house excelled, he had managed to get into his own hands the two keys of Normandy’s southern frontier, the castles of Alençon and Domfront, which guarded the valleys of the Sarthe and the Mayenne;[471] and thence, across the debateable lands of Bellême, he was now carrying his raids into undisputed Norman territory.[472] [467] See _Art de vérifier les dates_, vol. xiii. p. 54. [468] Henry was “contumeliosis Gaufredi Martelli verbis irritatus.” Will. Poitiers (Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._), p. 180. “Vexavit idem [sc. Gaufredus] Franciam universam regi rebellans.” _Ib._ p. 182. [469] Will. Poitiers (Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._), p. 180. Will. Malm. _Gesta Reg._, l. iii. c. 230 (Hardy, p. 394). [470] Will. Poitiers (Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._), p. 181. [471] _Ib._ p. 182. Wace, _Roman de Rou_, vv. 9380–9383 (Pluquet, vol. ii. p. 47). [472] Will. Jumièges, l. vii. c. 18. (Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._, p. 276). Cf. Will. Malm. _Gesta Reg._, l. iii. c. 231 (Hardy, p. 396). These two writers ignore the king’s share in the quarrel, and make it arise solely from Geoffrey’s raids upon Normandy (“Brachium levabat in nos quo non leviter sese vulnerabat,” remarks W. Poitiers, as above). The _Gesta Cons._ (Marchegay, _Comtes_, p. 131) reverse the whole situation and assert that William attacked the count of Maine, whereupon Geoffrey, as the latter’s “auxiliator et tutor,” took up the quarrel, and did William a great deal of damage! Fulk Rechin (Marchegay, _Comtes_, p. 378) wisely limits himself to the statement that his uncle “had a war with William, duke of the Normans.”