Note 820 — Chapter VIII · THE EARLY YEARS OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.[497] A.D. 1028–1051. (continued 2)

The history of the Counts of Anjou is given at length, but mixed up with much legendary matter in the early parts, in the “Gesta Consulum Andegavensium,” by an author of the time of Henry the Second, printed in D’Achery’s Spicilegium, iii. 234. It is introduced by a most curious fragment, namely a short Angevin history written or dictated by Count Fulk, nephew and successor of Geoffrey Martel. A lay historian is a phænomenon which we have not come across since the time of our own Æthelweard, and it is not to be denied that the Count shows much sounder sense, and a much nearer approach to historical criticism, than the monk of Marmoutier. He had at least one advantage in his princely rank, that he had nothing to gain by flattering his own forefathers.