Gateways to Art Understanding the

Visual Arts 2nd Edition DeWitte Test

Bank
Go to download the full and correct content document:
https://testbankfan.com/product/gateways-to-art-understanding-the-visual-arts-2nd-ed
ition-dewitte-test-bank/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Creative Impulse An Introduction to the Arts 8th

Edition Sporre Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/creative-impulse-an-introduction-
to-the-arts-8th-edition-sporre-test-bank/

Growing Artists Teaching the Arts to Young Children 6th

Edition Koster Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/growing-artists-teaching-the-
arts-to-young-children-6th-edition-koster-test-bank/

Reality Through the Arts 8th Edition Sporre Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/reality-through-the-arts-8th-
edition-sporre-test-bank/

Arts and Culture An Introduction to the Humanities

Combined Volume 4th Edition Benton Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/arts-and-culture-an-introduction-
to-the-humanities-combined-volume-4th-edition-benton-test-bank/
Understanding Art 10th Edition Lois Fichner-Rathus Test
Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/understanding-art-10th-edition-
lois-fichner-rathus-test-bank/

Entrepreneurship The Art Science and Process for

Success 2nd Edition Bamford Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/entrepreneurship-the-art-science-
and-process-for-success-2nd-edition-bamford-test-bank/

Psychology From Inquiry to Understanding Australia 2nd

Edition Lilienfeld Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/psychology-from-inquiry-to-
understanding-australia-2nd-edition-lilienfeld-test-bank/

Psychology From Inquiry to Understanding Canadian 2nd

Edition Lilienfeld Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/psychology-from-inquiry-to-
understanding-canadian-2nd-edition-lilienfeld-test-bank/

Introduction to Psychology Gateways to Mind and

Behavior with Concept Maps and Reviews 13th Edition
Coon Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/introduction-to-psychology-
gateways-to-mind-and-behavior-with-concept-maps-and-reviews-13th-
edition-coon-test-bank/
2.9: Film, Video, and Digital Art

1. Digital filmmaking has taken over as the dominant technology in the film industry.

ANS: F DIF: Level 1 REF: Chapter Opener

2. The difference between film and video is:

a. the way that the images are recorded
b. whether or not the movie has been edited
c. whether or not the movie has financial backing
d. that one records moving images and the other stills
e. that one only works in the dark
ANS: A DIF: Level 2 REF: Chapter Opener

3. The way that images appear to be moving in films and videos is actually an optical illusion.

ANS: T DIF: Level 1 REF: Moving Images before Film

4. The theory that describes the way separate images viewed at regular intervals create the
appearance of continuous motion is called ________.
a. binocular vision d. multi-vision
b. blurred vision e. panoramic vision
c. persistence of vision
ANS: C DIF: Level 1 REF: Moving Images before Film

5. In order for moving images to be invented, motion first had to be frozen in still photographic
images.

ANS: T DIF: Level 1 REF: Moving Images before Film

6. In full gallop, a horse’s legs are ________ when all of them are off the ground.
a. splayed out in front and behind its body
b. crossed
c. underneath its body
d. angled out to the sides
e. a horse never has all of its legs off the ground
ANS: C DIF: Level 1 REF: Moving Images before Film

7. As Eadweard Muybridge’s experiments with motion showed, ________.

a. the camera only captures what is clearly visible to the human eye
b. the human eye cannot perceive anything visible to the camera
c. the camera and the human eye have nothing in common
d. the camera can capture what the human eye cannot see
e. the camera cannot capture moving objects
ANS: D DIF: Level 2 REF: Moving Images before Film

8. The earliest films featured elaborate sets and behind-the-scenes footage.

ANS: F DIF: Level 2 REF: Silent and Black-and-White Film

 9. Movies were being shown all over Europe and the United States as early as ________.
a. 1527 d. 1936
b. 1750 e. 1993
c. 1896
ANS: C DIF: Level 1 REF: Silent and Black-and-White Film

10. Georges Méliès’s film A Trip to the Moon is known for being:
a. one of the first films to show a progression of time
b. one of the first films to change location in various scenes
c. a fictional account of astronomers launching their rocket from a cannon
d. a silent film known for trick effects and humor
e. all of the other answers
ANS: E DIF: Level 2 REF: Silent and Black-and-White Film

11. D. W. Griffith’s film Birth of a Nation employed innovative techniques and was used as a
propaganda tool by ________.
a. the Transatlantic Railroad d. the US president
b. Ellis Island e. none of the other answers
c. the Ku Klux Klan
ANS: C DIF: Level 1 REF: Silent and Black-and-White Film

12. Amongst the innovative aspects of Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane are:
a. dramatic lighting, innovative editing, and natural sound
b. elaborate sets and moving camera shots
c. fabricated newspaper headlines and character flashbacks
d. deep focus and low camera angles
e. all of the other answers
ANS: E DIF: Level 1 REF: Silent and Black-and-White Film

13. One of the first popular films to use color imagery was ________.
a. A Trip to the Moon d. Citizen Kane
b. The Wizard of Oz e. Star Wars
c. Singin’ in the Rain
ANS: B DIF: Level 1 REF: Sound and Color

14. How are the locations in The Wizard of Oz distinguished?

a. Kansas is shown in color and the Land of Oz is in black and white
b. Kansas is shown in black and white and the Land of Oz is in color
c. Kansas and the Land of Oz are both in black and white
d. Kansas and the Land of Oz are both in color
e. none of the other answers
ANS: B DIF: Level 1 REF: Sound and Color

15. One of the first popular films to use synchronized sound was ________.
a. A Trip to the Moon d. Citizen Kane
b. The Wizard of Oz e. Star Wars
c. Singin’ in the Rain
ANS: C DIF: Level 1 REF: Sound and Color
16. The film The Artist, released in 2011, comments on “the good old days” of the film industry by
using ________.
a. aliens and CGI d. silence and black and white
b. comedians and a war setting e. none of the other answers
c. abstraction and animation
ANS: D DIF: Level 1 REF: Sound and Color

17. Using puppets, dolls, or models to create scenes in a movie is called ________.
a. cel animation d. collage
b. imaginary thinking e. expressionism
c. stop-motion animation
ANS: C DIF: Level 1 REF: Animation and Special Effects

18. Using a sequence of specially generated drawings to create scenes in a movie is called ________.
a. cel animation d. collage
b. imaginary thinking e. Expressionism
c. stop-motion animation
ANS: A DIF: Level 1 REF: Animation and Special Effects

19. Who was the director of Amélie?

a. Jean-Pierre Jeunet d. Audrey Tatou
b. Pierre-Auguste Renoir e. Robert Wiene
c. Hiyao Miyazaki
ANS: A DIF: Level 1 REF: Animation and Special Effects

