“…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...”.

 

Please be aware that this Chapter is written even more sequential than the previous ones. New information has frequently been added throughout the Essay but mostly in this section. In consequence, although this chapter is permanently updated and revised, it has not been reformatted by lack of time!

 

This will have for consequences that the reader may encounter some answers prior to the questions related to them (sic). Quantum physics at his best! There is also a certain risk of repetitions of questioning sentences, which found already some answers, somewhere else in the same Chapter or in the Essay. Sorry for that but, as said, I have no time to rewrite nor to reformat the whole Essay.

 

The questions as to know how it was possible, for some very early Middle Ages families to have been at positions at the court of different rulers for centuries, found some answers in some very old and unique documents I had access to. These prove my put-forward working theories, concerning the continuity of some families, being active in certain functions, for generations, to be correct. The four main reasons were:

 

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 quick overview of happenings on the European scene, from the early Middle Ages until the late Middle Ages, will let us unavoidably meet the same lineages being at the commands, or very close to, of the major happenings of their time. They seem to brave time and history. They had the needed continuity that, in turn, would consolidate permanently their social status.

 

We remember that Charlemagne was crowned Emperor in anno 800 and that he died in anno 814. Hrvotland Bels was thus born under his reign and his father may very well have also served the emperor. Charlemagne was son of Caroloman Ist (768-771) and grandson of Pépin le Bref (751-768). He had only one Son, Pépin, who died in 810. Pépin had three sons (we met them already) and with the division of this vast Empire, started the problems that would leave their very strong imprint on the following centuries of European history.

 

The high functions, occupied at the court of the Carolingians by some heirs of these Bels lineages, being hereditary, we may forward the following working hypothesis wanting the father of Hrvotland Bels, to have been also a notable, as was most probably his grandfather. Of course, we cannot extrapolate indefinitely, that would bring us to Adam and Eva and maybe in other parts of the Universe! It is however quite a logic interpolation, precisely based on the history of such lineages and an honest approach, to speculate that at least a few generations may have benefited from this status.

 

A few generations mean minimum two ! Let us take four not to overdo it, although it would perfectly fit with the continuity factor of such lineages, we just developed.

 

We may logically suppose that the year of birth of Hrvotland Bels may have been around the year 800. If his father had his son at the age of 30, that would give us roughly his year of birth, ca. anno 770. Following the same pattern for his grandfather, we will end up with his year of birth being around the year 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 (Bels).

 

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 Ist)…”.

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 (Vth-VIth 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 Ist)…”. Remember Pépin Ist (*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 Xth century, we can read that:

 

“…Saint Arnoul was born under Maurice Ist (?) 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 XVIIth 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 XIVth 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 civilization. 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: Peter Blake and Paul Blezard.

 

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.

OVERVIEW CHARTA or TABLE OF THE APPEARANCES OF THE PATRONYMS.

 

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 from 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, (see page 24).

 

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, (see page 72).

 

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 Morinii.

 

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.

 

HISTORICAL TURNING POINT

 

However, the story of the integration of the Bels in the Roman schools would once again take a completely different turn after the medievalist, Fra. Dr. Enrico Paust Freiherr von Lipstadt further analysed the arguments of my hypothesis.

 

He quickly discovered my ignorance about the system of integration used by Rome regarding the assimilation of the peoples subjected to it. He stated in a correspondence dated 10 December 2022:

 

„…I would assume that the four generations approach to your family's entry into the Roman schools is too long an estimate. The Roman military and administrative system were always focused on quick conquests and subsequent incorporation of the new provinces into the system, as they depended on economic power to maintain the empire and soldiers for new conquests.

 

Therefore, it was common for the Romans to leave the rulers of the defeated territories in power in most cases, but as Roman vassals. To assure their loyalty, their children were taken as hostages immediately after the victories and for several generations, directly to Italy and most to Rome, or in the Eastern Roman Empire to Byzantium.

 

This had two advantages for the Romans. First, the probability of revolts against them was low if they had the children of the rulers as hostages. Second, these hostages had nothing to do with modern prisoners but were educated at the imperial court or the courts of the nobles, along with their children. Thus, they learned to know and appreciate the Roman system from an early age and also grew up with the later rulers of the empire quasi as siblings.

 

The goal here was, when the children were grown up and returned to their homeland, that they were used to Roman life and wanted to continue living it in their homeland and thus not rebel against the Romans, especially since they would then have to fight their siblings, so to speak, with whom they grew up, which only a few did. Famous examples of such hostages are, for example, Theodoric the Great or Attila, both after the birth of Christ, but the system was the same in pre-Christian times.

 

Therefore, I would assume that the children of your family did not enter Roman schools after four generations, but immediately after the war. Depending on how high ranking your family was at the time, the children could also have come to Italy as hostages. However, this can never be proven.

 

Waiting four generations would have been far too long for the Romans, this would have meant over 100 years of danger and instability if you assume 30 years for a generation. Therefore, I would say the children of your family came still in the same year of the defeat into the Roman schools, quasi to the immediate "re-education"...”.

 

During my previous mentioned "prudent extrapolations" :

 

1. I wanted the first Bels to have joined the Roman Schools, after having crossed the Rhine River at about the year 286 CE. This working hypothesis turned out to be incorrect because, inadvertently, I did not consider the results of a yDNA analyse done by two members of our lineages.
2. Once these elements considered, the year of the appearance of the Bels had to be shifted back more than 225 years, to about the year 60 CE. The latest being the result of my working hypothesis (described earlier) assuming an integration period of four generations before being admitted into the Roman Schools.
3. Medievists, headed by Fra. Dr. Enrico Paust Freiherr von Lipstadt, corrected my hypothesis with a fact I was unaware of: Rome had a well-known and solid integration system. It came into action, not after four generations, as I thought, but right after their conquests. For Flanders Morini and Menapii, that was around the year 54 BCE.

 

Nevertheless, one must remain realistic. Among the countless children deported to Roman cities in Italy, "for their own good", but mainly for security reasons, not all of them will end up in schools.

 

Some, identified as not fit for higher education, were used as laborers. Not all of them will have successful manual or intellectual careers, or even spiritual careers.

 

Other children, those more inclined to manual and craft professions, were directed towards technical schools. The most gifted went on to the grandes écoles, and it was they who ended up in the various government administrations.

 

It is true to say that in ancient Rome, as in ancient Greece, in Pharaonic Egypt and in all the great civilizations, the range of intellectual abilities was as varied as it is today. Thus, it was always the most gifted who occupied the most intellectually demanding positions, but also the most enviable and advantageous, but by far, the least accessible.

 

Nowadays we realize that it is since the French revolution and the abolition of the nobility, at the end of 1918, and with the advent of the republics, that we find, most of the time, uneducated and unintelligent individuals commanding educated and clever men. This is the paradox of the masses. I wrote in a text to the attention of the knighthood:

 

"... In a democracy, everyone has the right to vote. This also means that "everyone" can be brought to govern. From what youth will the elected leader have inherited and from what secular lineage is he or she a legatee? What are the great ethical and deontological values to which he was forced by "family tradition" and by "the Codex of Chivalry" to adhere? Is he not suited to be a ruler of fortune rather than a ruler of birth?

