The Golden Falcon

Chapter I/1 - Falcon

THE GOLDEN FALCON

"Come let us hasten to the Pool that we may see the Falcon in his ship, in his war galley like the sun-god in the barque of the morning, hiding him beneath her timbers, the deep gloom of pines".  (Translation from ancient Egyptian - "The Splendour that was Egypt" - M. A. Murray)

The Roman province of Dyfed or Demetia in Wales stretched into what was Pembroke, Carmarthen, Cardigan, Brecon and Radnor and the province of Siluria or Sysllwg included Glamogan, Monmouth, Hereford, Gloucester, west of the Severn, and parts of Worcester.  After the Romans pulled out of Britain and the Saxons invaded, the Romano-Britons withdraw into the west over a period of time into Wales which became divided into different principalities - Gwyned in the north comprised Anglesey, Snowdonia, the Lleyn peninsula and the Conway Valley; Powys in the east consisted of Montgomeryshire, Cardigan or Ceredigion in the west, Dyfed covered the counties of Pembroke and Caernarfon, Gwent in the Lower Wye and Usk valleys, Morganwg or Glamorgan and Brycheiniog or Breconshire (many have since been given back their ancient names).

The people who lived in these areas called themselves the Cymri and were known as the "Gallia" or "Gallus" in Latin, "Gaules" in French and "Welisc" or "Wealch" by the Anglo-Saxons.  The Walloons of Flanders were of the same race and most place names beginning with "Wall" (Wallingford, Wallington, Wallbrook etc) usually denoted a Celtic or Welsh settlement.

These people, also called the Celts, were really two distinct races - the Iberians and the Celts.  During the Roman Conquest of Britain, the two types were still clearly distinguishable.  The Iberians or Capsienses were a Hamitic people of the Neolithic Age known variously as Iberian, Mediterranean, Berber, Basque, Silurian, Euskerian, Gallas, Abyssinians, Pelasgoi, Etruscan and Hittites.  They originated in Eastern, Northern or Central Africa, spreading into the Nile Valley, North Africa and eastwards along the Atlas Mountains; into Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, France and Spain and northwards into the Baltic.

The Celts were Aryans from Scythia in Central Europe on the shores of the Black Sea who spread along the Danube and in the Alps and migrated into France, Spain, Britain, Italy, Greece, Germany, the Slav countries, Persia and India.

The Iberians were short, swarthy, dark-haired and dark-eyed with long heads.  They were the people of the "long barrows" who buried their dead in a fœtal position, worshipped an agricultural earth-mother deity and built dolmens like Stonehenge.  They lived in fortified towns and fortresses built on rock spurs, with keeps and turrets in Spain and Portugal, fortified hill-forts in Wales like Dinas Emrys or crannogs on lakes or marshes in Ireland, Norfolk and Gloucester.

The Celts were fair-haired and blue-eyed, tall, with broad heads - they were the people of the "round barrows" who buried or cremated their dead, interring their ashes.

The Celt-Iberians were skilled metal workers, especially in gold, bronze and silver.  They made bronze daggers in leather sheaths or basket work, bronze halberds, pins, buttons, beads of amber shale and faience.  The amber came from fossilised resin of pine trees from drowned forests - according to their legends Lyonesse, Ys, Avilion and the lost cantrefs of Wales were submerged Celtic cities.  Their chiefs wore tunics covered with sheet gold, gold collars, rings and bracelets, they used amber cups and gold vessels like those excavated in Broighter in Ireland, Rillaton in Cornwall and Sussex.  Their sun sign was a gold disc with a cross within a circle - the Celtic cross.

Attracted by the gold, copper and tin found in the fabled Cassiterides (Cornwall) and Ireland, the Celt-Iberians from Galicia in north west Spain, Portugal and Brittany settled in Cornwall, Wales and Ireland (from where they came into Scotland and northern England).

