I was asked to shed what light I could on the origins
of the Flemish Carpentier line discussed by the genealogist
Jean le Carpentier in the 1600s. From my Medieval Carpenter
subscription letters.....
all that is known
of Gouy and its lords comes from the work of a late 9th century Frankish
chronicler,
Flodoard. His surviving history is known as ANNALES DE FLODOARD. His work is
particularly valuable because his described contemporary events. Gouy in
Latin was Gaugiaco. The individual who held the original feudal fief of Gouy
in the 900s was a Rodulfi de Gaugiaco of Ralph of Gouy. Ralph was the son of
dHeluis who remarried a Count Roger de Laon. Ralph of Gouy had a son Ralph
(Rodulfum filium Rodulfi de Gaugiaco).
Ralph made his historical debut in the struggle against the Normans under
Rollo. Later the Normans were given their duchy and swore loyalty to the
King of France. Ralph served in this war under Count Herbert of Vermandois.
According to Flodoard, Ralph himself was a titled count (comes). Ralphs
father is unnamed in the history. However it seems logical to many that
Ralph must be the descendant of Ralph the Count of Cambrai (b. 865), he
himself the son of Count Baldwin Bras der Fer, the progenitor of the
Flemish royal house. Count Baldwins wife (Princess Judith) was the daughter
of the King of France. After peace was made with the Normans, conflict
erupted between Ralphs son and the sons of Count Herbert. This historical
incident seems in part the origins of the French literary epic RAOUL DE
CAMBRAI. The exact geographical location of Gouy is a matter of scholarly
debate, as is much else in Flodoard. Most agree however that the present
Gouy near Cambrai is the location in question. The problem remains that the
knight Roger of Gouy (c. 1036) who was the progenitor of the Cambrai
Carpentier line and the time (943) of the son or sons of Ralph of Gouy is a
good century. Another problem is the father of Count Ralph of Gouy. Still,
this account of the origins of the Carpenter family is the most probable I
have seen. The original book is Les Annales de Flodoard, Paris, 1905.
Bruce Carpenter