GUERNSEY HISTORY. 



115 



where B regard, Prior of the Vale, received him with marked 

 respect, and entertained him and " la princesse Alianor," his 

 wife, at the Vale priory. Aymon Rose, the Captain of the 

 island, who had retreated into the Vale Castle, was then 

 besieged by Yvain, but refused to surrender. Finally, 

 through the mediation of the Prior, it was agreed that Yvain 

 should receive a heavy ransom and withdraw his troops from 

 the island. It is a curious fact that although both Froissart 

 and our Guernsey ballad style Aymon Rose, the Captain or 

 Governor of the island, his name does not appear as such in 

 any official document of this period. The Governor of the 

 Isles in 1372 was Walter Huwet, whose lieutenant in Guern- 

 sey in September of the same year was Sir Ralph de 

 Harmesthorp. Aymon Rose was appointed Constable of 

 Gorey Castle, Jersey, the 25th March, 1372,* and Havet 

 supposes that in the probable absence of both of Walter 

 Huwet's lieutenants he may have been in supreme command 

 in the Isles at the time of this invasion. f Froissart states 

 that Aymon Rose fled from the battlefield and escaped to 

 Castle Cornet with great difficulty. The castle being said to 

 have been situated about two leagues from the place where 

 the battle had been fought. Yvain besieged the castle, but 

 it was too strong and well furnished with arms for him to 

 take. The King of France on hearing of the defeat of the 

 English fleet off' La Rochelle, in June, 1372, ordered Yvain 

 to raise the siege, and proceed at once to Spain to procure 

 reinforcements from King Henry of Castile. This Yvain 

 did, previously dismissing his troops, and providing them with 

 vessels to return to Harfleur. A receipt of his dated from 

 Santander, in Spain, the 24th July, 1372,}: still exists. This 

 date confirms the statement that the invasion occurred in the 

 spring or early summer. It is certainly difficult to decide 

 whether Yvain besieged Aymon Rose in Castle Cornet or the 

 Vale Castle. The Chronique des qaatre premiers Valois only 

 mentions the castle, which naturally one would understand to 

 mean Castle Cornet. Still it is quite possible that he was 

 unable to reach it and took refuge in that of the Vale. The 

 concluding verses of our Guernsey ballad relating to the death 

 of Yvain are absolutely unhistorical. Yvain was killed at the 

 siege of Mortagne, in Poitou, in 1378, by a Welsh renegade, 

 John Lambe, in the pay of Richard II., who first ingratiated 



* Serie Chronologique des Gardiens et Seigneurs des lies Normandes. 

 J. Havet. 



t He was still Constable of Gorey Castle in Aug. 1372. 



% L. Delisle. Hist, St. Sauveur le Vicomte, p. 180. Cabinet des Titers, le 

 Serie, Mot Galles. 