 

"Everyone" means the three major categories of people: the idiots or irresponsible, the common people, and the gifted or genius. Since the two extremes are in the minority and their votes cancel each other out (ten votes for idiots cancel out ten votes for geniuses), it follows that only the votes from the mass of the population (i.e. those not too stupid to be idiots and not too smart to be gifted) will be significant.

 

The calculation is quickly done and gives the proof that the extremes cancel each other out. The votes of the idiots and the geniuses thus result in an elective neutrality whose consequences weigh very heavily for Humanity! The moral of the story, reasoning to the extreme: if our leaders are elected by a people made up of a majority of "incompetents or even idiots", how can this same people expect (or demand) that their elected officials run the country in a way other than "incompetent or even idiotic ?..." Source. Fra. R.A. Bels in Recommendations to the Knights.

 

In the past, the biggest and most brutal men were the leaders. The security and survival of the tribe depended on the one who was best able to defend them and make them respect him. This is the principle of the "Alfa Wolf". The similarity with the animal world was obvious.

 

In those days, small men only had to keep a low profile. Little Mao, Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot and others never had a chance to impose themselves. A negligible quantity, even unfit for armed service, just good for increasing the number of cannon fodder.

 

Astonishingly, since the levelling down, by the populism called bolshevism, communism or socialism, things have changed. And if these sad individuals will never obtain a Nobel Prize, it is no less true that they alone were responsible for the death of nearly 70,000,000 people for the first one, 6,000,000 for the second one, 25,000,000 for the third one, 20,000,000 for the fourth one, and more than 2,000,000 for the fifth one. (Source: M.F Leclère and P.E. Dauzat in Le Point).

To support the hypothesis that the Bels were integrated not only in the Roman schools, but also in the Roman administration, we base ourselves on unavoidable historical facts, which we have encountered by the dozens during the writing of this essay.

 

It is firmly established that the families of skilled workers of the past, practicing such trades as bakers, masons, blacksmiths, silversmiths, wool-makers, carpenters, cart builders, basket makers, millers, coat makers, butchers and others, who sometimes belonged to trade associations, or "collegia", and whose services to the community deserved special attention, passed on their knowledge from father to son, from generation to generation.

 

It is also firmly established that the literate families, that we already met, and that exercised the functions of lawyers (homo ex lege), of notaries (notarii), of secretaries (scribae), of advisers (consiliarii), etc, did the same. These functions now be covered by the generic noun "baronobis.

 

I think it's interesting to define some of these functions:

 

The Scribes (Notarii & Scriptorium). These people were essential to all the administrations, how far we may go back in time. They were among the most important administrative elements in the very old Egyptian civilization, where they were called "Sesh", as written records were crucial for governing their Kingdom constituted of upper and southern Egypt. They drafted and copied royal decrees, laws, and correspondence. Such as in later civilizations, they recorded court decisions and legal proceedings, maintained annals and historical records. They also strengthened the administrations by ensuring clear communication across their lands and standardized the written languages used in their respective courts, improving literacy and spreading history across their Empire or Kingdom.

 

The Advisers (Scholars & Clergy in the Royal Court). Charlemagne had countless rulers before him and gathered some of the most brilliant minds of his time to advise on political, legal, military, and religious matters. They crafted policies on law, education, and religion and oversaw reforms in church and state and compiled historical records.

 

The Councilors (Political & Legal Advisors in Charlemagne’s Inner Circle).

 

These were high-ranking nobles, nobles and clergy, who played a role in decision-making and governance, such as the “Missi Dominici” who were Royal inspectors who ensured regional officials followed imperial laws. Counts and Dukes advised on military and governance issues. Bishops and Abbots helped with religious policy and moral guidance. In addition, they administrated justice and oversaw local governance and advised Charlemagne on military campaigns and territorial expansion. They also ensured local lords remained loyal to the emperor and maintained law and order through the Capitulary system.

 

In the Carolingian times, as earlier under the Merovingians, the Romans, the Greek, the Egyptian, etc., advisers, councilors, lawyers, messengers, notaries and scribes, all attended the royal assemblies, called Placitum Regium at Charlemagne’s court, where laws and policies were debated and where historical decisions were taken.

 

These functions were all hereditary, even more so than the manual functions, because they carried within them an elite component that it was vital not to neglect. Even today, as we have seen page 30, this continuity can be found in certain professions, with the notary's office at the top of the list.

 

The permanent concern to preserve this exclusive status, with all its implications for a family, was one of the reasons for the arranged marriages and the very sustained familiar and friendly links between the great lineages.

 

The inequalities of wealth, social status, and privilege between the different "socio-economic categories" of the Roman world were immense. Informed of these very important social elements, it is therefore no longer a coincidence to find members of certain ancient lineages at the crossroads of all the great events of history. This then explains that!

 

"... The emperor’s service employed many clerks and secretaries. But it was not the editors of documents, nor the other competent men who rose in the hierarchy. It was more the "cubicularii", the personal servants, the confidants of the emperor or of powerful men. And they rose not [only] because of their skills, dedication, knowledge, or privileged information, but because of the patronage that came from social contacts..."... One cannot insist too much on this point: it was the capacity to incorporate, and not the administrative excellence, that was the greatest art of government of Rome...". Source: Nicholas Purcell.

 

And, ironically, this "modus operandi" which occurred after the fall of Rome, was repeated, after the fall of the Merovingians, under the Capetians, under the Carolingians and later, under the emerging Counts of Flanders, the Counts of Barcelona and, much later still, under the Normans during the conquest of England and in the county of Flanders, for at least 5 centuries in the Flemish city of Ypres and Belle (Balliol).

 

It is in this immutable traditional continuity that the Bels (and some phonetic and orthographic variants) are found as civil servants in all the administrations of the great rulers of Western Europe. Let's go back in time, starting in the 11th century:

 

From 1099, with the crusade in the Holy Land under the banner of Sir Godefroid de Bouillon, relative and neighbour of our Lordship and fiefs in Flanders.

 

In 1014, in Vacarisses, the Knight Bels as baronobis, during the judicial hearing held by Count Guillem de Montcada (Count of Barcelona) to settle the claim of the vicar of Olesa de Monserrat, in Vacarisses (northern Spain).

 

Around 874, as escort and baronobis, on the marriage of Count of Barcelona Wilfredo "el Velloso" with Winidilde van Vlaanderen (abt *860), fa. of Boudewijn Ist "Iron Arm" (840-879).

 

In 843, Hrvotland Bels was a lawman at the signing of the Treaty of Yuts (Diedenhofen), between the grandsons of Charlemagne, king Charles, Lothaire and Louis. It was at this meeting that the Bels met the counts of Barcelona.

 

about 751 at the time of the “Reconquista”. The Carolingians military campaigns against the Arabs in South of France and Spain. It is about that time that all the elite from Flanders went over, from the Merovingian court to the Carolingian court, the new rulers. This elite was called “Vassi”. The Carolingians will themselves be followed by the Capetians, etc.