20. Such films as Amélie combine realistic and fantastical elements in order to:
a. trick the viewer into believing everything in the film is true
b. point out the magical qualities of ordinary life
c. prevent the filmmaker and actors from being bored during production
d. sell as many products as possible
e. challenge the actors
ANS: B DIF: Level 1 REF: Animation and Special Effects

21. Which of the following were used to create the visual effects in Lord of the Rings?
a. live action d. key-frame animation
b. computer-generated imagery e. all of the other answers
c. motion capture
ANS: E DIF: Level 1 REF: Animation and Special Effects

22. Some common film genres discussed in this chapter are:

a. animation and live action d. experimental film
b. science fiction e. all of the other answers
c. horror and documentary
ANS: E DIF: Level 1 REF: Film Genres

23. The dark and mysterious scenery of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was inspired by ________.
a. German Expressionism d. Netherlandish painting
b. French Impressionism e. none of the other answers
c. African masks
 ANS: A DIF: Level 1 REF: Film Genres

24. What genre might a filmmaker be working in if he or she used ominous music, fake blood, and
shot many of the scenes at night?
a. romantic comedy d. fairytale
b. documentary e. none of the other answers
c. horror
ANS: C DIF: Level 2 REF: Film Genres

25. An Inconvenient Truth is ________ about ________.

a. a fictional film . . . Al Gore
b. an experimental film . . . museum practices
c. a documentary . . . global warming
d. a romantic comedy . . . a secret marriage
e. a science fiction film . . . another planet
ANS: C DIF: Level 1 REF: Film Genres

26. Think about your favorite film. What genre is it? Do you think it is a typical example of that genre,
or does it use new or unexpected approaches? What techniques have been used by the director, or
the special effects team, in creating the mood of the film?

ANS:
Answer will vary.

DIF: Level 3 REF: Film Genres

Match the term with its definition:

a. series of sketches or pictures used to show the scenes that will be filmed in a movie or
created using animation
b. small storefront movie theaters popular in the early twentieth century
c. sound that is recorded during a scene or that coordinates with filmed images; also refers to
sound that has a visible onscreen source
d. making a movie by filming slightly varying separate still drawings, models, or
computer-generated images, and putting them together in sequence so that they appear to
move
e. categories of film that have developed recognizable plots, types of characters, and scenery

27. animation
28. film genres
29. nickelodeons
30. storyboards
31. synchronized sound

27. ANS: D DIF: Level 1 REF: Film Genres

28. ANS: E DIF: Level 1 REF: Film Genres
29. ANS: B DIF: Level 1 REF: Film Genres
30. ANS: A DIF: Level 1 REF: Film Genres
31. ANS: C DIF: Level 1 REF: Film Genres
32. Auteur theory ________.
a. considers films to be art, as they represent a realization of the director’s creative vision
 b. focuses on the director or screenwriter rather than other contributors
c. includes study of films by such directors as Alfred Hitchcock, Jane Campion, and Wes
Anderson
d. highlights characteristic elements of a film or selection of films, including both appearance
and content
e. all of the other answers
ANS: E DIF: Level 1 REF: Film as Art: Auteur Films

33. ________ films often include innovative technology, unexpected subject matter, and/or
manipulated images.
a. documentary d. historical
b. experimental e. all of the other answers
c. silent
ANS: B DIF: Level 1 REF: Film as Art: Experimental Films

34. The film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari uses visual imagery rather than traditional dialogue to tell the
story, while the focus on imagery in Meshes of the Afternoon may seem closer to traditional fine
art than to a conventional movie narrative. Consider the movie stills in two or three examples from
this chapter, and make a list of the elements and principles at work in them. If possible, see the
films themselves (or watch an extract) and discuss how those elements and principles have
translated across moving images. Which of them are still present? In what ways have they
changed?

ANS:
Answer will vary.

DIF: Level 3 REF: Film as Art: Experimental Films

35. Videos designed to be art are often made to be presented ________.

a. on television screens
b. in art galleries or at art events
c. in such a way that they transform a space
d. projected on walls
e. all of the other answers
ANS: E DIF: Level 2 REF: Film as Art: Video

36. Nam June Paik’s ________ combines recognizable and distorted images made using a synthesizer
to modulate video signals.
a. ABC.123 d. Shock Wave
b. Inconvenient Truth e. collage
c. Global Groove
ANS: C DIF: Level 1 REF: Film as Art: Video

37. Consider the following statement by Bill Viola, first by yourself, then with a group:
“Technology is the imprint of the human mind onto the material substance of the natural world.
Like the Renaissance, today’s technological revolution is fueled by a combination of art, science,
and technology, and the universal human need to share our individual ideas and experiences in
ever-new ways . . . The digital image has become the common language of our time, and through it
living artists are once again emerging from the margins of culture to speak directly to the people in
the language of their experience”
 What does Viola mean by this statement? Do you agree or disagree? What examples can you find
to support or refute his claims?

ANS:
Answer will vary.

DIF: Level 3 REF: Film as Art: Video | Perspectives on Art

38. David Fincher’s House of Cards is known especially for being ________.
a. a 24-hour film screened in real time
b. a mini-series with a full season’s episodes released simultaneously
c. an interactive narrative that evolves with viewer input during filming
d. a documentary on the history of Las Vegas casinos
e. none of the other answers
ANS: B DIF: Level 1 REF: Interactive Technology

Match the filmmaker with a description of his or her work:

a. photographer who first captured sequences of still images of a horse and then made them
appear to move
b. director of an experimental film based on dreams, recurring objects, and repeated image
sequences
c. filmmaker renowned for an innovative and influential film that commented on a
newspaper tycoon and the American Dream
d. known for silent films with trick effects and humor, including one about astronomers
launched from a cannon onto the moon
e. animator who incorporates elements from Japanese mythology into his films
f. Oscar-winning director who used cutting-edge visual effects, combining live action with
computer-generated imagery
39. Maya Deren
40. Georges Méliès
41. Hayao Miyazaki
42. Eadweard Muybridge
43. Orson Welles
44. Peter Jackson

39. ANS: B DIF: Level 2 REF: Film/Video and Digital Art

40. ANS: D DIF: Level 2 REF: Film/Video and Digital Art
41. ANS: E DIF: Level 2 REF: Film/Video and Digital Art
42. ANS: A DIF: Level 2 REF: Film/Video and Digital Art
43. ANS: C DIF: Level 2 REF: Film/Video and Digital Art
44. ANS: F DIF: Level 2 REF: Film/Video and Digital Art
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
through his plottings against Stephen;[720] in May 1138 he openly
placed himself, his remaining castles and his men at the disposal of
the Scot king. David hesitated no longer. Gathering up all the forces
of his kingdom,[721] he joined Eustace in an unsuccessful attempt to
regain Bamborough; thence the united host marched burning and
harrying through the already thrice-wasted Patrimony of S. Cuthbert,
crossed the Tees, and in the middle of August made its appearance
in Yorkshire.[722]

[718] Ric. Hexh. (Raine), pp. 81–84. Joh. Hexh. (ibid.), p. 117.
The record of Waleran’s exploit is in Flor. Worc. Contin. (Thorpe),
vol. ii., p. 112.

