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Vaskaran Sarcar

Introducing Functional Programming

Using C#
Leveraging a New Perspective for OOP Developers
Vaskaran Sarcar
Kolkata, West Bengal, India

ISBN 978-1-4842-9696-7 e-ISBN 978-1-4842-9697-4

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9697-4

© Vaskaran Sarcar 2023

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively
licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is
concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in
any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or
dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks,

service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the
absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the
relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general
use.

The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the
advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate
at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the
editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Apress imprint is published by the registered company APress

Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY
10004, U.S.A.
This book is dedicated to all those developers who want to improve their
applications and do not give up easily.
Introduction
Throughout the ages, prophets have suggested that most of us are not
reaching our full potential. If you look at the great achievers in any field
in the current world, you will find that they are hard workers, and they
strive to keep improving. They put in extra effort to improve their skills,
and in many cases, they even hire coaches to learn new techniques.
Then, one day, they discover that all their hard work starts to pay off:
they become masters in their chosen field.
The following quote from the Chinese philosopher Confucius
perfectly summarizes this:

The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full
potential…these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal
excellence.

Now let’s apply this philosophy to programming. As a developer, are

you reaching your full potential with C#? I may not know your reply,
but I certainly know my answer. Even after working with C# for more
than 14 years, there is still more to learn.
One evening I asked myself, how could I improve my C# skills? I
could continue to try to learn new features and practice them, but
intuitively, I knew there was an alternative answer. So, I started
searching for tips and eventually discovered that most of the time I was
using C# for object-oriented programming (OOP). Indeed, it is a perfect
fit for OOP, and there is nothing wrong with this tendency. But what
about functional programming (FP) using C#? It’s not that I never used
it (in fact, C# developers are very much familiar with LINQ), but I was
not very conscious of it. So, I keep browsing through various resources,
such as books, articles, and online courses. Eventually, I discovered that
during its development, C# started embracing functional features too,
and as a result, it has become a powerful hybrid language.
I became very interested in the topic and tried to learn more about
it. From this time onward, I started facing challenges. There were some
good resources, but I could not stitch them together to serve my needs.
This is why I started documenting my notes when I was experimenting
with using C# in a functional way. This book is a result of those efforts.
 So, welcome to your journey through Introducing Functional
Programming Using C#: Leveraging a New Perspective for OOP
Developers.
C# is a powerful programming language, is well accepted in the
programming world, and helps you make a wide range of applications.
These are the primary reasons it is continuously growing in popularity
and is always in high demand. So, it is not a surprise that existing and
upcoming developers (for example, college students and programming
lovers) are curious to learn C# and want to create their applications
using it.
Many developers try to learn it in the shortest possible time frame
and then claim they know C# well. In fact, many resources claim you
can unlock the real power of C# in a day, a week, or a month. But is this
true? I think not. Remember, I’m 14 years in and I’m still learning.
Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule says that the key to achieving
world-class expertise in any skill is, to a large extent, a matter of
practicing the correct way, for a total of around 10,000 hours. So, even
though we may claim that we know something very well, we actually
know very little. Learning is a continuous process, with no end to it.
Then should we stop learning? Definitely, the answer is no. There is
something called-effective learning. It teaches you how to learn fast to
serve your need. This is the context where I like to remind you about
the Pareto principle or 80-20 rule. This rule simply states that 80% of
outcomes come from 20% of all causes. This is useful in programming
too. When you truly learn the fundamental aspects of FP, you can use it
effectively to improve your code. Most importantly, your confidence
level will raise to a level from where you can learn more easily. This
book is for those who acknowledge this fact. It helps you to understand
the core principles of FP with plenty of Q&A sessions and exercises.
How Is This Book Organized?
The book has two major parts, which are as follows:
Part I consists of the first three chapters, which start with an
overview of functional programming (FP). Then we’ll discuss
functions and immutability in depth. These are the building blocks
for FP and what you need to understand to move on to Part II of this
book.
C# is a multiparadigm language, and Part II reveals its potential. This
part will cover how to harness the power of FP. In addition, two well-
known external libraries, called Curryfy and language-ext, are
discussed in this part. The first one is used in Chapter 5 when I
discuss currying. The second one is used in Chapter 8 and Chapter 9
when I discuss functional error handling and the Monad pattern.
The best way to learn something is by analyzing case studies, asking
questions about any doubts you have, and doing exercises. So,
throughout this book, you will see interesting code snippets, “Q&A
Sessions,” and exercises. Each question in the “Q&A Sessions” sections
is marked with <chapter_no>.<Question_no>. For example, 5.​3 means
question 3 from Chapter 5. You can use the simple exercises to evaluate
your progress. Each question in these exercises is marked with
E<chapter_no>.<Question_no>. For example, E6.​2 means exercise 2
from Chapter 6.
The code examples and questions and answers (Q&As) are
straightforward. I believe that by analyzing these Q&As and doing the
exercises, you can verify your progress. They are presented to make
your future learning easier and more enjoyable, but most importantly,
they will help you become confident as a developer.
You can download all the source code of the book from the
publisher’s website, where you can also find an errata list for the book.
I suggest that you visit that website to receive any important
corrections or updates.

Prerequisite Knowledge
The target readers of this book are those who want to make the most of
C# by harnessing the power of functional programming. I expect you to
be familiar with .NET, C#, and OOP concepts. In fact, knowing about
some advanced concepts such as delegates and lambda expressions can
accelerate your learning. I assume that you know how to compile or run
a C# application in Visual Studio. This book does not invest time in
easily available topics, such as how to install Visual Studio on your
system, how to write a “Hello World” program in C#, and so forth.
Though I have used C# as the programming language, if you are familiar
with a similar language like Java, you can apply that understanding to
this book.
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Who Is This Book For?
In short, read this book if you answer “yes” to the following questions:
Are you familiar with .NET, C#, and basic object-oriented concepts
such as polymorphism, inheritance, abstraction, and encapsulation?
Are you familiar with some of the advanced concepts in C# such as
delegates, lambda expressions, and generics?
Do you know how to set up your coding environment?
Do you want to develop your functional programming skills?
Are you interested in knowing how the core constructs of C# can
help you in FP?
You probably shouldn’t pick this book if the answer is “yes” to any of
the following questions:
Are you looking for a C# tutorial or reference book?
Are you not ready to experiment with FP with a programming
language that was primarily developed for OOP?
Do you despise Windows, Visual Studio, or .NET?

