Flanders - Ancestral Homeland

It is impossible to get very far in describing the landscape of Flanders without coming up against the very marked characteristics of the people who made it. Tight-fisted, humorous, stubborn, courageous, independent, and very private, the character of the people of Flanders is revealed very clearly in every portrait painting from the fifteenth century onwards. However refined and delicate the clothes and jewels, the wearer is obviously someone who loves driving a hard bargain whether in business, diplomacy or the marriage-contract.'

___ John Peters, A FAMILY FROM FLANDERS, 1985

Records show that on both sides of the English Channel, families surnamed Freme/Freame/Frame and Fremaux/Fremault were enterprising merchants, bankers and money changers, held positions of civic authority, were yeomen, clothiers, weavers, hatmakers, coaters and shoemakers etc. These families were heavily involved in the textile trade at all levels for centuries.  The 'Frame' family lore is that their ancestors were weavers from Flanders and it seems inevitable that some ancestors once had a French version of the surname. As shown on the Surname Origins page, according to Förstemann, surnames such as the English FRAME and FREEM / FREAME and the French FRÉMY, FREMEAUX / FREMAULT, FROMMÉ and FORME are derived from the framea - the spear. 

See also BACKGROUND  and   SURNAME ORIGINS

In Flanders, the earliest-known with a French variant of the Project's eligible surnames was the family Fremaux / Fremault, bourgeoisie (middle class) of Lille. In England, the anglicized form of the hereditary surname first appears in the 14th century. Already by 1700, bearers of the anglicised surnames had spread from the south of England to the north and up into Scotland. 

See also ENGLAND and  SCOTLAND

'FRAME' was the most common variant in Scotland. The FRAME variant was also found in Ireland by the late 16th century.

    EXPLORING POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS

The family Fremault are said to descend from Jehan Fremaux - Frumaus li couronné  (Frumaux the Crowned) - a trouvère (troubadour) estimated to have been born in Lille c.1175:

 'Jean Frumaux said "Frumaux the Crowned" would have been born around 1175 and would have had ties with Guillaume II, lord of Bethune, 1193 -1213 [b. c. 1160?] (according to FREMAUX, Histoire genealogique de la Famille Fremault, Lille, 1908, page 4.')

  [Feuchère, La bourgeoisie lilloise au moyen âge. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 4e année, N. 4, 1949. pp. 421-430]

According to this chart of the Chatelains de Lille, Fresnes-sur-Escaut (cited for illustration purposes only, and with appreciation to Etienne Pattou), Jean Ist de Fresnes châtelain de Lille cited in Acts 1177, 1185 and 1200, married Mahaut (Mathilde) de Béthune, dame de Blaringhem, the daughter of a Guillaume de Béthune. Guillaume II de Béthune had both a sister and a daughter named Mahaut (Mathilde de Béthune. The brother of Guillaume II de Béthune, Conan (aka Quennon, Quenes) a contemporary of Jean 1st de Fresnes châtelain de Lille and Jehan Fremaux of Lille, was also a famous trouvère. It begs the question as to whether Jean Fremaux "Frumaux the Crowned" of Lille and Jean 1st de Fresnes, châtelain de Lille were one and the same.  

'Conan [Quennon, Quenes] de Béthune (b. ca. 1160; d. 17 Dec 1219 or 1220). Trouvère. Was at the French court as a young man. Participated in the Third and Fourth Crusades and in the government of the Latin emperor crowned in Constantinople after its fall in the Fourth Crusade. Poems or their dedications link him with the trouvères Huon d'Oisi, Blondel de Nesle, and Noblet (Guillaume V de Garlande, a friend of Gace Brulé); probably knew the Chastelain de Couci. Of his works 10 poems are extant; most have music in at least one source, although some of the settings are late and clearly not by the poet himself.' 

[Don M. Randel, THE HARVARD BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF MUSIC, p.172] 

'Jean Fremaux seemed to have been tied with Guillaume of Béthune, says the Solicitor of Béthune, brother of the famous Quènes or Cuno [Conan 1st] of Béthune, founder of the house of Sully, both of whom were troubadours and valiant knights of Artois (1). Fremaux submitted courtly questions to the solicitor of Béthune, as one will see by the Envoi of one the pieces that we cite later.' [Arthur Dinaux, LES TROUVÈRES CAMBRÉSIENS: DE LA FLANDRE ET DU TOURNAISIS Vol. 2, pp.279-280]

THE FAMILIES FREMAULT, FREMAUX, FREME ETC.

Less shrouded in mist are those said to descend from Jehan Fremaux:  the family surnamed Fremault in Lille who spread to various regions in the Habsburg Netherlands.   Lille is now part of northern France but in the sixteenth century it was the chief town of one of the seventeen provinces that composed the Habsburg Netherlands. 

Many similar surname variations are found in: 

FLANDERS, BELGIUM – particularly Liège, Namur (Wallonia), Tournai (Hainaut), Hévillers, Brabant, Antwerp.  Variations include: Freimaux, Frémaux, Fremaux, Fremeaux, Frahm, Frama, Fremau, Fremi, Fremie, Friem etc.                                                                          

FRANCE – especially in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, French Flanders:  Fremault , Fremaux ; also De Freme, Freme, Fremy etc

NETHERLANDS -  particularly in Amsterdam:  Fremaux, Fremeaux, Fram, Frame, Framey, Freem, Freeme, Frem, Fremau, Fremme, Fremou, Freummau, Froem, Fromie, Frummau etc.

 Many individuals with variations of these surnames are on record in England, having fled persecution in Flanders.

Whatever the case may be in relation to descendants of Jean Fremaux "Frumaux the Crowned" of Lille, according to Förstemann, Frame / Freme and Fremaux, / Fremault do share the 'framea' surname etymology and this Project is able to determine whether or not these many families share a common ancestry.  

EARLY TRADE BETWEEN FLANDERS AND ENGLAND

 Long before the 16th century influx of refugees, many foreigners were settled in England and carried on mercantile operations with Antwerp, Venice, and various other European states. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Flemish industry was at its height and Lille drapery was sent to nearly every corner of Europe: Italy, England, France, the Iberian peninsula, central and eastern Europe, even the Crusader stronghold of Acre in Palestine. The Lillois were most active selling textiles, dyestuffs, hops, and grain, while buying wine from France and raw wool from England [Robert S. DuPlessis, LILLE AND THE DUTCH REVOLT, 1991].   

King Edward I  [Reign: 1272-1307] granted a charter, or declaration of protection and privileges to foreign merchants and also determined the customs or duties which these merchants were, in return, to pay on merchandise imported and exported.  He promised them protection, allowed them a jury on trials, consisting half of natives and half of foreigners, and appointed them a Justiciary in London. He imposed on them a duty of 2s. on each tun of wine imported, over and above the old duty, and 40 pence on each sack of wool exported, besides half a mark, the old duty. [John Southerden Burn, THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH, WALLOON, DUTCH AND OTHER PROTESTANT REFUGEES SETTLED IN ENGLAND..., 1846, 1].  

