Deah Curry indie author
Whispered Tales
End Notes & More
Copyright 2021 Raziel Bearn.
All Rights Reserved.
End Notes
1. The Capetian House of French royalty started by Hugh and Adelaide is one of the largest and oldest dynasties in Europe. Members of this house ruled in France without interruption, when sub branches of the Bourbons and Valois are included, from 987 to 1792, and again from 1814 to 1848. In addition to ruling France, members of the Capetian dynasty have also ruled in other countries, including Hungary, Poland, Spain, Portugal, and a plethora of duchies and principalities. The longevity of the Capetians is also in large part responsible for being able to trace my genealogy back so far in time.
2. Boketon is an old word meaning the buck’s ton or paled-in enclosure. Ton originally meant town. Boketon then indicates a town alongside or with a deer park enclosure. The title of Lord or Lady Boketon, Lucie la Zouche’s proper title, indicates a member of the nobility who owned through inheritance the estate of Boketon that included parks and deer preserves. Over time Boketon became Bucks, then Buckston, and Broughton. Its current name is Boughton. This property is found in the English region of the East Midlands, specifically in the county of Northhamptonshire, which is north and west of London.
3. The Franks were a Germanic people occupying the territory now part of Germany and France who rose to power as the western Roman empire was collapsing. They were originally considered one of the “barbaric kingdoms”, a perspective of the Roman historians of the time. They had a myopic view that Rome represented culture and civilization, as well as spreading the influence of Christianity, while all other peoples were regarded as not as sophisticated, educated, or civilized – hence the appellation barbarian.
The kingdom of the Franks was further divided into several parts during Bathilde’s 7th century era until united as the Holy Roman Empire by Charlemagne was crowned in 800 CE as the first emperor by Pope Leo III since the fall of Rome in 476. The map below shows those barbaric kingdom territories. Charlemagne is my 38th great grandfather.
On the map below look for the light green colored territory labeled as Regno dei Franchi (Latin for kingdom of the Franks). This map depicts general regional and tribal divisions for one of the earliest periods of the early middle ages. You can also see on the map above the light pink area above Regno Dei Franchi label Sassoni, which later in old English is rendered as Saxony.
Above is a map of the so-called Barbarian Kingdoms of what we know now as Europe before their reconquest by Roman emperor Justinian I. Also shown above are the Eastern Roman Empire, and Germanic and Celtic tribes beyond the territories of the Western Roman Empire, prior to the fall of Rome in 395 CE.
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The map below shows how these divisions shifted and changed with the wars and acquisitions over the following centuries. These divisions of the Frankish empire of 481 to 814 are rarely taught in 20th and 21st century world history classes, particularly in the United States.
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Everything enclosed within the red lines on the map below shows the Frankish empire at the end of Charlemagne’s life in 814. It is interesting for several reasons. You can see at the top of the map the region of Saxony, from which some of the Anglo-Saxons migrated to the territory now known as England. A region just north of Saxony was the homeland of the Angles. You can also see that Brittany was not yet part of the Frankish empire.
Neustria where Clovis II reigned is sandwiched between Austrasia and Aquitaine – where Adelaide was born. Brittany is a portion of the mainland that historically had exceptionally close ties with the British Isles. It is also useful to note that Neustria contained what became Normandy, the home of William the Conqueror, and Rollo the Viking, uncle and great grandfather in Raziel’s family tree.
The map of Celtic Gaul, above, depicts how Rome conceptualized this land on the eve of the Gallic wars. It shows the territory from which some say Bathilde hailed, instead of from Britannia. Gaul fell under Roman rule in the 2nd century BCE, then came under rule by the Franks in 486 CE. During Bathilde’s lifetime, the Druids may still have had some influence in Gaul, as the old ways were not as easily usurped as religious history likes us to think. Bathilde’s early education may have been more Celtic than Anglo-Saxon, with some mix of Roman world view as well, since she was living as a time in history when these paradigms were undergoing a transformation.
By the way, BCE stands for before common era, and CE indicates common era. These designations are used by scholars instead of BC and AD to avoid centering a dating schema on a myopically Christian perspective.
