Note 1820 — Chapter VIII · THE LATER YEARS OF RICHARD. 1194–1199.

This is all that Rigord says about the disaster (Duchesne, Hist. Franc. Scriptt., vol. v. p. 37). In the hands of the poet William of Armorica it becomes a horrible romance, wherein John, as commandant of Evreux, invites the unsuspecting Frenchmen to a banquet, and then brings in his “armed Englishmen” to massacre them (Philipp., l. iv., ib. p. 143; Gesta Phil. Aug., ib. p. 77). John has so many undoubted crimes to answer for that it probably seemed a mere trifle to add one more to the list, but for that very reason one cannot admit it on the sole testimony of the poet-historiographer. The English writers say nothing of the whole matter.