Useful Software
These are the important tools that I use in this book:
While writing this book, I had the latest edition of Visual Studio
Community 2022 (64-bit, version 17.5.4). All the programs were
tested with C# 11 and .NET 7.
Nowadays the C# language version is automatically selected based
on your project’s target framework(s) so that you can always get the
highest compatible version by default. In the latest versions, Visual
Studio doesn’t allow the UI to change the value, but you can change it
by editing the .csproj file.
As per a new rule, C# 11 is supported only on .NET 7 and newer
versions. C# 10 is supported only on .NET 6 and newer versions. C# 9
is supported only on .NET 5 and newer versions. C# 8.0 is supported
only on .NET Core 3.x and newer versions. If you are interested in the
C# language versioning, you can visit
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
 us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/configure-
language-version.
The community edition is free of cost. If you do not use the Windows
operating system, you can still use the free Visual Studio Code, which
is a source-code editor developed by Microsoft to support Windows,
Linux, or Mac operating systems. At the time of this writing, Visual
Studio 2022 for Mac is also available, but I did not test my code on it.

Guidelines for Using This Book

Here are some suggestions so you can use the book more effectively:
This book suits you best if you are familiar with some advanced
features in C# such as delegates and lambda expressions. If not,
please read about these topics before you start reading this book.
I organized the chapters in an order that can help grow your
functional thinking with each chapter. Therefore, I recommend
reading the chapters sequentially.
The code in this book should give you the expected output in future
versions of C#/Visual Studio as well. Though I believe that the results
should not vary in other environments, you know the nature of
software: it is naughty. So, I recommend that if you want to see the
exact same output as in the book, you mimic the same environment.
You can download and install the Visual Studio IDE from
https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/ (see
Figure I-1).
Figure I-1 Download link for Visual Studio 2022, Visual Studio for Mac, and Visual
Studio Code

Note At the time of this writing, this link works fine and the
information is correct. But the link and policies may change in the
future. The same comment applies to all the links mentioned in this
book.

Source Code
All the source code used in this book can be found at
https://github.com/apress/introduction-functional-
programming-cs.

Conventions Used in This Book

In many places, I point you to Microsoft’s documentation. Why? As the
creator of C#, Microsoft is the primary authority on each feature.
I’ve used top-level statements heavily in this book. Consequently,
there is no need for me to explicitly write the Main method for console
applications. You understand that using this technique, I minimized the
code lengths. When you use top-level statements, the C# compiler does
the necessary job on your behalf in the background. Top-level
statements have been supported since C# 9.0.
I also like to add that I enabled implicit usings for my C#
projects. The implicit usings feature automatically adds common
global using directives for the type of project you are building.
Starting from C#10.0, this feature is also supported. Otherwise, I had to
add the necessary directives to my programs manually.
Finally, all the output/code in the book uses the same font and
structure. To draw your attention in some places, I have used bold fonts.
For example, consider the following output fragment (taken from
Chapter 3 where I discuss external immutability):

Understanding Mutability and Immutability.

Name: Sam, ID:1
The emp1’s hashcode:43942917
The temp’s hashcode:43942917
Name: Sam, ID:2
The emp1’s hashcode:59941933
The temp’s hashcode:43942917

