438 ANNALS OF HOG Eli DE HOTEDEN. A.D. 1177. in England, and appointed Walter de Ghent, a canon taken from the church of Oseney, the first abbat of that community, and enriched them with great revenues and very fine mansions. In the same year, the same king, having expelled the nuns from the abbey of Ambrosebury,84 for incontinence, and distributed them in more strict charge in other religious houses, gave the abbey of Ambrosebury as a perpetual possession to the abbess and convent of Fontevraud ; and, a convent of nuns being sent over from Fontevraud, Richard, archbishop of Canterbury, introduced them into the abbey of Anibrosebury, on the eleventh day before the calends of June, being the Lord's Day, in the presence of our lord the king, the father, Bartholomew, bishop of Exeter, John, bishop of Norwich, and many others of the clergy and the people. On the same day, and at the same place, the before-named arehbishop of Canterbury consecrated Guido, bishop of Bangor. In this year, Philip, earl of Flanders, sent Robert, the advocate of Bethune, and Boger, eastellan of Courtrai, to our lord Henry, the king of England, the father, to inform him that Louis, king of the Franks, had asked of him the eldest daughter of his brother, Matthew, earl of Boulogne, in marriage for his son Philip, aud the other daughter of the earl of Boulogne for Louis, son of earl Theobald, but that he was determined to give them to no one without his sanction. The said earl also asked the king of England for the money which he had promised to give for the soul of his brother, Matthew, earl of Boulogne, for the purpose of maintaining knights for the defence of the land of Jerusalem. On this, our lord the king made answer to them that the matter would go well, unless, indeed, it stopped short with the earl ; 8 5 and added, that if the earl of Flanders was willing to marry his nieces, the daughters of the earl of Boulogne, according to his wishes and advice, and would give him good assurance of the same, he would then fulfil all his promises, even to a fuller extent than he had made them. And, for the purpose of hearing the earl's answer on the subject, he sent Walter de Coutances, his vice-chancellor, and Ranulph de Glanville, in whose presence the said earl of Flanders made oath that he would marry his said nieces to no person, unless by the advice and consent 81 85 Amesbury. Perhaps in allusion to earl Theobald.