The duke suddenly burst into the church, made his way through the congregation, sword in hand, and seized the prelate by the hair, saying, "Thou shalt give me absolution or die." The bishop demanded a moment for reflection, profited by it to pronounce the form of excommunication, and forthwith bowing his head before the duke, said, "And now strike!" "I love thee not well enough to send thee to paradise," answered the duke; and he confined himself to depriving him of his see.

For fury the duke of Aquitaine sometimes substituted insolent mockery.

Another bishop, of Angouleme, who was quite bald, likewise exhorted him to mend his ways.

"I will mend," quoth the duke, "when thou shalt comb back thy hair to thy pate." Another great lord of the same century, Foulques the Black, count of Anjou, at the close of an able and glorious lifetime, had resigned to his son Geoffrey Martel the administration of his countship.

The son, as haughty and harsh towards his father as towards his subjects, took up arms against him, and bade him lay aside the outward signs, which he still maintained, of power.
The old man in his wrath recovered the vigor and ability of his youth, and strove so energetically and successfully against his son that he reduced him to such subjection as to make him do several miles "crawling on the ground," says the chronicle, with a saddle on his back, and to come and prostrate himself at his feet.