Despars Cronijcke — Cross-Reference Compendium
A systematic cross-reference of the four-volume <em>Cronijcke van den Lande ende Graefscepe van Vlaenderen</em> by Nicolaes Despars (compiled c. 1562–1592; published 1840, De Jonghe edition). Master enumerations, dated narrative attestations, and cross-source bridges to Vredius's <em>Genealogia Comitum Flandriae</em> and Lichtervelde 1935. Cited inline from the line pages as “Despars compendium A.1,” “B.7,” etc.; the IDs in this document match those citation codes for direct anchor navigation.
Executive Summary
A reader's overview§
Where the Vredius compendium (Constance & Michael Van Flandern, April 2026) reproduces the charter, partition-register, and tomb-inscription evidence for the surname-bearing bastards of the Counts of Flanders, this companion volume captures the narrative evidence — Despars's chronicle treatment of the same individuals and several adjacent cohorts, written 150–180 years after the events from a Bruges insider's vantage. The two compendia are designed to be read together.
This v3.2 four-volume edition extends the Vol III–only treatment (v3.1, April 2026) in three directions.
Volume II — the Cressiacensis era expanded
Despars's Vol II covers the period 1067–1346 — the parental generation of the Maleani cohort. Six earlier comital figures are documented in the volume, three of them previously identified in the Vredius compendium's Section H (the Cressiacensis cohort, A.1–A.6) and three of them new: Mer Guy van Vlaenderen heere van Rijckenburch (c. 1331), bastard of Robert of Cassel — a generation between the Cressiacensis and the Maleani that the Vredius corpus does not capture; Mer Heyndrick van Vlaenderen heere van Ninive (1339–1340), a senior Flemish military commander since identified as a legitimate Dampierre cadet of the Lodi–Ninove line, not a bastard (see D.6); and Jan van Vlaenderen (1304–1305), paternal half-brother of Count Robrecht III de Béthune — a bastard of Guy de Dampierre, one generation earlier than the Cressiacensis cohort. Two unrecognised attestations validate the Vol III master enumeration: dHaze and Rodolf are named together at p. 506 as "beede sgrave bastaerde zuenen van Vlaenderen" — the first independent attestation of Rodolf's existence outside the master list — and Colaert appears as "die bastaert van Vlaenderen" in a witness list at p. 507, validating the third master-list name. A separate Vol II passage at p. 220 attests Isabella, bastard daughter of Louis I de Nevers, married to Simon de Mirabello, with her tomb at Saint-Pharahildis (Ste-Veerle) Ghent — an independent attestation of Vredius A.5 / A.32 that confirms both the bastard status and the tomb location.
Volume IV — the Burgundian cohort
Despars's Vol IV (1467–1492) covers the Burgundian-Habsburg transition under Mary of Burgundy, Maximilian, and the early reign of Philip the Fair. Two findings of first-order importance for the project:
The first is the 1477 attestation at p. 143 of Mer Jan van Bourgoengnen, heere van Elverdinghe ende Vlamerdinghe — bearing the same combined dual seigniory that Mer Robrecht (Maleani master-list son #7) held at his 1434 death (Vredius A.17). The Vredius compendium's A.18 places Anastasia van Oultre's death — and the end of Robrecht's legitimate line — at 1455; A.19 records Philip the Good's 1448 Hesdin legitimation of Robrecht's natural son Jean of Flandres. The 1477 attestation either confirms that Jean of Flandres survived to 1477 as "Mer Jan van Bourgoengnen" (a renaming consistent with Burgundian legitimation custom), or it identifies a separate Burgundian-court bastard who acquired the same combined lordship through the 1455–1477 gap. This is the keystone open question for the Robrecht-line research thread; the falsifiability clause and downstream research direction are set out at entry E.1.
The second is the cross-attestation at p. 58 of Boudewijn ghezeit van Rijssele, die bastaert van Bourgoengnen, holding the lordships of Somergem and Looverghem — at the very heart of the Meetjesland, immediately east of Aalter and Knesselare. Boudewijn was bastard son of Philip the Good (per the C.3 enumeration in Section V below). His later conspiracy against the house of Burgundy and consequent dispossession (referred to but not narrated in Vol IV) may have created openings in mid-Meetjesland landholding that later Van Vlaenderen surname-bearers entered.
Volume I — the legendary precedents
Despars's Vol I covers the period before 1067 — the legendary Foresters and the pre-Dampierre counts. The volume contains four early "bastaerde zuene" attestations relevant to the project's territorial scope: three bastard sons of Herman of Steenvoorde holding Elverdinghe, Langemark, and Boeringhe (legendary period — the same Elverdinghe and Langemark that 600 years later are the seats of Mer Robrecht and Mer Karle of the Maleani cohort); Willem, bastard of Philip burgrave of Ypres (c. 1106), succeeding his father in the burgraviate of Ypres — the same burgraviate later held by Mer Robrecht 1383; Azelin, bastard son of a Count Boudewijn, bishop of Paris and proost ende heere van Dronghene by Ghendt; and Willem, son of Roger, duke of Apulia and Calabria — half-brother of an unnamed Count of Flanders through his mother Adela of Flanders, daughter of Robrecht the Frisian. These early attestations are flagged as legendary or pre-historical where appropriate; their inclusion documents the deep continuity of the bastard-tenancy pattern at Elverdinghe, Langemark, and the Ypres burgraviate that recurs in the Maleani cohort. The full entries (D.9–D.12) appear in the working findings record but are not reproduced in this site-rendered compendium.
What v3.2 retains from the Vol III–only edition
The Volume III treatment from v3.1 is retained in full — its 16 narrative attestations (B.1–B.16), the master-passage A.1, the comparative C.1–C.3, and the cross-reference table are reproduced here without substantive change. The Vol III material is, however, extended by seven additional clippings (B.17–B.23) that surfaced during the four-volume systematic re-extraction: dated attestations for zonder Landt, dHaze + Hector named as brothers at Biervliet, the Vaveringny lord-of-Lilers identification, the Paris tournament and Margriete-Vaveringny death notice on the same page, Robrecht + Victor jointly commanding a 1404 naval action (Robrecht's only narrative episode in Vol III), the earliest Rodolph van Vlaenderen attestation by surname-form in 1408, and a 1436 Hector defending Hulst that extends the elder Hector's career arc by 31 years past v3.1's last Hector entry.
A note on Despars's stake in the cohort he documents
This compendium reproduces the keystone passage at Vol. III pp. 114–115 in two parts (entries A.1 and C.1). The first part — the enumeration of Louis II's nine bastard sons and two natural daughters — is the most complete sixteenth-century list of the cohort in any extant Flemish chronicle. The second part — running on without break in the manuscript — traces Despars's own wife Anne's descent from Louis II through Victor and Isabelle van Vlaenderen across six intervening generations. The chronicler is therefore not a neutral witness to the cohort he documents: his family married into the Maleani descent in the sixteenth century, and his narrative selection (notably the dense dHaze biography of B.1–B.3, B.18, B.20, the rich Victor portrait of B.6, B.10–B.13, and the equally dense Praet-line tracing of B.11, B.14, B.15) appears partly motivated by family-tradition prioritisation. This is not a charge of bias against Despars — his transcriptions of named persons and dated events are consistent with other primary sources where comparison is possible. It is an observation that affects the weight of his testimony for downstream research design, and is discussed further at entry M.2.
Despars & Vredius — Cross-Reference
Mapping all surname-bearing or filiation-bearing references in Despars across the four-volume Cronijcke against the Vredius compendium's Probationes apparatus.
The cross-reference tables below list every Despars entry catalogued in the working findings record, including entries that are not separately rendered in this site-facing compendium (D.9–D.12 for the legendary Volume I precedents; E.2–E.5 for the additional Burgundian-cohort attestations). Rows pointing to absent entries are retained for completeness and onward citation.
The Maleani cohort (Despars Vol III master list)§
Despars enumerates nine bastard sons of Louis II de Male at p. 114–115 (entry A.1). Vredius treats six of these as surname-bearing principals (the Maleani, Tab. XVI) and documents the others by mention. The mapping below shows what each source contains for each son.
| № | Despars (Vol III, p. 114) | Vredius (Tab. XVI & Probationes) | Match notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mer Lodewijck, ghezeit dHase | Lodewijk "le Haze" (Section F · A.7, A.8) | Direct match. Both record Nicopolis 1396 death. Despars adds 1380 ambush at Torhout (B.1), 1381 young-knight portrait with age inference (B.2), 1382–83 ongoing field command (B.18, plus several adjacent attestations), 1385 council membership (B.3) and Biervliet defence (B.18), 1389 Paris tournament prize (B.20). Vredius adds the 1370 Gerard de Moor estate grant and son Renault de Flandres of la Vacke. |
| 2 | Mer Rodolf (= Rufelaert) | not in Tab. XVI as primary; mentioned in passing | Despars uniquely identifies "Rufelaert van Vlaenderen, den bastaerden oom" at the 1385 Aerdenburg surprise (B.6), pairs dHaze and Rodolf jointly at Vol II p. 506 as "beede sgrave bastaerde zuenen van Vlaenderen" (D.2 — earlier than the Vol III master list by an indeterminate margin), and records "Rodolph van Vlaenderen" among the Agincourt 1415 dead (B.9) plus an additional 1408 attestation at the side of Jan van Bethune (B.22). Vredius silent on this branch. |
| 3 | Mer Colaert | not present | Master-list mention in Despars; validated by a separate Vol II witness list at p. 507 where "Colaert, die bastaert van Vlaenderen" appears as a witness (D.3). No further chronicle attestation. Possibly the same as "Cornelis" or "Niclais" of other genealogies; needs cross-checking against Gaillard's Collectanea. |
| 4 | Mer Lodewijck, ghezeit de Vriese | Louis Friese (Section C · A.9) | Direct match. Despars confirms the Praet/Aeltere/Woestine descent and at p. 425 (B.15) explicitly names "F. Mer Lodewijcx ghezeit de Vriese" as the father of the second-generation Mer Jan van Vlaenderen — a one-line filiation that Vredius also derives from de l'Espinoy. |
| 5 | Mer Jan, ghezeit zonder Landt | Jan "sans terre," Lord of Drincham | Direct match. Both record Nicopolis 1396 death (B.7); Despars adds the lordship of Drincham as "toecommende" (forthcoming) at the 1383 master-list passage and confirms the lordship in B.17 at p. 93 (1383). |
| 6 | Mer Hector, heere van Voorhoute | not in Tab. XVI as Maleani son; appears as husband of Margriete (II) in Vredius A.22 | The two sources may describe different Hectors, or — more likely — the same Hector with conflicting filiations. Despars repeatedly identifies this Hector as bastard son of Louis II: at B.4 (1382 Rypelmonde), B.8 (1405 with Victor), B.18 (1385 Biervliet with dHaze as brother), and B.23 (1436 Hulst — possibly Hector aged ~71 or a "Hector II" son of the same name). Vredius A.22 treats his wife Margriete (II) as the Maleani-descended party, with Hector as a separately-attested van Vuerhoute knight. The 1453 Adriaen passage (B.16) is decisive for Despars's reading: it explicitly says Adriaen's grandfather was Louis II "by way of bastardy." See also cross-flag F.6 on the chronology of "Mer Hectoors". |
| 7 | Mer Robrecht, heere van Elverdinghe | Robert of Elverdinghe (Section D · A.17, A.18, A.19) | Direct match. The PDF v3.1 noted Despars's narrative thin: Robrecht named in the 1420 marriage contract witness list (per Vredius A.10) and in the master list, but not as protagonist of any chronicle episode in Vol III. This v3.2 edition recovers B.21 at p. 184 — Robrecht and Victor jointly commanding a 1404 naval action against the English. This is Robrecht's only narrative attestation in Vol III, and it closes the gap between A.1 (1383) and Vredius A.17 (1434 tomb). |
| 8 | Mer Charles | Karle of Gruterssale (Section E · A.20, A.21) | Direct match by name. Despars gives no chronicle episode in Vol III beyond the master list. Vredius identifies him via the Langemark tomb (d. 1491); he is the youngest of the cohort and outlives all others by decades. The Karel-as-Victor's-brother reading is independently supported by Despars's master list (Charles in position 8, Victor in position 9, with no parenthetical subordinating Charles to anyone else). See cross-flag F.1. |
| 9 | Mer Victor, capiteyn van St-Omaers | Victor van Vlaenderen, Lord of Ursel & Wessegem (Section B · A.10–A.15) | Direct match. Despars adds substantial narrative: 1404 naval campaign with Robrecht (B.21), 1405 with Hector (B.8), 1421 marriage with both Lodewijck and Isabelle as children (B.10), 1430 Cassel mediation (B.12), 1431 death and Saint-Omer burial (B.13). The 1431 death year is sharper than Vredius's pre-1442 terminus by eleven years. |
A note on the daughters§
Despars's two natural daughters — Margriete (m. Marshal Vaveringny) and Johanne (m. Diederijck van Hontschote) — both appear in Vredius. Margriete is documented in Vredius A.22 (the Ghent Carmelites tomb, dated 1415); the Vol III narrative at p. 47 (B.5, 1382) and p. 159 (B.20, March 1388 death) places her active marriage from 1382 and her death in March 1388 — with the Vaveringny husband attested as marshal of Flanders and (B.19) lord of Lilers. This raises the cross-flag F.4 — Despars's Margriete-Vaveringny death (March 1388) cannot be the same person as Vredius A.22's Margriete-Vuerhaute (October 1415); the working interpretation is that there are two Margrietes in the cohort.
Johanne is the sister jointly receiving the 1373 city-of-Ghent dowry in Vredius A.28, also matched in Despars's master list. Despars adds nothing on the third Vredius daughter Margareta (m. Floris van Maldeghem 1373, Vredius A.28) or the fourth Beatrix (m. Robert Tincke 1379, Vredius A.24) — consistent with his focus on the Bruges sphere rather than the Ghent ducal-court records.
Earlier cohorts (Vols I & II)§
| Despars ref | Topic | Vredius parallel | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vol II p. 220 (D.1) | Isabella, bastard daughter of Louis I de Nevers, m. Simon de Mirabello, Ste-Veerle tomb | Vredius A.5 / A.32 | Direct match — independent Despars attestation |
| Vol II p. 506 (D.2) | dHaze + Rodolf as "beede sgrave bastaerde zuenen van Vlaenderen" | partial parallel to A.7 (dHaze at Nicopolis) | New for Rodolf; corroborates A.7 for dHaze |
| Vol II p. 507 (D.3) | Colaert "die bastaert van Vlaenderen" in witness list | not in Vredius | New — validates master-list position 3 |
| Vol II p. 466 (D.4) | Mer Ruselart van Vlaenderen, bastard brother of Louis de Male, 1364 | Vredius A.4 ("Mer Ruflard" in Cressiacensis knight-brothers list) | Working ID: Despars Ruselart = Vredius Ruflard (long-s ↔ f confusion) |
| Vol II p. 307 (D.5) | Mer Guy van Vlaenderen heere van Rijckenburch, bastard of Robert of Cassel, c. 1331 | not in Vredius | New — a parallel lineage between Cressiacensis and Maleani |
| Vol II pp. 336+ (D.6) | Mer Heyndrick van Vlaenderen heere van Ninive, military service 1339–40 | not in Vredius | New — legitimate Dampierre cadet (Lodi–Ninove line), not a bastard |
| Vol II p. 167 (D.7) | Jan van Vlaenderen, paternal half-brother of Count Robrecht III, 1304–05 | not in Vredius | New — bastard of Guy de Dampierre |
| Vol II p. 117 (D.8) | Mer Guy + Jan van Namen as paternal half-brothers of count | partial — Guy de Dampierre's bastards | New |
Volume I attestations§
Volume I entries (D.9–D.12) are listed for completeness; the full clippings appear in the working findings record but are not reproduced in this site-rendered compendium.
| Despars ref | Topic | Vredius parallel | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vol I p. 234 (D.9) | Willem, bastard of Philip burgrave of Ypres, c. 1106 | not in Vredius | Earliest comital bastard in project corpus |
| Vol I pp. 96–98 (D.10) | Three bastard sons of Herman of Steenvoorde holding Langemark, Boeringhe, Elverdinghe | not in Vredius | Legendary — pre-history of the Elverdinghe / Langemark lordships |
| Vol I (D.11) | Azelin, bastard of count Boudewijn — bishop of Paris, proost of Drongen | not in Vredius | Early, drongen near Ghent |
| Vol I p. 269 (D.12) | Willem F. Rogiers of Apulia, halve broedere via Adela of Flanders | not in Vredius | Adela-of-Flanders connection |
Volume IV — the Burgundian cohort§
Entries E.2–E.5 are listed for completeness; the full clippings appear in the working findings record but are not reproduced in this site-rendered compendium.
| Despars ref | Topic | Vredius parallel | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vol IV p. 143 (E.1) | Mer Jan van Bourgoengnen heere van Elverdinghe ende Vlamerdinghe, 1477 | Vredius A.17 / A.18 / A.19 | The Robrecht-line succession question |
| Vol IV p. 58 (E.2) | Boudewijn van Rijssele heere van Somergem ende Looverghem | partial — C.3 enumerates Philip the Good's bastards | New — Meetjesland territorial overlap |
| Vol IV p. 240 (E.3) | Jan van Bourgoengnen as bastard provost of OL Vrouw Bruges | matches C.3 Jan | New dated attestation |
| Vol IV (E.4) | Mer Philips van Bourgoengnen, "joncste bastaerde zuene" of Philip the Good | matches C.3 Philips of Brussels | New dated attestation |
| Vol III p. 467 (E.5) | Vrau Anne, bastard daughter of Philip the Good, m. Adriaen van Borsele | matches C.3 Anne | New dated attestation |
Part I — Master Enumeration
A.1 — The Master Passage at Louis II's Death§
Despars enumerates Louis II's nine bastard sons and two natural daughters · 1383 · Volume III, p. 114–115
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 114–115 Type: Comprehensive necrological enumeration Language: Middle Dutch
Despars, in his summary of Louis II's reign at the count's 1383 death, writes:
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
Latende tzijnen overlijden neghen bastaerde zuenen ende twee naturelicke dochters achtere, eerst Mer Lodewijck, ghezeit dHase; Mer Rodolf, Mer Colaert, Mer Lodewijck, ghezeit de Vriese, daer (by de tweede dochtere van den heere van Ghistele) Mer Jan van Vlaenderen of quam, die man van sheeren dochtere van Reyghersvliete, moedere van Mer Lodewijck, die by sheeren dochtere van Gruuthuyse ooc eenen zuene ghecreech van zijnder name, vadere van Mer Lodewijck, die heere van Praet, Aeltere ende van der Woestine, by Mer Jans dochtere van Bourgoengnen, zijnder huysvrau; Mer Jan, ghezeit zonder Landt, die toecommende heere van Drincham; Mer Hector, die heere van Voorhoute; Mer Robrecht, die heere van Elverdinghe ende Vlamerdinghe, burchgrave van Ipere; Mer Charles; Mer Victor, capiteyn van der stede van St-Omaers, die naermaels vrau Johanne van Schorissen traude, vrauwe van Cramosijs ende van Lannoos, die welcke hem ondere andere een dochtere baersde, ghenaemt vrau Isabelle van Vlaenderen, … [continues into Despars's own descent — see entry C.1] …; vrau Johanne, die Mer Diederijck van Hontschote te manne nam, ende vrau Margriete, die met Mer Robrecht van Vaveringny, die maerschalck van Vlaenderen, huwede.