Final Words
Congratulations, you have chosen a programming language to
experiment with a paradigm that will assist you throughout your
career. As you learn and review these concepts, I suggest you write your
code instead of copying and pasting it; there is no better way to learn.
Upon completing this book, you’ll be confident about FP and the
value it provides you.
Any source code or other supplementary material referenced by the
author in this book is available to readers on GitHub
(https://github.com/Apress). For more detailed information, please
visit https://www.apress.com/gp/services/source-code.
Acknowledgments
I thank the Almighty. I sincerely believe that only with His blessings
could I complete this book. I also extend my deepest gratitude and
thanks to the following people:
Leandro Fernandes Vieira and Paul Louth: They allowed me to use
the Curryfy library and language-ext library in this book. Leandro
also joined the technical review team and provided many useful
suggestions and improvements for this book.
Shekhar Kumar Maravi: Shekhar was another technical reviewer
for this book. He has been reviewing my books since 2015. Whenever
I am in need, he provides me with support. Thank you one more time.
Smriti, Laura, and Mark: Thanks to each of you for giving me
another opportunity to work with you and Apress.
Shon, Kim, Nagarajan, and Vinoth: Thanks to each of you for your
exceptional support to improve my work.
Finally, I thank those people from the functional programming
community who have shared their knowledge through online blogs,
articles, courses, and books.
Table of Contents
Part I: Getting Familiar with Functional Programming
Chapter 1:​Functional Programming Overview
C# Supports Multiple Paradigms
Functions and Methods Are Equivalent in C#
Important Characteristics of FP
FP Treats Functions as First-Class Citizens
FP Prefers Immutability
FP Prefers Pure Functions
FP Follows a Declarative Style
FP vs.​OOP
FP Benefits
Exercises
Summary
Solutions to Exercises
Chapter 2:​Understanding Functions
Mathematical Background of Functions
Mathematical Functions vs.​C# Functions
Representing Functions in C#
Using Static Methods
Using Delegates and Lambdas
Using a Dictionary
Built-in Delegates Are Important
Higher-Order Function
Custom HOF
Built-in HOF
 First-Order Function
Refactoring Impure Functions
Program with Impurities
Removing Impurities
Exercises
Summary
Solutions to Exercises
Chapter 3:​Understanding Immutability
What Is Immutability?​
Immutable Objects in .​NET
Reviewing Mutable Types
Programming with a Mutable Type
The Path Toward Immutability
Achieving External Immutability
Enforcing Internal Immutability
Better Code Using Modern Features
More on Immutability
Understanding Shallow Immutability
Searching for a Solution
Making a Better Solution
Implementing Popsicle Immutability
Exercises
Summary
Solutions to Exercises
Part II: Harnessing the Power of Functional Programming
Chapter 4:​Composing Functions Using Pipelining
 Overview
Coding Functional Composition
Importance of Chaining Functions
Program Without Chaining Functions
Refactoring Using Chaining Functions
Applying Composition
Using Pipelining
Using HOFs
Exercises
Summary
Solutions to Exercises
Chapter 5:​Composing Functions Using Currying
Overview of Currying
Program Without Currying
Using the Concept of Currying
Using External NuGet Packages
Using Curryfy
Exercises
Summary
Solutions to Exercises
Chapter 6:​Handling Temporal Coupling
Temporal Coupling Overview
How Does This Happen?​
Recognizing the Problem
A Program That Suffers from Temporal Coupling
Removing the Effect
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 A Better Program
Exercises
Summary
Solutions to Exercises
Chapter 7:​Functional Patterns
Map Pattern
Understanding the Problem
Initial Solution
Better Solution
Concise Solution
Select As Map
Introducing Functors
Conclusion
Bind Pattern
Understanding the Problem
Initial Solution
FP-Based Solution
SelectMany As Bind
What About Monads?​
Conclusion
Filter Pattern
Understanding the Problem
Initial Solution
Where As Filter
Fold Pattern
Understanding the Problem
 Solutions Using Built-in Functions
Conclusion
Revisiting ForEach
Exercises
Summary
Solutions to Exercises
Chapter 8:​Exception Handling
Reviewing Exception Handling in OOP
Imperative Style of Programming
Exception Handling in FP
Using language-ext
Introducing the Either Type
Handling a Single Exception
Handling Multiple Exceptions
Chaining Exceptions
Handling Null Values
Introducing the Option Type
Exercises
Summary
Solutions to Exercises
Chapter 9:​Miscellaneous Topics
Helpful Features for FP
Delegates and Lambdas
Anonymous Methods
Extension Methods and LINQ
Type Inference
Random documents with unrelated
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Fitz-Empress: a policy of steady loyalty to the lawful authority of the
French Crown, against which the counts of Blois lived in perpetual
opposition. After Robert’s death, in 1031, Fulk appeared in the
unexpected character of peace-maker between Queen Constance
and her son, the young King Henry, whom she was trying to oust
from his throne;[359] and he afterwards accompanied Henry on an
expedition to dislodge Odo of Champagne from Sens, which
however succeeded no better than the attempt once made by Odo
and Henry to dislodge Fulk himself from Amboise.[360] But peace or
war, it mattered not to the Black Count; he was never at a loss for
work. When there was no enemy to fight or to outwit, his versatile
energies flung themselves just as readily into the encouragement of
piety or the improvement and embellishment of his capital. Over the
black bastions of the castle with which the French King Philip
Augustus, when he had wrested Angers from a degenerate
descendant of its ancient counts, found it needful to secure his hold
on “this contemptuous city,” there still looks out upon the river a
fragment of a ruined hall, chiefly of red flintstone; it is the sole
remains of the dwelling-place of Fulk Nerra—in all likelihood, his own
work.[361] A poetic legend shows him to us for once quietly at home,
standing in that hall and gazing at the view from its windows. At his
feet flowed the purple Mayenne between its flat but green meadows
—for the great suburb beyond the river did not yet exist—winding
down beneath a bridge of his own building to join the Loire beyond
the rising hills to the south-west. His eyes, keen as those of the
“Falcon” whose name he bore, reached across river and meadow to
the slope of a hill directly opposite him, where he descried a dove
flying to and fro, picking up fragments of earth and depositing them
in a cavity which it seemed to be trying to fill. Struck by the bird’s
action, he carefully marked the spot, and the work of the dove was
made the foundation-stone of a great abbey in honour of S. Nicolas,
which he had vowed to build as a thank-offering for deliverance from
a storm at sea on his return from his second pilgrimage.[362] This
abbey, with a nunnery founded near it eight years later—in 1128—by
his countess Hildegard, on the site of an ancient church dedicated to
our Lady of Charity,[363] became the nucleus round which gathered
in after-years a suburb known as Ronceray, scarcely less important
than the city itself. These tranquil home-occupations, however, could
not long satisfy the restless temper of Fulk. The irresistible charm
exercised by the Holy Land over so many of the more imaginative
spirits of the age drew him to revisit it in 1035. One interesting event
of the journey is recorded: his meeting at Constantinople with Duke
Robert of Normandy, father of William the Conqueror.[364] The old
and the young penitent completed their pilgrimage together; but only
the former lived to see his home again; and when he reached it, he
found the gates of Angers shut in his face by his own son. The
rebellion was soon quelled. Saddled and bridled like a beast of
burthen, Geoffrey came crawling to his father’s feet. “Conquered art
thou—conquered, conquered!” shouted the old count, kicking his
prostrate son. “Aye, conquered by thee, for thou art my father; but
unconquered by all beside!” The spirited answer touched Fulk’s
paternal pride, and Geoffrey arose forgiven.[365] The power which he
had thus undutifully tried to usurp was soon to be his by right; not,
however, till the Black Count had given one last proof that neither his
hand nor his brain had yet forgotten its cunning. Odo of Champagne
had long ago left Touraine to its fate, and for the last four years he
had been absorbed in a visionary attempt to wrest from the Emperor
Conrad II., first the kingdom of Burgundy, then that of Italy, and at
last the imperial crown itself; while Fulk’s conquests of the valleys of
the Indre and the Cher had been completed by the acquisition of
Montbazon and St.-Aignan.[366] When at the close of 1037 tidings
came that Odo had been defeated and slain in a battle with the
imperial forces at Bar, the Angevin at once laid siege to Langeais,
and took it.[367] One more stronghold still remained to be won in the
valley of the Vienne. From the right bank of the little river, winding
down silvery-blue between soft green meadows to join the Loire
beyond the circle of the distant hills to the north-west, the mighty
steep of Chinon rises abruptly, as an old writer says, “straight up to
heaven”; range upon range of narrow streets climb like the steps of a
terrace up its rocky sides; acacias wave their bright foliage from
every nook; and on the crest of the ridge a long line of white ruins,
the remains of a stately castle, stand out against the sky. A dense
woodland of oaks and larches and firs, stretching north-eastward
almost to the valley of the Indre, and crowded with game of every
kind, formed probably no small part of the attractions which were to
make Chinon the favourite retreat of Fulk Nerra’s greatest
descendant. In those ruined halls, where a rich growth of moss and
creepers has replaced the tapestried hangings, earlier and later
memories—memories of the Black Count or of the Maid of Orleans—
seem to an English visitor only to flit like shadows around the death-
bed of Henry Fitz-Empress. But it was Fulk who won Chinon for the
Angevins. The persuasion of his tongue, as keen as his sword,
sufficed now to gain its surrender.[368] The Great Builder’s work was
all but finished; only the keystone remained to be dropped into its
place. Tours itself stood out alone against the conqueror of Touraine.
One more blow, and the count of Anjou would be master of the
whole valley of the Loire from Amboise to the sea.

[359] R. Glaber, l. iii. c. 9 (Rer. Gall. Scriptt., vol. x. p. 40).

Fulk’s mediation was done in characteristic fashion; he asked
Constance “cur bestialem vesaniam erga filios exerceret.” It took
effect, however.

[360] Chron. S. Petr. Senon. and Chronolog. S. Marian.

Autissiod. a. 1032 (Rer. Gall. Scriptt., vol. xi. pp. 196, 308).

[361] See note B to chapter ii. above.

[362] Hist. S. Flor. Salm. (Marchegay, Eglises) p. 275. The

church was consecrated December 1, 1020; Chronn. S. Serg. ad
ann. (Marchegay, Eglises, p. 134.) The foundation-charter is in
Le Pelletier’s Breviculum S. Nicolai, p. 4.

[363] The foundation-charter, dated July 14, 1128, is in Hiret,

Antiquitez d’Anjou, pp. 100, 101. The whole history of the church
is fully discussed by M. d’Espinay, in the Revue Historique de
l’Anjou, vol. xii. (1874), pp. 49–64, 143–155. A grotesque legend,
which yet has a somewhat characteristic ring, was told of the
origin of this nunnery. Fulk one day, watching a potter at his work,
was seized with a desire to try his hand. He succeeded in
producing a well-shaped pan, which he carried home in triumph
and gave to his wife, telling her that it was made by the man
 whom she loved best. Hildegard, mistaking the jest for a serious
charge, vowed to disprove it at once by undergoing the ordeal of
water, and flung herself out of the window and into the river,
before her husband could stop her. The spot where she came to
land was marked by the abbey of our Lady (Revue hist. de
l’Anjou, as above, pp. 54, 55, and note 1; Marchegay, Eglises, p.
279 note.) Its later name of “Ronceray” was derived from a
bramble-bush (ronce) which forced its way through the pavement
of the choir, despite all attempts to uproot it. This however was in
the sixteenth century.