 

In 681, when Flemish knights went down to Rennes-le-Château, as close protection for a daughter and the son of the assassinated Dagobert II, named Sigisbert IV.

 

At the time (ca. 671) when Flemish knights secretly close-protected and escorted Dagobert II to Rennes-le-Chateau after his return from captivity in England!

 

The Bels of Belcastel (Corbières) attached the patronymic "Buc" to the village of Belcastel (Corbières), thus signifying their attachment to Flanders and its first Great Forester Lyderic I the Buc.

 

In 621, the Merovingian King Dagobert I, installed Lyderic 1er le Buc, as first Grand Forestier of Flanders. He was Count of Tournaisis (646), Count of Artois in Lens, “Leude” and Sieur of Therouanne (649) and d'Arras and Sieur van Harlebeke (Harelbeeke), Grand Forestier of Flanders. All places about 50 km of the Bels cradle in Flanders (Ieper, Kortrijk, Tournai).

 

620 is the year given by the «yDNA» (Haplogroup R1b1c9b) test, as the area of living of the common ancestor, in Flanders, of our Dynasts Joseph F. Bailey and Thomas Baillieul.

 

In 486 the Franks defeated the last Roman authority in Gaul at the Battle of Soissons. Almost immediately afterwards, most of Gaul came under the rule of the Merovingians, the first kings of a proto-France. The Merovingians incorporated the Flemish elite (educated people under the Roman empire) into their administrations. They were called the “Leudes”. The Bels were Leudes such as was, about 135 years later, a pair of them such as Lyderic I le Buc, who by the way, married Richilda, a Merovingian princess and sister of Dagobert I.

 

Perfectly ignorant, they had an urgent need of literate people. Those being only to be found in the Roman administrations, it is thus them which, with the drop, integrated the Merovingian institutions and which, after the year 486, joined them in mass.

 

From the 5th century to the middle of the 8th century, the Merovingian dynasty ruled over a very large part of present-day France and Belgium, as well as over parts of Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

 

This dynasty descended from the Salian Franks who settled in the regions of Thérouanne and Tournai in Flanders as early as the 5th century. The history of the dynasty is marked by the appearance of a strong predominance of Christian culture within the aristocracy. It is also characterized by the growing establishment of the Church, and by an economy that develops following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. 

 

Beyond this period, the normative logic, based on the secular habits and customs of the past, forces us to conclude that the Bels were only attached to the Roman administrations. Therefore, the new historical approach gives for the entry of the Bels in the Roman schools, the probable year of 54 BCE.

 

This date will obviously never be proven and seems, at first sight, much too sensational to be openly supported. This is the reason why the official documents of the Ordo Balliolensis, the Chivalric Institution of the Bels-Belle-Balliol Dynasty, such as the Magistral Communications (CM) and the Magistral Ordinances (OM), no longer include, under the Bels' Arms, the probable date of their first appearance. It is replaced by the mention " multisecular cognationes ", far less striking.

 

However, knowing that:

1. We can trace the Bels, and later its patronymic variants, with certainty through major historical events spanning over 1550 years, (2022-414).
2. We could trace them in different places in Western Europe.
3. We know the modes of operation of the ancient civilizations (Greek, Egyptian and Mesopotamian), which made the functions of literate people not only hereditary but considered them as the elite of their civilization.

Consequently, we can logically deduce and maintain that the first integration of the Bels in the Roman schools and their institutions, must indeed go back to the date of their conquest by the Roman troops, around 54 BCE.

 

The reader should be aware of this reversal of the above. The earlier essays and approaches, which were found to be inaccurate, have not been removed from the Essay. This would require a complete overhaul of the book. They do, however, have the advantage of informing the reader of the mode of research and approaches used to support the hypotheses. The disadvantage is that they require the reader to read the entire book to be aware of all the important changes and thus have an overview of the method of research undertaken.

 

The Rhine River

 

Now comes a crucial aspect of these integrations, first thought to have happened after the Rhine River crossing. It is induced by the reflection of our Frater Herbert Class’ “Profunda Herberti meditationes“. General question: how can the Menapii and Morini be at war with the German tribes if they can't (or easily can) cross the Rhine to encounter each other, to smash each other's skulls?

 

The river Rhine was always a solid natural barrier that was difficult to cross. How then to explain Julius Caesar's sentence in his "Commentarii de Bello Gallico", where he mentioned: "... moreover, as neighbours of the Germans who live beyond the Rhine, they are continually at war with them”.

 

My dear brother, Herbert, did not know that by his accurate interpretation and reflection of Julius Caesar's sentences, he was going to present me with many sleepless nights on a silver platter.

 

How, indeed, to solve this enigma? This is what I have tried to do all along this development, not because of the absolute necessity to find a solution, but to find a plausible explanation. It's up to you to judge if I succeeded.

 

That the Rhine River was difficult to cross, even impassable, is an established fact, but what exactly is meant by the adjective “impassable”? It means, for the Rhine, a wild river that could not be traversed, crossed under normal circumstances. Abnormal circumstances were the rare periods of great drought affecting its entire path, from Switzerland to its delta, in the Netherlands. See also page 410.

 

On such a river, one never ventures for pleasure with all its menagerie, women, children, old men, mothers in law, cats and dogs (sic). One cannot venture there with armed troops and supplies without running the risk of losing a good part of them, and of seeing them land, exhausted, hundreds of meters downstream from the planned landing point. Which is not strategically very recommendable.

 

The Rhine River has undergone, just as it does today, periods of flooding and drought. During important floods, the river became a liquid monster virtually impossible to cross. The situation was different in periods of great drought. But they were rather rare, only 10 of them are recorded since 1540. That is 10 in 480 years, or 4,8 per century!

 

The width of the river is an important element. The wider it is (890 m downstream from Geisemheim), the more difficult it is to cross. However, the narrower passages are no less dangerous. The Rhine is only 160 m wide at the bottleneck at the Loreley rocks, but there the speed of its current is the greatest and reaches there, sometimes more than 25 km/h.

 

Note that these widths and speeds are those of today and not those of before the taming and the domestication of this wild river and the new layout of its bed, made necessary for inland navigation. It is important to know that nowadays the Rhine carries no less than 300,000,000 tons of goods per year.

 

But what makes the crossing of the river even more difficult is its approach. In addition to its violent waters eroding its banks, the Rhine has alluvial deposits, deep mud, potholes, marshy and semi-marshy areas, and extensive flood plains, which can be up to 10 km wide. Sometimes, in the Alsace-Bade plain, the river divagated in a system of inextricable channels and its major bed spread over several kilometres in width.

The riverbed moves from one meander to another and divides into secondary arms. They widened the river considerably and then came together again, leaving between them islands whose contours changed according to the direction of the current and the height of the floods.

The relatively easy crossing places, in the low water period, were located where the water of the Rhine narrows into a single channel. These places were rather rare. It is in these places of great strategic importance, that the Romans established their most advanced border posts. They even built some wooden bridges over the Rhine.

