X.  WERE ANCESTORS OF HRVOTLAND AND THE KNIGHT BELS

ALREADY AT THE MEROVINGIANS COURT?

 

“…L´Histoire parallèle, souvent garante d´objectivité mais toujours gardée secrète,

ne parlera jamais qu´à ceux qui savent l’interroger…”.

 

Fra. Robert Adelsohn Bels. (°1946)

 

“…The parallel History, often guarantor for objectivity but always kept secret,

will only answer to those who can interrogate it...”.

 

and paraphrasing Fra. Henry Lincoln:

 

“… All I have done is open the door for people who have the expertise to understand what is here, who now do have the work to do. But the background of the story does not rely only on hypotheses, sometimes it is based upon pure statements on facts, sometimes upon pure logical thinking…”.

 

Please note that this chapter is written in an even more sequential (and at times spontaneous) manner than the previous ones. New information has been regularly added throughout the Essay, but most of it appears in this section. As a result, although this chapter is continually updated and revised, it has not been reformatted, simply due to a lack of time.

 

Consequently, the reader may occasionally come across answers before the related questions are even raised, quantum physics at its best! There is also a risk of repetitive or overlapping formulations, where certain questioning sentences may already have received partial or full answers elsewhere in this same chapter, or in another part of the Essay. Apologies for this, but as mentioned, I currently lack the time to rewrite or fully reformat the entire work.

 

As for the question of how it was possible for certain families of the very early Middle Ages to occupy positions at the courts of different rulers over the course of centuries, some answers were found in rare and very old documents to which I had access. These documents support the working theories I have put forward, confirming the continuity of specific families who held certain functions across multiple generations. The four main reasons were as follows:

 

1. Their Family. These people followed a secular Nobility code wanting noble men and woman to marry only among them. This was justified for it ensured the continuity of their vested interests and lineage patrimony (financial fortune, estates, lands, castles, business, and the privileges they got from their functions).
2. Their heritage. Being active at the courts was a kind of family heritage matter based upon the family´s reputation. Some families were known, since generations, for their loyalty and service rendered.
3. Their education. The “Leudes” families could send their children to Merovingians or to Carolingian Court’s Schools. So did their education (read, write, and speak several languages) play a crucial role in guaranteeing them “precious” administrative positions.
4. Their relations. After their studies (special education), all were employed either at the courts or became high-level Churchmen (Bishop, Archbishop). The permanent interaction of these people is fact and helped them to retain their trans-generational social status.

 

If today, in some countries still delivering lower nobility titles, an individual can be ennobled for some very questionable reasons, in the Merovingian and Carolingian times, these options were unthinkable because suicidal.

 

The nobility status was based only on aristocracy. The family had to be issued from a good lineage. So were nobility and aristocracy based on a family History rather than on a personal short and isolated feat of Arms or of any other “secondary” valuable action.

 

Aristocracy was, therefore, the logical outcome, the crystallisation of a process that lasted several centuries. All historians dealing with the Middle Ages encountered, repeatedly, the same lineages interacting among themselves, through space and time. Their omni-presence may be seen as a constant of ancient history. Here a short review of Chapter I. § c. summarising the number of years some of our lineages were historically publicly active and of big influence in certain parts of Europe:

 

• The Balliol from Balliol (Flanders) which remained “in place” for 315 years.
• The Balliol branch of the Kings of Scotland, which remained “in place” for ca. 333 years.
• The Balliol (van Belle) of Doulieu, Steenkerke, Dampierre (with Oosthove), hereditary Marshal of Flanders, which remained “in place” for ca. 410 years.
• The Belle (van) of Ypres, which remained “in place” for ca. 449 years.
• The Bels of Gonthière, of La Croix, of Lormier (L´Ormier) and of Oosthove, lords of Clorbus, which remained «in place» for ca. 143 years but 517 years for Oosthove!

 

Some other lineages lasted even more than two millennium!

 

In Italy, for example, the Massimo lineage overcasts by far the very old lineage of the Bels (anno 286). The Massimo, one of the oldest families of Imperial Rome, is still hanging around in today’s Italy since ca. the year -250 BCE. That is today, in 2015, some 2.225 years old. According to their Dynastic history, own traditions, and archives, they would descend from the ancient Maximi of Republican Rome and from Quintus Fabius Maximus (†203 BCE).

 

Even a brief overview of European history from the early to the late Middle Ages inevitably reveals the same lineages repeatedly occupying positions of command or close proximity to the major events of their time. These families seemed to defy both time and history, maintaining the continuity necessary to permanently consolidate their social status.

 

We recall that Charlemagne was crowned Emperor in the year 800 and died in 814.

 

Hrvotland Bels was thus born during his reign, and it is quite plausible that his father also served the emperor. Charlemagne was the son of Caroloman I (ruling 768–771) and the grandson of Pepin the Short (751–768). Charlemagne had only one son, Pepin, who died in 810. Pepin had three sons (whom we have already encountered), and with the division of this vast empire began the troubles that would leave a strong mark on the subsequent centuries of European history.

 

Given that high positions at the Carolingian court, held by some heirs of the Bels lineage, were hereditary, we may advance the working hypothesis that the father of Hrvotland Bels was also a notable figure, as likely was his grandfather. Of course, this extrapolation cannot be extended indefinitely; that would lead us back to Adam and Eve, or perhaps beyond, into other parts of the universe! However, it is a reasonable and honest interpolation, based on the history of such lineages, to speculate that at least a few generations enjoyed this elevated status.

 

By “a few generations,” we mean a minimum of two. Let us consider four generations, to avoid overreaching, although this fits well with the continuity factor of such lineages that we have just described.

 

We may logically estimate the birth of Hrvotland Bels to have occurred around the year 800. If his father had him at about age 30, this places the father’s birth roughly around 770. Applying the same assumption to his grandfather, we arrive at a birth year near 740 (800 - 30 - 30).

 

So was his grand, grandfather, born ca. anno 710, some 41 years old at the time of the “Coup d´Etat” of the Palace of Herstal by Pépin, in November 751, deposing King Childeric III. Note: Childeric III was forced to spend the rest of his life in Flanders in the Abbey of Saint Bertin, near Saint-Omer. The surroundings of Saint-Omer and the place itself were probably already part of the estate of the Belle (Balliol).

 

It is extremely probable that, before joining the Capetians (Hugues Capet) rulers, the ancestors of Hrvotland Bels and of the Knight Bels of Vacarisses, were already high personages serving at the court of the Merovingians, in Herstal. For me, this seems to be more evidence than a probability!

The subsequent paragraphs will reveal very interesting new approaches, which sustain my working thesis. The German historian and author Dr Prof. Timothy Reuter (1947-2011) came to the same conclusion as me. I quote here a passage out of his book: Germany in the early Middle Ages 800-1056.

 

“…The older model explained the transition from the supposed community of free men to the later aristocratic polities as being the result of feudalism. The men who founded the new aristocracies were, on this view, those who rose to power as the vassals of the Carolingians.

