d Anjou. He pretends that Count Geoffrey, his father, had left
his these dominions by a secret will, and had ordered that his body
should not be buried till Henry should swear to the observance of it,
which he, ignorant of the contents, was induced to do. But besides that
this story is not very likely in itself, and savers of monkish fiction,
it is found in no other ancient writer, and is contradicted by some of
them, particularly the monk of Marmoutier, who had better opportunities
than Newbridge of knowing the truth. See Vita Gauf Duc. Norman, p. 103.]

[Footnote 16: NOTE P, p. 293. The sum scarcely appears credible; as it
would amount to much above half the rent of the whole land. Gervase is
indeed a contemporary author; but churchmen are often guilty of strange
mistakes of that nature, and are commonly but little acquainted with
the public revenues. This sum would make five hundred and forty thousand
pounds of our present money. The Norman Chronicle (p. 995) lays, that
Henry raised only sixty Angevin shillings on each knight's fee in his
foreign dominions: this is only a fourth of the sum which Gervase says
he levied on England, an inequality nowise probable. A nation may by
degrees be brought to bear a tax of fifteen shillings in the pound; but
a sudden and precarious tax can never be imposed to that amount without
a very visible necessity, especially in an age so little accustomed to
taxes. In the succeeding reign the rent of a knight's fee was computed
at four pounds a year. There were sixty thousand knights fees in
England.]

[Footnote 17: NOTE Q, p. 295. Fitz-Stephen, p. 18. This conduct appears
violent and arbitrary; but was suitable to the strain of administration
in those days. His father Geoffrey, though represented as a mild prince,
set him an example of much greater violence. When Geoffrey was master of
Normandy, the chapter of Sens presumed, without his consent, to proceed
to the election of a bishop; upon which he ordered all of them with the
bishop elect, to be castrated, and made all their testicles be brought
him in a platter. Fitz-Steph. p. 44. In the war of Toulouse, Henry laid
a heavy and an arbitrary tax on all the churches within his dominions.
See Epist. St. Thom. p. 232.]

[Footnote 18: NOTE R, p. 307. I follow here the narrative of
Fitz-Stephens, who was secretary to Becket; though, no doubt, he may be
suspected of partiality towards his patron. Lord Lyttleton chooses to
follow the au