 

Called the Julius Caesar bridges on the Rhine, they were two wooden bridges built in 55 and 53 BC for the passage of his legions. They were the first known bridges ever built on the Rhine. Completed in only 10 days, they were destroyed by them when they returned to the western bank of the river, 18 days later. Probable location: around the city of Cologne or Neuwied, 15 km north of Coblenz (Confluentes).

 

This is also the reason why the Romans had a strong military presence (in majority auxiliary soldiers) along the Rhine. It was the river’s occasional permeability that prevented the Romans from sleeping on their two ears. This formidable natural frontier had its breaches which could be extremely dangerous if used by enemy troops. And of course, they were as soon as the opportunities presented themselves.

 

This long development just to give the reader a picture on how the Rhine River and its flooded lands, constituted a strong natural barrier, impassable for most of the time, but at all times very dangerous to cross!

 

Last but not least: Another important point to be mentioned in this development concerning the "Impossibility" of crossing the Rhine River is the following: some ancient texts mention that the Romans had boats that allowed them to patrol the Rhine. They certainly could not navigate upstream, but well to go downstream. Thus, if the concept of "impassability" can be applied to Germanic tribes, it is much less so for an advanced civilization such as the Romans. Idem for some bridges they built.

 

If Julius Caesar mentions that “the Belgians were constantly fighting against the Germans”, it is because, before the arrival of the Romans in Gaul-Belgium, these tribes must have found ways to cross the river. Where, how, and when remain a mystery. These river-crossings were most likely raids, small acts of terrorism, committed by small groups of people rather than massive troop landings. Events that would take place only centuries later, around the years 260 CE, with the arrival of the big Salian Franks contingent.

 

ATTENTION. Very important warning.

 

It is imperative that you consider the preceding text with respect to subsequent writings concerning the time of the appearance of the Bels in the Roman schools and their origin. My first conjectures seemed to support their coming from beyond the Rhine towards the end of the third century. They would then have been Francs, very likely Salian Franks.

 

However, as we have seen, new studies command us to backdate their entry into the Roman schools to the end of the first century and to situate their origin, no longer on the East side of the river Rhine, but in West Flanders, right in the "Menapii" and "Morinii" territories. Please keep this new development in mind as you continue your study of my Essay.

 

In addition to that, all the previous developments relative to the entry of the Bels in the Roman schools must be reconsidered according to the latest development on the origin of the “Bels”, described previously around pages 404-406.

 

Back to the “notae Tiroianae”.

 

The knowledge and the use of this “extremely complicated form of early shorthand”, centuries after the departure of the Romans, is a direct proof of the learning, the use, and the transmission by Office holders, of certain aspects of the roman system of administration and taxation. The Merovingian Court Schools assured the safeguard and the teaching of this system.

 

Like the monks, the Office holders were very educated people. In addition, of being able to understand, to read and to write in their own language (mother language), they also had to perform at least as well in Latin. Besides, they had to master this extremely complicated Tironian notes technique!

 

Hereunder an example of Tironian Shorthand out of an excerpt of a 9^th century Manuscript:

 

Psalm 68:6. “…Deus inhabitare facit unius moris in domo qui educit vinctos in fortitudine similiter eos qui exasperant qui habitant in sepulchris …”. Vulgate Latin.

 

Psalm 68:6. “…God gives those who are alone a home to dwell in; He leads prisoners out into prosperity. But the stubborn must live in a parched land…”.

 

Source: Watchtower Bible. New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (Study Edition). In my humble opinion, the best Bible translations ever!

 

“…Marcus Tullius Tiro´s system consisted of some 5.000 signs. In the European Medieval period, Tironian notes were taught in monasteries, and the system was extended to about 13,000 signs.  The use of Tironian notes declined after anno 1100 but some use can still be seen through the 17^th century...”. Source: Wikipedia sous http://en. Wikipedia.org/wiki/Tironian note.

 

The Knight Dr Enrico Paust Freiherr von Lipstadt breaks the out posted time barrier for the Office holders, as far as the Bels lineage is concerned. He asserts that the Bels, as local “nationals” (sic), must have occupied these functions as Roman public employees. His assertion is supported by the fact that Childeric took over the Roman administration model for his own nascent Kingdom. Fra. Dr Enrico wrote on 7 June 2015:

 

“…Daher kann man sicher davon ausgehen, dass deine Familie diese Stellung bereits bei den Merowingern inne hatte … ab den ersten Merowingern, eventuell sogar zurückgehend auf ältere noch römischen Beamtenfunktionen gestützt, auf die Childeric zurückgegriffen hat…”.

 

“…Therefore, it's safe to assume, that your family had this position already in Merovingian times … even at the time of the first Merovingians, possibly even going back to still older Roman public officer functions, on which Childeric fell back upon…”.

 

We know that the Salian Franks entered the services of the “Roman Empire” as early as the end of the IIIth century and most probably since the edict of the Roman emperor Caracalla, in anno 212. In the Vth century, their Kings became “proconsul” of the Gauls. This was a Roman function occupied by a “very well assimilated (sic)” German!

 

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

 

That our lineages (Bels, Belle and Balliol) widely used and kept, for centuries, their secular educational and function prerogatives is clear:

 

• They were Office holders active under the Romans              
• (highly suspected by 54 BCE).
• They went over from the Romans to the Merovingians        
• (highly suspected about 414).
• They went over from the Merovingians to the Carolingians
• (proved since anno 843).
• They went over to the Counts of Flanders                                    (proved since anno 960).
• They went over to the Counts of Barcelona  (proved since anno 1014).
• They went over to the Dukes of Normandy (proved before 1066).
• They went over to the Kings of England  (proved after 1066).
• They were active in Byzance, Anatolia  (proved since anno 1073).
• They went over to Scotland  (proved since anno 1075).
• They were active in the Mystery of Rennes-le-Château
• (proved since anno 1130).
• They were active in the Templar Knights Order
• (proved since anno 1140).
• They were active in the Cathar History (proved since anno 1321).
•  

We have seen previously that he was the grandson of Waldrade, the sister of Pepin de Landen (Pepin Ist), one of the ancestors of the Carolingian Dynasty!

 

Although some historians express some reserves about this link because the “Annales Mettenses Priores” were themselves uncertain about the nature of the relationship between Arnulf and the Pippinids. Source: Prof. Ian Woods. University of Leeds (UK).

 

The same possibilities to switch from Dynastic houses, at the appropriate time, would also have been possible for Saint Wandrille´s (student time) friends and other saints of the Merovingians period such as:

 

• Saint Ouen (*609 Sancy +686 Clichy), a chronicler and courtier who lived at the court of the Kings Clotaire II and Dagobert I. The latest made him his referendary (Chief of his Chancellery). He eventually became an advisor to King Theuderic III (587-613). Important to note is that Saint Wandrille´s father St. Authaire (Autharius) was also a high royal senior official under Clotaire II. There was really such a thing as durability, a continuity of some families to occupy certain Offices of the royal courts.
• Saint Eloi (+659) was a Goldsmith under Clotaire II and Treasurer at the court of Dagobert I.
• Saint Didier de Cahors. We have seen more in details about him earlier.
• Arnoul de Metz (F) also Saint Arnoul (*Abt. 582- Abt. +640) 27th bishop of Metz.
• Saint Omer, also Audomar, Audomarus, Odemaars or Omer. He was the bishop of Thérouanne (first seat of the Merovingians) and established the Abbey of Saint Bertin in the VIIth century, etc.