 

If today’s consensus is rather different, this is neither because scholars get bored with explanations after a time, however accurate these are, nor because the scholars of an earlier generation wilfully overlooked the obvious, but because the sources, especially but not only the narrative sources, will also sustain another reading which now seems closer to the truth. Few would today deny the existence of small free men in the Frankish empire (though there were attempts to do so a generation ago); but still, fewer would deny the existence of an aristocracy.

 

The change started with the realization that many of the leading men of the Carolingian empire did not come from nowhere but were related to one another and to Office holders of previous generations. Some at least of them were related to Office holders of the Merovingian period.

 

This suggests that there was, after all, an aristocracy, and one which did not, moreover, owe its rise or its existence to the rise of the Carolingians. Historians realised that the leading names (Leitnamen) constantly recur in each generation. Many of these names can be found held by leading men of the late sixth and seventh centuries, and when we find that men with the same names held the same pieces of property in both periods, it suggests very strongly that their families had continued in positions of power over the two centuries…”.

 

I would like to add to the last sentence: “and for some of them, for several centuries” because this is exactly the case of the Bels-Belle (Bailleul) lineages.

 

Another historic discovery, which confirms my working thesis, concerns the monk and abbot Saint Wandregisel, also known as “Wandrille de Fontenelle”.

 

I will go in some details because they are important to understand the internal coherence of the links that existed between the very ancient families and their rulers.

 

Saint Wandrille aroused from a noble family of Austrasia. He was a grandson of Waldrade, a sister of Pépin de Landen (Pepin I^st), the ancestor of the Carolingian (called after their ancestor Charles [Karel] Martel) Dynasty. Born near Verdun (F) Abt 600 (†662), at that time the Merovingian Kingdom of Austrasia, he married to divorce shortly after, to live a monastic life relatively well documented.

 

What is very important for the working thesis is that Saint Wandrille is reported as having been a :

 

“…Frankish courtier who worked in the high administration during the reign of Clotaire II and Dagobert I. His father Waltchis was a kinsman of Pepin de Landen, the first Carolingian Mayor (installed by Dagobert I) of the Palace of Austrasia…”.

 

This sentence not only advocates but confirms my working thesis wanting some very old families to have inherited their functions (in this case, two generations in office) but also to have shifted from Office holders (baronobis) at the Merovingian court to the Carolingian court.

 

In the two following cases, the inherited functions reach already three generations! Over Saint Arnoul de Metz and Saint Wandrille, is written:

 

• Saint Arnoul : “…He works in the palace of Austrasia with Gundulf, his great-uncle, who practised at the post of head of the palace and councillor (adviser) of the King. Then he enters, for a dozen years, in the service of King Thibert II as the bursar of the royal domains...”.
• Saint Wandrille: “… the Carolingian offspring, because he was the grandson of Waldrade, the sister of Pépin de Landen (Pepin I^st)…”.

The Office holders were, by their position and functions at the court, also very closed linked to the Mayors of the Palace.

 

“…Saint Arnoul de Metz, by his position of Leude (*) in the court and together with Romaric, his lifelong friend, entered the opposition against Queen Brunehilde. Associated with Pépin de Landen, they asked the King of Neustria, Clotaire II, for help. The King wins and has the old Queen executed...”.

(*) “Leudes” comes from the Merovingian Latin word “Leudé” (masculine plural substantive noun) and means:

 

• “Name given to the companions or trusties of the Merovingian kings”. (Dict. Emile Littré.).
• “Comes from Frankish Leudi, (people). In the Barbarian worlds (V^th-VI^th century), High ranking man at the King’s service”. Source: Le Petit Larousse Illustré 2016.
• “Former nobles and big vassals who followed voluntarily the King in the war”. Source: Dict. Mr.P. Poitevin.
• “In the Frankish kingdoms: A vassal or feudatory “. Source: Dict. The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.
• “The word “Leudes” was a typical Merovingian term that completely disappeared from the historical sources at the beginning of the Carolingian time. They used instead the word “Vassi”. Source: Dr. Enrico Paust Freiherr von Lipstadt.

 

Not only were these Office holders interacting permanently for political, military, and socio-economic reasons with the Mayors of the Palace, but also some of them had also very close familial links.

 

“…Arnoul and Pépin married together their respective children Ansegisel and Begga. They will give birth to the Carolingian Dynasty…”.  And:

 

“…Saint Wandrille, the Carolingian offspring because he was the grandson of Waldrade, the sister of Pépin de Landen (Pepin I^st)…”. Remember Pépin I^st (*Abt. 580 - †640) was the ancestor (sic) of the Carolingian Dynasty! He was also the Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia from 615 until 629 and from 639 until 640.

 

Important Dynastic and domestic events created profound changes that eroded the Merovingians Kings’ power. Everybody noticed the shift of power from the Kings to their Mayors of the palace. It was only a matter of time to see the Merovingians period to come to a dead end. Fact is that they were not longer able to respond adequately to the big new challenges of the time. Practically every important action for the Kingdom (for example to counter the Arabs and/or the Norman invasions) were coordinated, conducted, and performed by the Mayors of the Palace.

 

These mayors were the most powerful officials in the Frankish realm. The Merovingians, especially during the last Merovingian Dynasties, took the dangerous “liberalities” to entrust all their important matters to their mayors or majordomo, later in French “Major d’homme”. In Latin maior domus or maior palatii.

 

All higher offices, from seneschal to constable, were based upon household duties that were, in turn, under the supervision of the Mayors of the Palace. Like the other offices manned by the “Leudes”, the supreme office of Mayor of the palace was also hereditary.

 

It was a decree dated 617, by Chlothar II (*584 - †629), king of the Franks, ruling Neustria, Burgundy and Austrasia, that gave the mayors power for life. Doing so, they probably did not realize that they were giving them the opportunity to transform themselves into rulers.

 

Since they were completely independent, could not be removed from office, and were able to change laws for themselves, the gateway to supreme power was wide open before them. All they had to do was to wait for the right time to walk through this golden opportunity to raise themselves to the head of state. The seizing of the power of the Merovingian kings was gradual, inevitable and irreversible. It was only a matter of time before this would happen.

 

So came the mayors with tricks from Niccolo Machiavelli (°1469 - †1527), but some 1000 years before him, rather quickly to the logical conclusion that, if they were held responsible for everything in the Kingdom, they could as well get rid of the King and become Kings themselves! This is another excellent lesson for history.

 

As said earlier, this state of consciousness started after Charles Martell defeated the Muslim raiders at Tours in 732.  It was his son, Pepin the Short, who got the support from Pope Stephen II (752-757). Pepin stated to him: “Would the man with the most power not also be king”? So did the pope consecrated Pepin king in 754 !

 

This “Coup d’état” came as a real benediction (sic) for the opportunistic Roman Catholic Church, which impatiently waited for this supreme moment. Under the Merovingian King Clovis I^st, their plan worked perfectly well. Thanks to his new Empire, the Church could install itself, in all his conquered territories, as the only authorised religion! All others were systematically “eliminated”.

 

Unfortunately, the later Merovingians Kings limited their territorial expansion and ambitions. These happened to be diametrically opposite to the Church’s hegemonic and dominating expansion plans. Getting rid of the Merovingians was therefore high on top of the Church’s great strategic plans. It only had to wait patiently for a new strong and ambitious emerging ruler to emerge and to give him their “Holy benediction”.