[364] Gesta Cons. (Marchegay, Comtes), p. 101. See note C at

end of chapter.

[365] Will. Malm. Gesta Reg., l. iii. c. 235 (Hardy, pp. 401,
402).

[366] Gesta Cons. (Marchegay, Comtes), p. 116.

[367] Gesta Amb. Domin. (ibid.), p. 168.

[368] Ibid.

Strangely, yet characteristically, that final blow Fulk left to be struck

by his successor. As his life drew to its close the ghostly terrors of
his youth came back to him with redoubled force; and the world
which had marvelled at his exploits and his crimes marvelled no less
at his last penance. For the fourth time he went out to Jerusalem,
and there caused two servants, bound by an oath to do whatsoever
he should bid them, to drag him round the Holy City in the sight of all
the Turks, one holding him by a halter round his neck, the other
scourging his naked back, while he cried aloud for Heaven’s mercy
on his soul as a perjured and miserable sinner.[369] He made his way
homeward as far as Metz.[370] There, on June 21st, 1040, the Black
Count’s soul passed away;[371] and his body was embalmed, carried
home to Beaulieu, and buried in the chapter-house of the abbey
which had been the monument of his earliest pilgrimage, the first-
fruits of his youthful devotion and daring.[372]
 [369] Will. Malm. Gesta Reg., l. iii. c. 235 (Hardy, p. 402).

[370] “Metensem urbem,” Gesta Cons. (Marchegay, Comtes)

p. 117. From the last word one would imagine this could only
mean Metz in Lorraine; but there is another Metz in the Gâtinais;
and although it is, and clearly always has been, an insignificant
little town, quite undeserving the title of “urbs,” it seems more
likely than its greater namesake to be the place really meant. For
Metz in Lorraine would be completely out of the way of a traveller
from Palestine to Anjou, while Metz in the Gâtinais was not
merely close to Fulk’s home, but was actually in the territory of
his own son-in-law (of whom we shall hear again later). It would
be as natural for him to stop there on his way as it would be
unnatural for him to fetch a compass through the remote
dominions of the duke of Lorraine; and, on the other hand, the
place is so insignificant that a careless and ignorant writer, such
as John of Marmoutier, even though dwelling at no great
distance, might easily forget its existence.

[371] Chronn. S. Albin. and S. Serg. a. 1040 (Marchegay,

Eglises, pp. 24, 135). Fulk Rechin (Marchegay, Comtes), p. 377.
Gesta Cons. (ibid.), p. 117.

[372] Fulk Rechin and Gesta Cons., as above.

From Beaulieu, at least, he had deserved nothing but gratitude,

and Beaulieu never forgot the debt. For seven centuries the
anniversary of his death was solemnly observed in the abbey; so
was that of his widow, who as a bride had helped to the dedication of
the church, and who now, following her husband’s last steps, went
out to die at Jerusalem.[373] For seven centuries, as the monks
gathered in the church to keep their yearly festival in honour of his
gift, the fragment of sacred stone, they read over in the office of the
day the story of his pilgrimage, and chanted the praise of his pious
theft.[374] Next to that trophy, his tomb was their pride; it vanished in
the general wreck of 1793; but research within the last few years has
happily succeeded in bringing the Black Count’s earthly resting-place
to light once more.[375] But it was not Beaulieu alone that kept his
memory green. His own little Angevin marchland, his fairer conquest
Touraine, are sown thick with memorials of him. So strong was the
impression made by his activity in one direction that after-
generations have persisted in attributing to him almost every
important architectural work in his dominions, and transferred the
credit of several constructions even of Henry Fitz-Empress to the
first “great builder” of Anjou, who was believed to have had
command over more than mortal artificers. Popular imagination, with
its unerring instinct, rightly seized upon the Black Count as the
embodiment of Angevin glory and greatness. The credit of the astute
politician, the valiant warrior, the consummate general, the strenuous
ruler—all this is his due, and something more; the credit of having,
by the initiative force of genius, launched Anjou upon her career with
an impetus such as no opposing power could thenceforth avail to
check. One is tempted to wonder how far into the future of his house
those keen eyes of the Black Falcon really saw; whether he saw it or
not, that future was in a great measure of his own making; for his
fifty-three years of work and warfare had been spent in settling the
question on which that future depended—the question whether
Anjou or Blois was to be the chief power of central Gaul. When his
place was taken by Geoffrey Martel, there could no longer be any
doubt of the answer.

[373] See extract from Martyrology of Ronceray in Marchegay,

Eglises, p. 395, note 3.

[374] See the office in Salies, Foulques-Nerra, pp. 499 et seq.

[375] See Salies, Foulques-Nerra, pp. 456 et seq.