Translation
Leaving at his death nine bastard sons and two natural daughters behind. First, Sir Lodewijck called dHase (the Hare); Sir Rodolf, Sir Colaert, Sir Lodewijck called de Vriese (the Frisian) — by whom, through the second daughter of the Lord of Ghistele, came Sir Jan van Vlaenderen, husband of the lord's daughter of Reygersvliete, mother of Sir Lodewijck, who through the lord's daughter of Gruuthuyse also had a son of his name, father of Sir Lodewijck, lord of Praet, Aeltere and Woestine, by his wife the daughter of Sir Jan of Bourgogne; Sir Jan called sans terre, future lord of Drincham; Sir Hector, lord of Voorhoute; Sir Robrecht, lord of Elverdinghe and Vlamerdinghe, burgrave of Ypres; Sir Charles; Sir Victor, captain of the city of Saint-Omer, who later married Lady Johanne van Schorissen, lady of Cramoysis and Lannoos, by whom — among others — was born a daughter named Lady Isabelle van Vlaenderen, … [continues into Despars's own descent — see entry C.1] …; Lady Johanne, who took Sir Diederijck van Hontschote as husband, and Lady Margriete, who married Sir Robrecht van Vaveringny, marshal of Flanders.
Summary
Despars's enumeration is the most complete single-source list of Louis II's natural progeny in any sixteenth-century Flemish chronicle. Three structural features deserve emphasis:
The list is internally generated. Despars wrote the Cronijcke between 1562 and 1592, sixty years before Vredius (1643) and a century after the Ghent partition records that supply most of Vredius's Probationes evidence. Despars worked from Bruges civic records, the Ten Berghe family papers, and the Despars-Avesoete domestic archive. His list is therefore an independent sixteenth-century witness against which Vredius's seventeenth-century compilation can be cross-checked.
The two surnames are family names, not patronymics. Despars uses "van Vlaenderen" twice in this passage: once for Mer Jan van Vlaenderen (de Vriese's son, the second-generation Praet progenitor), and once for vrau Isabelle van Vlaenderen (Victor's daughter, Despars's wife's ancestor). The bastards themselves carry epithets (dHase, de Vriese, zonder Landt) or lordships (Voorhoute, Elverdinghe); the surname is used only for their grandchildren and onward. This is consistent with the surname-evolution pattern documented in the Vredius compendium for the Cressiacensis cohort (entries A.2, A.33), but here it is the Maleani generation that is observed crystallizing.
The Praet filiation is given in four generations. Lodewijck de Vriese → Mer Jan van Vlaenderen → second-generation Mer Lodewijck → Mer Lodewijck of Praet, Aeltere and Woestine. This matches Vredius's Tab. XIX skeleton (Section C of the Vredius compendium); the 1440 White Bear entry (B.15) collapses one of these generations and is decisive on the direct filiation.
Project significance for v3.2
In the four-volume v3.2 perspective, A.1's enumeration is no longer the only attestation of the Maleani cohort as a closed list. It is now cross-validated by Vol II attestations in three positions: dHaze and Rodolf jointly named as "beede sgrave bastaerde zuenen van Vlaenderen" at p. 506 (D.2), and Colaert as "die bastaert van Vlaenderen" in a separate witness list at p. 507 (D.3). These three master-list positions (1, 2, 3) are therefore double-attested in independent Vol II and Vol III passages, strengthening the closed-list reading. Master-list positions 4–9 (de Vriese, zonder Landt, Hector, Robrecht, Charles, Victor) all have independent dated narrative attestations elsewhere in Vol III or in the Vredius compendium.
The two natural daughters — Margriete and Johanne — are independently confirmed: Margriete by Vol III narrative attestations at B.5 (1382 marriage to Vaveringny) and B.19 (1386 Vaveringny as lord of Lilers) and B.20 (March 1388 death); Johanne by Vredius A.28's 1373 Ghent dowry parenthetical (cross-corroborated by Despars's master list as wife of Mer Diederijck van Hontschote).
Citation precedence
For the master enumeration as a closed list: Despars Vol III p. 114–115 is the only known sixteenth-century witness and the earliest extant compiled enumeration. Cite Despars first.
Despars, Nicolaes. Cronijcke van den Lande ende Graefscepe van Vlaenderen, gemaect door Jor Nicolaes Despars … van de jaeren 405 tot 1492. Derde Deel. Edited by J. de Jonghe. Brugge / Rotterdam, 1840, pp. 114–115. Original autograph: handschrift in the collection of burggrave de Croeser de Berges. The full continuation of the passage — Despars's matrilineal descent through Isabelle to his wife Anne — is reproduced as entry C.1 of this volume.
Part II — The Maleani Cohort in Volume III, Narrative
Twenty-three narrative attestations across the years 1380–1453 — ambush, council, crusade, marriage, jousting tournament, death.
Where the master passage at p. 114–115 fixes the cohort by enumeration, the body of Volume III places its members in motion across the years 1380–1453. Three of the nine sons (de Vriese, dHase, sans terre) are observed dying together at Nicopolis in 1396. Three of the remaining six (Hector, Robrecht, Victor) appear repeatedly in the years 1382–1436 in court, council, naval campaign, and diplomacy. Two grandsons surface in mid-century — Mer Jan van Vlaenderen of Praet, knighted at Brouwershaven in 1425 and active through 1440, and Mer Adriaen van Vlaenderen of Voorhoute, leading a 1453 expedition to Hulst. The remaining sons (Charles, Colaert, Rodolf) appear sparingly or only in the master list, though Rodolf is densely attested through 1396 and 1408–1415.
The entries below are arranged in strict chronological order.
B.1 — Lodewijck dHase — Ambush at Torhout§
The Hare of Flanders ambushes Jan Boulle's Ghent-Ypres relief column · 1380 · the earliest narrative attestation in Volume III
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 6 Type: Battlefield narrative Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
Jan Boulle … quam reghelrecht met voorzeide secours (latende die wech van Roesselare jeghens die ghemeene resolutie ende tadvijs van zijnen voorscreven compaengnon) naer Torhout, aldaer hy onder weghe zo onvoorzienelick uyt zekere embuke gheassaylgiert ende bespronghen wiert by Mer Lodewijck, den bastaerde van Vlaenderen, ghezeyt dHaze, ende Woutere, den heere van Heyne, in Henegauwe, dat zijne lieden terstont (van grooter verdwelmtheit) luyde ende leelick riepen tot menanderen: « Wy zijn al verraden! » — verliesende met dien teeneghadere den moedt ende die bataylgie, te coste van XII Ghendtenaers ende wel al zo veel Iperlinghen, die alle ghelijck onversaechdelick ter stede doot bleven.
Translation
Jan Boulle … came straight on with the said relief, abandoning the Roeselare road against the common resolution and the advice of his aforesaid companion, toward Torhout — where, on the way, he was so unexpectedly assailed and ambushed from a certain hidden position by Sir Lodewijck, the bastard of Flanders called dHaze, and by Wouter, lord of Heyne in Hainaut, that his men instantly (in great confusion) cried loudly and ill to each other: "We are all betrayed!" — losing with that, all together, both their courage and the battle, at the cost of twelve Ghent men and as many men of Ypres, all of whom alike were left for dead on the field.
Summary
The earliest narrative attestation of any Maleani bastard in Volume III. Lodewijck "the Hare," in tactical partnership with Wouter of Heyne, mounts a successful ambush against the Ghent-Ypres relief column under Jan Boulle near Torhout in 1380 — three years before Louis II's death and sixteen years before his own at Nicopolis. The pairing with Wouter of Heyne (Hainaut) is consistent: dHase appears repeatedly with the Heyne-Hainaut faction in the period 1380–1385.
The phrase "den bastaerde van Vlaenderen" — used here appositively, before Despars has formally introduced the bastard cohort — establishes that the chronicler treated this status as immediately recognizable to his readers, requiring no further explanation.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 6.
B.2 — dHase as a Young Knight in the Field§
Lodewijck "altijts zeer clouckelick ende vromelick" — and not yet twenty years old · 1381
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 25 Type: Character portrait in narrative Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
Men mach wel peynsen hoe deze nieumare den prince greyde, in wiens leghere van dien tijt voort daghelicsche invasien, coursen ende sproncreysen ghebuerden, daer hem Mer Lodewijck, ghezeit dHaze, die bastaerde van Vlaenderen, altijts zeer clouckelick ende vromelick jeghens stelde, met Mer Woutere, die heere van Heyne, die allomme zeer onversaechdelick deerste ende die laetste was, bedrivende menich vroom faict van wapenen (niet jeghenstaende dat hyder noch gheen XX jaer oudt en was) ende omtmakende met cleender compaengnie ondere andere, omtrent LX witte caproenen, zo dat zy meest al ter stede doot bleven.
Translation
One may well imagine how this news displeased the prince, in whose camp from that time daily invasions, raids and skirmishes occurred — against which Sir Lodewijck, called dHaze, the bastard of Flanders always set himself most boldly and bravely, with Sir Wouter, lord of Heyne, who all over was the first and last in the field most fearless, performing many a brave feat of arms (notwithstanding that he was not yet twenty years old), and routing with a small company some sixty White Caproens, of whom most were left for dead on the spot.
Summary
Despars's parenthetical age note — "not yet twenty years old" — is decisive. If Lodewijck dHase was under 20 in 1381, he was born after 1361. Vredius offers no birth date for him. This single phrase places his birth in the early 1360s and makes him roughly contemporaneous with Margriete of Male, Louis II's only legitimate daughter (b. 1350) — though her younger half-brother by perhaps a decade. The "White Caproens" (white-hooded militia) are Ghent's revolutionary urban infantry under Philip van Artevelde; dHase's victory over sixty of them establishes him as a principal field commander against the Ghent rebellion in his father's last years.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 25.
B.3 — dHase in the Council of Flanders§
Lodewijck dHase named among the principal lords ratifying a settlement · 1385
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 147 Type: Council ratification roll Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch — excerpt from witness list)
… Mer Hughes, die heere van Antoing, burchgrave ofte castelein van Ghendt; Mer Jan, die heere van Ghistele ende van Harne; Mer Heyndrick van Bevere, die heere van Dixmude; Mer Jan, die heere van Grimberghe ende van den Gruuthuyse; Mer Aernout van Gavere, die heere van Schorissen; Mer Philips, die heere van Axele; Mer Lodewijck, die bastaert van Vlaenderen, ghezeit dHaze; Mer Geeraert van Rasseghem, die heere van Basseroode; Mer Woutere, die heere van Halewijn …
Translation
… Sir Hughes, lord of Antoing, burgrave or castellan of Ghent; Sir Jan, lord of Ghistele and Harne; Sir Heyndrick van Bevere, lord of Diksmuide; Sir Jan, lord of Grimberghe and Gruuthuyse; Sir Aernout van Gavere, lord of Schorissen; Sir Philips, lord of Aksel; Sir Lodewijck, the bastard of Flanders called dHaze; Sir Geeraert van Rasseghem, lord of Basserode; Sir Wouter, lord of Halewijn …
Summary
By 1385 dHase has graduated from field commander to council member, listed among the realm's senior lords in a ratification roll. His placement in the list — between the lord of Aksel and the lord of Basseroode — is suggestive: he is treated as roughly equivalent in rank to a substantial castellan, despite holding no named lordship of his own. Vredius's evidence (entry A.8) has him receiving Gerard de Moor's confiscated estates in 1370, which would explain a non-titular territorial endowment that nevertheless secured a seat in the upper council.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 147.
B.4 — Hector — Captain of Rypelmonde & Sastinghe§
"Joncheer Hector, die bastaert van Vlaenderen, heere van Voorhoute" garrisons two key strongpoints during the Ghent rebellion · 1382
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 56 Type: Garrison narrative Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
Die van Rypelmonde ende van Sastinghe (daer joncheer Hector, die bastaert van Vlaenderen, heere van Voorhoute, die capiteyn of was) en verschoten insghelijcx ooc voor al sprincens vianden niet, water Bartholomeus Coolman, die verradelicke admirael van der zee, der jeghens ghedoen conste met alle zijne schepen van orloghe.
Translation
The men of Rypelmonde and Sastinghe — of which Squire Hector, the bastard of Flanders, lord of Voorhoute was the captain — likewise gave way to none of the prince's enemies, no matter what Bartholomeus Coolman, the treacherous admiral of the sea, could do against them with all his warships.
Summary
The earliest narrative attestation of Hector. He holds Rypelmonde (Rupelmonde, on the Scheldt) and Sastinghe (in the Land of Saaftinge, on the eastern Schelde estuary) as captain — two key crossings against the Ghent rebellion's naval supply line through the Honte and the Sluys. The lordship of Voorhoute is given here, anchoring the territorial title that will reappear seventy years later in entry B.16, where his grandson Adriaen still holds it (and at B.23, where Hector himself — if the same individual — defends Hulst in 1436).
The address joncheer (squire / young noble) rather than Mer (knight) suggests Hector was relatively young in 1382 — not yet knighted. By 1405 (entry B.8) he is consistently Mer Hector.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 56.
B.5 — Margriete — Wife of Marshal Vaveringny§
Louis II's bastard daughter, married to the marshal of Flanders, intervenes to save her father at the Bruges flight · May 1382
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 47 Type: Court narrative Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
… niet zonder groote dangier van sgraven persoon, ten hadde ghedaen tadvertisement van Mer Robrecht Vaveringny, die marschalck van Vlaenderen, die vrau Margriete, zijn bastaerde dochtere, ghetraut hadde, ende hem zelve noch int ende qualick ghenouch ghesaulveren conste, twelcke considererende Symoen Cokermoes, vant hem snavens naer den neghen ueren in de duysterheit, met die smeden, wevers ende vulders, ter marct.
Translation
… not without great danger to the count's person, had it not been for the warning given by Sir Robrecht Vaveringny, marshal of Flanders, who had married Lady Margriete, the count's bastard daughter, and even so could scarcely save himself in the end — which Symoen Cokermoes considering, found himself in the evening after nine o'clock in the darkness, with the smiths, weavers and fullers, at the market.
Summary
The first narrative attestation of either of the two natural daughters from the master list. Vrau Margriete's husband Robrecht van Vaveringny, marshal of Flanders, gives Louis II the warning that saves him during the May 1382 flight from Bruges (the prelude to the Battle of Beverhoutsveld). She is named in the master passage as the second of the two natural daughters; this entry confirms her marriage was already established by 1382, and that her husband was actively serving at court.
The Vaveringny territorial profile is sharpened by entry B.19, where Vaveringny is named as lord of Lilers and marshal at a 1386 council. See also cross-flag F.4 — Despars's Margriete-Vaveringny is dated to a March 1388 death at B.20, conflicting with Vredius A.22's identification of a Margriete-Vuerhaute dying 18 October 1415.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 47.
B.6 — Rufelaert — At the Aerdenburg Surprise§
"Mer Rufelaert van Vlaenderen, den bastaerden oom van der princesse Margriete" — the second narrative attestation of Rodolf · 1385
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 129 Type: Garrison narrative Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
… op eenen woensdach nacht voor Ardenburch, omme die stede ghestolinghe themliedenwaerts te ghecrighene, ende hemlieden met eenen ooc wel ter keure te wrekene over Mer Robrecht van Bethune, Mer Rufelaert van Vlaenderen, den bastaerden oom van der princesse Margriete, Mer Jan van Jumont, den heere van Merlemont, souvereyn van Vlaenderen … ende meer andere vrome edelmannen van wapenen, dieder in groote menichte binnen waren.
Translation
… on a Wednesday night before Aerdenburg, [the Ghent forces came] to take the town by stealth and at one stroke to revenge themselves on Sir Robrecht van Bethune, Sir Rufelaert van Vlaenderen, the bastard uncle of Princess Margriete, Sir Jan of Jumont, lord of Merlemont, sovereign of Flanders … and many other valiant knights of arms who were within in great number.
Summary
The form Rufelaert is a Flemish variant of Rodolf / Roelof, and the figure named here is the second of Despars's nine sons in the master list. The phrase "bastaerden oom van der princesse Margriete" — "bastard uncle of Princess Margriete" — places Rufelaert as a bastard sibling of Margaret of Male's father (Louis II), confirming his Maleani rather than Brabantine descent. He is here defending Aerdenburg against a Ghent surprise attack.
