45ί ROGER ΟΥ WENDOVEU. [Λ .η. V22-1 and especially to the guilty. Concerning this change tf fortune, some one thus writes:— '* Thus in a month fierce Falco lost What he had gained by years of strife ; Fate stripped him now of what had cost Man all his former life.'* The wife of the said Falcasit)s came before the king and the archbishop, and said that it was not with lier own consent that she had been married to him; she therefore, as she had been seized by force in time of war. and been married to him without her consent, asked for a divorce from him. The arci ibi shop then appointed a day for her to come to him, that he might in the meantime determine what ought to be done. Fhe king however granted her all her lands and possessions throughout England, and placed her under the eare of Wil liam carl \Yarrennc- The king, for the great labour and expense he had been at, was granted a tax on ploughed land throughout England, namely two marks of silver for each plough; and he granted a scutage to the nobles, namely two marks of sterling money for each scutcheon ; and then they all returned to their homes. The king ordered the castle to he pulled down and reduced to a heap of stones, and gave the houses and all other buildings to William Beauehamp.* * Paris η!1*:—** In the same year the following bishops were consecrated: Master Alexander dc Stavctisby to the see of Chester by his holiness the ]ope at Home, on Kaster-day; and William, nephew of William Hriwere the elder to the ecu of Exeter, and Ralph de Neville to thai of Chichester, hy Stephen archbishop of Canterbury: of these, Ralph bishop of Chichester was the king's chancellor, and in many dangers afterwards he was found faithful and conspicuous in the king's business, and was a tirm pillar of fidelity and truth. About this time there was one Faulkcs de lireaute, a native of Normandy, a bastard by his mother's side, who had lately come on a scurvy horse, with a pad on his back, to inter the king's service, and had fortified I ted ford castle, although on the land of another, when «John had given it to him in the time of the war. This man trusting in his castle, his money, and some friends he had amongst the king's courtiers, nil of which turned tint to be no better than a reed to support him, began to seize on the lands and property of his free men and neighbours; above all he dispossessed, without judgment, thirty-two free men in the manor of Linton of tin r tenements, and appropriated some common 'Histtues to his own use. \ \ hen a complaint on the matter was laid before the king, the latter appointed Henry dc Braibroc and some other justiciaries, to take recognizance of the disseizing of the complainants ; and when after hearing the case and the aforesaid premises which had been