 

All of them, after leaving these court schools which gave them “current and excellent education”, ended up either with high functions at the courts of Emperors, Kings and Counts but also inside the Roman Catholic Church as abbot, bishop, or archbishop, or with very high positions at the Merovingian Kingdom. Note that I used a plural form for the “Court School”. Seeing the vastness of Merovingian Empire, we must conclude that there must have been several of these court Schools. At least one was in the Kingdom of Neustria and one in the kingdom of Austrasia.

 

We can compare these links with nowadays-former students of Harvard, Princeton, Cambridge, Leuven, and Oxford or from the Grandes Ecoles, in Paris. As we know, the bounds created during the student time are sometimes so strong and unique that they may stand for decades, seemingly unaffected by the inescapable march of time, the diversification of interest’s and by the vicissitudes of everyday life. They also created a kind of Egregore (Greek), a kind of “inner circle” into the society.

 

The Egregore is “...an occult concept representing a [Thoughtform] or [Collective group mind], an autonomous psychic entity made up of and influencing, the thoughts of a group of people…”.

 

Gaetan Delaforge, in Gnosis Magazine (1987), defines it very well in a few words:

 

“…A kind of group mind which is created when people consciously come together for a common purpose…”.

 

These families were a kind of benediction for Emperors, Kings and other major rulers (Counts of Flanders and Champagne for instance). With them at their side, they had some families they could trust for their loyalty, security, protection, and prosperity.

 

The discovery of the use of the Tironian code by the Merovingians, centuries after the departure of the Romans, confirms the sayings of Prof. Dr Timothy Reuter and Dr Enrico Paust Freiherr von Lipstadt, as well as my working thesis wanting that:

“…The “Leudes” of the Merovingian times and the “Vassi” of the Carolingian Times were very educated people (Languages, Laws, Administration systems and procedures). They were members of a few very ancient families which beneficiated, generation after generation and for centuries, from Kings Privileges. The origin of their “particular” prerogatives may be found as early as the Romans accepted the Salian Frankish tribes as their federate. The time fork for these happening runs from anno 376 CE to 414 CE when the Frankish settled in Thérouanne and subsequently in Tournai, in anno 431 CE …”.

 

We know from several accounts that the Merovingians maintained the Roman Educational System working for their own purposes. Dr Enrico Paust Freiherr von Lipstadt, added on the 20th May, 2022.:

 

"On the whole, it was the case that the Merovingians, in founding their empire, had recourse above all to two pillars who were also literate. These were, on the one hand, the ecclesiastics, who in the following centuries had monopolized more and more the knowledge of writing, and on the other hand, the remnants of the Roman administration, i.e. the families from which the officials and high military had been recruited by the Romans and who were also literate.

 

From this group developed under the Merovingians the group of the so-called "Leudes". These were bound to the king by an oath of allegiance and received ever larger fiefs and developed into a kind of official nobility. These Leudes were also frequently listed as witnesses in contracts. Under the Carolingians the term Leudes disappeared more and more from the sources and was replaced by "vassi", which essentially describes the same group of people.

 

Over the centuries, this group of official nobility succeeded more and more in making hereditary the fiefs and offices they received from the sovereign in exchange for the oath of allegiance, thus keeping them firmly in their families. In this way, the fixed stratum of the nobility was formed, also called nobleza in the Iberian Peninsula.

 

The first granting of the inheritance of these privileges was granted at the end of the 7th century by the Visigoth king Ervig (died 687). Due to the invasion of the Moors, the development of new official nobility lasted for several centuries. Became, however, also outside of Spain in the early Middle Ages more and more frequently, whereby it the earlier Office holders, who reached privileges only by their education, to approach more and more the nobility and to form an own area of it, whereby then, however, the original condition of the education lost more and more importance, since one inherited the privileges now and did not have to earn oneself any more by achievement. ".

 

The Romans were the heirs of the Greek education system itself strongly influenced by that of Pharaonic Egypt. If one compares today´s literacy rate in Europe, which is nowadays around 99%, with that of Rome towards the end of the third century, which was only 2 to 3%, one immediately understands the enormous importance that these well-established roman and foederati elite families had in society. And this importance was to gain momentum over time, not only because their functions were hereditary, but because education was reserved only for them. A vicious circle that would last for centuries.

 

Follows here a text that proves it.

 

It concerns Salvian (Salvianus) von Marseille. This man, of Salian Frankish origin, was born (abt. anno 400) either in Köln (Cologna), the place where his family lived or Trier (Trevia). He has been educated at “the school of Trier”. Scholars precise that his writings appear to show that he had made a special study of the law, and this is, the more likely as he appears to have been of noble birth.

 

This is exactly what another text says about him, detailing the kind of studies the students could receive in these schools, in addition to Latin. It gives us also, secondary details, such as the school attendance:

 

“…Salvian entstammte einer Familie der gallorömischen Oberschicht. Salvian erhielt, wie viele seiner Standesgenossen, eine gute Ausbildung im Bereich der Juristik und der lateinischen Rhetorik und sollte wohl Karriere im Reichsdienst machen…”. Source: Wikipedia.de

 

“...Salvian originated from a family of the Gallo-Roman upper class. Salvian, like many of his contemporaries, received a good education in the field of jurisprudence and Latin rhetoric, and would probably have a career at the Imperial Services…”.

 

 These court Schools were still in use in the Carolingian time and up to the Carolingian time. However, in 787, Charlemagne ordered for the first time in “modern” history, that every monastery in his kingdom establish schools for even the poorest of his subjects. He decided that every child must have the opportunity to become literate. Up to this time, there was no public education at all. Only those in power were literate through the “Court Schools”.

 

Éginhard or Einhard (abt 770-840), author of the first biography of Charlemagne, was the protagonist of public education and of the intellectual renaissance in the IXth century. He wrote in his “Vita et gesta Caroli Magni” that Charlemagne instructed his educators to take care not to make difference between the sons of serfs and of freemen so that they all could sit on the same benches to study grammar, music, and arithmetic.

 

Herstal (the place of the palace of the Merovingians at the time of the “Coup d´Etat”) is located some 10 km from Liege. It is thus located in East Belgian. The distance from Tournai, the very first Merovingian, to Herstal is 183 km. As we have seen previously, the cradle of the Bels Lineage was next to Tournai!

 

Tournai (Belgium) was the birthplace of the first true king of Western Europe, the Merovingian Clovis I (*465+511), just as Herstal (Belgium) was the birthplace of the future emperor Charlemagne (*abt. 745+814). Ever since the "Gallic War" under the Roman Julius Caesar (Gaius Iulius Caesar) (*-100BCE +44BCE), Belgium has been the central pillar of European history.

