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Réviers, ancestor of the earls of Devon1, the Hayes of Haye-du-Puits were given the Honour of Halnaker (Sussex), the Aubignys, afterwards earls of Arundel, obtained from him a fief in Norfolk; the two St. John brothers, from St. Jean-le-Thomas, were granted lands in Oxfordshire and Sussex, and founded another famous house2; while the family of Paynel also, sprung from the Côtentin, owed to Henry lands in England.
Among the documents calendered in my volume are Papal bulls to the abbey of St. Florent, ranging from 1146 to 1187 (Nos. 1124-9), which suggest that Alan's son William, who acquired by marriage Clun castle, must have bestowed its church of St. George, with all its dependent churches, on Monmouth Priory, a fact hitherto unsuspected. Mr Eyton thought that the gift of this church to Wenlock Priory by his widow (temp. Ric. I) represents the first occasion on which it is mentioned.
Alan fitz Flaald has hitherto been credited with two well-known sons, William and Walter, ancestors respectively of the Fitzalans and the Stewarts3
1 He is found, seemingly, in
Domesday, holding a single lordship.
2 See my paper on
"The Families of St.
John and of Port" in Genealogist, July 1899, p. 1. And
compare p. 66 above.
3 A third son, "Simon",
is claimed as the ancestor of the Boyds, and is assigned to
him, with William and Walter, in Mr. Lindsay's great Stewart
pedigree, the standard authority on the subject.
But although a Simon 'brother' of Walter occurs as a witness
in the Paisley cartulary, his name is very low on the list,
and he may have been only a uterine or even a bastard
brother. The Empress Maud's bastard brothers are styled her
'brothers' in her charters, nor was this unusual.
He had, however, another son, who needs to be specially dealt with. This was Jordan, his heir in Britanny, and, apparently, at Burton in England. Mr. Eyton knew of his existence, but could state little about him. In No. 1220 we find him, as a "valiant and illustrious man," making restitution to Marmoutier in 1130, with his wife Mary and his sons Jordan and Alan. In the same year we detect him entered on the English Pipe Roll in several places, though one of the entries suggests his Breton connection1. He may safely be identified with that "Jordanus dapifer" who witnessed a charter to Mont St. Michel in 1128-9 (No. 722); and consequently he held the family office. We find him also in a St. Florent charter,2 and in one of Marmoutier3. Of his sons, Jordan restored to the priory of St. Florent at Sele the mill at Burton given it by Alan fitz Flaald4, but was, probably, soon succeeded by his brother Alan, who confirmed to a priory of Marmoutier (No. 1221) another gift of his grandfather, Alan fitz Flaald, at Burton, mentioning his wife Joan and his son Jordan5. This
1 Rot. Pip. 31 Hen. I., p. 11.
2 Lobineau, II. 232.
3 Ibid 146.
4 "Jordanus filius
Jordani filius Alani hominibus suis de Burt[ona]. Sciatis
me reddidisse monachis S.
Florentii de Salmur molendinum de Burt[ona] sicut habuerunt
tempore
Alani filii Flealdi et tempore Jordani patris mei" (original
charter at Magdalen College).
5 It was either this Jordan or his grandfather who,
as "Jordanus filius Alani siniscalli," confirmed a gift to
Combourg (MS. lat. 5441 [3] 437).
Alan, who meets us also, as his father's son, in a Savigny charter (No. 824), is identical with that "Alanum filium quondam Jordani Dolensem senescallum," who confirmed the grant of his grandfather Alan (fitz Flaald) at Cuguen, and himself added the church of Tronquet1 about 11602. We have further in No. 1013 the confirmation by Alexander III of his gifts to the abbey of Tiron, including the church of Sharrington and three others in England. He attested a charter of the lord of Dol in 11453 and, in or about 1165, a royal charter at Winchester concerning a release by his fellow-countryman Geoffrey son of Oliver de Dinan4. He also leads the list of witnesses in a dispute about the abbey of Vieuville (in the parish of Epiniac) in 1167, as "Alanus filius Jordani dapifer."5. His wife Joan and daughter Olive were benefactors to the abbey of Vieuville for his soul.6
With this clue we return to England, and detect the heiress of the Stewards of Dol in that Olive, daughter of Alan "filius Jordani," who in 1227 was impleaded by one of her Breton tenants, -- his father Iwan had been enfeoffed by her own father Alan, -- at Sharrington, Norfolk. The record of
1 MS. lat. 12,878, fo.
248d., and Lobineau, II. 310.
2 The gift is
wrongly assigned in Gallia Christiana (XIV.1074) to
1133-1147, as being made before Hugh archbishop of Tours.
The prelate was Hugh "archbishop" of Dol, whose date was
1155-1161
(Ibid. 1050).
3 Lobineau,
II. 147.
4 Mon. Ang., VI. 486.
5 Lobineau, II. 308; MS.
lat. 5476, fol. 98d.
6 "Johanna uxor Alani dapiferi de Dolo et filia ipsius
Oliva." Lobineau, II. 310; MS. lat. 5476, fo. 91.
the suit gives us the name of Alan's mother, Mary, mentioned as we have seen, in No. 1220.1
In the middle, therefore, of the 12th century, this family flourished simultaneously in Scotland, England, and Britanny.