It is difficult to imagine the wine-dealing Fremault family not being involved in trade with England at this time. In relation to Lille and the textile industry, DuPlessis goes on to state:

  '...despite a strong market position built up over many generations, Lille shared fully in the sharp contraction that affected most urban textile crafts in Flanders from shortly before 1300.  Competition from weavers in nearby villages, Brabant, and abroad intensified, and the city’s textiles also suffered from the adverse economic and political forces that, as we have seen, were harming trade.  As a result, in the course of the fourteenth century Lille’s broadcloths became hard to find even in places where they had once been plentiful... But Lille’s craft did survive, as weavers there, like their counterparts in many other towns, adapted to the harsher economic climate by supplementing their customary offerings with what are usually referred to as “new drapery.” These cloths imitated fine drapery but were less expensive, largely because they used cheaper wool, some of it English, Scottish, or local, but from the fifteenth century mostly Spanish.’

 The sharp contraction in the textile trade in Lille and elsewhere in Flanders in the late 13th century may explain the appearance of some of the early 'Fremes' across the Channel since this was the same period that Edward III was inviting Flemish weavers to settle in England.  The Freme, Freame, Frame variants of the surname appear in England from at least the early 14th century and many were involved in yeomanry and the cloth industry from a very early date. In England, the major expansion of the variant surnames Freme, Freame, Frame etc. occurred in Gloucestershire (another was in Lanarkshire, Scotland). Rudd states: 

'The wool trade in the Cotswolds went hand in hand with agriculture through the centuries, for the breeding of Cotswold sheep for their valuable fleeces became the chief interest of the farmers, as the export of wool to the Continent was a lucrative business. Whilst spinning and weaving went on in the cottages and farms for home needs, the principle manufacture of woollen goods was in Flanders.  Edward III [Reign: 1327-1377] had prohibited the export of wool and had encouraged Flemish weavers to settle in England in the hope of increasing home manufacture. The prohibition remained in force till Queen Elizabeth removed it, and she encouraged the Flemish Huguenot weavers to come to England after Alva’s persecutions. ' Mary A. Rudd, HISTORICAL RECORDS OF BISLEY, 1937, p.380]. 

The English cloth industry expanded with the help of weavers from Flanders; the trade contributed to the prosperity of both countries.

'Already by 1500... the presence of foreign merchants at Lille, and of Lillois abroad, heralded an upturn that in the course of the sixteenth century was destined to raise the city’s commerce far above any previous level. Urban demographic and industrial growth, fuelled especially by a prolonged textile boom, were important factors in Lille’s commercial progress...The city’s hinterland was also undergoing pronounced expansion. From 1505 to the 1540s the number of hearths in Walloon Flanders grew to nearly 30 percent, and the increase reached almost 60 percent in the northern part of the province where rapidly developing cloth manufacturers were concentrated... Throughout this area and the larger industrialized zone that stretched across western and southern Flanders, northern Artois, and into Hainault, Lille’s merchants often played critical and lucrative roles as intermediaries between rural producers and Antwerp.  ...Besides this intense regional trade, the merchants of sixteenth-century Lille actively engaged in long-distance commerce with nearly every corner of Europe. In exchange for woollen cloth, their main export item, they handled wine, wool and salt from Spain and Portugal; alum (used as mordant in dying), spices, silks, and other luxury goods from Italy; wool and tin from England...

‘The French wine trade nicely illustrates the increasing direct involvement of Lille’s merchants in foreign trade during the sixteenth century. Before that time, Lillois had obtained nearly all of their wine from brokers in Bruges, Rouen, and Paris, or from Frenchmen, Venetians, and Lombards who brought it to Lille... But in the 1520s they began to bypass these middlemen and purchase large quantities directly from the producing regions...From about 1540...Lillois also began to work regularly through La Rochelle. Boats were chartered there to carry wine to the Netherlands’ staple port of Middelburg, where Lille merchants had established representatives. In 1559, for example, Pierre Delesalle (Deledalle) received wine for Jean de Has…in 1564 and 1565 for Georges Fremault…’

[Robert S. DuPlessis, LILLE AND THE DUTCH REVOLT, 1991, pp.52-54]              

Also see:   Dutch Revolt 

 Dr Feuchère's paper, La Bourgeoisie Lilloise au Moyen Âge provides an invaluable insight into the Bourgeoisie in Lille, including the family Fremault. The document (in French) can be viewed here.  The Project is grateful to J. Frame Seabaugh for providing an English translation (following).  

THE BOURGEOISIE OF LILLE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

[Feuchère, La bourgeoisie lilloise au moyen âge. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 4e année, N. 4, 1949. pp. 421- 430.]

With many thanks to J Frame Seabaugh for the English translation.

'The economic evolution of Lille, a castellum founded in 1054 by Baudoin V, and famous for its fairs since the 12th century, was a function of the social trajectory of the families who dominated the city and who established business relations with other urban centers in Flanders, France, and even Europe(421.1).                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Lille exerted a preponderant influence nearly immediately in the County, and its drapery industry was exporting to Genoa and to Spain already in the 13th century(421.2).                                                                                                                                                                                                             

After the disastrous wars of Philip the Fair and annexation into the royal kingdom, the city suffered a temporary eclipse and directed its commerce toward the south, without succeeding, however, in averting the social crisis general to all the Low Countries in the 14th century.

In reestablishing territorial unity, the dukes of Burgundy facilitated the economic recovery; everyone knew the preference of Philip the Fair for his “good city” of Lille. The industrial decline of Flemish and Walloon metropolises brought about economic modifications that raised Lille commerce to the highest level; if the Thisois cities of Gand, Bruges, and Ypres held on, the Roman cities of Arras, Douai, and Valenciennes did not cease to deteriorate after 1450; the wars of Louis XI ruined Arras and Douai definitively; Lille profited from this state of affairs and developed the sayetterie industry with success. These events were not without influence on the life of men who had the future of commerce in their hands; these men were the patricians, and these patricians constituted the soul of the city.The “first Lille patriciate,” before 1500, should be distinguished from a second patriciate, that of the 16th century, whose social evolution and economic destinies followed an absolutely different trajectory.     

The Lille bourgeoisie contemporary with Spanish domination specialized in “big business”; that was the period of the “first companies” (421.3), of the banks that were in Cologne (421.4), Frankfort,

            421.1 See especially: H. LAURENT, Un grand commerce d’exportation au moyen âge: la draperie flamande en France et dans les Pays Méditerranéens, Paris, 1935. [A large export  business in the Middle Ages: Flemish drapery in France and in the Mediterranean countries]

            421.2 R. DOEHAERD Les relations commerciales entre Gênes, la Belgique et l’Ouitremont, Brussels, 1941 [Trade between Genoa, Belgium, and the Ultramont]; -- ESPINAS, La draperie dans la Flandre française au moyen âge, Paris, 1923 [Drapery in French Flanders in the Middle Ages].

            421.3 The companies of Lille were exceedingly numerous beginning in 1550: One notes : Gaspard Coene and his Merchant Society, 15 April 1554 in Bruges (FREMAUX,“Histoire généalogique de la Famille de Fourmestraux,” [“Genealogical history of the Fourmestraux family”], Bulletin de la Société d’Études de la Province de Cambrai [Bulletin of the Society of Research of the Province of Cambrai] X, p. 268); --Philippe Machelior, Nicolas Mathieu and Company, 1560; --Jean Mathieu, Nicolas Mathieu, Jacques Levasseur and Company in 1563; Brother Fasse and Company in 1560; --Brother Poulle, Jacques Fasse, Hugues Fasse, Robert Van Wiele and Company in 1569; --The Company Jan and Alex Gobeau in 1569—and 9 December 1590; Jacques Fasse and Company, Jean Bertault called from Holland and Company, Robert de Fourmestraux and Company (COORNAERT, “Le Commerce à Lille par Anvers, au XVIe siècle,” [“Commerce in Lille via Antwerp in the 16h century”], Revue du Nord [Review of the North], XXIX, no. 116, p. 249, FREMAUX, art. cité, p. 210).

