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From: Mary Stewart Kyritsis <>
Subject: J.H. Round article - 1
Date: Tue, 05 Sep 2000 16:28:44 +0300


This article is worth reading if for no other reason than the sarcastic
wit Round inserts when stomping on the theories he is refuting. It is
full of notes, which I will type with an asterisk and put the reference
immediately following in square brackets, so as not to confuse. -MSK
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THE ORIGIN OF THE STEWARTS
============================
By J. Horace Round, taken from "Studies in Peerage and Family History,
Westminster, Archibald Constable and Co., Ltd., 1901, pages 115-146

Of the problems upon which new light is thrown by my Calendar of
documents in France relating to English history, none, probably, for the
genealogist, will rival in interest the origin of the Stewarts. It has
long been known that the Scottish Stewarts and the great English house
of Fitz Alan possessed a common ancestor in Alan, the son of Flaald,
living under Henry the First. This was established at some length by
Chalmers in his _Caledonia_ (1807) on what he declared to be "the most
satisfactory evidence."* [*Vol. I, pp. 572-575] According to him, "Alan
the son of Flaald, a Norman, acquired the manor of Oswestrie, in
Shropshire, soon after the Conquest," and "married the daughter of
Warine, the famous sheriff of Shropshire." Mr Riddell, the well-known
Scottish antiquary, followed up the arguments of Chalmers, in 1843, with
a paper on the "Origin of the House of Stewart,"* [*_Stewartiana_, pp.
55-70] in which he accepted and enforced the views of Chalmers,
including his theory that Walter Fitz Alan brought with him to Scotland
followers from Shropshire and gave them lands there. But research has
hitherto been unable to determine the origin of Flaald father of Alan,
or even to find, in England, any mention of his name.

No less an authority on feudal genealogy than the late Mr Eyton devoted
himself to a special investigation on the subject of Alan "Fitz
Flaald,"* [*_History of Shropshire_ (1858), VII. 211-232] and arrived at
the conclusion that, after all, he was a grandson of "Banquo, thane of
Lochaber,", whose son "Fleance" fled to England. "My belief is," Mr
Eyton wrote, "that the son of Fleance was named Alan ... and that he
whom the English called Alan Fitz Flaald was the person in question."*
[*_Ibid_, p. 227. It is essential to bear in mind that the old Scottish
writers made Walter, the first Steward, a son of 'Fleance', wholly
_ignoring_ Alan his real father (see p. 119 below). This invalidates
their whole story.] He admitted, however, of the priories of Andover,
Sele, and Sporle, cells of the Abbey of St. Florent de Saumur, that he
could "show a connection between Alan Fitz Flaald or his descendants and
each of these cells* [*_Ibid_, p. 219], which suggested an Angevin
origin, and for which he could not account. But where he really
advanced our knowledge was in showing that Alan Fitz Flaald married, not
(as alleged) a daughter of Warine the sheriff, but Aveline daughter of
Ernulf de Hesdin, a great Domesday tenant. I have now been able to
trace Ernulf to Hesdin (in Picardy) itself, in connection with which his
daughter 'Ava' also is mentioned.* [*See Preface to my Calendar, p.
xlviii.] In 1874, an anonymous work, _The Norman People_, approached
the problem from the foreign side, and adduced evidence to prove that
Flaald was a brother of Alan, seneschal of Dol. But there was still not
forthcoming any mention of Flaald in England, while the rashness and
inaccuracy which marred that book resulted in his being wrongly
pronounced a "son of Guienoc." The great pedigree specially prepared a
few years ago for the Stuart exhibition by Mr W. A. Lindsay (now Windsor
Herald) still began only with Alan son of Flaald, to whom a daughter of
Warine the sheriff was assigned as wife. Moreover, in the handsome work
on _The Royal House of Stuart_ (1890), which had its origin in that
exhibition, Dr. Skelton could only tell us that "there was (if the
conclusions of Chalmers are to be accepted) an Alan son of Flathauld, a
Norman knight, who soon after the Conquest obtained a gift of broad
lands in Shropshire" (p. 5). Alan, we shall find, was not a Norman; the
lands he was given were widely scattered; and he did not obtain them
"soon after the Conquest.".

The latest authoritative statement on the subject is that, it would
seem, of Sheriff Mackay in the _Dictionary of National Biography_
(1896).* [* This passage is found in the biography of the first Stewart
king, so that I only lighted upon it after this paper was written. It
gave me the clue to Mr. Hewison's book, of which I had not previously
heard, but which I have now read just in time to add his results to this
paper (24th Jan., 1900).] He tells us, of the House of Stewart, that

"Its earlier genealogy is uncertain, but an ingenious and learned,
though admittedly in part hypothetical, attempt to trace it to the
Banquho of Boece and Shakespeare, Thane of Lochaber, has been recently
made by the Rev. J. K. Hewison (_Bute in the Olden Time_ Vol. II, pp.
1-38, Edinburgh, 1895).* [*Vol. XLVIII, p. 344.]"