A short pedigree (see page 129) will make the descent clear.
[For some further details of Jordan's family, see Round's Addendum]
A chronological difficulty is created by Mr. Eyton's statement that Alan fitz Flaald was "dead ante 1114", for his son (it will be seen) the Steward of Scotland lived till 1177. It is desirable, therefore, to examine his authority for this date. Dugdale was acquainted with a confirmation by Sybil, lady of Wolston (Warwickshire), of a gift by her mother Adeliza to Burton Abbey of land in Wolston. In his History of Warwickshire (p. 33) he held that she was probably a daughter of Alan fitz Flaald, because Alan was "enfeoft of this Lordship" before her. Mr. Eyton accepted Dugdale's conclusion, and therefore identified her mother 'Adeliza' as that 'Avelina' de Hesdin, whom he had so skilfully shown to be the wife of Alan. Further, as the land ex hypothesi belonged to Alan himself, and yet was given by her, she must, he held, have been a widow at the time of the gift; and as the abbey was already in possession at least as early as 1114. Alan, he concluded, must have been dead before that date.2 These conclusions
1 Bracton's Note-book, III.
620. Compare 'Feet of Fines' (Pipe Roll Society), II. 160.
2 History of Shropshire, VII, 221-223,228.
ALAN
Dapifer [Dolensis]
______________________|_________________________
| | |
| | |
ALAN FLAALD RHIWALLON
Dapifer Dolensis occurs at Monk of
occurs in Britanny Monmouth St Florent
ante 1080 and in 1101 or 1102
1086; a leader in 'frater' (et
first Crusade 'filius') Alani
1097 Dapiferi
|
ALAN
FITZ FLAALD
Founder of Sporle Priory
______________________|_________________________
| | |
| | |
JORDAN WILLIAM WALTER
FITZ ALAN FITZ ALAN FITZ ALAN
occurs 1129-30 Founder of Haugh- "Dapifer Regis
Benefactor of mond Priory Scotiae"
Sele Priory ob. 1160 ob. 1177
Occurs also in (?Benefactor of Founder of
Britanny as Monmouth Priory) Paisley Abbey
"Dapifer (Dolensis) | |
| |
|_________ __|__________ |
| | | | |
| | | | |
ALAN JORDAN ALAN WILLIAM ALAN
FITZ JORDAN ob. infans FITZ ALAN THE STEWARD
Dapifer Dolensis* a quo Fitz "Senescallus
Founder of Tronquet Alan, Earl Regis
1155-1161 of Arundel Scotiae"
living 1167
* Among the obits at Dol we find that of another daughter of Alan fitz Jordan: "Kal. Sept. obiit Aelicia uxor G[uillelmi] Espine filia Alani Jordanis quae dedit episcopo et capitulo Dol ... pratum senescalli,", etc. (Gaignères' Transcript of Cartulary, MS. lat. 5211 C). A charter of her husband William Spina, son of Hamo, confirms the donations made to Vieuville "de feodo Aeliz uxoris mee filie Alani Dolensis senescalli ... concedente Alano filio nostro" (MS. lat. 5476, fo. 85). His father Hamo Spina occurs immediately after "Alan filius Jordanis dapifer" in the above letter of 1167 (Ib. fo. 98d). As we read of "Gaufridus Spina Doli senescallus"(Ib. fo. 91d) it would seem that the Dol office was inherited by the Spina family, and the English estates by the other daughter.
created difficulties, but, on Mr. Eyton's great authority, they have been duly accepted.1 Yet the whole edifice rests on Dugdale's careless reading of a document in the Burton Cartulary.2 That document does not connect Alan fitz Flaald with Wolston.
The facts are these. In Domesday the three Warwickshire manors of Church Lawford, Wolston, and Stretton-on-Dunsmore are entered together (fo. 239) as held of Earl Roger (of Shrewsbury) by that 'Rainaldus', whom the historian of Shropshire so brilliantly identifies with Renaud de Bailleul.3. We find him, accordingly as "Rainaldus de Bailoul,"4 confirming in No. 578 the gifts at Wolston and Church Lawford of his own under-tenant, a certain Hubert Baldran. Another of the charters in my Calendar (No. 579) proves that this Hubert (not Alan fitz Flaald), was the father of Sybil, lady of 'Wlfrichestone' (Wolston), from whom we started. Thus Adeliza, mother of Sybil, and wife of Hubert Baldran, was quite distinct from "Avelina" wife of Alan fitz Flaald, with
1 Burton
Cartulary, Ed. Wrottesley (Salt Arch. Collections, 1884),
pp. 32, 33.
2 Ibid. p. 33 bis.
3 History of Shropshire, VII. 206 et seq.
4 See my
Calendar, p. 202.
whom Mr. Eyton rashly identified her.1 Alan may have lived, and probably did, beyond 1114; and his gift at Stretton to Burton Abbey was made after he was placed in the shoes (as Mr. Eyton has shown) of Renaud de Bailleul.
