Book Description

Medieval records give evidence of only two genetically distinct families by the name of Fleming. The progenitor of one of these families was, according to ancient tradition, a Flemish nobleman who lived in Danish occupied Pomerania in the late twelfth century. The factual identity of this "first Fleming" has never been discovered in the primary sources of medieval history. The progenitor of the other of these two Fleming families was-again according to tradition-a Flemish nobleman who came to England with William the Conqueror. In the case of this family, ancient tradition is borne out by ancient documents, which are the sources for the family history that is reviewed in this publication. Erkenbald the Fleming, enumerated in Domesday Book as Erchenbaldus, was in 1086 the tenant of a number of feudal estates in Devonshire and Cornwall. This companion of the Conqueror was almost certainly known to the French-speaking Normans in eleventh-century England as Archambaud le Flemynge. Many of his innumerous descendants are readily identified as such by their surname, including Christopher Fleming, 16th Baron Slane, the young Anglo-Irish army officer who fought at the side of the deposed King James II at the battle of the Boyne in 1691. The information gathered in this publication will be of interest to students of medieval history and prosopography as well as to the thousands of modern-day Flemings who would like to know more about their ancestral family.