 

The Church did not have to wait long to see their plan unfold before their eyes. The engines behind the movement were the Mayors of the Palace. These usurpers showed all signs to be ready to work hand in hand with Rome, if it would support their “Coup d´Etat” !

 

The Church’s plan was, as usual, indeed well calculated. Less than two centuries later, Charlemagne was sacred Emperor, in Rome (anno 800), by Pope Leon III (795-816). Result of the operation: In Italy, the Lombards, which threatened the papacy, were definitively reduced to silence and the Merovingian’s former empire doubled in size, which in turn practically doubled the size of the Roman Catholic Church total hegemony and domination in Europe.

 

Later, the Church pursued its hegemonic political plans with the extermination of the Cathars and of the Templars Knights! Men should learn from the lessons of Miss History and realise that whatever crucial problems may arise, the Church will always, without any exception, take the side of the most powerful ruler, bank, political system, etc.!  As far as I have been informed, Jesus did quite the opposite!

 

 

Back to our subject.

 

There must have been “something more behind the St. Wandrille´s text”. We know that:

 

“…Saint Wandrille´s friends of the Palace were: Arnoul de Metz, Saint Ouen (Audouin), Saint Eloi (Eligius) and Saint Didier de Cahors (Desiderius, Didier)...”.

 

In a text relative to Didier (Desiderius) de Cahors, there is a sentence of enormous importance, which will lift this “something more behind it”. It tells us that:

 

“…Saint Didier de Cahors was born to a father called Salvius and a literate mother with the Frankish name of Herchenfreda (most probably a Merovingian). Desiderius had two brothers, Rusticus and Syagrius. The three boys were sent to the court of the Frankish King Clothaire II and with other boys of noble families, received an excellent education at the Merovingian court-school...”.

 

Clothaire II (*584 - †629) of the Merovingian’s House was King of Neustria from 584 until 613 and King of the Francs from 613 until 629 after his conquest of Austrasia and of the Kingdom of Burgundy.

 

I found another mention of this “excellent education” of certain privileged families called “Leudes”. In the hagiography titled “Vita Arnulfi”, written by the monk Ummo, sometime during the X^th century, we can read that:

 

“…Saint Arnoul was born under Maurice I^st (?) in the villa Layum, near Nancy (F). His birth year was somewhere between 582 and 590. He received the current education (teaching) then in force in well-to-do families…”.

 

Until now, I did not even know there was such a thing as a “special” Merovingian court-school only accessible to children of certain families called “Leudes”. These schools were created to provide these children with the needed education required for their later administrative functions. Interesting is that these occupied functions were trans-generational and that the graduates shared among themselves, all the administrative postings and important functions inside the kingdom. A great number of them became also important people inside the Roman Catholic Church institution, being elected as abbots, bishops, and cardinals!

 

The above-mentioned quotation places me before the evidence of the reality. The fact that some privileged children could attend such unique elite schools suddenly gave me an answer to that “something more behind it”, I desperately looked for.

 

This unique elite was well read at a time when only monks, cloistered behind their abbey walls, bishops and fellows could indeed read and write. With very few exceptions, rulers were illiterate, counting solely on their muscular strength to achieve what they would never dream to achieve by intellectual strength!

 

For instance, Charlemagne (*747 - †814) the big ruler the Germans so desperately want to be “German”, although he was born in Belgium (Herstal), from Belgian parents (the eldest son of Pepin III le Bref (the Short) x Berthe (Bertrada) and who was crowned Emperor in 800, could not even write his name! He could hardly autograph his documents using his well-known monogram (right).

 

This monogram was not created by Charlemagne but by his contemporary Frankish scholar, Einhard (*775 - †840). To read the monogram we must start from left (West), beginning with the letter K, going through the centre to read the letter A. Then from the top to bottom, starting from the letter R, in passing through the centre O, which leads to the letter L. Back through the centre, we read the letter U and we finish on the right, with the letter S. The result is “Karolus.” The diamond-shaped graphic form, in the middle of the monogram is the result of a superposition of the letters A,O and U (which was written as the letter V, at the beginning of the Carolingian period).

 

However, Charlemagne was not a primitive brutal barbarian compared to some of his ancestors. Surrounded by very educated people he acquired a rather good education and a good level of knowledge. His mentors, among others, were the Saxon monk Alcuin of York (735-804), one of the most learned man of the time, Peter of Pisa, Paulinus of Aquileia, Rado and the Abbot Fulrad.

 

Alcuin was also a great “moralizer”. Charlemagne, who ordered the death penalty for paganism, retracted his ordinance in 797 due to Alcuin’s intervention. Alcuin is reported having tackled him, saying: "...Faith is a free act of the will, not a forced act. We must appeal to the conscience, not compel it by violence. You can force people to be baptised, but you cannot force them to believe...".

 

Much later, in the XVII^th century, Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) followed Alcuin’s footstep. He wrote: “... Religion is a matter between every man and the Divinity...”.

 

A good lesson of Humanity for the Roman Catholic Church’s criminals at work for more than a century in what is called “The Cathars Crusades” but also during the subsequent centuries of Inquisition and its different forms of criminal activities! The Inquisition spared no one, storyteller or troubadour, peasant or nobleman, king, or emperor. All were potential victims, without any rights, without any recourse. Everyone was at the mercy of these terrorists of the past!

 

“Criminals” is an adjective that may shock. It is extreme, it is the quintessence of the over 100 synonyms such as assassin, murderer, killer, slayer, sniper, strangler, cutthroat, garrotter, liquidator to be found in the “The Synonym Finder”, by Jerome Rodale. However, it remains the only adjective most apt to describe the inhuman beings that were instrumental in the horrors that struck the entire western world for almost seven centuries. In France, the Inquisition, installed by Pope Lucius III, in 1184, was only put to an end by Napoleon Bonaparte (emperor of the French, from 1804 until 1814).

 

Charlemagne’s court biographer Einhard mentions him as an intelligent and well-educated man. Not able to write, he nevertheless learned to speak Latin and Greek and is said to have been interested in astronomy.

 

The document “Vita Arnulfi” also informs us about the career of the two brothers of Didier de Cahors:

 

“…Rusticus assumed holy orders at an early age and became archdeacon in the town of Rodez (South of France) before being appointed abbot of the palatine basilica of Clotaire, who at length appointed him bishop of Cahors, in Quercy. The second brother, Syagrius, after long service in the palace household of the Franks and long familiarity with Clotaire, was made comte d´Albi and exercised juridical authority as praefectus in the city of Marseille…“. Vita Arnulfi. Bibliographic reference 18 and 21.

 

It is thus absolutely nor by chance nor by strokes of good fortune, that we always encounter the same families, through time and space, at some key positions being them in the regular or secular world.

 

Nor is there a single doubt that Saint Wandrille would have kept the high position he had at the Merovingians court if, instead of becoming a monk, he had decided to offer his services to the Carolingian’s court. He was renowned for having been the older of an important Office under the Merovingians Kings (Clotaire II and Dagobert I), he was issued from a very ancient family of Austrasian nobility and finally yet importantly, he was himself of “Carolingian offspring”.