Mr Hewison's volume opens with the words:

"The origin of the royal house of Stewart has long remained a mystery,
perplexing historical students, who feel tantalized at knowing so little
concerning the hapless victim of the jealousy of King Macbeth -- Banquo,
round whom Shakespeare cast the glamour of undying romance, and to whom
the old chroniclers of Scotland traced back the family of Stewart."

The author's 'glamour' augurs ill, and in spite of the unique advantage
he enjoyed in having access to the late Lord Crawford's MS. collections
on the subject, we soon find ourselves wandering, alas, with Alice in
Wonderland.

"It may be concluded that Walter, the son of Fleadan, son of Banchu, is
identical with Walter, son of [A]llan (or Flan), son of Murechach of the
Lennox family, if not also with Walter, son of Amloib, son of Duncan of
the other genealogy. Chronology easily permits of the equation of
Murdoch, the Maormor of Leven ... with Banchu ... who might have
survived even his son Fleance -- we, meantime, only assuming that
Fleance was slain in Wales. _Ban-chu_, the pale warrior, would be his
complimentary title; the old surname of his family ... also descended to
his son, _Flan-chu_, the red or ruddy warrior, known to his Irish
kinsmen as Fleadan."

We are surely coming to the _Man-chu_ dynasty. But no.

"This Irish form of the name _Fleadan tan_ (i.e. either Fleadan the
Tanist or Fleadan the younger) imports a significant idea -- namely,
_flead_ ... a feast, which corresponds in signification with _Flaald_
..."

Then there bursts upon us yet another discovery:

"_Fleanchus_ ... is the Latinised form of _Flann-chu_, the Red or Ruddy
Dog ... and is also a sobriquet -- the Bloodhound. ... This nomenclature
is evidently a reminiscence of the dog-totem or dog-divinity, etc.,
etc."

There remains, however, the standing puzzle* [*See p. 116, note 2,
above. It will be seen that to assert, as here, that Alan and 'Fleance'
were the same will not overcome this difficulty.] why Walter the first
Stewart was made by the old romancers a son of Fleance son of Banquo,
though his father was indisputable Alan son of Flaald. One solution
offered by our author is that "Ailin or Allan may have become the family
name"; but his own view is that

"The native name of Banquo's son would be the common Goidelic one
_Flann_, which signifies rosy or fair, and has an equivalent in
_Aluinn_, beautiful, fair, to which the word Alan, both in Britanny and
Ireland, may be traced."

Thus it was that 'Flann' would become 'Alan' in Britanny, "more
especially when, in the vulgar tongue of Dol, the former, denoting a
pancake, would sound like a nickname." And if we should still have our
doubts, is there not, at Dol, to this day --

"an imposing edifice, built of granite, in the purest Norman style of
architecture of the twelfth century, which tradition names 'La maison
des Plaids,' and avers was the revenue office and court-house of the
archbishops. this name, "the House of the Plaids," is touchingly
significant of Fleance with the royal wearers of the tartan ..."

But I really cannot pursue further these "ingenious and learned" new
lichts. A dreadful vision of dog-totems, arrayed in the Stewart tartan,
and feasting, with fiery visage, on pancakes in the streets of Dol,
warns me to leave this realm of wonders and turn to the world in which
we live. From "the House of the Plaids" I flee.* [*It is positively the
fact that the author so renders the name of the 'Maison des Plaids'
where the (Arch)bishops are supposed to have held their pleas
("plaids").]

