“Aquitaine,” says an English writer of the time, “abounding in riches of many kinds, excels other parts of the western world in such wise that it is reckoned by historians as one of the happiest and most fertile among the provinces of Gaul. Although its fields respond abundantly to culture, its vines to propagation, and its woodlands to the chase, yet nevertheless it takes its name not from any of these advantages, but from its waters (_aquæ_), haply esteeming as alone worthy of account among its delights that which its health-giving water brings forth either to be returned to the sea, or uplifted in the air. If, indeed, we track the Garonne from its fount along its rapid course to the sea, and if we also follow the line of the Pyrenean mountains, all the country that lies between derives its name from the beneficent waters that flow through it. Furthermore, in those parts smoothness of tongue is so general that it promises impunity to everybody, and any one who knows not the manner of that people cannot know whether they are more constant in deed than in word. When they set themselves to tame the pride of their enemies, they do it in earnest; and when the labours of battle are over and they settle down to rest in peace, they give themselves up wholly to pleasure.”[10] Whatever may be thought of Dean Ralph’s etymology, there was an element of truth in his description, half jesting though it seems to be, of the country and the character of its people. He gives indeed hardly sufficient prominence to the pugnacious side of the latter; and the boundaries which he assigns to the former are considerably narrower than those of the duchy of Aquitaine as it stood at the time of Richard’s birth. That duchy comprised, in theory at least, fully one-third of the kingdom of France. As counts of Poitou its dukes bore direct sway over a territory bounded on the north by Britanny, Anjou, and Touraine, on the west by the sea from the bay now known as that of Bourgneuf to the mouth of the Charente, and on the east (roughly) by the course of the river Creuse from a little distance below Argenton to its junction with the Vienne; and also over the dependent district of Saintonge on the north side of the estuary of the Garonne, or Gironde. As counts of Gascony they were overlords of a number of lesser counties and lordships, extending from the mouth of the Garonne to the Pyrenees, and forming a territory nearly twice the size of Poitou. Between Poitou and Gascony lay the counties of Angoulême, La Marche, and Périgord, and, between the two latter, a cluster of minor fiefs which collectively formed the district known as the Limousin, and of which the most important was the viscounty of Limoges. All these had from early times owned the overlordship of the Poitevin counts in their ducal capacity. So, too, had Berry, an extensive district lying to the north of La Marche. The north-eastern portion of Berry, which formed the viscounty of