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On this page we will present to you the oldest mentions of the de le Roke familymembers in the city of Tournai.
Because we are not 100 % sure about the father-son relations we will present these (very) old registrations chronologically.
At the end of this chapter we will try and put forward the de le Roke familymembers who we believe to be the direct ancestors of the van de roke family, and therefor the common ancestors of the Verroken, Verhoken, Verhoeke and probably Delrocq and Delrock families.
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II.C Nicholès de le Roke (∃ 1221 → 1228)
The oldest mention of a namesake of "our" family name de le Roke we could find so far is this of Nicholon de le roke, who was one of the 7 aldermen of the city of Tournai in 1221.
The foundation of the Roman castrum Tornacum on the east banc of the Schelde, at the beginning of our calendar, was probably the origin of the city of Tournai.
After the fall of the Roman empire, Tournai became the capital of the Frank empire, from which Chlodovech and his descendents gouverned their territories.
After the invasions of the Normans, who destroyed the city completely, the first to return were the bisshop and the canons.
In 898 the French king Charles le Simple, granted his permission to the bisshop to rebuild the bisshop's palace, and the right to raise taxes on the market, the roads and the river, for the residents of the bisshop's territory as well as for passers-by.
In the 11th and 12th century the abbeys of St-Martin and St-Medard were founded nearby the bisshop's domain.
The safety provided by the walled in settlement around the bisshop's palace and the cathedral, attracted merchants and craftsmen from the surrounding countryside.
The city constantly expanded, and when necessary new walls were built.
In 1187 the French king Philippe-Auguste took the sovereign power over the city out of the bisshop's hands and assigned it to the citizens, who had to administer the city in the name of the king.
The community of citizens of Tournai thus became directly and only dependent from the king of France.
The original city center, the "cité", was situated on the west banc of the river Schelde.
The ward of St-Brice on the east banc was the first area of expansion, and at the end of the 13th century, the wards "Bruille" and "Chauffours" were bought by the community of the de Mortagne and the de Leuze families and integrated in the independent city of Tournai.
Nicholon, or Nicholès de le Roke was one of the 7 aldermen of the cité of Tournai.
In a number of chirographs we found mentions of our ancestor in his official function.
Chirographs are legal transactions written on parchment such as charters of sales and acquisitions, contracts of marriage, testaments, ... which were made valid in law by the aldermen.
These few registrations provide us with an abondance of deductable information.
Untill 1187, the aldermen of the city of Tournai were appointed by the bisshop.
When the king had put the city under secular government, the influence of the bisshop on the urban administration deminished.
Each year "the law" was reelected, through a system of lections in different levels.
Among the "chefs d'ostel", the heads of the families who owned a house, 300 "électeurs", voters, were chosen.
This comitee appointed 30 "éwardeurs" pondarately chosen from all the parishes.
These "éwardeurs" chose 30 "jurés" among whom 2 were appointed as "prévots", a function comparable to that of a baillif, and the 7 aldermen of the city and the 7 aldermen of St-Brice.
All together they formed "les Conseaux", the city council.
In order to become alderman of the city, one had to possess a house in the "cité".
One had to -even after 1187- swear an oath of loyalty to the bisshop, and thus become member of "les hommes de Sainte-Marie", the bisshop's free men.
This organization dated from the 10th century and its members could guarantee their personal freedom by an oath of loyalty to the holy virgin and St-Eleutherius, sworn to the bisshop.
They payed a yearly contribution and a sum when they got married and when they died.
They were relieved of the obligation to apy taxes to the bisshop.
The aldermen could pass judgement, and had legislative power in the field of commerce and industry, they had a notarial function as well.
A lot of Nicholès de le Roke's fellow aldermen were vasals of the lord of the castle of Tournai, or had a noble or a patrician title.
Since Nicholès did not have such a title, and yet was able to perform one of the most important functions in the city, he must have been an influential man.
He probably was an important merchant, a supposition that we see confirmed by the mercantile activities of his descendants.
Tournai was one of the most important commercial towns in Western Europe, and was member of the hanze of London through th "Charité St-Christophe", a fraternity of all the important Tournai merchants.
This "Charité St-Christophe" organized the interegional and international commercial contacts, and the de le Roke family will certainly have been member of this organisation.
Nicholès de le Roke probably was the delegate of this charité in the board of aldermen, which will heve been a reflection of the different power blocks in the city.
In order to become alderman, one of course had to be of age.
Nicholès de le Roke was alderman of Tournai in 1221, 1224, 1225, 1227 and 1228.
In the years in between he probably held an other official function.
In 9 of the 12 lists of aldermen in which Nicholès appears, his name is registered in last place.
He obviously was the less renowned, and probably the youngest of the aldermen.
Since one became of age at that time at the age of 25, Nicholès de le Roke was born at the latest in 1196, and probably not a lot earlier.
In 1216 a criminal, Jacques le clerc, had taken refuge in the cathedral.
In spite of the immunity principal, the prévots entered in the cathedral, arrested the man, dragged him out of the church and hanged him on the spot.
The bisshop was very upset about this situation, and a few years later, in 1227, it was decided that the body of Jacques le clerc had to be exhumed and given an honorable funeral.
On top of this, the aldermen and jurés had to come barefooted and in their underware and beg for forgiveness in front of the bisshop.
This whole situation probably meant the end of the political career of Nicholès de le Roke, and after 1228 we couldn't find a trace of him in any official function in the city of Tournai.
In fact, it has taken a few generations before we found a de le Roke family member in an official function, and the family only rejoined the highest rancks of the magistrates around 1400.
A last and not unimportant deduction we can make from the fact that Nicholès de le Roke was one of the 7 eledermen of the city of Tournai in the twenties of the 13th century, is the undeniable constatation that he must have been able to read and write, in those days certainly not a common ability.
Without any doubt this ability was passed on to his children and the next generations!
Because of the complete destruction of the archives of the city of Tournai in may 1940, we are to a large extent depending on what has been published before may 1940.
Although we managed to recover a lot of data, we would certainly have found a lot more personal details concearning our ancestors.
In the Tournai city archives there were several thousand of chirographs only from the 13th century!
The total amount of chirographs in which every detail of the daily life could be found runs up to more than 500.000...
At the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century, the city of Tournai produced its first periode of prosperity.
In this early periode of urban society, most inhabitants were in origin coming from the surrounding countryside.
They came to live in the city, attracted by the economic possibilities and the greater personal safety and legal security.
I would personnally be very amazed to see an immigrant of the first generation being so influential and successfull that he was able to become an alderman of a city the size of Tournai at the age of 25...
It is therefor our conviction that the de le Roke family had been present in Tournai at least one generation earlier, and around 1220 had been able to develop an important web of economic and political relations.
A small, but significant clue could be Nicholès first name : in order to prove their solidarity and sympathy for their new dwelling, some immigrants of the first generation called their first there born after the patron of the parish.
The construction of the St.-Nicholas church in the ward Bruille, on the east banc of the river Schelde, was started in 1153 and finished in 1213.
This could be an extra indication the first Tournai generation of the de le Roke family initially lived in the ward Bruille, at that time on the outside of the city walls, and legally not yet part of the independant city.
Maybe Nicholès's father had been involved in the building of this St-Nicholas church as a merchant of stone or as a manager of a quarry.
A second indication that Nicholès probably belonged to the second Tournai generation of the de le Roke family, is the fact that in the period 1220-1230 two relatives lived in the city as well : Johannes de le Roke and Egidius de le Roke, we will talk about them later on.