Rodolf's full attestation pattern in v3.2 spans Vol II and Vol III: at Vol II p. 506 (D.2, pre-1383) he is named jointly with dHaze as one of "beede sgrave bastaerde zuenen van Vlaenderen"; at Vol III p. 129 (this entry, 1385) he is at Aerdenburg as the bastard uncle of Margaret of Male; at Vol III p. 211 (B.22, 1408) he is at Jan van Bethune's side under the surname-form "Rodolph van Vlaenderen"; at Vol III p. 241 (B.9, 1415) he falls at Agincourt. This is the most fully traced Rodolf career in any extant source.
The Rodolph of B.9 (Agincourt 1415) and B.22 (1408 with Bethune) bears the surname rather than the epithet; the Aerdenburg Rufelaert and the Vol II p. 506 Rodolf bear the epithet. The pattern is consistent with a single individual whose name is recorded sometimes as Rodolf / Rodolph and sometimes as Rufelaert.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 129.
B.7 — The Three Brothers at Nicopolis§
Three of Louis II's nine bastard sons fall together on 25 September 1396 · cross-reference Vredius A.7
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 173 Type: Battlefield casualty list Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
Die principaelste versleghene waren, eerst: die grave Jan van Vienne; Philips van Bar; Willem van Trimouylgie, die broedere van Guy, met zijn zuene; Willem van Heu; Mer Reynault van Roye; Mer Lodewijck, die chevalereuse bastaert van Vlaenderen, ghezeit dHase, met twee van zijne vrome broeders, te wetene: Mer Lodewijck, ghezeit de Vriese, ende Mer Jan, ghezeit zonder Landt, die heere van Drincham; Mer Heyndrick van Antoing, die broedere van den castelein Mer Hughes van Ghendt; die heere van Lembeke; Mer Jan van Casant ende Mer Roelant Houweel; met meer andere edele ende zeer vrome heeren ter wapenen.
Translation
The principal slain were, first: Count Jan of Vienne; Philip of Bar; Guillaume de Trémoille, brother of Guy, with his son; Guillaume de Heu; Sir Reynault de Roye; Sir Lodewijck, the chivalrous bastard of Flanders called dHase, with two of his valiant brothers — namely Sir Lodewijck called de Vriese, and Sir Jan called sans terre, lord of Drincham; Sir Heyndrick of Antoing, brother of the castellan Sir Hughes of Ghent; the lord of Lembeke; Sir Jan of Casant and Sir Roeland Houweel; with many other noble and most valiant lords of arms.
Summary
Cross-reference: this passage is the Middle Dutch parallel to the Gaillard MS quotation reproduced in Vredius compendium A.7. Both sources name the same three brothers, all from the master list, all under their epithet rather than a surname. Despars's phrasing confirms the cohort identity — "twee van zijne vrome broeders", "two of his valiant brothers" — settling any doubt that the three were full brothers from the same father (Louis II) in Despars's understanding. They may not have shared a mother, but the chronicler treats them as a fraternal unit.
Heuterus's Latin "tres Ludovici Maleani filii nothi" (Vredius A.7) and Despars's "Mer Lodewijck … met twee van zijne vrome broeders" attest the same battlefield event from independent textual traditions sixty years apart. The convergence is strong evidence that the three-brother death is historical fact, not chronicle convention.
Despars dates the battle to "den XXVII van der voorseider maent" (the 27th of September); standard scholarship and Vredius A.7 give 25 September. See cross-flag F.2.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 173. Cross-reference: Vredius compendium A.7 (Heuterus, Gaillard MS).
B.8 — Hector and Victor in the Naval Campaign§
The two surviving brothers identified together at Dunkirk · "Mer Victor, svoorzeits Hectors broeder" · 1405
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 194 Type: Naval campaign roster Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
… die ghuene die met Jan Blanckaert, den admirael van Vlaenderen; Mer Hector, den heere van Voorhoute, sprinces bastaerde oom van der gravinne Margriete, zaligher memorie, zijnder moeders weghe; Mer Victor, svoorzeits Hectors broeder; joncker Zegher van Ghendt; joncker Jan Bileyn ende Philips, den capiteyn van Sastinghe, jeghens die ghementionneirde vianden in zee ghetrocken waren, bleven noch eenpaerlick wech, even straffelick roovende ende pijlgierende al dat zyder vonden.
Translation
… those who, with Jan Blanckaert the admiral of Flanders; Sir Hector, lord of Voorhoute, the prince's bastard uncle of Countess Margriete of pious memory, on his mother's side; Sir Victor, the aforesaid Hector's brother; squire Zegher of Ghent; squire Jan Bileyn; and Philip, captain of Sastinghe, had gone out to sea against the aforementioned enemies, remained steadily away, plundering and pillaging severely all that they found.
Summary
This single passage establishes three facts at once:
One. By 1405 Hector is now Mer (knight), not joncheer as in 1382 (B.4). He has been knighted in the intervening years and continues to hold Voorhoute.
Two. Hector and Victor are explicitly named as brothers — "svoorzeits Hectors broeder". Same generation, full siblings rather than half-brothers (cf. also B.18, dHaze + Hector as brothers in 1385; and B.21, Robrecht + Victor at sea in 1404). This confirms the master list's fraternal structure for the cohort: the nine sons are not all from one mother, but the individual pairs and triples are full brothers among themselves.
Three. The phrase "sprinces bastaerde oom van der gravinne Margriete … zijnder moeders weghe" requires careful parsing. Read as "the prince's [John the Fearless's] bastard uncle [via] Countess Margriete [his mother] … on his mother's side," it confirms that Hector is John's bastard uncle through his mother Margaret of Male — i.e., Hector is Margaret of Male's bastard half-brother, hence a bastard son of Louis II. This reading is consistent with the master list and with the 1453 Adriaen passage (B.16), and resolves the apparent ambiguity of "oom" (uncle).
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 194.
B.9 — Rodolph van Vlaenderen at Agincourt§
A surname-bearer in the Agincourt casualty list · 25 October 1415
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 241 Type: Battlefield casualty list Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch — excerpt from casualty list)
… van der Gracht; Jacob van Heyne; Odart van Reuthy, met beede zijn broeders; Rodolph van Vlaenderen; Lodewijck van Ghistele; Roelandt van Gruthuyse; Colaert van der Gracht; Percheval van Richenburch; Mer Jan van Belle; Rodolph van Nelle; Bertram van St-Gillis, die seneschael van Henegauwen; Philips ende Heyndrick van Lykercke ofte van Lens, beede die broeders van den bisscop van Camericke; Lyoneel van Maldeghem, met zijn broeder; Colaert van Fiennes; Robrecht van Montigny; Charles van Montigny …
Translation
… van der Gracht; Jacob of Heyne; Odart de Reuthy, with both his brothers; Rodolph van Vlaenderen; Lodewijck of Ghistele; Roeland of Gruuthuyse; Colaert van der Gracht; Perceval of Richenburch; Sir Jan of Belle; Rodolph van Nelle; Bertram of Saint-Gilles, seneschal of Hainaut; Philip and Heyndrick of Lykercke or of Lens, both brothers of the bishop of Cambrai; Lionel of Maldegem, with his brother; Colaert of Fiennes; Robrecht of Montigny; Charles of Montigny …
Summary
The surname-bearing form Rodolph van Vlaenderen appears in the Agincourt casualty list. This is the same person as the Rufelaert of B.6 (1385 Aerdenburg) and Vol II p. 506 (D.2, pre-1383 joint attestation with dHaze) — Despars uses both the epithet Rufelaert and the surname-form Rodolph van Vlaenderen for the same individual. A 1408 entry (B.22) places him at Jan van Bethune's side under the surname-form, seven years before this entry. The pattern is consistent with a single individual born c. 1360s, surviving Nicopolis 1396 (where his brothers fell) and dying at Agincourt 1415 — twenty years past the family disaster at Nicopolis.
Despars gives no descendants for Rodolph. The line ends here, on a French field, with the flower of Picard, Hainaut and Flemish nobility.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 241.
B.10 — Victor's Marriage to Johanne van Schorissen§
Despars dates the marriage to 1421 and names Lodewijck and Isabelle as the children · cross-reference Vredius A.10
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 274–275 Type: Marriage notice in narrative Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
Omtrent dezen zelven tijt, trauwde Mer Victor van Vlaenderen, die joncste bastaerde zuene van Lodewijck van Male, vrau Johanna van Schorissen, vrau van Cramossijs ende Launoos, daer joncheer Lodewijck ende Mer joncvrau Isabelle of quamen, ghelijck hier boven breeder verhaelt staet.
Translation
About this same time, Sir Victor van Vlaenderen, the youngest bastard son of Lodewijck van Male, married Lady Johanna van Schorissen, lady of Cramoysis and Launoos — by whom came squire Lodewijck and Lady Isabelle, as is told above more fully.
Summary
This passage cross-references Vredius A.10 (the 1420 Claisone MS marriage contract). The two sources differ on the year by one — Vredius has 1420, Despars 1421 — easily reconciled if the contract was signed in 1420 and the marriage solemnized in 1421, or if Despars is using a different style of year-reckoning.
THE ADAM QUESTION — DIRECT RELEVANCE
Despars names two of Victor's children: joncheer Lodewijck and Isabelle. He names neither Janne nor Adam. Vredius A.12 (1427) and A.13 (1441) name all three sons — Lodewyc, Janne, and Adam — as Victor's natural sons by Alysse van Boyeghem and Gertrud Lindekens.
The discrepancy is best read as Despars writing only the recognised children of the legitimate marriage. Janne and Adam, born of mistresses, would have been outside the formal household even though acknowledged in the grandmother's later bequests. Despars's phrase "daer … of quamen" ("by whom came") attaches to Johanne van Schorissen as the mother — making this a list of children of the marriage, not of all Victor's natural offspring.
This reading makes Lodewyc / joncheer Lodewijck the only one of Victor's three sons recognised by both sources. He is also the only one with documented descendants: Vredius A.15 (Gaillard MS + Oostburg tomb) traces Lodewyc → Joos d. young + Margriete (m. de Baenst, then Erpe). Janne and Adam remain undocumented after 1442 and 1447 respectively.
See entry C.2 for the full analytical discussion.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 274–275. Cross-reference: Vredius compendium A.10 (Adrianus Claisone MS).
B.11 — Mer Jan van Vlaenderen at Brouwershaven§
The Praet line's second-generation knight is dubbed after the battle in Holland · January 1426 (n.s.)
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 298–299 Type: Knighting roll Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
… die prince slouch een goedt ghedeel van zijn edellieden rudders, ter zelver platse daer die bataylgie gheschiede, tusschen de welcke dat die aldervermaerste waren, eerst: Vrancke van Borsele; die heere van St-Maertensdijcke; Heyndrick van Borsele; die heere van der Veere; Jan van Vlaenderen, die heere van Praet ende van der Woestijne; Jan van Egmont; Jan van Halewijn ende Jan Witthoen; die heere van Oostcamp ende van Heyle, met noch eenighe andere die hem zelfs clouckts ende vroomst ghedreghen hadden.
Translation
… the prince [Philip the Good] dubbed a good portion of his nobles knights, on the very spot where the battle had taken place. Among whom the most renowned were, first: Frank van Borsele, lord of Sint-Maartensdijk; Heyndrick van Borsele, lord of Veere; Jan van Vlaenderen, lord of Praet and Woestine; Jan of Egmond; Jan of Halewijn; and Jan Witthoen; the lord of Oostkamp and Heyle; together with several others who had borne themselves most boldly and bravely.
Summary
The Battle of Brouwershaven (12–13 January 1426 n.s.) was Philip the Good's decisive victory in the Hook-and-Cod Wars over the forces of Jacqueline of Hainaut. Philip dubbed his most distinguished Flemish nobles knight on the field. Jan van Vlaenderen, die heere van Praet ende van der Woestijne appears in this list, among the Borseles and Egmonds — the absolute upper rank of Burgundian Holland-and-Zeeland nobility.
This is the second-generation Praet line: the son of Lodewijck "de Vriese" who was killed at Nicopolis thirty years before. By 1425, the Praet lordship has passed to him, and he is now a war-tested knight of the Burgundian court. The 1440 White Bear entry (B.15) will confirm his filiation explicitly.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 298–299.
B.12 — Victor's Mediation after the Cassel Revolt§
"Mer Victor, die bastaerde van Vlaenderen, capiteyn van der stede van St-Omaers, shertoghe Philips oude oom" intercedes for the rebels · 1430
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 323 Type: Court mediation narrative Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
… men hieuw beede die voorghementionneerde capiteynen ende voorstelders van der meutte te Cassele den hals of, maer alle die reste verwerfde gracie byder zeer neerstigher intercessie van Mer Victor, die bastaerde van Vlaenderen, capiteyn van der stede van St-Omaers, shertoghe Philips oude oom, behoudens dat zy van al huerlieden wapenen scheeden, ende in huerlieden lijnwaet vergiffenesse bidden moeste, ende daerenboven noch betalen zes duyzent goude noblen voor eender profijtable amende, zo tgheschiede.
Translation
… both the aforementioned captains and ringleaders of the riot at Cassel were beheaded; but all the rest obtained mercy by the most earnest intercession of Sir Victor, the bastard of Flanders, captain of the city of Saint-Omer, Duke Philip's old uncle, on condition that they put off all their arms and beg pardon in their shirts, and on top of that pay six thousand gold nobles as a profitable fine — as it came to pass.
Summary
The 1430 Cassel revolt — a peasant and burgher uprising in Flemish Maritime Flanders against ducal taxation — was suppressed by Burgundian forces; the leaders were executed at Cassel. The intercession of Mer Victor saved the rest of the rebels from death, at the cost of disarmament, ritual humiliation, and a 6,000-noble fine.
The phrase "shertoghe Philips oude oom" — "Duke Philip's old uncle" — confirms Victor's relationship to Philip the Good (great-uncle, since Philip's father John the Fearless was the son of Margaret of Male, Victor's half-sister). The descriptor "oude" (old) places Victor in his late sixties or older by 1430, consistent with a 1360s birth date for the youngest of Louis II's nine sons.
Cassel, where the revolt was crushed, is in the same Maritime Flanders region as Saint-Omer, where Victor was captain. The intercession is therefore both political (a court bastard's voice at Philip's table) and territorial (a regional captain pleading for local subjects).
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 323.
B.13 — Victor's Death and Saint-Omer Burial§
Death notice — sharper than Vredius's pre-1442 terminus · 1431
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 324 Type: Obituary notice in narrative Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
… ende zy en waren zo haest niet weder thuys ghekeert ofte Mer Victor, die bastaert van Vlaenderen (daer wy hier voren of vermaent hebben) en wiert metten doot ghemeene, ende licht begraven tSt-Omaers.
Translation
… and they had no sooner returned home than Sir Victor, the bastard of Flanders (whom we have mentioned above) was overtaken by death, and lies buried at Saint-Omer.
Summary
The clearest evidentiary gain Despars's chronicle adds beyond the Vredius corpus. Victor's death is fixed in 1431, immediately after the Cassel mediation (B.12). His burial is at Saint-Omer, the city of which he was captain.
SHARPENING VREDIUS A.13
The 1441/1442 Ghent donation charter (Vredius A.13) — keystone of the Vredius compendium — establishes only that Victor was deceased before 10 March 1442 N.S. ("wijlen … van saligher memorien"). Despars's chronicle narrows the death to 1431, eleven years earlier. His grandmother Margriete Aelfhuuts was thus, in March 1442, donating to grandsons whose father had been dead eleven years — explaining the size of the bequest (18 lb. gr. each) as a generous provision for orphaned natural children.
The Saint-Omer burial location is also new evidence. Vredius records no tomb for Victor; Despars locates him in the cathedral city he had captained for at least the last year of his life. A tomb survey at Saint-Omer (Notre-Dame, Saint-Bertin, the Dominicans) would be a productive next step in the research programme.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 324. Cross-reference: Vredius compendium A.11 (1430 testament executors), A.13 (1441 donation charter establishing pre-1442 terminus).
B.14 — Mer Jan van Vlaenderen at the Damme Garrison§
Garrison captain at Damme during the 1436–1438 Bruges revolt · with Lilleadam and Joos van Huele
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 372 Type: Garrison narrative Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
… ende over zulex zo ghinck hem Jan van Vilers, die heere van Lilleadam ende van den Gulden vliese, van dier tijt voort ten Damme houden, met zijnen garnisoene uyt Pijcardien, Artoys ende Henegauwe, daer naer hem ooc capiteynen of waren, Mer Jan van Vlaenderen, die heere van Praet ende van der Woestijne, ende Mer Joos van Huele, die heere van Lichtervelde, zo grootelicx al ten ghemeenen verdriete ende leetwesene van die van Brugghe …
Translation
… and on this account Jan van Vilers, lord of L'Isle-Adam and of the Golden Fleece, took up residence from that time at Damme, with his garrison from Picardy, Artois and Hainaut. Subordinate captains were also Sir Jan van Vlaenderen, lord of Praet and of Woestine, and Sir Joos van Huele, lord of Lichtervelde — greatly to the common dismay and grief of the people of Bruges …
Summary
During the Bruges revolt of 1436–1438 (a Flemish urban revolt against Philip the Good in the wake of the failed Calais expedition), the duke installed Jan van Vilers, lord of L'Isle-Adam and a Knight of the Golden Fleece, as governor at Damme — Bruges's outport on the Zwin. Mer Jan van Vlaenderen, lord of Praet and Woestine, served as one of his subordinate captains. Damme had effectively become an occupation force pressing on the rebellious city.
This is the Praet line at the height of its court loyalty: a mid-15th-century territorial lord serving as a Burgundian garrison captain against his own region's principal city. The bear-prize entry of 1440 (B.15) follows from this position — Jan returns triumphantly to Bruges as a participant in the city's premier annual jousting tournament after the revolt is suppressed.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 372.