 

When the Carolingians were about to take over the power in the Merovingians´ Kingdom, the literate Office holders wisely changed camp and became active in the new Carolingian Dynasty. Did the Carolingians invite them to join?

 

The Knight Dr Enrico Paust Freiherr von Lipstadt, of the German Friedrich-Schiller-Universität of Jena (Bereich für Ur-und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie), states it very clearly in a correspondence dated June 7, 2015:

 

“…It is understandable, that this ruling class (Leudes) of the Merovingians also kept its position of power with the Carolingians, because without of their support the Carolingians would not have been able to take over in the first place. The Carolingians were originally not even counted to the independent "Leudes", but to the dependant "Hausmeier" of the royal family, who were lacking a royal lineage (and special court education). Without the ruling class, they could have never been able to seize the power...”.

 

Normative logic tells us that these “Leudes” people would never have occupied such high positions by mere chance. As we have seen earlier, the secular nobility of their family, their loyalty, their education, and services rendered, for centuries, to their rulers, may perfectly explain this phenomenon.

 

This kind of interaction is as old as Humanity! William the Conqueror, for his conquest of England (Battle of Hastings, in 1066), did the same. For his safeguard but also to ensure the success of his operation “after” the conquest, he surrounded himself with very well-known families of his time. In ancient times as today, loyalty, to a certain extend because "Homo homini lupus est", was crucial for security and prosperity.

 

Now that the presence of the Bels Lineage as “Leudes” is established, let us speculate even further. It is historically established that the Salian-Franks (proto-Merovingians) became over time the allied of Rome or, at least, of the Roman troops stationed in the Roman provinces called Belgica and Germania Inferior.

 

According to a source, which, unfortunately, I lost all references: “...The proto-Merovingians were the allies (auxiliaries) from Rome at the battle against the Thracians in 26 CE...” ! If this allegation is true, it will push back in time, the relation and military cooperation between the Romans and Frankish people. I did not cross-reference this information!

 

We have seen that Méroveh is reported, in anno 451, as commander of the Franks (Salian and Ripuarian) which allied, once more, the Romans, for the decisive battle against Attila. However, as a Roman proconsul, Méroveh respected the Roman authority as long as it was under the highly respected Flavius Aétius.

 

It is also established that the very early Merovingians, who profiled themselves increasingly as independent rulers the more the Roman power crumbled, were quite uneducated people. The contact alone with the Roman civilisation did not change much to that situation because we know from experience that the contact alone with educated people do not make boors more educated!

 

The Romans had not only an astonishing well-organised army but also a very well organised political, social, educational, and administrative system. The “Leudes” families being educated in the Merovingian’s court schools may lead us to think that the Merovingians were educated people. Nothing is falser! The “Leudes” families were, but not the Merovingian rulers and certainly not the common people!

 

However, the fathers of the Merovingian kingdom were clever enough to realise that they would never be able to build a lasting kingdom, just on strong, courageous but brutal and uneducated Barbarians. Having experienced the effectiveness of the Roman institutions, they only had to take their examples, at least, as far as the “Court Schools” were concerned.

 

“…The Merovingian government was extremely simple, borrowing titles and functions from the remnants of the imperial administration and blending them with those derived from the Germanic Military structure….”.  Source: History of the World.

 

 “...Surprisingly, another factor that helped the survival of education within the core of the former empire, was the needs of the barbarians who now ruled in place of the Roman emperor. Many of these people (barbarians) had served the empire as military auxiliaries or had at least been living on the fringes of the empire for generations.

 

Because of their previous contacts with the empire, many of their leaders recognized the need to maintain some parts of the imperial government. As illiterate outsiders, they needed civil servants who could already read, write, and keep accounts to do the works for them. Trained administrators and tax collectors were still needed.

 

Further, inspired by the Roman law codes, many of the new rulers determined that they needed to write down the laws of their own people for the first time. Thus, jurists were needed to codify the laws and to interpret them. And so, some boys continued to be educated so that they could serve their new masters just as their forefathers had served the emperors...”. Source: Paul B. Newman.

 

It is evident that the Roman Court Schools System did not come with the last rain! The Romans also copied their Institution from a higher civilisation: the Egyptians! In early Egypt’s Pharaonic times, special schools were created to educate children of important families. In these schools, they learned everything that was necessary to ensure the durability of the knowledge and of the empire. Egyptian graduates could become architects, priests, doctors, mathematicians, army officers, etc.

 

“…There is a collective noun in the ancient Egyptian texts used to describe a very special group of people who existed in early Pharaonic times. The word is Patu (plural of Pat) and those who belonged to the clan were called iry-pat. They were elite nobility that surrounded the pharaoh; they were effectively the courtiers of the royal palace… They were high officials… The iry-pat were descendants of the migrants from Dilmum and Sumer whose ancestral leaders came from the direct line leading back to Adam…”. Source: David Rohl.

 

“Because no public school system existed, the average Egyptian could neither read nor write. The sons of scribes, higher officials and occasional precocious farm children attended local temples for instruction in letters”. Source: Bob Brier & Hoyt Hobbs.

 

I emphasize on the “The sons of scribes”, that confirms that the profession was hereditary.

 

One of the most “in the public eye” professions was that of an architect, such as Imhotep, the builder of the Step Pyramid complex at Sakkara for his king, Djoser and of a Scribe. These people knew how to read and write hieroglyphs. Since only a hand full of Egyptians could read and write, those who did were highly respected. The scribes were considered part of the royal court and as such benefited from an impressive number of privileges such as not being conscript, being exempt from heavy manual labour required of the lower classes and from paying taxes.

 

The Papyrus of Anastsi, one among hundreds of others, shows us the importance and privileged scribes were in Egypt: “…The scribe directs every work in the land… for him there are no taxes … he payeth tribute in writing…”.

 

The Papyrus Linsen was written between 1350 and 1200 BCE at the time the government needed more people to be educated as scribes. The text is an encouragement for student scribes to persevere in the choice of their profession. It says:

 

“… See for yourself with your own eye. The occupations lie before you. The washer man's day is going up, going down. All his limbs are weak from whitening his neighbor's clothes every day, from washing their linen. The maker of pots is smeared with soil…. His hands and his feet are full of clay. He is like one who lives in the bog. The odor of the cobbler is penetrating. His hands are red, like one who is smeared with blood. The watchman … spends a night of toil just as the one on whom the sun shines. The merchants travel downstream and upstream. They are as busy as can be, carrying goods from one town to another. They supplied him who has wants... The Carpenter, who is in the shipyard, carries the timber and stacks it. If today he gives the output of yesterday, woe to his limbs. The Shipwright stands tall behind him to tell him evil things. His out worker who is in the fields, his, is the toughest of all the jobs. He spends the day loaded with his tools, tied to his toolbox. When he returns home at night, he is loaded with the toolbox and the timbers, his drinking mug, and his wet stones. …” Source: Miriam Lichtheim.

 

The Papyrus Chester Beatty IV goes even farther. He links the scribe with eternity.

 

“… Man decays, his corpse is dust. All his skin has persished.

But a book makes him remembered through the mouth of the reader.