The thesis that the de le Roke family must have been an influential family in Tournai, is not only proven to us by the fact that a familymember was alderman in the beginning of the 13th century, but also by an other very remarkable fact :
In his book "Tournai ancien et moderne", A.F.J. Bozière tried to explain the origin of the names of the streets of Tournai.
He made the constatation that certain influential families gave their name to the street where they lived.
For instance the a le Take family gave their name to the rue a le Take, the de le Ture family gave their name to the rue de le Ture, ...
We explained earlier that at the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century, all over the city, stones were extracted on the spot to build houses and city walls.
There were countless rokes in the city and it is our thesis that de rue de le roke was named after the de le Roke family who lived there.
In the rentier of the abbey of St-Martin, dating from before 1212, this place was referred to as "viculi quod itur ad Mallos ante portam nostram" or "viculi iuxta petrinam portam quod itur ad mallos", the little street which leads to the rue des Maux.
In the rentier of 1222 the street was called the "viculus rupe quod itur ad Mallos", the rue de le roke which leads to the rue des Maux.
In the book of 1232 this place is indicated as "vicus de rupe Mallorum" or "in rupe ad Sanctum Nicasium", the ward roke next to the St-Nicaise church.
We can conclude that Nicholès de le Roke, born approximately in 1195, can not have taken his family name from a place which has only been called "rupe" or rue de le roke since 1220-'28.
On the contrary, it was probably the de le Roke family who started the exploitation of a roke there, and gave their family name to the street where they lived.
We found some proof of this thesis at the end of the 13th century and the second quarter of the 14th century, when Nicholès's grandson Jakemès de le Roke and his great-grandson Jak de le Roke, li merchier, owned a house in the rue de le roke.
Nicholès de le roke, who certainly owned a house in the cité of Tournai, probably lived in this rue de le roke as well.
Mr. Boziere does not make the connection between the rue de le roke and the de le Roke family, and he presumes the rue de le roke had been named after a "since long disappeared" roke or quarry which must have been there.
We know for certain from a mention in the rentier of the Great Office of the Cellier from 1289 that there effectively was a roke in the rue de le roke.
Already in the middle of the 13th century this rue de le roke was refferred to as rue de le roke St-Nicaise, which proves that the description roke was not specific enough to unambiguously indicate about which place one was talking or writing.
In his book "La pierre de Tournai", prof. Ludovic Nys points out that there will heve been several rokes "intra muros", but he presumes the increasing number of inhabitants of the city centre will have ended their exploitation as early as the end of the 11th century.
He makes the remark that the multitude of archeologic fouilles has not found any proof of this yet... although we know from several sources that for instance the stones used to build the cathedral were taking out of the soil "in situ".
The toponym "roque St-Nicaise" which appears in a lot of charters from the 13th and 14th century, refers to a quarry, situated just south of the central market square, which -if not in use- must still have been clearly visible.
Professor Nys supposes that this roke which was situated inside the new city walls of the end of the 13th century, was probably opened on the spot where the first city wall and moat used to be at the end of the 11th century.
In the personal notes of archivist Hennebert, kept in the Tournai state archives, we found a file in which this historian apparently was preparing a book concearning the streets of Medieval Tournai.
Mr Hennebert wrote down dates and short fragments of uncountable chirographs.
Sometimes he copied the entire text, sometimes he redacted a short summary, in some cases he only wrote down the date and the name of the street.
The 2 earliest mentions he found concearning the rue de le roche date from 1228!
And you've guessed it already... mr. Hennebert only wrote down the year and the name of the street.
A third indication which may confirm our thesis, we found in the ward Bruille, on the east bank of the river Schelde.
In a cartularium of the St-Martins abbey of Tournai, dated by us at approximatly 1225, we found the registration of Johannes de le Roke, who rented 3 gardens near aplace called "ultra Brulium".
In the following cartularium, only a few years later, this place is referred to as "ad rupem ultra bruleum" (at the quarry, past Bruille)... somebody -probably Johannes de le Roke- in the mean time had started the exploitation of a roke.
In mr Hennebert's notes we found a toponym "en le roke" existed on that exact spot in 1301, and moreover, a member of the de le Roke family, Jehan de le Roke, le carpentier, owned a house there.
So here also the de le Roke family was present before the toponym, before the roke they probably started there.
The fact that Nicholès de le Roke already in 1221 was alderman of the cité of Tournai, and the constatation that the rue de le roke was named after the de le Roke family who lived there, lead us to 2 conclusions :
Nicholès belonged to the second generation of the de le Roke family present in Tournai, the family was already called de le Roke befóre they came to Tournai, and was named after an other toponym roke.
As you can read in the webpage concearning the origin of our family name, we could situate this toponym roke in the southwest of Flobecq.
There as well, we could witness Wicars and Jehans, the sons of Colart de le Roke start a roquette -a small quarry- on a peace of land they rented from sire Jehan of Pamele-Oudenaarde.
Almost every person, registered in 1275 in the Veil Rentier of sire Jehan of Pamele-Oudenaarde as a fiefholder in Flobecq, we could find in Tournai.
The St-Martins abbey of Tournai owned the tenths of Flobecq, and via this abbey a lot of inhabitants of Flobecq will have come in contact with the city of Tournai.
We can see the first names of the de le Roke families from Tournai and Flobecq are identical.
In Flobecq in 1275 we found the brothers Wicars and Jehans, sons of Colart de le Roke, the names Colarts and Nicholès are identical, and later we will see there was a Wiart Roke in Tournai, and several Jehans.
In Tournai we made the acquaintance of Egidius and Gilles de le Roke in the 13th century, in the beginning of the 15th century there was a Gilliart de le Roke in Tournai, as well as in Ellezelles.
The origin of the de le Roke family can be situated near the toponym roke in Flobecq.
Because the society in the city of Tournai was much more complex than that in the village of Flobecq, the needs of administration were much higher, so we found the first registration of a member of the de le Roke family in 1221 in Tournai.
Beacuse of his social status and the fact that there were already 2 namesakes in the city, it is almost impossible that Nicholès was the first de le Roke in Tournai, therefor we attribute him generationnumber II.
I. or II.A Johannes de le Roke (∃ ~1225)
In the oldest preserved book of rents of the St-Martins abbey of Tournai we can read on f° 17 that Johannes de le Roke has paid the rent for 3 gardens in the ward Bruille on the east banc of the river Schelde, before him these gardens were rented by Alardus de Vesenchiel.
We were able to date this book to the periode 1220-1230, thanks to the other names in this book of rents and some additional data from the personal notes of mr. Léo Verriest.
Th neighbours of Johannes de le Roke were important people :
In other medieval cities as well, one can witness the upper class keeping the nicest spots in areas of expansion for themselves...
Without doubt this is a fine illustration of this habit.
In the personal notes of mr. Léo Verriest, we found a transcription of an earlier book of rents of the St-Martins abbey, dated by him at 1212 at the latest.
There is no de le Roke family member registered in it.
In both rentiers we can find the name of Willelmus a Longeville who is paying rent for 8 gardens in the ward Bruille, almost all the other gardens have different people paying for the rent.
The next book dates from 1232.
This of course means we can date "our" rentier between 1212 and 1232.
When we grant some degree of regularity to the monks, we could take a good guess at 1222...
We can conclude that Alardus de Vesenchiel paid the rent for thes 3 gardens in 1222, and that Johannes de le Roke took over these gardens at some time between 1225 and 1230.
