Note 41 — Chapter III · EWYAS AND LLANTHONI

This anecdote is thus related by the historian Hollinshed: “Hereof it came on a time, whiles the king sojourned in France about his warres, which he held against king Philip, there came unto him a French priest, whose name was Fulco, who required the king in anywise to put from him three abominable daughters which he had, and to bestow them in marriage, least God punished him for them. ‘Thou liest, hypocrite (said the king), to thy verie face; for all the world knoweth I have not one daughter.’ ‘I lie not (said the priest), for thou hast three daughters: one of them is called Pride, the second Covetousness, and the third Lecherie.’ With that the king called to him his lords and barons, and said to them, ‘This hypocrite heere hath required me to marry awaie my three daughters, which (as he saith) I cherish, nourish, foster, and mainteine; that is to say, Pride, Covetousness, and Lecherie: and now that I have found out necessarie and fit husbands for them, I will do it with effect, and seeks no more delaies. I therefore bequeath my pride to the high-minded Templars and Hospitallers, which are as proud as Lucifer himselfe; my covetousness I give unto the White Monks, otherwise called of the Cisteaux order, for they covet the divell and all; my lecherie I commit to the prelats of the church, who have most pleasure and felicitie therein.’”