What the sources cannot prove about James

The sources do not support a simple account of James's life. Jean or John Cotereel may have been his father, his apprenticeship master, or one of two related men whom later accounts combined. Edward may also have learned of James through his mother's Savoyard relatives and retainers, so their 1273 encounter need not have been the first connection. One English-language secondary work treats John and Jean as the same person because their dates and architectural styles agree, though they may instead have been brothers. Translation can blur names and relationships, while the absence of a pension for James's wife after his death provides an inference rather than firm biographical proof. The castles remain highly visible, but the builder's life has to be reconstructed from scattered records.