We can also conclude that Johannes de le Roke, Alardus de Vesenchiel and the Mouton family must have been very well acquainted, and most likely related to each other.
During the Middle Ages transactions like these could only take place in a limited group of persons.
Brictius li motons is the forfather of the Mouton family, in origin called de le Bruyere, and coming from Celles-Molembaix.
Members of this family have been aldermen in St-Brice for many generations.
We can also make the distinguished remark that Brictius's first name is the same as the patron of the parish in which he was alderman, where he lived and probably was born.
In the cartularium of the hospital of Oudenaarde, there is a charter from 1285 in which Jan van Gavere, sire of Schorisse -and Berchem-, states that he has ordered his bailliff of Berchem to bring the hospital of Oudenaarde in possession of a rent of 5 acres of land and a manoir situated in a place called "hellebruec, gisant en la paroche de Quarmont", sold to this hospital by Gillion Mouton from Tournai.
Gillion Mouton had previously bought this rent from Gillion d'Orke, member of the Tournai upper class d'Orke family.
Exactly on thís spot, in the heylbrouc, in 1501 Arent van der Roken held in fief of the lord of Berchem a piece of land.
Could we come to the conclusion that the de le Roke family already had land in fief in Berchem in the 13th century, as did the Tournai families Mouton and d'Orke?
In 1222 the place where Johannes de le Roke rented 3 gardens was referred to as "ultra Brulium".
In the rentier of 1232, this place was called "ad rupem ultra Bruleum" -at the quarry past Bruille.
It would seem that Johannes de le Roke between 1225 and 1230 had started the exploitation of a roke on this location.
Johannes isn't mentioned in the 1232 book any more, he probably died.
In 1280 this quarry was still operational.
Members of the
de le Roke family have been in possession of land in the Bruille ward for more than 200 years, they undoubtably were descendants of Johannes de le Roke.
Since several neigbours of Johannes de le Roke were fellow aldermen of Nicholès de le Roke, they must have been very closely related.
Whether we are dealing here with father Johannes and son Nicholès or two brothers is difficult to determine.
We can ask the question whether Johannes was able to rent these gardens because Nicholès was alderman, or was Nicholès able to become alderman because (his father?) Johannes had been working himself up the Tournai social ladder (by marrying a Mouton or a de Vesenchiel?)...
As often is the case, we are compelled to draw conclusions based on details...
One of the constatations we can make when we consider the mentions of the de le Roke family in the 13th century, is that the first name Jehan is frequently showing up, in the third generation there were at least 3 Jehans de le Roke.
During the Middle Ages in many families it was a tradition to give every first born son the same first name as his grandfather.
We can see that the de le Roke and van de Roke families have maintained this tradition through the centuries.
Out of respect and esteem for his father, many sons named their first born son after their father.
The second son was often given the same first name as the father of his mother.
The first born daughter was traditionnaly given the name of her mother's mother, and the next girl was named after her father's mother.
After these names, the names of the father and mother -which they inherited from their grandparents- were used.
When one of these first born children died, the next born child was given the same name again, in memory of the deceased child.
Thus one could trick death, and one hoped that the qualities of the deceased would be transferred to the new born.
Sometimes it could happen a new born child was given the same name as his or hers older brother or sister who was very ill.
When against all odds this sick child recovered, you ended up with two children who had the same first name in one family.
At the end of the 14th century in the family Jehan de Bruyelle- Jehenne de le Rocque there were apart from the head of the family Jehan, also two brothers who were called Jehan de Bruyelle.
In the liber amicorum Johan Decavele, M. Boone and I. Schoups go even further.
In their dissertation concearning the use of first names among the Ghent craftsmen in the 14th and 15th century they put forward the opinion that the choice of the first name of a new born child was a task of the godfather.
This increased the chance of a more deliberate choice of first names.
A first name gives a lot of information : apart from the specific identification mark of the namebearer, his first name also relates to his being welcome in the family, and to his integration in the social class to which the family belonged.
The first name was connected with the collective honour of the family, and the reflection of certain norms and standards of conduct and common attitudes the family was upholding.
The choice of a first name was a very serious and conscious matter.
Michael Bennet made the constatation that the passing on of the first name of the godfather to his grandchild, since the 12th century was responsible for the deminishing of the number of different first names.
From the 14th century onwards, all over Europe there is a tendency towards a limited variation of first names, with the names of a few important saints at the top of the list.
Undoubtably the serious mortalitycrises in this century have contributed to this phenomenon, and speeded up this process.
In particular the number of names of Germanic origin decreased dramaticly in Flanders and Picardie since 1300.
At the end of the 15th century 45% of all men were called Jean!
We can destinguish an important concentration of Jehans, Jaks and Colarts in the de le Roke family, and these names returned generation after generation.
The fact that there were 3 different Jehans de le Roke in the third generation, unmistakebly suggests all three of them were grandsons of a Jehan.
So even whithout a 100% sure proof in a document we can say whith a high degree of certainty that the oldest de le Roke was called Jehan.
We consider him as the father of Jehans, Egidius and Nicholès de le Roke.
This Jehan de le Roke was the forfather of the De le Roke family.
He is probably born in 1160 - 1170 and died approximatly in 1230.
In this periode hereditairy family names came into existence.
Because he took part in the complex urban economy of the city of Tournai, and its resulting necessity to unambiguously identifie its participants, he probably was the first who was designated by the name de le Roke by the other members of this urban society.
As Erik Verroken has put it strikingly into words, the de le Roke family at the end of the 12th century became a "family with a name", ... and the descendants of Johannes de le Roke have passed on this hereditairy family name from generation to generation whith proper pride.
In the 1232 book of rents of the St.-Martin's abbey in Tournai we find Egidius de le roke :
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Twice a year, at St.-Remi and at Eastern, he payed a rent of 8 denarii for his masure, situated "en le cordewanerie", in the Notre Dame parish in Tournai.
His house stood next to that of Helinus Portes, and the rent for both their houses later on was payed for by Jacobus Morille, who apperently had bought both masures.
The rue de la Cordonnerie is still located very close to the cathedral, and was in the 1212 book of rents described as "vicus cordubanerie subtus templum Sancte Marie".
Following the medieval habit, the people who lived in this street were shoemakers, and without any doubt Egidius de le Roke was one of them.
We couldn't find any other data on shoemaker Egidius de le Roke.
He certainly was a very close relative of Nicholès and Johannes de le Roke who lived in Tournai in the same periode.
His first name lived on in the next generations : Gilles de le Roke (1282) and Gilliart de le Roke (1407) were obviously descendents of shoemaker Egidius.
Mr. Léo Verriest was actively looking for Tournai chrigraphes which survived the World War II desaster.
In 1946, he received a lettre from Mr. Jurand, the head of the library of the bibliothèque Méjanes in Aix-en-Provence.
Mr. Jurand had made a copy of a difficultly readable chirograph from january 1257, in which was stated Jehan de Lerac li pères et Jehans ses fius in januari 1257 sold a rent to Paien de le cure.
Mr. verriest justly corrected the name "de le cure" in "de le ture", but didn't seem to kow hat to do whith the name "de Lerac".
Since Mr. Jurand was quite certain about th "de le" and he only seemed to doubt the "Lerac" part of this name, we strongfully suspect dealing with father and son Jehan de Leroc here.
The rent mentioned in this chirograph was established on two houses and adjacent land in the rue de le Vigne, in the St.-Piat ward of Tournay city.