Those from Galicia and Portugal settled in Pembroke (Dyfed) and Anglesey, the island of Mons from where the Tudor dynasty (descendants of Welsh princes) originated.

The boundaries of Dyfed ran by Aberdovey, up to Llanwrtyd Wells and Llandovery, past Ammanford right down to Laugharne.

The borders of Dyfed and Gwynedd met near the site of Carn Gwilym ("William's Castle") and Twr Gwyn ("White Tower") where the rivers Wye and Severn or Blaenhafren rise "of which the fair Sabrina, the daughter of Estrildis is the nymph, she having been drowned in its waters by Guendolen (Gwenllian) the jealous queen of Locrine, the son of Brut.  Estrildis herself, the daughter of King Humber, so farre excelled in bewtie, that none was then lightly found unto her comparable, for her skin was so whyte that scarcely the finest kind of ivorie, that might be found nor the snow lately fallen from the elament, nor lyllies did pass the same."

John Milton wrote of Sabrina or Hafren, nymph of the Severn and daughter of Locrinus, drowned by her step-mother near Castle Dolforwyn near Abermule, 3 miles north east of Newtown:

Sabrina Fair, listen where thou art sitting

Under the glassie, cool translucent waves.

In twisted braids of lillies knitting

The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair

Listen for dear honour's sake

Goddess of the silver lake

Listen and save.

By all the nymphs that nightly dance

Upon thy stream with wily glance

Rise, rise and heave thy rosie head

From thy coral- pav'd bed

And bridle in thy headlong wave.

Will thou our summons answered have

Listen and save.

By the rushy fringed bank

Where grows the willow and the osier dank

My sliding Chariot stayes Thick set with agat' and the azurn sheen

Of turkis blew, and emrauld green

That in the Channel strayes

Whilst from off the waters fleat

Thus I set my printless feet.

O're the cowslips velvet head

That bends not as I tread

Gentle swain at thy request

I am here.

The river Severn passes Llandiloes, Newtown, Welshpool (Trallwng) near Powys Castle (in the garden of which can be found "Winter's Bark") and Leighton; by Mountford, Shrewsbury in Shropshire and Buildwas Abbey; down to Bridgnorth and Stourport where it by-passes Droitwich and Salwarpe in Worcestershire; through the city of Worcester and Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire where it is joined by the Warwickshire Avon.  It flows through the Vale of Gloucester past Deerhurst and by the Priory of Gloucester, broadening after passing Farley's End.  On one bank is the Vale of Berkeley; the Forest of Dean on the other; Clapton-in-Gordano and the city of Bristol lie to the south of it.

The river Wye flows past Gwendwr by the castles of Llangoed and Boughrood; from Llyswen "where once was a fair castle of the Princes of Gwynedd" to Hay-on-Wye and Hereford, past Holme Lacy, through Ross-on-Wye, near Goodrich Castle to Monmouth, Staunton and Coleford; past Tintern Abbey not far from St. Briavels Castle in the Forest of Dean, by Tidenham Chase up to Chepstow Castle where it joins the Severn at Beachley Head.  Both rivers pass Offa's Dyke at some point and flow into the Bristol Channel in which are found the islands of Barry and Lundy.

It was in these areas that the family surnamed Winter or Wintour settled.

There are several origins for the surname Winter.  It is most probably the Old English personal name Wintra or Uintra which became confused with Winter.  For example Winchester was Wintra's Ceastre or fort.  The seasons gave the Germanic personal names Summer and Winter.

Other variations originate from vintener or captain of a troop of twenty, vintner or wine merchant (usually spelled Vinter).

There were 56 vineyards listed at the Domesday Inquest in 1086 amongst them were one in Wandsworth, one in Westminster, one at East Smithfield near the Tower of London and another at Clare, Suffolk held by the family who took their surname from this manor.  As early as 957-975 AD in the reign of Edgar (King Alfred's great grandson), Jewish wine merchants of Rouen settled in the area of the present Vintners Place in London.