Better is a book than a well-built house, than tomb-chappels in the west.

Better than a solid Manson, than a stela in a temple…".

 

The Scribe school was a long and difficult course of study and to become a scribe meant ten to twelve years of hard training. The first step for some children, from noble but not necessarily rich families, were to enter a special school at a royal palace. There some boys were taught together with the children of the royal family while some others, for more practical reasons, were sent to auxiliary schools attached to temples, where priests taught them.

By copying and recopying many different types of letters and texts. The students became educated in foreign languages, literature, religion, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, etc. After a boy’s education as a scribe was completed, he could become a lawyer, a counsellor, an accountant, a foreman of a lot of professions (granary foreman, foreman of sculptors, etc.) or any high functions even that of becoming the private secretary of the king, of a nobleman or of a military officer.

 

Old Papyrus inform us also that, as a rule, a boy in ancient Egypt entered the same profession as his father: A baker’s son became a baker, a tanner’s son became a tanner and a bricklayer’s son became a bricklayer. This rule eventually became a tradition, which lasted throughout the whole Middle Ages, and is still encountered today in some parts of the world.

 

Sons of scribes were brought up in the same scribal tradition, sent to school and later inherited their fathers' positions! However, from time to time, some intelligent children issued from normal condition families could break from the family tradition and enter the higher ranks of society by learning how to read and to write.

 

We encounter by the Romans, the Merovingians, the Carolingians and the Capetians, the same pattern as by the Egyptians:

 

1. The existence of special schools to educate children issued from predominant or elite families.
2. The graduated students shared among themselves all the higher court (Office holders) and Church offices and functions.
3. Their functions were hereditary as they were transmitted from father to son.

 

We have seen that the Roman Court Schools System did not emerge from the last rain, that they copied this educational system from the Greek and the Egyptians. But even, the Pharaonic Scribe Schools did not come from nowhere! They were “imported” from the first civilisation ever on Earth, the Sumerians.

 

As they invented the writing, they had to take measures to ensure the continuity of this brand new “encoding” system and by making sure that their people, in future generations, would be able to write and to read their own language. So were they the first civilisation on Earth that created schools to teach writing, languages, mathematics, geometry, astronomy and the system of weights and measures, they also invented for their business operations.

 

However, we should not be naïve. These functions became hereditary less by the application of the “Tradition” than by the application of the “Principle of Exclusion” ! The same principle that forbids, in most armed forces in the world, non-commissioned Officers (NCOs) to socialise with Officers by, for instance, by dining together in an Officer’s Clubs!

 

As always, if a decision makes no sense, simply follow the money! If an Officer’s Club (O-Club) ever opens its doors to NCOs, as happened in the USAF Europe, at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, in 2000, we should look for the real reason behind this decision! Soon will we discover that it was not taken for humanitarian reasons, but for economical imperatives. With officers alone as patrons increasingly deserting the O-CLub, this club should have had its doors closed for years. The end justifies the needs!

 

The Capetians, decentralising their power, allowed each of their new Counts (Counts of Flanders, of Champagne, of Barcelona, etc.) to have their own court and court school. The result of this new political system was that the several thousand years old educational system did not survive the mid of the XIV^th century. Feudality, nobility, and the emergence of powerful and rich patrician families reinforced the “Principle of Exclusion” for their physical and estates safety as well as to protect their own social statute.

 

The application of this principle is, for instance, the main reason why some of our lineages could remain, for centuries, the most influential families of Flanders. The “Belle” lineage remained for almost 450 years, the leading family of city of Ypres. They were all council members, lawmen (lawyers), magistrates and mayors. Other of our lineages such as the Bels and the Balliols shared the same experience.

 

The Merovingians, being barbarians, copied and learned from a higher civilisation. They even had the pretention to consider themselves, as did later the Carolingians, the continuity of the Roman Empire!

 

“...They may have had their own legal codes, but these were written in Latin and were based on Roman models. In addition, the administrative structures remained essentially unchanged: the old roman civitates were simply renamed pagi and administrated by Franks counts...”. Source: W. Scott Haine.

 

We have written proof that these court schools still worked perfectly under King Clotaire II (584-629) which is said to have been an educated man.

 

“…Chlotar (Clotaire) cleverly endeavoured to spread his idea among the aristocracy by attracting their youth to his court for their education. This cannot have been difficult. For any family to have a member so closely connected with the seat of power would have proved both a useful short-term asset and an excellent investment for the family’s future. The results of this court policy can be seen clearly in the mid-seventh century, when a group of young men who had been educated in the royal household became variously Bishops… and remained active not only in preserving their old friendship (Egregore) but also in protecting royal interests…”.

 

“…These charters also reveal that the major court scribes (Office holders) had a mastery of an extremely complicated form of early shorthand. Known as Tironian notes, after Cicero´s secretary Tiro, this shorthand system remained today one of the chief methods of authenticating documents of the period…”. Source: Paul Blezard and Peter Blake.

                                                                                                              

The Tironian notes (notae Tiroianae) were invented, anno 63 BCE, by Marcus Tullius Tiro, the Roman slave secretary of the Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero.

 

(* Overview Chart) Ammianus Marcellinus described Julian’s defeat of the first Salian Franks (in 358), those whom custom has called the Salians. Julianus promoted them to the status of foederati. However, before that time and more precisely after the battle of 287-288 CE launched by the Emperor Maximian, some Frankish tribes called Auxiliaries, were already integrated into the Roman administration. According to historians, this must have been the time the Bels entered the Roman education system.

 

Info: Laeti were kind of prisoners of war who had been made bondmen and settled in the Empire.

 

“… Just as, at a sign from you, Maximianus Augustus, the fallow lands of the Nervii (Hainaut) and the Treveri (Trier area) were tilled by the “Laeti” settled there and by the Franks subject to our laws, so today, Constantius, invincible Caesar, thanks to your victories, all the lands in the countries of the Ambiani (Amiens area), the Bellovaci (Beauvais area), the Tricasses (around Troyes), and the Lingones (around Langres), which had been abandoned, flourished anew under the plough of a barbarian…”. Source: Latin Panegyrics, IV. “Panegyric of Constantius”, 21.

 

Seventy years earlier, in 212, the Roman emperor Caracalla (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus °188 - †217), extended, by imperial edict, the Roman citizenship to all free male inhabitants of the empire.

 

“...Conquered people were brought into the Roman world and given the extensive benefits of Roman citizenship; in 222 CE, all freeborn people of the empire were made citizens...”. Source: Norman F. Cantor.

 

And as reported earlier: “…The Roman Emperor Tacitus Marcus (Abt. 200-276), described the German recruits as being natural mercenaries [vivi as arma nati]. They became a powerful ally of Rome, providing many imperial generals [notably Salia and Arbogast]…”.

 

A more detailed study of the Roman period before the Common Era (CE or anno zero) reveals that, already in those times, at least for Roman Gaul, Rome granted a kind of "partnership" status to the peoples subjected by Rome who had shown their submission and a firm intention to integrate into Roman’s society. So was it not necessary for them to wait two centuries to benefit from other liberalities introduced by the edict of the Roman emperor Caracalla, in anno 212.