[719] Gesta Steph. (Sewell), p. 35.

[720] Joh. Hexh. (Raine), p. 117. “De magnis proceribus

Angliæ, regi quondam Henrico familiarissimus, vir summæ
prudentiæ et in secularibus negotiis magni consilii, qui a rege
Anglorum ideo recesserat quod ab eo in curiâ contra patrium
morem captus, castra quæ ei Rex Henricus commiserat reddere
compulsus est.” Æthelred Riev. De Bello Standardi (Twysden, X.
Scriptt.), col. 343. On Eustace Fitz-John see also Walbran,
Memor. of Fountains, p. 50, note 11.

[721] The Hexham chroniclers reckon them at something over

twenty thousand.

[722] Ric. Hexh. (Raine), pp. 84, 85, 89. Joh. Hexh. (ibid.), p.
118.

There was no help to be looked for from the king. All through that
summer the whole south and west of England had been in a blaze of
revolt which was still unsubdued, and Stephen had neither time,
thought, nor troops to spare for the defence of the north. But in face
of such a danger as this the men of the north needed no help from
him. When their own hearths and altars were threatened by the
hereditary Scottish foe, resistance was a matter not of loyalty but of
patriotism. The barons and great men of the shire at once organized
their plans under the guidance of Archbishop Thurstan, whose
lightest word carried more weight in Yorkshire than anything that
Stephen could have said or done. Inspired by him, the forces of the
diocese met at York in the temper of crusaders. Three days of
fasting, almsgiving and penance, concluding with a solemn
absolution and benediction from their primate, prepared them for
their task. Worn out as he was with years and labours—so feeble
that he could neither walk nor ride—Thurstan would yet have gone
forth in his litter at the head of his men to encourage the host with his
presence and his eloquence; but the barons shrank from such a risk.
To them he was the Moses on whose uplifted hands depended their
success in the coming battle; so they sent him back to wrestle in
prayer for them within his own cathedral church, while they went
forth to their earthly warfare against the Scot.[723]

[723] Ric. Hexh. (Raine), pp. 86, 87. Joh. Hexh. (ibid.), pp. 118,
119.

Early in the morning of Tuesday, August 22, the English forces

drew up in battle array upon Cowton Moor, two miles from
Northallerton. In their midst was the “Standard” from which the fight
afterwards took its name:—a cart into which was fixed a pole
surmounted by a silver pyx containing the Host, and hung round with
the consecrated banners of the local churches, S. Peter of York, S.
John of Beverley, S. Wilfrid of Ripon.[724] Thurstan’s place as chief
spiritual adviser of the army was filled by Ralf, bishop of the
Orkneys;[725] their chief military adviser was Walter Lespec, the
pious and noble founder of Kirkham and Rievaux—the very type and
model of a Christian knight of the time. Standing upon the cart, with
the sacred banners waving round his head, in a voice like a trumpet
he addressed his comrades.[726] He appealed to the barons to prove
themselves worthy of their race; he appealed to the English shire-
levies to prove themselves worthy of their country; he pictured in
glowing colours the wrongs which they all had to avenge, and the
worse they would have to suffer if they survived a defeat; then,
grasping the hand of William of Aumale, the new-made earl of York,
[727] he swore aloud to conquer or die.[728] The unanimous “Amen!”
of the English host was answered by shrill cries of “Albin! Albin!” as
the Scots came charging on.[729] The glory of the first onset was
snatched, much against David’s will, by the men of Galloway, who
claimed it as their hereditary right.[730] The second division of the
Scottish host comprised the Cumbrians and the men of Teviotdale,
and the followers of Eustace Fitz-John. A third body was formed by
the men of Lothian and of the western islands, and a fourth by the
king’s household troops, a picked band of English and Norman
knights commanded by David in person.[731] The English array was
simple enough; the whole host stood in one compact mass clustered
around the Standard,—the barons and their followers occupying the
centre, the archers intermingled with them in front, and the general
mass of less well-armed troops of the shire in the rear, with a small
detachment of horse posted at a little distance; the main body of
both armies fought on foot in the old English fashion. The wild Celts
of Galloway dashed headlong upon the English front, only to find
their spears and javelins glance off from the helmets and shields of
the knights as from an iron wall, while their own half-naked bodies
were riddled with a shower of arrows; their leader fell, and they fled
in confusion.[732] The second line under the king’s son, Henry,
charged with better success; but an Englishman lifted up a gory
head upon a pole crying out that it was David’s; and like the English
long ago in a like case at Assandun, the Scottish centre at once fled
almost without waiting to be attacked.[733] David himself fought on
well-nigh alone, till the few who stood around him dragged him off
the field, lifted him on horseback, and fairly compelled him to retreat.
[734] His scattered troops caught sight of the dragon on his standard,
[735] and discovering that he was still alive, rallied enough to enable
him to retreat in good order. Henry gathered up the remnants of the
royal body-guard—the only mounted division of the army—and with
them made a gallant effort to retrieve the day; but the horsemen
charged in vain against the English shield-wall, and falling back with
shattered spears and wounded horses they were compelled to fling
away their accoutrements and escape as best they could.[736] Three
days elapsed before Henry himself could rejoin his father at Carlisle.
[737] Eleven hundred Scots were said to have been slain in the battle
or caught in their flight through the woods and marshes and there
despatched.[738] Out of two hundred armed knights only nineteen
carried their mail-coats home again;[739] such of the rest as escaped
at all escaped only with their lives; and the field was so strewn with
baggage, provisions and arms, left behind by the fugitives, that the
victors gave it the nickname of Baggamore.[740] The enthusiasm
which had carried the Yorkshiremen through the hour of danger
carried them also through the temptation of the hour of triumph. They
sullied their victory by no attempt at pursuit or retaliation, but simply
returned as they had come, in solemn procession, and having
restored the holy banners to their several places with joy and
thanksgiving, went quietly back every man to his own home.[741]
Some three months later the garrison of Carham, having salted their
last horse save one, were driven to surrender; but their stubborn
defence had won them the right to march out free with the honours
of war, and all that David gained was the satisfaction of razing the
empty fortress.[742]

[724] Ric. Hexh. (Raine), pp. 90, 91. Joh. Hexh. (ibid.), p. 119.
Cf. the description of the Milanese carroccio—“quod apud nos
standard dicitur” as the German writer remarks—in 1162 (Ep.
Burchard. Notar. Imp. de Excidio Mediolan., in Muratori, Rer. Ital.
Scriptt., vol. vi. p. 917).

