Λ ο. 1069. NORMANS SLAIN AT DURHAM. 141 mission of king Malcolm, passed the -winter there. On this, king William came with his army to Nottingham, and having strengthened the castle, proceeded to York, and fortifying the two castles there, placed in them five hundred soldiers, giving orders for the castles to be strengthened in the city of Lincoln and other places. While these things were going on, the sons of king Harold, Godwin and Edmund the Great, returning from Ireland landed in Somersetshire; where being met by Eadnoth, who had been master of the stables33 to king Harold, with some troops, a battle was fought, in which he, with many others, was slain. Having gained the day, they collected considerable spoil in Devonshire and Cornwall, and then returned to Ireland. In the year 1069, being the third year of his reign, king William sent earl Robert Cummin against the Northumbrians of the country north of the Tyne ; for they had all united in one determination, not to submit to the rule of a foreigner, and had resolved either to slay him, or else, all of them, to fall by the edge of the sword. On his approach, Egelwin, bishop of Durham, met him, and warned him to be on his guard against treachery ; but he, thinking that no one dared this, despised the warning, and, entering Durham with a large body of soldiers, allowed his men to act with hostility in all quarters, even to slaying some peasants belonging to the church ; still, he was received by the bishop with all kindness and honor. But the Northumbrians hastening onward aB night, at daybreak broke through the gates with the greatest violence, and slew the foBowers of the earl in every direction, they being quite unprepared for the attack. The contest was waged most fiercely, the soldiers being struck down in the houses and streets, and the combatants attacked the house of the bishop in which the earl was entertained ; but finding that they could not endure the darts of those who defended it, they burned the house together with those who were therein. So great was the multitude of the slain, that nearly every spot in the city was fiBed with blood, and out of seven hundred men only one escaped. This slaughter took place on the fifth day before the calends of February, being the fourth day of the week. 33 " Stallarius." There is some doubt as to the correct meaning of this word