The Annals of Coggeshall, Otherwise Sunnedon, in Essex

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1863. Excerpt: ... IV. THE ABBEY. Foundation by Queen Matilda. Eustace, Earl of Boulogne, left behind him three sons. Godfrey the eldest, was, at the close of the first crusade, elected king of Jerusalem, where his tomb is pointed out in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at this day; and was succeeded by his brother Baldwin. Eustace, the third, married Mary, the daughter of Malcolm III. of Scotland, and their daughter Matilda became wife of Stephen, Earl of Blois, afterwards king of England. The manor of Coggeshall was a part of her inheritance, and was given for the purpose of founding an Abbey, according to the following charter: -- Matilda, by the grace of God Queen of the English to all the prelates and faithful of the Holy Church greeting. Be it known unto you all that my lord King Stephen, and I, and my son Eustace, give and grant in perpetual alms for the health of our souls, and the souls of our ancestors, and of our children, and of all our friends, as well living as dead, to God and the Holy Church of Mary, and to the abbot and convent of Coggeshal, all the same manor of Coggeshal, in land and men, in wood and plain, in water and out of water, in way and out of way, and in all things pertaining to the same, as free and peaceable as Earl Eustace and my father, and we afterwards more freely and peaceably held it: to wit freed and discharged from all pleas and complaints, from scots and aids, from shires and hundreds, from Danegelt and from all gelts and armj of footmen and horse, from work of the park, and work and defence of the castle, and every other work and every kind of service, from murdur and all other matters, and all exactions with sacha and socha, and toll and team, and infangentheof the right of taking and punishing thieves, and all customs, and their lib...