            421.4 The firm “Robert de Fourmestraux and Company” was represented in Cologne in 1587 by Guillaume et Toussaint de Fourmestraux, brother and son of Robert (FREMAUX: art. cit., p. 205, 211). Gaspard de Fourmestraux lived in Cologne on September 12, 1588 (Ibid., p. 269) ; Alard de Lannoy had been established in Cologne, where his two sons Paul and Pierre came into the world at the end of the 16th century (DENIS DU PÉAGE, Généalogies lilloises [Genealogies of Lille], p. 89). It was in Cologne that the wife of Paul de Lannoy, Éléanore de Fourmestraux, died in 1624 (FREMAUX, art. cit. p. 264).

Anvers (422.1), and as far as Milan (422.2), of the preponderance of the Fourmestraux (422.3), Fasce (422.4), Thieffries (422.5), soon followed by the Petitpas (422.6), Castelain (422.7), Diedeman (422.8), and Lespagnol (422.9). None of these families played an important role in the Middle Ages; there were other names that appeared previously; there was a veritable hiatus between the first Lille patriciate and what could be called the second patriciate; these two successive layers of the upper bourgeoisie differed in their provenance, their social activity and their business evolution; the social, political, and military events had a marked repercussion on the life of men, and we could never compare a patrician of the 13th century with an upper bourgeois of the 16th.                               

Even though it is not possible to establish clear divisions here, as it would be in institutional or military history, the medieval patriciate of Lille can be divided schematically into three groups, corresponding to three successive periods—a period of gestation in the 13th century, a period of transition in the 14th, and a period of apogee in the 15th. In each of these stages a new group arose and grafted itself onto the previous lineages (422.10). 

In 1290 (422.11), some ten families were in place at the head of business and of municipal administration; we cite the Vreté, whose ancestor had been already a rewart in 1240, the Magret, the Le Neveu, the Le Grand, the Le Borgne, the Le Playet, the Destailleurs and also three or four lineages that were going to teem in the 16th century, the Warenghien, the Pontrewart, the Artus, the Gomer and above all the Hangouwart--the “master” family of Lille that one could follow up to

            422.1 François Le Pippre, a bourgeois of Lille, had been a merchant in Frankfort when he was allowed into [recréanter dans] the bourgeoisie of Lille on May 12, 1585 (Archives municipals de Lille [Municipal Archives of Lille] Registry into the Bourgeois, the year 1585).

            422.2 See, on those from Lille in Antwerp in the 16th century, the previously cited article by M. E. COORNAERT, who gives a long list of merchants from Lille established in Antwerp.

            422.2 Jacques Fasse maintained a bank [comptoir] in Milan at the end of the 16th century; his son Etienne died there in 1650 (according to a communication from Mr. Paul Denis du Péage).

            422.3 Cf. Bulletin de la Société d’Études de la Province de Cambrai [Bulletin of the Society of Research of the Province of Cambrai] (tome X, p. 193-301), and DENIS DU PÉAGE, Généalogies lilloises [Genealogies of Lille], p. 244-281.

            422.4 Cf. DENIS DU PÉAGE, o. c., p. 51-56.

            422.5 Cf. DENIS DU PÉAGE, Mélanges généalogiques [Genealogical minglings], p.333-50

            422.6 DENIS DU PÉAGE, Généalogies lilloises [Genealogies of Lille], p. 558-582

            422.7 Ibid., p. 910-940

            422.8 DENIS DU PÉAGE, Mélanges généalogiques [Genealogical minglings], p. 32- 41.

            422.9 DENIS DU PÉAGE, Généalogies lilloises [Genealogies of Lille], p. 122-126.

            422.10 At the end of the 13th century one finds marriages between representatives of the first tier of the patriciate and the newcomers: the tavern-keeper Hubert Kanard slipped into the bourgeoisie by marrying Sybille Fourligniet, daughter of Antoine, drapery merchant; they were cited as married in 1286 (Bibliothèque municipale de Lille [Municipal library of Lille], Ms 601, year 1286); Baude de Tenremonde, the first of the family to be a bourgeois, from 1270, married his daughter to Alard (III) Vrété, whose grandfather had been rewart in 1240.

            422.11 The first mentions, given by the Registers into the Bourgeois, date from 1292, but the first échevinal lists, known by the Ms 601 of the Bibliothèque municipale de Lille [municipal library of Lille], go back to 1281.

the 20th century (423.1). These lineages represented the patriciate of the 13th century, an epoch of big business where Lille drapery already had European renown.The sources that would permit us to elucidate their social behavior are clearly insufficient (423.2). I intend to return later to this question.

In the course of the 14th century, new names appeared; families still in the shadow in the preceding epoch attained notoriety in very little time, fifty years at most, and raised themselves to the level of the oldest families to quickly surpass them: the Canard, the Tenremonde, the Fremault, the Le Prudhomme the  Le Prévost, the Denis, the Viart, the Thieulaine (423.3) are the chief elements of this second group.                                                                                     

It is precisely these families that will dominate in the 15th century, an epoch where a third group, more recent, joined itself is them and quickly attained notoriety: I mean the Markant, the Escobecque, and le Cambe (423.4). We will meet with these same names again, during the three last centuries of the Middle Ages--some with increasing frequency, according to the personal worth of the men; this bourgeois oligarchy--I would dare to say this plutocracy--constituted the “first patriciate of Lille.”                                                                                                                                                                                     

In a study that I published (423.5) concerning a “special levy in Lille in 1302,” one can get a life portrait of the economic activity of nearly twenty-five bourgeois lineages: the Pontrowart were linen dealers;

            423.1 Alard Vreté was rewart of the Friendship [l’Amitié] in 1242-1242 (cf. HAUTCOEUR, Cartulaire de la Collégiale Saint-Pierre de Lille [Cartulary of the St. Peter Collegiate Church of Lille], p. 281. “Maria dicta Magrete, oppidana Insulensis, elicta, quondam Johannis Dicti Magret, clerici” appeared May 12, 1256 (IDEM, p. 363).

            423.2 The first known documented bourgeois of Lille was a certain Henri Floket, cited in 1223 (Arch. Hospi. VI, B2). –The oldest échevinal list was given in the Cartulary of St. Peter, on the date of March 27, 1243, for the year 1241-42, one sees there “Baudes, rewars del amisté de Lille, eskevin: Alard Vreté, adont rewars; Grars de la Porte, provos; Robert Grans, Jehan del Pont, Jehan del Castiel, Bltremieu del Mur, adont eskevins” [this quotation is from old French, retained here] (o. c. p. 281). –On March 12, 1256, “Johannes de Velleghem, cambarius” was a brewer (Id., p. 363).