B.15 — Mer Jan van Vlaenderen at the White Bear Jousting§
"F. Mer Lodewijcx (ghezeit de Vriese)" — the explicit father-son line from the bastard of Louis II to the lord of Praet · 1440
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 425 Type: Tournament prize-roll Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
Tnaervolghende jaer, up den tweeden zondach naer Paesschen, den X van april, vespereyde te Brugghe die forestier voorzeit, commende sdaechs daer naer zeer statelick ter bane ghereden, met Jan Heldebolle, Jan de Baenst, Jacob Bave, Antheunis Drielinck, Jan van den Vagheviere ende Jan Parlant, aldaer zy onderlinghe menighe vrome carriere liepen jeghens mencanderen, zo dat Jan van de Vagheviere int ende, by zonderlinghe prouesse, den spiet ghecreech, Jan de Baenst den hoorne, ende Mer Jan van Vlaenderen, die heere van Praet ende van der Woestijne, F. Mer Lodewijcx (ghezeit de Vriese), den beer; reghelende hemlieden voorts nopende tsurplus in als naer die voorgaende, elc int zijne.
Translation
In the following year [1440], on the second Sunday after Easter — the 10th of April — the aforesaid Forester held the eve-of-tournament feast at Bruges, coming the next day onto the lists most stately, with Jan Heldebolle, Jan de Baenst, Jacob Bave, Antheunis Drielinck, Jan van den Vagheviere and Jan Parlant; where they ran many a brave course against each other, so that Jan van de Vagheviere in the end, by singular prowess, won the lance; Jan de Baenst the horn; and Sir Jan van Vlaenderen, lord of Praet and Woestine, son of Sir Lodewijck called de Vriese — the bear; the rest of them ranking themselves in the prizes after the aforesaid manner, each in his own.
Summary
THE CLEANEST FILIATION IN EITHER COMPENDIUM
One sentence — "Mer Jan van Vlaenderen, die heere van Praet ende van der Woestijne, F. Mer Lodewijcx (ghezeit de Vriese)" — attests father-to-son the entire link from Louis II's master-list bastard (de Vriese) to the second-generation surname-bearer (Mer Jan van Vlaenderen of Praet). The Latin filial abbreviation F. is unambiguous: filius, son of.
This collapses one of the four generations posited in the master-list passage at p. 114 (entry A.1), where the chain reads Lodewijck de Vriese → Mer Jan van Vlaenderen → Mer Lodewijck → Mer Lodewijck of Praet. Either the master list is overspecified (Despars adding intermediate generations to fill out a thinly-attested filiation), or the 1440 Mer Jan is the second Mer Jan bearing the same name in successive generations. The latter is possible but would be unusual; the simpler reading is that Despars, writing one passage from genealogical tradition (p. 114) and another from the contemporary tournament rolls (p. 425), produced an inconsistency, and the 1440 attestation is the more reliable because it is closer to the documentary source.
Cross-reference Vredius compendium Section C (Praet line, A.9): both compendia now agree on the Lodewijck de Vriese → Jan filiation as the foundational generation of the Praet line.
The tournament prize is the bear (den beer), the second-rank prize at the annual White Bear festival of Bruges. Mer Jan's participation is a sign of full reintegration into Bruges civic life two years after the suppression of the 1438 revolt.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 425. Cross-reference: Vredius compendium A.9 (Louis Friese & the founding of the Praet line).
B.16 — Adriaen van Vlaenderen at Hulst§
A second-generation grandson of Louis II — and a brother who is the chronicler of Ten Duinen · 1453
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 518 Type: Military expedition narrative + filiation Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
Tsaderdachs, den XIIen van der maent als voren, dede Mer Adriaen van Vlaenderen, die heere van Voorhoute, Fs Mer Hectoors (daer zaligher memorie die grave Lodewijck van Vlaenderen, ghezeit van Male, van bastaerdye weghe die vadere of was) alle extreme poghernie ende neersticheit omme ghewapender handt die stede van Hulst, in Vierambochten, ter behoorlicker obedientie ende onderdanicheit te bringhene, byder hulpe van Jan van Berchem die zijn zustere ghetraut hadde, metsghaders ooc van Jacob de But, die broedere van Adriaen, wijlent religieux ende groot cronijckeur int cloostere ten Dunen, maer voorwaer die zake quam al anders dan zy meenden …
Translation
On Saturday, the 12th of the said month, Sir Adriaen van Vlaenderen, lord of Voorhoute, son of Sir Hector — whose father, by way of bastardy, was the late Count Lodewijck van Vlaenderen called of Male, of pious memory — exerted every extreme effort and diligence to bring the town of Hulst in the Vier Ambachten by force of arms back to its due obedience and subjection, with the help of Jan van Berchem (who had married his sister) and likewise of Jacob de But, Adriaen's brother, late religious and great chronicler at the cloister of Ten Duinen; but truly the matter went otherwise than they had intended …
Summary
A NEW BRANCH
This single sentence opens a branch of the cohort not documented in the Vredius compendium. Mer Adriaen van Vlaenderen, lord of Voorhoute, is a third-generation Maleani descendant: grandson of Louis II, son of Hector (master-list son #6, B.4 above; possibly also B.23 below if the 1436 Hulst defender is the same Hector). The filiation is given explicitly: "Fs Mer Hectoors … Lodewijck van Vlaenderen, ghezeit van Male, van bastaerdye weghe die vadere of was" — "son of Sir Hector — whose father, by way of bastardy, was Lodewijck called of Male."
The household reaches further: Adriaen has a sister married to Jan van Berchem (Antwerp/Brabant nobility), and a brother Jacob de But, identified as "wijlent religieux ende groot cronijckeur int cloostere ten Dunen" — late religious and great chronicler at the cloister of Ten Duinen. This is Jacobus Buth (de But), the well-known fifteenth-century chronicler of the Cistercian abbey at Ten Duinen near Koksijde. If Despars is correct, then Buth was a maternal grandson of Louis II de Male and a third-generation Maleani descendant — a startling claim worth verifying against Buth's own chronicle and the Duinenabdij records.
The Hulst expedition itself failed: of Adriaen's company, six were killed in the engagement and twenty-seven captured, the captives subsequently hanged at Meerlebeke and buried beneath the gallows by order of Dierijck van Schoonbrouck, captain of Ghent. Adriaen's fate is not reported in the immediate context.
Voorhoute as a lordship has thus passed two generations from its 1382 holder Hector (entry B.4) to his son Adriaen by 1453 — seventy-one years of continuous family tenure of the same Flemish lordship, attested in the same chronicle by the same surname.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 518. No Vredius cross-reference: this branch is unattested in the Vredius compendium.
B.17 — Jan zonder Landt as Future Lord of Drincham§
Master-list son #5 attested in narrative · 1383
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 93 Type: Filiation note within a court narrative Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
… (ghezeit Zonder Landt) zijnen bastaerden zuene, naermaels heere van Drincham …
Translation
… (called Zonder Landt) his bastard son, later lord of Drincham …
Summary
A brief but dated attestation of Mer Jan zonder Landt as one of Louis II's bastard sons, with the lordship of Drincham named as "naermaels" (afterwards) — i.e., a future or subsequent acquisition. This is consistent with the master-list passage (A.1), which uses "toecommende" (forthcoming) for the same Drincham lordship: at the 1383 master-enumeration moment the lordship has not yet been granted.
The pair "toecommende heere van Drincham" (A.1) + "naermaels heere van Drincham" (this entry) suggests the lordship was granted between Louis II's death (1383) and zonder Landt's death at Nicopolis (1396) — most plausibly an early gift from Philip the Bold, Louis II's son-in-law and successor as count, who would have wished to provide for the bastard half-brothers of his wife Margaret of Male.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 93.
B.18 — dHaze and Hector at Biervliet§
Master-list sons #1 and #6 explicitly named as brothers, defending Biervliet against the English · 1385
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 124 (and p. 130, garrison continuation) Type: Garrison narrative with explicit fraternal identification Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch — p. 124)
… dat Mer Lodewijck dHaze, die capiteyn van Biervliet, ende Mer Hector, zijn broedere …
Transcription (Middle Dutch — p. 130, defensive action)
… omme die uytnemende prouesse ende vaylgiandise wille van Lodewijck dHase, dieder met goet garnisoen binnen was ende hem nieuwers in en versaechde, overmits dassistentie van den grave Willem van Ostervant, die hem met zijne Hollanders ter hulpe quam …
Translation — p. 124
… that Sir Lodewijck dHaze, captain of Biervliet, and Sir Hector, his brother …
Translation — p. 130
… on account of the outstanding prowess and bravery of Lodewijck dHase, who was inside with a good garrison and shrank from nothing, with the assistance of Count Willem van Ostervant, who came to his aid with his Hollanders …
Summary
A second explicit fraternal pairing in Vol III. The Biervliet defence of 1385 places dHaze (master-list son #1) and Hector (master-list son #6) together as brothers, complementing the 1405 Hector + Victor pairing (B.8) and the 1404 Robrecht + Victor pairing (B.21). The three pairings collectively establish that the cohort's surviving members (Hector, Robrecht, Charles, Victor — and before Nicopolis, dHaze, Rodolf, de Vriese, zonder Landt) treated one another as full brothers within a court-and-naval-command unit, regardless of mother.
The defence of Biervliet was a strategic success: the English siege had to be lifted with heavy loss. dHaze's command at Biervliet, with Hector at his side as brother, extends his career arc beyond the field-commander role of B.1–B.2 (1380–81) and the council role of B.3 (1385) — by mid-1385 he is also a garrison commander at a key coastal town.
The Biervliet attestation also helps anchor Hector's chronology. If Hector is dHaze's brother in 1385 and both are bastards of Louis II, then Hector's joncheer status at B.4 (1382) was a function of his youth at the time (he had not yet been knighted), and by 1385 he is a Mer knight serving alongside his elder brother. By 1405 (B.8) he is paired with Victor; by 1436 (B.23, if the same individual) he is still active at age ~71.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 124 and p. 130.
B.19 — Marshal Vaveringny as Lord of Lilers§
Margriete-Vaveringny's husband identified with both seigniorial title and office · 1386
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 156 Type: Council attestation Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
Mer Robrecht van Vaveringny, die heere van Lilers ende maerschalck van Vlaenderen …
Translation
Sir Robrecht van Vaveringny, lord of Lilers and marshal of Flanders …
Summary
The seigniorial title sharpens the Vaveringny identification. Lilers (modern Lillers, in the Pas-de-Calais near Béthune) was a substantial castellany on the southern Flemish-Artois frontier. The combination of regional lordship (Lilers) and crown office (marshal) places Margriete-Vaveringny's husband in the upper rank of the Burgundian-Flemish military aristocracy — consistent with his role at B.5 (1382 Bruges warning to Louis II) and with his being chosen to marry a bastard daughter of the count.
The Lilers attestation has direct bearing on cross-flag F.4 (the two-Margrietes question). Vredius A.22 identifies a separate Margriete-Vuerhaute married to Hector van Vuerhaute, dying 18 October 1415 at Ghent. The Despars Margriete-Vaveringny dies March 1388 (B.20). If Vaveringny holds Lilers and Vuerhaute holds Voorhoute, the two husbands have distinct seigniorial profiles and the two Margrietes are therefore two separate persons — both bastard daughters of Louis II. This is the working interpretation.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 156.
B.20 — dHaze's Paris Tournament Prize and Margriete-Vaveringny's Death§
The Paris court tournament for Isabeau of Bavaria's joyeuse entrée + Margriete-Vaveringny's death in the previous March · 1388–89
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 159 Type: Two adjacent passages on the same page Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch — March 1388 (Margriete-Vaveringny death))
… ende in de maent van maerte versciet vrau Margriete van Vlaenderen van dezer weerelt, wettelijcke gheselnede van Mer Robrecht van Vaveringny, daer wy voor dees tijt meer dan eens of vermaent hebben.
Translation
… and in the month of March, Lady Margriete van Vlaenderen departed from this world, lawful wife of Sir Robrecht van Vaveringny, of whom we have made mention more than once before now.
Transcription (Middle Dutch — 1389 (Paris tournament))
Tjaer dater naer volchde hielt men te Parijs, ter blijder comste van der coninghinne Isabelle, een zeer magnifick steicspel, aldaer die coninck Charles zelve den prijs van binnen verdiende, ende Mer Lodewijck van Vlaenderen, ghezeit dHaze, conquesteirde den prijs van die van buyten, niet jeghenstaende dater die hertoghe van Berry, die hertoghe Philips van Bourgoengnen, die hertoghe Charles van Bourbon, Jan van Bourbon, Jacob van Bourbon, die grave Willem van Namen, Mer Olivier van Clisson, die connestable, die grave Jan van Vienne, die grave Willem van Ostervant …
Translation
The year following, there was held at Paris, for the joyful arrival of Queen Isabella, a most magnificent tournament, at which King Charles himself won the prize of those within, and Sir Lodewijck van Vlaenderen, called dHaze, captured the prize of those without — notwithstanding that there were present the Duke of Berry, Duke Philip of Burgundy, Duke Charles of Bourbon, Jan of Bourbon, Jacques of Bourbon, Count Willem of Namur, Sir Olivier de Clisson the Constable, Count Jan of Vienne, Count Willem of Ostrevant …
Summary
Two adjacent passages on the same page document two separate events:
The first records the March 1388 death of "vrau Margriete van Vlaenderen, wettelijcke gheselnede van Mer Robrecht van Vaveringny" — Margriete (master-list daughter #2 per A.1), wife of the marshal of Flanders and lord of Lilers (B.19), dies in March 1388, six years after intervening at the May 1382 Bruges flight (B.5). This is the death attested by Despars; cross-flag F.4 reads it against Vredius A.22's Margriete-Vuerhaute dying October 1415.
The second records dHaze's 1389 Paris tournament prize at the joyeuse entrée of Isabeau of Bavaria. dHaze wins the prize for the outside-knights, in a field that includes the Duke of Berry, Philip the Bold of Burgundy, three Bourbon princes, and the constable Olivier de Clisson. This is the most senior court-level recognition of any Maleani bastard outside Flanders attested in any extant source. The dHaze career arc — 1380 ambush at Torhout (B.1), 1381 young knight (B.2), 1385 council and Biervliet defence (B.3, B.18), 1389 Paris tournament prize (this entry), 1396 Nicopolis death (B.7) — is now reconstructed across five Vol III attestations spanning sixteen years.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 159.
B.21 — Robrecht and Victor in a Naval Action against the English§
"beede die bastaerden van Vlaenderen" — Robrecht's only narrative attestation in Vol III · 1404
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 184 Type: Naval campaign narrative Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
… die ghuene die met Jan Blanckaert, den admirael van Vlaenderen, ondere tbeleet van Mer Robrecht ende Mer Victor, beede die bastaerden van Vlaenderen, dat zyter al roofden ende stolen (in prejudicie van de Inghelschen) daer zy by ofte omtrent gheraken consten, in zulcker wijs dat die van Nieupoort …
Translation
… those who, with Jan Blanckaert the admiral of Flanders, under the command of Sir Robrecht and Sir Victor — both the bastards of Flanders — plundered and robbed everywhere they could reach (in prejudice of the English), in such a manner that the people of Nieuwpoort …
Summary
FILLING THE ROBRECHT-LINE GAP
This 1404 passage is the only sustained narrative episode in Volume III featuring Mer Robrecht, the Maleani master-list son #7 (lord of Elverdinghe and Vlamertinghe, burgrave of Ypres). In the v3.1 compendium Robrecht appears only at A.1 (the 1383 master enumeration) with no chronicle action of his own. Here in 1404 — a year before the better-known Hector + Victor naval campaign at p. 194 (entry B.8) — Robrecht is in joint command at sea with his younger brother Victor.
The phrasing "beede die bastaerden van Vlaenderen" (both the bastards of Flanders) explicitly attests their shared status as natural sons of Louis de Male, matching the cohort identity established at A.1.
The pairing pattern is structurally important. The Vol III narrative attests three fraternal pairings:
- dHaze + Hector at Biervliet 1385 (B.18)
- Robrecht + Victor at sea 1404 (this entry)
- Hector + Victor at sea 1405 (B.8)
The three pairings overlap on Victor and on the brothers Hector and Robrecht. They are consistent with all six surviving Maleani sons (dHaze, de Vriese, zonder Landt already dead at Nicopolis 1396; Hector, Robrecht, Charles, Victor surviving) treating one another as full siblings within a court-and-naval-command cohort. The cohort is not merely a paternal-line enumeration in Despars — it is an active operating unit.
The 1404 Robrecht attestation closes a 51-year gap between A.1 (1383 enumeration) and Vredius A.17 (1434 Elverdinghe tomb). Robrecht is now placed at sea in 1404, witnessing the 1420 Victor marriage contract (Vredius A.10), and dying 1434. Three independent datapoints for a previously thinly-attested figure.
Source precedence: this is the only known primary attestation of Robrecht in a narrative episode prior to his 1420 marriage-contract witness role. Cite Despars Vol. III p. 184 as primary.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 184. No Vredius compendium parallel.
B.22 — Rodolph van Vlaenderen Pre-Agincourt§
Surname-form attestation at Jan van Bethune's side · 1408
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 211 Type: Council / military roll Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch — excerpt from roll)
… Jan van Bethune; Rodolph van Vlaenderen; Floreins van Borsele; Guyschaert van der Burcht; Inghelram van Bourneville; Jan van Trimouylgie …
Translation
… Jan van Bethune; Rodolph van Vlaenderen; Floreins van Borsele; Guyschaert van der Burcht; Inghelram van Bourneville; Jan van Trimouylgie …
Summary
Rodolph van Vlaenderen at the side of Jan van Bethune in 1408 — seven years before his death at Agincourt (B.9). This is the earliest dated surname-form attestation of Rodolph; the earlier Rufelaert and "sgrave bastaerde zuene" attestations (B.6, D.2) use the epithet rather than the surname. The transition from epithet to surname between 1385 and 1408 is consistent with the cohort's general surname-evolution pattern: by the second decade of the fifteenth century Rodolph is being recorded under "van Vlaenderen" as a heritable identifier.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 211.
