Foundations - Volume 2, Issue 5 - Contents & Abstracts A Reappraisal of the Medieval Ancestry of the Cranmers of Aslacton (Matthew Hovious) Village Cromwells: The Parles Family, 1166-1452 (Michael Andrews-Reading) Letter to the Editor: Illegitimate royal daughters (Keith Moore) Library acquisition: Os Bragançãos (José Soares Machado) Genealogical Flights of Fancy. Old Assumptions, New Sources (M. L. Bierbrier) Abstracts: A Reappraisal of the Medieval Ancestry of the Cranmers of Aslacton (Matthew Hovious) The three Cranmer brothers born in Whatton in the late 1400s derived interesting connections from two descents, one generally acknowledged, one usually overlooked. This study aims to explore both lines, developing the known Aslacton lineage, and documenting and expanding the lineage of the Marshalls and their allied families. It attempts to unify previous publications, in a variety of scattered sources, regarding each family; and to sketch the careers of Cranmer’s ancestors in each lineage, to the extent that they can be determined by surviving records.
Many gentry families flourished for generation after generation, rising up, surviving social and political set-backs, flitting in and out of the periphery of the national stage, only to sink back into deep historical obscurity. One such is the Parles family, landowners in Oxfordshire, Staffordshire and Northamptonshire. Descended from two brothers living in the reign of Henry II, it was the younger branch that achieved prominence – through notoriety, rather than wealth – and who overcame the early loss of their estates to establish themselves afresh before a series of deaths swept away a generation of young heirs, leaving the inheritance to pass out of the family.
This article provides contemporary evidence that Robert Whitney, a scion of the ancient knightly family of Whitney of Whitney, Herefordshire, married firstly Constance Touchet, daughter of James Touchet, 5th Baron Audley. It further argues that Whitney's second and last wife was Elizabeth Vaughan, daughter of Thomas ap Roger Vaughan.
The descendants of Gilbert Fitz Richer were prominent in both Scotland and northern England. These included such notables as Sir Gilbert Hay and Sir John Graham, both signers of the Declaration of Arbroath, as well as Gamelin the controversial thirteenth century bishop of St. Andrews.
Comment on the articles in previous issues by Danna Messer on illegitimate royal daughters.
A great majority of the population of Portuguese and European origin, including several royal houses, descend from the powerful Leonese and Portuguese aristocrats known as the “Bragançãos”. The author introduces this book which covers the story of all known members of this lineage, its several branches, through male line, and some through female line, between the 11th and 13th centuries, with their biographies and genealogical connections, collected for the first time in a single complete study.
The author reviews the scant primary material concerning Queen Helena of Sweden. He discusses the Greek onomastics relating to her name and those of her offspring, and enquires whether anyone knows any primary or near-contemporary sources, particularly around Constantinople or Russia, that would shed light on her antecedents.
Morris Bierbrier was invited to address the Annual General Meeting of the FMG in June 2007, on a relevant topic of his own choosing. In this transcript of his talk, he challenges medieval genealogists to adopt a highly critical stance in evaluating sources, and warns against some common pitfalls.
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