The chance there was a vignard in the middle of the densely populated medieval town of Tournay is very small. The de le Vigne family was one of the four families who first returned to the city after the invasions of the Normans, and this street was named rue de le Vigne because the de le Vigne family lived there.
In the Veil Rentier a Baudet de le Vigne was mentioned as fief holder of a fief in Flobecq, at a place cald "a le vigne", where there was a vignard...
In 1294 and in 1300 there were testaments registrated redacted by a Paien de le Ture.
Since all of these testaments were burned in1940, we don't know if this twice was the same Paien de le Ture, and what could be the content of these last wills.
In the notes of Mr. Verriest we found a photocopy of the 1339 testament of Jehan Gargate, in which Jakemes de le roke, li miercier is mentioned, as well as a Paien de le Ture.
Since the de le Roke and de le Ture families in 1339 belonged to the same social class, and they shared the same acquaintances, the chance this charter is concearning father and son de Leroc is high.
moreover, there is a fair chance this chirograph still exists... and a visit to the bibliothèque Méjane in Aix-en-Provence is planned...
The n.s. in the indication of the year is the abbreviation of "new stile".
One of the singularaties of the medieval calendar is that the official year wasn't starting at the first of january, but at Eastern.
In order to convert the indication of the year to our contemporary calendar, you have to know the exact date of Eatsern for each year.
The days between the first of january and Eastern in the documents indicated in the "o.s." -old stile- as belonging to the previous year, have to be upgraded by one year in order to convert them to our timetable -teh "n.s." or new stile.
In the notes of Mr. Verriest we found a number of 19th century transcriptions of chirographes.
One can believe some of these transcriptions are exact word for word, since archivist Fred. Hennebert has personnally written on them "pour copie conforme" and signed the transcription with "l'archiviste Fred. Hennebert", accompanied by the seal of the "archives de Tournai".
Somebody (the copiist ?) had the signature of Mr. Hennebert legalized by the Tournai city authorities after Mr. Hennebert died, so the official seal of the city of Tournai "sigulum urbis Turnacensis", and the signature of one of the Tournay aldermen, in loco of the mayor are on this document...
Apart from all this, the transcribed chirograph concearns Gras li Quatis, who returned "bien et loiaument" the rights on 4 pieces of land to Giervais de le Roke.
These 4 pieces of land formerly belonged to Wllestecke and Watier le burier.
Mehaus Burier in 1260 was in debt of 70 "fais de warants" each year, to be payed in two times. His sons Simon and Wathelet guaranteed this.
Gras li Quatis has turned over the sums of money he received and the rights on these pieces of land to Giervais de le Roke.
This charter was confirmed by Jakemes Costars as voir-juré, he was the sworn in official who took notice of the promise of payment between the two parties.
Lambert de Raisse and Gosse Liénart were present as "autres hommes", whitnesses who knew both parties.
This chapter was legalized in front of the board of aldermen of the St.-Brice ward.
We found a transcription by the same copiist, with similar signatures and seals, of a chirograph concearning the consequences of a murder and the end of the following feud...
Baudes le burier had killed the son of Jehan Costart, and as indemnification a piece of land, located near the cross in the Bruille ward, between the land of Lambiert de Rasse and Rogier as vakes and a masure situated near the roke, in which Wauton le burier lived, was sold to Cholart del mortier.
Apparently, because of this murder, the sums of money, generated by the rights of Gervais de le Roke on Watier le burier's land were confiscated and the first chirograph confirmed that -probably after a thorough investigation- these rights and the in the mean time acquired sums of money by Gras li Quatis, were returned to Giervais de le Roke.
The second chirograph showed us thes pieces of land were located near the cross at the roke in the Bruille ward.
Whithout any doubt this was the exact spot where Johannes de le Roke owned three gardens in 1225, and for which he payed a rent to the St;-Martin's abbey.
Giervais therefore certainly was a descendent of Johannes.
Other chirographes, published by Aramend d'Herbomez, show us the li Quatis family was already present in the Tournai Bruille ward since 1207 : Jehans li Quatis recognized a debt towards priest Jehan Bocet, with Jakemes Costars as voir-juré and Lambiers de Raisse and Jernols Kiersemake as "autres hommes"...
All of these names are mentioned in the 1260 chirograph as well.
In 1212 Jehans li Quatis, son of the deceased Jehan, recognized a debt towards his aunt Katherine.
In an other chirograph Wautier Mouton was autre homme for Jehans li Quatis...
III.A Jehans Deleroke (∃ 1263)
In a chirograph from april 1263, copied by mr Gilissen in 1888, we can read that :
Henri li Grans, in the name of Pieronne and Marien, daughters of the previously deceased Baudon Rousiel, has sold a house with annexes, situated in the rue des Corriers, between the house of Jakemon li Bouclier and the annex of Baudès li Vakier, to Biertrans Sains Dieu.
On this house rested several hereditairy rights and rents :
Biertrans Sains Dieu had to pay each year a hereditairy rent of 1 Artesian florin to the Table of the Holy Spirit.
A rent of 6 louis and a yearly rent of 6 pars and 2 capons had to be payed at the reffectoir of the Notre Dame.
At Christama a yearly rent of 1 capon and 2 louis had to be payed to Jehan Deleroke.
Baudès Vakier admitted before the aldermen that he still had to pay this rent for the annex of his house.
The rue des Corriers was -and is- situated in the St.-Jacobsparish of the city of Tournai, and was the street were the leatherworkers prepared the leather.
This Jehan Deleroke was probably involved in the leathertrade.
Since Jehan Deleroke owned a rent on a house, on which the cathedral of Notre Dame had a rent as well, he must of been a free man of the cathedral, just as his presumed father Nicholès de le Roke as alderman of the city certainly was before him.
It was probaly this Jehans who, together with his brother Wicars, li fix Colart de le Roke, rented a pasture in the Pottelberghe forest in Flobecq.
With probability close to certainty this Jehan is the father of Jakemes de le Roke who in 1289 payed a rent for 4 houses to the Cellier of the Cathedral of Notre Dame of Tournai.
In part XII of the Mémoires de la Société Historique et Littéraire de Tournai, J. Vos pubished the cartularium of the Tournai St.-Medard's abbey, also know under the name St.-Nicolas-des-prés.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<:p>
In februari 1272 a charter was redacted before the board of aldermen of Kalone, in which all the rents the St.-Nicolas-des-prés abbey held in this village, were summed up.
Calonne is a place just south of Tournai.
The abbey had bought a piece of land from dame Annies dele Roke, and therefore gained the right of a rent of 1 louysien. As aldermen of Calonne in 1272 are mentioned : Jehan Fures, Morkedens, Vincans de Kalone and Willaumes Renard. The term "dame" was in use for widows.
Anniès dele Roke owned another piece of land in Calonne, in the direction of Antoing, and payed 2 louysiens of rent to the abbey.
The land in between is described by the toponym "le roke le Moigne", and there are indications the lands of dame
We will encounter the Morkedens family later on, in relation to Gommer de le Roke.
They were exploiting the stonequarry Calenelle, located between Cherq and Calonne.
Since we only have the present mention of this dame Anniès dele Roke, we can only guess that she was the widow of Gommer de le Rokes father.Baudès Roke (∃ 1274)
The "registre des faides" from the period 1273-1280, is a book in which the decisions of the Tournai jurés regarding family feuds are registered.
They tried and solve the feud, and maintain the peace by fines, interdictions and obligations to the parties involved.