B.23 — Hector Defending Hulst§
"Mer Hector, die bastaert van Vlaenderen, heere van Voorhoutte" wederstanding a Ghent and English raid · 1436
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 364 Type: Border defence narrative Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
… ghegoede quartier van Hulst, insghelijcx te beroovene ende te pijlgierene, maer Mer Hector, die bastaert van Vlaenderen, heere van Voorhoutte, wederstont ende belettedet, met die van den lande van Waes, Axele ende andere circumvoisine steden ende prochien.
Translation
… the rich quarter of Hulst, likewise to be plundered and pillaged, but Sir Hector, the bastard of Flanders, lord of Voorhoute, withstood and prevented it, with the men of the land of Waes, Aksel, and other neighbouring towns and parishes.
Summary
A 1436 attestation of "Mer Hector, die bastaert van Vlaenderen, heere van Voorhoutte" defending Hulst (in the Vier Ambochten / Land of Waes, just east of Saaftinge) against a Ghent-and-English raid during the early stages of the 1436–38 Bruges revolt. This entry extends Hector's career arc by 31 years past B.8 (1405 naval campaign).
Identification question
Two readings:
(1) Same Hector as B.4 (1382), B.8 (1405), B.18 (1385). If Hector was born c. 1365 (consistent with joncheer status in 1382), he would be ~71 in 1436. Long-lived but not impossible — Mer Charles of Gruterssale (Vredius A.20) dies in 1491 at an age that would imply a 1370s birth.
(2) A different Hector — son of the elder Hector, named for his father (Hector II). This would explain the "Fs Mer Hectoors" of B.16 (1453) as referring to a recently-deceased father rather than to a long-deceased elder Hector.
The text gives no disambiguating information. The seigniory (Voorhoute) and surname-form (die bastaert van Vlaenderen) are consistent with both readings. The B.16 1453 entry's parenthetical "daer zaligher memorie die grave Lodewijck van Vlaenderen, ghezeit van Male, van bastaerdye weghe die vadere of was" — "of whom of pious memory Count Louis of Male was father by way of bastardy" — most naturally reads Louis II as Adriaen's paternal grandfather, supporting reading (1) where Adriaen's father Hector is the same Hector who is bastard son of Louis II.
If reading (2) is preferred, then Hector II would be grandson of Louis II — and B.16's "Fs Mer Hectoors" + Louis II as grootvader would still hold for the same generational distance. Either reading is consistent with the chronology.
See cross-flag F.6.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 364.
Part III — The Earlier Cohorts in Volume II
Eight attestations from Volume II, c. 1300–1364 — the parental generation of the Maleani cohort. The material divides into three categories: independent corroboration of Vredius compendium entries (D.1 reproduces Vredius A.5 / A.32; D.4 corresponds to Vredius A.4); independent corroboration of the Vol III master list (D.2 and D.3 attest master-list positions 2 and 3 in earlier passages within Vol II itself, validating Rodolf and Colaert outside the A.1 enumeration); and new findings not paralleled in the Vredius corpus (D.5, D.6, D.7, D.8 — four bastards or paternal half-brothers of Counts of Flanders not previously documented).
The entries below are arranged in chronological order. Four additional Volume I attestations (D.9–D.12) covering the legendary pre-1067 period appear in the working findings record but are not reproduced here.
D.1 — Isabella, Bastard Daughter of Louis I de Nevers§
Wife of Simon de Mirabello, tomb at Sint-Pharahildis Ghent · independent Despars attestation
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. II, p. 220 Type: Obituary entry / parenthetical note in death of Louis I de Nevers Language: Middle Dutch Cross-reference: Vredius compendium A.5 (Isabella of Somergem) and A.32 (the Eeklo charter)
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
Deze grave Lodewijck hadde ooc binnen zijnen levene een natuerlicke ofte bastaerde dochtere ghehadt, die Isabelle heet, huysvrau van Sijmon van Mirabeel, ghelijck men noch ten daghe van hedent an haer sepulture te Ghendt, in die kercke van Ste-Veerle, claerlick voor ooghen zien ende mer …
Translation
This Count Lodewijck [Louis I de Nevers, d. 1346] also had during his lifetime a natural or bastard daughter named Isabelle, wife of Simon de Mirabello, as one can still today see clearly at her tomb in Ghent, in the church of Ste-Veerle [Saint-Pharahildis], and …
Summary
An independent Despars attestation of the same Isabella documented in Vredius compendium A.5 (Isabella of Somergem, with the Eeklo charter A.32). The two sources converge on three points:
(1) Bastard status. Despars: "natuerlicke ofte bastaerde dochtere" of Louis I de Nevers. Vredius A.5: bastard daughter of the same count. Independent attestation from two textual traditions.
(2) Marriage to Simon de Mirabello. Despars names Mirabello as husband; Vredius A.5 records the same marriage. Mirabello was the lord of Perwijs and a major financier of the Burgundian counts — a substantial dynastic alliance.
(3) Sint-Pharahildis Ghent tomb. Despars locates her tomb at "die kercke van Ste-Veerle" — the church of Saint-Pharahildis (Ste-Veerle) at Ghent. This is a new evidentiary detail not in Vredius; Vredius A.5 attests her status and marriage but no tomb location. The Sint-Pharahildis location is consistent with the Mirabello family's Ghent presence.
Source precedence
For the bastard daughter status and the Mirabello marriage: cite Vredius A.5 as primary (the Eeklo charter is the earliest extant primary document). Despars Vol. II p. 220 corroborates.
For the tomb location at Sint-Pharahildis Ghent: Despars Vol. II p. 220 is the only known primary attestation. Cite Despars first for the tomb. A tomb survey at Sint-Pharahildis would be a productive next step in the research programme.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. II, p. 220. Cross-reference: Vredius compendium A.5 and A.32.
D.2 — dHaze and Rodolf as Joint Bastards of the Count§
Master-list sons #1 and #2 named together as "beede sgrave bastaerde zuenen van Vlaenderen" in a military command list · Vol II
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. II, p. 506 Type: Military command name list Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch — excerpt from roll)
… Lodewijck ghezeit dHaze, ende Rodholf zijnen broedere, beede sgrave bastaerde zuenen van Vlaenderen; die burchgrave van Berghen; Woutere die heere van Halewijn; die heere van Moerkercke; Woutere die heere van Morselede; Diederijck die heere van der Gracht …
Translation
… Lodewijck called dHaze, and Rodolf his brother, both [the] count's bastard sons of Flanders; the burgrave of Bergues; Wouter, lord of Halewijn; the lord of Moerkercke; Wouter, lord of Morselede; Diederijck, lord of van der Gracht …
Summary
VALIDATES MASTER-LIST POSITION 2 (RODOLF) OUTSIDE A.1
This Vol II passage is the only known primary attestation of Rodolf as a Maleani bastard outside the A.1 master enumeration. The locution "beede sgrave bastaerde zuenen van Vlaenderen" — "both [the] count's bastard sons of Flanders" — explicitly attests both dHaze and Rodolf as natural sons of the count (Louis II de Male), and explicitly attests them as brothers (Rodholf zijnen broedere).
This is a critical independent corroboration. The v3.1 compendium treated Rodolf as documented solely by the A.1 master list (with one further B.6 narrative attestation under the variant epithet Rufelaert). The Vol II p. 506 attestation places Rodolf in a dated military command roll alongside his elder brother dHaze, in a list of senior Flemish nobles — confirming both his existence and his cohort status from an independent textual passage within the same chronicle.
Combined with B.6 (1385 Aerdenburg, as Rufelaert) and B.22 (1408 Bethune's side, as Rodolph) and B.9 (1415 Agincourt death, as Rodolph), Rodolf now has four independent Vol III narrative attestations plus this Vol II attestation — making him among the more densely documented Maleani sons, behind only dHaze and Victor.
The date of the Vol II passage is uncertain — Vol II covers 1067–1346 and the passage is at p. 506 (late in Vol II), so the chronological context is around the end of Louis I de Nevers's reign (d. 1346). If the dHaze + Rodolf joint attestation is from c. 1345, they were c. 18–25 years old, suggesting birth dates c. 1320–1327 for the elder Maleani sons. This is earlier than the c. 1361 birth date inferred for dHaze from B.2 ("noch gheen XX jaer oudt" in 1381). Either the Vol II passage refers to an event later in the dHaze career arc (1370s, with the chronicler placing it within his Vol II year-coverage by error), or dHaze and Rodolf were significantly older than B.2 implies. The discrepancy is flagged as a chronological question; the Vol II passage is reliable on the parentage attestation regardless of its dating.
Source precedence
For Rodolf as a Maleani bastard: cite Despars Vol. II p. 506 as primary, with Vol III B.6 (Aerdenburg) as corroborating narrative attestation.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. II, p. 506.
D.3 — Colaert as "die bastaert van Vlaenderen"§
Master-list son #3 named in a witness list as "die bastaert van Vlaenderen" · Vol II
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. II, p. 507 Type: Witness list Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch — excerpt from witness list)
… sprincens cousin, in de presentie ende jeghenwoordicheit van Gheeraert van Heetvelde; Colaert, die bastaert van Vlaenderen; Gillis Favele; Jan die heere van Ghistele; Roegier van Ghistele; Gheeraert van Ghistele; Gheldolf van den Gruuthuyse; Willem Plateel; Jan van Morselede; Jan Spoorkin; Montfrant van Eessene; Jan van Bernagie; Hector …
Translation
… the prince's cousin, in the presence and presence of Gheeraert van Heetvelde; Colaert, the bastard of Flanders; Gillis Favele; Jan, lord of Ghistele; Roegier van Ghistele; Gheeraert van Ghistele; Gheldolf van den Gruuthuyse; Willem Plateel; Jan van Morselede; Jan Spoorkin; Montfrant van Eessene; Jan van Bernagie; Hector …
Summary
VALIDATES MASTER-LIST POSITION 3 (COLAERT)
The v3.1 compendium noted that Colaert — master-list position 3 — appears only in the A.1 enumeration with no further narrative attestation. The cross-reference table flagged him as "master-list mention only … needs cross-checking against Gaillard's Collectanea."
This Vol II witness-list attestation closes that gap. Colaert is named explicitly as "die bastaert van Vlaenderen" in a witness list immediately after Gheeraert van Heetvelde and before Gillis Favele. The witness list appears to include "Hector" several names down — possibly the same Hector who is master-list son #6 (the Voorhoute lord, B.4 / B.18 / B.23). If so, the witness list documents both Colaert and Hector present at the same court event, providing the only known dated joint attestation of these two master-list members outside A.1.
Colaert's name is now established as a real Maleani bastard, not a phantom in the A.1 enumeration. He has no further chronicle attestation in Despars (beyond A.1 and this Vol II passage); his career and any descendants remain undocumented.
Source precedence
For Colaert as a Maleani bastard: cite Despars Vol. II p. 507 as the only known primary attestation outside A.1.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. II, p. 507.
D.4 — Mer Ruselart van Vlaenderen, Bastard Brother of Louis de Male§
Senior knight in the Cressiacensis-cohort generation · 1364
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. II, p. 466 Type: Military command name list Language: Middle Dutch Cross-reference: Vredius compendium A.4 ("Mer Ruflard" — possibly the same person)
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
Van dat die grave Lodewijck deze tijdinghe verhoorde, zo zant hy Mer Ruselart van Vlaenderen, zijnen bastaerde broedere, in alderdiligentie duer Poperinghe derrewaert, met een goet ghedeel edelmannen te peerde, daer hy die voornoemde rebellighe zo viandelick mede up tlijf viel, dater boven die versleghenen (daer die nombre vry niet cleene of en was) ooc wel XV° ghevanghen wierden …
Translation
When Count Lodewijck heard this news, he sent Sir Ruselart van Vlaenderen, his bastard brother, in all haste through Poperinghe in that direction, with a good number of nobles on horseback, with whom he so fiercely fell upon the aforesaid rebels that — besides the slain (whose number was anything but small) — about fifteen hundred were also captured …
Summary
Despars attests Mer Ruselart van Vlaenderen as a bastard brother of Louis de Male in 1364 — i.e., a Cressiacensis bastard, son of Louis I de Nevers. This places him in the same generation as the five knight-brothers listed at Vredius A.4 (Gaillard MS): Mer Tristram, Mer Ruflard, Mer Lancelot, Mer Guy, and Mer Perceval, all knight-bastards of Louis I.
Identification with Vredius A.4's "Mer Ruflard"
The Despars spelling "Ruselart" matches the Vredius A.4 spelling "Ruflard" closely enough that the long-s ↔ f confusion (a common 17th/18th-c. typographic ambiguity) explains the variance. Both spellings reduce to the same Latinisable form Rufaldus / Ruofaldus. Working identification: Despars's Mer Ruselart = Vredius A.4's Mer Ruflard.
If the identification holds, Despars Vol. II p. 466 is the only known dated narrative attestation of any of the five Cressiacensis knight-brothers besides Sir Guy van Vlaendren (Vredius A.29, d. 8 May 1362). The 1364 attestation places Ruselart on military command three years after Sir Guy's death — making him a senior surviving Cressiacensis knight in the early years of Louis de Male's reign.
A second Despars attestation of the same person occurs at Vol III p. 129 (B.6), where the spelling becomes "Rufelaert" — collapsing into the Maleani master-list position 2's epithet form. The implication is significant: Despars's Mer Ruselart / Rufelaert is a single individual whose patronymic identifier ("zijnen bastaerde broedere" of Louis de Male) places him as Cressiacensis, but whose appearance in master-list position 2 in A.1 places him as Maleani. The most plausible reconciliation is that he is recorded as a Cressiacensis bastard (correctly, as a son of Louis I de Nevers) in his earlier Vol II appearance, and that in the Vol III A.1 enumeration's position 2 he was misplaced — possibly Despars merging two related figures of similar name.
Source precedence
For Mer Ruselart / Rufelaert as a Cressiacensis bastard: Despars Vol. II p. 466 is the dated narrative attestation; Vredius A.4 (Gaillard MS) is the list-context source. Cite both.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. II, p. 466. Cross-reference: Vredius compendium A.4.
D.5 — Mer Guy van Vlaenderen, Heere van Rijckenburch§
Bastard of Mer Robert van Cassele (Robert of Cassel) — a generation between Cressiacensis and Maleani · c. 1331
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. II, p. 307 Type: Obituary aside in death of Robert of Cassel Language: Middle Dutch Cross-reference: not in Vredius compendium
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
… posteriteit dat die heerlichede van Cassele noch langhe ende menighen tijt bleef; hy liet ooc eenen bastaerden zuene achtere, die men Mer Guy van Vlaenderen noemde, heere van Rijckenburch, zo wy ghehoort hebben ende noch byder tijt hooren zullen.
Translation
… under whose posterity the lordship of Cassel remained for a long and many a time; he also left behind a bastard son, who was called Sir Guy van Vlaenderen, lord of Rijckenburch, of whom we have heard and shall again hear in due course.
Summary
A NEW BASTARD-COHORT LINEAGE
Despars's obituary entry for Mer Robrecht van Cassele (Robert of Cassel, legitimate son of Robrecht III de Béthune, d. 1331) explicitly attests that Robert of Cassel left a bastard son Mer Guy van Vlaenderen, heere van Rijckenburch. Robert of Cassel is the brother of Louis I de Nevers (both legitimate sons of Robrecht III); his bastard son Mer Guy is therefore a first cousin of Louis de Male, in the generation between Cressiacensis (Louis I's bastards) and Maleani (Louis II's bastards).
This is a new bastard-cohort lineage not in the Vredius compendium. The Vredius corpus documents Cressiacensis bastards (A.1–A.6, A.29–A.34) and Maleani bastards (A.7–A.28). The Robert-of-Cassel bastard branch — represented by Mer Guy van Vlaenderen of Rijckenburch — is a parallel lineage from the brother-of-Louis-I-de-Nevers side of the family.
A second attestation of this Mer Guy occurs at Vol. II p. 303, where the seigniorial name "heere van Rijckenburch" is again paired with "Mer Guy van Vlaenderen" in a 1330s witness list (clipping: vol2_p303_guy_rijckenburch-313.jpg).
A 1487 Vol IV passage at p. 213 mentions "Maerten Lem te Brugghe tzijnen huyse (ghenaemt Rijckenburch)" — a Bruges house owned by Maerten Lem called Rijckenburch (clipping: vol4_p213_rijckenburch-223.jpg). The Bruges house likely takes its name from the seigniorial Rijckenburch held by Mer Guy in the 1330s, suggesting the lordship's later devolution to a Bruges burgher family. This is a possible prosopographic-research thread of its own.
Source precedence
For Mer Guy van Vlaenderen, heere van Rijckenburch, as bastard son of Robert of Cassel: Despars Vol. II p. 307 (with confirmation at p. 303) is the only known primary attestation. This is a clean addition to the project's prosopographic corpus.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. II, p. 307 (with p. 303). No Vredius parallel.
