User talk:DomainOfTheSword

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-- Sannse

Hello!

I was interested to read the descriptions of some prominent Scottish families. You might like to include the Tweed family in that. Early on, they intermarried with the Stewarts and the Douglas, making the Black Douglas and Elizabeth of Scotland ancestors of many Tweeds. Although the Tweeds are found in Lanarkshire and Peeblesshire, only 10% of them are from there; indeed they are not primarily a Scottish family: in the 1891 census they were found in much greater numbers in many counties of England, specifically Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Essex, with about 10% in London. Why was this?

When William of Normandy went over to contest the throne of England, he brought many Breton knights with him, including the ancestor of the Stewarts. They were led by Alan Le Roux and his brother Brian, members of the Breton royal family and second cousins to William (being also descended from Richard I Duke of Normandy).

It was the Breton knights who broke up King Harold's shield wall, by repeatedly racing up the hill, engaging the axeman, scattering to lure them to pursue, then rounding on them.

Soon after William's entry into London, there arose a rebellion in southern England, which Brian together with Robert Count of Mortain (William's half-brother) suppressed. Brian was to have been rewarded with the Earldom of Cornwall, but he was injured so in 1072 he retired to Brittany to be with his wife. Thus Cornwall was given to Robert of Mortain.

The south-east of England was soon pacified, with William awarding Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and large parts of London to Alan.

Subsequently, the English and Danes combined in the North. Alan headed up to deal with it and was so swift and so thorough that William added to his estates the Honour of Richmond, which included the governorship of Yorkshire, where Alan built Richmond Castle. (A relative obtained Norfolk, thus completing the chain of counties.)

Alan became the personally wealthiest man in British history, but he died soon after William, with no surviving son, therefore his estates and responsibilities passed to his younger brother Alan the Black, then to their youngest brother, Stephen of Treguier.

Under Stephen's descendants, which included Dukes of Brittany, Yorkshire became the most prosperous part of England, so much so that there occurred a cycle in which Kings of England who had exhausted their treasury would seize the county, drain it of its resources, then hand it back.

Notice similarity between the population distribution of the Tweeds in England and the territories governed by Alan le Roux. As we know, the Bretons also settled in Scotland. It would be interesting to trace the travels of the early Tweeds. In those early days there was no clear distinction between England and Scotland, and to the Tweeds there never has been.

It was the custom of the early Bretons to subdivide the inheritance between all the sons. Since the Kings of England were fond of seizing any large landholding, the ancient custom of equal subdivision found a new lease of life. So now no single Tweed owns much, but together they constitute a living record of where Alan le Roux governed in William's name, and where his relatives settled.