#Frithric.# This Abbot was chosen in the reign of Harold as leader
of the southerners against the Normans, just as Aldred, Archbishop of
York, was chosen as the leader of the northcountrymen. William
accordingly ravaged the possessions of the monastery. After the
Conquest, when William was accepted as King, Frithric administered to
him the oath that he would keep inviolate all the laws of the realm,
which former kings, especially Edward, had established. Needless to say,
William soon began to disregard this oath, and despoiled the Abbey of
St. Alban's more and more, till Frithric in despair resigned his office
as Abbot and retired to Ely, where he soon died. The monks of Ely
pretended that he took with him to their monastery the precious relics
of St. Alban the Martyr.
14. #Paul of Caen# (1077-1093). A great change now comes over the
history of the monastery. The new Abbot was a Norman and a kinsman of
Lanfranc, the first Norman Archbishop of Canterbury. Like Lanfranc, who
had been Abbot of Caen, he resolved to rebuild his church, and, like
Lanfranc, adopted in England the style he had been accustomed to at
Caen; but his ideas on the matter of size were far grander than that of
his former Abbot, for St.
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