D.6 — Mer Heyndrick van Vlaenderen, Heere van Ninive§
Military service 1339–1340 — identified as the legitimate Dampierre cadet Henri de Flandre, heer van Ninove (d. 1366)
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. II, pp. 336, ~345, ~349 Type: Three military command name lists Language: Middle Dutch Cross-reference: not in Vredius compendium
Transcription (Middle Dutch — Vol. II p. 336)
… die welcke van der vlaemscher zijde waren deze naervolghende: te wetene eerst, Mer Heyndrick van Vlaenderen, die heere van Ninive; Mer Philips van Axele, wijlent gouverneur van Vlaenderen; Mer Sijmoen van Mirabeel, heere van Perwijs …
Translation
… who on the Flemish side were the following: namely first, Sir Heyndrick van Vlaenderen, lord of Ninive; Sir Philips van Axele, formerly governor of Vlaenderen; Sir Symon de Mirabello, lord of Perwijs …
Summary
In 1339–1340, Mer Heyndrick van Vlaenderen, heere van Ninive (Ninove) appears three times in Despars's Vol II as a senior Flemish military commander in the campaigns of the Hundred Years' War (Louis I de Nevers's reign):
(1) Vol. II p. 336 — listed as the first-named Flemish commander in a knight-list (2) Vol. II ~p. 345 — listed alongside the Earl of Pembroke, Earl Richard of Stafford, and Sir Walter Manny (3) Vol. II ~p. 349 — listed in 1340 alongside John of Hainaut and the lord of Beaumont
The seigniory "heere van Ninive" refers to Ninove, in eastern Flanders. Mer Heyndrick's parentage is not specified by Despars, and he is not in the Vredius compendium A.4 list of Louis I's five knight-brothers (Tristram, Ruflard, Lancelot, Guy, Perceval). The identification is settled by the records-based history of the Ninove lordship: the 1339–1340 commander is Henri de Flandre, heer van Ninove (d. 1366) — a legitimate cadet of the comital house of Dampierre, not a bastard. He was the son of Henri de Flandre, Comte de Lodi (d. 6 November 1337), himself a legitimate son of Count Guy de Dampierre by his second wife Isabella of Luxembourg. The county of Lodi (in Italy) was a grant of Emperor Henry VII of Luxembourg; the elder Henri settled at Ninove and walled the town, and the younger Henri died without heir in 1366, the lordship reverting to the Counts of Flanders (V. Fris, Korte schets der geschiedenis van Ninove, De Vlaamsche Gids, 1914). The contemporary Gelre Armorial (c. 1370–95, folio 49v, shield 413) records the arms of Henri de Flandre, Seigneur de Ninove: the Flanders lion, crowned gules, differenced with a compony cotice argent and gules — a cadency difference, not a bastardy mark.
Two disambiguation guards follow:
(1) Not a comital bastard. L'Espinoy (Recherche des antiquitez et noblesse de Flandres, Douai 1631, Ch. XXXI p. 70 and armorial pp. 108, 110) compresses the Lodi father and the Ninove son into a single "Henry de Flandres, comte de Lode, seigneur de Ninove" and files him among Louis de Male's bastards. Both moves are errors: the figure is two legitimate Dampierre cadets, two-to-three generations senior to Louis de Male, and the line was extinct by 1366.
(2) Not the later Nevers bastard. This Heyndrick is also distinct from the Hendrik van Vlaenderen, bastard of Louis I de Nevers, attested c. 1440 in coastal Zeeland-Flanders (De Flou, Woordenboek der Toponymie, Vol. 16 col. 554) — a separate, later figure.
Source precedence
For Mer Heyndrick van Vlaenderen, heere van Ninive, as Flemish military commander 1339–1340: Despars Vol. II is the only known chronicle attestation of the command itself. The genealogical identification rests on V. Fris, Korte schets der geschiedenis van Ninove (De Vlaamsche Gids, 1914) and the Gelre Armorial (folio 49v, shield 413).
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. II, pp. 336, ~345, ~349. No Vredius parallel.
D.7 — Jan van Vlaenderen, Paternal Half-Brother of Robrecht III§
Bastard of Guy de Dampierre — the earliest dated Flemish-comital bastard in the project corpus · 1304–1305
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. II, p. 167 Type: Peace-conference participant list Language: Middle Dutch Cross-reference: not in Vredius compendium
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
… monde, sgraven voorzeits Robrechts broedere, met die gravinne Adelie van Nyelle, zijnder huysvrau; Jan van Vlaenderen, zijn halve broedere van zijn vaders weghe, ende voort die vier arbiters van der vlaemscher zyde, te wetene: Mer Jan Cuick, gheboren uyt Brabant; Mer Jan van Gavere, die heere van Schorisse …
Translation
… Edmund, the said Count Robrecht's brother, with Countess Adelie van Nielle, his wife; Jan van Vlaenderen, his half-brother on his father's side, and further the four arbitrators on the Flemish side, namely: Sir Jan Cuick, born of Brabant; Sir Jan van Gavere, lord of Schorissen …
Summary
In 1304–1305 peace negotiations, Jan van Vlaenderen, "halve broedere van zijn vaders weghe" ("half-brother on his father's side") of Count Robrecht III de Béthune participates in the Flemish-side delegation. A half-brother on Robrecht III's father's side = a son of Guy de Dampierre (Robrecht III's father, count of Flanders 1278–1305) by a woman other than Robrecht III's mother Matilda of Béthune. In other words, Jan van Vlaenderen, bastard son of Guy de Dampierre.
This identifies a Guy-de-Dampierre-generation bastard not in Vredius's documented cohort. The Vredius compendium's Cressiacensis cohort starts with bastards of Louis I de Nevers (Robrecht III's grandson); D.7 documents a bastard one generation earlier, of Robrecht III's father.
The text's "halve broedere van zijn vaders weghe" phrasing is unambiguous on the patrilineal-bastard reading; the only ambiguity is whether Jan is also a legitimate son by an early or repudiated wife of Guy de Dampierre (less likely given Dampierre marriage history, which records only Matilda of Béthune and Isabella of Luxemburg as legitimate spouses).
Source precedence
For Jan van Vlaenderen as bastard son of Guy de Dampierre: Despars Vol. II p. 167 is the only known primary attestation. This is a clean addition to the project corpus — and (apart from the legendary-period Willem of D.9) the earliest dated comital bastard in the project's research scope.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. II, p. 167. No Vredius parallel.
D.8 — Mer Guy and Jan van Namen as Paternal Half-Brothers of the Count§
Two further paternal half-siblings within the Dampierre generation
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. II, p. 117 Type: Court-roll attestation Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
… die ghuene diet anghinck, ende bysondere van den grave Jan van Namen ende van Mer Guy, beede zijn halve broeders van der vaderlicker zijde, die welcke hem tzijnder wellecomme al tregement van den lande ghezaemdelick ende zeer eendrachtelick overgaven, omme dieswille dat hy huerlieden oudste ende die alder experste prince int faict van wapenen was …
Translation
… those whom it concerned, and in particular Count Jan van Namen and Sir Guy, both his paternal half-brothers, who at his welcome jointly and most concordantly turned over to him the whole government of the land, since he was their eldest and the most experienced prince in matters of arms …
Summary
Two paternal half-brothers of an unnamed count: Jan van Namen (count of Namur — Guy de Dampierre's legitimate younger son with his second wife Isabella of Luxemburg, so technically a half-brother but legitimate) and Mer Guy. The "paternal half-brothers" relationship suggests the count being addressed is one of Guy de Dampierre's sons (most plausibly Robrecht III de Béthune, the eldest, or Philip of Thiette, the count of Chieti).
The "Mer Guy" of this passage is plausibly the same Sir Guy van Vlaendren of Vredius A.29 (d. 8 May 1362) — Guy de Dampierre's bastard son and the founder of the Cressiacensis knight-brothers' father generation. If so, this passage documents Mer Guy in an early appearance (the 13th-c. context implies c. 1305–1310, during the Robrecht III reign) and confirms his Dampierre parentage as a paternal half-brother of the count.
The Jan van Namen identification is more straightforward: Jan of Namur (1267–1330) was the legitimate son of Guy de Dampierre by Isabella of Luxemburg, and thus a legitimate half-brother of Robrecht III. The "paternal half-brother" frame fits both Jan (legitimate, different mother) and Mer Guy (bastard, different mother) under the same locution.
Source precedence
For Mer Guy as paternal half-brother of a count, with Jan of Namur as his fellow half-brother: Despars Vol. II p. 117 is the only known primary attestation pairing the two. The identification with Vredius A.29's Sir Guy van Vlaendren is working hypothesis, supported by the consistent "Mer Guy" form and the Dampierre-generation chronology.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. II, p. 117.
Methodological aside — the d'Avesnes "halve broedere" attestations
Vol II contains five separate attestations of "halve broedere van Vlaenderen" referring to figures from the d'Avesnes family — Jan van Avennes son of Bosschaert, and Boudewijn lord of Avesnes and Beaumont. These are at pdf pages 13, 14 (printed 4), 23 (printed 13), 37, and 60 (printed 50).
These attestations are not Flemish comital bastards in the project's sense. The d'Avesnes brothers are children of Margaret of Constantinople (countess of Flanders 1244–1278) by her contested first marriage to Bouchard d'Avesnes (which was annulled on grounds of pre-existing minor-orders ordination). Their status as "halve broedere van Vlaenderen" derives from sharing a mother with the Dampierre counts of Flanders (William II and Guy de Dampierre), who were Margaret's sons by her second marriage to William II of Dampierre. The d'Avesnes-Dampierre conflict was a major thirteenth-century inheritance dispute that shaped Hainaut-Flanders relations for generations.
These figures are not bastards in the comital-bastard sense documented in the Vredius compendium and elsewhere in this volume. They are children of a marriage whose validity was contested but whose status as "half-brothers via the same mother" is uncontested. The locution "halve broedere van Vlaenderen, van zijn moederlicke zyde" ("half-brother of Flanders on his mother's side") is used by Despars to distinguish them from the patrilineal Dampierre line.
The methodological observation is that "halve broedere" in Despars covers both patrilineal bastards and matrilineal second-marriage children. The distinguishing language is vaders weghe / vaderlicker zijde (paternal side) for patrilineal bastards versus moederlicker zyde / moeders weghe (maternal side) for matrilineal half-siblings of disputed marriages. Both locutions are used elsewhere in the chronicle. Future searches for comital bastards should filter on the vaders weghe / vaderlicker zijde qualifier to exclude the d'Avesnes-type material.
Part IV — The Burgundian Cohort in Volume IV
One keystone attestation in Volume IV: the 1477 "Mer Jan van Bourgoengnen, heere van Elverdinghe ende Vlamerdinghe" — the Robrecht-line succession question that is the most consequential single finding in the four-volume v3.2 expansion.
Where the Maleani cohort of Vol III is the project's central research focus, the Vol IV entry below raises the keystone question of whether the Robrecht line's combined dual seigniory passed through Philip the Good's 1448 Hesdin legitimation of Robrecht's natural son Jean of Flandres (Vredius A.19) into a "van Bourgoengnen" surname-form, or whether the lordship was acquired by a separate Burgundian-court bastard.
Four additional Vol IV attestations (E.2 — Boudewijn van Rijssele in the Meetjesland; E.3, E.4, E.5 — Philip the Good's bastard cohort more broadly) appear in the working findings record but are not reproduced here; the comparative C.3 entry in Section V below provides the relevant Philip-the-Good background.
E.1 — Mer Jan van Bourgoengnen, Heere van Elverdinghe ende Vlamerdinghe — Souverein-Bailiff of Flanders§
The single most consequential new attestation in the four-volume expansion · 1477
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. IV, p. 143 Type: Souverein-bailiff appointment narrative Language: Middle Dutch Cross-references: Vredius compendium A.17 (Robrecht's Elverdinghe tomb d. 1434), A.18 (Anastasia van Oultre d. 1455), A.19 (Jean of Flandres legitimation at Hesdin 1448)
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
Hierentusschen resigneerde Mer Joos van Laleyn die heere van Moningny (nu wederghekeert zijnde van der captiviteit van Loreynen, daer wy elders breedere of vermaent hebben), tsouvereynscip van Vlaenderen, ten profijte van Mer Jan van Bourgoengnen, die heere van Elverdinghe ende van Vlamerdinghe, ende metten zelven zo verhoorde men over al (by den toedoene van Mer Lodewijck Pinnock, die meyere van Leuvene) die zeer blijde ende verhueghellcke tijdinghe van der nedercomste van den eerdtshertoghe Maximiliaen van Oostenrijcke, met volcke van wapenen, ter assistentie van der hertoghinne Marie van Bourgoengnen, zijnder zeer lieve ende zonderlinghe wel beminde bruydt …
Translation
Meanwhile Sir Joos van Laleyn, lord of Moningny (now returned from the captivity of Lorraine, of which we have more fully spoken elsewhere), resigned the souverein-bailiff post of Flanders, to the benefit of Sir Jan van Bourgoengnen, lord of Elverdinghe and Vlamerdinghe; and with that, men everywhere heard (through the agency of Sir Lodewijk Pinnock, mayor of Leuven) the most welcome and joyful tidings of the arrival of Archduke Maximilian of Austria with men at arms, in support of Duchess Mary of Burgundy, his very dear and singularly well-beloved bride …
Summary — The key prosopographic question
In 1477, immediately after Mary of Burgundy's accession and the resignation of the lord of Moningny, the souverein-bailiff post of Flanders passes to Mer Jan van Bourgoengnen, heere van Elverdinghe ende Vlamerdinghe. The combined dual seigniory of Elverdinghe and Vlamerdinghe is identical to the lordship held by Mer Robrecht, natural son of Louis II de Male, per:
- A.1 (1383 master enumeration: "Mer Robrecht, die heere van Elverdinghe ende Vlamerdinghe, burchgrave van Ipere")
- B.21 (1404 naval action with Victor)
- Vredius A.10 (1420 Victor marriage contract witness list: "Mer Robrecht van Vlaendren, Ridder, Heere van Elverdinghe ende Vlamertinghe, ende Burggrave van Ypre")
- Vredius A.17 (1434 Elverdinghe tomb)
- Vredius A.18 (Anastasia van Oultre as the widow surviving to 1455)
After Anastasia's death in 1455 (Vredius A.18) the lordship of Elverdinghe + Vlamerdinghe is not accounted for in any current project documentation between 1455 and this 1477 attestation. Three identification possibilities for the 1477 holder:
(1) Mer Jan van Bourgoengnen 1477 = Jean of Flandres legitimated at Hesdin 1448 (Vredius A.19). This requires that Philip the Good's 1448 legitimation diploma at Hesdin transmitted to the legitimated natural son a "van Bourgoengnen" patronymic in lieu of "van Vlaendren" — consistent with a Burgundian-court legitimation pattern where bastards adopt the ducal house name. If this identification holds, the Robert-line continues unbroken from Robrecht (d. 1434) → Jean of Flandres (legitimated 1448) → Mer Jan van Bourgoengnen (1477), and the Elverdinghe + Vlamerdinghe lordship passes by direct legitimated descent.
(2) Mer Jan van Bourgoengnen 1477 = a separate Burgundian bastard who acquired the combined lordship by purchase, marriage, or ducal grant between 1455 and 1477. The Burgundian court had several "van Bourgoengnen" bastards in this period (Anthony "the Great Bastard" of Burgundy, Boudouin of Burgundy, Cornelis of Burgundy, David of Burgundy bishop of Utrecht). Their seigniorial portfolios are documented in the Lille Chambre des Comptes fonds. If the Elverdinghe + Vlamerdinghe lordship appears in those rolls under one of these names, reading (1) fails.
(3) Mer Jan van Bourgoengnen 1477 = Jean of Flandres, but acquired the lordship not by direct inheritance (Anastasia's 1455 succession may have passed to a Burgrave-of-Ypres relative or to the Burgundian fisc) but by subsequent grant or purchase. This would still place the legitimated son back in possession of the same dual seigniory at 1477.
This is the keystone open question for the Robrecht-line research thread. Reading (1) would confirm that the Robrecht-line surname-bearers continued, under the renamed "van Bourgoengnen" patronymic, into the 1480s — and possibly later. Reading (2) would terminate the Robrecht line at 1455 (Anastasia's death) and re-open the question of where the legitimated son Jean of Flandres ended up.
Falsifiability clause
If the Burgundian Chambre des Comptes at Lille has a roll for the period 1455–1477 documenting transfer of the Elverdinghe + Vlamerdinghe lordship to a non-Flandren bastard (e.g., explicitly to Antoine of Burgundy, Cornelis of Burgundy, or another named non-Flandren acquirer), reading (1) and (3) fail and Mer Jan van Bourgoengnen of 1477 is a separate Burgundian bastard unrelated to Robrecht's line.
Source precedence
For the 1477 souverein-bailiff appointment and the named lordship of Mer Jan van Bourgoengnen: Despars Vol. IV p. 143 is the only known primary attestation in the project corpus. It is the primary citation and the entry point for any follow-up to the Lille Chambre des Comptes fonds. See queue item Q.2.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. IV, p. 143. Cross-references: Vredius compendium A.17, A.18, A.19.
Part V — Comparative & Analytical
Three entries that step back from the chronological narrative. C.1 reproduces the second half of the master passage — Despars's own family chain from Louis II through Victor and Isabelle. C.2 reconsiders the "Adam question" raised in earlier drafts and reframes it as a question about Victor's children, not Louis II's. C.3 places Despars's Maleani enumeration alongside his treatment of Philip the Good's bastard cohort (1467) for comparative perspective on cohort size, sectoral distribution, and territorial reach.
C.1 — The Despars Family Connection§
Six generations from Victor of Saint-Omer to Anne Avesoete, the chronicler's wife · Volume III, p. 114–115
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 114–115 Type: Self-inserted matrilineal genealogy Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch — continuation of A.1)
… Mer Victor, capiteyn van der stede van St-Omaers, die naermaels vrau Johanne van Schorissen traude, vrauwe van Cramosijs ende van Lannoos, die welcke hem ondere andere een dochtere baersde, ghenaemt vrau Isabelle van Vlaenderen, die huysvrau van Mer Symoen de Wijndt, Fs Mer Jans, gheboren van Oostburch, vadere van Mer joncvrau Margriete, die wettelicke gheselnede van Victor de Wijndt, Fs Ghijsbrechts, gheboren van Axele, daer Mer joncvrau Marie of quam, twijf van Adriaen Coene, Fs Jacobs, poortere van Oostburch, ende moedere van joncvrau Josijne, die compaengne van Robrecht, Fs Jans Claeyseune van Avesoete, daer zy een eeneghe zuene by drouch, gheheeten meester Adriaen, man van Mer joncvrau Anne de Baenst, joncheer Antheunis dochtere, die hem insghelijcx ooc vadere maecte van Jacques ende Mer joncvrau Anne, die huysvrau van my Nicolaes Despars, sheer Cornelis zuene, daer naervolghentlick Cornelis ende Jacques of ghedescendeert zijn.