The new count of Anjou began his reign in circumstances very

unlike those of his father half a century before. Not only had Fulk
wholly changed the political position of Anjou, but Geoffrey’s own
position as an individual was totally different. He was no untried boy,
left to fight his own way with no weapons save the endowments
which nature had given him; he was a full-grown man, trained in the
school of Fulk Nerra, and already experienced in politics and war. In
his own day Geoffrey Martel was looked up to with as much respect
as his father, and with even more dread. His career is an illustration
of the saying that nothing succeeds like success. Till he came into
collision with the duke of Normandy, he carried all before him like
chaff before the wind. He crushed Aquitaine; he won Tours; he won
Le Mans. It was no wonder if he delighted to commemorate in the
surname of Martel, “the Hammer,” the victorious blows which laid
opponent after opponent at the feet of the blacksmith’s foster-son.
[376] But Geoffrey was not the artificer of his own fortune. He owed
his pre-eminence among the great vassals of the Crown to his
extended possessions and his military reputation; he owed his
extended possessions more to his father’s labours and to a series of
favourable accidents than to his own qualities as a statesman; and
he owed his military reputation—as one writer who understood the
Angevins thoroughly has very plainly hinted—more to luck than to
real generalship.[377] Geoffrey stands at a disadvantage thus far, that
in contemplating him one cannot avoid two very trying comparisons.
It was as unlucky for his after-fame as it was lucky for his material
prosperity that he was the son of Fulk the Black; it was unlucky for
him in every way that he was the rival of William the Conqueror.
Neither as a statesman, a ruler, a strategist, or a man was Geoffrey
equal to his father. As a statesman he showed no very lofty capacity;
his designs on Aquitaine, sweeping but pointless, came to nothing in
the end: and with regard to Touraine and Maine, politically, he had
little to do but to reap the fruit of Fulk’s labours and use the
advantages which the favour of the king in one case, the rashness of
the bishop in the other, and the weakness of the rival count in both,
threw absolutely into his hands. As a ruler he seems to have been
looked up to with simple dread; there is little trace of the intense
personal following which others of his race knew so well how to
inspire;[378] the first time he was intrusted with the government of
Anjou his harshness and oppression roused the indignation alike of
his subjects and of his father; his neighbours looked on him to the
last as a tyrant,[379] and his own people seem to have feared far
more than they loved him. As a strategist there is really no proof that
he possessed any such overwhelming superiority as he himself
boasted, and as others were led to believe. His two great victories, at
Montcontour and Montlouis, dazzled the world because the one was
gained over a prince who by the tradition of ages counted as the first
potentate in the realm after the duke of Normandy, and the other led
to the acquisition of Tours; but the capture of William of Aquitaine
was really nothing more than the fortune of war; while in the case of
the victory over Theobald of Blois at Montlouis, a considerable part
of the credit is due to Geoffrey’s lieutenant Lisoy of Amboise; and
moreover, to have beaten the successor of Odo II. is after all no very
wonderful achievement for the successor of Fulk the Black. Twice in
his life Geoffrey met his master. The first time he owned it himself as
he lay at his father’s feet. The second time he evaded the risk of
open defeat by a tacit withdrawal far more shameful in a moral point
of view. It is small blame to Geoffrey Martel that he was no match for
William the Conqueror. Had he, in honest consciousness of his
inferiority, done his best to avoid a collision, and when it became
inevitable stood to face the consequences like a man, it would have
been small shame to him to be defeated by the future victor of
Senlac. The real shame is that after courting an encounter and
loudly boasting of his desire to break a lance with William, when the
opportunity was given him he silently declined to use it. It was but a
mean pride and a poor courage that looked upon defeat in fair fight
as an unbearable humiliation, and could not feel the deeper moral
humiliation of shrinking from the mere chance of that defeat. And it is
just this bluntness of feeling, this callousness to everything not
visible and tangible to outward sense, which sets Geoffrey as a man
far below his father. There is in Fulk a living warmth, a quickness of
susceptibility, which breaks out in all sorts of shapes, good and bad,
in all the stories of the Black Count, but which seems wholly lacking
in Geoffrey. Fulk “sinned bravely,” ardently, impulsively; Geoffrey
sinned meanly, coldly, heartlessly. His was altogether a coarser,
lower nature. Fulk was truly the falcon that wheels its swift and lofty
flight ever closer and closer above the doomed quarry till it strikes it
down irresistibly with one unerring swoop. Geoffrey rightly thought
himself better represented by the crashing blows of the insensible
sledge-hammer.
 [376] Fulk Rechin (Marchegay, Comtes) p. 379; cf. Hist. S.
Flor. Salm. (Marchegay, Eglises), p. 260, and Will. Malm. Gesta
Reg., l. iii. c. 231 (Hardy, p. 395).

[377] “Gaufredus cognomento Martellus, quod ipse sibi

usurpaverat, quia videbatur sibi felicitate quâdam omnes
obsistentes contundere.” Will. Malm. as above.

[378] Even the devotion of Lisoy of Amboise seems to have

been given to Geoffrey chiefly because he was his father’s son.
Fulk was its real object.

[379] See the Norman writers, Orderic and William of Poitiers.

Geoffrey had been an independent ruler in a small sphere for

nearly ten years before his father’s death. In 1030 or 1031 he
became master of the little county of Vendôme by purchase from his
half-sister Adela, the only child of Fulk’s ill-starred first marriage, and
the heiress of her maternal grandfather Count Burchard. After doing
homage to King Henry for the fief, Geoffrey’s first act was to found in
the capital of his new dominions an abbey dedicated to the Holy
Trinity.[380] The appointment of an abbot proved the occasion for the
first recorded outbreak of that latent discord between Fulk and his
heir which, as we have seen, culminated at last in open war. A monk
named Reginald had just been sent at Fulk’s request from the great
abbey of Marmoutier near Tours, to take the place of Baldwin, abbot
of S. Nicolas at Angers, who had fled to bury himself in a hermitage.
Before the day came for Reginald’s ordination, however, he deserted
to a younger patron, and accepted the abbotship of Geoffrey’s
newly-founded abbey at Vendôme. Fulk, thus disappointed by two
abbots in succession, “flew,” as he himself said, “into a mighty rage,”
summarily ordered the whole colony of monks whom he had brought
from Marmoutier to S. Nicolas back to their parent monastery, and
replaced them with some of the brethren of S. Aubin’s at Angers,
with Hilduin, prior of that convent, as their head.[381] Fulk’s wrath
seems to have been directed against the monks rather than against
his son; but the incident serves as an illustration of the tendency to
opposition that was springing up in Geoffrey’s mind. The quiet,
waiting policy of Fulk’s latter years was evidently irksome to the
young man’s impatient spirit, and he chose to strike out a path for
himself in a direction which, it is not surprising to learn, did not
please the old count. The only one of his neighbours with whom Fulk
seems to have been always on peaceable terms was the count of
Poitou. William Fierabras, the count from whom Geoffrey Greygown
had wrested Loudun, died about two years after the second battle of
Conquereux.[382] His wife was a daughter of Theobald the Trickster,
[383] and his son and successor was therefore first cousin to Odo II.
of Blois; but William IV.—whom Aquitaine reckoned as her “William
the Great”—seems to have had little in common with his erratic
kinsman, and to have always, on the other hand, maintained a
friendly understanding with Anjou. Like Odo, he once received an
offer of the crown of Italy; Fulk appears in the negotiations as the
friendly advocate of the duke’s interests with King Robert,[384] and
though the project came to nothing, it may have been in return for
Fulk’s good offices on this occasion that William bestowed on him
the investiture of Saintes, a gift which was to form the pretext for
more than one war between their descendants. On January 31st,
1029, William died,[385] leaving as his successor a son who bore the
same name, and whose mother seems to have been a sister of
Queen Constance.[386] It was this new duke of Aquitaine, known as
William the Fat, whom Geoffrey Martel selected as the first victim of
his heavy hand. An Angevin story attributes the origin of the war to a
dispute about Saintes or Saintonge,[387] but it will not bear
examination. Geoffrey Martel simply trod in the steps of Geoffrey
Greygown, and with more marked success. In the autumn of 1033
he started on an expedition against the duke of Aquitaine; William
encountered him on September 20th in a pitched battle near the
abbey of S. Jouin-de-Marne, not far from Montcontour in Poitou; the
Poitevins were defeated, partly, it seems, through treason in their
own ranks, and their duke was taken prisoner.[388] For three years
the duke of Aquitaine, the second great feudatary of the realm, was
kept in a dungeon by the count of Vendôme;[389] not till the whole
district of Saintonge[390] and several important towns were ceded to
Geoffrey, and an annual tribute promised, would he release his
captive. From the execution of the last humiliating condition William
was delivered by death; the cruel treatment he had suffered in prison
had done its work; Geoffrey had exacted the ransom for his prisoner
just in time, and sent him home only to die three days after his
liberation.[391]

[380] Origo Com. Vindoc., in Rer. Gall. Scriptt., vol. xi. p. 31.
See also Mabillon, Ann. Bened., vol. iv. pp. 378, 379.

