PART 1

This Summary is written for the reader who wants to have, in a few pages, the essence of what is developed in this Essay. The Knight James Elton Bell, FSA Scot, published parts of this Summary in his book: “One Hundred & Twenty Five Bell Families Contribute to History“. USA. 2016.

CONTRIBUTION TO THE BELS-BELLE-BALLIOL ANCIENT HISTORY.

Colonel William Bell, as quoted in the James Elton Bells book just mentioned, begins his presentation with: “…There was a time when almost all Bells thought they belonged to Clan MacMillan..:”.

I made the same kind of observation for the Bels and the Balliol: “…There was a time when almost all the Bell(s) of England and Scottish West March thought their name came from Isabel or from a Bell…” and: “…There was a time when almost all the Balliol of England thought they belonged to the Balliols of Normandy…”.

Col William Bell is also right when he states “…The “real” Bells apparently came originally from somewhere near the French/Belgium border..:”. That statement is another attempt to correct centuries of misinterpretations if not voluntary manipulations of historical facts.

My survey began in 1985 after I observed that, although almost every west European history book contains historical data on our lineages (Bels-Belle-Balliol), not even one of them, contains all this data in one single volume, has ever been published.

As early as 1987, I published a small paper called: “Essai sur l´Origine du Patronyme Bels à la requète de Monsieur Beyls Gustaaf à Kortrijk” (Flanders). Subsequently, I started to search for my direct ancestors choosing the agnatic genealogical method. The first results were published in the “Généalogies Agnatiques des Bels” deposited in 1996, in the Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique (Brussels). My most direct distant ancestor was a certain Clais Bels, born June 1395, in Westkappel (Flanders).

In those times there were not only one Bels family but several, all linked to one and the same Lineage, sometimes living in several distant places and bearing different patronymic forms. The survey showed that all the Bels, Belles, and Bellis, Baels encountered in Flanders, Limburg (Belgium), Germany, France, and the Netherlands, originated with certainty in Flanders.

At that time, I could find no more traces of Bels (de) beyond the year 1240 (Lambert le Bels de Paskendale). The reason for this, I found in the monumental works called “Armorial Général de Johannes Bapista Rietstap”, edited in 1884-1887 in Gouda (The Netherlands) as well as in his “Wapenboek van de Nederlandschen Adel” (1887) and “De wapens van den tegenwoordigen en den vroegen Nederlandschen Adel” (1893). These works represent graphically the blazons of all noble and patrician families of Europe.

Since the descriptions of some very old Bels’ blazons are followed by the mention “for Bels see Belle (de-van)”, they indicate that the blazons of the Bels (de) were identical to the one of the Belle (de-van). The blazon, the central piece of the coats of Arms, being the legal signature of a family, indicates without any equivoque that the Bels and the Belle (de-van) belonged to the same family from Flanders!

In old Flemish (Diets), which is very close to the archaic German language, the word Belle (de-van) means “from Belle”. It is a German genitive form expressed in two ways, as in English: “The hat of my mother” or “my mother’s hat”. So became the people from (van-de Belle) “Belle van-de” or “Belles, Bels, etc.”.

The patronymic Belle (de-van) was the toponym, (place name), of the Flemish city of Belle (in Diets) or Balliol (in Latin) and, much later, in the XVIIth century, Bailleul (in French). The old patronymic “Balliol” also encountered in Normandy, Byzance, England, and Scotland originated from the city of Balliol (Belle in Diets) in Flanders. Today Bailleul is a small town in Northern France counting some 15,000 inhabitants.

So did the Bels and the big majority of the Balliol (not issued from Arnould de Gramines who changed his name by taking in anno 960, the toponym of his new assigned Seigneurie) belonged to the same family as the Belle (van-de) and originated from the same city of Belle (Balliol). However, whatever the “Balliol” were, they all originated from Flanders!

