Note 698 — Chapter XII · THE LATER REIGN OF WILLIAM IN NORMANDY.[159] 1051–1066. (continued 3)
Reading edition
Will. Pict. 110. Britanny is “regio longè latèque diffusa, milite, magis quam credibile sit, referta.” He goes on to say; “Partibus e quidem in illis miles unus quinquaginta genuerat, sortitus more barbaro denas aut ampliùs uxores; quod de Mauris veteribus refertur, legis divinæ atque pudici ritûs ignaris. Ad hoc populositas ipsa armis et equis maximè, arvorum culturæ aut morum minimè student.” The word “denas” seems to show that this patriarchal state of things was not confined to one particular knight. One hardly sees why the ancient Moors should have been picked out as the horrid example, rather than the modern Saracens or any other polygamous people.
The Chronicle of St. Michael’s Mount (Labbé, i. 350), under the year 1056, says of Conan’s uncle, “Hic Eudo multos habuit filios.” Was he the “miles” whom William of Poitiers had specially in his eye?