OUR LINEAGE AND THE HOLY GRAIL VIA THE

ARTHURIAN LEGEND

  “Il y a ce que le Chevalier voit, entend et sent.

Il y a ce qu'il en pense et il y a ce qu´il en est.”.

Fra. Robert Adelsohn Bels

“There is what the Knight sees, hears, and feels.

There is what he thinks of it and there is what is.”.

A series of three chance discoveries introduced a new element into our research and it his mainly due to Lady Ingrid Schröck-Heil that I discovered the connection our Lineages have with the Arthurian Legend.

In the living room of the castle of Neuschwanstein, the world known beautiful castle built on orders of King Ludwig II, Friedrich Wilhelm von Wittelsbach of Bavaria, (1845-1886 Lake Starnberg), King of Bavaria from 1864 until 1886, Lady Ingrid noticed a blazon of a Member of our Lineage, the Bell of Kirkconnel´s (Dumfries) Scotland, strategically placed above and on the right corner of a large painting of an episode from the Arthurian Legend.

At first, I was skeptical as to this having a connection with our Lineage, but a second fortuitous discovery brought in further proof. This second breakthrough was found in a book on the Arthurian Epics. In it, another blazon is depicted in which the heraldic elements are extremely close to those of our Lineage and from the van Bonen (de Boulogne). The blazon can be seen on several pages of the book: “Roman du Chevalier Tristan et la reine Yseult”, dated anno 1450.

The intern correlation between these two discoveries aroused my curiosity and I began to look for an answer to the question of whether our Lineage had something to do with the Arthurian Legends.

We must remember that In heraldry, the three circles may represent three bells seen from below. This highlights the internal correlation between this coat of arms and that of the Bels of Flanders.

We know that King Ludwig II loved Wagnerian music. He even went so far as to offer an apartment and a music room in his castle of Neuschwanstein for the free use of Richard Wagner. The composer was honoured to accept the royal invitation that he received in 1864.

I recalled that Richard Wagner composed an opera called „Tristan und Isolde“, that was directly linked to the Arthurian Legend. The names Tristan and Isolde were two of the 18 main personages of the „Roman de la Table Ronde“ from the Arthurian Legend, by Chrétien de Troyes.

This third discovery confirmed my initial impression that something of importance was hiding behind these apparent strokes of luck !

Pursuing my research, I found out that this Chrétien de Troyes (1135-1183), was a very successful and well-known troubadour popular with such historic figures as: Aliénor d’Aquitaine, Gace Brulé, Blondel of Nesles (10km South of Bonen “Boulogne”), Conon of Béthune (25km South of Balliol), Bouchart of Marly (70km southeast of Balliol), Richard the Lionheart (Richard Ist of England) and Thibaut de Champagne.

Chrétien de Troyes was also the author of the Arthurian Legend and lived at the court of Marie, Countess of Champagne and subsequently at the court of Philippe of Alsace, Count of Flanders. This brings to the fact that Chrétien de Troyes spent most of his life at the court of the Count of Flanders. The small but very powerfull and rich county where the Bels-Belle-Balliol Lineages were at home. To any logical mind, it must be clear that members of our Lineage must have encountered him, or perhaps even knew him well.

There is still another important factor to consider! As said, Chrétien de Troyes, before living in Flanders, lived at the court of Marie, Countess of Champagne. But the Counts of Champagne were also closely linked to the van Bonen Lineage by the marriage of Eudes, Count of Champagne, with Adelaide sister or half-sister of Duke William the Conqueror (linked to the Counts of Flanders).

However, before her marriage, Adelaide was the widow of the unfortunate Enguerrand de Aumale (+1053), Count of Ponthieu (County next to the County of Flanders), and of Lambert (+1055), Count of Lens (35km SE of Balliol), and brother of Eustache II Count of Bonen (Boulogne).

In other words, Chrétien de Troyes wrote his Arthurian legend in the calmness favourable to intellectual activity that he found in the serene domains of:

• The Lineage of the Counts of Champagne (where he spent the first part of his life)
• The Lineage of the Counts of Flanders (where he spent the rest of his life)

His stay in these estates forces us to conclude that he must have had very close contacts with members of the “van Bonen”, the “Balliol”, the "Belle", the "Bels" and the “d´Alsace” lineages. This is not idle speculation but unaltered common sense.

Then I realised that one of the largest tapestries in King Ludwig’s living room shows Lohengrin, the “Knight of the Swan” being chosen by the Holy Grail. The Swan being the central figure of the Castle and… of the Counts of Bonen (de Boulogne, Flanders), we encounter it again on another large tapestry where we can see Lohengrin´s arrival on the banks of the Schelde River in Antwerp.

