The following list of dates, names and events is certainly not exhaustive and must be seen only as a brief overview. It is not to be considered as a genealogic report.

Unless the mentions fs. or fa. (for Filius and Filia, in Latin. Son or daughter in English) are used, a quoted person is not necessarily a descendant of the person listed just above her. However, they all are issued from the one and same Lineage!

The fact of having a name followed by roman numbers does not necessarily means that a person is a descendant of the one with the smaller numbering. Example: Balduinus III is not necessarily a descendant of Balduinus II.

Not knowing exactly when the name Balliol or Belle became the French word Bailleul, we will stick so closely as possible to the original appellations. So, we will use:

• From anno 960 upward anno 1300 the name Belle or Balliol for the name of the city that was also called in Lower-Latin Balliol, Bella or Balliolum (later Bailleul).
• From anno 960 upward anno 1250, the Latin name or Diets name forms for the mentioned persons. (Arnould de Gramines, becomes Arnoldus Graminnies).
• From anno 960 upward anno 1300 the Latin name or Diets form for the name of places (Pinciniae for Pequigny. Dolcis Locus or Zoeterstede or Dulcis Locus for Doulieu).
• From anno 1250 on, we will have the names of people and places, in their “modern” forms, which are in French, Diets or Flemish. Even then, variations of the names were still common: Steenvoorde was also called Steinfort, Stainfort, Steenvort, Estainfort (Picard language). Eecke was also called Oostover. Dulcis Locus became even Doulzlieu!

Note: Some historians such as Fransiscus Despringher, author of the “De Belle Brand” (1623), have the very ancient name of the small city of Belle called “Belgis”. This toponym sounds definitively more Latin than “Belle”. Another historian E. Vanneufville, mentioned the old Frankish “Belsch” name that is also much closer to the “Bels” than to the “Belle”.

The far much older patronymic variant “Bels”, from which we have records dated as far as the beginning of the IXth century (Treaty of Verdun, Wedding of the Count of Barcelona, etc.), and according to recent studies, bringing the “Bels” as far back as to the time of the Roman occupation of Germani Inferior and Belgica, at around 286, as “Federati” will, for unexplained reasons, disappear for some time from Flanders records. It will however reappear much later, about 1240 with Lambert le Bels de Paskendale although it was widely in use, during this period, in southern of France and in northern of Spain such as, for example, in the treaty of Vacarisses (anno 1014).

About the XIIIth century, the patronymic “Bels”, in Flanders, became synonym for “Belle” and “van Belle”, a toponym patronymic of a very important patrician family of Flanders. The link between these two lineages is confirmed by heraldry. Later, of course, a multitude of patronymic variants will develop. Some will be phonetically so distant from the original ones that it will become difficult to identify their common origin without having a very good knowledge of the Flemish dialects: Bels - Beyls - Beils - Byls - Belch - Belsch - Belgis (West Flanders), Bayls - Bayles - Bailes - Bailles - Baille - Baile - Bailies - Bailoil - Billiou (France, South of France, Northern Spain, England and USA), Baels (East Flanders), Belles - Bellens and Bellis (Limburg), Belz - Beelitz - Belch - Beltz - and Bilz (Germanic form), Bel - Bell - Bells  (England, USA), etc.

It is however important, to reconsider some parts of this Essay, written decades before the discovery that the “Bels” patronymic outdated by far the “Belle” one! The much-unexpected precedence of the “Bels” upon the “Belle”, today firmly established, is not quite understood yet.

The oldest part of my Essay, which is written in French and a small part of the English version, does not contain any information relative to this precedence that was. It was unknown to me, at the time of its redaction!

Please note also that I did not rewrite the “main line” of my Essay, according to these latest discoveries. I decided instead to develop the subjects, in new chapters, according to the chronological sequences of their discoveries.