[381] The whole story is told only by Fulk himself, in a charter

to the abbey of S. Nicolas; Breviculum S. Nicolai (Le Pelletier),
quoted in Mabillon, Ann. Bened., vol. iv. p. 379.

[382] See editor’s note to Peter of Maillezais, Rer. Gall.

Scriptt., vol. x. p. 183, note g.

[383] Chron. S. Maxent. a. 972 (Marchegay, Eglises, p. 380).

[384] Adem. Chabanais, Rer. Gall. Scriptt., vol. x. p. 161.

Letters of William of Poitou, ib. pp. 483, 484; of Fulk to Robert, ib.
pp. 500, 501.

[385] Chron. S. Maxent. ad ann. (Marchegay, Eglises, p. 390).

[386] She was Adelmodia, widow of Boso, count of La Marche,

and daughter of William count of Arles and “Candida,” otherwise
Adelaide the White; see Pet. Maillezais, l. i. c. 6 (Rer. Gall.
Scriptt., vol. x. p. 182), and note B at end of chapter.

[387] See note C at end of chapter iv. below.

[388] Chronn. S. Maxent. a. 1032, S. Albin. and S. Flor. Salm.

a. 1033 (Marchegay, Eglises, pp. 391, 392, 23, 188); S. Serg. a.
1028 (ib. p. 135). Fulk Rechin (Marchegay, Comtes), p. 378. Cf.
Gesta Cons. (ibid.), pp. 128–130, and note C to chapter iv.
below.

[389] Chron. S. Maxent. a. 1036 (as above, p. 392).

[390] “Sanctonas cum toto pago.” Chron. Tur. Magn., Salmon,

Chron. de Touraine, p. 122. (The date, “anno Henrici Imperatoris
 iv et Henrici regis xiii,” is of course absurd, like most of the dates
in the Tours chronicle at this period, except those which relate to
local matters). Cf. Gesta Cons. (Marchegay, Comtes), p. 126,
and note C to chapter iv. below.

[391] Will. Malm. Gesta Reg., l. iii. c. 231 (Hardy, p. 395). Cf.
Will. Poitiers (Duchesne, Hist. Norm. Scriptt.), p. 182.

Then Geoffrey threw off the mask. William had no children; his
next heir was his half-brother Odo, the son of his father’s second
marriage with Brisca, heiress of Gascony.[392] But after Brisca’s
death, William the Great had married a third wife, whom he had left a
still young widow with three little children. Before William the Fat had
been many months dead, his stepmother the widowed Countess
Agnes gave her hand to Geoffrey of Vendôme.[393] Geoffrey’s motive
is plain; he sought to prevent the union of Poitou and Gascony and
to get the former practically into his own hands as stepfather and
guardian to the young sons of Agnes. But in Anjou the wedding gave
great scandal; Geoffrey and Agnes were denounced in the harshest
terms as too near akin to marry.[394] They seem in fact to have been,
by the reckoning of the canon law, cousins in the third degree, as
being, one a grandson, the other a great-granddaughter of Adela of
Chalon, the second wife of Geoffrey Greygown.[395] At any rate they
were looked upon as sinners, and by no one more than the
bridegroom’s father. The whole scheme of Geoffrey’s meddlings in
Aquitaine was repugnant to Fulk Nerra’s policy; he looked to his son
to complete his own labours in Touraine and Maine, and it was no
good omen for the fulfilment of his hopes when Geoffrey thus turned
his back upon his appointed work for the love of Countess Agnes or
of her late husband’s possessions. The capture of William the Fat
had been the signal for the first outbreak of a “more than civil war”
between father and son;[396] Geoffrey’s misconduct during his
regency in Anjou brought matters to the crisis which ended in his first
and last public defeat. Nevertheless he obstinately pursued his
projects. The Poitevins, by the death of their count, were left, as their
own chronicler says, “as sheep having no shepherd”; there was a
party among them ready to support the claims of Agnes’s sons
against their elder half-brother Odo of Gascony; and one of the
leaders of this party, William of Parthenay, built with Angevin help a
fortress at Germont in which he held out successfully against the
besieging forces of Odo. The count of Gascony then proceeded to
Mausé, another stronghold of his enemies, and in assaulting this
place he was slain.[397] He left no children; the elder of Geoffrey
Martel’s stepsons was now therefore heir to Poitou. The boys were
twins; the third child of Agnes was a girl, who bore her mother’s
name, and for whom her mother and stepfather contrived in 1043 to
arrange a marriage with no less important a personage than the
Emperor Henry III.,[398] whose first wife had been a daughter of
Cnut. It was not till the year after this imperial wedding that the
troubled affairs of Aquitaine were definitely settled. In 1044 Countess
Agnes came to Poitiers accompanied by her two sons, Peter and
Geoffrey, and her husband, their stepfather, Geoffrey Martel; there
they held with the chief nobles of Poitou a council at which Peter, or
William as he was thenceforth called, was solemnly ordained as
duke of Aquitaine, and his brother sent into Gascony to become its
count.[399] Agnes at least must now have attained her object;
whether Geoffrey Martel was equally satisfied with the result of his
schemes may be a question, for we do not clearly know how wide
the range of those schemes really was. If, as seems likely, they
included the hope of acquiring a lasting hold over Aquitaine, then
their issue was a failure. By the victory of Montcontour Geoffrey had
gained for himself at one blow a great military reputation; but for
Anjou the only solid gain was the acquisition of Saintonge, and this,
like some of the outlying possessions of the house of Blois, soon
proved more trouble than profit. If Martel expected that his stepsons
would hold themselves indebted to him for their coronets and remain
his grateful and dutiful miscalculation. The marriage of a duchess-
dowager of Aquitaine with Geoffrey Martel naturally suggests
thoughts of the marriage of a duchess-regnant with a later count of
Anjou; but the resemblance between the two cases is of the most
superficial kind; the earlier connexion between Anjou and Aquitaine
did little or nothing to pave the way for their later union. Geoffrey
himself, indeed, had already discovered that although the count of
Vendôme might go seeking adventures in the south, the duties and
the interests of the count of Anjou still lay to the north, or at the
utmost no farther away than the banks of the great frontier-river.

[392] Chron. S. Maxent. a. 1010 (Marchegay, Eglises, pp. 387,

388).

[393] Will. Poitiers (Duchesne, Hist. Norm. Scriptt.), p. 182.

Will. Malm. Gesta Reg., l. iii. c. 231 (Hardy, p. 395). Chron. S.
Maxent. a. 1037 (as above, pp. 392, 393); Chronn. S. Albin. and
S. Serg. a. 1032 (ib. pp. 23, 135). On the date see note D at end
of chapter.

