366 JOINVILLE'S MEMOIRS OF SAINT LOUIS IX. QPT. I« was contrary to the opinion of his whole council, who said to him, " Sire, it seems to us that you are doing wrong to your realm by giving up so much of its territory to the king ot England, to which he appears to us not to have any right, since his father lost it by a legal sentence." The king replied, that he knew well the king of England had no right to it ; but that, for a good reason, he thought he was bound to give it to him, adding," We have married two sisters : our children, therefore, are oousins-german, and it is fitting that there should be union among us. It has likewise given me great pleasure to make peace with the king of England, for he is at present my vassal, which was not the case before." The uprightness of this good king was very apparent in the case of the lord Reginald do Trie,* who brought to the holy Sir Richard de Menou, the king of France's knight, as commissioners from {he said king, on the one part, and Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford and Essex, constable of England, and William de Fortibua, earl of Albemarle, commissioners from the king of England, on the other part. This preliminary treaty is now to be seen in the Trésor des Chartes du Roi, with the seals of these two earls attached to it It is similar to the one which Claude Menard has given in his Observations, both in terms and substance, excepting that it is drawn up as s plan on which the defini tire treaty of peace was afterwards formed. The arms of William de Fortibus, earl of Albemarle (whose family was originally from Normandy, where the lordship of Fors is situated), represented on his seal, have a cross pattée of Vair, which proves an error made by Ralph Brook, and Vincent, Rouge Croix, his corrector, in the Collections which they have made of the arms of the English dukes and eerls, * wherein they have given this earl " un ecu d'argent an chef de gueules." They have been again mistaken, in giving to the two Stephens, earls of Albemarle, of the house of Blois or of Champagne, the cross pattèe de Vair, which are the arms of de Fortibus. The arms of Stephen, first of the name, being an escutcheon plain, with a bordure componée, as Andrew du Chesne has noticed in respect to the seal of this earl, in his Genealogical History of the House of Bethune, page 152. * * The countess of Boulogne, of whom our author is speaking, was Matilda, only daughter and heiress of Reginald, count de Dammartin, by Ide, countess of Boulogne. She was twice married ; first to Philip of France, surnsmed Η α repel, son to Philip Augustus by Agnes de Meranie. From this union was born Jane, an only daughter, who was married to Gaucher de Chàtillon, lord de Saint Agnan, and died childless. The countess Matilda married, secondly, Alfonso, afterwards king of Portugal, who in like manner died without posterity in the year 1258. After his decease, there were many disputes relative to the succession, which are fully discussed in the History of the House of Ch&tillon, book 3, ch. 8.