484 ROGER OF "WENDOVER. [A .D . 1135. the king was on his death-bed, he disinherited the empress, and made Stephen his successor. Wherefore, on the day of the proto-martyr St. Stephen, the new king received the crown of the kingdom from the hands of William archbishop of Canterbury, at Westminster, amid the acclamations and favour of the people ; and a royal banquet was held with the utmost splendour. The coronation was completed with much magnificence, and when the ceremony of doing homage was finished, king Stephen proceeded to Oxford, where he confirmed the promises which he had made to God, the people, and the holy church, on the day of his coronation, as follows: First, he promised by oath that, when a bishop died, he would not keep the see in his own hands, but he would immediately consent to the canonical election, and invest those elected without delay ; he promised secondly that he would retain in his own hand the woods of no clerk or layman, after the example of king Henry, who had impleaded them every year if they ever took venison in their own woods, or if they turned or used them to supply their own necessities. This kind of impleading was carried to so execrable a length, that if the king's supervisors set eye from a distance on a wood belonging to any one whom they knew to be a moneyed man, they immediately reported waste therein, whether it was so or not, that the owner might be compelled to redeem it undeservedly. Thirdly, he promised that danegelt, i. e., two shillings to be paid on every hide of land, which his ancestors had been accustomed to receive every year, should be given up for ever. These are some specific things, and there were many others of a general nature, which he promised to observe. But he kept none of these promises, though he had made them before God.* • Matthew Paris adds : " The same year, St. Paul's church, London, was consumed by a fire, which began at the bridge, and proceeded as far as the church of the Danes, t On the day when Stephen landed, contrary to the usual course of winter, there was a terrible stroke of thunder over the whole world, and fearful lightning, so that the world seemed about to be reduced to its ancient chaos. King Stephen, in the presence of the archbishop, together with the bishops of Winchester and Salisbury, took possession of the whole of his uncle's treasure, namely a hundred popnds, besides the gold and silver vessels, and his jewels. " A.D. Π 36. The body of king Henry was buried in the royal mausoleum, Τ i. e. St. Clement's Danes.