Fortunately Flaald is a name, for practical purposes, unique; and we
need not, therefore, hesitate to recognize in "Float filius Alani
dapiferi" who was present (No. 1136) at the dedication of Monmouth
Priory (1101 or 1102) the long-sought missing link. We thus connect him
with the fourth, the remaining cell of St. Florent de Saumur in
England. But we have yet to account for his appearance as a 'baron' of
the lord of Monmouth, William son of Baderon. The best authority on
Domesday tenants, Mr. A. S. Ellis confessed that he had failed to trace
the lords of Monmouth in Britanny.* [*_Domesday Tenants of
Gloucestershire_, p. 46.] The key, however, to the whole connection is
found in the abbey of St. Florent de Saumur and in its charters
calendared in my work. In the latter half of the eleventh century many
Bretons of noble birth were led to take the cowl. Among them was
William, eldest son of that Rhiwallon, lord of Dol, whom, on the eve of
the Norman Conquest, Duke William and Harold of England had relieved
when he was besieged by his lord. Rhiwallon's son William, who was
followed by his brother John (No. 1116), entered the abbey of St.
Florent de Saumur, and became its abbot himself in 1070. Zealous in the
cause of the house he ruled, he clearly urged its claims at Dol,
receiving not only local gifts, but also, as its chronicle mentions, the
endowments it obtained in England. Of the two families with which we
are concerned the lords of Monmouth can, by these charters, be traced to
the neighbourhood of Dol, for William son of Baderon confirms his
father's gifts at Epiniac and La Boussac (No. 1134), which places lay
together close to Dol. The presence among the witnesses to these
charters of a Main or La Boussac and a Geoffrey of Epiniac affords
confirmation of the fact. Guihenoc, the founder of the house in England
(probably identical with "Wihenocus filius Caradoc de Labocac"),*
[*Lobineau, _Histoire de Bretagne_, II, 219] undoubtedly became a monk
of St. Florent,* [*_Calendar_, Nos. 1117, 1133] and resigned his English
fief to his nephew William (son of his brother Baderon), who is found
holding it in Domesday.

Some charters were specially selected by me from the _Liber Albus_ of
St. Florent (Nos. 1152-4) to illustrate, about the end of the
Conqueror's reign, the little group of Dol families who were about to
settle in England.* [* It would, no doubt, be a rash conjecture that the
"Herveus botellarius" of these charters (Nos. 1153, 1154) was the
ancestor of those Herveys, from whom the Butlers of Ireland are
descended. But if it should eventually prove to be no mere coincidence,
the Butlership of Ireland would have had an origin curiously parallel to
the Stewardship of Scotland.] Among the witnesses to one of them are
Baderon and his son the Domesday tenant. But the one family we have
specially to trace is that which held the office of "Dapifer" at Dol.
"Alan Dapifer" is found as a witness, in 1086, to a charter relating to
Mezuoit* [*_Lobineau_, p. 250] (a cell of St. Florent, near Dol). He
also, as "Alanus Siniscallus," witnessed the foundation charters of that
house (_ante_ 1080) and himself gave it rights at Mezuoit with the
consent of "Fledaldus frater ejus," the monks, in return, admitting his
brother Rhiwallon to their fraternity.* [*_Ibid_, 137, 138, collated by
me with the _Liber Albus_ at Angers.] He appears as a witness with the
above "Badero" in No. 1152, and in 1086 as a surety with Ralf de
Fougeres (No. 1154). Mentioned in other St. Florent documents,*
[*_Ibid_ 232, 234] he is styled in one, "Dapifer de Dolo"* [*_Ibid_
310]. And it is as "Alanus dapifer Dolensis" that he took part in the
first crusade, 1097* [*_Ordericus Vitalis_ (Societe de l'histoire de
France), vol. III. 507]. This style is explained in a charter of 1095,
recording a gift to Marmoutier by Hamo son of Main, with consent of his
lord "Rivallonius dominus Doli castri, filius Johannis archiepiscopi",
in which we read:

"Hoc donum factum est per manum Guarini monachi nostri de Lauda Rigaldi
tunc temporis prioris Combornii, testibus his: Alano siniscalco
Rivallonii predicti, etc.* [* Transcripts from (Bretagne) cartulary of
Marmoutier in MS. Baluze 77, fo. 134, and in MS. lat. 5441 (3) fo. 343.
Alan is also brought into conjunction with this Hamo son of Main in No.
1152.]

His brother's son, Alan fitz Flaald (ancestor, as has been seen, of the
Stuarts) also occurs, in these Breton documents, as releasing his rights
in the church of "Guguen"* [*Cuguen, near Dol] to Bartholomew abbot of
Marmoutier;* [*_Lobineau_, II. 310; MS. lat. 5441 (3) fo. 235] while two
charters of Henry I confirming the foundation of Holy Trinity Priory,
York, as a cell of Marmoutier, and prior to 1108, contain his name as a
witness (No. 1225). Again, a charter of donation to Andover Priory
reveals him as present in the New Forest with William son of Baderon and
"Wihenocus monachus" (William's uncle) early in the reign of Henry I*
[*_Mon. Ang. VI. 993]. It was Alan also who founded Sporle Priory,
Norfolk (No. 1149), on land he held there, as another cell of St.,
Florent, the Bretons who witness his charter further attesting his
origin. Among them is seen Rhiwallon "Extraneus," the founder of the
Norfolk family of Le Strange, which, more than five centuries later, was
so ardent in its loyalty to Alan's descendants, the Stuart kinds of
England.* [*His name has hitherto remained doubtful, and is given as
Roland in the _Dictionary of National Biography_.]
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Continued in message Round-2.

Mary
Kifissia, Greece

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