[25] The whole episode is related with much detail by Ordericus Vitalis in one of his most pleasing chapters. Ordericus, iv, pp. 99-102. His whole account is in general confirmed by the Actus Pontificum (p. 404), which, however, make no mention of the envoy sent to Robert, and merely record that the besieged garrison waited in vain for aid from the king. The date of the surrender of the garrison can be placed definitely before 1 November 1100 on the evidence of a donation in favor of Saint-Aubin of Angers. Archives départementales de la Sarthe, H 290 (Inventaire sommaire, iii, p. 127). The document is dated in the year of King William’s death “et recuperationis Helie comitis Cenomanorum,” 1100, indiction viii, kalends of November. According to the Actus Pontificum, the garrison held out for more than three months, but this is evidently an exaggeration, as it would carry us beyond November. The surrender must, it seems safe to conclude, have taken place on or very shortly before that date.
[26] Latouche, Maine, pp. 51-52.
[27] William of Malmesbury, G. R., ii, p. 471.
[28] A.-S. C., a. 1101; Florence of Worcester, ii, p. 48; cf. Annales de Wintonia, in Annales Monastici, ii, p. 40.
[29] Ordericus, iv, pp. 103-104.
[30] “Tunc Rodberto de Belismo Sagiensem episcopatum et Argentomum castrum silvamque Golferni donavit.” Ibid., p. 104. The meaning of “Sagiensem episcopatum” is not clear. Le Prévost says: “Nous pensons que par episcopatus Sagiensis il faut entendre, non pas les revenus ecclésiastiques de l’évêché de Séez, mais la possession et les revenus féodaux du pays qui en dépendait et qui est plus connu sous le nom d’Hiémois.” Ibid., p. 104, n. 2. Freeman understands the phrase to mean the “ducal right of advowson over the bishopric of Séez”—“a claim very dear to the house of Belesme.” William Rufus, ii, p. 396. Ordericus Vitalis (iv, pp. 104, 162-163, 192) mentions this grant in practically identical language on three separate occasions.
[31] Ordericus, iv, pp. 104-105.
[32] William of Malmesbury, G. R., ii, p. 471.
[33] “Laudo ergo et mando ne per Northmanniam venias, sed per Guitsand, et ego Doveram obviam habebo tibi barones meos.” Epistolae Anselmi, bk. iii, no. 41, in Migne, clix, col. 76.
[34] Eadmer, p. 120.