Note 41 — Chapter I · THE BOY DUKE 1157-1179

Gesta Hen., i. 35-6. The presence of Eleanor and the date of the homage—“Dominica qua cantatur Invocavit Me,” i. e. February 25—are mentioned only by Geoff. Vigeois, 319, who adds: “Feria quarta, alias sexta, heroes qui per dies septem concilium celebravere Lemovica discedunt ab urbe”; i. e. the kings and counts were at Limoges either from Thursday, February 22, to Wednesday, 28, or from Saturday, February 24, to Friday, March 2. This assembly of a week’s duration at Limoges is clearly to be identified with the one described by the local chronicler, Bernard Itier, in a very corrupt passage which his latest editor, M. Duplès-Agier, has printed (p. 58) from the much mutilated MS. with conjectural emendations, thus: “Anno gracie MCLXXII ... [Alienor Regina] et filio Ricardo et com ... [et regibus de] Arragonia et de Navarra [venerunt] ... Lemovicas et per viii dies in ca[stro Lemovicensi moram] fecerunt.” February 1173 in our reckoning would be February 1172 in Bernard’s reckoning, as in the kingdom of France the year began at Easter. I think that for “Alienor Regina” we should substitute “Rex cum Regina,” and supply “[ite Tolosæ]” after “com.” What the king of Navarre—Sancho VI, father of Berengaria whom Richard ultimately married—had come for, there is nothing to show. Count Gerard of Vienne, whom R. Diceto (i. 353) adds to the list of those present, was a Provençal subfeudatary of Raymond of Toulouse, and so may have been concerned in Raymond’s dispute with Alfonso. The statement of R. Diceto (i. 353-4) that “quia Ricardus Dux Aquitaniæ, cui facturus esset homagium comes Sancti Ægidii, presens non erat, usque ad octavas Pentecostes negotii complementum dilationem accepit,” is clearly erroneous.