Note 436 — Chapter VI

This is Orderic’s story. The three wives of Fulk are carefully reckoned up in the Gesta Consulum (Chroniques d’Anjou, i. 140) and in the Gesta Ambasiensium Dominorum (i. 191). Bertrada therefore had some reason when we read, “Bertrada Andegavorum comitissa, metuens ne vir suus quod jam duabus aliis fecerat sibi faceret, et relicta contemptui ceu vile scortum fieret, conscia nobilitatis et pulcritudinis suæ fidissimum legatum Philippo regi Francorum destinavit, eique quod in corde tractabat, evidenter notificavit. Malebat enim ultro virum relinquere aliumque appetere quam a viro relinqui, omniumque patere despectui.” Some details of the elopement of Bertrada from Tours are given in the Gesta Consulum, i. 142, and in the acts of the Lords of Amboise, i. 192. She appears there as “pessima uxor Fulconis comitis.”