            423.3 Baude Canard, échevin and bourgeois of Lille cited in 1270 (HAUTCOEUR, o. c. p. 437) was subject to the tax [maltôte] of Wine (Account of Baude the One-Eyed, the  oldest account of the city of Lille, Arch. Dép. Du Nord, B 7580). Baude le Tenremonde was a bourgeois of Lille in 1272 (FREMAUX, Historie généalogique de la Famille Tenremonde, Souvenirs de la Flandre wallonne [Genealogical history of the Tenremonde Family,Memoirs of Walloon Flanders], 1st series, t. X, p. 45 and following). –Huon Fremault was a bourgeois of Lille in 1270 (FREMAUX, o. c., p. 4). –Jean le Prevost, spouse of Alis Vreté, died at the end of the 13th century, his son Alars le Prud’Homme (the first) became hereditary mayor of Ascq; a Henri le Prud’Homme died on May 20, 1318 (Épigraphie du Nord [Epigraphy of the North], II, p. 426); this family fashioned itself as the issue of the knightly house of Fiennes; domestic mythology. –Jacques le Prévost, bourgeois of Lille, spouse of Marie Picquette, of Douai, was the first authentic person of rank in this family, and lived at the end of the 13th century. This family pushed the height of its pretensions by connecting itself with Wulfrand, lord of Basserode, in the year 1000, a person of legend. – One finds no Viart in Lille before 1229. –The Thieulaine appeared with Pierre and Grars Thieulaine in 1290 (Municipal Library of Lille, Ms 601).

            423.4 Families with the name Markant were at least three in number in Lille in the 14th century. The family of the de le Cambe called “Gantois” was originally from Gand; Jean de le Cambe, the famous Gantois, merchant of alabaster, did not become a bourgeois of Lille until October 29, 1437, thanks to the influence of his father-in-law Jean Hersent. A true self-made man, he died in 1496 without having obtained nobility, which he appears even to have refused.

            423.5 Bulletin de la Société d’Études de la Province de Cambrai [Bulletin of the Society of Research of the Province of Cambrai], XLII, 3rd fasc., 1947, p. 130-134: DE FEUCHÈRE, “An special levy in Lille in 1302.”

the Warenghien, the Gomer, the Hangouwart moved in the exchange, in banking; the Le Neveu worked in the drapery business; the Vreté had been dominant in the municipal government for a century (424.1). But before studying the typical social trajectory of this patriciate, it is necessary to evaluate the role that the urban constitution in Lille could have played, the famous law of “Lille Friendship” (424.2). Croquet and Saint-Leger have clearly demonstrated the democratic tendencies of this institution. In Lille, every bougeois, whatever their rank, fortune, business activity, or the antiquity of their lineage, could accede to public office; the artisan and the small shopkeeper were equal with the big merchant, the self-made and rich businessman. From an institutional point of view, one does not find in Lille the municipal oligarchy that dominated Arras, Douai, Valenciennes and Gand. In principle this is socialist before the letter of socialism, but how many times was it transgressed by the facts: the most honorific offices became crystallized in the richest patrician families, and the inferior functions of “voir-jurés,” of “garde-orphènes” and of “apaisseurs” seemed most often reserved for the petty bourgeois, when they did not come to serve as a place of retirement for aged patricians. There were a few notable exceptions, but these were more and more rare in the Burgundian period. The fact of acceding to the premier municipal offices sufficed often for the newcomer to penetrate into the dominant class: this class periodically renewed itself.                                                 

Is it possible to trace the typical trajectory of these families? Despite an evolution that differed depending on the origin and the epoch under consideration, each one of them followed a parallel course; in practice every attempt at schematization seems difficult: in 1300, the Vreté and the Pontrowart were at the head of the patriciate, while the Canard still ran a vulgar tavern (424.3), and the Fremault began to make their fortune in wines (424.4). In 1400, one hundred years later, it was the Canard and the Fremault who held the high place in society with the Tenremonde (424.5), but the Vreté and the Pontrowart were          

            424.1 The account of Baudes the One-Eyed of 1301-02 (Arch. Dép. du Nord, B 7580) is the oldest document that gives details on the professions conducted in Lille; one sees there, among others, linen brokers Jacques le Neveu, Pierre du Bos and Baude Patin; drapery merchants Jean du Castel, Jehan le Playet; “mayor of the high pole[?]” Guillaume Pontrewart; horse merchants Pierre le Caucheteur and Robiert Hierlant; a “wède” (madder) merchant Pierre de la Halle; a butcher (machelier) Grart Gargate. a freshwater fish merchant Jean Willart; a sea fish merchant Jake Padoul; two brewers (gondaliers) Gilbert le Cambier and Bernard du Barisel; two peddlers of small wares Jakemon de la Ruelle and Jakèmes le Merchier; two bakers Willame Batteman and Ferrant le Merchier; a hose merchant Jehan le Caucheteux; two wood merchants Jean Ozame and Pierre Blocquel; a leather merchant Baude de Markette; a contractor Jehan de Thumesnil; a major dealer in wines Pierre Destailleurs; tavern-keepers Nicolon and Baude Denis, Baude Kanard, Lambert Thieulaine, and Jehan Sourre; a dyer, aptly named Philippe the Dyer (Taintenier); and two major grain brokers who sold grain directly to the king, Jean de Waenghien and Baude le Prévost.

            424.2 On the law of the Friendship of Lille (also called “Letters of 1235”) see especially: CROQUET, Histoire de Lille [History of Lille], I, La Constitution urbaine [The city constitution], p. 63 and following, Lille, 1935.

            424.3 Baude Kanard was subjected to the little tax on wine in 1301-02 (Nord, B 7580).

            424.4 Christophe Fremault was “tax farmer of wine” (fermier de l’assize du vin) in 1320 (Arch. Mun. Compte de 1320).

            424.5 Lotard Fremault (III) (1360-1440), wine-merchant, échevin and mayor (mayeur) from 1384 to 1440, was the richest and “highest bourgeois” of Lille under Jean the Fearless and Philippe the Good. His son Lotard (IV), money changer (changeur) and lord (seigneur) of Flers en Escrebiey, one of the large seigneuries of the chateau of Lens, was  granted nobility in 1426 (FREMAUX, Histoire de la famille Fremault [History of the Fremault family], p. 55-56, pr. no. IV; his grandson Philippe Fremault was a knight. –Jean Kanard, échevin and mayor (mayeur) from 1397 to 1421, carried a coat of arms with an anchored cross, he was a noble and a lord (seigneur) of Grimaretz. –The money-changer Guillaume de Tenremonde (II) was granted nobility in 1391 (Arch. Nat. JJ, 140, no. 85).

holding on with difficulty (425.1). Despite these variations in type, it is necessary to reunite all these families in the same class, the Lille patriciate, because their social trajectory follows an identical path, each of them remaining for a variable length of time at the same level, but all passing by turns through the same stages:

1. In origin, the land. The middle-class families came most often from the country: in 1230, the ancestor of the Le Borgne was a peasant from the area of Armentières (425.2). In 1250, a certain Siger Canard was cultivating the land in Sequedin (425.3). If this rural origin is the more usual, there are some notable exceptions: the ancestor of the Fremault was a minstrel [troubadour] from the beginning of the 13th century (425.4), while that of the Baufremetz was a vassal of the Wavrin, thus a member of aristocratic feudal society (425.5). The adventure began for the small peasant when he came to the city: he established himself there in a modest way to begin with; he ran a shop or was a simple artisan, he took part in this popular mass that one calls in Italy the minuto populo; he was not yet bourgeois; he made money to obtain bourgeois status; up until 1320 it did not seem, according to the study of the registries of the bourgeois in municipal archives, that this dignity (for the bourgeois was a title) to have been accorded very often. The small merchant was not yet mature enough to attain it; he contented himself with amassing a small fortune; it was his son, in general, sometimes his grandson, who could finally take his place in the official body of the city (425.6). Peasant, shopowner, burgher, these were the first stages.                                                                                                     

2. The descendant of the peasant was installed in the Lille bougeoisie;         

           425.1 The Vreté family no longer played, in the 14th century, the foreground role that it had played in the 13th; one still finds a Jean Vreté as rewart in 1350, but the majority of the numerous members of this lineage contented themselves with échevin offices. –The Pontrohart were the highest bourgeois in Lille in 1300; in 1301, Willaume de Pontrewart was the most taxed; he paid 700 livres (Nord, B 7580). They occupied only a secondary place in 1400.