Josce Vinitarius (at Michaelmas 1157-8) and Radulphus Vinitor (at Christmas 1172-74) were sheriffs of Middlesex and London; Alan Vintner, a municipal representative and Roger Vintner are mentioned in a Reading Charter in 1248 during the reign of Henry III; Matthew Vinitarius in an inquisition post mortem at Canterbury; John le Vinetier held land in Coventry.  In the reign of Edward I, Robert Kite sued Stephen Winter or le Vinetier in the court of the Milton Hundreds for coming into his garden, breaking down hedges and carrying off his roses against the peace and in the 4th or 5th year of the reign of Edward II, John Vineter was member of Parliament for Southwark.

The surname appears in Scotland in the 12^th century:  Elsi, son of Winter had a grant of lands of Thirlstane from Hugh de Morville before 1162.  Jop Wyntyr was a charter witness at Yester in 1374, Thomas Wyntir was a bailie of Glasgow in 1447, John Wyntyr, a burgess of Arbroath in 1452, George Wynter, a charter witness in Kimmerhame in 1474, David Wyntyr or Wynter, a citizen of Glasgow in 1487-88, held land there before 1494 and Robert Wynter was monk of Culross in the middle of the 16th century.  The Winter families of Cortachy & Clova and Tannadice in Aberdeenshire descended from two Dutch brothers.

In Celtic times, the last person to reap corn was called Winter and doomed to a life of poverty because of his weakness.

THE GOLDEN FORTRESS

The surname Winter is also said to derive from "gwyn dour" meaning "white water" in Cornish and "gwyn twr" meaning "white tower" in Welsh.  According to Thomas Habington in his "Survey of Worcestershire":

"Winter descending as it hath been generally sayde, out of Wales receaveth hys name from the fayre towres of Caernarfon Castle being there castellan when King Edward brought his queen to be delyvered of her chyld.  To this place of Winter's Command in Wales and the derivation of his name from thys castell alludeth hys devyse or crest beinge a fawcon or on an imbatched wall argent.  Winter removing hence as it is affyrmed to Wich County in the raygne of Edward II remayneth in his offspring theare untill they inherited Hoddington."

Caernarfon was the Golden Fortress of Welsh legend seen by Macsen Wledig in his dream:

"Macsen Wledig was Emperor of Rome.  One day he said to his friends "Tomorrow I intend to go a-hunting".  And the sun was high in heaven and the heat great.  And sleep came upon him.  And then he saw a dream.

He was making along the river valley towards its upper reaches and he came to the highest mountain in the world.  On the far side of the mountain he saw great wide rivers making towards the sea-fords.  He came to the mouth of a river and he saw a great city and in the city a great castle and he saw many great towers of various colours on the castle.  Inside the castle he saw a fair hall.  And he saw a maiden sitting in a chair of red gold.   No more than it would be easy to look on the sun when it is brightest, no easier would it be than that to look on her by reason of her excelling beauty.  And when he woke neither life nor existence nor being was left him, for the maiden he had seen in his sleep.  And the wisest men of Rome said "Lord send messengers for 3 years to the three divisions of the earth to seek thy dream·”.

And they voyaged over the sea and came to the Island of Britain.  And they traversed the Island till they came to Eryri.  They pressed forward till they could see Mon facing them and till they could see Arfon likewise.  And Aber Seint they saw and the castle at the mouth of the river they came into the castle and they saw the maiden sitting in a chair of red gold.

