[50] In a charter by Arnold, bishop of Le Mans, we read: “Acta autem fuit hec auctorizatio in urbe Cenomannica, in capitulo beati Iuliani, iiiº kalendas Aprilis … eo videlicet anno quo Robertus, Willelmi regis Anglorum filius, comitatum Cenomannensem recuperavit.” _Cartulaire de Saint-Vincent_, no. 175. This charter cannot be certainly dated more closely than 1066-81. But it seems not unlikely that it belongs to the spring of 1073, when, as we know, Norman authority had just been reëstablished at Le Mans by force of arms.
[51] On these events see Augustin Fliche, _Le règne de Philippe Iᵉʳ, roi de France_ (Paris, 1912), pp. 270-274; Halphen, _Anjou_, p. 182.
[52] He is so styled in 1074 in his attestation of a charter by King William in favor of Bayeux cathedral. Davis, _Regesta_, no. 76.
[53] “Roberto … Cenomannicam urbem gubernante.” _Supra_, n. 35.
[54] Ordericus, ii, pp. 294, 390; cf. _A.-S. C., a._ 1079; Florence of Worcester, ii, p. 12. That this ceremony took place twice, once before and once after the Conquest, seems to be made certain by the specific phrase of Ordericus, “ante Senlacium bellum et post in quadam sua aegritudine.” Cf. _supra_, n. 43.
[55] Unless one so regard a speech which Ordericus (ii, p. 259) puts into the mouths of the rebel earls Roger of Hereford and Ralph of Norfolk in 1074: “Transmarinis conflictibus undique circumdatur, et non solum ab externis, sed etiam a sua prole impugnatur, et a propriis alumnis inter discrimina deseritur.” But this speech is probably a work of imagination on the part of Ordericus, and he seems here to have fallen into an anachronism. Cf. Le Prévost, in Ordericus, ii, p. 377, n. 1.
[56] Davis, _Regesta_, nos. 2, 4, 6a, 30, 73, 75, 76, 92a, 96, 105, 114; Round, _C. D. F._, nos. 713, 957, 1165; Le Prévost, _Eure_, i, p. 562; _Antiquus Cartularius Ecclesiae Baiocensis (Livre noir)_, ed. l’abbé V. Bourrienne (Paris, 1902), no. 5; _Revue catholique de Normandie_, x, pp. 46-50; _Cartulaire de la Couture_, no. 15; Lot, _Saint-Wandrille_, nos. 30, 31, 38; Bertrand de Broussillon, _Maison de Laval_, i, p. 37, no. 20. Though the authenticity of this last document has been questioned, Broussillon regards it as “parfaitement authentique.” The attestation “Rotberti comiti regis Anglorum filii” is inconsistent with the evident date of the charter (1055), and must be, in part at least, a later interpolation.