          425.2 This, at least, was what resulted from the act of April 24, 1249, by which “Jehan the One-Eyed the Clerk” (Jehan le Borgne le Clerc) bought 6 bonniers of land in  Comines from a Knight Baudouin de la Wastine (HAUTCOEUR, Cartulaire de l’église collégiale Saint-Pierre de Lille [Cartulary of the St. Peter collegial church of Lille], p. 322, Lille-Paris, 1894.

           425.3 Roger and Siger Kanard were agriculturalists in Sequedin (HAUTCOEUR, Documents liturgiques et nécrologiques de l’église collégiale Saint-Pierre de Lille [Liturgical and obituary documents of the St. Peter Collegial Church of Lille], Lille, 1895, p. 196 and 234).

            425.4 Jean Frumaux known as "Frumaux the Crowned" would have been born around 1175 and would have had ties with Guillaume II, lord of Bethune, 1193-1213 (according to FREMAUX, Histoire genealogique de la Famille Fremault [History of the Fremault Family], Lille, 1908, page 4).

            425.5 The first of the Bauffremez was a certain Lambertus de Balfromeis, Vassal of Hellin the First of Wavrin, recorded in 1174 (Nord, 27 H 16, p. 216). Many Bauffremez were bourgeois in Lille in the 13th and 14th centuries, and one of them sold draperies in 1300 (on this family, simultaneously bourgeois and knightly, see my study to appear in the Bulletin de la Société d’Études de la Province de Cambrai [Bulletin of the Society of Research of the Province of Cambrai]. “A patrician family of Lille, vassal of the chateau of Lens: les Bauffremetz.”)

            425.6 For the Kanard, for example, Baude Kanard was a bourgeois of Lille in 1270, but his ancestors cultivated the land in 1230.

he managed a lucrative business and his fortune caused him to rise higher: Quo non ascendam? [trans—To what heights can I not rise?]--that was already his motto. His immediate goal would be the administration of public affairs. If he did not attain to this honor himself, he son would reach it. This ascent to power was progressive; one would content oneself at first with subaltern posts—“voir-jurés,” “apaiseurs,” “garde-orphènes” and then, more rapidly with some, more tardily with others, one became an “échevin,” one of the twelve municipal councilors of the age. In the 13th century, the Vreté and the Pontrowart were already in place with the Les Grand, who would disappear very quickly, the Le Borgne, the Warenghien, and the Hangouwart (426.1). These families soon monopolized the offices of rewart and of mayor of the échevins (426.2). In the 14th century these high functions were shared among a dozen families at most, among which the Le Neveu were more able to get themselves installed (426.3). One example will show us an accelerated evolution, that of the family Tenremonde : Jean was provost of Lille in 1337, his four sons were échevins thirty-five years later, and one of them, Guillaume, became rewart in 1388, and mayor in 1392 (426.4). The accession to municipal offices constituted the second stage: through the échevin posts the family penetrated into the merchant aristocracy of the businessmen of the city.                                                                                                                                                                                                       

3. Beginning in the 14th century, the bourgoisie made a new step forward. The échevinage no longer sufficed for the bourgeois: the patrician desired honors and his fortune now permitted him sumptuous expenditures. The costly Roi de l'Epinette (426.5) became the attribute of the young sons of the bourgeois. Through their victories in tournaments they became conscious of their worth and played equally with the sons of knights and of local seigneurs. Thus is this new evolution explained: the search for landed fiefs. Capital, which up until now had been invested in business, was mobilized for the purchase of lands, and the acquisition of these became the major business of the bougeoisie of the 14th century (426.6). The epoch was favorable: the nobility had decreased in number; in order to retain their status they had to sell a portion and sometimes the totality of their domains. This fact was not new, it had already taken place at the time of the Crusades on a smaller scale and it was the Church that had profited from it (426.7). This time it would be the bourgeois, hungry for honors,           

            426.1 According to the first échevinal lists, the first known rewarts were Alard Vreté in 1241 and in 1249, Jehan de la Pilaterie in 1281 (cf. HAUTCOEUR, Cart. de l’église collégiale Saint-Pierre de Lille, p. 281, 318, 491).

            426.2 1301: mayor (mayeur), Jakes de Pontrewart; --1305: mayor, Jakes de le Ruelle; --1297: mayor, Alars Vreté, senior; --1317: mayor, Pierre Vreté; --1299: mayor, Jehan le Neveu: --1344: rewart, Alard de Bapaume; mayor, Alars le Prud’homme: --1350: mayor, Pierre de la Barre; rewart, Jean Vreté; --1364: rewart, Jehan Artus; mayor, Jakes Denis; -- 1390: rewart, Jean Fremault; mayor, Jacques Gomer. (According to the accounts of the Arch. Mun. [municipal archives] of Lille).

            426.3 On this family, see my article to appear in the Bulletin de la Commission historique du Nord [Bulletin of the Historical Commission of the North].

            426.4 Cf. A. DE TERNAS, Généalogies de la Flandre Wallonne [Genealogies of Walloon Flanders], VII, Famille de Tenremonde, Souvenirs de la Flandre wallonne, tome X, p.45 and following.

            426.5 The list of the kings of the Spruce is inexact for the years prior to 1316 and filled with interpolations for the first two thirds of the 14th century.

            426.6 Before the 14th century, one saw already the le Neveu and le Grand [families] in possession of the seigneurie of Lambersart in 1280 and 1284. (LEURIDAN, Statistique Féodale du Département du Nord, V. Les Weppes, p. 123, Lille 1897.)

            426.7 The donations of land, fiefs, and even seigneuries in the 12th and in the beginning of the 13th century, on behalf of abbeys, were very frequent in Flanders as in Artois; it suffices to cite the transfer by Baudoin (IV) of Aubigny of his lands in Oisy, Anhiers and the Lake in Isbergue, to the Priory of Aubigny, to the chapter of Notre-Dame of Arras, or of the priory of Saint Andrew-les-Aire, a few years before his departure for the 4th Crusade (1196, P. de C., Cartulaire d’Aubigny; 1201, Nord, B 1478; 1202: GALAMETZ, Le Prieuré de Saint-André-les-Aire [The Priory of Saint Andrew-les-Aire], p. 42).

who would buy the lands of the ruined nobleman or would seek out alliances with the nobility. One would consent to an improper marriage in order to restore the fortunes of his house [lit: to regild his coat of arms] (427.1; the two classes would find it profitable: the noble, a restoration of prestige by fortune; the patrician, the possession of landed fiefs that placed them on an equal footing among the vassals of the Salle of Lille [Chamber of Lille] or of the Hall of Phalempin (427.2). Beginning in 1350 this development became more widespread: Lotard Canard was seigneur of Grimaret (427.3), the Fremault owned fiefs in Engrin and in Verlinghem from the middle of the 14th century (427.4).  The Warenghien were seigneurs in Fresnes à Loos from 1320 (427.5). Pierre Le Neveu was already seigneur of Lambersart in 1280 (427.6); the Vreté, slow to get started, owned in 1360 the Halle à Marcq and the fief Vreté à Fives (427.7).                      

