[587] “Trium urbium dominus.” I think it is Orderic who somewhere thus expressively designates the lord of Angers and Le Mans and Tours. [588] This seems to be the meaning of Will. Malm. _Gesta Reg._, l. v. c. 419 (Hardy, p. 652); “Quin et Ierosolymam Fulco ire contendens, comitatum commendavit regi suum, si viveret; futurum profecto generi, si non rediret.” The “county” in question can only be Maine, of the gift of which to the Ætheling at his marriage William has just been speaking. [589] _Acta Pontif. Cenoman._ c. 35 (Mabillon, _Vet. Anal._, p. 318). [590] In company with Rainald, bishop of Angers, in 1120. Chronn. S. Albin. and S. Flor. Salm. ad ann. (Marchegay, _Eglises_, pp. 32, 190). [591] Eng. Chron. a. 1120; Will. Malm. _Gesta Reg._, l. v. c. 419 (Hardy, pp. 653, 654); Hen. Hunt., l. vii. c. 32 (Arnold, p. 242); Eadmer, _Hist. Nov._ (Rule), pp. 288, 289; Ord. Vit. (Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._), pp. 868, 869, etc. In that wreck perished not merely Fulk’s hopes for the settlement of Maine, but Henry’s hopes for the settlement of England and Normandy. Setting aside the father’s personal grief for the loss of his favourite child, the Ætheling’s death was the most terrible political blow that could have fallen upon Henry. All his hopes for the continuance of his work were bound up in the life of his son. The toils and struggles of twenty years would be little more than lost labour unless he could guard against two dangers which had been the bane of both England and Normandy ever since the Conqueror’s death:--a disputed succession to the English throne, and a separation between the insular and the continental dominions of the ducal house. In the person of William the Ætheling both dangers seemed provided against; if Henry lived but a few years more, there was every reason to expect that William, and William alone among the Conqueror’s surviving descendants, would be able to mount the English throne without opposition. On any accepted principle, his only possible competitor would have been his cousin and namesake the Clito. Neither people nor barons would have been likely to think for a moment of setting aside the son of their crowned king and queen--a king born in the land and a queen who represented the ancient blood-royal of England--for a landless, homeless stranger whose sole claim rested on the fact that by strict rule of primogeniture he was the heir male of the Conqueror; and, once master of England, William might fairly be expected to keep his hold upon Normandy as his father had done. The shipwreck of November 1120, however, left Henry suddenly face to face with the almost certain prospect of being succeeded in all his dominions by his brother’s son, his enemy, the rival of his lost boy, the one person of all others whose succession would be most