The ancestors of the ancient Carpentiers of Flanders were knights we are
told. In England knights were something of a class below the nobility.
Warlop reminds us that in Flanders nearly all nobles were knights from the
Count of Flanders down (vol.2, p. 95). This he tells us became the social
order in the 11th century. Likewise in the 11th century he says, "Before the
year 1000, only the Christian names and sometimes the functions of the
witnesses are given. In the first half of the eleventh century, the
Christian names begin to be connected to a place-name. The custom will
become general in the course of the eleventh century. Each person of
importance is indicated as A (Christian name) of B (place-name). It appears
later that the person who is mentioned in this way is very often lord of the
place connected to his Christian name (vol. 2, p. 86)." This explains much
of the information on the ancestors of the Carpentiers as 'knights' and
'Lords of Gouy'. These individuals were then the castellan or lords of the
castle at Gouy, and not just knights in the employ of the local lord.
At the end of the 10th century, Warlop reminds us (vol. 2, p. 108), the
whole of Flanders was reorganized along military lines or 'feudalized'. The
country became a network of castles and interconnected loyalties from the
Count of Flanders (Count Baldwin IX) down. All the castellans of this
period, according to Wallop, were the 'vir illuster' and 'nobiles', or
descendants of old Carolingian landed families. The overall characteristic
of these people was, according to Warlop, an excruciating
class-consciousness. Marriage outside the noble class was unheard of.
Likewise entrance into the upper classes by the unwashed 'homines novi' was
strictly impossible. This was different from England.
In sum, to be a Flemish knight and lord of place carried with it
implications not exactly applicable to later and English history.
Bruce Carpenter