At the end of the 14th century this tendency was general, and in the 15th all the patricians were enfeoffed by the Salle de Lille [Chamber of Lille]. The acquisition of landed fiefs was the third stage.                                                                                                                                                                        

4. Fortune, échevinage, landed fiefs—three elements that identified the patrician with the noble. [The patrician] now was going to seek to cross the decisive point and acquire the title itself: the last years of the 14th century were favorable for this transformation. The kings and the dukes were short of silver and the ennobling of bourgeois helped matters by filling their empty cash boxes. The patrician was ennobled because of services rendered, the official documents say; Charles VI conferred nobility in 1391            

            427.1 One can cite as a purchase of fiefs in the 14th century, that of the seigneurie of Bercu by Jean Fievet from Simon de Lalaing in 1369 and by Gilles Hanette in 1410 from Otton de Croix; this Gilles Hannette had been married, moreover, to Catherine d’Auberchicourt, of an old knightly family. –Baude the One-Eyed bought at the end of the 13th century the seigneurie of Loom from the knight Hugues de Lomme. (cf. LEURIDAN, o.c.) --By his marriage with Marie, daughter of Hellin de Mortagne, lord (seigneur) of Armentières, Baude Markant became lord (seigneur) of Hébuterne in Houplines in 1303 (cf. Bibl. Mun. de Lille [Municipal Library of Lille], MS 601. –In the 15th century, marriages between patricians and nobility of old stock were more frequent: we cite only that of Jeanne Fremault in 1436 with Guillaume de Rosimbos, lord (seigneur) of Fournes and of Pérenchies and governor of the city of Lille.

            427.2 The list of those enfeoffed in 1470 comprises names of numerous patricians, Pierre le Preud’Homme, Jean Gantois, Beltremieu Hangouwart, Georges Verdière, Martin Denis, Jacques Pruvost, the daughter of Jacques Gomer, Alard de Preud’Homme, Pierre Gomer, Jean Hersent, Jehan Thieulaine, Jean du Bosquiel, the heirs of Jacques Fourligniet, Henri de Tenremonde (Arch. Dép. Nord, B 3776.) Another list from 1475 names Philippe Fremault, Jacques Thieulaine,  Arthur Fremault, Gilbert de Tenremonde, Jacques Regnier, Philippe le Monnoyer, Henri de Tenremonde, Étienne le Preud’homme, the heirs of Robert Artus, Gérard Thieulaine (Id., 3779).

            427.3 The epitaph of Lotard Canard, in 1356, carries the mention: “Chy gist messier Gilles de Grimaretz, Chlr, qui trepassa le VI jour du mois de May, l’an de Grace mil III/C cinquante six. Pries pour l’ame” [“Here lies messier Gilles de Grimaretz, ?Chlr?, who died May 6, 1356. Prayers for his soul.] (Épigraphie du Nord, p. 427).

            427.4 cf. FREMAUX, Histoire généalogique de la famille Fremault [Genealogical history of the Fremault family], p. 16.

            427.5 Cf. Bulletin de la Société d’Études de la province de Cambrai [Bulletin of the Society of Research of the province of Cambrai], V, 68: LIAGRE, “Les seigneurs de Fresnes à Loos” [The lords of Fresnes at Loos].

            427.6 Bull. de la Commission historique du Nord [Bulletin of the historical commission of the North], XI, p. 237 and 245.

            427.7 March 31, 1372: Philippe Vreté, lord (seigneur) of the Heule at Marcq. – March 31, 1372: Jacques Vreté, a bourgeois of Lille, possessed a fief by the name of Vreté at Fives. (Cf. Nord, B 3749.)

upon the famous Guillaume de Tenremonde whose great-grandfather had tilled the land a hundred years earlier (428.1). The Fremault and the Hangouwart obtained the same favor in 15th century (428.2). As for Lotard Canard, in 1353 he already got himself named “Monseigneur of Grimaretz” (428.3).                        

Nobility then knighthood (428.4), the two honors followed one another by some twenty years and then behold, our patrician  were at the top level of the country.The fourth stage, Nobility, followed the attainment of bourgeois status by one century or sometimes two.                                                                       

5. Did the cycle stop? No, ambition was still bigger : the Burgundian period was propitious for these elevations on the social ladder; now one sought out princely offices; the descendant of the merchant of the 14th century, having become noble, disdained business; he lived on his lands and his practical sense oriented itself toward studies; he went to Paris, he studied law, medicine, became a lawyer, a magistrate (428.5). We find in the 15th century the top offices of governance in the hands of the patriciate: Guillaume de Tenreonde, this model of the man who climbs, was a simple échevin in 1370, noble in 1391, mayor in 1392, died in 1412 as lieutenant of the Governor of Walloon Flanders (428.6). The patricians of the 15th century were masters of the Chamber of Accounts, chief treasurers, major treasurers of the duke (like the Thieulaine), lawyers at the Court, advisors, then chamberlains (428.7). Their fortunes grew unceasingly, and the reception of Philip the Good and the princesses of France by Philippe Fremault, who took the titles of seigneurs of Flers in Escrebieux, of Los-les-Lille and of Wasquehal on May 18, 1464, has remained memorable because of its magnificence, its luxury and the enormous sum that it cost: nearly 25 million of our current francs (428.8). Nobility of the Robe, princely offices, constituted the fifth stage of the patriciate, the summit of the trajectory.                        

6. One could predict a sixth stage still more glorious, assimilation in the military nobility. In the armies of Philip the Good and of Charles the Bold one found, fighting in Montiéry and in Nancy or participating in the siege of Liège, the most glorious names of the patriciate,           

            428.1 Guillaume de Tenremonde was ennobled in February of 1391 by letters of King Charles VI (Arch. Nat. JJ. 140, f 85).

            428.2 Lotard (IV) Fremault was ennobled with his children in June of 1426, for a financial consideration, by Philip the Good (Arch. Nat. J. 229, number 29 Picardie). –It was not until October 14, 1555 that Guillaume (III) Hangouwart was ennobled, for a financial consideration (Archives du Nord, B 1621, f 40).

            428.3 “Mgr Gilles, seigneur de Grimaretz” in 1353 (Arch. Hosp. Lille, XIX, B. 1)

            428.4 Among the Fremault, Lotard (IV) was ennobled in 1426 and his son Philippe was a knight (chevalier) in 1446.—Among the Tenremonde, Guillaume (II) was ennobled in 1391 and it was not until 1480 that his great grandson, Antoine, was named a knight (chevalier); in contrast, Barthélemy Hangouwart received his letters of knighthood (chevalerie) on February 26, 1611, eleven years after his cousin Walerand (II) and nearly fifty years after the letters of nobility of his father, Guillaume (III). Cf. FREMAUX, o. c., p. 32; - -DE TERNAS, Souvenirs de la Flandre wallonne [Memories of Walloon Flanders], tome X, p.74; --DENIS DU PÉAGE, Généalogies lilloises [Genealogies of Lille], III, p. 1207, 1209.

