Note 399 — Chapter III · ANJOU AND BLOIS. 987–1044.

Chron. S. Maxent. a. 1044 (Marchegay, Eglises, pp. 394, 395). It seems quite plain that the elder boy’s baptismal name was Peter, but he signs his charters “William” (see Besly, Comtes de Poitou, preuves, pp. 314, 317). The Chron. S. Maxent. a. 1058 (as above, p. 400) calls him “Willelmus qui et Petrus, cognomento Acer.” In recording the birth of the two boys (a. 1023, ib. p. 388) the same writer calls them “Petrum cognomine Acerrimum, et Gaufredum qui et Wido vocatus est”; and he afterwards speaks of the latter by both names indifferently. It seems however to have been an established rule that the reigning duke of Aquitaine must be officially called William; for Guy-Geoffrey also assumed the name when he succeeded his brother in 1058.