On Pentecost 1274, Baudès Roke, li tendere, had to guarantee to the jurés of the city of Tournai, in public in front of the Belfry, that he would not inflict any physical harm to Monnart li Vent.
Monnart li Vent apparentlt had reasons to believe Baudès Roke had the intention of taking some kind of violent revenge, and had told so to the prévots and jurés in order to prevent this.
We don't know why Baudès Roke had these vindictive feelings for Monnart li Vent.
In 1280 Monart li Vent had made peace with Mahieu de Winebieke.
In order to confirm this peace, Monnart had to take on a pelgrimage to Boulogne.
Maybe the threats Baudès Roke put forward against Monnart li Vent had a relation with this matter.
In 1280 Monnès li Vens was convicted to a fine of 20 sous because of violations of the urban laws and to a fine of 50 sous for a minor offence.
Baudès Roke was registered specifically as "li tendere".
When the wool cloth came of the weaving-loom, one could clearly distinguish the threads of the warp and the weft.
A fuller could treat the wool cloth in such a way it would shrink and felt, and result in a smooth cloth.
A "tendere" was responsible for stretching this felted cloth in big wooden frames, known as tenters, so the cloth would not deform while it dried.
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On the panoramic view of Gent (1534) one can see these wooden frames with stretched on pieces of cloth in the "tentergrounds" or drying pastures.
In many towns, famous for production of textile during the Middle ages, one can find streetnames who refer to these tenters.
After the stretching and drying, woolen cloth often was treated further to create an even smoother surface of the cloth.
In the registre des faides, the register in which the decisions to end feuds between two or more families were written down, we found the mention of Jehan de le Roke, le paternostier.
Jehan li Arriers and Jakemins li Sieliers de le Lormerie, assured Jehan de le Roke, le paternostier, they would let him and his party be in peace.
Because this promice was made before the law of the city, a standard procedure to be followed when civil servants where involved, we know for sure that Jehan de le Roke, le paternostier, had an official function in the city of Tournai.
We could not find his name in the lists of high magistrates, copied from the registres de la loi by mr. Léo Verriest.
We presume he was the connétable for the rue de le Lormerie, a peoples magistrate who was responsable for one or more streets in the city.
At Jakemins li Seliers' name was added he lived in the Lormerie.
apparently this Jakemins didn't have a hereditairy family name, and he was identified unambiguously by mentioning his profession and the street where he lived.
In the rue de le Lormerie, lived the lormiers, the harnassmakers, and the sieliers, the saddlemakers.
As early as from 1240 this was the street of merchants.
This rue de le Lormerie joined the rue de le Cordewanerie, where the shoemakers lived (see Egidius de le Roke in 1232).
The addition "le paternostier" refers to the profession of Jehan de le Roke...
E. Van Der Hallen writes in his article concearning the Ghent guild of merchants (1305 - 1540) that paternosters from Milano, made in amber or choral, were imported into Tournai by the merciers of Toulouse.
The merciers of Tournai then sold them in the Low Countries.
Undoubtably, Jehan was one of these merchants.
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Amber, also known as succinite, is a more or less transparent mineral of vegetable origin, it is fossilized resin from pine trees or conifers.
Its color can vary from bright yellow to ornage-brown, and can -presumably caused by oxidation- under the influence of sunlight, change rapidly to greeish or blueish, there even exist black variations.
The best of quality are very transparent, the lesser qualities are troubled by incorporated microscopical small air bubbles.
The most renowned finding places are the Baltic states, where amber can be found in the layers of the so called blue earth, a thick layer of quartzsand, presumably formed during the Oligocen.
Amber is of great scientific value beacuse the incorporated and fossilized snails, spiders, crawfish, centipedes and other insects, provide information regarding the flora and fauna during the early Tertiair.
On the painting "the reading Magdalen", painted approximatly in 1445 by Rogier Van der Weyden, born in Tournai as Roger de le Pasture, where he actually lived in the rue de le roke, we can see in the background that Joseph is holding an amber paternoster in his hand.
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During archeological excavations in the center of Irelands oldest city Waterford from 1986 to 1992, two very old paternosters were recovered.
They were dated around 1250, but were probably manufactured in Waterford.
They can be seen in the Waterford museum and through the following links to the website "askaboutireland.ie" you can see photographs of a large amber paternoster and a smaller amber paternoster.
The large paternosters were used by women, the smaller ones by men...
In 1905, in "Les registres de justice, dits registres de la Loi", Léo Verriest published the oldest three registers of the Law from 1275-'76, 1279-'80 and 1280-'81.
In his introduction, Mr. Verriest brings under our attention the undescribable importance of this unique collection of Tournay registers, ranging from 1313 to 1570.
They contain valueble data in the field of genealogy, political and economic history, history of justice, filology, folklore etc.
He hoped that after the publication of the oldest three registers, the other registers would've been published.
A few years later, when he discovered the register of 1302, he immediately published it himself.
Unfortunately the other registers went up in flames during the almost complete destruction of the Tournai archives during the fire following the bombarding of Tournai by the German Luftwaffe in may 1940.
So we can only get information from the four registers, published in extenso by Mr. Verriest...
One can hardly start to imagine what a treasure of information we could've found in the other registers!
These registers begin every year on december 13, the fest of Sainte Luce, with the list of magistrates.
After the list of magistrates followed the names of every person who had been accepted as a new citizen.
These citizens were people from the country who had settled themselves in Tournai in order to exercise their profession.
When one applied for citizenship of Tournai, he had to be recomended by a "godfather" who was citizen of the city, he had to pledge a solemn oath and pay a certain sum of money, related with their social status. Thus, the head of a family had to pay a minimal contribution.
Sons of citizens didn't have to pay anything, and they enjoied certain privileges from their early youth.
When the Tournai jurisdiction revoked somebody's citizenship, this was not necessarilly permanent ; after paying a certain sum, called the "rachat" -the rebuy- to each of the 30 jurés, one could regain his civil rights and privileges. This sum could run up to 5 pounds for each juré.
Followed the convictions for incriminations of the urban laws.
The normal fines were 20, 40, 50, 100 or 200 sols, the exceptionnal fines were 60 pounds or 100 marks (there was a Centmarcs family in Tournai, and a Honderdmark family who possibly thanked their name to this fine), a banishment for 1,3 or 7 years or even a permanent banishment out of the city, and of course the death penalty.
These convictions were cried by the town crier, and hung up at each crossing, so absent convicts could take appropriate action on their return in the city.
A crossing of the deadline caused a new conviction, for exampel amputation of a toe, or a few whipp lashes.
After this followed the names of the "cachiés à cloke".
In the "Revue Tournaisienne" of 1914, Mr. Léo Verriest wrote a few articles regarding these "caches à cloke" :
In the Picardian language, the verbe "cacher" meant : to search, it is related with the French verbe "chercher".
A "cache à cloke" was an armed expedition, lead by one of the prévots of the town, whith the goal to search and apprehend a convicted criminal, and bring him to Tournai where he had to endure his sentence.
When the "cloke", one of the town bells rang, every citizen -in arms- had to gather at the belfort in order to accompany the prévot in his expedition.
A no-show resulted in a 10 pound fine and loss of citizenship.
In general the searched for criminal had brought somebody to death or in mortal danger.
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The initiative of a "cache à cloke" was taken by the relatives of the victim, who could make a complaint to the prévots, indicate the responsible and his whereabouts, and demand justice.
The board of jurés and prévots could then decide whether or not a "cache à cloke" was organized.
