Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/543

 10 s. xii. DEC. 4, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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1 759, in his sixty-ninth year. The baronetcy then devolved on the grandson of Arent de Raet, LL.D., second son of the 1st Baronet ; and became extinct on the death s.p.l. of Sir William Maurice van Cats, 9th Baronet and 4th Baron de Raet in the Netherlands, at Djokjakarta, 14 Ap., 1900. Two of his sisters still survive. The 6th Baronet was, 22 Ap., 1843, created Baron de Raet in the Netherlands by King William II., and his brother and heir, Sir Jacob, 7th Baronet, -assumed the surname of Van Cats, his mother having been the heiress of the Barons van Cats of the Holy Roman Empire. I hope to print the whole pedigree shortly ; meanwhife it may be well to place the above on record in the pages of ' N. & Q. J

RTJVIGNY.

WALTHEOF, EABL or NORTHUMBERLAND. 1. His Wife. The * D.N.B.' says that William I. gave Waltheof to wife his niece Judith, a daughter of his sister Adelaide, by Enguerrand, Count of Ponthieu. This is incorrect, for Judith was the only child of Adelaide (or Alice) and her second husband, Lambert, Count of Lens, who was slain in 1054 (' Conqueror and his Companions,' i. 122), when his comte passed to, or was seized by, his brother, Eustace II., Count of Boulogne (ibid., i. 150-51).

2. His Daughters. The 'D.N.B.' gives Waltheof three daughters :

(1) Matilda (i.e., Maud), mar. 1st, Simon de Senlis, who was made in consequence Earl of Northampton ; 2nd, David I., King of Scotland.

(2) Judith, mar. " Ralph of Toesny, the younger."

(3), mar. Robert Fitz Richard.

I suggest that the alleged third daughter had no existence. The wife of Robert Fitz Richard was not Waltheof's daughter, but his grand-daughter Maud de Senlis (' Feudal England,' p. 575 ; cp. pp. 474-6).

About his daughter Maud there is no difficulty, but is there absolute proof of the affiliation of the wife of Ralf de Toeni ? If she were really the daughter of Waltheof, it seems curious that she was, apparently, excluded from any share in her father's great inheritance. Of Waltheof's three earldoms, Northampton was granted. to Maud's first husband, and except for a short interval (' Geoffrey de Mandeville,' pp. 264-5) was held by his descendants ; the Earldom of Huntingdon, which apparently included Cambridge (ibid. pp. 191-3), was held in turn by Maud's two husbands, and was long a bone of contention between

their descendants ; and Northumberland was obtained, though not permanently, by her son, Henry of Scotland.

In case any reader should suggest reference to the elaborate genealogical tables contained in Cobbe's ' Norman Kings of England,' I think it as well to say that I have noted so many errors in these that I consider them quite untrustworthy. In the present case, a comparison of Tables I., II., and IV. will show that Cobbe was quite at sea.

3. His Mother's Family. Waltheof was younger son of Earl Siward (d. 1055) by ^Elflaed, daughter and coheir of Earl Ealdred, eldest son of the great Earl Uchtred. This descent is given correctly by the ' D.N.B.,' though wrongly by Cobbe. How- ever, the ' D.N.B.' says, s.v. ' Waltheof,' that ^Elflaed was one of three daughters of Ealdred, but s.v. ' Uchtred ' it credits Ealdred with five daughters. Which is correct ? Another of the three (or five) was ^Eldgyth, who married Liulf, or Ligulf, murdered in 1080 (cp. 10 S. xii. 52-3). Is anything known of the remaining daughter or daughters ?

4. His Death. The ' D.N.B.' says that he was beheaded in 1076, which should, no doubt, be 1075 (Doyle, ' Official Baronage,' ii. 641). G. H. WHITE.

Lowestoft.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

FLAUBERT'S ' TENTATION DE ST. ANTOINE. I wonder if your readers will enlighten me as to certain words that occur in ' La Tentation de St. Antoine * (Flaubert, 1849-56 Edition), which I am translating. They are as follows.

1. Fleurs de pipalas.

2. Xeneston. This is described in the text as a small round of copper, a talisman that enables its owner to explore volcanoes and such perilous places. It is offered to St. Anthony by Apollonius of Tyana (ei/os, wayfarer ?).

3. Bibasis, Martypsa. Greek dances.

4. Nisnas, a people who have only one arm, one eye, half a heart, half a body, &c. (the kind of tribes Mandeville, Pliny, and Lucian occasionally mention). Nisnas is actually the Arabic word for monkey : of course, the travellers may have seen or heard of monkey tribes in Ethiopia, and conjured up these attributes for them.