Dictionary of Medieval Knighthood and Chivalry

Arrived today from Friends of Books, Volume one of two: concepts and terms. Volume two, on persons, places and events, is on the way.

Bouncing up and down in my chair, I opened the box and pulled out a thick book to an accompaniment of goose-bumps.  As I cracked it open at random spots, I could tell it would not disappoint. Although the new version of this scholarly work is priced at $118.75 and up, my used library version was much less, and still in good condition.  If there are any equivalent books on this arcane subject, I am not aware of them.  At 604 pages, the volume covers concepts and terms from the years 1050 to 1400 thoroughly.  Every glance at a page shows me the work of an author in love with his subject, a work fifteen years in the making.

This has been a difficult year for me, physically, but rewards like today make it all worth the effort.

Found: Sir Walter Giffard's correct coat of arms

After more searching, I have found what is the correct coat of arms for Walter Giffard.  It is not a blue background with silver lions, but a red background with silver lions (the blue shield is a later, cadet branch of his family).  His blazon may be found in several books, including the authoritative Sir Bernard Burke, "The general armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales:", copyright 1864.

Blazon: gules three lions passant in pale argent

see the image for Walter Giffard's Coat of Arms at 

Genealogy Ancestral Family Trees  

Love Castles? Must See These!

I have a passion for Medieval history, and that includes castles.  Want to know more than just 'oh, that is a pretty castle'? Curious about how people lived in their castles, what they did while they were there? Have an itch to know how castles were built?

Philip Davis has had a life-long passion for castles, and he has created the most comprehensive website on castles I have found.

See GATEHOUSE for answers to your questions about castles: who made them, how they were constructed, who tore them down, who rebuilt them; what archeological investigation has found at individual sites; where exactly they are located and so much more. Gatehouse is deep and extensive for factual information, including a comprehensive list of licenses to crenelate. Images of castles are from a bird's eye view. [For photographs of castles, see other websites such as Wikipedia or Castles of Wales, etc.]

Among the most exciting discoveries I have made in my investigations is that many of our ancestors were not only warriors, they were statesmen. They were not only capable of besieging a castle, they were capable of building one. The narrow view of the Medieval knight as a brutal and ignorant fighter who knows how to do only one thing is proven wrong over and over again, in the multitude of records showing how they built, they protected, they preserved.

Below is a modern picture of the remaining shell keep of Cardiff Castle, Wales, which was rebuilt in stone circa 1136 by Sir Robert earl of Gloucester, my 25th times great-grandfather.

Photograph by Jvhertum 1 Dec 2012, from Wikimedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Norman_keep_cardiff_castle.jpg
 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

So Many Questions - so little Time

While putting together  a book about Magna Carta and our ancestors who were there, I have discovered great websites with information I can glean for the book.  The challenge is that no one place has all the information I want. So I wrote a page of questions that I'd like to answer about each baron.  After I wrote out the questions, I realized how much I have learned from reading books and websites. A year ago, I would not have even known what questions to ask.

Magna Carta Ancestors biography Questions -

What is fealty?

Name, date born, whether eldest son or inherited unexpectedly.
Shield and blazon
Titles (inherited or granted or acquired through marriage)
Honors/appointments
Whether a Marcher Lord
Castles and locations w/pictures and/or descriptions
Whether disseized of their titles and lands or reinstated
Whether went on Crusade
Whether a sheriff or a justice/judge
Marriage.  If widowed, wife’s activities/remarriage/nunnery.  Children.
Statesman; Warrior; Builder; Courtier; ?
How many knights/fees?     How many acres/manors?
Whether granted a license to crenelate their fortified manor or castle
Whether on river or bay
Whether granted exclusive import/export rights to X (wine, wool, or ?)
Abbeys or priories (hospitals, or ?)  they Established or supported
Rights to hold fairs (when, where)
Rights and offices of forests:
(example) from Many Mini Biographies - 8/22/1198, Confirmation by Richard I of his permission to Alan Bassetto hunt foxes, hares, and wild cats. (S) Pipe Roll Society, V10, 1888, P30.
Military campaigns
If they were sent on diplomatic missions
Whether active in Magna Carta; Oxford Provisions; etc.
Whether they were subsequently excommunicated for it and if restored?
When died and how. Where Buried.

A Baker's Dozen and Both Sides of the War

While extending one of the branches of our family tree that I had not quite finished, I came across another Magna Carta Surety ancestor.  This makes thirteen - a baker's dozen - of our ancestors who represented Magna Carta and a rule of law.

John FitzRobert, Sheriff of Norfolk, Suffolk, Northumberland; Governor of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was born before 1191, and died circa 20 February 1241.

His blazon is:  Or two chevrons gules

According to the Baronial Order of Magna Charta, there are only seventeen (out of the twenty-five) surety barons who have descendants past the fourth generation, meaning there are only four more with whom we might possibly connect. 

Searching the  Preamble of Magna Carta, I have found five of the "illustrious men" mentioned by King John are our ancestors:  "William Marshal, earl of Pembroke; William, earl of Salisbury [William Longespee, who was half-brother of King John]; William, earl of Arundel; Hubert de Burgh; and Alan Basset. The men in this list are the ones who were considered royalists, the ones who stood with King John on his side of the field at Runnymede.  Many of them are known to have had strong sympathies with the 'rebel barons' and to have favored Magna Carta. They advised King John to sign it.

King John is also an ancestor, the twenty-fifth times great-grandfather of Leo.

Overcoming Evil with Good

There is a movement to affirm the goodness of the human spirit, of life, which is growing rapidly. It is called "26 Acts of Kindness".

People are reaching out to do acts of kindness in memory of 26 the children and adults massacred at the Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14th.

^" Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans chapter 12 verse 21, King James Bible)

As a nation, we can resolve to overcome evil by passing a Federal weapons ban on assault rifles and making gun ownership consistent in every state. It does no good for one state to ban assault weapons when people can go over the line to buy them in the state next door. We need national unity of purpose.

The Bushmaster .223 caliber rifle used in the attack on the school children of Sandy Hook is a weapon favored by military and police. Under Connecticut law, the shooter was in legal possession of the assault type rifle, because in Connecticut, only assault hand-guns are banned.

Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, has had some success in reducing gun violence in his city, and he wrote a thought provoking editorial last week on the subject which you can read here.

Please. Let us all support immediate legislation to keep weapons of mass murder out of the hands of civilians. In the name of mercy for our children and justice for the victims -
DO. IT. NOW.