The Schelde (either from the Latin word Scaldis or from the German word Schalt - to communicate), called Escaut in French, is a coastal Flemish River. With its 430km long, it is rather small in comparison with the Rhine River (1298km). After a journey in French Flanders (Cambrai, Valencienne, Condé) it enters Belgium in Tournai and pursues its way up to the North Sea (above Antwerpen) via Oudenaarde, Ghent and Termonde.

For what reason is the Schelde River specifically mentioned, and not any of a dozen other Rivers running through historical places linked to the King’s Dynasty?

A picture form:

• The paintings on the Arthurian Legend in King Ludwig II of Bavaria castle of Neuschwanstein.
• The white swan that is a central figure in the Castle of Neuschwanstein and of the van Bonen Lineage.
• Our Lineage’s blazon in the dining room and linked to the paintings of the legend.
• A blazon which commemorates our Lineage and the van Bonen Lineage is in the old book on the legend.
• The painting of Lohengrin setting foot on a Schelde Riverbank (Flanders).
• Wagner’s privileged sojourn at the court of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and his Opera on the legend.
• Chrétien de Troyes stay in Champagne.
• Chrétien de Troyes stay in Flanders.
• The Link of the ancestors of the Wittelsbachs with the County of Hainaut and ipso facto with Flanders.
• The Link of the Duchy of Bavaria with Flanders via Judith of Flanders.
• The Link of the ancestors of the Wittelsbachs with Habsburg Dynasty.
• The Link the Bavarian Dukes had with the Balliol. Remember Gilles Bertoud (Berthoud) married Catherine Balliol. But Gilles Aunt, on the mother side, was Agnes de Looz and she married, abtout 1151, Otto Ist Duke of Bavaria (*Abt. 1117). Their son, Richardis of Bavaria, was born in Kelheim (some 100km North of München) ca. anno 1173. Note that the father of Otto Ist was Otto IV, Count Palatin of Bavaria x Eilika von Legenfeld.

All this brought me to see Flanders as being involved in some way with the Arthurian Legend, that is based of the Quest for the Holy Grail that is, in turn, a pure Merovingian matter! But how these elements were interconnected, I did not know.

Then I remembered the statements of Ms Ingrid Schröck-Heil, concerning the stay of King John II on the continent, after his release from his captivity in England. She was convinced that if there was not a single trace of such an important personage sprouting from a no less important Lineage, there could be only one reason: This personage never remained in France, in Flanders nor in England and of course not in Scotland!

She proposed quite logically that he might have spent the rest of his life in another part of Belgium, controlled by neither Flanders, France nor England.

My working hypothesis is based upon the high probability that the Lineage of the “van Bonen” was instrumental in the destiny of King John II Balliol after he left England. The van Bonen Lineage alone fits all the required factors: Power, finances, diplomatic relations, highest Church links, Lineage links, Seigneurial links, Templar links, Monastery links, time, places, etc.

The Lineage of the “van Bonen” is said to be of Merovingian origin. Godefroid of Bouillon was son of Eustache II Earl of Bonen, himself said to be heir of the Lineage of the Merovingian by Childeric Ist of Tournai (Flanders), King of the Franks of Yssel (Abt. 458-496) x Queen Basina Ist (Abt. 438-477) after she left her husband Bisinus, King of the Thuringii (Germany).

Merovech (+458) x Meira, was the father of Childeric Ist. He united the two main Frankish groups, the Salian and the Ripuarian. Proclaimed King in 448, he was the founder of the Merovingian Dynasty, which was named after him.

King Clodio(n) was Merovech´s father. The father of Clodion was Faramund x Princess Argotta (heiress of the Sicambri Dynasty). Sicambri is synonym for Franks. The grandfather of Clodion was Frotmund who (allegedly) descended from the Messianic Lineage (sic). Source: Gardner Laurence.

So was Godefroid of Bouillon’s (van Bonen) great-grandfather, Hugue au Long Nez (Long Nose) (+1015) x Agnès de Jumièges (called the Beautiful) the great-grandson of Sigebert VII, Duke of Razès (+980) the first to carry the name Plantard, written in one word. The mother of Godefroid, the countess Ide of Ardennes, Lady of Bouillon, was the daughter of Godefroid the Bearded, Duke of Lotharingia and of Bouillon.

In anno 1286, the city of Boulogne had on its city seal, a swan. The swan is depicted swimming and pulling a boat, with a chain around its neck, where a man stood armed with an avast and resting upon a blazon. This was the effigy of the famous “Knight of the Swan”, an evocation of the romance of Lohengrin.