A "cache" could only last one day, starting on sunrise ans ending by sunset, and for each crime only one "cache" could be taken on.
When the jurés decided a "cache" would take place, the town crier cried out the day on which this expedition would be held.
When the victim had deceased, the "cachié" was brought to justice.
When the victim was in mortal danger, the guilty was put in the dungeon untill the doctors appointed by the judges declared the victim out off peril risk of his life.
Then the criminal was brought to trial to hear his punishment... apart from the medical costs, this could be a very high fine, the loss of citizenship or a pelgrim to some remote town.
Even in 1914, there wasn't information on all "caches", and the author could indicate only 40 places whereto a "cache" had been organized between 1217 and 1328.
In 1277, a "cache" had led the armed Tournai citizens to Escanaffles, another in 1280 to Schorisse, in 1287 there had been an expedition to Celles.
Since all the original documents were lost in the fire in may 1940, it is impossible for us to try and find out who these "cachiés à cloke" were, and if they had some connection with the de le Roke family...
Mr. Verriest made the remark that this complex procedure probably only was started when the searched for criminal was hiding out otside the city walls of Tournai.
During the polically very tense year 1275-'76 not less than 36 caches were organized!
In the register of 1275-'76 we find among the "cachiét à cloke" the name of Jehan de le Roke.
What kind of misdemeanor and where the armed citizen had to go and look for him, we do not know.
As in other cities, such as Gent, Brugge, Ieper, Valencijn (Valenciennes) and Rijsel (Lille), in 1275 the craftsmen and handworkers revolted because they felt they didn't have enough participation in the gouvernment of the city of Tournai.
During these troubles old feuds between patrician families were lighted again.
After the rebellion had been put down, and the old order had been restored, a harsh repression followed.
It is probably in this context we can place Jehan de le Roke's crime.
In the same year, the day after St.-Barnabas the apostle, a "cache" was organized in search of Willaumes Gargate, because he had allowed his horse to run over the grand' place -the central market- and had brought a young man at peril risk of his life.
Among others, Jehan, son of knight Alart de Haudion, Jakemes Lapars and Colins Boukine had been "cached" in 1275.
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In "Miscellanea Tornacensia", the report of the 33th congres of the Fédération Archéologique et Historique de Belgique, which took place in Tournai between 4 and 8 september 1949, A. Pasture wrote a "Contribution a l'onomastique de la région de Tournai à la fin du XIIIe siècle -a contribution to the onomastics of the region of Tournai at the end of the XIIIth century.
With great joye he made the constatation that the archives of the Cathedral of Tournai by shear luck had been saved from total destruction during the fire of may 1940.
The documents were (and are still) conserved in two chambers in the cathedral of which the ceiling is constructed as a stone vault.
The roof above these two chambers went completely up in flames, but these two rooms and their precious content were spared!
These archives are private archives and were -untill recently- not accessible for us.
Via miss Ann Dupont we came in touch with archivist professor Jacques Pycke, and we received the authorisation to conduct research in the cathedral archives.
The capitular register 384 from 1289 sums up all the rents certain persons had to pay at St.-Remi and at Christmas to the grand Office of the Cellar of the cathedral.
Within the city walls these rents were ordened parish by parish, street by street, and of many of these houses was registered from which material they were constructed and what they looked like...
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In 1289 Jakemes de le roke payed a rent for two houses in the parish Saint-Nicaise, in the rue de le roke!
One house was situated near the cemetary of St.-Nicaise, next to the house of Jehan de vervin, in the street which goes from the Prime gate to the rue de le roke, more exactly between the city wall and the entrance of the roke.
The house of Jakemes was situated on the corner of the rue de le roke and the street which led to the St.-Martins abbey.
This passage prooves beyond any doubt there actually was a roke in the rue de le roke in 1289.
Jakemes's other house was located in the rue de le roke opposite his other house.
A detail of the Tournai citymap of 1617 by Braun and Hogenberg, at the bottom right shows us the St.-Martin's abbey and the Prime gate, and in the center of the image the St.-Nicaise church in the rue de le roke which clearly follows the line of the first citywall.
These data alow us to situate these two houses on both corners of the rue Roc Saint-Nicaise and the rue Roquette Saint-Nicaise and the rue du Ballon, the contemperary names of the rue de le roke and the street which goes from the Prime gate towards the rue de le roke.
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the St.-Nicaise parish in 1617
On top of this, Jakemes de le roke also payed a rent for two houses in the parish of Saint-Piat!
One house was built in stone, the other one was a wooden house, and they were located in the rue Merdenchon, on the banc of the river Schelde.
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In 1259, the banc of the river Schelde in de ward Saint-Piat was described as "the place were the stones are cut", and later on as the quaie taille-pierre.
In his manuscript "Vieux Tournai ou Vestiges du Passé Tournaisien" from 1909-1911, preserved in the Tournai library in the fonds of manuscripts under number XIVn, Paul Rolland describes the quai taille-pierre as the place where the stones from the Tournai rokes were cut and exported by boat.
The rue Merdenchon -now called rue cherequefosse- was situated near the first city walls, and is described by A.F.J. Bozière in "Tournai Ancien et Moderne" as remarkebly filthy...
A very old manuscript refers to this street as "vicus merdo"...
In the 13th and 14th century several tanners lived and worked in this street, which may have contributed to a specific odour and dirtiness.
In 1349, in a small house in the rue Merdenchon the bubonic plague first broke out...
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the St.-Piat parish in 1617
Jakemes de le roke owned to houses in the Saint-Piat parish, on the banc of the river Schelde, and two houses in the Saint-Nicaise parish, in the rue de le roke, near the entrance of the roke and the Saint-Nicaise cemetary.
Did he produce or sell memorial stones and gravestones at the cemetary, and did the houses on the Schelde banc serve for the cutting of the stones from the roke and the tanning of leather, and the import and export of these -or all kinds of- goods to other cities located along the Schelde?
The rent on the house near the cemetary was "later on" payed for by Jehan de le fontaine, the rent for the house in the rue de le roke by Jehan de Haudion, cauceteur. (a caucheteur puts the cobblestones in the streets, his primary material is of course stone).
The rent on the houses in the ward Saint-Piat were "later on" payed for by Pierre Bourjon, and later by Jehan Buridan.
This Jehan Buridan was probably the grandson of Jehenne de le Rocque.
In these additions we couldn't find any namesakes, but thanks to some other names which we could position in time, we can conclude these additions date from the end of the 14th century.
After alderman Nicholès (1221) and Jehans (1263), this Jakemes is the third de le Roke who has a strong connection with the cathedral.
They very likely were grandfather, father and son.
One of the most spectacular compilations in the Tournai archives was without any doubt this formed by the testaments.
The Tournai high society had taken the habit of redacting their testaments when they felt the end of their life was near.
In these testaments the family situation of the testator could be found, as well as the nature of his economic activities, his properties, his debtors and creditors, his friends and his acquaintances.
Since this was a very private matter, with almost exclusively interesting data for the genealogists, these testaments very seldom have been published in extenso.
A hand full of Tournai historians, such as A. de la Grange and A. Hocquet, have published and analysed some testaments, mostly from a sociological or cultural point of view.
You've already understood : 99% of these testaments have disappeared during the total destruction of the Tournai archives in may 1940, and all we are left with are partially published testaments, and occasionally a few transcriptions or fotocopies in the notes of Mr. Verriest...
However, the alfabetical list of names of the persons who redacted their last will, and the year wherein they did so, has been preserved.