And by day and by night the messengers sped them back.  And when they reached Rome straightway the emperor set out with his host and those men as their guide towards the Island of Britain.  And he came straight to Arfon and he saw the castle of Aber Seint and the maiden he had seen in his sleep and that night he slept with her.  And on the morrow the maiden asked for her maiden fee, that three chief strongholds be made for her in the three places she might choose in the Island of Britain.  And then she chose that the most exalted stronghold should be made for her in Arfon.  Later two other strongholds were made for her, Caer Llion and Caer Fyrddin.  Therefore Elen thought to make high roads from one stronghold to another across the Island of Britain.  And the roads were made. And for that reason they are called Roads of Elen of the Hosts."  ("The dream of Macsen Wledig" - The Mabinogion)

Queen Eleanor of Castile was brought to Caernarfon to give birth to Edward II called Edward of Caernarfon, the prince who could speak no word of English nor Welsh, promised to Wales by his father.  However the legendary Caern Arfon or highest castle in Arfon was Dinas Emrys (Ambrosius or Merlin's Castle) on Mount Snowdon.

Caernarfon,"the fort on the shore" in the principality of Llywelyn ap Gruffyd, was once a "newydd" or wooden place of the Princes of Gwynedd.  There was a Roman fort there where Magnus Maximus (Macsen Wledig), Constantine's "father" is allegedly buried - his body was "discovered" in 1283 and reburied by Edward I.

Maximus was actually a Spanish mercenary who held the fort of Segontium near Caernarfon in AD 383 and was declared Emperor.  He captured Rome with troops, which included Britons but did not go beyond Italy.  In 388 AD he was defeated and killed by the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius.

Constantine's father was Constantius (an Illyrian, Flavius Valerus Constantius called Constantius Chlorus) who died at York in AD 306; his mother was St. Helen "discoverer of the True Cross", a piece of which was worn by the Welsh Princes.  After Llywelyn ap Gruffyd was killed, Edward I was supposed to have brought a piece to the church of St. Helen in London.  She was "Helen of the Legions", the daughter of a Welsh chieftain, alternatively the daughter of a Breton king named Coel, born in York, daughter of an innkeeper at Drepanium near Nicomedia, a native of Dalmatia, Dacia, Tarsus, Edessa or Treves!  Constantius actually married Theodora, former daughter-in-law of Maximian (M. Aurelius Valerius Maximianus an Illyrian co-Emperor with Diocletioni) but he made Constantine (his son by Helen) his legal heir.

He was confused with a pretender named Constantine III whom the Welsh called Bendigeit Custennin (Holy Constantine) who led a rebellion in 406 AD.  He left Britain with his second-in-command Geraint or Gerontius to cut his way through to Rome.  Both died in wars on the continent.

The remains of Segontium, on the hill slopes outside Edward I's castle and the town, overlook the Menai Straits.  It was rebuilt in stone during the 2nd century AD because of unrest in the area, again at beginning of the 3rd century and after Irish raids in 367 AD.  The Roman garrison was withdrawn and transferred to Europe in AD 383 by Maximus.

A Norman castle was built after the first invasion of Wales but was conquered by the Welsh in 1115 - all traces of it have vanished.  It was replaced by Edward I's castle, which was begun in 1283-4 and completed about 1330.  The Eagle Tower (where Edward II was said to have been born) was one of the largest towers built in the Middle Ages.  The castle had an outer curtain of massive walls, 8 ft thick, built of different coloured masonry, resembling those of Constantinople.  A barbican protected the gatehouse of the inner ring of defence and above the battlements rose round towers of varying sizes, the angle towers are polygonal.

The English learnt to build such castles when on Crusades.  Edward, his brother Edmund and his queen Eleanor of Castile went to the Holy Land in summer 1270 to join St. Louis of France (who had died by then) at Tunis and then to Acre in May 1271.  Until he died in 1282, the Ilkhan Abaga of Persia (a pagan Mongol married to a Greek princess and ally of the Crusaders) kept in touch with Edward.  The Moslem Sultan Bibars paid an assassin to stab Edward with a poisoned dagger; Eleanor was supposed to have saved his life by sucking the poison from his wound.  They left in September 1272 for England.  One of Edward's daughters was named Joan of Acre because she was born in the town of Acre and married Gilbert de Clare "the Red", earl of Gloucester as his second wife.  Eleanor died on 28.11.1293 and Edward wrote "My harp is turned to mourning - in life I loved her dearly nor can I cease to love her in death".  Their marriage took place in Burgos Cathedral, they had been together for 36 years and had 13 children, many of whom died.  Edward erected delicately carved Plateresque memorial crosses from Lincoln to Charing Cross ("Cher Reine's Cross" or Dear Queen's Cross) at every place where her coffin rested.

