]
[** Order. Vitalis, p. 512. Chron. de Mailr. p.
116. Hoveden, p. 450. M. Paris, p. 5. Sim. Dunelm. p. 198.]
[*** Order. Vitalis, p. 512.]
[**** Order. Vitalis, p. 513. Hoveden, p. 451.]
[***** Ingulph. p. 71. Chron. Abb. St. Petri de
Burgo, p. 47.]
Edric the Forester, calling in the assistance of the Welsh, laid siege
to Shrewsbury, and made head against Earl Brient and Fitz-Osberne, who
commanded in those quarters.[*] The English, everywhere repenting their
former easy submission, seemed determined to make by concert one great
effort for the recovery of their liberties, and for the expulsion of
their oppressors.
William, undismayed amidst this scene of confusion, assembled. his
forces, and animating them with the prospect of new confiscations
and forfeitures, he marched against the rebels in the north, whom he
regarded as the most formidable, and whose defeat, he knew, would strike
a terror into all the other malecontents. Joining policy to force, he
tried, before his approach, to weaken the enemy, by detaching the Danes
from them; and he engaged Osberne, by large presents, and by offering
him the liberty of plundering the sea-coast, to retire without
committing farther hostilities into Denmark.
Pages:
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403