And if a general war should break out in the kingdom, they should use their utmost diligence, and do all in their power to protect the church of St. Alban. And these covenants Turnot and his companions faithfully observed, as did also their heirs up to the time when King William conquered England. Then, because they disdained to come under the yoke of the Normans, the manor was taken from them. Refusing to submit, they chose rather to betake themselves to the forest, and laid ambushes for the Normans who had taken possession of their lands, burnt their houses, and killed many of them. But, the king’s affairs going well, some made their peace with him, some were captured and punished.… However, a certain noble, Roger de Thoni by name, who, in the distribution of lands, came into possession of the manor, did not refuse to acknowledge the right of St. Alban’s, and zealously performed the before-mentioned duty. He was highly renowned in arms, a Norman by race, of the stock of those famous soldiers who are called after the Swan.”[3] As the chronicler, who is supposed to have written before 1259, says nothing of any lapse of the agreement, it seems probable that it was still in force in his day, and that the wardenship has existed continuously from the eleventh century to our own days. About a century later matters had got from bad to worse:— About 1160. A kind of robbers not before heard of began to infest the country. Disguised as monks, these men joined travellers, and when they reached the spot where their fellows were lying in ambush, they gave a signal, and, turning on the deluded wayfarers, robbed and murdered them.[4] Still a century later, in 1249, bitter complaints were made by certain merchants of Brabant of the unsafe state of the roads in the neighbourhood of Winchester. These merchants had been robbed of two hundred marks by men whose faces they had seen about the court. They threatened reprisals on the goods of English merchants in Brabant. The king, greatly moved, took strong measures. Twelve persons were selected and sworn to give up the names of robbers known to them, but after deliberation they refused to inculpate any one. They were thrown into prison, and twelve others were chosen. These, finding that the first twelve were condemned to be hanged, gave up the names of many men, of whom some thirty were hanged, an equal number being thrown into prison. It is clear that there existed a widespread organisation in which were involved some belonging to the king’s household. These put the blame on the king himself: they had not received their pay, and were compelled to rob in order to maintain themselves.