"Cheap Ward:  Then next is a great cross in West Cheape, which cross was there erected in the year 1290 by Edward I, upon occasion thus; Queen Elianor his wife died at Hardeby (a town near unto the city of Lincoln), her body was brought from thence to Westminster and the king in memory of her, caused in every place where her body rested in the way, a stately cross of stone to be erected, with the queen's image and arms upon it, as at Grantham, Woborne, Northampton, Stony Stratford, Dunstable, St. Albones, Waltham, Westcheap and at Charing from there she was conveyed to Westminster and there buried." ("Survey of London" - John Stow).

Edward married as his second wife, Margaret of France, aunt of Isabella, Edward II's queen.  Edward I died on 7.7.1307 at Burgh-on-Sands on his way north to fight the Scots.

Edward II was reputedly homosexual and his favourites Piers Gaveston (whose father came from Gabaston in Gascony where his mother was reputedly burned as a witch) and Hugh le Despencer the Younger brought about the king's downfall.  Edward II was subsequently murdered most horribly but a letter from the Pope's clerk maintained the king had fled to an Italian monastery.  His murderers were never punished.

It was during the troubled reign of Edward II that the Winters moved to Wych or Droitwich in Worcestershire from Caernarfon where one of them was said to have been castellan.  However there was no Winter who was castellan of Caernarfon but one Thomas de Coston, possibly ancestor of the family of Huddington from whom the Winters descended.

The part of the Caernarfon castle which contains the Eagle Tower was built between 1285 and 1291 so Edward II could not have been born there on 25.4.1284 - he was probably born in the old Norman tower which stood on the site of the outer bailey.  The next section to the north east tower was built between 1295 and 1301 and the remaining portion of the north front up to the eagle tower between 1315 and 1322 - the building went on for almost 37 years.  In 1295 a man named William of Hereford, an outstanding builder, was master of works at Caernarfon.

The eagle may represent the Roman standard but Snowdonia, where the last Welsh princes David and Llywelyn ap Gruyffyd took refuge, was called Eryri (Nest of Eagles) - there are two mountains in the region called Carnedd Dafydd and Carnedd Llywelyn.  Edward I threatened Llywelyn with "tweaking his tail-feathers" so the Prince may have had an eagle on his seal.

The Corporation seal of Caernarvon town had "three lions or passant gardant and an eagle displayed as the crest" probably the coat of arms on the frieze above the mantelpiece at Huddington - the Winters' falcon and tower crest appears on the stained glass windows in Himbleton church.

Many mayors and burgesses of Caernarfon were also castellans or constables of the castle - the Burgundian mercenary Otto de Grandison (d. 1328), the king's justiciar in Wales in 1284, son of Pierre de Granson, lord of Granson on the shores of Lake Neufchatel in Switzerland, was the first castellan of Caernarfon and the eagle appears on his coat of arms "upon a paly of 6, argent and azure, a bend gules with 3 golden eagles displayed" (Carlaverock Roll, 1300) later differenced with "3 escallops" and then "3 buckles or" - his descendants held land in Sussex.

The castellan of Caernarfon from whom the Winters were descended was probably Thomas de Coston, briefly castellan between 1.4.1300 and 8.5.1300 (28 Edward I) who may had have had some connection with the manor of Coston Richard in Worcestershire.

