Eccliae de
Colombeo patronus Abbas Montisburgi pro medietate et percipit duas
garbas de portione sua. Rector percipit terciam cum altalagio. Gulielmus
de Rivers patronus pro alia medietate. Rector percipit omnia."--The two
following inquisitions state in express terms, that the first portion
was under the patronage of the lord.
PLATE XLVIII.
CHAPEL IN THE CASTLE AT CAEN.
The Castle at Caen was built by William the Conqueror, whose son, Henry
I. though commonly reputed its founder, in reality confined himself to
raising the walls and adding the keep, which latter was levelled with
the ground, by virtue of a decree of the National Convention, dated 6th
August, 1793. By the same decree, it was still farther enacted, that the
castle itself should be demolished; but the wisdom of the
representatives of the sovereign people failed in this, as in many other
instances, by not duly appreciating the difficulties attendant upon the
execution of their edict: these proved to be so great, that the workmen
were compelled to desist, when comparatively but little progress had
been made in the work of destruction.
It is expressly stated in the _Norman Chronicle_, that a castle, though
of smaller size, previously existed upon the same spot. In opposition,
however, to this assertion, we are told by Robert Wace, that at the time
when Henry I. of France, in his expedition against the Conqueror, in
1054, advanced with his army as far as the banks of the Seville, he
traversed the town of Caen without resistance: "it being _sans chastel_,
and the Duke not having yet surrounded it with walls." But may not this
apparent contradiction be reconciled, by admitting that the words of the
historian are only to be taken in a comparative sense? It is possible,
that Wace intended to convey no farther meaning than that the town was
not then fortified, as in his time; and such a supposition would cause
every difficulty to vanish.
The Castle, as early as the eleventh century, was placed under the
superintendance of a constable; and the office was, in 1106, made
hereditary in the family of Robert Fitz-Hamon, Lord of Creuly, by whom,
and his heirs, it continued to be held till the closing year of the same
century. Under the reign of the last of the Norman Dukes, the keep had a
governor of its own, distinct from that of the castle; and he was
dignified with the title of _Constable of the Tower of Caen_; but, upon
the reductio
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