Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/21

1922 dispose of this criticism by urging that this William 'was a very real person, being the king's treasurer, sheriff, and chamberlain, and references to him will be found in Round's Geoffrey de Mandeville, pp. 4, 11, 12, 46, 62, 234, 263, 265, 297'. This is a formidable list of references; but, as Mr. Rye has looked them out, he must be perfectly aware that they almost all relate to Stephen's reign. Their actual date-limit is 1130–44, so that they range from forty-three to fifty-seven years after William's alleged action in 1087.

It is, however, to his second argument that I specially invite attention. It is this:

"What is still more to the point is that I can prove [sic] he (i.e. William) was personally known to Eudo, for he had sat on a Commission with him in 1072. (See Davis's Regist. [sic], nos. 431–3, pp. 107–8.)"

This reference is most precise. If, however, the reader is prudent enough to verify it, he will discover, to his surprise, that William de Pont de l'Arche is not even mentioned; nor, I may add, is he to be found in the index to the book. What can be the explanation? I discovered it at last in another portion of Mr. Rye's treatise. We there read that in 'Davis, No. 66 ', William

"is mentioned as sitting on a Commission with Lanfranc and William de Archis. It is possible [sic] the latter was the William de Pont de l'Arche, afterwards treasurer of Winchester, mentioned in the Colchester Chronicle as helping Eudo in his scheme for getting the throne for Rufus, and whose very existence was doubted by Freeman."

Mr. Rye's proof, therefore, consists of a suggestion so wild that it is not even 'possible'! I need scarcely say that Arques and Pont de l'Arche are wholly distinct names; Mr. Davis has several entries in his index, under 'Archis' and 'Arques'; Mr. Freeman devoted a special appendix to 'The revolt of William of Arques' ; I myself have done the same in my Geoffrey de Mandeville. There is not, therefore, the slightest reason for supposing that the 'Willelmus de Archis' of 1072 was William de Pont de l'Arche, who, moreover, witnessed a charter of 1144–7, a date which would give him an official career of wellnigh sixty years since his alleged action at Winchester in 1087.

One need hardly pursue Eudo's career further; but there is a gem in this treatise which it is impossible to omit. In Mr. Rye's biography of his hero, on p. 47, we read that