1 knight's fee was held in 1166 at Coston Richard by Richard de Coston from William de Beauchamp.  John de Coston next held it from 1160-1206 and was witness to a grant to Dudley Priory.  Walter de Coston held from 1259-1262/3, then John de Coston who granted it to Richard de Coston for life.  Richard, son of Alexander de Coston, held it in 1283/4 after which it passed to Sybil, eldest daughter of John de Coston in 1316, then to Lucy, wife of Alexander de Huddington, possibly daughter or sister of Sybil.  Lucy held it in 1346.  In 1428 it was held by the heirs of Lucy de Huddington.

Wychall or Warthvil, berewick of Bromsgrove in the Halfshire Hundred of Worcestershire, was in the king's possession in 1237/8.  He sued Richard, son of Richard de Coston, for a caracute of land at La Wythall in 1253.  Richard de Coston was also known as Richard de la Wychall (Wych Hall).

Coston Hackett was held by the Hacketts in 1166, William Hackett held it in the 13th century, Ralph Hackett in 1270 then Walter Hackett.  Richard de Coston held it during the reign of Edward I and then Ralph Hackett.  It came to the Hoddingtons when the male line of the Costons died out and was subsequently held by the Russells (heirs of the Huddington) and the Dingleys.  ("The Parishes of the Dioceses of Worcester" - Millar, vol. 2. p.38).

The Hacketts may have been Flemish mercenaries of King Stephen (d. 1154).  The Becket controversy was at its height in 1166 when he excommunicated his enemies from Vezelay and Richard de Clare "Strongbow" was asked by Dermot McMurrough to intervene in Ireland where the Hackett family settled and probably held Hacket Castle on the northern slope of Knockma, about 5 miles from Tuam, Co. Galway.  The arms of Thomas Hackett, Lord Mayor of Dublin (1688) were "gules, 3 hakes haurient in fesse, argent, on a chief or, 3 trefoils slipped proper".  Crest: "Out of a mural crown, an eagle displayed sable.  Motto: "Spes mea Deu."  He may have been descended from Burchard of Erembald (nephew of Desiderius Hacket) who allegedly fled and took refuge in the south of Ireland.

The Hackets of Worcestershire may have descended from the karl Desiderius Hacket, father-in-law of Walter Cromlin, lord of Lisseweghe who may have been the ancestor of Richard Cromleyn (from whom the Huddingtons descended).  Cromleyn's arms were "azure, 3 fishes naint" or according to Rev. F. Brown,"3 fishes haurient".

The karls were free landholders who settled on the sea coasts, blue-blooded Saxons who formed a middle class, setting themselves apart from the inhabitants of the inland towns, the court, the villeins and the serfs.  They were farmers, fishermen, merchants and soldiers who occupied a long stretch of land from the Abbey of Muenickereede to the marshes of Wasconingawala in the county of Guines which included the towns of Ardres, Alveringham and Furness, the forest of Thorout and the district which later submitted to the Liberty of Bruges.  There was a strong Flemish contingent amongst William the Conqueror's mercenaries; Arnold of Ardres was given land in Bedfordshire and the Guines held vast territories in the Midlands.  Their territory in Flanders was divided into districts called circles or guilds, ruled by elected chiefs who were magistrates and legislators.  The karls were bound to the Count by personal service for the defence of the realm and payment of a voluntary tribute assessed by themselves.

Wishing to dominate the karls, the Regent of Flanders, Richilde of Hainault, widow of Count Baldwin the Good, levied a tribute in 1070 for maintaining the ramparts of the city of Bruges, previously repaired by forced labour.  Richilde married secondly William I's viceroy in England, William FitzOsbern, earl of Hereford who was killed at Cassel in the heart of the karlish lands with her son Arnulf whilst fighting on her behalf against Robert the Frisian who, with the karls' support, became Count of Flanders.  After this victory, the karls began to occupy high posts in court.

