Note 495 — Chapter III · JOHN “SOFTSWORD” 1199–1206 (continued 2)

The next stage of his Itinerary is “Saint Alemand” (September 23–26), and the next after that (September 30, October 1) a place whose name is recorded only in a contracted form (“Bercer’,” Rot. Pat. vol. i. p. 167 b; “Berc’,” Rot. Claus. vol. i. p. 74 b) which can hardly represent anything else than “Berchères” or “Bercières” (Sir T. D. Hardy made it Bercy, but this is surely impossible). Saint Alemand is probably one of two places now called Saint-Amand, in the Angoumois. “Tiebauts de Biaumont qui sires estoit de Bierchières [var. Bercières]” figures among the Aquitanian barons who besieged Savaric de Mauléon at Niort in 1205; Hist. des Ducs de Normandie, p. 102. I have failed to identify the place, but it was clearly in Aquitaine.