Foundations - Vol. 1, No. 1 - Contents & Abstracts
Abstracts: Popes and Pornocrats: Rome in the early middle ages (Lindsay Brook) Rome between the late ninth and the mid-eleventh centuries was in turmoil. Rival families fought for control of the city, successfully fighting off the Saracens encamped close to the city, and then against various interlopers, from Lombardy, Tuscany and Germany. This article tries to use prosopography and genealogy to document the stratagems employed by the Roman aristocracy in this period to gain and retain power, especially through placements of popes. An Appendix shows how brutal and short the lives of many of these medieval popes were. Ideas on the Structure and Methodologies of a Public Medieval Genealogical Database (Part 1) (Joe Edwards) The purpose of this article is to set forth some principles and design specifications by which a public medieval genealogical database could be constructed. This will be reinforced through practical and theoretical examples with explanation and justification. It is hoped that this article will act as a platform from which a wider debate could emerge. The FMG welcomes all correspondence on this subject. This first instalment of the article will deal with more generic database structure. The next instalment will detail the possible presentational formats of a public database and show how it could be effectively administered. Agatha, Mother of St. Margaret: The Slavic versus Salian solutions – a critical overview (William Humphreys) The published evidence is reviewed and critically assessed regarding the ancestry of Agatha, mother of St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland. The debate continues, and although the solution remains in doubt, the author concludes that on balance the evidence is stronger for the Slavic ancestry rather than the Germanic (Salian) one. The Stoughtons of New England: Their alleged Elys-Notebeme ancestry (John Dobson) An interesting descent from Thomas Elys, a late-14th-century M.P. for Sandwich, is claimed for the precursors of the New England Stoughtons in the 1619-21 Visitation of Kent. However, evidence of telescoping in the pedigree invalidates it in the form currently accepted. We attempt to determine how much of the line can be salvaged, and suggest possibilities for further research. Filia Notha or Filia Regis?: Kinship and the Acquiescence of Royal Illegitimate Daughters (c 1090-1440) (Danna Messer) During the Middle Ages some illegitimate daughters were accepted and recognised within the royal circles of England, Scotland and Wales. The purpose of this article is to introduce ideas of why and for what reasons some women were acknowledged and to what extent medieval ideals of kinship contributed in the acquiescence of illegitimate royal daughters. Some rulers recognised the political advantages that their illegitimate daughters offered and used them to extend power throughout the realm by ways of marriage. The Ancestry of Sir Paon de Ruet, father-in-law of Geoffrey Chaucer and of John ‘of Gaunt’ (Lindsay Brook) There is convincing evidence that Sir Paon de Ruet may have been the same person as Sir Gilles de Roet. The article explores the possibility that this Gilles may have been linked to the Lords of Rœulx, who in turn were a younger branch of the Counts of Hainaut. From Caillouet to Kellaway: Research from the Antipodes (Warwick Kellaway) The author provides a brief summary of the approaches and sources he used in researching the medieval origins of his family surname, and its variants. He shows how, by use of secondary sources and microfilms of original documents, it is possible to conduct such research from a base far removed from the historical origins of the name. The following article summarises the results of this research. |