ve five of the best palfreys, that the king would
hold his tongue about Henry Pinel's wife. There are in the records of
exchequer many other singular instances of a like nature.[*] It will,
however, be just to remark, that the same ridiculous practices and
dangerous abuses prevailed in Normandy, and probably in all the other
states of Europe.[**] England was not in this respect more barbarous
than its neighbors.

These iniquitous practices of the Norman kings were so well known, that,
on the death of Hugh Bigod, in the reign of Henry II., the best and most
just of these princes, the eldest son and the widow of this nobleman
came to court, and strove, by offering large presents to the king, each
of them to acquire possession of that rich inheritance. The king was so
equitable as to order the cause to be tried by the great council!
But, in the mean time, he seized all the money and treasure of the
deceased,[***] Peter, of Blois, a judicious, and even an elegant writer,
for that age, gives a pathetic description of the reign of Henry; and he
scruples not to complain to the king himself of these abuses.[****]

[* We shall gratify the reader's curiosity by
subjoining a few more instances from Madox, p. 332. Hugh
Oisel was to give the king two robes of a good green color,
to have the king's letters patent to the merchants of
Flanders with a request to render him one thousand marks,
which he lost in Flanders. The abbot of Hyde paid thirty
marks, to have the king's letters of request to the
archbishop of Canterbury, to remove certain monks that were
against the abbot. Roger de Trihanton paid twenty marks and
a palfrey, to have the king's request to Richard de
Umfreville to give him his sister to wife, and to the sister
that she would accept of him for a husband; William de
Cheveringworth paid five marks, to have the king's letter to
the abbot of Perfore, to let him enjoy peaceably his tithes
as formerly; Matthew de Hereford, clerk, paid ten marks for
a letter of request to the bishop of Llandaff, to let him
enjoy peaceably his church of Schenfrith; Andrew Neuhm gave
three Flemish caps, for the king's request to the prior of
Chikesand, for performance of an agreement made between
them; Henry de Fontibus gave a Lombardy horse of value, to
have the king's request to Henry Fitz-Hervey, that he would
give him his daughter