the bishops, Martin of Bergen, Eric of Stavangre, Thore of Burgunde,24 and Absalom, being present and assenting thereto. On the same day, when the said S were, the king and priest, was dining in regal state with the bishops and principal men of his kingdom, he caused the head of Siward, the son of Adestan, the former king of Norway, to be cut off, and to be brought before him and his guests, as they sat at table. It is worthy of remark that this Swere Birkebain conquered fifteen kings in fifteen naval battles, and slew them, with all their followers, before he was able to secure the crown ; their names were as follows,—king Magnus, king Borgher, king Siward, king Ordus, king Guthrum, king John Cuvelung, king Belue, king Zether, and six others, with the above Siward, son of Adestan. It also deserves to be known, that it is the custom of the kingdom of Norway to the present day that every one who is known to be the son of any king of Norway, although illegitimate, and the issue of a bondwoman, has equal right to lay claim to the kingdom of Norway with the son of a king legally married, and being the son of a free woman ; the consequence of which is, that there are battles going on between them without ceasing, until one of them is conquered and slain. The same year, a little before the feast of Saint Michael, there came to York, Hamo, prœcentor of the church of York, Geoffrey de Muschamp, archdeacon of Cleveland, and Master William Testard, archdeacon of Nottingham, who had gone to Borne with Master Simon of Apulia, and Ralph, the archdeacon of the West Riding, relative to the injuries which Geoffrey, archbishop of York, had inflicted on them and their fellow-canons, he having excommunicated thorn and all who held communion with them, and, on their appeal to the Supreme Pontiff, laid an interdict on their churches. They also brought with them letters of absolution both from the excommunication and the ' interdict, and letters for the restitution of what had been taken from them ; undertaking the execution of which at the mandate of pope Celestinus, Hugh, bishop of Durham, came to York, and on Saint Michael's day celebrated mass in the mother church there, declaring before the clergy and the people, that the sentence which Geoffrey, archbishop of York, had pronounced upon his canons and those holding communion with them was null and void. 5 1 Perhaps meaning Alborg.