[394] Chronn. S. Albin. and S. Serg. a. 1032 (Marchegay,

Eglises, pp. 23, 135).

[395] See note D at end of chapter.

[396] Chronn. S. Albin. a. 1032, 1033 (Marchegay, Eglises, p.

23); S. Serg. a. 1028 (ib. p. 135); Rain. Andeg. a. 1036, 1037 (ib.
p. 11). The Chron. S. Albin. a. 1033, says: “Gaufridus . . .
Willelmum comitem Pictavorum sumpsit in bello; quare orta est
discordia inter patrem et filium.” Labbe in his Bibl. MSS. Librorum
printed this “patrem et matrem,” and thereby originated a
perfectly groundless story of a quarrel between Fulk and
Hildegard.

[397] Chron. S. Maxent. a. 1037 (Marchegay, Eglises, pp. 392,

393).

[398] Hermann. Contract., a. 1043 (Rer. Gall. Scriptt., vol. xi. p.

19). Chronn. S. Albin. and S. Serg. ad ann. (Marchegay, Eglises,
pp. 24, 135, 136). The Chron. S. Maxent. (ib. p. 398) dates the
marriage vaguely “per hæc tempora” under 1049.

[399] Chron. S. Maxent. a. 1044 (Marchegay, Eglises, pp. 394,

395). It seems quite plain that the elder boy’s baptismal name
was Peter, but he signs his charters “William” (see Besly, Comtes
de Poitou, preuves, pp. 314, 317). The Chron. S. Maxent. a.
1058 (as above, p. 400) calls him “Willelmus qui et Petrus,
cognomento Acer.” In recording the birth of the two boys (a.
1023, ib. p. 388) the same writer calls them “Petrum cognomine
Acerrimum, et Gaufredum qui et Wido vocatus est”; and he
afterwards speaks of the latter by both names indifferently. It
 seems however to have been an established rule that the
reigning duke of Aquitaine must be officially called William; for
Guy-Geoffrey also assumed the name when he succeeded his
brother in 1058.

The visions of empire to which Odo of Champagne had sacrificed

the latter years of his life had perished with him on the field of Bar.
Not a foot of land outside the limits of the kingdom of France had he
left to his heirs. He had two sons, Theobald and Stephen, whose
very names seemed to mark out their destined shares in his
dominions. Stephen, the younger, became count of Champagne; to
Theobald, the elder, fell the original territories of his house—Blois,
Chartres and Tours.[400] Theobald’s heritage however was shorn of
its fairest portion. The county of Tours now comprised little more than
the capital; all Touraine south of the Loire—by far the most fertile and
valuable half—was in the power of the Angevin; Tours itself, once a
secure central post, had become a closely threatened border-city.
Theobald’s first duty was to protect it, but it seems to have been the
last thing he thought of. Odo’s sons had inherited all his
wrongheadedness without his quickness of thought and action. Shut
in as they were on all sides by powerful foes, the two young men
began their career by rebelling after the manner of their forefathers;
[401] and the king’s youngest brother Odo was lured, by a promise of
dethroning Henry in his favour, into joining in their rebellion. Odo, a
youth of weak intellect, was in himself no very formidable person, but
he might for the very same reason become a dangerous tool in the
hands of his fellow-conspirators; and a rebellious coalition of Blois
and Champagne threatened to be a serious difficulty for the king at a
moment when there was scarcely one of the great feudataries on
whom he could reckon for support. The death of Duke Robert of
Normandy had plunged his duchy into confusion and deprived Henry
of all chance of help in the quarter which had hitherto been his chief
source of strength. The county of Burgundy was governed by the
king’s brother Robert, who had with difficulty been induced to accept
it as compensation for the failure of his hopes of the crown. Flanders
and Britanny were always indifferent to the troubles and necessities
of the king; the count of Vermandois was a kinsman and ally of
Champagne; Aquitaine was as powerless as Normandy. The one
vassal to whom Henry could look for aid was the count of Anjou. Had
the rebels possessed sense and spirit they might have given Henry
quite as much trouble as their father had given Robert; but they
seem to have had no well-concerted plan; each acted independently,
and each was crushed singly. Young Odo, their puppet pretender,
was easily caught and imprisoned at Orléans; Stephen of
Champagne was defeated in a pitched battle by the king himself;[402]
Theobald of Blois was left to be dealt with by other hands. With a
master-stroke of policy, Henry proclaimed the city of Tours forfeit by
Theobald’s rebellion, and granted its investiture to the count of
Anjou.[403]

[400] Hugh of Fleury, Rer. Gall. Scriptt., vol. xi. p. 159. Chron.
Fr. Andreæ, ib. p. 364.

[401] Hugh of Fleury and Chron. Fr. Andreæ, as above. Hist.

Franc. Fragm. (ibid.), p. 160.

[402] Hist. Franc. Fragm. (Rer. Gall. Scriptt., vol. xi.), p. 160.
Hugh of Fleury (ibid.), p. 159.

[403] Chron. Virdun. a. 1039 (Rer. Gall. Scriptt., vol. xi. p. 144).
R. Glaber, l. v. c. 2 (ib. vol. x. p. 60), copied in Gesta Cons.
(Marchegay, Comtes), pp. 122, 123. Fulk Rechin (ibid.), p. 378.