Translation
… Sir Victor, captain of the city of Saint-Omer, who later married Lady Johanne van Schorissen, lady of Cramoysis and Lannoos, who bore him among others a daughter named Lady Isabelle van Vlaenderen, the wife of Sir Symoen de Wijndt, son of Sir Jan, born at Oostburg — father of Lady Margriete, lawful spouse of Victor de Wijndt, son of Ghijsbrecht, born at Aksel — by whom came Lady Marie, wife of Adriaen Coene, son of Jacob, citizen of Oostburg, and mother of Lady Josijne, consort of Robrecht, son of Jan Claeyseune van Avesoete — by whom she bore an only son, named Master Adriaen, husband of Lady Anne de Baenst, daughter of squire Antheunis — and who likewise fathered Jacques and Lady Anne, the wife of me, Nicolaes Despars, son of Sir Cornelis — from whom descended in turn Cornelis and Jacques [Despars's own sons].
Summary
Despars writes himself into the chronicle. The matrilineal chain runs:
Victor van Vlaenderen + Johanne van Schorissen
→ Isabelle van Vlaenderen (m. Symoen de Wijndt, of Oostburg)
→ Margriete (m. Victor de Wijndt, of Aksel)
→ Marie (m. Adriaen Coene, of Oostburg)
→ Josijne (m. Robrecht, son of Jan Claeyseune van Avesoete)
→ meester Adriaen (m. Anne de Baenst, daughter of joncheer Antheunis)
→ Anne (m. Nicolaes Despars, son of Cornelis)
→ Cornelis & Jacques Despars
The chain is matrilineal for the first five generations and patrilineal-then-matrilineal in the last two: Anne carries the Avesoete-Coene-Wijndt-Vlaenderen blood; her husband Nicolaes is Despars by his own paternal line. The "van Avesoete" surname in the fourth generation is consistent with the historical record — Nicolaes Despars married Anna Avesoete in 1549, daughter of Adriaan Avesoete called Claeyssone, lord of Ryckevelde (corroborating biographical sources).
The chain spans roughly six generations (Victor m. ca. 1421 → Despars's marriage 1549) — about 130 years for six generations, averaging 21–22 years per generation. The mother-to-daughter density is plausible.
Evidentiary Implications
This passage is the first place in either compendium where a named author identifies himself as a Maleani descendant (matrilineally, by marriage). Three implications:
One: Despars had access to family records — the Avesoete and de Wijndt papers — that cannot be assumed in any other extant source. Some of the proper-name detail in the master list (mother's family of origin, sub-cohort inter-relationships) may derive from Avesoete-Coene-Wijndt domestic archives now lost.
Two: The list at p. 114 is partly motivated. Frederik Buylaert's 2010 study of Despars's Cronijcke as noble apologia (Belgisch Tijdschrift 88, pp. 377–408) argues that Despars used historiographical writing to establish his ennobled family's prestige — and the Maleani descent is precisely the kind of claim such writing was meant to memorialise. Despars's silence about Janne and Adam at the 1421 marriage notice (B.10) makes more sense in this frame: the children who matter to Despars are the ones in his wife's pedigree (Lodewijck and Isabelle).
Three: Cross-checking against external Bruges records — the Sint-Donatian's chapter archive, the Heilig-Bloed confraternity rolls, the Avesoete- and de Baenst-family epitaphs at Sint-Salvator and Onze-Lieve-Vrouw — should be productive for verifying the four central generations of this chain (Symoen de Wijndt and his descendants).
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 114–115, in continuation of the master genealogical passage reproduced as A.1.
C.2 — The Adam Question Reconsidered§
Why Adam is absent from Despars's nine — and why that is not the puzzle
Type: Comparative analysis Cross-reference: Vredius compendium A.12, A.13, A.14
Restatement of the Question
An earlier reading of Despars's master list (this volume's first draft, April 2026) flagged the absence of "Adam" as evidentiary. Volume III lists nine bastard sons of Louis II de Male — Lodewijck dHase, Rodolf, Colaert, Lodewijck de Vriese, Jan zonder Landt, Hector, Robrecht, Charles, Victor — but no Adam. The 1441 Ghent donation charter (Vredius A.13) names Lodewyc, Janne, and Adam as natural sons; the apparent mismatch was treated as a problem requiring source-critical analysis.
The framing was wrong. Adam is not Louis II's bastard son — Adam is Victor's bastard son. The 1441 charter (A.13) is unambiguous: Margriete Aelfhuuts donates to Lodewyc, Janne, and Adam "natuerlicke sonen van wijlen edelen ende weerden, Mer Victor van Vlaenderen, Heere was van Vrsele, ende van Wesseghem" — natural sons of the late Sir Victor van Vlaenderen, lord of Ursel and Wessegem. Adam is a grandson of Louis II, not a son. He would therefore never appear in Despars's enumeration of the count's nine sons; his absence from p. 114 is expected, not anomalous.
The Genuine Puzzle
The genuine puzzle is at p. 274–275 of Despars's chronicle (this volume's entry B.10), the 1421 marriage notice. Despars writes:
Mer Victor van Vlaenderen … trauwde vrau Johanna van Schorissen, daer joncheer Lodewijck ende Mer joncvrau Isabelle of quamen.
Two children of the marriage are named: joncheer Lodewijck and Isabelle. Janne and Adam — known to Vredius from the 1427 and 1441 Ghent donation charters as Victor's natural sons — are absent from Despars's notice.
Three readings of this absence, in increasing plausibility:
Reading 1: Despars was uninformed. The Ghent partition register survived to the 17th century, but might have been inaccessible to a 16th-century Bruges chronicler. This is weak: Despars used Ghent civic records elsewhere in the Cronijcke, and Vredius later derived A.12–A.14 from the same registers Despars could have consulted.
Reading 2: Despars treated only the legitimate offspring of the marriage. Vredius A.12 (1427) makes clear that Lodewyc and Janne were natural children of Victor by Alysse van Boyeghem; Adam was a natural child by Gertrud Lindekens. Vredius leaves Johanne van Schorissen's children unspecified — she may or may not have been the mother of any of the three. If Lodewijck in B.10 is the joncheer, born of the marriage, then Janne and Adam (born of mistresses) might not appear in a list of "children of Johanne van Schorissen." This would explain Despars's silence as a deliberate exclusion of bastard grandchildren from the main genealogical line. Note however that Vredius A.12 lists Lodekin, Hannekin (= Janne), and Adam all as natural children of Victor — not necessarily all by the same mother.
Reading 3: Despars's interest stops where his wife's pedigree stops. The most parsimonious reading. Despars's chain at p. 114–115 (entry C.1) descends through Isabelle. Lodewijck appears because he was Isabelle's brother and the head of the surviving recognised line — the line of Joos (d. young) and Margriete (m. de Baenst, then Erpe) per Vredius A.15. Janne and Adam left no descendants who reached Despars's day — neither has any post-1442/1447 attestation in Vredius. From a 1560s Bruges genealogist's perspective, they were not part of the family memory worth recording. Despars did not omit them deliberately; he simply did not have them in his sources.
Implications for the Active Research Programme
If Reading 3 is correct, then the "Lodewyc, Janne, Adam" triplet of the 1441 charter (Vredius A.13) is the keystone source for the bridge hypothesis — and it remains the keystone source even after this comparative work. None of the three has documented descendants. Adam disappears after 23 June 1447 (Vredius A.14 + the De Vos ecclesiastical-court annulment record). Janne disappears after 1442. Lodewyc has the only documented descendants, but his daughter Margriete's line passes through Erpe and de Baenst, not into the Meetjesland.
The three brothers therefore remain — as Vredius's keystone framing already had it — equally viable and equally undocumented as bridges to the seventeenth-century Meetjesland surname-bearers. The Despars chronicle does not narrow the candidate pool. What it adds is texture: Victor's recognised son Lodewijck was alive and prominent enough to be named to a contemporary Bruges audience as the squire-brother of a Despars in-law in 1421. That fact is consistent with the Erpe / de Baenst line of Vredius A.15, and inconsistent with any reading in which Lodewyc was a full-illegitimate, low-status son.
Reference: Vredius compendium A.12 (1427 Ghent donation, three children named); A.13 (1441 Ghent donation, three natural sons of late Sir Victor); A.14 (1446 Adam annuity transfer); A.15 (Lodewyc's Oostburg descendant line).
C.3 — Beyond the Maleani — Philip the Good's Bastards§
Despars's enumeration at the duke's 1467 death — for comparative perspective on the Maleani list
Source: Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 580–581 Type: Comparative necrological enumeration Language: Middle Dutch
Transcription (Middle Dutch)
Ooc hadde die hertoghe Philips van Bourgoengnen (zaligher memorie) in zijne tijden by verscheede moeders diversche bastaerde kijnderen, te wetene: eerst, David, die bisscop van Teroaen ende van Utrecht; Jan, die naer gheweest hebbende proost van St-Donaes te Brugghe, proost van Onzer Liever Vrauwe binder zelver stede bedeech, metsghaders ooc proost van St-Omaers, wordende noch int laetste bisscop van Camerijcke; Philips (ghezeit van Bruessele), die insghelijcx ooc bisscop wiert; Raphael, die abt van St-Baefs te Ghendt; Antheunis, die men den grooten bastaert van Bourgoengnen hiet, grave van der Rootse in Ardennen, metsghaders ooc heere van der Vere ende van den gulden vliese; Cornelis, gouverneur van den hertochdomme van Luxemburch, die te Wazeele doot bleef, naer dat hy byder handt van den grave Loys van St-Pol ruddere ghesleghen was; Boudewijn, ghezeit van Rijssele, heere van Route, Somerghem ende Looverghem, die welcke int ende jeghens thuys van Bourgoengnen conspireerde, ghelijck metter tijt allinex zo clarelicker blijcken zal; ende vrau Anne, twijf van Mer Adriaen van Borsele, die heere van Bredam.
Translation
Duke Philip of Burgundy (of pious memory) also had in his time, by various mothers, divers bastard children — namely: David, bishop of Térouanne and of Utrecht; Jan, who was successively provost of Saint-Donatian's at Bruges, then of Our Lady's in the same city, also of Saint-Omer, and finally bishop of Cambrai; Philip (called of Brussels), who likewise became bishop; Raphael, abbot of Saint-Bavo's at Ghent; Anthony, called the Great Bastard of Burgundy, count of la Roche-en-Ardenne, also lord of Veere and Knight of the Golden Fleece; Cornelis, governor of the duchy of Luxembourg, who fell at Wazeele after being knighted by the hand of count Louis of Saint-Pol; Baudouin called of Rijssele, lord of Route, Somergem and Looverghem — who in the end conspired against the house of Burgundy, as will be more clearly shown in due course; and Lady Anne, wife of Sir Adriaen van Borsele, lord of Brédène.
Summary
For comparative perspective: Philip the Good's death in 1467 prompts an enumeration of eight bastard children — seven sons (four ecclesiastical, three secular-noble) and one daughter. The same chronicle enumerates nine sons + two daughters for Louis II eighty-four years earlier (entry A.1). The orders of magnitude are comparable; the sectoral distribution is markedly different.
Where Louis II's bastards are uniformly secular-noble (lordships, captaincies, command at Nicopolis), Philip the Good's are heavily ecclesiastical: four bishops or abbots, including David at Utrecht and Jan finally at Cambrai. This shift reflects a 15th-century Burgundian strategy of placing natural sons in high-revenue ecclesiastical sees as a way of consolidating ducal control over the bishoprics — a strategy unavailable to Louis II in the same form eighty years earlier.
Boudewijn van Rijssele and the Meetjesland
Two names in the Philip-the-Good list are of incidental relevance to the Meetjesland project. Boudewijn "of Rijssele," lord of Sommergem and Looverghem, is the nearest in territorial reach: Sommergem and Looverghem are villages immediately east of Aalter and Knesselare, the heart of the Meetjesland. He is no Maleani descendant, but his territorial holdings overlap with the Praet line's later territorial reach (Vredius compendium A.26 / Tab. XIX). His later conspiracy against Burgundy and consequent dispossession may have created openings in mid-Meetjesland landholding that subsequent surname-bearing Van Vlaenderens could have entered.
This comparative entry is the source for the Boudewijn-van-Rijssele material developed at E.2 of this volume — the dated Vol IV attestation that places Boudewijn's Meetjesland tenure under specific challenge in property-restoration proceedings.
This entry is offered for context. Philip the Good's bastards are outside the Maleani frame and do not feature in either compendium's principal apparatus, except as comparative material.
Despars, Cronijcke, Vol. III, p. 580–581.
Part VI — Cross-Reference Flags
Six cross-reference flags where Despars and Vredius diverge or where the v3.2 four-volume material raises new identification questions. Each flag identifies the contradiction or ambiguity, summarises the available evidence, and proposes a resolution where possible.
F.1 — Karel / Charles Parentage§
Brother of Victor (A.1 + Vredius A.11) vs. son of Robert (Vredius A.20)
The contradiction. The Vredius compendium contains an unresolved internal contradiction:
- Vredius A.11 (Victor's 1430 testament, via Claisone MS): "M'her Robert van Vlaendren … en Karle van Vlaendren, beede sijn broeders" — Karle as Victor's brother, both being executors of Victor's testament. Implies Karel ∈ Maleani cohort (= son of Louis de Male).
- Vredius A.20 (Langemark church tomb): "Sepulture van M'her KAERLE van Vlaendren, Heere van Sgutersale, filius M'her Robrecht" — Karle as son of Sir Robrecht, i.e. Robert's son and Victor's nephew. Implies Karel ∉ Maleani cohort directly.
What Despars adds. Despars Vol. III p. 114 (A.1) lists Mer Charles as the eighth son in the enumeration of Louis de Male's nine bastard sons, immediately before Mer Victor in ninth position. Despars treats Charles and Victor as distinct individuals at the same generational level — brothers, sons of Louis de Male.
Resolution. Three primary attestations now align on Karel-as-Victor's-brother:
(1) The 1430 testament (Claisone MS, via Vredius A.11) — earliest, contemporary primary record (2) Despars Vol. III p. 114 (A.1, compiled c. 1577–1597) — earliest extant chronicle enumeration (3) The project's reading of the 1430 testament's executor language
Against the Langemark-tomb (Vredius A.20) reading. The minority position is the Langemark-only "filius M'her Robrecht" reading.
Plausible explanations for the Langemark inscription: (a) mason's error in carving the tomb; (b) later transcriber error in copying the inscription (the inscription Vredius A.20 reproduces was likely transcribed by Damhouder or Gaillard); (c) a different Karle of Gruterssale — Robrecht's natural son, named after his uncle and lord of the same seigniory, buried at Langemark under the same name. Reading (c) implies two Karles in the Maleani cohort: the elder, Victor's brother (Despars + 1430 testament); the younger, Robrecht's son (Langemark tomb).
Action items:
- The Langemark inscription warrants direct visual re-inspection if the tomb survives.
- The 1430 testament's full text (Lille Chambre des Comptes or whichever fonds preserves the Claisone MS) should be re-examined for any qualifying language on Karel.
- De Lichtervelde 1935 (Vredius compendium reading aid) should be re-read to identify the chronological grounds on which he chose the Langemark reading.
F.2 — Nicopolis Date Discrepancy§
Despars 27 September vs. Vredius / Heuterus / standard 25 September · 1396
Despars Vol. III p. 172 (B.7) dates the Battle of Nicopolis to "den XXVII van der voorseider maent" — the 27th of September 1396 (the preceding text indicates September as the month). Standard scholarship and the Vredius compendium (via Heuterus A.7) date the battle to 25 September 1396.
Likely explanation: Despars's 27 September is most plausibly a copyist or typographical error — XXVII vs. XXV is a one-stroke difference in Roman numerals. The 25 September date is canonical and based on contemporary Latin reportage (Schiltberger's Reisebuch, Hungarian and Burgundian sources). Despars's working source — likely a vernacular re-translation of a Latin chronicle — may have transmitted the date with a stroke-addition error.
Action: Cite the standard 25 September 1396 date. Despars's 27 September is a Despars-internal date variant only — no upgrade to standard citation, but worth flagging in any precise-date research as a known textual variant.
F.3 — Lodewijk IV of Praet's Wife§
Despars (daughter of Mer Jan van Bourgoengnen) vs. Vredius A.26 (Jossine van Praet)
Despars Vol. III p. 114 (A.1) ends the de-Vriese descent chain with "Mer Lodewijck, die heere van Praet, Aalter ende van der Woestine, by Mer Jans dochtere van Bourgoengnen, zijnder huysvrau" — Lodewijck's wife as "Sir Jan van Bourgoengnen's daughter".
Vredius compendium A.26 identifies Lodewijk IV's wife as Jossine van Praet, granddaughter of Charles van Halewijn lord of Uytkercke, via the Halewijn → Charles van Praet of Moerkercke → Josyne marriage chain. Lodewijk IV's son Jan II is then identified as marrying Jaqueline of Burgundy, daughter of Adolf van Bourgongne lord of Beveren and Knight of the Golden Fleece.
Most likely explanation: generational compression in Despars. Despars's run-on syntax at p. 114 collapses the Praet line into a single descending chain, attributing the daughter-of-Burgundy wife (in fact Lodewijk IV's daughter-in-law) one generation up. The Despars text reads as if "Mer Lodewijck heere van Praet" = Lodewijk IV, but the "by Mer Jans dochtere van Bourgoengnen zijnder huysvrau" half describes the next-generation Jan II's marriage. The Vredius A.26 reading — with Damhouder's careful generation-by-generation Bruges-nobility genealogy — is to be preferred for Lodewijk IV's marriage.
Action: Cite Vredius A.26 (Damhouder) for Lodewijk IV's marriage to Jossine van Praet. Despars Vol. III p. 114's wife attribution can be noted as a possible Despars compression error.
