e,
which stood on the south side of the building.

In 1123 the Abbey was complete, and was consecrated on November 20th,
with much ceremony, by Theulf, Bishop of Worcester, assisted by the
Bishops of Llandaff, Hereford, Dublin, and another whose name is
unknown.

The main part of the church, as it now stands, is usually assigned to
about 1123, and substantially is as strong now as it was then.

In the following year, 1124, Abbot Robert died, and soon afterwards
Theulf, the old Bishop of Worcester, also passed away.

Of Fitz-Hamon's four daughters two became abbesses, another was
married to the Earl of Brittany, and Mabel was given to Robert, one of
the many illegitimate sons of Henry I. She seems to have been a
business-like lady, and to have hesitated at the proposed union with a
nameless lord, unless a title could be made to go with him. As Robert
of Gloucester writes:

"The Kyng understood that the mayde seyde non outrage
And that Gloucestre was chief of hyre eritage.
'Damozel,' he seyde, 'thy lord shall have a name
For hym and for hys eyrs, fayr wyth out blame,
For Robert of Gloucestre hys name shall be and is:
For he shall be Erl of Gloucestre and his eyres, I wis.'"

This Robert Fitzroy, thus made the first Earl of Gloucester, was a
great benefactor to the Abbey. To him are due the completion of the
church and the greater part of the tower. According to Leland, the
stone was brought over from Caen, but some seems to have been local
stone from Prestbury and Cheltenham. He was as prominent in the arts
of peace as he was afterwards in those of war, inheriting his taste
for the former from his scholarly father. It is to him that the
chronicler William of Malmesbury dedicated his work.

Robert Fitzroy died in Gloucester in 1147, but was buried at St.
James' Priory, Bristol, another foundation which was indebted to his
munificence. His successor was William Fitzcount, the second Earl of
Gloucester.

In 1178 the monastery was partly burnt down, the church fortunately
suffering but little. There are some slight traces of fire on the
exterior walls of the south and west faces of the tower, and on the
interior of the south transept. The Annals of Winton say, "_Combusta
est et redacta in pulverem Ecclesia de Theokesberia_"--an untenable
hypothesis; but the Tewkesbury Chronicles merely mention that the
monastery and the offices were destroyed. John, Earl of Cornwall,
better known as King Jo