GUERNSEY HISTORY. 



117 



The invasion of Guernsey by Yvain de Galles, in 1372, 

 has up to the present been accepted as an historical fact by 

 all our historians, including M. Lemoine. We have for early 

 authorities Froissart, our Guernsey ballad La descente des 

 Sa.ragousais and the Chronique des quatre premiers Valois. 

 The latter gives the fullest and most circumstantial account, 

 agreeing in many particulars with our Guernsey ballad, but 

 differing from it in many details, showing that our ballad is 

 derived from a separate source of information and is not 

 merely a versification of the chronicle. 



As regards the accuracy of the writer of the Chronique 

 des quatre premiers Valois, on events happening in Normandy, 

 in our immediate neighbourhood, at this period, no higher 

 testimony can be produced than that of M. Leopold Delisle, 

 the greatest modern authority on Norman history. He writes 

 in his Histoire du chateau et Sires de St. Sauveur le Vicomte* 

 " que l'auteur de la Chronique des quatre premiers Valois a ete 

 bien mieux rensigne que Froissart sur le siege et la capitula- 

 tion de Saint Sauveur. Presque tous le details qu'il raporte 

 sont parfaitement d'accord avec les documents officiels dont 

 j'ai precedement fait usage." His statements therefore are 

 not to be lightly set on one side without official documentary 

 evidence to disprove them. 



We have official documentary proof of two facts men- 

 tioned by the author of the Chronique in his narrative of 

 Yvain's expedition in 1372. First, the preparation of the 

 expedition by the northern French Naval Arsenal, Le Clos 

 des Galees at Rouen, the accounts of which for the years 

 1382-1384 have recently been published f and contain inven- 

 tories "d'amoures qui furent achettees pour le fait d' Yvain 

 de Galles." Second, Yvain's journey to Spain after leaving 

 Guernsey is proved by a receipt of his dated from Santander, 

 July, 1372, which is now in the Archives Nationale, Paris, 

 Cabinet des titres, le serie, mot Galles. t We have thus docu- 

 mentary proof of the commencement and end of the narrative, 

 for this was the only naval expedition undertaken by Yvain 

 de Galles. A careful examination of the accounts and rolls 

 referring to our island at the Record Office would most pro- 

 bably give official confirmation of the central portion of the 

 story, the invasion of Guernsey. 



The accounts of Nicholas de la Salle, King's Receiver in 

 Guernsey from Michaelmas, 1372, to Michaelmas, 1373, are 



* Page 225. 



t Les Comptes du Clos des Galees de Rouen au XlVe si6cle (1382-1384) par Charles 

 Breard, p. 152. 

 X Delisle. Hist. St. S&uveur le Vicomte, p. 180. 