F.4 — The Two-Margrietes Question§
Despars March 1388 (Margriete-Vaveringny) vs. Vredius A.22 18 October 1415 (Margriete-Vuerhaute)
The two sources:
- Despars Vol. III p. 159 (B.20): "in de maent van maerte versciet vrau Margriete van Vlaenderen … wettelijcke gheselnede van Mer Robrecht van Vaveringny" — March 1388, wife of Mer Robrecht van Vaveringny, who is at B.19 named as lord of Lilers and marshal of Flanders.
- Vredius A.22 (Ghent Carmelite tomb): "Hier light Vrauwe MARGRIETE, mijns Heeren Graven van Vlaendren bastaerde dochter, mijn ser HECTORS van Vorhaute wettelick wijf was, die starf in 't jaer M. CCCC. ende XV. den xviij. dach in October" — 18 October 1415, wife of Mer Hector van Vuerhaute.
The two husbands distinguish the two attestations. The Vredius A.22 woman is definitely not the wife of Robrecht van Vaveringny (her tomb explicitly identifies Hector van Vuerhaute as husband, with a distinct seigniorial profile — Voorhoute, not Lilers). The Despars Vol. III p. 159 woman is definitely not the wife of Hector van Vuerhaute (her death notice explicitly identifies Vaveringny as husband, with the additional Vol. III p. 156 attestation at B.19 of the Lilers + marshal seigniorial profile).
Working interpretation: these are two different Margrietes, both natural daughters of Louis de Male:
- Margriete (a) — wife of Mer Robrecht van Vaveringny, lord of Lilers and marshal of Vlaenderen — died March 1388 — Despars Vol. III pp. 114, 156, 159 (A.1, B.19, B.20).
- Margriete (b) — wife of Mer Hector van Vuerhaute (second husband; her first was Sohier de Gand per the 1391 Philip-of-Burgundy grant in Vredius A.22) — died 18 October 1415 — Vredius A.22.
Despars's p. 114 enumeration of Louis de Male's "two natural daughters" gives Vrau Johanne (Hontschote) and Vrau Margriete (Vaveringny) only — no Vuerhaute Margriete. If Margriete (b) is a real Maleani natural daughter, Despars's count of two natural daughters is incomplete. If Despars's count is correct (= two natural daughters of Louis de Male), then Margriete (b) Vuerhaute is not a Maleani natural daughter but possibly: (i) a granddaughter of Louis de Male via one of his bastard sons (e.g., daughter of Mer Robrecht); (ii) a misidentification on the Vredius A.22 Carmelite tomb; (iii) a daughter of Louis de Male by a tertiary mother not counted in Despars's "two".
Reading (i) is particularly interesting: if Margriete (b) is a daughter of Mer Robrecht (the Maleani burchgrave of Ypres), then she is one of the next-generation surname-bearing women, and her marriage to Hector van Vuerhaute is a second-generation Maleani-Vuerhaute alliance — paralleling the project's research on multi-generational Vuerhaute children (Vredius A.23, 1426 guardianship).
Action: See queue item Q.1 for follow-up research direction.
F.5 — Margaret van Male / Philip the Bold Wedding Date§
Despars Vol. IV INHOUD 1354 vs. conventional 1369
The Vol. IV back-matter INHOUD (PDF p. 586, printed p. 576) has an entry:
"1354 Huwelyk tusschen Margriet van Vlaenderen en Filips van Bourgondiën."
The conventional date for Margaret of Male's marriage to Philip the Bold of Burgundy is 19 June 1369 (Ghent), with a betrothal contract signed in May 1357. In 1354 Margaret of Male was four years old.
Likely explanation: the INHOUD entry's 1354 date is a typographic or editorial error in the 19th-c. back-matter compilation (De Jonghe's editorial work), not a substantive Despars claim. The main-text narrative of the marriage (Vol. III, in the Louis-de-Male reign section) uses conventional dating. The INHOUD should be treated as a finding aid with occasional date errors, not as a primary chronological source.
Action: Cite Despars's Vol. III main text for the marriage narrative (not the INHOUD). The 1354 INHOUD entry is a known date error.
F.6 — The 1436 Hector vs. the 1453 "Fs Hectoors"§
Same individual aged ~71, or a separate Hector II?
The chronology question. Hector — master-list son #6 — appears in Vol III at:
- B.4 (1382): "joncheer Hector, die bastaert van Vlaenderen, heere van Voorhoute" — joncheer status implies youth, not yet knighted. Suggests birth c. 1360–1365.
- B.18 (1385): "Mer Lodewijck dHaze, die capiteyn van Biervliet, ende Mer Hector zijn broedere" — Mer (knight) status by 1385, paired with dHaze as brother.
- B.8 (1405): "Mer Hector, den heere van Voorhoute, sprinces bastaerde oom van der gravinne Margriete" — naval campaign with Victor; further confirmation of cohort identity.
- B.23 (1436): "Mer Hector, die bastaert van Vlaenderen, heere van Voorhoutte" — defending Hulst region during the Bruges revolt.
- B.16 (1453): "Mer Adriaen van Vlaenderen, die heere van Voorhoute, Fs Mer Hectoors" — Adriaen as son of a recently-deceased Hector.
Two readings:
Reading (1) — Same Hector throughout. Birth c. 1360–1365 (B.4 joncheer in 1382), age c. 71 at B.23 (1436), death some time before 1453 (B.16, "Mer Hectoors" implies deceased). A long life of 88+ years if death is dated to 1453 specifically. Implausibly long but not impossible.
Reading (2) — Hector II. The 1436 Hector at Hulst is a second-generation Hector — son of the elder Hector — who has inherited his father's seigniory of Voorhoute and the family-pattern "die bastaert van Vlaenderen" identifier (perhaps because his mother was a daughter of an unrelated comital bastard, or because his father's bastard status is loosely transmitted as a descriptor). The 1453 "Fs Mer Hectoors" then refers to this Hector II as Adriaen's father. The elder Hector's death would be sometime between B.8 (1405) and B.23 (1436), not narrated by Despars.
Disambiguating evidence. The text of B.16 (1453) reads:
die heere van Voorhoute, Fs Mer Hectoors (daer zaligher memorie die grave Lodewijck van Vlaenderen, ghezeit van Male, van bastaerdye weghe die vadere of was)
The parenthetical names Louis II ("die grave Lodewijck van Vlaenderen, ghezeit van Male") as the father "van bastaerdye weghe" (by way of bastardy) — but whose father, exactly, is grammatically ambiguous. The clause could attach to Mer Hectoors (Adriaen's father, the elder Hector) or to Adriaen himself. The more natural reading is that Louis II is named as Adriaen's grandfather via Hector — making Adriaen a third-generation descendant. This is the v3.1 reading at B.16.
If reading (1) is correct, the parenthetical functions as Despars's standard reminder that Hector (now deceased) was Louis II's bastard son. If reading (2), the parenthetical means that Hector II's father (the elder Hector) was Louis II's bastard son — Adriaen is then great-grandson of Louis II.
Action: The disambiguation likely requires external source — the Voorhoute seigniorial archive, if extant, would document the lord(s) of Voorhoute in the period 1405–1453 and reveal whether one or two persons named Hector held the seigniory.
See queue item Q.7.
Part VIII — Methodological Observations
Four observations on the chronicle's status as a research source, drawn from the v3.2 four-volume systematic re-extraction.
M.1 — The De Jonghe Edition Normalises Orthography; the Autograph Manuscript Would Preserve Older "Vlaendren" Form§
The 1840 De Jonghe edition (Brugge / Rotterdam, Tweede uytgaef) of Despars's chronicle systematically renders the surname / territory as "Vlaenderen" with -deren ending — 1,861 occurrences across four volumes, zero of the older "Vlaendren" form (or Vlaendre, Vlaendere).
The Vredius compendium uses "Vlaendren" because Vredius's 1643 Latin / Middle Dutch text preserves the older spelling natively. Despars compiled c. 1562–1592, between the older "Vlaendren" and the later normalised "Vlaenderen" — but De Jonghe's modernisation has displaced the original orthography in the printed edition.
Implication for downstream citation: when Despars is cited verbatim, the wording is De Jonghe's modernised Despars, not Despars's autograph orthography. For autograph-orthography evidence, the Despars manuscript referenced in Vol. IV's Nawoord (PDF pp. 547–550) would need to be consulted directly. Per the Nawoord, the manuscript is bound in calf-leather, in two parts (the second part beginning with Philip of Austria), bears Despars's signature, was verified against family records, and was held by burggrave de Croeser de Berges at the time De Jonghe edited it.
Action: if any downstream research depends on Despars's autograph orthography (e.g., for the question of whether 16th-c. Bruges magistrates used "Vlaendren" vs. "Vlaenderen"), the manuscript itself must be located and examined. The Bruges Public Library and the State Archives at Bruges are the natural starting points.
M.2 — Despars Is Not a Neutral Witness: His Own Family Descends from the Maleani Cohort§
Vol. III pp. 114–115 (entries A.1 and C.1) embeds the chronicler's own family-marriage tracing back to Louis de Male via the Maleani bastard Mer Victor van Vlaenderen and Victor's daughter Vrau Isabelle van Vlaenderen. The descent runs through five named intermediate generations (de Wijndt → de Wijndt → Coene → Avesoete → Claeyseune → de Baenst → Despars), culminating in the chronicler's marriage to Mer joncvrau Anne, granddaughter of meester Adriaen.
This is methodologically important for two reasons:
(1) Motivation. Despars's choice to compile a chronicle of Flanders with particular attention to the comital-bastard cohort is plausibly motivated, at least in part, by his family's claim to descent from that cohort. The Bruges-magistrate Despars family (twice burgemeester 1578, 1584 per the Nawoord) had social-status reasons to anchor its origin in comital ancestry. Frederik Buylaert's 2010 study (Belgisch Tijdschrift 88, pp. 377–408) argues that Despars used historiographical writing to establish his ennobled family's prestige.
(2) Selection bias. Despars's narrative attention to particular Maleani bastards may correlate with his family's interest in them. The dense dHaze biography (B.1, B.2, B.3, B.18, B.20) and the explicit Victor portrait (B.6, B.8, B.10, B.11, B.12, B.13) may reflect family-tradition prioritisation, not the actual narrative weight of these figures in 14th-c. Flemish politics. Despars's relative thinness on the Robrecht line (one standalone narrative episode at B.21) may similarly reflect that his family did not descend from that line, not that Robrecht was historically negligible.
This is not a charge of bias against Despars — his transcriptions of named persons and dated events are consistent with other primary sources where comparison is possible. It is an observation that Despars-as-witness has a stake in the cohort he documents, which affects the weight (not the correctness) of his testimony for downstream research design.
For the Vredius compendium specifically: where Despars and Vredius agree on a Maleani-cohort fact, both lines of testimony are independent (Vredius via Heuterus / Gaillard MS / Damhouder / Claisone MS / various tomb-transcribers / de l'Espinoy; Despars via family tradition + Bruges archives). Where Despars and Vredius disagree, the bias question may matter — see F.1, F.4 in particular.
M.3 — The Vol IV INHOUD as a Year-Indexed Lemma Index — a Research Finding Aid§
Vol. IV PDF pp. 550–612 contains a comprehensive Inhoud (table of contents) organised as a year-indexed lemma list referencing the printed pages where each topic is discussed. The structure is:
[Year] [Event lemma] [Bl. = printed page]
For example, sample entries (Vol. IV PDF p. 586, printed p. 576):
1354 Huwelyk tusschen Margriet van Vlaenderen
en Filips van Bourgondiën. 435 [+ flag F.5]
The Inhoud covers all four volumes — it is a 19th-c. printed index to the entire chronicle, not just Vol. IV. As a finding aid:
- For a specific year, the Inhoud points to all event lemmata indexed under that year and their printed page references.
- For a specific person or topic (subject lemma), the Inhoud's keyword index allows location of every page where that person or topic is discussed.
This is usable as a research tool for two purposes:
(1) Future Despars research sessions can start by consulting the Inhoud entries for a specific year or person, rather than scanning all four volumes from the beginning.
(2) Cross-source date verification: when Vredius or another source gives a date for an event, the Inhoud's parallel entry can be checked. Date discrepancies (cf. F.5) are detectable directly from the Inhoud without full-text reading.
The Inhoud is itself a 19th-c. editorial product (by De Jonghe), not Despars's original organisation. It may contain editorial date errors (cf. F.5 on the 1354 Margriete wedding entry). It should therefore be treated as a finding aid, not as a primary chronological source.
M.4 — The Productive-Phrase Search Pattern: Lesson from the Systematic Re-Extraction§
The first comprehensive Despars walkthrough (v3.1.5 four-volume draft, May 2026, unpublished) used a narrow search pattern — the surname-form "X van Vlaenderen" used as a personal cognomen — and identified roughly one-third of the dated narrative attestations that the systematic re-extraction subsequently surfaced. The Vol III–only v3.1 edition (Constance & Michael Van Flandern, April 2026) used a more productive set of phrase queries — particularly "die bastaert van Vlaenderen" and "bastaerden oom" — and caught more.
The v3.2 systematic re-extraction across all four volumes used the union of these phrase patterns plus several additional locutions:
- "die bastaert van Vlaenderen" / "die bastaerde van Vlaenderen" — Despars's standard introduction of a bastard cohort member
- "sprincens bastaerde zuene" / "sgrave bastaerde zuene" — possessive-form filiation
- "bastaerden oom" — bastard uncle (cf. B.6 Rufelaert as bastard uncle of Margriete; B.8 Hector as bastard uncle of John the Fearless)
- "natuerlicke zuene" / "natuerlicke dochter" — natural son / daughter, an alternative locution
- "halve broeder van … weghe" — half-brother, with the vaders weghe / moeders weghe qualifier distinguishing patrilineal bastards from matrilineal second-marriage children (cf. D.7, D.12, and the d'Avesnes methodological aside)
- Epithet keywords: dHase / dHaze, de Vriese, zonder Landt, Rufelaert / Ruselart
The lesson is that Despars's standard locution for introducing a bastard cohort member is the descriptor "die bastaert van Vlaenderen, ghezeit [byname]" — placing the cohort identifier before the personal name. The surname-bearing form X van Vlaenderen used as a personal cognomen is a later-stage attestation in the surname-evolution pattern (typically third-generation, as at B.9 Rodolph at Agincourt 1415 and B.22 Rodolph at Bethune's side 1408), and is the minority case across the cohort's documentation in Despars.
The narrow surname-form search misses roughly two-thirds of the chronicle's bastard-cohort attestations. The broader productive-phrase set catches roughly 95% (an estimated remaining 5% may be covered only by personal-name queries for specific individuals, e.g. a Mer Adriaen or Mer Hector mentioned in a court roll without the bastard descriptor).
Action for future research sessions: any chronicle-source walkthrough should default to the broader productive-phrase pattern. The narrow surname-form query is a supplement, not a substitute. This applies equally to other late-medieval Flemish chronicles (Olivier van Dixmude, the Excellente Cronike van Vlaenderen, and the Gaillard Collectanea) where the same locution patterns are likely to apply.
Colophon
Lions of Flanders — A Despars Clippings Compendium§
A volume of primary-source extracts documenting every surname-bearing or filiation-bearing reference to the comital-bastard cohort of the Counts of Flanders, drawn from all four volumes of Nicolaes Despars's Cronijcke. The cohort spans roughly six centuries — from a c. 1106 burgrave of Ypres at the early end to the 1477 souverein-bailiff of Flanders at the late end — and overlaps substantially with the Maleani cohort already documented in the Vredius compendium (April 2026). This is a companion volume to the Vredius compendium and uses the same evidentiary apparatus.
Compiled by
Constance Van Flandern & Michael Van Flandern · 2026
Primary source
Despars, Nicolaes. Cronijcke van den Lande ende Graefscepe van Vlaenderen, gemaect door Jor Nicolaes Despars, poortere ende inboorlinck der stede van Brugghe, bacelier in die rechten, van de jaeren 405 tot 1492. Edited by Jan Antoon De Jonghe from the autograph manuscript held by burggrave de Croeser de Berges. Tweede uytgaef. Brugge: by den uitgever; Rotterdam: W. Messchert, 1840. Four volumes.
- Vol. I — Eerste Deel. 542 pp. Covers c. 405–1067 CE
- Vol. II — Tweede Deel. 530 pp. Covers 1067–1346 CE
- Vol. III — Derde Deel. 596 pp. Covers 1346–1467 CE
- Vol. IV — Vierde Deel. 626 pp. Covers 1467–1492 CE, plus editorial back-matter (Nawoord, Woordenlyst, Inhoud)
Method
The text of all four volumes was extracted from PDF facsimiles using pdftotext -layout, with OCR verification by visual sampling. A productive-phrase search was applied across all four volumes for the locutions Despars uses to introduce comital bastards: die bastaert van Vlaenderen, sprincens bastaerde zuene, sgrave bastaerde, bastaerden oom, natuerlick(e) zuene, natuerlick(e) dochter, halve broedere van … zide, and the surname-bearing form X van Vlaenderen used as a personal cognomen. Epithet keywords (dHase / dHaze, de Vriese, zonder Landt, Rufelaert) were also applied. Each clipping in this compendium reproduces the Middle Dutch verbatim from the De Jonghe printed text, with light correction of OCR artifacts (rejoined hyphenated words, regularised spacing). Marginal chapter heads have been silently omitted where they interrupt the narrative.
Methodology note
This compendium reproduces verbatim the Middle Dutch passages from Despars's Cronijcke, with English facing translations and brief scholarly summaries. Each entry is keyed by its location in the printed De Jonghe pagination. Citation precedence relative to the Vredius compendium is given per-clipping where the same individual or event is documented in both sources.
Version
Version 3.2 · May 2026
This is a working research compendium; revisions are expected as further archival findings accumulate. v3.2 supersedes both the April 2026 v3.1 Vol III–only edition and the unpublished v3.1.5 four-volume draft of May 2026.