[725] On Ralf see Dixon and Raine, Fasti Eborac., vol. i. p.

168.

[726] So says Æthelred of Rievaux (De Bello Standardi,

Twysden, X. Scriptt., cols. 338, 339), giving a charming portrait of
Walter and a vivid picture of the scene. Hen. Hunt., l. viii. c. 7
(Arnold, p. 262), attributes the speech to Bishop Ralf.

[727] “The the king adde beteht Euorwic.” Eng. Chron. a. 1138.

[728] Æthelred Riev., De Bello Standardi (as above), cols.

339–342.
 [729] Hen. Hunt., l. viii. c. 9 (Arnold, p. 263).

[730] Æthelred Riev. De Bello Stand. (Twysden, X. Scriptt.),

col. 342. His account of the quarrel for precedence and its
consequences makes one think of the Macdonalds at Culloden.
Ric. Hexh. (Raine, p. 92), says the “Picti” were in the van; Joh.
Hexh. (ib. p. 119), calls them “Scotti”—both meaning simply what
at a later time would have been called “wild Highlanders,” i.e. in
this case men of Galloway. Hen. Hunt. puts the Lothian men in
front, but he is clearly wrong.

[731] Æthelred Riev. (as above), cols. 342, 343.

[732] Ib. col. 345. Hen. Hunt., l. viii. c. 9 (Arnold, pp. 263, 264),
who, however, turns the Galwegians into men of Lothian; see
above, note 2{730}.

[733] Æthelred Riev. as above.

[734] Æthelred Riev. De Bello Stand. (Twysden, X. Scriptt.),

col. 346. Hen. Hunt., l. viii. c. 9 (Arnold, p. 264).

[735] “Regale vexillum, quod ad similitudinem draconis

figuratum facile agnoscebatur.” Æthelred Riev. as above. Had S.
Margaret’s son adopted the old royal standard of her West-Saxon
forefathers?

[736] Æthelred Riev. and Hen. Hunt., as above. The two

accounts do not seem to tally at first sight, but they are easily
reconciled.

[737] Æthelred Riev. as above. Cf. Flor. Worc. Contin.

(Thorpe), vol. ii. p. 112.

[738] Hen. Hunt. as above. Ric. Hexh. (Raine), p. 93.

[739] Flor. Worc. Contin. as above.

[740] Joh. Hexh. (Raine), p. 120. Serlo (Twysden, X. Scriptt.),

cols. 331, 332. According to this last, the scattered eatables
consisted chiefly of bread, cheese and horseflesh, which, as well
as other flesh, the Scots ate indifferently raw or cooked.—There
is yet one other curious version of the Scottish rout and its cause:
“Archiepiscopus cum militibus regis latenter occurrens super
 Cotowne more juxta Northallerton, fieri jussit in viis subterraneis
quædam instrumenta sonos horribiles reddentia, quæ Anglicè
dicuntur petronces; quibus resonantibus, feræ et cætera armenta
quæ procedebant exercitum prædicti David regis in adjutorium,
timore strepitûs perterriti, in exercitum David ferociter resiliebant.”
(MS. Life of Abp. Thurstan, quoted by Mr. Raine, Priory of Hexh.,
vol. i. p. 92, note t). The primate’s share in the victory was so
strongly felt at the time that in the Ann. Cicestr. a. 1138
(Liebermann, Geschichtsquellen, p. 95), the battle appears as
“Bellum inter archiepiscopum Eboracensem et David.”

[741] Ric. Hexh. (Raine), p. 93. Joh. Hexh. (ibid.), p. 120.

[742] Ric. Hexh. (Raine), p. 100. Joh. Hexh. (ibid.), p. 118.

The defeat of the Scots was shared by the English baron who had
brought them into the land. But Eustace Fitz-John was far from
standing alone in his breach of fealty to the English king. All the
elements of danger and disruption which had been threatening
Stephen ever since his accession suddenly burst forth in the spring
of 1138.[743] Between the king and the barons there had been from
the first a total lack of confidence. It could not be otherwise; for their
mutual obligations were founded on the breach of an earlier
obligation contracted by both towards Matilda and her son. There
could not fail to be on both sides a feeling that as they had all alike
broken their faith to the Empress, so they might at any moment
break their faith to each other just as lightly. But on one side the
insecurity lay still deeper. Not only was the king not sure of his
subjects; he was not sure of himself. How far Stephen was morally
justified in accepting the crown after he had sworn fealty to another
candidate for it is a question whose solution depends upon that of a
variety of other questions which we are not bound to discuss here.
Politically, however, he could justify himself only in one way: by
proving his fitness for the office which he had undertaken. What he
proved was his unfitness for it. Stephen, in short, had done the most
momentous deed of his life as he did all the lesser ones, without first
counting the cost; and it was no sooner done than he found the cost
beyond his power to meet. A thoroughly unselfish hero, a thoroughly
unscrupulous tyrant, might have met it successfully, each in his own
way. But Stephen was neither hero nor tyrant; he was “a mild man,
soft and good—and did no justice.”[744] His weakness shewed itself
in a policy of makeshift which only betrayed his uneasiness and
increased his difficulties. His first expedient to strengthen his position
had been the unlucky introduction of the Flemish mercenaries; his
next was the creation of new earldoms in behalf of those whom he
regarded as his especial friends, whereby he hoped to raise up an
aristocracy wholly devoted to himself, but only succeeded in
provoking the resentment and contempt of the older nobility; while to
indemnify his new earls for their lack of territorial endowment and
give them some means of supporting their titular dignity, he was
obliged to provide them with revenues charged upon that of the
Crown.[745] But his prodigality had already made the Crown
revenues insufficient for his own needs;[746] and the next steps were
the debasement of the coinage[747] and the arbitrary spoliation of
those whom he mistrusted for the benefit of his insatiable favourites.
[748] They grew greedier in asking, and he more lavish in giving;
castles, lands, anything and everything, were demanded of him
without scruple; and if their demands were not granted the
petitioners at once prepared for defiance.[749] He flew hither and
thither, but nothing came of his restless activity;[750] he did more
harm to himself than to his enemies, giving away lands and honours
almost at random, patching up a hollow peace,[751] and then, when
he found every man’s hand against him and his hand against every
man, bitterly complaining, “Why have they made me king, only to
leave me thus destitute? By our Lord’s Nativity, I will not be a king
thus disgraced!”[752]

[743] “Hi igitur duo anni [i.e. 1136 and 1137] Stephani regis
prosperrimi fuerunt, tertius vero . . . mediocris et intercisus fuit;
duo vero ultimi exitiales fuerunt et prærupti.” Hen. Hunt., l. viii. c.
5 (Arnold, p. 260). By this reckoning it seems that after Stephen’s
capture at the battle of Lincoln Henry does not count him king at
all.
 [744] Eng. Chron. a. 1137.