One of them, Erembald, karl of Furnes, was appointed Chatelain of Bruges, the highest civil post in Flanders, one of his sons was given the provostship of the Collegiate Church of St. Donation's in Bruges, the highest ecclesiastical appointment and Robert's son Philip, Viscount of Ypres married a Karline, the Lady of Loo.  Amongst the Karls who followed his successor Robert II, Count of Flanders to Jerusalem was Erembald of Bruges and his son Robert.  When Count Robert died at Meaux, his heir the 18-year-old Baldwin Hapkin was completely under the influence of his guardian, Charles of Denmark, Count Robert II's nephew whose mother had been forced to flee to Bruges when his father, the king of Denmark, was hacked to pieces before the altar of the Church of St. Alban, Odensee in 1086 by a mob enraged by his exaction of taxes.

Desiderius Hacket, Chatelain of Bruges, was head of the powerful house of the karlish Erembalds, his brother Bertulph was Provost of St. Donatian's, hereditary chancellor and chief of the Count's household.  Another powerful karl, Tancmar of Straten, near Bruges, who also held high office in the Count's household and was a member of the Privy Council, had no children so adopted two nephews, Gilbert and Walter called the "Winged Lie".  There was a deadly feud between the Erembalds (whom the Count also hated) and the Stratens.  Charles of Denmark, who also wished to dominate the karls, issued an edict forbidding the bearing of arms which offended them and which the Erembalds opposed.

In 1126 Richard of Raeske, allied by marriage to the Erembalds, fell out with Walter of Straten and challenged him to mortal combat in the Count's presence but Walter refused on the grounds that Richard had married a serf's daughter.  Charles had issued an edict decreeing that "the freeman who married a slave should after a year's wedlock, cease to be free and sink to his wife's condition".  The Erembalds, who had been chatelains of Bruges since 1067, were terribly insulted and Bertulf was enraged.  A commission of inquiry was appointed to judge the Lady of Raeske's ancestry as a free woman and Charles claimed the Erembalds as serfs.  They and the Stratens began waging war on each other and Charles (before he set off to France, summoned there by his liege lord Louis "le Gros" of France), tried to force a truce between the warring karls.  On his return, the Stratens complained that the Erembalds, led by the Provost's nephew Burchard, had plundered their lands so Charles decreed that Burchard's house at Straten should be demolished.

On 29.2.1126 Burchard entered St. Donatian's whilst Charles was at Mass and hacked him to death, carrying out a pagan death feast in the church that night.  The Erembalds' opponents attacked their castle and they were offered peace terms if they came out and proved their innocence.  Amongst those who did were Bertulph, Hacket and a nephew Robert the Child.  Bertulph escaped to the manor of his niece's husband, Alard van Woesten, on the French border near Ypres.  William of Loo (who had become count), searched Alard's house and took his daughter hostage, threatening to torture her if Bertulph was not given up.  Bertulph was captured, stripped and hanged on a cross in the market-place of Bruges where the mob in the fish market tore at him with their iron hooks.

The rest of the Erembalds now had to face the armies of Louis "le Gros" and William Clito (son of Robert of Normandy & heir to Flanders) and were eventually captured in May.  Wulfric Cnopp, brother of Bertulph and Hacket was the first to be executed by being thrown over the ramparts, he was followed by the rest and their bodies were thrown into a marsh near the village of St. Andre.

Although Louis "le Gros" had promised to spare Robert the Child, he cut off his head as soon as they reached Mont Cassel on the way back to France.  Burchard disappeared and perhaps took refuge in Ireland, Hacket and his young son Robert, escaped from the tower a few days before the surrender.  He fled Bruges and crossing the great salt marsh north of the city, reached the castle of his son-in-law Walter Cromlin, Lord of Lisseweghe where he remained hidden until Dierick of Alsace became Count of Flanders a year later when he was sent to trial, proved his innocence, was restored to his former rank and may have become abbot of Dunes, founding a monastery at Lisseweghe.  One of his descendants, Louis of Gruthuise, created earl of Winchester by Edward IV.

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