In this old German legend Lorraine Gérin or Lohengrin, mystic and mysterious fighter, son of Parcifal, set out to save Elsa, Countess of Brabant (East of Flanders) threatened by a dark plot.

Elsa’s father, the King of Brabant, died without leaving a male heir to the throne. On his deathbed, he designated Elsa as his successor. All his daughters agreed and swore fidelity to her. But after the King died, Count Telramund refused to recognize Elsa’s sovereignty and set out his Machiavellian plan. He claimed that having promised to the King to marry Elsa, he would keep his word and become the new King.

Suddenly, the Knight Lohengrin appeared on the Schelde River, in shining armour on a barge that was pulled by a silvery swan. He challenged Telramund to a duel for Elsa’s right and defeated his opponent. Subsequently, the Knight of the Swan, of the Holy Grail, married the King-daughter Elsa. But before Lohengrin brought his beautiful wife home, he asked her to promise never to search for his origin:

“Never, you may ask me about my origin, Elsa. Never break this vow, if you do, I will be, for you, lost for ever" !

But after two children had grown up, Elsa´s curiosity became so great that she asked the ominous question. The promise being violated, the swan, with which Lohengrin had come, suddenly reappeared. He sailed away with Lohengrin forever to the Grail castle in the same boat in which he had arrived, so that his vow to help noble people in distress could be fulfilled.

This legend is linked to the vast epic of the Quest of the Grail, a passionate search for ideals, a thirst for perfection and for a higher spirituality that marked very deeply the Middle Ages.

Godefroid de Bouillon, fs. of Eustachius of Bonen (de Boulogne), pretended to have Lohengrin as ancestor! The swan was on top of the Coat of Arms of Jean Ist and Marie, Countess of Bonen and of Auvergne. Remember that the white swan is the central figure of the castle of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Is this again just another pure coincidence?

What about the link between Flanders and Bavaria through the link of the Duke of Bavaria with Judith of Flanders?

Balduinus V (de Lille or le Débonnaire 1036-1077) married Adèle (+1079 Messines Abbey, near Ypres), fa. of Robert, King of France. Balduinus had Baudouin VI his successor. Robert, to whom he gave the counties of Alost (Flanders) of Waes (Flanders) together with West Zealand (Flanders), from which he was surnamed “le Frison” and Henry.

Henry had two daughters: Matilda, who was the wife of William the Conqueror and Judith, wife of Toston, brother of Harold, King of England, and afterwards of Guelf, Duke of Bavaria. Therefore, Flemish Lords and Knights were definitively in Bavaria in those very remote times. This is much more than a pure coincidence!

Godefroid of Bouillon was member of the secret Order of Sion that seems to be a pure Merovingian matter. What had they really to do with it? The creation of the Order of the Temple of Jerusalem (The Templars) by Bernard de Clairvaux, was only a cover-up for the secret activities of the Order of Sion. Source: Robert A. Bels.

“Officially the Order of Sion was founded in the Abbey of Notre-Dame of Sion, in Jerusalem, in 1099 by a small group of unknown monks and Godefroid de Bouillon. It is more than probable that the goal of this Order was to protect a royal progeny closely bound to the Merovingians.

But in fact, the Order possesses a much older past and already existed under "Ormus" to sustain the Merovingian cause.

The Merovingian Dynasty did not die out with the takeover of the power by the Carolingians during the VIII^th century, but perpetuated itself in secret, watching an opportunity to regain the throne.

It is precisely what happened with the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 by Godefroid de Bouillon, illustrious heir of this dynasty, Duke of Lower-Lorraine, Marquis of Antwerp, Count van Bonen, Priest of the Holy Empire, initiator, and guide of the First Crusade. He has therefore, of right, conquered his Kingdom!

Let us recall here the famous sentence that informs us of his exceptional moral dimension, on the extent of his moral nobility as well as on his mystical approach:

" I won't cover myself with a golden crown where Jesus carried a crown of thorns ".

Godefroid de Bouillon refused to take the title of King of Jerusalem being satisfied with the title of "Defender of the Holy Sepulchre" or "Attorney-at-law of the Saint Sepulchre", although he was the direct heir for this prestigious title.

Nobody else in the world had that right, not the Capetians, nor the Bourbons nor some other Latin or Germanic lords and a fortiori Arabian or Moslem.”.  Unquote.

