France and Normandy, who were never loyal to either neighbour, and whose name, as we have already seen, was one day to become a by-word for turbulent wickedness both in Normandy and in England. Sainfred was said to have owed his bishopric to Fulk Nerra’s influence with the king;[453] Avesgaud’s life was passed between building, hunting, and quarrelling with Count Herbert Wake-dog. Herbert’s military capacities, proved on the field of Pontlevoy, enabled him to stand his ground;[454] but very soon after his death Fulk’s dealings with Maine and its bishop began to bear fruit. Fulk survived both Herbert and Avesgaud. The count of Maine died in the prime of life in 1036,[455] leaving as his heir a son named Hugh, who, on pretext of his extreme youth, was set aside by a great-uncle, Herbert surnamed Bacco. Bishop Avesgaud, too, had died a few months before, and his office passed a second time from uncle to nephew in the person of his sister’s son, Gervase of Château-du-Loir.[456] The selection of a third prelate from the hated house of Bellême was in itself enough to excite the count’s wrath; Herbert Bacco moreover had a special reason for jealousy--the young nephew whose rights he had usurped was a godson of Gervase. For two years Herbert contrived to keep the new bishop out of Le Mans altogether; at the end of that time he admitted him, but no sooner were the rival rulers established side by side than their strife became as bitter and ceaseless as that of Herbert Wake-dog and Avesgaud. Gervase looked for help to the king, who, whether as king or as duke of the French, was patron and advocate of the see; but there was no help to be got from the feeble, selfish Henry I. of France. Despair hurried the bishop into a rasher step than any that his uncle had ever taken. Thinking that a less exalted protector, and one nearer to the spot and more directly interested, would be of more practical use, he besought King Henry to grant the patronage and advocacy of the see of Le Mans to Count Geoffrey of Anjou for his life.[457] [440] Tit. Liv., l. v. c. 35; Polyb., l. ii. c. 17. [441] Polyb., l. ii. cc. 23, 24, 32. [442] Ptolem., l. ii. c. 7. On the Peutinger Table, however, the name is Subdinnum. [443] “Ex parte vici de veteri Româ” is quoted by M. Voisin (_Les Cénomans anciens et modernes_, p. 86, note 3) from a document in the city archives. [444] _Acta Pontif. Cenoman._, c. 1, in Mabillon, _Vetera Analecta_, pp. 239–241. [445] Charter of Childebert III. a. 698, in Mabillon, _Vet. Anal._, p. 283. [446] Eginhard, _Vita Car. Magni_, c. 9 (_Rer. Gall. Scriptt._, vol. v. p. 93).