 

Provisional table of approximate appearances of some patronymics attached to the Bels-Belle-Balliol lineage, historical periods, some definitions, and their evolution and/or change over time. This table does not take into account the patronymic variations of the Balliol lineages.

 

“...The nobles of Gaul received Roman titles and administrative duties; the warriors were incorporated in the legions...”. Source: W. Scott Haine.

 

“…The Roman army was composed of two parts and a considerable fleet. The senior part was a citizen army of some 30 legions (about 165,000 men). Gradually, these legions became a permanent feature of the frontier areas in which they were established. They recruited mostly from those areas. Rome had always relied on the military help of non-Romans, and the employment and incorporation of the auxiliaries became one of the most important ways in which the Empire acquired a cultural homogeneity.

 

The regiments of auxiliaries, much more than legions, were commanded by citizens of equestrian rank. Usually from the elite of Italy or the provinces and using these jobs to find further status and opportunities for themselves. It follows that before the third century, the military commanders provided by the Empire’s elites were not what we would call professionals. The effectiveness and expertise of the army rested with the senior and junior centurions who often rose from the ranks and would serve as long as an ordinary soldier…” Source: Nicholas Purcell.

 

After having allowed many members of the provincial elites to become Roman citizens and extended citizenship to entire areas, the emperor Augustus (*63BCE - †14CE), an adoptive son from Julius Caesar, made access to it more rigorous and limited emancipation.

 

In addition, the emperor wanted to present himself as the restorer of morals, the reformer of justice and promulgated laws to limit the depopulation of the upper strata of society mutilated by civil wars. His reign saw the return of peace and political order.

 

There was already at that time, a shortage of manpower, not for manual jobs, except for the army, but for the administrative tasks of administrations that had been raised out of control by the logarithmic expansion of the Empire.

 

Here follows important new information regarding the Bels in the Roman times.

 

The year of the entry of the "Bels" into the Roman administration schools has been, according to the most thorough research, dated to the year 286. This year, that must be taken with a range of error of a few decades, was also the one I used in this essay to elaborate my conjectures of the “Bels” entering the roman administrative schools. A cautious but realistic approach, based on the customs, traditions, to the laws in force, etc., that has been welcomed by many medievalists who consider it as credible.

 

However, when scaffolding my theory on the probable origin of the "Bels” in those very early times, I had lost sight of a very essential element. This element was so striking that I still wonder by what trick of sorcery, I masterfully passed-by without noticing or considering it. It feels like seeing the lash in my neighbour’s eye and not having seen the beam in my own!

 

In Belgium, in the primary school history classes, every student must learn the boring, if not aphrodisiac, stories of the different tribes that once populated his country at the time of the Roman’s army invasion under Julius Caesar, in the year 58 BCE. These people were Gauls, of Celtic origin, who settled throughout Gaul (Latin: Gallia), centuries, if not more, before the arrival of the roman intruders.

 

There was a small, but not very offensive, insult to the Flemish. The Walloons (French-speaking), who believed themselves to be superior, called the Flemish "les Ménapiens", implying they were primitive. This insult was, and is, so popular in Walloon Belgium, that no one, neither in Wallonia nor in Flanders, was and is unaware of the existence of these Menapii.

 

The Belgians have the same insult about the Germans by calling them “the Neanderthals”, because of the discovery of the Homo neanderthalensis, some 13 km east of the town of Düsseldorf, in Germany, and their way of walking, heavy, clumsy, light years away from graceful and because of the "primitive" shape of their head, powerful and protruding jaw and eyebrows.

 

The Belgians imagine the head of this "Homo" surmounted by a helmet with a point. It doesn't take much more for them to imagine the typical physiology of the German soldier: tall, strong, heavy but at the same time stupid, primitive, instinctive, unintelligent, belligerent, and speaking a guttural language coming straight from the dark depths of the caves.

 

The French have the same kind of insults towards the Belgians and the British. This is a proof that in Europe, people get along very well and that they are just waiting for a good opportunity to go and smash their neighbours’ skull, without forgetting to steal all their belongings, beautiful wives included! Of course, only by compassion, to comfort them...

 

When Caesar arrived in Gaul in 58 BCE, southern Gaul from the eastern Pyrenees to Lake Geneva, was already transformed into a roman province since 125 and 121 BCE and was already relatively strongly Romanised through economic and cultural exchanges. According to Caesar’s records, only the Belgian peoples (Gallia Belgica) rejected any Roman influence.

 

Between 125 BCE and 58 BCE, the inhabitants of Flanders, the "Belgian peoples", rejecting any Roman influence, exclude quite obviously the probability that they integrated the roman schools at that time.

 

So did Caesar give us the first element of our puzzle: No Bels in Roman schools before, at least, the end of the year 50 BCE.

 

In those times, many tribes lived in what was called “Gallia Belgica”. They are all rather well known by archaeologists and several of their tombs have been opened for a long time now, revealing several artifacts and precious items. Of all these tribes, only those living in West-Flanders, close to the North Sea, are of some interest to us. These are the Menapii and the Morini.

 

According to both Caesar and Tacitus, “…very close ties existed between the Menapii and the Morin, there is every indication that they were allies…” and “…Menapi, Morini ora maris iuncti pago qui Cersiacus uocatur…” or “…the Menapians, the Morins united on the side of the littoral to the pagus named Cersiacus…”.

 

We know that about 54 BCE, these two tribes, the Menapii and the Morini, joined forces with the Eburones, an eastern Belgian tribe from Tongeren, (Aduatuca) under the fierce leader Ambiorix, to make Caesar swallow the bitter pill.

 

The latter realizing the gravity of the situation asked for reinforcements. Five legions (± 30,000 professional soldiers) were sent and marched against the coalition. There were heavy losses on both sides, but the better trained and organised Roman troops eventually won the battle. Following the devastation of the tribes, only several small groups survived, but the Atuatuci disappeared from historical records and/or were assimilated into neighbouring tribes.

 

Julius stated also “… continentes silvas ac paludes habebant, eo se suaque omnia contulerunt …”. or “…these two peoples (Morini and Menapii) fled by taking refuge in the forests and marshes…” and reported that he ravaged and set fire to the scattered dwellings in the countryside and their villages, in the year 56 “… vicis aedificiisque incensis…” Source: Le Bourdellès, Hubert.

 

The Menapii, the Morini and other tribes were forced to submit. Caesar decided to place them under the tutelage of his ally Commius, a king of a Belgian tribe called the Atrebates.

 

The "Gallic war" ending in the year 50 BCE, one can reasonably bring back to this year, the limit before which the "conquered" integrated the administration schools. In other words, and as said before: No Bels in Roman schools before, at least the end of the year 50 BCE.

 

The second element crystallises itself out of the results of a yDNA analysis.

 

Two of our dynasts living in the USA, decided to undergo a yDNA and Haplogroup test. The geolocalisation of the results pointed out precisely the region of their common origin as West Flanders, the richest region of Roman Gaul that was inhabited by the tribes of the Menapii and the Morini. This certitude gives us necessarily another one: these two tribes had definitively not the east banks of the Rhine River for origin as originally thought.