This statement flagrantly contradicts the assertions made by the French historian Vosgier (XVIIIth century) that was blindly adopted by Mr. Blanchard, Mr. Belleval, subsequent historians and by all historic and big encyclopaedic works worldwide. The deep-rooted incorrect assertions wanted the Balliols of Barnard Castle (Regent and Kings of Scotland: John Ist Balliol, King John II, and King Edouard Ist Balliol) belong to the Balliol of Normandy! However, as soon as 1881, a dynastic historian, Mr Francis Bayley, proved that this assertion was very wrong. It is only at the approach of the XXIth century that increasingly more historians started to realise that the English and Scottish Balliols did, indeed, originate from Flanders!

Pursuing the research on the Bels, I made two very interesting discoveries that reveal another origin of the Bels Lineage than the one that was said to be issued from the Belle from Flanders:

1. In 843 CE, the Office holder Hrvotland Bels was a high Baron (baronobis”), an important person at the court. He undersigned one of the most important treaties ever signed in Europe, the Treaty of Thionville (France), solving a private dynastic matter of the Carolingians, involving the grandchildren of Charlemagne. This Bels was most probably a Law Man (Office holder) attached to a Carolingian court. Unknown is what court he was attached to: King Karolus II or King Lotharius Ist?

Seeing that the Bels originated from Flanders, and that Flanders was King Charles´ (Karolus) domain, it is quite logical to presume that the Bels were Office Holders (Lawmen, Counsellors) at King Charles` court. However, prior to the partition of the Treaty of Verdun (843), the palace of Herstal (Liège) was part of the empire of Emperor Louis the Pious, as was whole Flanders. It was only after the partition that Herstal found itself in the empire of Lotharius 1st.

It is not known to which imperial court Hrvotalnd belonged after 843. The geographical location of the Herstal palace being almost right on the border between the two empires.

This begs the question: how was the appearance of the Bels possible, so early in time, since they apparently first appeared, in Flanders, in 1240, with Lambert le Bels de Paskendaele and with William le Bels, in 1311, still called, in 1268, Willelmus de Belle? Was the mention of Hrvotland Bels a mistake of a Chronicler?

2. Another Knight Bels undersigned, in 1014 a judicial hearing held by Count Guillem de Montcada to settle the claim of the vicar of Olesa de Monserrat, in Vacarisses (northern Spain). Then, some ancestors of this Knight Bels, accompanied Winidilde van Vlaanderen (*860) (daughter of the Count of Flanders) to northern Spain, after she married Wilfredo (Guifred) “el Velloso” (*840+897) (Count of Barcelona), they were attached to the Count’s court. Was this another error of yet another Chronicler?

This kind of action presents a recurrent pattern with precedence since some Knights Bels, issued from “Leudes”, secured the Merovingian King Dagobert II (*650 in Metz, Lorraine) when he returned from Ireland en route to Rennes-le-Château. They also protected the escape of King Dagobert´s II daughter (anno 681) after his murder in the Forest de Woëvre, near Charmois (F), also to Rennes-le-Château.

Still another case of such a recurrence, is the report about the Flemish Knight Robert de Bruges (Flanders), later Robert Brus or the Bruce, King of Scotland, who accompanied to Normandy, Lady Mathilde van Vlaanderen (another daughter of another Count of Flanders), after she married William, the Duke of Normandy, in the year 1053.

After the Salian Frankish troops federated with the Romans against other German barbarian invaders (early Vth century), some members of important Frankish, and Flemish families (see development hereunder) integrated the Roman Army. Some even achieved the rank of general. Others integrated the Roman Administration as Officers, Office holders, Lawmen, and Clerks. Their children had later, after the collapse of the roman empire in west Europe, the unique privilege to attend Merovingian and Carolingian court schools that gave them the prerogative to occupy such functions as they became hereditary.

I provide here a synthesis that the reader should keep in mind throughout the reading of this Essay, especially in the chapters dealing with the Bels positions at different courts in ancient history.

Throughout late antiquity and the very early medieval period, administrative functions across different empires and kingdoms gradually became hereditary, though at varying rates and under different circumstances.