4. Clovis II was but 5 or 6 years old when his father Dagobert I died, leaving his son to rule Neustria. Clovis’s mother Nanthild was initially regent and in charge of Clovis’s early education and supervision as king, but she too died when he was only 9. At this point, the mayor of the palace (a kind of chief of staff wielding power in the name of a king), Erchinoald became regent, and it was he who brought Bathilde to the palace. It is surmised that Erchinoald’s intention all along was to be a kind of matchmaker between her and Clovis, who was 7 years her junior. Clovis and Bathilde were married in 648 when he was about 15 and she was about 22.
5. West Francia where Clovis II and Adelaide ruled in the late 10th century was created in 843 to end the Carolingian civil war. See map below. If you are interested in this period of history and how the Frankish Empire became France and Germany, as well as part of Belgium, The Netherlands, and Italy, a quick explanation if found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Verdun .
Essentially, when Charlemagne died, his son Louis the Pious took over as emperor, and soon divided the Frankish empire into three regions, giving each section to one of his sons. My connection to this family is not through the sons, but rather through Louis’ daughter Rotrude who married a count from Aquitaine, and whose 3 times great granddaughter is Adelaide.
The map above labels Saxony as Sachsen, Brittany as Bretagne, East Francia as Ost Franken, and Aquitaine as Aquitanien. These are just their German names.
6. Ebalus Manzer is an interesting historical figure to me, and one who deserves more research. Some details are found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebalus,_Duke_of_Aquitaine
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Ebalus’s last name is actually a slight misspelling of the Hebrew word, mamzer, meaning forbidden. While historians ascribe this to Ebalus’s status as an illegitimate child due to being the son of Ranulf II of Aquitaine and an unknown woman, this meaning is not taken in the Hebrew. Given this, it could be that Ebalus’s mother was Jewish, and relations or marriage between a Jewish woman and member of a Catholic royal or aristocratic house were forbidden. Ranulf is recorded as briefly king of Aquitaine, making an open relationship with a Jewish woman against papal law. This is interesting for the fact that I myself am the product of a forbidden as well as illegitimate affair.
7. Rollo the Viking was the first ruler of Normandy, a position he was given in exchange for agreeing to end his siege on West Francia during the time of Charles III, who was the 2 times great grandson of Charlemagne. In addition to acquiring the duchy of Normandy, Rollo also swore allegiance to Charles, and consented to convert from his native Norse religious practices to the Catholicism of West Francia. Records are scarce regarding Rollo’s exact origins. Speculation is that he was either Norwegian or Danish. The confusion comes from the tendency in that time to equate the terms viking, norsemen or northmen, Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, as all the same thing. Rollo is the 3 times great grandfather of William the Conqueror.
Bloodlines
For the relatives who are curious about where the women herein fall into the family tree, here is a brief run down. We start at Stella Faye Cross (1930–2017) and her maternal grandfather, Olid Melton Nesbitt (1876–1948), and her maternal grandmother Mollie Ann Ponder (1881–1928). Note that documents show the spelling as both Nesbitt and Nesbett, among other variations.
From Olid to his mother Sarah “Sallie” Green (1845-1905), then back through 18 generations of Greens of all spellings until Lucie la Zouche (1279–1326) takes us a new direction.
