[62] “Proinde ut regno Angliae principatus Scotiae subactus foret, obsides tribuit.” Chronicon de Abingdon, pp. 9-10. Simeon of Durham says rather contemptuously that Robert returned from Eccles “nullo confecto negotio.” H. R., p. 211. But this statement is hardly inconsistent with the Abingdon account. A Durham writer, thirsting for vengeance, might very well use it in spite of the results accomplished by Robert’s peaceful negotiations. William of Malmesbury uses very similar language of the expedition of William Rufus eleven years later: “Statimque primo contra Walenses, post in Scottos expeditionem movens, nihil magnificentia sua dignum exhibuit.” G. R., ii, p. 365. The Abingdon account is circumstantial, and the presence of the abbot indicates a sure source of information, though perhaps a biassed one.
[63] Simeon, H. R., p. 211.
[64] Chronicon de Abingdon, ii, p. 10.
[65] Davis, Regesta, nos. 135, 140; cf. Hist. et Cart. S. Petri Gloucestriae, i, no. 411, a charter of 1078-83, perhaps of 1081.
[66] Supra, p. 14.
[67] On the date (September-October 1076) see Halphen, Anjou, p. 182; Prou, Actes de Philippe Iᵉʳ, nos. 83, 84; Annales dites de Renaud, in Recueil d’annales angevines et vendômoises, ed. Louis Halphen (Paris, 1903), p. 88.
[68] Ibid. On the Norman siege of Dol in general see Fliche, Philippe Iᵉʳ, pp. 271-272.
[69] Ordericus, ii, p. 256.
[70] “Turbulentis tempestatibus, quas a Cenomannensibus et Normannis permotas esse diximus, fomes (ut ferunt) et causa fuit Rodbertus regis filius.” Ibid., p. 294; cf. p. 297.
[71] Halphen, relying upon the Annales de Saint-Aubin, has assigned Fulk’s first attack upon La Flèche to 1076, suggesting that Fulk launched it while the Conqueror was engaged in the north at the siege of Dol. Anjou, pp. 182-183. These conclusions, however, seem too dogmatic. There is no evidence which indicates a connection between the attack upon La Flèche and the king’s Breton enterprise; and it seems hardly likely that Fulk would have entered upon an undertaking against La Flèche which proved beyond his powers, while he was also operating against the Conqueror in Brittany. Further, the date 1076 from the Annales de Saint-Aubin (Halphen, Annales, p. 5) is not to be relied upon: because (1) the numeral “mlxxvi” is entered twice in the MS., the entry concerning La Flèche being the second of the two, and no such repetition appears elsewhere in these annals. We are, therefore, forewarned of a scribal error. And (2) the probability of such an error is made stronger by the fact that MSS. C, A, and B all read “mlxxvii,” while the Annales de Saint-Florent (ibid., p. 119) read “mlxxviii.” Having no other chronological data than are furnished by these meagre and uncertain annals, it is impossible to fix the date of the first attack upon La Flèche. It may have taken place in 1076, 1077, or 1078. On the whole, one of the later dates seems more probable than 1076, in view of the vague indications of some connection with Robert’s rebellion (supra, n. 70), and in view of the fact that Fulk was involved in Breton affairs in 1076.