Account of a Tour in Normandy, Volume 1 — John Shaqi
Account of a Tour in Normandy, Volume 1Turner, Dawson
History
Account of a Tour in Normandy, Volume 1
Turner, Dawson
Architecture -- France -- Normandy; Normandy (France) -- Antiquities; Normandy (France) -- Description and travel
same hill on which the present fortress stands. This strong hold,
however, afforded little protection; for we find that, in 1195, Philip
Augustus of France, entering Normandy with an hostile army, laid siege
to Dieppe, and set fire not only to the town, but also to the shipping
in the harbor. Two years subsequently to this event, Dieppe ceased to
form a part of the demesne of the Sovereign of the Duchy. Richard the
Ist had given great offence to Walter, Archbishop of Rouen, by
persisting in the erection of Château Gaillard, in the vicinity of
Andelys, which belonged to the archbishop in right of his see; and
though our lion-hearted monarch was not appalled either by the papal
interdict or by the showers of blood that fell upon his workmen, yet at
length he thought it advisable to purchase at once the forgiveness of
the prelate and the secular seignory of Andelys, by surrendering to him,
as an equivalent, the towns and lordships of Dieppe and Louviers, the
land and forest of Alihermont, the land and lordship of Bouteilles, and
the mills of Rouen. This exchange was regarded as so great a subject of
triumph to the archbishop, that he caused the memory of it to be
perpetuated by inscriptions upon crosses in various parts of Rouen, some
of which remained as late as 1610, when Taillepied wrote his _Recueil
des Antiquitéz et Singularitéz de la Ville de Rouen_. The following
lines are given as one of these inscriptions in the _Gallia
Christiana_[10]:
"Vicisti, Galtere, tui sunt signa triumphi
Deppa, Locoveris, Alacris-mons, Butila, molta,
Deppa maris portus, Alacris-mons locus amoenus,
Villa Locoveris, rus Butila, molta per urbem.
Hactenus hæc Regis Richardi jura fuere;
Hæc rex sancivit, hæc papa, tibique tuere[11]."
Nor was this the only memorial of the fact; for the advantages of the
exchange were so generally recognized, that the name of Walter became
proverbial; and to this day it is said in Normandy of a man who
over-reaches another, "c'est un fin Gautier." It might be inferred from
the terms of the bargain in which Dieppe merely appears as one of the
items of the account, that it was then a place of little consequence;
yet, one of the old chroniclers speaks of it at the time it was taken by
the French under Philip Augustus, as
"portus famâ celeberrimus atque
Villa potens opibus."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account