Hugues of Payens accompanied by eight other lords, presented himself to Balduinus II King of Jerusalem and told him about the official reasons for their services. They were:

• To protect the pilgrims against the Infidels.
• To ensure the safety of the Saint Sepulchre.
• To ensure other dearest religious sites of the Christians such as: Bethlehem, Nazareth, the mount of the Olivier, the valley of Josaphat, the Jordan, the Mount Calvary, etc.

But how could nine Knights, during almost ten years, guard and defend all these religious sites together with thousands of kilometers of dusty and dangerous roads. This is pure nonsense unless one considers a “cover-up” story for the Order of Sion.

The new King of Jerusalem welcomed these Knights and let them settle in the old stables of the Temple of the King Salomon.

Next question: What had King Ludwig II of Bavaria, to do with the Arthurian Legend and in extensor, with the Holy Grail and with the Merovingians?

I discovered that King Ludwig II of Bavaria had an ancestor linked to the Merovingian Dynasty via Ludwig II der Strenge, (1229 +1294) Pfalzgraf bei Rhein (1253) and Duke of Higher Bavaria in 1255. The duke’s first wedding was with Maria van Brabant (B), his second was Anna von Schlesien-Glogau (D) and his last marriage was with Mathilda (Mechthild), fa. of Rudolf Ist von Habsburg.

We know, without entering details, that the House of the Habsburg had (has) something to do with the Merovingian Lineage.

Therefore, the King had good reason to be interested in this Legend, because his Lineage was involved in it. Perhaps was his lineage even more closely linked to the Merovingian than we might expect, through links we have not yet discovered.

At any rate, King Ludwig II´s interest in the Arthurian Legend reflects a deliberate and conscious interest and was not a casual or random pursuit.

The next question is as follows: What had our Lineage to do with this mysterious Merovingian matter via the Lineage of the Wittelsbacher (King Ludwig II of Bavaria) ?

Since Godefroid of Bouillon, fs. of Eustachius van Bonen, had something to do with the Arthurian Legend and since we were closely linked to the van Bonen Lineage, we may suppose that sometime, somewhere, and somehow, we were also involved with this Merovingian matter.

How else could we explain all these meaningful “coincidences” ? There must be an “internal correlation” between all these elements. The fact is that these elements are there and are not just the product of a fertile imagination.

The Banner Knight Heiko Bels from Perleberg (Germany) found out, anno 2005 in a book on heraldry, the following text concerning a Herault:

„...Als er seinen Dienst beim Herzog von Geldern verlassen konnte, fand er einen neuen Herrn in dem damals auch Holland beherrschenden Hause Wittelsbach. Albrecht von Bayern, Graf von Holland seit 1390, erteilte ihm den Amtsnamen [Bayern]. Darüber hinaus wurde er auch Wappenkönig der [Ruyers]. Für die Verleihung dieser überregionalen Funktion war der Herzog von Brabant zuständig...“.

“...After he left the service of the Duke of Geldern, he found a new Lord in the House of the Wittelsbacher, who had ruled Holland since 1390. Albrecht of Bavaria gave him the Function name [Bayern]. In addition, he also became the King of Arms [Héraut d´Armes] of the [Ruyers]. The Duke of Brabant was responsible for the conferral of this national function...”.

We are investigating how the House of the Wittelsbacher came to rule over Holland. This brought Flanders, Holland, and Bavaria into close political contact. This proximity led to alliances and contacts between some important Flanders lineages with those of the Wittelsbachers. This may answer many questions we have posed in this Essay, such as why Flemish Coats of Arms were found in Bavaria.

At the present time, we know that:

• It was Emperor Charlemagne who created in 788 the duchy of Bavaria and that Frederic Barbarossa handed it over in 1180, to the Wittelsbacher.
• After the Treaty of Verdun in 843, Holland became Lotharingia (the part inherited by Lothar, one of three sons and of Charlemagne, got as heritage). Later Holland became part of the duchy of Lower-Lotharingia. The duke was Godefroid of Bouillon fs. Eustachius van Bonen, from the house of Boulogne!
• Holland itself was composed of 11 ships. Three of them were Brabant, Gueldre, Clèves.

And to close this chapter: For what mysterious reason did Messire Godefroid´s grandfather, the Duke of Lorraine, place in 1069, the church of St. Dagobert in Stenay (Champagne, France), under the protection of the Abbey of Gorze (Moselle, France) ?

Sometime later, for some unknown reason, a local seized the church and again for some mysterious reason, Messire Godefroid in 1093 mobilized troops and submitted Stenay to a pitiless siege. The only reasonable reason (sic) for this furious battle seems to have been the return of the Saint Dagobert church to the Abbey of Gorze (Gorze is less than 100km away from Stenay) !