[745] Will. Malm. Hist. Nov., l. i. c. 18 (Hardy, p. 712).

[746] “He hadde get his [Henry’s] tresor, ac he todeld it and

scatered sotlice.” Eng. Chron. a. 1137.

[747] Will. Malm. Hist. Nov., l. ii. c. 34 (Hardy, p. 732).

[748] See the first and fullest example in the story of the siege
of Bedford, December 1138–January 1139; Gesta Steph.
(Sewell), pp. 30–32. Cf. Hen. Hunt., l. viii. c. 6 (Arnold, p. 260).
The sequel of the story is in Gesta Steph., p. 74.

[749] Will. Malm. Hist. Nov., l. i. c. 18 (Hardy, p. 711).

[750] “Modo hic, modo illic subitus aderat,” ibid. “Raptabatur

enim nunc huc nunc illuc, et adeo vix aliquid perficiebat.” Gerv.
Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 105. Cf. R. Glaber’s description of
Stephen’s ancestor Odo II. (above, p. 150).

[751] Will. Malm. Hist. Nov., l. i. c. 18 (Hardy, pp. 711, 712).

[752] Ib. c. 17 (p. 711).

Matters were made worse by his relations with Earl Robert of

Gloucester. As son of the late king and half-brother of the Empress;
as one of the greatest and wealthiest landowners in England—earl of
Gloucester by his father’s grant, lord of Bristol and of Glamorgan by
his marriage with the heiress of Robert Fitz-Hamon—all-powerful
throughout the western shires and on the Welsh march—Robert was
the one man who above all others could most influence the policy of
the barons, and whom it was most important for Stephen to
conciliate at any cost. Robert had followed the king back to
Normandy in 1137; throughout their stay there William of Ypres
strove, only too successfully, to set them at variance; a formal
reconciliation took place, but it was a mere form;[753] and a few
months after Stephen’s return to England he was rash enough to
order the confiscation of the earl’s English and Welsh estates, and
actually to raze some of his castles.[754] The consequence was that
soon after Whitsuntide Robert sent to the king a formal renunciation
of his allegiance, and to his vassals in England instructions to
prepare for war.[755] This message proved the signal for a general
rising. Geoffrey Talbot had already seized Hereford castle;[756] in the
north Eustace Fitz-John, as we have seen, joined hands with the
Scot king; while throughout the south and west the barons shewed at
once that they had been merely waiting for Robert’s decision. Bristol
under Robert’s own son;[757] Harptree under William Fitz-John;[758]
Castle Cary under Ralf Lovel; Dunster under William of Mohun;
Shrewsbury under William Fitz-Alan;[759] Dudley under Ralf Paganel;
[760] Burne, Ellesmere, Whittington and Overton under William

Peverel;[761] on the south coast, Wareham, another castle of Earl

Robert’s, held by Ralf of Lincoln, and Dover, held by Walkelyn
Maminot[762]:—all these fortresses, and many more, were openly
made ready for defence or defiance; and Stephen’s own constable
Miles, who as sheriff of Gloucester had only a few weeks before
welcomed him into that city with regal honours,[763] now followed the
earl’s example and formally renounced his allegiance.[764]

[753] Will. Malm. Hist. Nov., l. i. c. 17 (Hardy, p. 710).

[754] Ib. c. 18 (p. 713).

[755] Ib. p. 712; Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 104. The

grounds of the defiance were—1, the unlawfulness of Stephen’s
accession; 2, his breach of his engagements towards Robert; 3,
the unlawfulness of Robert’s own oath to him as being
invalidated, like Stephen’s claim to the crown, by the previous
oath to Matilda. (Will. Malm. as above.)

[756] At Ascension-tide. Hen. Hunt., l. viii. c. 7 (Arnold, p. 261).

There is also an account of the seizure of Hereford by Geoffrey
Talbot in Gesta Steph. (Sewell), p. 69, where it seems to be
placed in 1140. The writer has apparently confused the seizure
by Geoffrey in 1138 with that by Miles of Gloucester in December
1139, and misdated both.
 [757] Hen. Hunt., l. viii. c. 7 (Arnold, p. 261). Ord. Vit.
(Duchesne, Hist. Norm. Scriptt.), p. 917. Gesta Steph. (Sewell),
p. 36.

[758] Ord. Vit. as above. Gesta Steph. (Sewell), p. 43.

[759] Hen. Hunt. and Ord. Vit. as above.

[760] “Paganellus [tenuit] castellum de Ludelaue,” says Hen.

Hunt. (as above). But we shortly afterwards find Stephen,
according to Flor. Worc. Contin. (Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 110), marching
against “castellum de Duddelæge, quod Radulf Paignel contra
illum munierat.” As Henry makes no mention of Dudley at all, and
the continuator of Florence makes no mention of Ludlow till 1139,
when he says nothing of its commander, it seems plain that there
has been some mistake between the two names, which indeed
might easily get confounded. Mr. Eyton (Antiquities of
Shropshire, vol. v. pp. 244, 245) rules that the Continuator is
right, as there is no trace of any connexion between Ralf Paganel
and Ludlow, which indeed he shews to have been in other hands
at this time. See below, p. 301.

[761] Ord. Vit. as above.

[762] Hen. Hunt. and Ord. Vit. as above.

[763] Flor. Worc. Contin. (Thorpe), vol. ii. p. 105.

[764] Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 104.

