[82] Halphen, Anjou, pp. 185-186; Latouche, Maine, p. 79.
[83] Halphen, Anjou, p. 186; Latouche, Maine, p. 39.
[84] Davis, Regesta, nos. 145, 146; cf. nos. 149, 150, 158.
[85] Ibid., no. 147.
[86] Ibid., no. 182. He also attests with the king, queen, and William Rufus, in 1083, a charter in favor of Saint-Julien of Tours. Chartes de S.-Julien de Tours, no. 37.
Davis cites a “confirmation by William I” in favor of the abbey of Lessay, which is attested by Robert, along with King William, Bishop Odo of Bayeux, Henry “the king’s son,” and others, and which he assigns to 1084, remarking, “The appearance of Bishop Odo is strange, considering that he was at this time in captivity.” Regesta, no. 199. It cannot, of course, be supposed that the Conqueror really gave a confirmation in company with Odo of Bayeux while he was holding the latter in close confinement as a most bitter and dangerous enemy; and some other explanation of the apparent inconsistency must be found. A glance at the document as printed in full in Gallia Christiana (xi, instr., cols. 228-229) makes it clear that we have to do here not with a single diploma of known date, but rather with a list of notices of gifts. At the head of the list stands the record of a grant by Roger d’Aubigny, dated 1084, and accompanied by a list of witnesses. Then follow no less than six separate notices of grants, each with its own witnesses; and finally come the attestations of King William, Bishop Odo, Henry the king’s son, Count Robert, and others. There is no reason to suppose that these attestations are of the year 1084—a date which applies certainly only to the first grant in the list—and they are evidently of a later period, perhaps of the year 1091, when the abbey of Lessay might naturally seek a confirmation from the three brothers after the pacification which followed the siege of Mont-Saint-Michel. The king in question, therefore, is probably William Rufus rather than the Conqueror. The style of Henry “filii regis” is certainly surprising, but it can be matched in another document, also probably of the year 1091. Davis, Regesta, no. 320; cf. The New Palaeographical Society, Facsimiles of Ancient Manuscripts, etc. (London, 1903-), 1st series, pt. 2, plate 45a and text.
[87] Interpolations de Robert de Torigny, in William of Jumièges, pp. 265, 267-268; William of Malmesbury, G. R., ii, p. 332; Ordericus, iii, p. 268.
[88] “Serenitas pacis diu quaesitae inter regem et filium eius celeriter obnubilata est. Protervus enim iuvenis patrem sequi, vel ei obedire dedignatus est. Animosus vero princeps ob ignaviam eius crebris eum redargutionibus et conviciis palam iniuriatus est. Unde denuo post aliquod tempus, paucis sodalibus fretus, a patre recessit, nec postea rediit; donec pater moriens Albericum comitem, ut ducatum Neustriae reciperet, in Galliam ad eum direxit.” Ordericus, ii, p. 390.
[89] Ibid., p. 380.
[90] Robert appears in no reliable charter between the queen’s death and his own accession to the duchy.