            428.5 Corneille Fremault was general procurer [attorney general?] of Flanders in 1502 and 1511 (Arch. départ du Nord, B 4126 and 4127 ). –Daniel Thieulaine was named counselor and general master of money [mint master?] of the duke of Burgundy on June 28, 1438.

            428.6. Cf. DE TERNAS, o.c., p. 57.

            428.7 Gilberte de Tenremonde was cup-bearer for Philip the Good. Philippe Fremault exercised the same functions.

            428.8 Arch. du Nord, B 2054.

the Fremault, the Hangouwart, and the Tenremonde (429.1). After 1500 nothing any longer distinguished the viscounts of Mérignies (Tenremonde) and the counts of Avelin (Hangouwart), nobility of the old stock (429.2); appointed genealogists, of the type of Le Carpentier and Delaunay, falsified origins at will (429.3); one sees the Petitpas fashion themselves as knights from 1096, at the false tournament of Anchin (429.4), the Le Prévost attached themselves to hypothetical lords [castellans] of Basserode of the 11th century, who never existed (429.5). The few families who survived in the 16th century had forgotten their patrician origin. Under Louis XIV the Hangouwart were marquis, the Warenghien counts, the Tenremonde viscounts, the Le Preud’homme marquis of Verguigneul, the Gomer emigrated to the banks of the Loire with the title of counts (429.6). The patriciate was overtaken by nobility, it left room for new merchant families, that of the second patriciate of Lille, that of the Fourmestraux and the Castelain (429.7), which would follow, at an accelerated pace, the same drumbeat toward honors.                                                                                                                                                                                              

The social trajectory of the first patriciate followed, in Lille, a progression that was regular and nearly schematic: small merchants, they obtained bourgeois status; mayors, they assumed leadership of the échevinage; officers of the prince, they acceded to the nobility--in truth, to the knighthood; two hundred, three hundred years at most sufficed to transform the peasant into a business magnate, a major financier, a chief treasurer; a normal phenomenon in our days, this ascension to honorific offices revealed a remarkable faculty for adaptation to their milieu; the échevinage was all-powerful, the patricians secured its administration; the municipal institutions were in decline, they sought the direct service of the prince, made themselves jurists, men of law; at all the stages of the life of the city one found them present; born with the city, they followed it in its development; better, it was they who made this development.                            

The trajectory is continually progressive, with six successive stages: the bourgeoisie, the échevinal offices, the acquisition of landed fiefdoms, the nobility, the offices of the Prince, the naming to the military nobility. Such were the diverse stages of the social life of the medieval Lille patriciate. This development was not particular to Lille; it was nearly identical in Arras, in Gand, in Valenciennes. But it took here a more considerable

            429.1 Philippe Fremault was in the battle of Gavre on July 22 (Arch. mun. de Lille,  Compte de 1453). Gilbert de Tenremonde was at Montlery and was left there for dead (July 16, 1465: c. DE TERNAS, o. c., p. 72-73).

            429.2 The last among the Tenremonde took the title of viscounts; Louis XIV gave the title of marquis of Avelin to Barthélemy-François Hangouwart, in June of 1703 (DENIS DU PÉAGE, o.c., III, p. 1225).

            429.3 The genealogical manuscripts of the Library of Lille are all false; they are all the work of Delaunay.

            429.4 Mr. Denis du Péage affirms that Gilles Petitpas, native of Lomme, was the first of his family to attain to the bourgeoisie of Lille in 1377 (DENIS DU PÉAGE, Généalogies Lilloises [Genealogies of Lille], III, p. 558); one finds, as a matter of fact, from 1290, another Gilles Petitpas, who was domiciled in Lomme and who did not hold the rank of Bourgeois of Lille (Bibl. Mun. de Lille [Municipal Library of Lille], Ms 601).

            429.5 Domestic mythology propagated by HERCKENRODE, Nobiliaire des Pay-Bas [Nobiliary of the Low Countries].

            429.6 Antoine-Joseph le Preud’homme d’Haillies, who died in 1739, was the first who took the title of marquis of Werquigneul; Louis, count of Gomer, lord (seigneur) of  Quevauvilliers, who lived in the 17th century, was the common ancestor of the counts of Gomer, installed in the 18th century in Picardie.

            429.7 See the Bull. de la Soc. D’Études de la Province de Cambrai, t. X, p. 258. – DENIS DU PÉAGE, Gen. lill., III, p. 919.

breadth, because it repeated itself for one good dozen lineages: in Arras, for example, the patrician dynasties of the Louchard, the Crespin, or the Lanstier began their ascension two centuries earlier; they pressed on, and in 1300, at the moment when the first families of Lille were scarcely at the third stage, they were already at the fifth, and would disappear before 1400 without ever having been named to the feudal nobility. Thus the famous Louchard, the bankers of the Kings of France, never raised themselves as high as the Hangouwart or the Tenremonde, who did not, however, attain their notoriety. One understands the efforts made by the descendants of the Lille patricians to mask their bourgeois origin at the moment when the nobility constituted the summit of honors. And yet, for the historian, these parvenus had no reason to blush about their origin, their climb was an example of perseverance, of courage and of will. Certainly luck played a role; for, in this race, how many could not follow the peloton and were abandoned en route!; the Fourligniet, the Destailleurs, the Magret had never been very far away (2), the Le Neveu (3), the Artus (4), the Vreté were stopped midway and never acceded to the nobility. Only a dozen families survived and could attain the fifth and sixth stages (6), but in this marvelous history the victors make the vanquished forgotten.

One wonders what became of primitive trade in this ascension to glory; it gave place, from the fourth stage on, to careers termed liberal, but we should not forget that it was the Exchange that made the fortune of the Hangouwart and the Tenremonde, drapery that of the Le Neveu and the Pontrewart, wine that of the Fremault.

The whole evolution of the bourgeois lineages that constituted the first patriciate of Lille was a function of their original conditions; the aptitudes for wealth-building in the first centuries of the social trajectory explain the variations of type in the behavior of the families; but commerce, by the openings that it could offer, itself directed the further development and all the evolutionary stages.

            430.1 LESTOCQUOY, Les Dynasties bourgeoises d’Arras du XIe au XVe siècle [The bourgeois dynasties of Arras from the 11th to the 15th century], Arras, 1945.

            430.2 The Fourligniet, who still occupied important positions in the échevinage in  the 15th century (Jean, counselor pensioner of the city of Lille in 1446), disappeared in the middle of the 15th century; the Destailleurs acquired a large fief in Englos in the 16th century, and the last heiress married Antoine de Berlettes, from a knightly family of Artois; as for the Magret, they no longer are encountered after the middle of the 14th century.

            430.3 The last Le Neveu were cited at the end of the 16th century; they no longer occupied anything but a lower rank.

            430.4 The Artus, who still played a major role in the 16th century--with Jacques, counselor of Charles Quint and general director of the artillery, dead before 1556 (Arch. Du Nord, B 1826)--disappeared shortly afterward, leaving relatives whose social trajectory remained much lower; they attained the fifth stage, but they did not have time to hoist themselves to the sixth.