Before 10 CE, in the early Roman Empire (Principate), most administrative functions were not strictly hereditary, but some offices and roles had strong family traditions. In the end, this amounts to the same thing. The play of words between “hereditary” and “family traditions” is a kind of euphemism for informal hereditary elements.

The Senate, for instance, was largely composed of aristocratic or wealthy families, where political and administrative roles often passed from father to son. Magistracies (e.g., consul, praetor) were technically elected, but prominent families (like the Julii, Claudii, and Cornelii) dominated the high offices for generations. Although the cursus honorum (career path) was competitive, it favoured the sons of senators.

History tells us that as soon as Augustus (r. 27 BCE - 14 CE) encouraged family dynasties within the Senate. The local Administration tended to become hereditary. In municipal governments (cities and colonies), local elites (decurions) often passed positions like duumviri (mayors) or aediles to their sons. As mentioned before, this was more tradition than formal inheritance (sic)!

In the medium (96-224 CE) and late Roman Empire (4th-5th centuries), the Roman Empire, bureaucratic and military roles increasingly passed through families as society became more rigid. Key roles, such as decurions (city council members), tax collectors, military officers, advisers, lawyers and teachers, saw hereditary succession. Professions, including tenant farming (coloni), soldiering, and guild trades, also became inherited occupations. This trend aimed at administrative stability but ultimately restricted social mobility and contributed to the empire’s fragmentation.

In the Merovingian Kingdom (5th-8th centuries), the Merovingian administration was initially based upon the Roman system, which was mostly hereditary and became later assigned by royal appointments. But powerful noble families consolidated control over key offices, making them de facto hereditary. Positions such as counts, dukes, treasurers, and referendaries gradually passed within the same families, weakening gradually the central royal authority.

At Charlemagne’s Court (8th-9th centuries), unlike the Merovingians, Charlemagne prioritized competence and loyalty over heredity in his administration. Although noble families often held the same offices and positions for generations, they were not automatically inherited. However, after his reign, the Carolingian system shifted toward hereditary rule, laying the groundwork for feudalism.

In all subsequent administrations, for example those of the Counts of Flanders, the Counts of Barcelona and the Dukes of Normandy, to name but three, titles, offices and functions became more hereditary than traditional.

In Flanders, in the pre-medieval period, we note the families Bels (for centuries) and Erembald. In the Medieval Period (12th-15th centuries), we encountered the families Belle (magistrates in Ypres for over 400 years), De Le Cluse, Van Belle, Van den Casteele, Van den Moortele, Van Dixmude and Van Houcke.

In the Early Modern Period (16th-18th centuries), we encountered the families De Coninck, De Meulenaere, D’Haveloose, De Surmont and De Vos.

Even in modern times, the system persists. In recent Belgium’s history, we can find the families: Daerden, De Croo, Di Rupo, Dehaene, De Winter, Michel, Onkelinx, Van Rompuy, Spaak Tindemans, Van den Boeynants and Verhofstadt. The Eyskens family being emblematic of how political influence can be passed down through generations, particularly in Belgium’s Christian democratic tradition.

Conclusion: From the Middle and Late Roman Empire to the reign of Charlemagne, administrative heredity evolved from a means of stabilizing governance to a system that reinforced the power of nobility. This transition played a key role in shaping medieval European governance, ultimately reinforcing feudal hierarchy.

The signatures of the Office holder Hrvotland Bels, on the Treaty of Verdun dated anno 834 CE, and of the clerk, or counselor, with the name “Bels” on the judicial hearing of Vacarisses, in 1014 CE, have led modern historians, such as the Merovingian scholars Professor Timothy Reuter and Dr Enrico Paust Freiherr von Lipstadt, to assert that the Bels' ancestors must have held relatively important positions in the Merovingian and even in the Roman courts.

Historians maintain the thesis that the Bels occupied these functions as early as the year 415 CE. Some go even further and put forward the year 286 CE as the year of the first integration of Franks into the Roman occupation administration.

