A letter from Hildebert of Lavardin ()

Translated letter:

I say what is known and proved by frequent experience. It is more satisfying to the thirsty to extinguish the ardor of thirst from a fountain than a stream. Wines taken from the first cask retain their native savor. Transferred from one to another, they degenerate. So your page fulfills my desire to know about you more richly than other’s accounts. For whatever I get from you about yourself will be more certain to me than what common rumor might bring to my ears. Therefore when I learned that winds blew in your service favorable to sending a message across the channel, I immediately sent letters to you about what had been conveyed from England revealing the will of the king and what the father’s breast was feeling about the offence of the daughter. I claim from you what I deserve to know through you. I claim, indeed, but as your friend in the Lord, as your servant in Christ, as one who puts your honor at the forefront of my happiness. What you know, therefore, about the king and yourself that should be told to a friend, I ask you to tell me.

Original letter:

Nota loquor et usu frequenti comprobata. Sitienti satius est de fonte, quam de rivo sitis ardorem exstinguere. Vina quoque de primo sumpta dolio, nativum saporem praetendunt. Eadem de alio in aliud transfusa degenerant. Sic uberius meum implent desiderium, quae circa vos aguntur agnoscere pagina vestra quam relatione aliena. Quidquid enim a vobis accipiam de vobis, certius mihi futurum est quam si ad aures meas idipsum vulgi rumor protulerit. Ex quo igitur comperi ventos in vestrum obsequium aspirare, statim litteras ad vos dedi, ratus advectum de Anglia, qui voluntatem regis nobis aperiret, quive declararet quem affectum de contumelia filiae patris pectus induerit. Haec ut merear scire per vos, clamo post vos. Clamo quidem, sed sicut vester amicus in Domino, sicut vester servus in Christo, sicut qui honorem vestrum in principio laetitiae meae pono. Quae igitur tam de rege quam de vobis, amico significanda noveritis, mihi precor aperiri.

Historical context:

Hildebert asks Matilda what is wrong between her and her father, king Henry. The letter may have been written during the period Matilda was resisting her father’s plans for her remarriage.

Printed source:

PL171, 3.14, cc291-92. Chibnall cites one sentence from this letter, The Empress Matilda, p.55, fn.47, with the same words but corrected spellings: obsequium, adventum, declarant, quam affectam.