 

Some historians made of Godefroid de Bouillon an heir of Charlemagne. However, the version wanting him to be an heir of the Merovingian Dynasty seems to have the wind aft. Which is, after all, breaking even donkey (kif-kif bourricot) because Charlemagne’s grandmother was of Merovingian origin!

 

According to these historians, Godefroid of Bouillon (van Bonen), was a son of Eustache II, Earl of Boonen x Ide of Ardennes, countess, and Lady of Bouillon. Ide was the daughter of Godefroid the Bearded, Duke of Lotharingia and of Bouillon. As we have seen earlier, Godefroid’s grandfather was Hugue au Long Nez (+1015) x Agnès de Jumièges.

 

Hugue first installed himself as chief in Thérouanne (anno 414) and made the city of Tournai (Flanders), the first capital of the Merovingians.

 

The historian Gregoire de Tours specified that Childeric Ist (437-482) (Grandson of Clodio), after being deposed in anno around anno 456, found refuge with Basinus (Bisin) (Abt. 395-455), the King of Thuringia. When Childeric Ist was restored as king in Gaul, Basina, Basinus wife, deserted him and followed Childeric Ist.

 

Now, Gregoire de Tours texts may have been wrongly interpreted. Hereunder what the Knight Dr Enrico Paust Freiherr von Lipstadt, wrote to me on 20 September 2015:

 

“...According to new research, it is also debatable whether this Basina was the wife of the Thüringian king Bisin or rather his sister, which is believed due to the similarity in name. Also, Chlodio´s ancestry from Thüringen is debatable. Gregory of Tours indeed wrote that his residence was in Dispargum, which was characterized "quod est in terminum Thoringorum".

 

This Thoringorum, however, stands under no circumstances for the Thüringen of eastern Central Germany. Either it stands for a Thüringian domain on the left side of the Rhine River, which was mentioned by Gregory of Tours more than once but is highly controversial in research, or what is more likely a transcription error from Tungrorum (Tongeren*) being transliterated as Thpringorum. I consider this interpretation more likely, because Tungrorum would better fit the Salian Franks, especially since Gregory of Tours did not write this down until 100 years later...".

(*) Tongeren or “Aduatuca Tongurum” is a small city in eastern Belgium. Historically well known for the local tribes “Tungri” also called “Eburons” who opposed a strong resistance against the Roman invaders. They even destroyed a whole Roman Legion in anno 54 BCE.

 

Some historians see in Godefroid de Bouillon’s pretended origin, a manipulation to link important people of the past to some prestigious families or even mythical rulers. However, some modern historians seriously speculate, based upon historical customs and facts that, at least some Grand Flemish Lineages such as the Bels, may also have the same Merovingian origin.

 

For these historians, it is quite evident that after centuries of very close cohabitations to the Merovingians, relations and sharing the same destiny, Mother Nature having her own ways, men and women of different Lineages fell in love and eventually married.

 

These inter-marriages and other “closed circuit” social interactions were an auto-protection as well as a social and economic constant as far as nobility, patriarchal and patrician families were concerned. Promiscuity (in its Latin and French acceptance of the term) was absolutely forbidden. Much too important aspects were at stake such as the conservation of movable and fixed heritages, traditions, relations, influences, etc.

 

The “Lex Saxonum” (*) (Saxon laws), for example, went so far in the social exclusiveness that they laid down the Death penalty for marriages between members of the different Saxon social groups.

 

The Frankish laws were not so exclusive and accepted occasional rising in social status based upon the merit of a person or from a family. This “meritocratic rise” system was in a sense more social and of course in full opposition to the Saxon “aristocratic exclusivity”. Nevertheless, humans consider it a “natural law” to keep their distances to any social group that does not fit with theirs! It used to be a survival imperative.

 

(*) The “Lex Saxonum” were laws issued by Charlemagne in 785. It is a compromise between the traditional Saxon customs and the Carolingians laws (Frankish Empire).

 

Now follows another direct proof of these “Closed circuit” marriages, on highest levels, at the time of the Merovingians and Carolingians.

 

The Mayor of the palace, Pepin III married (anno 744) Berthe “au Grand Pied” or “Broadfoot” (720-783). She was of Merovingian origin through her father the Count Caribert (Hardrad) de Laon x Gisèle. Count Caribert´s mother was Bertrade de Prüm (Eifel) whose father was the Merovingian King Thierry III (657-691).

 

However, we must be careful when we speak of a Merovingian origin because the Merovingians, as the Carolingians, the Capetians and the “Leudes” had most probably the same origin. They were all heirs of the Salian Franks, which crossed the Rhine and, as we have seen earlier, attacked the Romans before being beaten by Emperor Maximian, during the Roman battle against “Germania”, in 287-288 CE. The Franks surrendered and became subjects of the Roman Empire as “Auxiliaries”, a term that would be changed later into “foederati” !

 

Crossing the Rhine was one of those rare undertakings. No one would ever consider it unless forced to do so for reasons of survival (invasions by the murderous hordes from the east). The river might be crossed during some particularly cold winters when some parts of it were ice-bound. But this was rather rare.

 

Today, despite the dozens of barrages that have been built along its course in the hope to tame it, to calm its furious and raging nature, the average speed of the river is still about 8 km/h, 15 km/h per hour during periods of high water or even 25 to 33 km/h at some very dangerous passages such as the one of the Lorelei.

 

Lorelei is the name of a rock that rises 132 metres above the Rhine between St. Goarshausen and Oberwesel, in Germany. It is the narrowest place on the Rhine (113 m) (the depth there is about 25 m) because the overhang of the rock reduces the width of the river by more than a quarter. The very strong current and the many submerged rocks have caused many shipping accidents.

 

However, the average speed of the untamed Rhine was quite different in the past when it was not held back by any speed-breakers. No boat was able to go upstream, and crossing it was a very dangerous undertaking.

 

The Rhine River has at its mouth, an average flow of about 2,330 m3/s; the maximum measured flow reached 12,000 m3/s (in 1926). That is more than five times the average flow.

 

If we take into account the above-developed promiscuity factors, caused by social interactions such as marriages, administrative and political occupations, war companions and business partners we quickly realise that the borderline between “such an origin and another one“, is extremely thin! If not inconsistent!

 

It is as if we were speaking about the Bels (Belle) from England, Flanders, France, and the Netherlands. Were they not all of Flemish origin? Moreover, what means exactly “of Flemish origin” ? Is it being heirs of the Menapii (with had their capital in Cassel, later in Tournai) (*) or from the Morini (with had their capital in Thérouanne), two tribes Julius Caesar met when he arrived in Gallia Belgica midst of the first century BCE? Or were these small tribal communities gradually replaced or assimilated by the Salian Franks newcomers, centuries later?

 

We know that the Merovingians (Salian Franks) first capital happened to be in Thérouanne and then Tournai… Coincidently these two cities were also the main cities of the Menapii and of the Morini! Whatever, there must have been a super big mixture of tribes from several origins. One thing is sure the Carolingians and the Merovingians do have the same ancestors: The Salian Franks. In conclusion, Charlemagne may not have been a Merovingian (although his Grandmother was) but he was, like them, of Salian Franks origin (sic) !