The Roman Empire, from its borders (limes) in the west, marked by the Hadrian's wall (vallum Aelium), to those in the east, at the Danube delta, experienced what has been called the Roman Peace (Pax Romana), a two-hundred-year period of peace and prosperity also called the roman golden age. This period started with the accession of Caesar Augustus, in 27 BCE and ended about 180 CE with the death of Marcus Aurelius.

However, the situation changed drastically in the third century, which saw the gradual decline of a Rome that had become politically, socially, and militarily unstable. A brief upsurge took place however under the reign of Diocletian (285-305 CE).

This emperor restored the efficiency of the government and introduced significant reforms in the military and socio-cultural fields. A few years before his reign, appeared the first "foederati". These "federated" barbarian soldiers joined the Roman army in danger by a lack of personnel and, above all, by lack of military motivation.

Under Diocletian, the Roman Army, in the west of the empire, numbered no less than 60 percent of “barbarian” soldiers, also called “socii”, originating from the east bank of the Rhine.

History teaches us that a decadence of this magnitude is not only felt in the military domain but also, and above all, in all other activities of a state. It is even very important to underline that the military domain is the very last bastion to resist such socio-cultural ravages. If the Roman army was so weakened that it had to resort to incorporating "foederati" to provide for the security of the state it was supposed to protect, one must logically deduce that the same situation occurred in all other state administrations. That gives us an idea of the number of families, women, and children who suddenly invigorated the west flank of the empire.

As I wrote later in this :

“…Recent studies showed that the Bels most probably integrated the Roman institutions after the Salian-Franks (proto-Merovingians) lost the battle (286 CE), engaged by the Roman Emperor Maximian (250-310). These people became Roman subjects called "auxiliari" or "foederati" in accordance with the Roman law that, since the emperor Caracalla´s edict, in 212 CE, extended the Roman citizenship to every free person in the empire. In West Europe, they settled in the Roman provinces of Germania Inferior and Belgica.

The Bels, together with a few other very ancient Flemish lineages, entered the Roman Administration Schools. After the fall of the Roman Empire, they joined as “Leudes” the Merovingian Court. Later, under the Carolingians, they kept their “Office Holders” (baronobis) position as “Vassi”. Idem under the Capetian Dynasty. Later again, they joined the courts of the Counts of Flanders, of the Counts of Barcelona, of the Dukes of Normandy, etc…).

What may remain a mystery forever, is the answer to the question if the members of our lineages were issued from these immigrants who crossed the Rhine, or issued from one of these native Gallic tribes of Belgian Gaul (Gallia Belgica)? To read the new development on the subject, move to page 419 and subsequent. Did they belong to one of the following tribes?

• The Morins: in the Yser basin, along the North Sea. Flanders.
• The Menapii: from the sea to the left bank of the Scheldt and towards the mouths of the Meuse. Flanders.
• The Nerviens: between the Scheldt, the Rupel, the Dyle and the Meuse. Flanders.
• The Aduatics: in Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse and in Hesbaye Namur.
• The Condruses: south of the Meuse in the Ardennes Forest. They will give their name to the Condroz.
• The Pémanes: south of the Condruzes in the region of what is now Famenne.
• The Eburons: north of the Aduatics and to the right of the Meuse towards the Pays de Herve.
• The Trévires: south of the Ardennes to the Moselle.

A mystery forever? Maybe, unless we start a multidisciplinary palette of research. In addition to archaeologists, palaeontologists, chronobiologists, historians and chemists, the project would also require laboratory scientists specialised in DNA analyses and interpretations of bone samples removed from Merovingian and Gallic tombs.

There is however a great ray of hope. As we will see later, our Dynast Mr. Joseph Bailey (Ca. USA), has proved, by means of an analysis of his genes, that he, and therefore the Baileys, have their origin in Flanders. And more precisely in the Celtic Gaul region that was inhabited, before the Roman conquest, by the Morins (Morinii), the Nerviens (Nervii), the Aduatics (Aduatici) and the Ménapians (Menapii). The region left of the Schelde (scaldis) river but above Valenciennes (valentiana).

