d all good at Peterborough. He was
beloved by all; so that the king gave to St. Peter and him the
abbey at Burton, and that at Coventry, which the Earl Leofric,
who was his uncle, had formerly made; with that of Croyland, and
that of Thorney. He did so much good to the minster of
Peterborough, in gold, and in silver, and in shroud, and in land,
as no other ever did before him, nor any one after him. But now
was Gilden-borough become a wretched borough. The monks then
chose for abbot Provost Brand, because he was a very good man,
and very wise; and sent him to Edgar Etheling, for that the
land-folk supposed that he should be king: and the etheling
received him gladly. When King William heard say that, he was
very wroth, and said that the abbot had renounced him: but good
men went between them, and reconciled them; because the abbot was
a good man. He gave the king forty marks of gold for his
reconciliation; and he lived but a little while after--only
three years. Afterwards came all wretchedness and all evil to
the minster. God have mercy on it!

((A.D. 1066. This year died King Edward, and Harold the earl
succeeded to the kingdom, and held it forty weeks and one day.
And this year came William, and won England. And in this year
Christ-Church [Canterbury] was burned. And this year appeared a
comet on the fourteenth before the kalends of May.))

((A.D. 1066. ...And then he [Tosty] went thence, and did harm
everywhere by the sea-coast where he could land, as far as
Sandwich. Then was it made known to King Harold, who was in
London, that Tosty his brother was come to Sandwich. Then
gathered he so great a ship-force, and also a land force, as no
king here in the land had before gathered, because it had been
soothly said unto him, that William the earl from Normandy, King
Edward's kinsman, would come hither and subdue this land: all as
it afterwards happened. When Tosty learned that King Harold was
on his way to Sandwich, then went he from Sandwich, and took some
of the boatmen with him, some willingly and some unwillingly; and
went then north into Humber, and there ravaged in Lindsey, and
there slew many good men. When Edwin the earl and Morcar the
earl understood that, then came they thither, and drove him out
of the land. And he went then to Scotland: and the king of Scots
protected him, and assisted him with provisions; and he there
abode all the summer. Then came King Harold to Sandwich, and
there