To understand the full importance of this grant and of the war

which followed it, we must know something of the history of Tours
and of the peculiar feelings and interests attached to it. The origin of
Tours as a city dates from the time of the Roman empire, when it
appears under the name of Cæsarodunum.[404] The Roman castrum
was built in a broad, shallow sort of basin, watered on the north by
the Loire, on the south by the Cher; it probably occupied the site of
some village of those Turones or Turoni, who play a part in the Gallic
wars of Cæsar,[405] and whose name in the end superseded that
which the place received from its conqueror. The “city of the
Turones” became the central point of a network of roads connecting
it with Poitiers, Chartres, Bourges, Orléans, Le Mans and Angers;
[406] and owing to the convenience of its situation for military and
administrative purposes it was made the capital of the Third
Lyonnese province.[407] But its hold on the minds of men was due to
another gift of Rome, more precious than roads or fortifications or
even political traditions. It was the holy city of Gaul, the cradle of
Gaulish Christianity. Its first bishop, Gatian, was one of seven
missionaries sent out from Rome to evangelize the Gallic provinces
in the days of the Decian persecution.[408] S. Gatian’s episcopate of
half a century fell in one of the most distracted periods of the Empire;
after his death the Church which he had planted remained untended
for nearly forty years, and it was not till after the death of Constantine
that Tours received her second bishop in the person of Lidorius, one
of her own sons, who laid the foundations of a cathedral church.[409]
But the fame of the two first bishops of Tours was completely
overshadowed by that of the third. The work of S. Gatian and S.
Lidorius was confined to their own immediate flock; S. Martin was
the apostle not only of Touraine but of all central Gaul. Born at
Sabaria[410] in the Upper Pannonia, in the reign of the first Christian
Emperor, but of heathen parents, Martin rose to high military
distinction under the Cæsar Julian, accompanied him into Gaul, and
enjoyed his utmost esteem and regard till he forfeited them by
renouncing the standard of the eagles for that of the Cross. Neither
the wrath of his commander nor the entreaties of his fellow-soldiers,
by whom he was greatly beloved, availed to shake his resolution; he
fled to Poitiers, and there found a friend and counsellor in the holy
bishop Hilary, from whom he received the minor orders. After braving
toil and peril by land and sea in a journey to his native country for the
conversion of his family, he returned to a life of seclusion in Gaul,
and acquired such a reputation for holiness that on the death of
Lidorius in 371 the people of Tours, in spite of his strenuous
resistance, actually forced him to become their bishop.[411] From that
moment Tours became a mission-centre whence the light of the faith
spread with marvellous rapidity over all the surrounding country.
Anjou and all the neighbouring lands owed their conversion to S.
Martin and the missionaries sent out by him; everywhere paganism
gave way before his eloquent preaching, his dauntless courage, his
almost apostolic endowments—above all, perhaps, his good
example. He was looked upon as the Thaumaturgus of Gaul, and
countless legends were told of his wonder-working powers; more
famous than all of them is a story of the saint in his soldier-days,
when, Christian already in feeling though not yet in profession, he
stopped his horse one cold winter’s night, drew his sword and cut his
military cloak in halves to share it with one whose necessity was
greater than his own. That night he dreamed that the Lord whom, not
knowing, he yet instinctively served, appeared to him wearing the
half cloak which he had thus given away; and it was this vision which
determined him to receive baptism.[412] Amid all his busy, active life
he never lost the love of solitary contemplation so characteristic of
the early Christian missionaries. His episcopal city lay on the south
side of the Loire, but had on the north or right bank a large suburb
afterwards known by the name of S. Symphorian; beyond this,
farther to the eastward, the bishop found for himself a “green
retreat,” which has scarcely yet lost its air of peaceful loneliness, and
which, before the suburb had spread to its present extent, must have
been an ideal spot for monastic retirement. A little wooden cell with
its back against the white limestone rock which shelters the northern
side of the basin of Tours—an expanse of green solitude in front,
stretching down to the broad calm river—such was the nest which S.
Martin built him in the wilderness; gathering round him a little band of
men likeminded with himself, he snatched every spare moment from
his episcopal cares to flee away thither and be at rest;[413] and the
rock-hewn cells of the brotherhood became the nucleus of a famous
abbey, the “Great Monastery,” as it was emphatically called—Majus
Monasterium, Marmoutier. Another minster, of almost greater fame,
grew up over the saint’s burial place outside the western wall of the
city, on low-lying ground which, before it was reclaimed by the
energetic dyke-makers of the ninth and tenth centuries, must have
been not unfrequently under water. It is within the episcopal city of S.
Martin, in the writings of Bishop Gregory of Tours, that West-
Frankish history begins. An English student feels a nearer interest in
the abbey without the walls, remembering that the abbot under
whom it reached its highest glory and became the very fount and
source of all contemporary learning, human and divine, was Alcuin of
York.

[404] Ptolem., l. ii. c. 8.

[405] Cæsar, De Bello Gallico, l. ii. c. 35; l. vii. c. 75; l. viii. c.

46.

[406] Article by M. E. Mabille on “Topographie de la Touraine,”

in Bibl. de l’Ecole des Chartes, series v. vol. iv. pp. 413, 414.

[407] Notitia Provinciarum Galliæ, Rer. Gall. Scriptt., vol. i. p.

122.

[408] Greg. of Tours, Hist. Franc., l. i. c. 28.

[409] Chron. Archiep. Turon., Salmon, Chron. de Touraine, p.

201.

[410] Now Stein-am-Angern.

[411] Sulpitius Severus, Vita B. Martini, cc. 2–9. Greg. Tours.,

Hist. Franc., l. i. cc. 34, 36, 43.

[412] Sulp. Severus, Vita B. Martini, c. 3.

[413] Sulp. Severus, Vita B. Martini, c. 10.

When the great English scholar and the great Emperor who had
brought him into Gaul were gone, Tours underwent her full share of
suffering in the invasions of the northmen. City and abbey became to
the valley of the Loire something like what Paris and S. Denis were
to that of the Seine, the chief bulwark against the fresh tide of
heathen force which threatened to sweep away the footsteps of
saints and scholars. Once, indeed, Tours had been in danger from
heathens of another sort, and a body of Saracens had been turned
back from her gates and destroyed by Charles Martel.[414] There
was no Martel to save her from the northmen; her only defence
consisted in the valour of her citizens, and the fortifications left to her
by her Roman governors and carefully strengthened by her
Karolingian sovereigns.[415] Over and over again the pirates were
driven back from the walls of Cæsarodunum; over and over again S.
Martin’s Abbey was burnt to the ground. For years the canons, who
in Alcuin’s days had taken the place of the original monks,[416] lived
in constant fear of desecration befalling their patron’s body, and
carried it from place to place, like the body of our own S. Cuthbert,
sometimes depositing it within the city walls, sometimes removing it
farther inland—once even to the far-off Burgundian duchy—bringing
it home whenever they dared, or whenever they had a church fit to
contain it. Two of these “reversions”—one on December 13, 885, the
other on May 12, 919—were annually celebrated at Tours, in addition
to two other feasts of S. Martin, his ordination on July 4 and his
“deposition” on November 11.[417] In the first reversion Ingelger, the
founder of the Angevin house, was said to have borne a prominent
part. The story of the second was afterwards superseded by a
famous legend known as that of the “subvention of S. Martin.” Once,
it was said, when the citizens of Tours were sore pressed by the
besieging hosts of the northmen, they resolved to intrust their cause
to a heavenly champion, and brought out upon the walls the corpse
of the saint, which had been deposited for safety within the city. The
living heathen fled at once before the dead saint; they were pursued
by the triumphant citizens, still carrying their patron in their midst,
and utterly routed at a spot which thence received the name of “S.
Martin of the Battle.”[418] This story seems to belong to the siege of
903, when Marmoutier was destroyed, and the abbey of S. Martin
burnt to the ground for the third time. When the canons again rebuilt
it, they took the precaution of encircling it with a wall, and procured
from Charles the Simple a charter which resulted in the creation of a
new fortified borough, exempt from the jurisdiction of both bishop
and count, and subject only to its own abbot—in other words, to the
duke of the French, who from the middle of the eighth century
always held in commendam the abbey of S. Martin at Tours, as he
did that of S. Denis at Paris.[419] Thus, side by side with the old city
of the Turones, Cæsarodunum with its Roman walls, its count, its
cathedral and its archbishop, there arose the “Castrum Novum,”
Châteauneuf, “Castellum S. Martini,” Martinopolis as it is sometimes