Chapter 8

[33]Romania, 1879, p. 4.

[34]With this note may be connected the following page of the Wauters, a chronological table of Charters and printed Acts, Vol. II, p. 16, 1103: "Baldéric, Bishop of the Tournaisiens and the Noyonnais, confirms the cession of the tithe and patronage of Templeuve, which was made to the Abbey of Saint-Martin de Tournai by two knights of that town, Arnoul and Guinemer, and by the canonGéric. Actum Tornaci, anno domenice incarnationis M.C. III, regnante rege Philippo, episcopante domo Baldrico pontifice. Extracts for use in the ecclesiastic history of Belgium, 2d year, p. 10."

Leaving thechansons de geste, Guinemer reappears in the history of the Crusades. Count Baudouin of Flanders and his knights, while making war in the Holy Land (1097), see a vessel approaching, more than three miles from the city of Tarsus. They wait on the shore, and the vessel casts anchor. "Whence do you come?" is always the first question asked in like circumstances. "From Flanders, from Holland, and from Friesland." They were repentant pirates, who after having combed the seas had come to do penance by a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The Christian warriors joyously welcome these sailors whose help will be useful to them. Their chief is a Guinemer, not from Saint-Omer but Boulogne. He recognizes in Count Baudouin his liege lord, leaves his ship and decides to remain with the crusaders. "Moult estait riche de ce mauvais gaeng." The whilom pirate contributes his ill-gotten gains to the crusade.[35]

[35]Receuil des Historiens des Croisades, Western Historians, Volume I, Book III and XXIII, p. 145:Comment Guinemerz et il Galiot s'accompaignierent avec Baudouin.

In another chapter of theHistoire des Croisades, this Guinemer besieged Lalische, which "is a most noble and ancient city situated on the border of the sea; it was the only city in Syria over which the Emperor of Constantinople was ruler." Lalische or Laodicea in Syria,Laodicea ad mare—now called Latakia—was an ancient Roman colony under Septimus Severus, and was founded on the ruins of the ancient Ramitha by Seleucus Nicator, who called it Laodicea in honor of his mother Laodice. Guinemer, who expected to take the city by force, was in his turn assaulted and taken prisoner by the garrison. Baudouin, with threats, demanded him back and rescued him; but esteeming him a better seaman than a combatant on the land, he invited him to return to his ship, take command of his fleet, and navigate within sight of the coast, which the former pirate "very willingly did."

A catalogue of the Deeds of Henri I, King of France (1031-1060)[36]mentions in this same period a Guinemer, Lord of Lillers, who had solicited the approval of the king for the construction of a church in his château, to be dedicated to Notre-Dame and Saint-Omer. The royal approval was given in 1043, completing the authorization of Baudouin, Count of Flanders, and of Dreu, Bishop of Thérouanne at the request of Pope Gregory VI, to whom the builder had gone in person to ask consent for his enterprise. Was this Guinemer, like the pirate of Jerusalem, doing penance for some wrong? Thus we find two Guinemers in the eleventh century, one in Palestine, the other in Italy. About this same period the family probably left Flanders to settle in Brittany, where they remained until the Revolution. The corsair of Boulogne became a ship-builder at Saint-Malo, having his own reasons for changing parishes. The Flemish tradition then gives place to that of Brittany, which is authenticated by documents. One Olivier Guinemer gave a receipt in 1306 to the executors of Duke Jean II de Bretagne. He held a fief under Saint-Sauveur de Dinan, "on which the duke had settled tenants contrary to agreements." The executors, to liquidate the estate, had to pay immense sums for "indemnification, restitution and damages," and took care to "take receipts from all those to whom their commission obliged them to distribute money."[37]The Treaty of Guérande (April 11, 1365), which ended the war for the Breton succession and gave the Duchy to Jean de Montfort, though under the suzerainty of the King of France, is signed by thirty Breton knights, among whom is a Geoffrey Guinemer. A Mathelin Guinemer, squire, is mentioned in an act received at Bourges in 1418; while in 1464, an Yvon Guynemer, man-at-arms, is promoted to full pay, and he already spells his name with ay.

[36]Catalogue des actes d'Henri I, Roi de France(1031-1060), by Frédéric Soehnée, archivist at the National Archives.

[37]Histoire de Bretagne, by Dom Lobineau (1707), Vol. I, p. 293.Recherches sur la chevalerie du duché de Bretagne, by A. de Couffon de Kerdellech, Vol. II (Nantes, Vincent Forest and Emile Grimaud, Printers and Publishers).

It is somewhat difficult to trace the history of this lesser provincial nobility, engaged sometimes in petty wars, sometimes in the cultivation of their domains. In a book glorifying the humble service of ancient French society,Gentilshommes Campagnards, M. Pierre de Vaissiére has shown how this race of rural proprietors lived in the closest contact with French agriculture, counseling and defending the peasant, clearing and cultivating their land, and maintaining their families by its produce. In hisMémoires, the famous Rétif de la Bretonne paints in the most picturesque manner the patriarchal and authoritative manners of his grandfather who, by virtue of his own unquestioned authority prevented his descendant from leaving his native village and establishing in Paris. Paris was already exercising its fascination and uprooting the youth of the time. The Court of Versailles had already weakened the social authority of families still attached to their lands.

Transcriber's Note:

The following typographical errors in the original were corrected:

batallion (to battalion)Fleugzeg (to Flugzeug)éclaties (to éclatiez)Kamfflieger (to Kampfflieger)

Back to Index Next