Having always kept a look-out for him in Yorkshire, I recognised William at once in a charter which is among those abstracted in the Report on the Portland MSS.20 This is a confirmation by Roger de Mowbray of a grant to Fountains by "Aldelin de Aldefeld and Ralph his son and his other sons." Among the witnesses are "Ralph son of Aldelin, William his brother," and at the close, "Amelin son of Aldel." Now, if we turn to the carte of 1166, we find, under Yorkshire, that Ralph "filius Aldelin" held half a knight's fee of Roger de Mowbray, and William filius Aldelin one fee of Henry de Lacy. Here we recognise the two brothers mentioned in the charters above.21 The small fief of William "filius Aldelin" himself is entered under Hampshire, where it is described as "terra quam dominus Rex dedit Willelmo filio Aldelin, Marscallo suo, cum Juliana filia Roberti Dorsnelli."

It is through this Juliana that we obtain the copingstone of proof. Her charter granting Little Maplestead, Essex, to the Hospitallers, has for its first witness "Radulfo filio Adelini," who, as we have seen above, was her husband's brother.22 And he is also the first witness to William's confirmation of her gift.23

The parentage and the true name of William fitz Audelin are thus, at length, clearly established.

20 13th Report Hist. MSS., App. ii., p. 4. We are indebted, I believe, to Mr. Maxwell Lyte for these interesting abstracts.

21 The name seems to be preserved in Thorpe-Audlin (vulgo Audling), a township in the W. Riding of Yorkshire, some 4 miles from Pontefract.

22 It seems to be printed only in a footnote to Morant's Essex (i. 282). "Radulfo filio Willelmi domini mei" is a witness, which certainly suggests that William had been married before.

23 See Monasticon. Prof. Tout seems to have been unaware of these charters of William, one of which is dated. Indeed he only says that William "is said to have married" Juliana, giving the carta (1166) as his authority.

Story of the Morres Claim

519

THE MONTMORENCY IMPOSTURE.

MANY a jest has been levelled at the Irish family of

Morres for seeking and obtaining permission from the crown, some eighty years ago, to assume the glorious name of "De Montmorency" in lieu of their own, as having been originally that of their family. They have since borne, as is well-known, not merely the name, but even the arms and the proud device of that illustrious house. Moreover, the introduction of the name Bouchard, borne by the present Lord Mountmorres, proves the determination of the family to persist in their lofty pretensions.

I am not aware whether these pretensions have ever been regularly exposed: they seem to have been thought too fantastic for serious criticism. At the same time, it must be remembered that they have been formally and officially recognised by Sir W. Betham as Deputy Ulster, by the English crown (on the strength of his statement) and by the Chevalier De la Rue, "garde-général des archives du Royaume," on the French side, in 1818. On the other hand, it must not be forgotten that MM. de Montmorency at the time, in spite of the repeated and strenuous appeals of the Morres family, declined to admit their claim to be members of the house of Montmorency.

To the indignant protest of Col. Hervey Morres (styling himself" de Montmorency-Morres ") against this action of the French house, we owe the most complete exposition of

1 See, for instance, the Complete Peerage of G. E. C. sub "Frankfort de Montmorency."

the case on behalf of his family. On it, therefore, my criticisms will be based. Nor will these criticisms be destructive only: they will show that the pedigrees upheld by Col. Morres and his opponents were both alike erroneous, and will establish the real facts, which, it will be found, completely vindicate the accuracy of Giraldus Cambrensis.

The controversy hinged on a well-known personage, "Herveius de Monte Mauricii," as Giraldus terms him. The French house, taking their stand on the historians of their family, insisted that he was the only Montmorency who had gone to Ireland in his time, and that as he had, admittedly, left no legitimate issue, the Morres claim was untenable. The Irish house contended that, on the contrary, others of the family had come over also, and that they were lineally descended from one of Hervey's brothers, but the whole story undoubtedly sprang from the mention of this Hervey-the sole connecting link-and from the curious form in which Giraldus chose to latinise his name.