But what are the Celts, the Gauls and the Druids? The Celts are a human grouping of undefined origins, found in Western Europe, the British Isles and Ireland. Gaul was the name given by the Romans to a vast territory bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, the Pyrenees, the southern Alps, and the Atlantic Ocean from the mouth of the Rhine to Pempelune in the Atlantic Pyrenees. The Gauls were therefore Celts.

Gaul was home to some sixty tribes who apparently had nothing better to do than smash each other's skulls in. They were so preoccupied with their muscular strength that they had forgotten they also had brains to think with. This could have led them to form a unified kingdom that would have given the Romans a hard time and perhaps changed the course of history.

The Druids were the religious leaders of the Celtic populations who occupied Gaul and Britain before the Roman conquest.

Were these Belgian tribes indigenous or did they come from across the Rhine, long before the arrival of the Romans in Gaul?

« …Belgae proximi sint Germanis qui trans Rhenum incolunt, plerosque Belgas esse ortos à Germanis, Rhenumque antiquitus transductos propter loci fertilitatem ibi consedisse, Gallosque, qui ea loca incolerent, expulisse… ». Source: Bouquet Martin. Praefatio IV. De Celtarum seu Gallorum lingua. P. XXXII

"...The Belgians are the neighbours of the Germans, who have their home across the Rhine. Most Belgians are descended from the Germans. In those ancient times, they had crossed the Rhine to come and live in the fertile places after having driven out of Gaul those who lived there...". (See also page 397)

With their new Carolingian Lords Charles Martel and Charlemagne, the Bels, Baille and Baileys set out on several military campaigns in the south of France, and in the north of Spain, to get rid of the Arabs. It is interesting to note that, in 801, Charlemagne’s army needed a siege of two years to retake Barcelona!

Is it at that time that members of our lineages settled in the region? During his 46 years of reign, Charlemagne undertook no less than 53 military campaigns and no less than 7 against the Arabs, in the south of France. Many opportunities for our Knights to settle down!

PART 2

The first intervention ends in failure. In 778, Charlemagne's troops returned to France through the Pyrenees via the Roncesvalles pass (Brèche de Roland), where the Basque mountaineers ambushed the rearguard of the army corps. The count of the Brittany march, Roland, was killed in the trap.

In 784, the Franks and their allies from the Kingdom of Asturias resumed the offensive against the Arabs. The bulk of the troops was led by Louis, the Emperor's third son, by Count Guillaume de Gellone and Duke Guillaume de Toulouse. Barcelona was recaptured on April 4, 801. Was it around this time that the Bels of Castelbel-i-el-Vilar, settled in the area?

It is evident, because a “recurrent pattern” in those times, that some of the ancestors of these Bels Office holders remained in the area after Charlemagne’s troops left the operations’ scene. However, the troops never entirely quit the region. The Pyrenean region was considered as the March of Spain, and troops were permanently stationed to protect it. Therefore, the probability becomes extremely high that the Knight Bels from northern Spain and southern France, and our mysterious Hrvotland Bels (Treaty of Verdun), were parents!

After the Carolingians, there emerged another Dynasty, the Capetians. The Office holders remained the same. The new rulers created Duchies and Counties. So became Flanders its first Count. The Bels (and probably also some Belle, although no traces of them are found in documents), being for the time highly educated people, were immediately incorporated into the new Count of Flanders’ (their neighbours) court and assigned to several Office holders’ functions.

When in 1066, William the Conqueror invaded England, there were among his soldiers and Knights, some Balliols (mistakenly or intentionally made Normans although they originated from Flanders), Bels and Belle of Flanders.

