the suit gives us the name of Alan's mother, Mary, mentioned, as we have seen, in No. 1220.1

In the middle, therefore, of the 12th century, this family flourished simultaneously in Scotland, England, and Britanny.

A short pedigree (see page 129) will make the descent clear.

A chronological difficulty is created by Mr. Eyton's statement that Alan Fitz Flaald was "dead ante 1114," for his son (it will be seen) the Steward of Scotland lived till 1177. It is desirable, therefore, to examine his authority for this date. Dugdale was acquainted with a confirmation by Sybil, lady of Wolston (Warwickshire), of a gift by her mother Adeliza to Burton Abbey of land in Wolston. In his History of Warwickshire (p. 33) he held that she was probably a daughter of Alan Fitz Flaald, because Alan was "enfeoft of this Lordship" before her. Mr. Eyton accepted Dugdale's conclusion, and therefore identified her mother 'Adeliza' as that Avelina' de Hesdin, whom he had so skilfully shown to be the wife of Alan. Further, as the land ex hypothesi belonged to Alan himself, and yet was given by her, she must, he held, have been a widow at the time of the gift; and as the abbey was already in possession at least as early as 1114, Alan, he concluded, must have been dead before that date.2 These conclusions

1 Bracton's Note-book, III. 620. Compare Feet of Fines' (Pipe Roll Society), II. 160.

1 Among the obits at Dol we find that of another daughter of Alan fitz Jordan: "Kal. Sept. obiit Ælicia uxor G[uillelmi] Espine filia Alani Jordanis quæ dedit episcopo et capitulo Dol pratum senescalli," etc. (Gaignères' Transcript of Cartulary, MS. lat. 5211 C). A charter of her husband William Spina, son of Hamo, confirms the donations made to Vieuville

created difficulties, but, on Mr. Eyton's great authority, they have been duly accepted.' Yet the whole edifice rests on Dugdale's careless reading of a document in the Burton Cartulary. That document does not connect Alan Fitz Flaald with Wolston.

The facts are these. In Domesday the three Warwickshire manors of Church Lawford, Wolston, and Stretton-on-Dunsmore are entered together (fo. 239) as held of Earl Roger (of Shrewsbury) by that Rainaldus,' whom the historian of Shropshire so brilliantly identifies with Renaud de Bailleul. We find him, accordingly, as "Rainaldus de Bailoul," confirming in No. 578 the gifts at Wolston and Church Lawford of his own undertenant, a certain Hubert Baldran. Another of the charters in my Calendar (No. 579) proves that this Hubert (not Alan Fitz Flaald), was the father of Sybil, lady ofWlfrichestone' (Wolston), from whom we started. Thus Adeliza, mother of Sybil, and wife of Hubert Baldran, was quite distinct from "Avelina" wife of Alan Fitz Flaald, with

"de feodo Aeliz uxoris mee filie Alani Dolensis senescalli concedente Alano filio nostro" (MS. lat. 5476, fo. 85). His father Hamo Spina occurs immediately after “Alan filius Jordanis dapifer" in the above letter of 1167 (Ib. fo. 98d). As we read of "Gaufridus Spina Doli senescallus" (Ib. fo. 91d) it would seem that the Dol office was inherited by the Spina family, and the English estates by the other daughter.

1 Burton Cartulary, Ed. Wrottesley (Salt Arch. Collections, 1884), PP. 32, 33. 2 Ibid. p. 33 bis. History of Shropshire, VII. 206 et seq. See my Calendar, p. 202.

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whom Mr. Eyton rashly identified her.1 Alan may have lived, and probably did, beyond 1114; and his gift at Stretton to Burton Abbey was made after he was placed in the shoes (as Mr. Eyton has shown) of Renaud de Bailleul.

We have thus seen how a single charter may prove of great importance, not only in establishing the true facts, but in demolishing erroneous conclusions with the corollaries based thereon.

Within the last few weeks there has unexpectedly been revived that view of the origin of the Stewarts which had long, one thought, been abandoned. As the whole story is most curious, and has, moreover, an important moral, I propose to discuss it in some detail. The pedigree of the Stuarts "of Hartley Mauduit," who hold a baronetcy dating from 1660, began in Burke's Peerage, so recently as last year, with Sir Nicholas Stuart the first baronet, "son of Simeon Stuart, Esq." But now, in this year of grace 1900,

A more thorough revision than usual has been possible. To the laborious researches and experienced counsel of my brother, Mr. H. Farnham Burke, Somerset Herald, the genealogical and heraldic value of this work is much indebted and is gratefully acknowledged (sic).

The "laborious researches" of Somerset Herald have indeed developed the Stuart pedigree, thanks

1 She has been even further promoted in the British Museum Catalogue of Stowe MSS., where, in the abstract of the original deed (Stowe charter 103), she is strangely identified with queen Adeliza, widow of Henry I.

to those "invaluable documents the Heralds' Visitations, documents of high authority and value."1

The illustrious ancestry of this family is given fully in the Visitations of Cambridge (sic), 1575 and 1619, in which is traced their descent from the Royal Stuarts.

Andrew Stuart, younger son of Alexander Stuart, 2nd son or Walter Stuart, seneschal of Scotland, great-grandson of Walter, 1st high steward of Scotland, grandson of Banquo Lord of Lochaber. He m. the daughter of James Bethe, and had an only son.

ALEXANDER STUART, to whom Charles VI. of France granted an honourable augmentation of his arms.

And so the pedigree proceeds through another eight generations down to the first baronet.

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Dear old Banquo,' "whom we miss "!" What a pleasure it is to welcome him back among us once more, and to know that he, and not Flaald, was the founder of the house of Stuart on the unimpeachable authority of the Heralds and their Visitations'! It is true that, according to the Royal Lineage "3 contained in the same volume, it was not descended from Banquo at all, and that the "above Alexander Stuart, 2nd son of Walter Stuart," had no existence; but these are details which the editor, doubtless, will see to in his next edition. It is also true that the new pedigree would at once make Sir Simeon Stuart heir-male

of "the Royal Stuarts,' an honour foolishly claimed by sundry Scottish families. Let us hope that Somerset Herald will inform Lyon King of

1 Preface to Burke's Landed Gentry, Ed. 1898. 3 Burke's Peerage, 1900, pp. cliii.-cliv.

2 Macbeth. See p. 89 above.