[184] “Elegantissimus in rebus bellicis” is the quaint language of the Angevin chronicler, 176.
[185] See De Salies, Histoire de Foulques Nerra, which indirectly throws considerable light on the archæological question.
[186] Salies, Histoire de Foulques Nerra, p. 170. M. Enlart, in his Manuel d’Archæologie Française, ii., 495, has been misled about this castle by the Chronicon Andegavense, which says: “Odo.... Fulconem expugnare speravit, et totis nisibus adorsus est. Annoque presenti (1025) Montis Budelli castellum, quod circiter annos decem retro abhinc contra civitatem Turonicam firmaverat Fulco, obsedit, et turrim ligneam miræ altitudinis super domgionem ipsius castri erexit.” Bouquet, x., 176. M. Enlart takes this to be the first recorded instance of a motte. But the passage is evidently corrupt, as the other accounts of this affair show that Count Odo’s wooden tower was a siege engine, employed to attack Fulk’s castle, and afterwards burnt by the besieged. See the Gesta Ambasiens. Dom., ibid., p. 257, and the Chron. St Florentii. Probably we should read contra domgionem instead of super. The Chronicon Andegavense was written in the reign of Henry II.
[187] When Fulk invaded Bretagne in or about 992, he collected an army “tam de suis quam conductitiis.” Richerius, edition Guadet. The editor remarks that this is perhaps the first example of the use of mercenaries since the time of the Romans (ii., 266). Spannagel, citing Peter Damian, says that mercenaries were already common at the end of the 10th century. Zur Geschichte des Deutschen Heerwesens, pp. 72, 73.
[188] This was always the custom in mediæval castles. See Cohausen, Befestigungen der Vorzeit, p. 282.
[189] “Qui vivens turres altas construxit et ædes, Unam Carnotum, sed apud Dunense reatum.” Chron. St Florentii.
[190] Chron. Namnetense, Lobineau, ii., 47.
[191] Gesta Ambasiensium Dominorum, in Spicilegium, p. 273.
[192] Guide Joanne, p. 234.
[193] The furthest point of the headland on which the castle is placed is a small circular court, with a fosse on all sides but the precipices. From personal visitation.