Note 12 — Chapter II

Orderic has two statements as to the port from which William set sail. In his account of the Conqueror’s death (659 D), he makes him sail from Witsand. But afterwards (763 D), when speaking of Robert Bloet, he says, “Senioris Guillelmi capellanus fuerat, eoque defuncto de portu Tolochæ cum juniore Guillelmo mare transfretaverat, et epistolam regis de coronanda prole Lanfranco archiepiscopo detulerat.” This latter is to be preferred, as the more circumstantial account. Touques moreover is at once the more likely haven to be chosen by one setting out from Rouen, and the one less likely to come into the head of a careless narrator. Robert of Torigny also (Cont. Will. Gem. viii. 2) makes the place Touques.