The full force of the blow came upon Stephen while he was
endeavouring to dislodge Geoffrey Talbot from Hereford. After a
siege of nearly five weeks’ duration the town caught fire below the
bridge; the alarmed rebels offered terms, and Stephen with his usual
clemency allowed them to depart free.[765] After taking the
neighbouring castle of Weobly, and leaving a garrison there and
another at Hereford,[766] he seems to have returned to London[767]
and there collected his forces for an attack upon the insurgents in
their headquarters at Bristol. Geoffrey Talbot meanwhile made an
attempt upon Bath, but was caught and put in ward by the bishop.
The latter however was presently captured in his turn by the garrison
of Bristol, who threatened to hang him unless their friend was
released. The bishop saved his neck by giving up his prize; Stephen
in great indignation marched upon Bath, and was, it is said, with
difficulty restrained from depriving the bishop of his ring and staff—a
statement which tells something of the way in which the king kept his
compact towards the Church. He contented himself however with
putting a garrison into Bath, and hurried on to the siege of Bristol.
[768]

[765] Flor. Worc. Contin. (Thorpe), vol. ii., p. 106. The writer
adds that on the very day of Stephen’s departure (June 15)
Geoffrey set fire to everything beyond the Wye; seven or eight
Welshmen perished, but no English (ib. p. 107)—an indication
that the part of Hereford beyond the Wye was then a Welsh
quarter.

[766] Flor. Worc. Contin. (Thorpe), vol. ii. p. 106.

[767] Gesta Steph. (Sewell), p. 36.

[768] Flor. Worc. Contin. (as above), pp. 108, 109. In Gesta
Steph. (Sewell), pp. 37–39, 41, 42, the story is told at greater
length, and the writer seems to defend the bishop and to
consider his own hero rather ungrateful.

A survey of its environs soon convinced him that he had

undertaken a very difficult task. Bristol with its two encircling rivers
was a natural stronghold of no common order; and on the one side
where nature had left it unprotected, art had supplied the deficiency.
The narrow neck of land at the eastern end of the peninsula on
which the town stood—the only point whence it could be reached
without crossing the water—was in the Conqueror’s last days
occupied by a castle which in the Red King’s reign passed into the
hands of Robert Fitz-Hamon, famed alike in history and legend as
the conqueror of Glamorgan; in those of his son-in-law and
successor, Earl Robert of Gloucester,[769] it grew into a mighty
fortress, provided with trench and wall, outworks and towers, and all
other military contrivances then in use,[770] and surrounded on its
exposed eastern side by a moat whose waters joined those of the
Avon on the south.[771] Bristol was in fact Robert’s military capital,
and under the command of his eldest son it had now become the
chief muster-place of all his dispossessed partizans and followers,
as well as of a swarm of mercenaries attracted thither from all parts
of the country by the advantages of the place and the wealth and
renown of its lord.[772] From this stronghold they sallied forth in all
directions to do the king all the mischief in their power. They overran
his lands and those of his adherents like a pack of hounds;
wholesale cattle-lifting was among the least of their misdeeds; every
wealthy man whom they could reach was hunted down or decoyed
into their den, and there tortured with every refinement of ingenious
cruelty till he had given up his uttermost farthing.[773] One Philip Gay,
a kinsman of Earl Robert, specially distinguished himself in the
contrivance of new methods of torture.[774] In his hands, and those
of men like him, Bristol acquired the title of “the stepmother of all
England.”[775] If Bristol could be reduced to submission, Stephen’s
work would be more than half done. He held a council of war with his
barons to deliberate on the best method of beginning the siege.
Those who were in earnest about the matter urged the construction
of a mole to dam up the narrow strait which formed the haven,
whereby not only would the inhabitants be deprived of their chief
hope of succour, but the waters, checked in their course and thrown
back upon themselves, would swell into a mighty flood and speedily
overwhelm the city. Meanwhile, added the supporters of this
scheme, Stephen might build a tower on each side of the city to
check all ingress and egress by means of the two bridges, while he
himself should encamp with his host before the castle and storm or
starve it into surrender. Another party, however, whose secret
sympathies were with the besieged, argued that whatever material,
wood or stone, was used for the construction of the dam would be
either swallowed up in the depths of the river or swept away by its
current; and they drew such a dismal picture of the hopelessness of
the undertaking that Stephen gave it up, and with it all attempt at a
siege of Bristol. Turning southward, he struck across the Mendip hills
into the heart of Somerset, and besieged William Lovel in Castle
Cary,[776] a fortress whose remains, in the shape of three grass-
covered mounds, still overlook a little valley where the river Cary
takes its rise at the foot of the Polden hills. According to one
account, the place yielded to Stephen;[777] according to another,[778]
he built over against it a tower in which he left a detachment of
soldiers to annoy its garrison, and marched northward to another
castle, Harptree, whose site is now buried in the middle of a lonely
wood. Harptree was gained by a stratagem somewhat later on;[779]
for the present Stephen left it to be harassed by the garrison of Bath,
and pursued his northward march to Dudley. Here he made no
attempt upon the castle, held against him by Ralf Paganel, but
contented himself with burning and harrying the neighbourhood, and
then led his host up the Severn to Shrewsbury.[780] The old “town in
the scrub,” or bush, as its first English conquerors had called it, had
grown under the care of its first Norman earl, Roger of Montgomery,
into one of the chief strongholds of the Welsh border. The lands
attached to the earldom, forfeited by the treason of Robert of
Bellême, had been granted by Henry I. to his second queen, Adeliza;
she and her second husband, William of Aubigny, had now thrown
themselves into the party of her stepdaughter the Empress; and the
castle built by Earl Roger on the neck of a peninsula in the Severn
upon which the town of Shrewsbury stands was held in Matilda’s
interest by William Fitz-Alan, who had married a niece of Robert of
Gloucester.[781] William himself, with his wife and children, slipped
out at the king’s approach, leaving the garrison sworn never to
surrender. Stephen, however, caused the fosse to be filled with
wood, set it on fire, and literally smoked them out.[782] The noblest
were hanged; the rest escaped as best they could,[783] while
Stephen followed up his success by taking a neighbouring castle
which belonged to Fitz-Alan’s uncle Arnulf of Hesdin, and hanging
Arnulf himself with ninety-three of his comrades.[784] This unwonted
severity acted as a salutary warning which took effect at the opposite
end of the kingdom. Queen Matilda, with a squadron of ships
manned by sailors from her own county of Boulogne, was blockading
Walkelyn Maminot in Dover, when the tidings of her husband’s
victories in Shropshire induced Walkelyn to surrender.[785] This was
in August.[786] When a truce had been patched up with Ralf
Paganel,[787] the west of England might be considered fairly
pacified, and Stephen was free to march into Dorsetshire against
Earl Robert’s southernmost fortress, Wareham.[788] Nothing,
however, seems to have come of this expedition; and Robert himself
was still out of reach beyond sea. In the midland shires William
Peverel, the lord of the Peak country, was still unsubdued, but he
was now almost isolated, for in the north Eustace Fitz-John, as we
have seen, had drawn his punishment upon himself from other
hands than those of the king. Stephen’s successes in the west, his
wife’s success at Dover, were quickly followed by tidings of the
victory at Cowton Moor; and meanwhile a peacemaker had come
upon the scene.

