Note 1325 — Chapter VI · THE LAST YEARS OF HENRY II. 1183–1189.

The Gesta Hen. (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 71, make Richard meet the corpse on its way; and Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 367, follows the Gesta. But the Hist. de Guill. le Mar. and Gir. Cambr. De Instr. Princ., dist. iii. c. 28 (Angl. Christ. Soc., p. 157) both distinctly say that he met it at Fontevraud. The other version is intrinsically most improbable, for Richard can hardly have been coming from anywhere else than Tours, and in that case he could not possibly meet the funeral train on its way from Chinon to Fontevraud. That he should reach Fontevraud some hours after it, on the other hand, is perfectly natural; and this is just what Gerald and the French Life imply; for they both tell us that the funeral started from Chinon on the day after the death—i.e. Friday, July 7—and Gerald (as above, p. 158) implies that the actual burial took place the day after Richard’s arrival, while in the Vita Galfr., l. i. c. 5 (Brewer, vol. iv. p. 372), he seems to place it on the Saturday, July 8. See Bishop Stubbs’s preface to Rog. Howden, vol. ii. p. lxix, note 1. One of the MSS. of Mat. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Luard, vol. ii. p. 344, note 8) has a curiously different version of Richard’s behaviour on the occasion.