The Balliols of Flanders put in charge of some defensive counties, “marches”, along the Scottish border, went up North and installed themselves in a place they named Barnard Castle (North of England near Durham) in memory of their first Lord: Bernard I^st of Balliol (Rainald´s son). Their land and big domains in the north of England and Scotland (in the Northumberland, the Gainforshire and in the region of Durham), have been granted by the King William the Redhead, son of William the Conqueror, in 1095.

The same year the Balliol family started to build their strong castle perched on a rocky promontory high above the wild "Tees" River. This huge fortress, completed 114 years later, became the principal fortress and residence of the Balliol family throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The Balliols gave one Regent and two Kings of Scotland. In 1356, on January 20, at Roxburgh, King Edward I^st Balliol abdicates (in good terms) the throne of Scotland in favour of King Edward III of Windsor. The Balliols marked the History of England and Scotland for nearly 300 years. They also gave birth to a series of patronymics (surnames) such as Ball.

After the Conquest of England, in 1066, thousands of Flemish tradesmen seized the opportunity to start a new life in the newly conquered land. However, countless historical reports have these Flemish people, later called “Bell” in the UK, settled in the north of England and in the south of Scotland several decennia and probably centuries prior to the Duke of Normandy’s invasion of England, in 1066. There have been several Flemish migration waves to England, consecutively the marriage of the Count of Flanders with Judith of France (843-870) who was first married to two English kings of Wessex: Aethelwulf and Aethelbald. Most of these people were weavers or had a business with the wool trade.

In 1073, the Flemish Roussel of Balliol, who had also settled in the new Land of Normandy, was reported as being chief of the Norman mercenaries of Byzance and lieutenant of Roman Diogène, at the time of the battle of Malâzgerd (Manzikert). In 1071, he wanted to benefit from the war between the Turks and the Greeks to carve himself an independent state in the heart of Anatolia. Roussel rebels while accompanying Isaac Comnene and undertook the conquest of Lycaonie and Galatia for his own account.

In 1096, the first big Crusade to the Holy Land began under the command of the Flemish Godefroid van Boonen, later known as “Godefroid de Bouillon” from the name of his Duchy. He is the one, together with two other Knights of Flanders, who broke first through the huge defensive walls of the city of Jerusalem. Some Knights of our Lineages decided to ride under his banner while some others decided to ride with the Count of Flanders. There are two reasons for this: Both Lineages were related, neighbours and friends and both Lineages, for centuries, shared the same destiny as “Leudes” and later as “Vassi”. Our Knights participated in all subsequent crusades.

Some Historians further speculate why Knights of our Lineages were not present at the creation of the prestigious Templar Knight Order, when some of them were sent to the King of Jerusalem Balduinus II, to obtain his authorization to create the Order. These knights were, for the king, relatively unknown people compared to the Knights from our Lineages, because we were related to his family.

The first king of Jerusalem was Balduinus I, the brother of Godefroid (who refused the Throne), and the second one, Balduinus II, King of Jerusalem, being no other than the cousin of Godefroid de Bouillon and from his brother Balduinus Ist of Boulogne!

Out of the “ivory tower” historians, speculate that our Lineage must have had an unknown, but a very good reason, not to be part of the requesting delegation! This did not prevent our lineages from supporting the Knights Templar in several ways: in Flanders, by giving them estates, and in Scotland, by protecting them when the Balliols were regents and kings of Scotland.

There is no historical data to support the hypothesis of our lineages’ active participation in the Crusade against the Cathars. They must have acted very diplomatically, in this extremely dangerous time, avoiding at all costs taking any unconsidered risks. This may explain why their Castle of Belcastel-et-Buc is one of the few castles, throughout the south of France, spared by the Church´s army. Unfortunately, their wise caution did not prevent the castle to be ruined by the inexorable passage of time. Today, only a tower and a few walls subsist.

The very last Cathar “Parfait”, called William Bélibaste, is said to have been traced back and handed over to the Church by Arnaud Sicre, a member of our Lineage. Arnaud´s mother, Sybille Baille (also Bayle), was burned at the stake together with her other son “Pons” by the troops of Simon de Montfort because both decided to remain Cathars. Her husband and Arnaud took opportunistically the side of the Roman Catholic Church in order to regain their confiscated estates. (Chapter VII).

