Introduction

In 1075, the regime of William the Conqueror was challenged by the ‘Revolt of the Three Earls’: Ralph of East Anglia, Roger of Hereford and Waltheof of Northumbria.1 While the king himself was in Normandy, the uprising was contained by loyalist forces led by a remarkable group of his leading followers. This group included no fewer than five major ecclesiastics. One force, among whose leaders were Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester and Abbot Æthelwig of Evesham, blocked Roger’s advance, preventing him from crossing the river Severn. Another, led by Bishops Odo of Bayeux and Geoffrey of Coutances, drove Ralph from Cambridge back to Norwich, where they undertook a successful siege of the city. The revolt collapsed, and a delighted Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury wrote to the king to inform him that order had been restored, that the defeated rebels would be leaving the country shortly and that England was ‘purged of Breton dung’ (purgatum est spurcicia Britonum).2 A prompt and decisive campaign under highly competent leadership had snuffed out a significant challenge to the new government before a crisis could become a disaster. The five prelates involved, however, were not merely royal servants or politicians in clerical dress. They were men of very different backgrounds and equally varied reputations. They were one archbishop, three bishops and an abbot – two Normans, one Italian and two Englishmen. Odo and Geoffrey are remembered as much for their energetic military campaigns as for their spiritual activities, while Lanfranc is familiar to us principally for his role as a reformer. Æthelwig is remembered for his skilful administration and his political acumen, while Wulfstan enjoyed a formidable reputation for his piety and virtue; since the thirteenth century he has been formally recognised by the Roman Church as a saint. No contemporary condemned these men for their military activities or even expressed surprise at them.