Ancestry.com has identified the specific Greens from Sallie to Lucie as the following:
Sallie’s father Thomas Jefferson Green,
the first to drop the e at the end of Greene
(Tennessee 1823 – Oklahoma 1902)
Thomas’s father Avery
(Virginia 1798 – Tennessee 1880)
Avery’s father Thomas Turley Greene
(Virginia 1770 – Tennessee 1842)
Thomas’s father Thomas
(Rhode Island 1733 – Rhode Island 1784)
Thomas’s father Thomas
(Rhode Island 1713 - Rhode Island 1769)
Thomas’s father Richard
(Rhode Island 1666 – Rhode Island 1724)
Richard’s father Thomas
brought to the colonies by his father
(Wiltshire England 1628 – Rhode Island 1718)
Thomas’s father Dr. John, first Greene
to emigrate to American colonies
(Dorset England 1597 – Rhode Island 1659)
Dr. John’s father Sir Richard
England 1558 – England 1617)
Sir Richard’s father Richard
(England 1527 – England 1608)
Richard’s father Robert
(England 1495 – England 1558)
Robert’s father John, the first “de” Greene
we meet going back in time
(England 1562 - England1620)
John’s father Sir Thomas
(England 1426 – England 1508)
Thomas’s father Sir John
John is nicknamed The Fugitive
for deserting during the War of the Roses
(England 1408 – England 1486)
John’s father Sir Thomas
purportedly imprisoned in the
Tower of London King Henry VII
(England 1369 – England 1417)
Thomas’s father Sir Thomas
(England 1343 – England 1399)
Thomas’s father Sir Henry
(England 1310 – England 1369)
Sir Henry’s father Sir Thomas
(England 1292 – England 1352)
Sir Henry’s MOTHER Lucie la Zouche
(England 1279 – England 1326)
Lucie’s father Eudo la Zouche
(England 1244 – England 1279)
Eudo’s MOTHER Helen de Quincy
(England 1222 – England 1296)
Helen’s father Roger de Quincy II
Baron of Winchester
(England 1174 – England 1264)
Roger’s MOTHER Margaret de Beaumont
(England 1156 – England 1236)
Margaret’s father Robert III,
Earl of Leicester, imprisoned by
Henry II with wife and children
for insurrection, restored to favor
under Richard I, went on 3rd Crusade,
(England 1130 – Albania or Greece 1190)
Robert’s father Robert II,
Earl of Leicester
(France 1104 – Normandy France 1166)
Robert II’s MOTHER Elizabeth de Vermandois,
Countess of Leicester
(France 1081 - Burgundy France 1131)
Elizabeth’s father Hugh Capet
House of Capet, Count of Vermandois
died from battle wounds with the Turks
on the First Crusade
(Aquitaine France 1057 – Turkey 1102)
Hugh’s MOTHER Anna Yaroslavna
Princess of Kiev
(Ukraine 1032 – France 1075)
Hugh’s father Henri I, Capet,
King of France
(France 1008 – France 1060)
Henri’s father Robert II, Capet,
King of France
(France 972 – France 1031)
Robert’s MOTHER Adelaide d’Aquitaine
Queen of the Franks
(West Francia 939 – France 1006)
Adelaide’s father William III,
Duke of Aquitaine
(France 915 – France 963)
William’s father Ebles or
Ebalus of Francia
(Francia 870 – Francia 935)
Ebalus’s father Ranulf II,
Comte de Poitou
(Francia 855 – Francia 893)
Ranulf’s father Ranulf I,
Comte de Poitou
(Francia 820 – Francia 866)
Ranulf’s MOTHER Rotrude Hildegarde,
Princess of Francia
(Francia 803 – Francia 841)
Rotrude’s father Louis I, Carolingian,
Holy Roman Emperor
(Aquitaine, Francia 771 – Germania 840)
Louis’s father Charlemagne,
1st Carolingian, Holy Roman Emperor
(Frankish Kingdom 742 – Aachen Germania 814)
Charlemagne’s MOTHER Bertrade,
Queen of Franks, The White Lady
(Frankish Kingdom 710 – 783)
Bertrada’s father Charibert,
Count of Laon
(Frankish Kingdom 690 – 747)
Charibert’s MOTHER Bertrada,
Princess from Bitburg-Prüm, Germania
Merovingian
(670 – Frankish Kingdom 721)
Bertrada’s father Theuderic III
King of the Franks, Merovingian
(Neustria 654 – Paris 691)
Theuderic’s MOTHER Bathilde,
Queen of the Franks
(Anglia Britannia 626 – Frankish Kingdom 680 )
*~*~*~*
The other family tree branch flows from Raziel’s great grandfather Olid’s wife Mollie Ponder:
Mollie’s MOTHER Margaret Ann Murray
(Alabama 1847- Texas1922)
Margaret’s father Henry
(North Carolina 1802 – Alabama 1881)
Henry’s father James Yates Murray
(Virginia 1772 -- Georgia 1851)
James’s father Lt Col John Bolling Murray
(Virginia 1744 -- Virginia1782)
John’s MOTHER Anne Bolling
(Virginia 1718 – Virginia 1800)
Anne’s father Maj. col. John Fairfax Bolling
(Virginia 1676 – Virginia 1729)
John’s MOTHER Jane Rolfe
(Virginia 1650 – Virginia 1676
Jane’s father Lt Thomas Rolfe
(Virginia 1615 – Virginia 1675)
Thomas’s mother Matoaka of the Powhatan
(Powhatan Lands 1595 – Kent, England 1617