The Christian name “Pons” comes from the Latin word “Pons” and declinations such as “Pontina-tinus-nius”. It stands for “bridge” - “pons Saravi” was the name of the city of Saarbrücken, in Germany. About 40 km southeast of Saarbrücken, we have the small city of Zweibrücken that is called “bi-pontina” or “two bridges”.

The presence of some of our lineages in and around Rennes-le-Château and right in the centre of the Catharsis and Templar region, such as our castle in the city of Albi, indicate that they played an active part in the region’s secret history. This is also proven by several indices such as the two paintings of Mary Magdalene of the “Belle Godshuis” (Almshouse) in Ieper (Flanders).

Our Lineages have been for more than four centuries, Magistrates and Lawmen of the City of Ieper (also Ypres). They will be among the most powerful families of medieval Europe. “...In Flanders, with their astonishing wealth, power, and diplomatic relations, they helped to stabilise the situation of the County of Flanders and to insure its power for the future...”.

The Count of Flanders, aware that our lineages saved the County, at the time of the Crusades, made Boudewijn van Belle (Balduinus IV), also called Balliol, hereditary Marshall of Flanders. This was the highest title rulers could ever give. The Balliols became also, in 1260, the tax collectors of Flanders, which was at that time the richest County in Europe! The Countess of Flanders Marguerite II (Marguerite of Constantinople), youngest fa. of Baudouin IX, Latin Emperor of Constantinople (x Marie de Champagne) instituted Boudewijn van Belle, hereditary Marshall of Flanders for:

«Zij zijn het die Vlanderen gered hebben». In English: « They are the ones who saved Flanders ». Her words entered History!

After the Queen Astrid of Belgium (Swedish Princess) died in 1935, in a car accident in Küssnacht am Rigi (Switzerland), the King of the Belgians H.R.A Leopold III von Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha, married on September 11, 1941, our Dynast (belonging to our Dynasty), the Flemish Lady Liliane Baels. The King assigned his new bride, who declined to be Queen, the titles of Princess of Réthy and Princess of Belgium. The new couple had a boy and two girls. Their children were not in line for the throne because of the three previous children of the King, born from Queen Astrid: King Baudouin, King Albert II and Josephine-Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxemburg.

King Leopold III, son of King Albert Ist, was the great-great-grandson of King Leopold Ist von Sachsen-Coburg Gotha who married, 1816, the Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only legitimate child of the Prince Regent George (later King George IV) and therefore second in line to the British throne. Leopold Ist was granted the British title of Royal Highness by Order in Council on 6 April 1818. Remember: Queen Victoria was married to Prince Albert ... von Sachsen-Coburg Gotha!

The Balliol(s) and the Bell(s) in England and on Scottish West March, originated from Flanders. Idem for the homonyms Bailey, Bayley, Bayles, and other patronymic variations. DNA research undertaken several years ago by our Dynast Mr Joseph Bailey (Ca. USA), proves that my theory wanting the Bailey originated in Flanders, is correct! New and more modern DNA research will be extremely helpful in proving my theory.

A new historical awareness based upon some growing evidence that not only the Balliol and Bell but also the Comyn, Bruce, Fleming, Lindsay and numerous other families of England and Scotland originated in Flanders, caused the Institute of Scottish Historical Research of the University of St. Andrews, Scotland to launch, in 2013, a Survey called: "Scotland and the Flemish People". On October 8, 2014, in St. Andrews, I handed over to the leader of this study, Prof. Roger Mason, a copy of my Essay (version 5th June 2014), in presence of two knights: Heiko Bels and Jürgen Bels.

We hope that the incorrect (intentionally or mistakenly) allegations made by Mr Vosgier (XVIIIth century) may soon belong to the past, with the ancient history of England and Scotland rewritten and the truth fully restored.