We have thus seen how a single charter may prove of great importance, not only in establishing the true facts, but in demolishing erroneous conclusions with the corollaries based thereon.
Within the last few weeks there has unexpectedly been revived that view of the origin of the Stewarts which had long, one thought, been abandoned. As the whole story is most curious, and has, moreover, an important moral, I propose to discuss it in some detail. The pedigree of the Stuarts "of Hartley Mauduit," who hold a baronetcy dating from 1660, began in Burke's Peerage, so recently as last year, with Sir Nicholas Stuart the first baronet, "son of Simeon Stuart, Esq." But now, in this year of grace 1900, -
A more thorough revision than usual has been possible ... To the laborious researches and experienced counsel of my brother, Mr. H. Farnham Burke, Somerset Herald, the genealogical and heraldic value of this work is much indebted and is gratefully acknowledged (sic).
The "laborious researches" of Somerset Herald have indeed developed the Stuart pedigree, thanks
1 She
has been even further promoted in the British Museum
Catalogue of Stowe MSS., where, in the abstract of the
original deed (Stowe charter 103), she is strangely
identified with queen Adeliza, widow of Henry I.
to those "invaluable documents the Heralds' Visitations, documents of high authority and value."1
The illustrious ancestry of this family is given fully in
the
Visitations of Cambridge (sic), 1575 and 1619, in which is
traced
their descent from the Royal Stuarts.
ANDREW STUART, younger son of Alexander Stuart, 2nd son of
Walter
Stuart, seneschal of Scotland, great-grandson of Walter, 1st
high
steward of Scotland, grandson of Banquo Lord of Lochaber.
He m. the daughter of James Bethe, and had an only son.
ALEXANDER STUART, to whom Charles VI of France granted an
honourable augmentation of his arms.
And so the pedigree proceeds through another eight generations down to the first baronet.
Dear old 'Banquo,' "whom we miss"!2 What a pleasure it is to welcome him back among us once more, and to know that he, and not Flaald, was the founder of the house of Stuart on the unimpeachable authority of the Heralds and their 'Visitations'! It is true that, according to the "Royal Lineage"3 contained in the same volume, it was not descended from Banquo at all, and that the "above Alexander Stuart, 2nd son of Walter Stuart", had no existence; but these are details with the editor, doubtless, will see to in his next edition. It is also true that the new pedigree would at once make Sir Simeon Stuart heir-male of "the Royal Stuarts", an honour foolishly claimed by sundry Scottish families.4 Let us hope that Somerset Herald will inform Lyon King of
1 Preface to Burke's Landed
Gentry, Ed. 1898.
2 Macbeth.
3 Burke's Peerage, 1900, pp.
cliii-cliv.
4 See p. 89 above.
Arms that his "laborious researches" have decided this long-contested question.
But, seriously speaking, what is the origin of the new descent, which, this year, makes its appearance in Burke's Peerage? Well, the story is, or ought to be, familiar to all genealogists. For, owing to Oliver Cromwell's mother having been a member of this family, his Stuart descent was alluded to by Carlyle, which has given genealogists the opportunity of making merry at his expense. The alleged descent was, for several years, discussed in the recognised organ of genealogical research;1 but of this discussion Somerset Herald is, no doubt, ignorant. So far back, indeed, as 1878 the very interesting heraldic glass of which I am enabled to give an illustration was exhibited to the Archaeological Institute, and that well-known Scottish authority, Mr. Joseph Bain,2 discussed the whole story thereon before it. He then observed of the alleged grant by "Charles VI of France," to which Somerset Herald appeals:
In M. Michel's Les Ecossais en France, published in 1862, he gives a drawing of this very design, and the text of the asserted grant by Charles VI of France in the fifth year of his reign, conferring the strange coat of arms on Sir Alexander Stuart on account of the merits of his father Andrew ... M. Michel says that 'it is enough to cast the eye on these pretended
1 The Genealogist [N.S.],
vols. I (1884), II, III, VIII, X (1893).
2 Editor of the 'Calendar of
documents relating to Scotland,' the 'Hamilton Papers,' the
'Calendar of letters and papers referring to the Borders,'
etc. etc.
letters of concession, to recognise the patois of an Englishman little familiar with the language spoken at Paris at the end of the fourteenth century, and to doubt the fact asserted by the writer' -- an opinion which will be shared by anyone moderately versed in Old French."1
The alleged grant only exists in the form of a transcript in a private MS. of the 16th century;2 but we shall see below that not only deeds, but even sealed deeds, were among the fabrications of those who concocted false pedigrees.3
1 Archaeological Journal, XXXV,
302-3, 399.
2 Add. MS 15,644.
3 See the paper on "Our English Hapsburgs".
[Transcriber's note: The next part continues briefly into the family of Oliver Cromwell's mother. However, it is only in passing, and the reference to the periodical The Genealogist, New Series, and the article in Volume X, should be followed up for anyone who wants the whole story. Most of what Mr. Round has to say is about heraldry and its abuse.]
| Index | Part 1 | Addendum |