Now Duchesne, the historian of the house of Montmorency, whose version Desormeaux and Père Anselme did but follow in the main, wrote thus of Hervey :—

Il espousa Elizabeth de Meullent veuve de Gislebert de Claire, Comte de Pembroc en Angleterre et mère de Richard de Claire, surnommé Strongbow, Comte de Pembroke, dompteur de l' Hibernie, duquel à raison de cette alliance un Autheur du temps le qualifie parastre ou beaupère (p. 92).3

But this "Autheur" is Giraldus Cambrensis, on whom Duchesne based his account, and who, we find, does not speak of Hervey as stepfather, but as paternal uncle of Strongbow:—

Herveius de Monte Mauricii, vir quoque fugitivus a facie fortunæ,

Les Montmorency de France et les Montmorency d'Irlande, ou Précis historique des démarches faites à l'occasion de la reprise du nom de ses ancêtres par la branche de Montmorency-marisco-morres. Paris, 1828.

3 Histoire de la maison de Montmorency. Paris, 1624.

The Concocted Pedigree

521

inermis et inops, ex parte Richardi comitis cujus patruus erat, explorator potius quam expugnator advenit (i. 3).

Duchesne's version, therefore, is out of court, although it was repeated by Père Anselme, and even adopted in the Genealogist by so skilled and able a genealogist as Mr. G. W. Watson.*

Col. Hervey Morres went so far as to accuse Duchesne and Desormeaux "d'adulation, d'immoralité, et de mauvaise foi" in giving this account of his great namesake; and he proceeded to substitute a version of his own, severing the hapless man and converting him into two! To make this clear, I must print the essential part of the pedigree as given by him.

The explanation is extremely simple: the whole pedigree is concocted with a view to making the Irish Hervey uncle to Robert Fitz Stephen. This was done to satisfy the supposed requirements of Giraldus, whose words Col. Morres thus triumphantly quoted :

Robertus Stephanides

Inter cæteros Herveius de

4 Vol. x. p. 6.

Montemaurisco ROBERTI PATRUUS, nepoti suo se comitem præbuit (p. 77).

Unfortunately for him, he had gone, not to Giraldus, but to "Stonyhurst de rebus Hibernicis i. 69-70, d'après Giraldus Cambrensis." Stonyhurst had carelessly made Giraldus speak of Hervey as uncle, not to Earl Richard, but to Robert Fitz Stephen, and the pedigree was accordingly constructed to fit this error. When the error is corrected, the pedigree collapses; and the very passage which is quoted to confirm it at once unmasks the concoction.

And now having made it clear that both sides were in error, I shall set forth the true explanation of the words of Giraldus. The clue is given us by those Deeping charters which, oddly enough, Col. Morres duly quoted and appealed to. The first is found in the Monasticon, ii. 601 :

Adeliz, uxor Gilberti filii Ricardi et Gillebertus, et Baldewinus, et Rohaisia pueri Gilberti episcopo Lincolniensi salutem

Hiis testibus, Gilberto filio Gilberti, Galterio, Hervao, Baldwino fratribus ejus et Rohaisia sorore eorum etc., etc.

The next is the confirmation of this grant by Robert Bishop of Lincoln, (ob. 1123) as "donum Adelidæ de Montemoraci" (p. 602). The third is a charter of "Adeliz, mater comitis Gilberti" (p. 603), who is also styled in the Thorney Register "Adelitia de Claromonte." Col. Morres also relied much on a grant to Castleacre by "Adalicia de Claromonte," to which the first witness is "Her. de Montemorentino.” 5 but the relationship of the witness to the grantor is not stated. Hervey de Montmorency is also mentioned in the Bilegh Abbey confirmation charter of Ric. L., but it gives us no information.

We have now, however, sufficient evidence to recover the true genealogy, which is interesting enough.

Blomefield's Norfolk, ix. 5.