 

This signifies that the “Bels” did not have to wait for a favourable moment to cross the wild Rhine, to enter the Roman province of “Belgica romana”. They were already living in these areas since the very beginning of the roman territorial occupation.

 

The third element arises from Julius Caesar’s observation recorded in his book: Commentarii de Bello Gallico et Civili.

 

"… The Belgians are the bravest of all these peoples, because they remain completely foreign to the politeness and civilisation of the Roman province, and because the merchants, rarely going to them, do not bring them anything that contributes to weakening their courage: moreover, as neighbours of the Germans who live beyond the Rhine, they are continually at war with them.”.

 

Five important information filtered through these sentences:

 

1. The first is that the two tribes concerned (Menapii and Morini) lived on this side of the Rhine River, its western bank.
2. The second is that, not only did they not live where the Germans lived, but that they were bitter enemies.
3. The third gives them an essentially different culture and economy: the Menapii and the Morini were maritime tribes that had nothing in common with the “Germani in altissimis silvis habitantes“, from across the Rhine, except for an irresistible propensity to smash each other's skulls.
4. The fourth element in favour of a quick assimilation of the Menapii and the Morini, was the region of West Flanders, where they lived. This Romans’ geostrategic and economical region turned out to be conducive to their integration into Roman society.

 

If all Gaul ended up being civilized, the hearths of this civilization were not distributed uniformly on all its territory. They were concentrated, in priority, around the strategic points for the Roman occupant. These points were their accesses to the sea, their main roads and rivers, the natural borders, their big cities, and their defence systems.

 

If the Menapii and the Morini had lived in places of no importance to the Romans, it is certain that they would have been kept away from the “hot spot” of this great current of civilization and its inevitable repercussions on their everyday life. However, the habitat of the Morini and the Menapii was far from being without interest for the Gaulish Rome.

 

These two tribes did not live somewhere in remote villages or hamlets lost somewhere along some of the roman routes, whether they were viae praetoriae (praetorian roads), viae militares (military roads) or viae consulares (consular roads). Those kinds of “lost somewhere” people had no direct nor regular contacts with the romans.

 

On the other hand, the Morini and the Menapii lived precisely at the core and at a very strategic area of this rich northern Roman Province constituted by:

 

• The seaport of Gesoriacum (Boulognes-sur-Mer for the lower, also called Gesosiaco and, Boonen, in Diets and Flemish after the Fall of Rome).
• The seaport of Bononia (Boulognes-sur-Mer, upper city, also called Bosisini).
• The intense road network that led to these ports from the eastern lands.

 

The Roman used these facilities, distant from each other by only a few kilometres, for their military and commercial activities with the island across the Chanel. They were their bridgehead to Britain.

 

The prove of their importance is given by the merging of three crucial roman roads coming from the East. On the map below, we see the three vital road arteries, the Roman precursors of our modern highways, coming from the East and merging in Gesoriacum. These roads have themselves undergone important upstream merges since the capital of the Morini, which was Tervana (Terwann).

 

“…The Morini had their civitas (Roman administrative capital) in Taruanna, Terwaan in Dutch or Thérouanne in French. Since the Morini were a maritime people, their capital was vitally linked to the coast by numerous roads that enabled the transport of sea and other products, including salt, to the hinterlands and vice versa...”. Saint Omer was one of their villages.

 

The map informs us that Gesoriacum was inhabited by the “Menapii” : “Gesogiaco quod nunc castello Menapionr. xu”. So were the Menapii people living at a very important commercial and strategic port for its role in the embarkation for the roman armies to the conquest of England and for the commercial exchanges.

 

The map called "Tabula Peutingeriana » or « Peutingeriana Tabula Itineraria » is a thirteenth-century copy of an ancient Roman map showing the main roads and cities of the Roman Empire that formed the “cursus publicus”.

 

The city of Cassel was in Gallo-Roman times the capital of the Menapii: “Castellum Menapiorum”.

The city Tervana (Terwaan) was the capital of the Morini.

 

The Nervii, another Belgium tribe, as we have seen around page 272-273, had its main city in Bavay, and later moved to Cambrai. This location was an exchange place for another important incoming road from the East.

 

We must however be cautious when we speak of cities. They were nothing more than hamlets, villages, or small agglomerations, a little larger one than others.

 

The term "capital" should be taken here in the sense of "the most important agglomeration" and not in the hodiernal understanding, which attributes to it the concentration of the largest or most important state institutions.

 

To use an imaginative language, the villages were the sparrows, the raven the most important agglomeration and the eagle the capital. All the Gallic tribes thus had their sparrows and their ravens, but none of them had the size of an eagle. It is the Imperial Eagle, that was imported by Rome, who was the precursor of all big cities such as Köln (Colonia Agrippina), Xanten (Colonia Ulpia Trajana) and Aix-la-Chapelle (Aquis Capella). Trier (Augusta Treverorum) built by the emperor August in 16 BCE, was the capital of the Western Roman Empire and imperial residence, also named "Roma Secunda".

 

5. The fifth element is the urgent need for manpower in the roman army as well as in its administration in general.

 

Rome wanted to form a body of rigorous officials and an aristocratic elite on which it wanted to rely to direct its immense empire. For the remote provinces, it had to integrate “Foederati” as soon as possible, Especially in Gaul Belgica, one of its richest provinces. Without the input of “Auxiliari”, for its troops, and of “Foederati”, for its administrations, Rome would have been very quickly in an impossibility to govern.

 

Julius Caesar had long understood two major aspects from the peoples of Gaul:

 

• Their great warrior values, especially of those Belgians he qualified as " the bravest of all ".
• Their highly adaptive faculties.

 

The wars against the Romans having clearly demonstrated their military superiority, the Menapii and the Morini have, with a lot of common sense, pragmatism, and philosophy, very quickly (probably faster than any other Belgian tribes, due their positioning on Roman strategic hotspots such as Seaports, routes, garrisons, markets, etc)., realized the advantages of an integration in this new culture that was, anyway, imposed on them.

 

Not only the military power of Rome was a guarantee of great security for their family but also the immense perspectives for the future, this civilization could offer them.

 

The exchange of courtesies was not long in coming. The Gallic tribes would be integrated, as would, decades later, some from the other side of the Rhine. These men would become Roman soldiers, auxiliaries who in the early days served to defend the borders of Belgian and Roman Gaul against invasions from the east.

 

Everything I've written about the "auxiliaries" is very well summarized in the following text, itself summarized from a very informative book on the subject:

 

“… From Augustus’ reign onwards, auxiliaries were systematically recruited from non-Roman citizens. One of their big advantages to the government was that their pay was considerably less (an auxiliary infantryman was paid about half a legionary’s rate). Caesar had made use of the Gallic and German horsemen he encountered in Gaul to help defeat Pompei.

 

August began to employ auxiliaries chiefly as frontier and policing troops. The Romans employed them as specialists to supplement their heavy infantry. They were organized into smaller units than legions. The infantry was grouped into cohorts of 500 or 1000 men. These smaller sizes made it easier to move them around.

 

At first, auxiliary cohorts were stationed near their land of origin but soon saw themselves displaced to other theater of operations. A cohort of raw recruits from the lower Rhine, whom Agricola had stationed in southwest Scotland, revolted at being displaced, murdering their officers, and then sailing back to Germania.

