John himself now
attempted to deal with Arthur in another way. Being at Falaise at the
end of January, 1203, he caused his nephew to be brought before him,
and "addressed him with fair words, promising him great honors if he
would forsake the King of France and cleave faithfully to his uncle
and rightful lord." Arthur, however, rejected these overtures with
scorn, vowing that there should be no peace unless the whole Angevin
dominions, including England, were surrendered to him as Richard's
lawful heir. John retorted by transferring his prisoner from Falaise
to Rouen and confining him, more strictly than ever, in the citadel.
Thenceforth Arthur disappears from history. What was his end no one
knows. The chronicle of the Abbey of Margan in South Wales, a
chronicle of which the only known manuscript ends with the year 1232,
and of which the portion dealing with the early years of John's reign
was not compiled in its present form till after 1221 at earliest,
asserts that on Maunday Thursday (April 3, 1203), John, "after dinner,
being drunk and possessed by the devil," slew his nephew with his own
hand and tied a great stone to the body, which he flung into the
Seine; that a fisherman's net brought it up again, and that, being
recognized, it was buried secretly, "for fear of the tyrant," in the
Church of Notre Dame des Pres, near Rouen.
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