Note 1523 — Chapter VII · RICHARD AND ENGLAND. 1189–1194.

W. Map, De Nugis Cur., dist. v. c. 6 (Wright, pp. 228–235). Walter is the only writer who tells us anything about Geoffrey’s mother; as he does not say she was a foreigner, it seems most probable that he looked upon her as an Englishwoman. The name which he gives to her—“Ykenai” or “Hikenai”—tells nothing either way, in itself. But Mr. Dimock (in his preface to the seventh volume of Gerald’s works, p. xxxvii) throws doubt upon Walter’s whole account of her except her name, and suggests that she may have belonged to a knightly family of Akeny (i.e. Acquigny) in Normandy. This, however, is a question to be investigated by a biographer of Geoffrey or a student of his later political career rather than by an historian of the Angevin kings. The doubts which W. Map tries to throw upon his connexion with them are probably affected, and clearly unfounded. Few specimens of the Angevin race are more unmistakeable than Geoffrey; one might perhaps add, few more creditable.