[1] [2] [3] In the yeare of our Lord 1542. Monsieur de Ca|stres bishop of Baieulx and abbat of Saint Estien|ne in Caen, caused the sepulchre of this William to be opened, wherein his bodie was found whole, faire and perfect; of lims, large and big; of stature and per|sonage, longer than the ordinarie sort of men: with a copper plate fairlie gilt, and this epitaph therevpon ingrauen:

Qui rexit rigidos Normannos, atque Britannos

Audacter vicit, fortiter obtinuit,

Et Coenomenses virtute contudit enses,

Imperij suilegibus applicuit,

[page 16] Rex magnus parua iacet hac Guilhelmus in vrna:

Sufficit & magno parua domus domino,

Ter septem gradibus se voluerat at duobus

Virginis in gremio Phoebus, & hic o [...]ijt:

Who ouer Normans rough did rule,

and ouer Britons bold

Did conquest stoutlie win, and con|quest

woone did stronglie hold:

Who by his valure great the fa|tall

vprores calmd in maine,

And to obeie his powers and lawes,

the Manceaux did constraine:

This mightie king within this lit|tle

vault intoomed lies,

So great a lord sometime, W. Patten collecteth this to be the 23. after the sun was in Virgo: which is the 6 of Septẽber so small

a roome dooth now suffice.

When three times seuen and two by iust

degrees the sunne had tooke

His woonted course in Virgos lap,

then he the world forsooke.