Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/420

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. VIL MAY 21, 1913.

I would add to the list a ' Book of Verses for Children,' compiled by E. V. Lucas (Grant Richards, 1897), and ' Eyes and No Eyes, and Other Stories,' by Dr. Aikin, Mrs. Barbauld, Mrs. Marcet, and Jane Taylor (London, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1902), JAS. CURTIS, F.S.A.

EARLIEST AGE OF KNIGHTHOOD : ARTHUR OF BRITTANY (11 S. vii. 308, 355). In the year 1166 Geoffrey, third son of Henry II., King of England, Duke of Normandy, &c., was affianced to Constance, only child of Conan IV., Duke of Brittany, and Earl of Rich- mond in England, who then resigned his duchy and county to his daughter. Conan at the same time made a grant to Henry of the whole duchy of Brittany, except. the county of Guincamp, which he retained for himself. Henry, becoming lord of the duchy, received the homage of all the barons of Brittany at Thouars. Thus homage was due by the Dukes of Brittany to the repre- sentatives of Henry from this period.

Geoffrey and Constance were married in the year 1182. Geoffrey was killed on 19 Aug., 1186. His widow gave birth to a posthumous son 29 March, 1187, who was named Arthur by his mother, for the purpose of upholding the love of the Bretons for their ancient dynasty of kings.

The name of the child gave such offence to King Henry, who wished the boy to be named Henry after himself, that he com- pelled Constance to take another husband, Randle Blundeville, Earl of Chester, and they were married in the year 1188. Randle Blundeville was acceptable neither to Con- stance nor to the Bretons, and it is said he was driven out of Brittany by them.

Shortly after the death of Richard Coaur de Lion, which took place on 8 April, 1199, Constance divorced her husband ; then with her son Arthur she left Brittany, and placed the feudal guardianship of her son in the King of France. Arthur then did homage to the King of France for Anjou, Maine, and Touraine, and the King took Arthur to Paris, where the youth was guaranteed against the resentment of his uncle King John.

This proceeding, however, led to strife between the two kings, and it was during the war late in 1199 that William des Roches, a supporter of Philip, a great baron of Anjou, who had been made Seneschal of that county by Arthur, was abandoned by King Philip, and left with Arthur in Le Mans. William des Roches delivered the city to King John, and obliged the Duke of

Brittany to make peace with his uncle, John repaid this desertion of the Seneschal of AJnjou by confirming him in the offices granted by Arthur ; he gave him also the custody of the castle of Chinon, which he took from the Viscount Aimeri de Thouars, whose fidelity appeared to be doubtful. Arthur, apparently not caring to be left in the hands of his uncle, escaped from Le Mans during the night, accompanied by his mother and the Viscount de Thouars, and they took refuge in Angers.

It was probably at this particular time that Constance was married to her third husband, Guy de Thouars, brother of the Viscount de Thouars, for she became the mother of a daughter who was named Alix, born some time in the year 1200. Constance died on 4 Sept., 1201, her husband, Guy de Thouars, becoming Duke of Brittany on the death of Arthur in 1203. After the peace of Goulet, entered into by John and Philip on 22 May, 1200, the King of France " recognized John as the lawful heir to Normandy, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, and Aquitaine, and also to the overlordship of Brittany, and Arthur was then and there made to do homage to his uncle for his duchy, as soon as John had done homage to Philip for the whole continental heritage of the house of Anjou."

R. C. BOSTOOK.

2. In 1158 Henry II. of England overran Brittany, and Conan, having put himself into Henry's hands, received his confirma- tion in the dukedom of Brittany in return for the surrender of Nantes. Louis VII. of France had granted Henry a formal com- mission to arbitrate between the competitors for the dukedom and settle the whole ques- tion in dispute as he might think good, in virtue of his office as Grand Seneschal of France. In the treaty of 22 May, 1200, at Gouleton, between John and Philip Augustus, the solid advantages were wholly on the side of John, and Arthur was acknowledged as owing homage to his uncle for Brittany.

A. R. BAYLEY.

1. I do not know if this is a case in point, but in the Order of Malta the pages of the Grand Master were regularly admitted Knights of Justice at twelve years of age, or even younger, by way of making them receive Commanderies at an early age (see General Whitworth Porter's ' History of the Knights of Malta').

2. Brittany was regarded as a rere-fief of Normandy. Constance, the mother of Arthur, made her son do homage for it to John, under whose protection she placed