On 08-Jun-20 1:46 AM, Jan Wolfe wrote:
> On Saturday, May 30, 2020 at 9:16:47 AM UTC-4, Peter Stewart wrote, in the thread
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/soc.genealogy.medieval/dYfb_RFI_4I/vMGLyyfhAQAJ on SGM:
> ...
>> Given the vast array, as Bronwen put it very well, of Jacquetta's
>> European ancestors, it seems a bit rum to me that questions would not be
>> raised about them more frequently here if even a few of her US
>> descendants were present in the newsgroup.
>>
>> Peter Stewart
>
> Peter, my main source of information about the ancestors of Jacquetta of Luxembourg is the information in Leo's database. Many of the pages were last updated about 20 years ago. I would be very pleased if you and others knowledgeable in this area would take a look at the ancestors of Jacquetta in Leo's database and share your comments, sources, additions, and any corrections.
> Here is the link to Leo's page for Jacquetta,
https://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00015403&tree=LEO
The ancestry of #27 Isabella Etendard and #123 Eustachie Etendard as
given in Genealogics may be wrong, or at any rate not proven.
They belonged to a family that has never been definitively traced to its
origin, known as Etendard in France and Stendardo in Italy. The first of
them on record, #108 and #246 Guillaume (Guglielmo) the elder, was
evidently a vassal of the counts of Montfort who received fiefs from
them in Provence. He was probably seneschal of Beaucaire in 1247 and
accompanied Guy de Montfort, later count of Nola, at the battle of
Benevento in 1266 when the kingdom of Sicily was conquered for Charles I
of Anjou. He was appointed vicar general of Sicily on 21 August 1269 and
died between 17 January and 24 February 1271.
It is easier to say who this Guillaume was not by descent than who he
was. He was called "of Beynes", that has misled some historians into
making him a son of Guy of Nola's namesake great-uncle who was seigneur
of Castres in the Albigeois (killed in battle in 1229) by his second
wife Briande who has been miscalled "of Beynes" - this is an error for
Vénès in the Albigeois, between Castres and Albi, which was presumably
held by her as dower from her first husband who was seigneur of Lombers
around 11 kms away. Her only son by Guy de Montfort was also named Guy
and he inherited Lombers from his childless half-brother, dying in the
early 1250s before his mother who lived until September 1260. Any claim
that #108 and #246 Guillaume Etendard was the same person as this Guy de
Montfort of Lombers is nonsense - apart from their distinct names, we
know the latter's quite different history from testimony given by family
members about rights to Lombers at the end of the 13th century.
It is also not certain that #108 and #246 Guillaume the elder was a son
of Robert of Beynes as sometimes asserted. The castle of Beynes belonged
to Saint-Germain-des-Prés abbey and was held by the counts of Montfort
from the early-12th century, probably before - it was at the northern
limit of their territory and apparently sub-tenanted by a vassal family
that took it as a toponym. They were probably also Montfort tenants at
Etendard in the seigneurie of Épernon - the surname Etendard, or
Stendardo, does not indicate that they were standard-bearers of the
Angevin kings of Sicily or anyone else, as often wrongly asserted.
There is no convincing evidence I have seen that the Etendard family was
a cadet branch of the seigneurs of Milly as has also been claimed.
#108 and #246 Guillaume was either the father or grandfather of #54
Guglielmo II, known as Guillaume the younger and also called "of
Beynes", who died probably in 1308 having been marshal and constable of
the Sicilian kingdom under Charles II of Anjou.
The succession of Guillaumes in the line is not certain, and there may
have been another namesake between the elder and younger men above. #246
Petronilla of Mesnil-Renard may have been the wife of a middle Guillaume
rather than the second wife of the elder, as noted by Thierry Pécout in
*Dizionario biografico degli Italiani* vol. 94 (2019).
Also, #55 Isabella d'Aquino is problematic - the (first or second) wife
of #54 Guglielmo was identified in the 17th century as Giovanna
d'Aquino, a sister of Isabella (both nieces of St Thomas Aquinus), but
the medieval source for this marriage appears to have been lost since
and anyway it is not clear that she left any children. The mother of #27
Isabella Etendard is better left uncertain. According to the
19th-century historian Camillo Minieri-Riccio, citing sources that have
not yet been published in *I registri della cancelleria angioina*, #54
Guglielmo's first wife was Giovanna di Ceccano, by whom he had Isabella,
and his second was Giovanna de Cavignano, signora of Calvi, who survived
him. It would be odd if he also had another wife of the same name, an
Aquino niece of the famous theologian or possibly a sister of hers named
Isabella, who left no extant record.
Peter Stewart