            430.5 Despite a multitude of branches, the Vreté, who numbered about sixty at the end of the 14th century, would disappear after 1480 without having attained nobility.

            430.6 C'

[Feuchère, La bourgeoisie lilloise au moyen âge. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 4e année, N. 4, 1949. pp. 421- 430.]

The Protestant Reformation in Europe in the 16th century saw many families flee persecution in Flanders and France and seek refuge in England. The Reformation was the schism within western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants and was sparked by the 1517 posting of Luther's Ninety-Five Theses. The efforts of these reformers, who protested against the doctrines, rituals, leadership and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church led to the creation of new national Protestant churches.  The harrowing wars of religion and the hideous persecution and executions that followed (e.g. in 1529, Charles V decreed that heretics who repented should be beheaded not burnt; women, as a 'humane gesture', were simply to be buried alive...) are well-documented and will only be briefly mentioned here. Suffice it to say that during the 1530s when the young theologian Calvin underwent a religious conversion that convinced him he was under God's orders to proclaim the truth - he gained many followers.

'The new religion spread “in the wake of capitalism.”  Its novelty and radicalism appealed to parvenu businessmen who had few links to traditional values, whereas to workers it promised both a better life in the future and desperately needed charity in the present. The new faith channelled elite and popular protest into a massive assault simultaneously on the orthodox church, established government, and traditional social order.   Thanks to superb organization and disciplined leaders with an unswerving commitment to radical political and religious change, Calvinism provided both the ideology and the resources necessary for revolution...'

'Possibly as early as 1539, a new group of dissenters appeared that was quickly and perhaps from the beginning influenced by Lillois and missionaries with direct links to Bucer and Calvin.  It may, in fact, have been the first group with this orientation in the Low Countries. Valerand Poullain, a former priest of Lille who had emigrated to Strasbourg, was particularly important to its development. He sent copies of Calvin’s works to his native city and was responsible for the dispatch of Pierre Brully, a minister of the French church in Strasburg, to preach in and around Lille, Tournai, Valenciennes, Douai and Arras during the autumn of 1544.'

'Our first solid information of the group dates from that time, when Brully’s capture in Tournai set off a flurry of heresy hunting. Several leading citizens of Lille were implicated, including Jean Fremault, a member of an important political and merchant family who was himself just beginning a career in the Magistrat*, and Eustache du Quenoy, a prominent physician as well as alderman (1540), huithomme (1541), and councillor (1543, 1544). At least half a dozen other Lillois were also prosecuted.' [* 'Under the civil law systems of European countries such as Italy, Belgium and France, "magistrat" (French) or "magistrato" (Italian) is a generic term which comprises both prosecutors and judges (distinguished as 'standing' versus 'sitting' magistrature). It should be noted that the legal systems of these countries are not identical, and thus show some relevant differences in the judiciary organization.']

'Despite appeals from both the regent Mary of Hungary and Charles V himself, urging that all the accused be treated with the utmost severity, the aldermen’s repressive efforts were socially selective. Du Quenoy was able to flee to Heidelberg, and Fremault and two other men to Antwerp, where in later years they became well-known merchants.’

‘…it is clear that allegiance to the traditional faith continued to run deep among many Lillois. This adherence can be seen in the unceasing popularity of devotions and practices that lent orthodox worship a more dynamic appeal without entailing the renunciation of long-accepted beliefs. It is equally obvious from the constant endowment of chaplaincies, horistes, and anniversary Masses for the repose of the donors’ souls. [131] This loyalty is revealed as well by the large crowds that attended the sermons of the celebrated Dominican Alexandre Fremault or the Jesuit Father Bernard Olivier, who in June 1556 filled the church of St. Etienne to overflowing several times.’

[Robert S DuPlessis, LILLE AND THE DUTCH REVOLT, 1991, pp.10-11, 174, 194].  

In the Netherlands*, the new ideas spread from the south rather than the east so at first the Walloons in Flanders (French-speaking) and then the Flemish and Dutch Protestants formed Calvinist rather than Lutheran congregations. Persecution was rife throughout the Netherlands and on 10 April 1568, the Protestant rebel Fleurus Fremaut of Wasquehal was hanged in Lille - then a city of about 30,000 residents. [John Peters, A FAMILY FROM FLANDERS, 1985, p.66].      See The Persecuted

Peters (p.32) states that by the middle of the 16th century, there were about 100,000 Proterstants in the Netherlands, mainly in Flanders, Brabant, Hainault and Artois, and by the end of the century there was, officially, none. Those who had refused to conform were dead, in prison, or refugees in foreign lands. The Walloon refugees abroad became naturalised in the countries to which they had fled. 

*Here, the Netherlands means the Seventeen Provinces, which owed allegiance to Philip II of Spain on his accession in 1555 but by the time of his death in 1598 were subdivided into the Seven (United) Provinces of the North and the Ten (Catholic) Provinces of the South. [DuPlessis: 'From west to east and south to north, the provinces were Artois, Cambrai, Hainaut, Namur, Flanders, Walloon or French Flanders, Tournai and the Tournésis, Brabant, Mechelen, Zeeland, Holland, Utrecht, Gelderland, Overijissel, Drenthe, Friesland, and Groningen and the Ommelanden.']

In his paper (above) Dr Feuchère states in n.6 p.430 that Fremault was one of ten families of Lille that succeeded in reaching the peak of social evolution and that they ' were extinct in the 16th century ' however, we know that the surname lived on in the United Kingdom when Fremaux / Fremault families fled to England in the 16th-17th centuries. For example,  there is a marriage record in the Walloon Church at Canterbury, Kent on 27 Dec 1596 for Pierre Fremaut from St Pierre near Calais and Jeanne le Grand from St Etienne near Boulogne. Families surnamed Fremault / Fremaux and variants are also found in the registers of the Walloon churches in both Norwich, Norfolk and Canterbury, Kent. There is absolutely no doubt where they came from. The church records in Norwich show entries in various spellings such as Freumaus, Freumaux, Fremaux, Fremau, Freumau, Framau from as early as 1606. However, others surnamed 'Frame' appeared in the register of St Peter Parmentergate, Norwich from 1562, and Yarmouth from 1587. These 'Frames'  very likely arrived in earlier migrations from Flanders and acquired a simple English form of the surname. Surname variations in early records of other churches in Norfolk were Fremow, Fromow, Frema, Frames, Frem etc.  In Canterbury between 1593 and 1700, the variants Freumaux, Ferumaux, Fremaux, Fremau, Froumy, Froumy and Fromy are found. In other churches in Kent from 1612-1693 the variants are Frome, Faramie, Fromos, Frame, Frems, Frim and Frims. Details of some of these families are mentioned on the ENGLAND page.

Today, many of these surname variations continue to survive in parts of France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Britain and other regions of the world. Again, we do not know whether all bearers of these surnames were genetic cousins, but do we hope some males with these surnames will Y-DNA test with this Project to help resolve this question before more male lines become extinct and the opportunity is lost forever. By utilising Y-DNA testing, we can identify which families surnamed Fremaux, Fremault, Frumow etc are related to one another in the direct male line, and also if they are related to families bearing simple forms of the surname such as Frame.

©  Julie Frame Falk