 

However, it is necessary to pause for reflection at this point in our presentation.

 

We have taken the year 286 CE as the probable entry of the Bels into the Roman schools. This date, which was not taken at random, is the result of several sociocultural, economic, and political factors that occurred around this date. It is, however, at risk of being confused! This year 286 CE could indeed lead us to think that the Bels were issued from the Frankish tribes across the Rhine; from these "barbarian" tribes that ended up, in one way or another and for one reason or another, crossing this wild river that was the Rhine.

 

But nothing is less certain. History confronts us with an undeniable historical reality that we must imperatively consider in the development of our working hypothesis. This reality is that indigenous tribes (see page 23) populated Belgium (Gaul) long before the arrival of the Romans. They were subsequently assimilated into the empire as subjects of the western part of their empire, which was to become the Gallo-Roman Empire.

 

It took, in Europe, over 1.600 years to change these described “close circuits” mentalities. They change after the Second World War (1940-1944). Today we have Kings, Queens, Princes, and Princesses married to ordinary mortal’s daughters and sons. It happened in the Royal houses of Denmark, Jordania, Luxemburg, Monaco, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and The Netherlands. Even Great Britain failed to maintain the tradition, which is saying something!

 

Belgium is, for the moment an exception. They marry in a close circuit. Queen Mathilde (x King Philippe) comes from the Countal House d´Udekem d´Acoz and the eldest daughter of the former King Albert II, Princess Astrid, married Lorenz, Archduke of Austria-Este, from the Habsburg Dynasty. However, the second son of King Albert II, Prince Laurent, broke the tradition. As did the children of King Leopold III x Princess Liliane (*). But they are anyway, by Belgian Law, excluded from the succession of the crown!

 

(*) Some may retort that the Princess de Réthy (in French) and (Retie in Flemish), gentedame Liliane Baels (member of our Lineage) who married Leopold III (King of the Belgians) in 1941, was not noble. Such statements sometimes issued by the Press, certain public authorities and other “significant” (prominent) people, constitute an ineptitude that reflects either a clear lack of general knowledge or an irrepressible need to harm.

 

Princess Liliane was, as was the family of the actual Queen of the Belgians, Mathilde d´Uedekem d´Acoz before she married Prince Philippe of Belgium (House of the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha), also from untitled nobility. In fact, Princess Liliane had even a protocol precedence because of her feudal nobility status!

Whatever, Queen Mathilde´s baronial family was elevated, in 1999, to the comital nobility by King Albert II x Paola di Ruffo di Calabria. One may ask us the question why such an elevation, of the Baels family nobility, did not take place at the time of the wedding of Princess Liliane´s with King Leopold III ?

 

A valid argument is put forward: The very particular political climate that reigned after the capitulation of Belgium (a neutral country) at the very beginning of World War II. It became quite evident, only a few days after the beginning of the hostilities that, resisting such an overwhelming war machinery, constituted by the German Nazi system, would be suicidal. The issue would have ended in the loss of hundreds of thousand people and the total devastation of Belgium.

 

Instead of calumniating King Leopold III´s decision to capitulate, every Belgian citizen should thank him and honour him for his wise decision. What could the general in chief of the Belgian Lilliputian army do, to counter this gigantic overpowered German army when all other much more powerful European armies were finally crushed, invaded, and occupied for four years?

 

The Belgian had nothing else to oppose the modern German Panzers than its cavalry. The situation was as ridiculous as hopeless. It was a war of another age that forced common sense to capitulate, without conditions, only eighteen days after the beginning of the hostilities.

 

The real reasons behind these anti-King Leopold III movements were hidden to the common man. They were a cocktail of pro-republican agitators who seized the opportunity to get rid of the royal institution and of deep frustrating Belgian nobility’s stalemate after King Leopold III´s decision to marry Liliane, a woman of feudal nobility, which, with a few exceptions, was and is still not recognised in Belgium.

 

It is interesting to note that Queen Mathilde´s uncle was appointed, honoris causa, to the board of directors of the “Association de la noblesse du royaume de Belgique” and of the “Association royale office généalogique et héraldique de Belgique».

 

The irresistible need to harm the King Leopold III, became extremely violent in what is known in Belgium as “La Question Royale” or “The Royal Question”.

 

“…He [the King] visited Hitler soon after his surrender and while a prisoner he married Marie Lillian Baels, a London-born commoner who had been seen in the company of Nazi collaborators…”.

 

But most of the time, it took more vicious forms, no lesser effective, such as in the following subjective statement: “…Prince Alexandre was the first son of King Leopold III and his second wife Princess Liliane who he married during the war (she was never queen)…”.

 

What the journalists cleverly pass under silence is the fact that it is Liliane herself who, against the proposal of her husband, the King, refused to be Queen of Belgium! As every woman in love, she asked nothing more than to be at the side of her beloved husband. Was he King or syrup maker! However, protocol commanding, she finally agreed to bear the title of Princess de Réthy. This is an objective statement!

 

In "Souvenirs de la Princesse Liliane," an article published, on October 29, 2003, in “La Libre Belgique”, A Belgian newspaper, Jacques Franck remembered the Princess in moving terms:

 

“…Le temps permettra-t-il jamais de faire le vrai portrait de la femme qui disait encore, quelques semaines avant de mourir, « personne ne me connaît »? Rien de ce qui a paru sur elle jusqu'à ce jour ne rend justice à la richesse de sa personnalité, l'étendue de sa culture dans plusieurs domaines, la force de son caractère, le charme de sa présence, la délicatesse de sa bonté, que peuvent attester aussi bien sa femme de chambre Janine, qui resta 51 ans à son service, que les gendarmes qui assuraient la protection d'Argenteuil, enfin sa terrible exigence envers elle-même qui avait entraîné une incontestable exigence envers les autres: qui n'a pas les défauts de ses qualités?...”.

 

“…Will time ever permit to draw the true portrait of the woman who said, a few weeks before she died, « nobody knows me »? Nothing which has been written on her, hitherto, does justice to the richness of her personality, the breadth of her culture in many fields, the strength of her character, the charm of her presence, the delicacy of her kindness, which can be attested to by her chambermaid, Janine, who remained in her service for 51 years, as well as by the guards who provided the security of Argenteuil and finally, her terrible strictness towards herself, which led to an undeniable strictness towards others: who does not have the vices of his virtues?...”.

More on the Royal couple in Appendix I.

 

Princess Liliane may not have been of “recent” nobility but was with absolute certainty of the feudal nobility. Such as are the Bels, the Belle and the Balliol, their distant parents, because she was an heir of the same Dynasty.

 

Feudal nobility has an inalienable (imprescriptibly) precedence upon more recent nobilities. They were for the Kingdom of France:

 

1. The Immemorial nobility: In Italy at Roman Times (Massimo).
2. The feudal nobility: Merovingian & Carolingian Times (Montmorency, Bels, van Boonen, etc.).
3. The nobility of Old Chivalry:     Mid XIIth century.
4. The nobility of Chivalrous Extraction:  XIVth century.
5. The nobility of Old Extraction:    XVth century.
6. The nobility of Extraction:          Mid XVIth century.
7. The nobility by Patent Letters:         More recent.
8. The Pontifical nobility :                             More recent.