 

Hadrian's’ Wall, typical of a fortified frontier, was made entirely by auxiliaries ethnically mixed. There were about 12,000 till 15,000 of them.

 

After completing 26 years of military service, auxiliaries were rewarded with full Roman citizenship, recorded on the bronze tablet called a “diploma”, and this was a status that their son inherited. Occasionally an entire cohort received Roman citizenship for outstanding services. Auxiliaries helped spread the Roman way of life. After Caracalla’s grant of nearly universal citizenship in 212 CE, the distinction between auxiliaries and legionaries soon grew blurred...”. Source: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Rome.

 

The following phrase: “…Auxiliaries were rewarded with full Roman citizenship, and this was a status that their son inherited...” confirms my allegations, made many times in my Essay.

 

Admittedly, once defeated, the Bels having recognised the immense advantages of Roman civilisation and culture, set about integrating themselves into it without delay. This integration, adaptation and, above all, the recognition of this situation by the authorities, could last one or two generations. Some families, having a better capacity to adapt than others, integrated more easily and more quickly. Some even had the opportunity to prove their attachment and loyalty to their new rulers, either by various acts of bravery, signs of valour, devotion or other. They would become Foederati.

 

It is obvious that no more than the officials of Julius Caesar, of Harvard, of Oxford or of the Grandes Ecoles, were going to choose for their schools, people who were clearly not intellectually suited to the task, to say the least! For them, the army was the only chance of salvation. Enrolment in the army was immediate and mandatory. All that was needed was to be well-built and not too smart. There is nothing new under the sun !

 

It was a different matter for the members of these families who were destined to study. These future administrators, scribes, lawyers, and teachers had to be intelligent, well-behaved, and well-educated. Moreover, the families from which they came, had to prove their loyalty to the Empire and to Roman institutions. This could take generations.

 

The family environment being conducive to the development of personality, the cement of character, it was therefore towards the offspring of such families that the authorities recruited the first students, until a time when their functions became hereditary. These generations, necessary to prove their loyalty and to make a good name for themselves, help us to provide a time range for the Bels’ integration.

 

Many of these Auxiliaries, later Foederati, departed with the Roman troops to their eastern territories; Palestine included. This is an extremely important information that we will not discuss further here.

 

If all Gaul ended up being civilized, the hearths of this civilization were not distributed uniformly on all the territory. As we have seen earlier, they were concentrated, in priority, around the strategic points for the Roman occupant. These points were the accesses to the sea, the big roads and rivers, the natural borders, the big cities, and their systems of defences.

 

Julius Caesar, well aware of this state of things, quickly took advantage of it and hastened to recruit from the surrounding tribes. They also turned out to be, paradoxically, among the most intelligent or, to be less unpleasant for the others, the most adaptable and the most available to embrace the new civilization, of the dozens other Gallic tribes that hung out in this large and rich Roman province.

 

This particularity certainly did not go unnoticed by the Roman civil authorities, who were as well seriously concerned about the understaffing in their institutions. This lack of manpower in the army had its parallel in the administrations. This is the main reason the Bels, and a few other Flemish families, were allowed to join the roman schools.

 

It was in these schools that the roman elite was educated, learned to read, to write, to speak, studied languages, politics, geography, law, administrative procedures, engineering, etc. These studies made their students authorities in their fields, and these would, with time, customs, and traditions, become hereditary to facilitate the teaching and the continuity of the smooth running of administrations. The Romans therefore simply took over the traditions of the Greeks, Egyptians and Mesopotamian, their predecessors.  Again, there is nothing new under the sun!

 

These schools have been an ace of hearts for our Dynasts that would take advantage of this particular situation, making its fruits hereditary for centuries of generations to come.

 

The upper part of this assimilation time range cannot go beyond the year 54 BCE, when the Menapii, the Morini, the Eburons and the other Gallic tribes were definitively defeated by the Roman troops.

 

To minimize the margin of error, we give those “particular” families 4 generations to integrate, which is particularly long, even abnormally long. Nowadays, the duration of a generation is about 30 years. I don't know what the average age per generation was in those early days. In my agnatic genealogy, I count for 21 generations, from 1395 to 2000, an average of 28.8 years per generation.

 

Clais °1395 - Pieter II °1421 - Stevin °1443 - Jean °1468 - Joannes °1498 - Franciscus °1525 - Petrus IV °1560 - Zeeger °1585 – Jacques °1620 - Petrus VI °1651 - Petrus X °1705 - Pierre VII °1671 - Petrus XIV °1739 - Brixius °1771 - Jean-Baptiste °1817 - Edouard °1866 - Valère °1894 - Robert IV °1922 - Robert V °1946 - David °1967 - Sophie *2000.  In total 21 generations from 1395 to 2000 = an average of 28.8 years per generation.

 

Therefore, a prudent extrapolation tells us that the first Bels may have joined the Roman administration schools, some 4 generations after their submission to the Roman conquerors, which gives us approximately the year 60 CE (54 BCE + 4 generations x 28.8 years per generation = 115), or a little more than a century after the year 54 BCE. This is some 205 years before the year 286 CE estimated as the basis for the integration of the Franks from across the Rhine.

 

I believe that we have reached here the "speculative" temporal limit not to be exceeded. Any working hypothesis going beyond this period would be based on “unfounded” speculation.

 

I'm quoting from the excellent book: “Une Histoire du Monde Antique” :

 

"...The success of the Romanization of Gaul was due in part to its many prestigious centers of learning. Following the conquest of Gaul, the Romans, whose main concern was to eliminate local nationalism, gave priority to teaching the children of the Gaulish nobility, a privilege hitherto reserved for the druids...".

 

"Children of the Gaulish nobility" implies that an elite class already existed. It was most likely the children of this social class, as well as others, sometimes far more intelligent and gifted, who were skilfully romanized, and who went on to study and later held administrative or other positions. 

 

"... Some of these schools were to become universities. The Aeduan town of Autun, founded around 10 BCE, became the center of the oldest Gallo-Roman university attended by the children of Gaulish nobility.  Other universities appeared in Lyon, Vienne, Trier, Toulouse, Arles. Reims and Limoges. The most prestigious in the 4th century was Bordeaux, whose professors were renowned as far away as Rome. As for the students, they never ceased to be numerous, grouped into Corporations with their own distinctive insignia...".

 

However, all working hypothesis and conjectures must, to be credible, have a realistic foundation, obviously based, not on mathematical certainties, but on habits, customs, traditions, modes of functioning of the societies and historical documents describing parallel events that could enlighten us further.

 

History, like medicine and law, is an experimental science, not an exact science! In its world, two plus two does not necessarily make four.

 

And even in the so-called exact sciences, speculation is taking an increasingly dominant role. From pulsars to black holes, from the origin of the Universe to Quantum levels, everything goes through a first phase, which is observation, to be immediately followed by the second phase, which is speculation. No scientific approach to a phenomenon that cannot be apprehended immediately and concretely, can be made without conjectural speculations. The history of the world, in all its facets, imperturbably follows the same intellectual process.