[769] Will. Malm. Hist. Nov., l. i. c. 3 (Hardy, p. 692).

[770] Gesta Steph. (Sewell), p. 37.

[771] See plans and description in Seyer, Mem. of Bristol, vol.

i. pp. 373 et seq.

[772] Gesta Steph. (Sewell), p. 37.

[773] Ib. p. 40, 41. Flor. Worc. Contin. (Thorpe), vol. ii. p. 109.
Both writers, however, seem to lay to the sole account of the
Bristol garrison all the horrors which in the Eng. Chron. a. 1137,
are attributed to the barons and soldiers in general throughout
the civil war.

[774] Flor. Worc. Contin. as above.

[775] “Ad totius Angliæ novercam, Bristoam.” Gesta Steph.

(Sewell), p. 41.

[776] Gesta Steph. (Sewell), p. 43. Flor. Worc. Contin.

(Thorpe), vol. ii. p. 110.

[777] Gesta Steph. (Sewell), pp. 43, 44.

[778] Flor. Worc. Contin. as above.

 [779] Gesta Steph. (Sewell), p. 44.

[780] Flor. Worc. Contin. as above. On Dudley see above, p.

295, note 4{760}.

[781] Ord. Vit. (Duchesne, Hist. Norm. Scriptt.), p. 917.

[782] “Omnes infumigat et exfumigat.” Flor. Worc. Contin.

(Thorpe), vol. ii. p. 110.

[783] Ibid.

[784] Ord. Vit. (Duchesne, Hist. Norm. Scriptt.), p. 917.

[785] Hen. Hunt., l. viii. c. 7 (Arnold, p. 261).

[786] Ord. Vit. as above.

[787] Flor. Worc. Contin. as above.

[788] Ibid.

In the spring of 1138 a schism which had rent the Western Church
asunder for seven years was ended by the death of the anti-pope
Anacletus, and Pope Innocent II. profited by the occasion to send
Alberic bishop of Ostia as legate into England—Archbishop William
of Canterbury, who had held a legatine commission together with the
primacy, having died in November 1136.[789] Alberic landed just as
the revolt broke out, and Stephen had therefore no choice but to
accept his credentials and let him pursue his mission, whatever it
might be.[790] It proved to be wholly a mission of peace. Alberic
made a visitation-tour throughout England,[791] ending with a council
at Carlisle, whither the king of Scots, who had adhered to Anacletus,
now came to welcome Innocent’s representative. There, on the
neutral ground of young Henry’s English fief, the legate made an
attempt to mediate between David and Stephen; but all that the
former would grant was a truce until Martinmas, and a promise to
bring to Carlisle and there set free all the captive Englishwomen who
could be collected before that time, as well as to enforce more
Christian-like behaviour among his soldiers for the future.[792] On the
third Sunday in Advent the legate held a council at Westminster,
when Theobald, abbot of Bec, was elected archbishop of Canterbury
by the prior of Christ Church and certain delegates of the convent, in
presence of the king and the legate.[793] Theobald’s consecration,
two days after Epiphany, brought Alberic’s mission to a satisfactory
close.[794]

[789] Flor. Worc. Contin. (Thorpe), vol. ii. pp. 97, 98. On
Alberic see Ric. Hexh. (Raine), pp. 96, 97.

[790] Flor. Worc. Contin. (as above), p. 106.

[791] Ibid. The details of his movements in the north are in Ric.
Hexh. (Raine), p. 98, and Joh. Hexh. (ibid.), p. 121.

[792] Ric. Hex. (Raine), pp. 99, 100. Joh. Hexh. as above.

[793] Hen. Hunt., l. viii. c. 9 (Arnold, p. 265). Ric. Hexh.

(Raine), pp. 101–103. Eng. Chron. a. 1140. Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs),
vol. i. pp. 107–109, and vol. ii. p. 384. Chron. Becc., in Giles,
Lanfranc, vol. i. p. 207. Vita Theobaldi (ibid.), pp. 337, 338.

[794] Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 109.

In the work of mediation he had soon found that there was one
who had the matter more nearly at heart, and who had a much better
chance of success than himself. Queen Matilda was warmly
attached to her Scottish relatives, and lost no opportunity of urging
her husband to reconciliation with them. At last, on April 9, she and
her cousin Henry met at Durham; David and Henry gave hostages
for their pacific conduct in the future, and the English earldom of
Northumberland was granted to Henry.[795] The treaty was ratified by
Stephen at Nottingham;[796] the Scottish prince stayed to keep
Easter with his cousins, and afterwards accompanied the king in an
expedition against Ludlow. The castle of Ludlow, founded probably
by Roger de Lacy in the reign of William Rufus, was destined in
after-days to become a treasure-house alike for historian, antiquary
and artist. Memories of every period in English history from the
twelfth century to the seventeenth throng the mighty pile, in which
almost every phase of English architecture may be studied amid
surroundings of the most exquisite natural beauty. The site of the
fortress, on a rocky promontory rising more than a hundred feet
above the junction of the Corve and the Teme, was admirably
adapted for defence. The northern and western walls of its outer
ward rose abruptly from the steep slope of the rock itself; on the east
and south it was protected by a ditch, crossed by a bridge which led
to the inner ward and the keep, securely placed near the south-
western angle of the enclosure.[797] The fief of Ludlow had
escheated to the Crown soon after Stephen’s accession,[798] and he
had apparently bestowed it upon one Joce or Joceas of Dinan,[799]
who now, it seems, was holding it against him. The siege came to
nothing, though it was made memorable by an incident which nearly
cost the life of Henry of Scotland and furnished occasion for a
characteristic display of Stephen’s personal bravery. A grappling-iron
thrown from over the wall caught the Scottish prince, dragged him off
his horse, and had all but lifted him into the castle, when the king
rushed forward and set him free.[800] This adventure, however,
seems to have cooled Stephen’s ardour for the assault, and after
setting up two towers to hold the garrison in check, he again
withdrew to London.[801] Early in the year he had taken Earl Robert’s
castle of Leeds;[802] and altogether his prospects were beginning to
brighten, when they were suddenly overclouded again by his own
rashness and folly.

[795] With the exception of Newcastle and Bamborough, and

on condition that the local customs established by Henry I.
should be maintained inviolate. Ric. Hexh. (Raine), pp. 105, 106.
Hen. Hunt., l. viii. c. 10 (Arnold, p. 265), has a very strange
version of the way in which this treaty was brought about; see
below, p. 302, note 3{802}.