 

This kind of intermixing or promiscuity is a fact repeatedly verified in all cultures and civilisations and is going on since Man and Woman are on Earth, and even before that! Just remember the content of one of the 870 Apocryphal Scrolls discovered between 1947-1956 in 11 Khirbet Qumran caves located northwest of the Dead Sea.

 

This kind of promiscuity (in the French acceptance of the term) was not different at the time of the Merovingians and Carolingians!

 

But what are (were) the advantages of wanting, at all costs, to link certain people, lineages or events to the Merovingians Dynasty? Did they not enter History as belligerent, barbarian, and useless rulers? Did they not exterminate themselves in extremely violent and brutal ways, sparing neither woman nor children?

 

Apart from that, some information about them is interesting to know. We know that the Merovingians first seat, anno 431 CE was in Tournai (although Chlodio´s (also Clodion) very first seat, circa 414 CE was in Thérouanne, some 90 km west of Tournai). We can only speculate on Pharamond´s (Abt. 370-427) place. He was Chlodio´s father!

 

The Gallo-Roman historian, Grégoire de Tours, (538-594) wrote in his “Annales Francici” that ca. anno 420, "Pharamundus regnat in Francia" or “Pharamond ruled over Francia”. However, he did not mention from what place! Was it Thérouanne?

 

Another historian, Sigebert de Gembloux, reports Pharamond as King of the Franks in-between the reigns of Marcomer and Chlodio “…Post Marcomirum filius ejus Faramundus fuit…”.

 

Therefore, the ancestor of Pharamond may have been Marcomer. He was a Frankish leader (Dux) in the late IVth century. He seized the opportunity to invade the Roman Empire, in the year 388, after the usurper and the leader of the whole of Roman Gaul, Magnus Maximus, found himself surrounded, in Aquileia, by Theodosius I. Did Marcomer settle in Thérouanne ca. anno 388?

 

“…After the fall of Magnus Maximus, Marcomer and Sunno held a short meeting about the recent attacks with the Frank Arbogastes, who was a general (magister militum) in the Roman army. According to the later “Liber Historiae Francorum”, Marcomer tried to unite the Franks after the death of Sunno. He proposed that the Franks should live under one King and proposed his own son Pharamond for the kingship. This source does not relate whether Marcomer succeeded, but from other later sources that recall the account of “Liber Historiae Francorum”, the impression may be gained that Pharamond was regarded as the first King of the Franks...”.  Sources: Wikipedia.

 

However, even at times when they were ruling over Europe (5th until 8th century), the Merovingians never went very far away from Flanders. Their subsequent capitals: Soissons, Paris, and Metz, were respectively 160 km, 229 km and 310 km away from Tournai. The place called Herstal (Red circle on the Map), where they had their main palace at the sunset of their power was only 175 km away.

 

One exception: when they were active in Rhedae, the Rennes-le-Château of those times (red circle), which was founded by the Visigoths (Wisigoths or Westgothen), in the 5th century. We remember that the Visigoths occupied a huge territory running from the Loire River down to the south of Spain. Rhedae is 1000 km away from Tournai.

 

The Merovingian Dagobert II is reported as Count of Rhedae in anno 718 and having married the Visigoth princess, Giselle du Razes (today’s Département de l´Aude). Hard to believe today that about 30.000 people ever lived in Rhedae. In 2024, a place in the middle of nowhere, counting no more than 89 inhabitants!

 

The History of the Merovingian is of an extraordinary complexity and mysterious ramifications. It is fact that after having thrown away the most phantasmal if not delirious hypothesis written about them, we are left with a few heavy elements worth to be seriously analysed. This, of course, falls off the frame of my Essay.

 

Before closing this chapter, one thing must be said about the political history of the Merovingians: They were no angels and made some capital mistakes!

 

1. They were master in the arts of disunity, treachery, usurpation, deceit, cruelty, and murder. For centuries they made wars between brothers, weakening in the process the power they would need to achieve other and more important goals.
2. They gave far too much power to their mayors of the palace. These became a sort of royal authentication officers, or chancellors; royal edicts were not valid unless confirmed by the mayor’s signature. Before long, these mayors became the king’s deputies and leaders of the army. Were they not kings in all but name and legitimacy? This was a very explosive cocktail that had only to wait for the right time to explode.

 

And the trigger for this huge explosion was not a long-lasting murderous war, but a marvellous diplomatic coup: “… in 750, Pepin (the Mayor of the Palace) sent a Frankish abbot to Pope Zacharias to ask whether it was right that the title of king should be held by the ineffectual Merovingians. Zacharias replied that the title should go with the power and the responsibility”. Source: Friederich Heer.

 

I am now concentrating all my efforts to find out more about this Knight Bels. No efforts will be too big for me to trace back his blazon, because it is the only decisive element that may tell us everything about his origin. That will not be a piece of cake because, so far back in time, we are nearing the period when the use of the blazon, as an identification of Lineages, was created.

 

For the time being, the origin of the Bels patronymic discovered in anno 843, in 1014 and around anno 1016, for the Bels of the border (between Scotland and England), being much older than what we discovered in Flanders (Bruges anno 1180) forces me to reconsider the origin of this patronymic and its precedence to the Belle and of course to the Balliol ones.

 

That does not mean that a “certain” origin of the Bels, in Flanders, is wrong because it is proven that the Bels and the Belle (van Belle) were considered many centuries later, issued from one and the same lineage. Idem for the Belle (van Belle) and the Balliol. But what happened before that?

 

It is proven, at the actual stand of historical research, that the Bels are definitively anterior, in space and time, to the Belle since they were already active in the last centuries of Roman Administration.

 

How is this possible considering that the patronymic Belle is supposed to have given birth to the patronymic Bels (one of the two forms of the archaic German genitive form) ? Could this very solid hypothesis, partially confirmed by heraldry, be wrong as far as the far origin of the Bels patronymic is concerned? Or were the Bels and the Belle, issued from the same Lineage, both “Leudes” since the most remote times? The Bels being quoted in very old documents while the Belle, unfortunately, were not?

 

Today, records of the first member of the Bels lineage, present as “foederati” and educated as Office holders in the Roman administration, are hidden in the dark shrouds of a forgotten past.

 

However, their omnipresence in several European Courts, through space and time, together with members of a few other Flemish lineages forces us to conclude that they were an integral part of an elite based upon trust, permanence, education and who later evolved into a discreet but very serious financial power.

 

To make themselves understandable throughout the Empire, the king’s officers had to learn at least two languages, maybe three: the Francique, the German and the romana lingua.

 

“…Louis the Pious, who could speak German, used Francique by choice. Louis the Germans addressed Charles the Bald´s troops at Strasbourg in 842 in romana lingua, while Charles repeated the same discourse in Francique to Louis´men...”. Source: Nithard, III. 5.