Note 10 — Chapter I · YOUTH

Cartulaire de l’abbaye de la Sainte-Trinité du Mont de Rouen, ed. Achille Deville, no. 37, in Collection de cartulaires de France (Paris, 1840: Documents Inédits), iii, p. 441; Chartes de Saint-Julien de Tours, ed. J.-L. Denis (Le Mans, 1912), no. 24. Both these charters are dated 1053, and the attestations of Matilda seem incontestably contemporary. The Tours charter in addition to the incarnation has “regnante Henrico rege anno xxviii.” This is unusual and might raise a doubt, but it pretty clearly refers to the year 1053. No. 26 of the same collection similarly gives 1059 as the thirty-fourth year of King Henry. Both evidently reckon the reign as beginning from 1026, when Henry was probably designated heir to the throne a year before his actual coronation in 1027. Christian Pfister, Études sur le règne de Robert le Pieux (Paris, 1885), pp. 76-77. This conclusion seems to be confirmed by a charter of 26 May in the thirtieth year of Robert the Pious (1026?) which Henry attests as king, according to Pfister, ‘by anticipation.’ Ibid., p. lxxxii, no. 78. But Frédéric Soehnée does not accept Pfister’s conclusion. Catalogue des actes d’Henri Iᵉʳ, roi de France, 1031-1060 (Paris, 1907), no. 10. The original is not extant.

Ferdinand Lot has published two charters—both from originals—dated 1051, which bear attestations of Countess Matilda and of Robert ‘iuvenis comitis.’ The attestation of Robert Curthose will save one from any temptation to carry the marriage of William and Matilda back to 1051 on the evidence of these documents, for even though the marriage had taken place as early as 1049, it would clearly be impossible for Robert to attest a document in 1051. Lot explains, “Les souscriptions de Matilde … et de son fils aîné Robert ont été apposées après coup, et semblent autographes.” Études critiques sur l’abbaye de Saint-Wandrille (Paris, 1913), nos. 30, 31, pp. 74-77.