Note 649 — Chapter IV · HENRY AND THE BARONS. 1166–1175.

Gesta Hen. (as above), pp. 41, 42. R. Diceto (as above), p. 355. The chronology is here in great confusion. The Gesta tell us that the two kings reached Chinon just before Mid-Lent (which in 1173 was on March 16), that young Henry was next day at Alençon, the day after that at Argentan, and that on the third night, “circa gallicantum,” he went off again, “octavâ Idus Martii, feriâ quintâ ante mediam Quadragesimam.” (In the printed edition by Bishop Stubbs—vol. i. p. 42— the word mediam has been accidentally omitted; see note to his edition of R. Diceto, vol. ii. pref. p. xxxvi, note 6). It is of course impossible to make anything of such a contradiction as this. On the other hand, R. Diceto gives only one date, that of the young king’s flight from Argentan, which he places on March 23. Now in 1173 March 23 was the Friday after Mid-Lent Sunday. Reckoning backwards from this—i.e. from the night of Thursday-Friday, March 22–23, for it is plain that the flight took place before daybreak—we should find the young king at Alençon on Wednesday, March 21, and at Chinon on Tuesday, March 20; that is, four days after Mid-Lent. It looks very much as if the author or the scribe of the Gesta had written “ante” instead of “post” twice over.