Note 113 — Chapter VI · THE LOSS OF NORMANDY

Versus Serlonis, in H. F., xix, pp. xci ff.; Ordericus, iv, p. 219; Wace. Roman de Rou, ii, p. 471; cf. Florence of Worcester, ii, p. 54. Wace’s account of the siege of Bayeux is elaborate, and credits the city with a long and stubborn resistance. But in the absence of all evidence to this effect in the other sources, and in the face of the positive testimony of the poet Serlo, an eyewitness, that the defence was weak and cowardly on the part of both garrison and inhabitants, Wace’s view cannot be accepted.