[796] Ric. Hexh. (as above), p. 106.

[797] See plan and description in Clark, Mediev. Milit. Archit.,

vol. ii. pp. 273–290.
 [798] By the death of Payne Fitz-John. See Eyton, Antiqu.
Shropshire, vol. v. p. 244.

[799] This is Joceas’s surname according to the romantic

History of Fulk Fitzwarine, and it is adopted by Mr. Eyton, who
takes it as derived from Dinan in Britanny; see his account of
Joceas, Antiqu. Shropsh., vol. v. pp. 244–247. According to this,
the name of Dinham, now borne by the part of Ludlow which lies
south and west of the castle, would be a corruption of Dinan,
which the above-mentioned romance (a work of the reign of
Henry III.) says was the name given to the whole place in
Joceas’s time. Mr. Wright, however (Hist. Ludlow, pp. 13, 34),
thinks that Dinham was the original name, afterwards
superseded by Ludlow; in which case Joceas becomes simply
“Joceas of Dinham,” with a surname derived not from a foreign
birthplace, but from an English fief.

[800] Hen. Hunt., l. viii. c. 10 (Arnold, p. 265).

[801] Flor. Worc. Contin. (Thorpe), vol. ii. p. 115.

[802] Hen. Hunt. as above. This is Leeds in Kent. It is probably

through mistaking it for its Yorkshire namesake that Henry was
misled into his odd notion that Stephen himself was fighting in
the north, and compelled the Scots to a pacification. See above,
p. 300, note 7{800}.

The administrative machinery of the state was still in the hands of

Bishop Roger of Salisbury and the disciples whom he had trained.
Roger himself retained his office of justiciar; the treasurership was
held by his nephew, Nigel bishop of Ely, and the chancellorship by
one whom he also called his nephew, but who was known to be
really his son. This latter was commonly distinguished as “Roger the
Poor”—a nickname pointed sarcastically at the enormous wealth of
the elder Roger, compared with which that of the younger might pass
for poverty. Outwardly, the justiciar stood as high in Stephen’s favour
as he had stood in Henry’s; whatever he asked—and he was not
slack in asking—was granted at once: “I shall give him the half of my
kingdom some day, if he demands it!” was Stephen’s own
confession.[803] But the greediness of the one and the lavishness of
the other sprang alike from a secret mistrust which the mischief-
makers of the court did their utmost to foster. Stephen’s personal
friends assured him that the bishop of Salisbury and his nephews
were in treasonable correspondence with the Empress, that they
were fortifying and revictualling their castles in her behalf, and that
the worldly pomp and show, the vast retinue of armed followers, with
which they were wont to appear at court, was really intended for the
support of her cause.[804] How far the suspicion was correct it is
difficult to decide. Roger owed his whole career to King Henry; he
had broken his plighted faith to Henry’s child; it is no wonder if his
heart smote him for the ungrateful deed. If, on the other hand, that
deed had been done from a real sense of duty to the state, a sincere
belief in the advantage of Stephen’s rule for England, then it is no
wonder if he felt that he had made a grievous mistake, and sought to
repair it by a return to his earlier allegiance. But whatever may be
thought of the bishop’s conduct, nothing can justify that of the king.
At Midsummer 1139 Stephen summoned Bishop Roger to come and
speak with him at Oxford. Some foreboding of evil—possibly some
consciousness of double-dealing—made the old man very unwilling
to go;[805] but he did go, and with him went his son the chancellor,
and his two nephews, the treasurer and Alexander bishop of Lincoln,
[806] each accompanied by a train of armed knights. Stephen,
equally suspicious, bade his men arm themselves likewise, to be
ready in case of need. While he was conversing with the bishops in
Oxford castle,[807] a dispute about quarters arose between their
followers and those of the count of Meulan and Alan of Richmond;
[808] a fray ensued, in which Alan’s nephew was nearly killed,[809]
whereupon the two Rogers and the bishop of Lincoln were at once
seized by the king. Nigel of Ely, who was lodging apart from the
others outside the town,[810] escaped, threw himself into his uncle’s
castle of Devizes, and prepared to stand a siege.[811]

[803] Will. Malm. Hist. Nov., l. ii. c. 32 (Hardy, p. 729).

[804] Gesta Steph. (Sewell), pp. 46, 47.

 [805] Flor. Worc. Contin. (Thorpe), vol. ii. p. 107. (This writer
puts the event a year too early, but afterwards corrects himself,
ib. p. 116). Will. Malm. Hist. Nov., l. ii. c. 20 (Hardy, p. 717), says
that he himself heard Roger’s expression of reluctance: “Per
dominam meam S. Mariam (nescio quo pacto) reluctatur mens
mea huic itineri! Hoc scio, quod ejus utilitatis ero in curiâ, cujus
est equinus pullus in pugnâ.” This really seems to imply nothing
more than that he was conscious of having lost all power to
control or guide the king.

[806] Hen. Hunt., l. viii. c. 10 (Arnold, p. 265). Flor. Worc.

Contin. (Thorpe), vol. ii. p. 107.

[807] “In castro Oxenfordiæ.” Ann. Oseney, a. 1139 (Luard,

Ann. Monast., vol. iv. p. 23).

[808] Will. Malm. Hist. Nov., l. ii. c. 20 (Hardy, p. 717), lays the
blame on the men of Alan of Richmond (or Britanny); the Gesta
Steph. (Sewell, p. 49) on Waleran of Meulan. Flor. Worc. Contin.
(Thorpe), vol. ii. p. 108, gives no name.

[809] Will. Malm. as above. Cf. Joh. Hexh. (Raine), p. 124.

[810] Ord. Vit. (Duchesne, Hist. Norm. Scriptt.), p. 919.

[811] Flor. Worc. Contin. (Thorpe), vol. ii. p. 108. Gesta Steph.
(Sewell), p. 50.

The town of Devizes stands on a steep escarpment of greensand

penetrated by two deep ravines which give it the form of a semicircle
with a tongue projecting in the middle. On this tongue of rocky
ground, five hundred feet above the level of the sea, the bishop of
Salisbury had reared a castle unsurpassed in strength and splendour
by any fortress in Europe.[812] At its gates Stephen soon appeared,
bringing the two Rogers with him as captives. The elder he lodged in
a cowshed, the younger he threatened to hang if the place was not
surrendered at once. Its unhappy owner, in terror for his son’s life,
vowed neither to eat nor drink till the castle was in the hands of
Stephen;[813] but neither his uncle’s fasting nor his cousin’s danger
moved Nigel to yield. The keep, however, was held by the