In the alfabetical list of testaments who were preserved in the archives of Mons, we can find that Jehans de le Roke redacted his last will in 1299.
The Mons archives were completely destroyed during the second world war as well...
This Jehans de le Roke was the first of 5 de le Rokes who redacted their testaments : his probable son Jehan, grandson Colars and greatgranddoughters Annies and Jehane Delerocque followed his example.
It is -to say the least- remarkable that Jacob van de roke and Jan van de roke redacted their testament in Gent in 1428, a phenomenon absolutely not common in this town.
In the second half of the 19th century, the Tournai archivist Mr. Hennebert, took a lot of notes in preparation of an article or a book concearning the streets of medieval Tournai.
In his notes regarding the toponym les Roques we found a registration of Jehan de le roke, li carpentier :
In june 1301 Watier Bucheaus sold to Gillion Houssiel a rent on a house situated "a le roke en Bruille", facing the cross, next to the house of Jehan de le roke, li carpentier.
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the ward Bruille, the St.-Nicholaschurch (n°6), the cross (n°15) and the gardens
( Tournai Ancien et Moderne, based on a drawing by Guiccardini)
We found out the rue ghiesenfrasne was an adjacent street, and in the notes concearning this street we can read that in the last week of march 1307, Jehan de le roke, li carpentier, bought a house in the rue ghiesenfrasne, touching the "pire des froides parois", from Kateline, the widow of Wattier Lieppée and her children Jehan, Mikious and Anniès.
The orthograph of Jehans last name was certainly correct, since Mr. Hennebert had first transcribed de le roque, but later on corrected it in de le roke.
Mr Hennebert had seen charters with the mention of les roques au Bruille dating from 1491, 1493, 1496 and 1540.
His notes however do not contain a lot of data.
This Jehan was a carpenter by profession, and owned land and a house exactly on the spot where Giervais de le Roke in 1260 and Jehan de le Roke in 1225 owned land.
In the "Histoire de Tournai", Paul Rolland tells us that the retreiving French armies, who had just been beaten at the Battle of the Golden Spurs on the 11th of july 1302 were not allowed to enter any Flemish city.
The Tournai city board decided the same day not to let enter the crowd which had gathered at the gates of the town.
This event was the immediate cause why the city council decided to reinforce the town, and all citizens were put to work.
Organized street per street, under the leadership of their connétable, and one day a week, every Tournai citizen had to help deepen the town-moat and heighten the earth embankment.
The blacksmiths and carpenters had to produce as many shovels, spades and pickaxes as possible, and did not have to take part in the digging activities.
A new very solid city wall was erected, with stones taken from the soil in situ, and of these remparts the Pont de Trous and the Marvis towers still exist.
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| the Marvis towers | the Pont des Trous |
In 1305, Jehan Bierenghier redacted his testament.
In an addendum to his last will, there is a list of 205 persons to whom he had smaller or bigger debts.
This list commences with 5 stonechoppers such as Simon le Rike, Théri de Calonne and maistre Robiert d'Arras.
On page 5 we notice Jehan de Bierenghier wanted 30 sols to be payed to Ysabiel de le Roke.
Her name was registrated in between these of Jehan Colemer and Jehan l'Englesc, le pissonier de mer.
This Jehan is the second de le Roke who redacted his last will.
Therefor he probably is the son of Jehan de le Roke who redacted his testament in 1299.
In 1315 all over Western Europe, heavy rains started at half april and lasted till november, bringing fluds, rained out harvests, scarcity, famine and desease.
In the region of Tournai the grain harvest faild and it was a very poor wine year.
In 1315 and 1316 there were outbursts of the pest in Tournai.
Some documents have escaped the total destruction of the Tournai archives in may 1940 in a remarkable way.
314 original chirographs were not in the archives at the moment of the fire.
In one of these chirographs, dated 1320, we find the registration of Jakemes de le Roke, li mierciers as "autre homme qui connoist les parties".
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In this charter Maroie du Trat, widow of Lucas ki faisoit les viroelles, recognised she was in debt to Piéron Mal Yvrenet.
Jakemes de le Roke, li mierciers, was present when this chirograph was redacted as a whitness who knew both parties.
In 1349 the testament of Pierre Mal Yvrenet was edited.
His son Pierart was maried to Marie Gargate fa Jehan, his daughter Katherine was maried to Gilles de Haudion, who's sister was maried to Jehan Bierenghier con dist Hanoke.
All these names appeared in the network of acquaintances of the de le Roke family.
Lucas ki faisoit les viroelles made buttons, inserted with gold leaf, and he probably was one of the suppliers of merchant Jakemes de le Roke.
The merciers were the most original form of merchants : as pure traders, they produced nothing, but bought and sold all kinds of goods, especially expensive products as leather, carpets, gold enbroided clothes, silk sheets, special textiles such as camerat and sindal, juwelery, pins and buttons, ...
They sold their goods on the local market and in neighbouring cities, and as interregional salesmen sometimes took on quite long voyages.
Their suppliers were leatherworkers, gold- and silversmiths, weavers of special cloths, artisans who made pins and buttons, ...
We didn't find much information on the Tournai merciers.
In 1268 a new hall was built, where the merchants could sell their goods, in 1362 this "halle des merchiers" was situated in the rue de le Ture, in the Saint-Nicaise parish.
In 1369 the guilt of mercxiers was founded in Tournai, under the protection of the cathedral with Saint-Maure as patron.
As we already mentioned in the review regarding Jehan de le Roke, li paternostier, the Toulouse merchants brought the amber and choral paternosters from Milano to Tournai, from where the Tournai merciers exported them all over the Low Countries.
In a novel of chevalry -even in those days very popular reading material- knight Gallehos had beaten 30 kings in a tournament.
In 1331 the Tournai order of the knights of the round table, an organization of welthy Tournai citizens, who were responsible to guide the personal safety of the king when he was in battle, decided to organize a big festival where the legend of king Gallehos would be played.
The festivities started on monday after the closing of the annual commercial fair in may 1331, and rich companies from Paris, Senlis, Reims, St.-Quentin, Compiègne, Amiens, Valenciennes, Maubeuge, Doullens, Arras, Saint-Omer, Lille, Douai, Gent, Brugge, Aardenburg, ... were invited
In the middle of the festival week the tournament of the 31 kings took place on the central market.
The 30 kings who accompanied king Gallehos, played by sire Jacques de Cobry, the president of the Yournai Round Table, were chosen among his Tournai compagnons.
Among them : Guillaume de Hellemes as king Pellez du Castel Périlleux, Gilles Mouton as king Banich Bevenich, Jehan d'Hellemes as king Abilacus of Constantinopel, Jacques Mouton as king Abilacus of Carmélide, Jehan Thiebegot as king Caradebrinbas or Cardos Brinbas, Geoffrey d'Orcq as king Tenor de Haute Rivière, Jehan Prévost as king Claudas de le Désierte, Jehan Gargate as king Sitor de la Rouge Montagne, and Jacques Gargate.
A lot of these important Tournai families had matrimonial connections with the de le Roke family.
The tournament showed a splendour and glory never seen before, and Jean Cousin wrote in his Histoire de Tournai that the citizens of Tournai had tried to gain the day as princes, whilst they in fact were merely citizens...
The prosperity and richness of the Tournai magistrates lead to arrogance and they refused to obey any authority, and considered themselves as the only source of right and order.
The Tournai croniclewriter Sigebert de Gembloux made the conststation that the Tournai civilians were in no way subject to the French king.
In 1328 the Tournai magistrates had refused to swear the oath of loyalty to the King, and a decision of teh French parliament from the 4th of july 1332 deprived the Tournai community of their urban rights, an the city was turned over in the hands of the king.
The political organization of Tournai was changed drastically : the functions of jurés, prevots, aldermen and mayor were abolished.
The administration of the city was run by a royal commissioner, assisted by a board of wise men and a few officers of the king.
This board of wise men was formed by 21 assistants for the administration and 17 voir-jurés for the registration of notarial registration.
A mass of local magistrates were appointed by the royal commissioner : each parish was governed by to governors, and 202 new connétables were appointed.
In the parishes Notre Dame and St.-Nicaise, Sire Willaume de Waudripont and sires Jehans Damiens were royal commissioners.
Among the connétables for these parishes we find Jehans Gargate li petis, Jehan de Marèges, Jehans dou Vesancskiel, Evrard de Cordes, Colars del Estrée, ... and Jak de le roke.
The function of connétable was not new : back in 1275 their weges were decide by the Conseaux.
A connétable was a kind of judge of the peace, a people's magistrate who was responsable for a street in the city.
He was appointed by the people who lived in this street.
He was a negotiator in disputes, he reported offences against the urban laws, he helped to collect taxes, he organized the festivities in "his" street, he was responsable for the wells, he was the head of the fire department, ...
Jak de le Roke was certainly the connétable for the rue de le roke in the Saint-Nicaise parish, since he owned a house in that street.
In the St.-Piat and Ste.-Katerine parish, Jak Buridans and Jak de Bruielle were connétable, in the list of connétables for the St.-Quentin and Ste.-Margueritte parish we find Piers Denis.
In 1340 this new order was abolished because Tournai resisted loyally and successfully the siege of the enemy.
The king restored the city's rights and earlier form of government.
In the notes of Mr. Verriest we found a photocopy of the testament of Jehans Gargate, redacted on the 31st of may in 1339.
In the margin, Mr Verriest has written : nouv. acqu. frçs. 3596, and at the bottomof the page there is a small hallmark of the bibliothèque nationale, so there is a chance the original document still exists, and is preserved in the national library in Paris.
Jakemes de le Roke, li mierchiers, had to pay a rent to Jehan Gargate, for his house "pour le toukait de le roke St.-Nicaise", on the corner of the rue de le roke.
This was exactly the same location as the house for which Jakemes de le Roke payed a rent to the great Office of the Cellar of the cathedral in 1289!
The Gargate family is often found in the same context as the de le Roke family : in the Veil Rentier, the book of rents from sire Jehan of Pamele-Oudenaarde in 1276, Thiélens Gargate was registered as fiefholder of a journal and a half of land in Eleziele.
In 1276, Jehan de le Roke as well as Willaumes Gargate were searched for by a "cache à cloke".
Jak de le roke and Jehan Gargate li petis were connétable in 1332.
These obviously are two families who belong to the same social group.
Since Jakemes de le Roke, li mierchiers in 1339 owned a house in the rue de le roke, exactly on the same spot as where Jakemes de le Roke owned two houses in 1289, and since they both have the same first name, we consider them whithout any doubt to be son and father.
When we compare the name of Jak de le Roke in 1332 with the name of Jac van de roke in 1380, one of the earliest mentions of the name of the van de roke family in Gent, it is strikingly clear this was the same name, where "de le" was translated in "van de".
Since there only was one de le roke family and one van de roke family in the region of Tournai, Hainaut and Flanders, and since we can prove that at least one person who was registrated as de le Rocque in Tournai was registered as vander Roke in Flanders, this Jak de le Roke is whithout any doubt the father of Jac van de roke, de founding father of the van de roke family.
We can propose a few scenarios :
Jak de le Roke, li mierchiers, will undoubtably have had economic contacts with his collegues from Gent.
Since 1289 a big commercial fair was organized at the time of the big procession, where 20 cities who were in trade with Tournai were invited : the Flemish towns of Kortrijk, Brugge and especially Gent were the trading partners of Tournai.
The economic interests of Tournai and Gent were complementary : Gent took most of its financial resources from the graintrade, and Tournai provided safe passage along the Schelde river for the grain from Artois and French Flanders.
At the yearly september procession 5000 Gent citizens were invited to take part.
From 1331 onwards, Tournai merchants were alowed to export all goods, bought or produced in Tournai, free of taxes to Flanders.
This privilige was confirmed by the French king in 1389.
It must have been very interesting for a Tournai merchant to do business in Gent...
E. Van der Hallen in his dissertation regarding the Gent guild of merchants (1305-1540) mentions that pins and amber or choral paternosters from Milano were brought to Tournai by the Toulouse merchants.
From there, the Tournai merciers exported them all over the Low Countries.
In the 1365 register of the Gent aldermen of the Keure, we found mentioned that traders from Paris and Tournai were selling jewelery on the yearly Gent commercial fair.
In his book concearning the daily life in a medieval town, in which Raymond van Uytven describes the daily life in the city of Leuven a° 1448, he ascertains the quality products of Leuven's luxury and art industry were sold in the city and the adjacent region.
Through the yearly commercial fair of Bergen-op-Zoom and Antwerpen, these goods found their way into interregional and international trade.
He explicitely mentions that Lauven tapestry in the middle of the 15th century was bought by Tournai merchants.
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In 1340, Tournai was under siege by an alliance of the armies of the count of Flanders, the duke of Brabant and the king of England.
In the chronicles by Jehan Froissart from the 15th century, preserved in the bibliothèque nationale in Paris, we find a wonderful image of this siege.
If conétable Jak de le roke was present in Tournai at that time, he certainly will have taken part in the defence of the city against the hostile armies.
If he was in Gent, maybe he stayed there a little longer, and maybe his Tournai cocitizens held it against him...
After the successful resistance against this siege, Tournai's priviliges were restored by the king of France, and maybe there has been a form of repression against the people who took part in the government of the city under this new order... a phenomenon of all times and places.
An other constation is that Jac van de roke or one of his very close relatives once was registered in Gent as Jacob van der Roken of Denijs, which indicates he was the (bastard-?)son of a father with the name van de roke (or de le roke) and a mother who had the family name Denijs.
Probably the Tournai merchant Jak de le roke on one of his commercial voyages to Gent had made a (unligitimate) son with a miss Denys.
Bastard sons did not have the same rights as ligitimate children, but the father always made sure his offspring was well taken care off.
We encounter the same situation when Jac van de roke's son Jacop had a bastardson Jacop van de roke of de Smet and a bastarddoughter Zoetine with two different mothers.
Jacob gave both his bastardchildren an important gift, because they could not inherit from him after his death.
It does not seem unlikely that, during his two days trip from Tournai to Gent, Jak de le roke will have spent the night somewhere halfways...
The village of Berchem, where the vander Roeke family had possessions from the end of the 14th century onwards, was located halfways between Tournai and Gent, along the river Schelde...
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| de petites heures van Jean, duc de Berry, a° 1372 |
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Vous qui ici passez,
Veuillez à Dieu prier,
Pour l'âme de demiselle
Cathelaine de Bruielle
A honneur eneline, ki fust de son vivant,
Espeuse à Aubiert de Buridan ;
De sire Jehan de Collemer
fut femme en second, et mourrut de Tournai
Prévost souverain.
Son tiert mari d'honneur
Fu en plein nommé sire Gille
De Gramés, ecuyer,
Dieu les ait et les sauve.
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