Who Made the Scottish People... The Flemish

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Alexander Fleming was the Scotsman  who discovered penicillin.   Where do you think his ancestors came from?   I ve been making a series of videos about  the groups who made the Scottish people.   We ve looked at The Scots, the  Picts, the Brittons, the Angles.   We also covered the Normans... Today I want to look at the Flemmish   If you re interested in the people, places and  events in Scottish history then hit the subscribe   button at the bottom right of the screen and click the notification bell   to be notified of each upload. In the meantime, let me tell you a story   Like most countries, Scotland  is a mix of different peoples.   Some of those we can see in the landscape Some we can see in the language   Some seem almost lost, but they re there if you look for them.   For this video I have to give credit the  book Scotland and the Flemish People,   appropriately edited by Alexander  Fleming... and Roger Mason   Depending on when you re talking about Flanders  is broadly speaking The Low Countries....   and a bit of the north of France... Their borders, like ours have   changed over the centuries. So why did Flemish people come to Scotland.   I suppose the same reason folk  cross the Channel in boats today.   They were either refugees  or economic migrants...   although there were a few key players  who were soldiers of fortune...   Economic migrants with swords. The 11the century saw the rise of primogeniture,   where the eldest son inherited all daddy s land,  leaving second sons to seek their own fortune...   or write a book about the family. Medieval economic and commercial development   in Flanders created densely populated towns, and land needed for crop production left   gaps in the supply of wool for their  hugely successful cloth makers...   Oh and of course there were wars... Inheritance, population growth and conflict...   in Flanders they had all three. Of course, there have been links with   Flanders from before Malcolm Canmore  in 11th Century right through to the   formation of Great Britain in the 17th... but there were two periods that stand out.   For the first I ve brought you to the  north and Duffus Castle in Moray,   although our story starts  in the south of England.   You see when William the Conquerour  crossed the English Channel in 1066,   He didn t just bring Normans.   The family that would become the  Stewart monarchs were from Brittany.   The Battle of Hastings had Normans  in the middle, Bretons on the left   flank and French and Flemish on the right. Now if you ve been watching this channel,   you ll know that David I of Scotland  grew up at the Norman court of Henry I,   who had married David s sister. If you want to know more about   David and that period then click  through to the playlist top right.   When David became king of Scots he brought  Norman knights form the south to subdue and   control his Scottish territories... but some of them were Flemish.   Take a look at the map... Scotland shows the Flemish stamp on it...   Flemington, Flemington, Femingis-Land,  A-Mhoine- Fhlanrasach...   That s Gaelic for Flemish moor, Fleming-Beath, Towart-Fleeming,   Fleemington, Flemington, Flemington, Flemington, Flemyland, Flemington,   Fleminghill and Flemingtoun, ...but there are less obvious markers too.   I said the surname Fleming was  an indicator of Flemish decent.   That doesn t represent one family,  but lots of different Flemish people   who, arrived in Scotland  and took (or were given)   a name that described their origin. So Flemings will have come from   different waves of migrating Flemish families. Of course, the medieval elites we described tended   to take their names form the land they held. So, in 1124, when David I brought a Flemish   knight from Grantham in Yorkshire, William de Graham gave us the surname Graham   At the same time David brought  the sons of Gilbert of Ghent.   Gilbert had been awarded lands when  he came with William the Conqueror.   So the boys took their name from those  lands in Lindsay in Lincolnshire.   Lindsay seems like a Scottish name now...   but they probably still put  mayonnaise on their chips.   Flemish Spaldings came from Lincolnshire, others from Holy Ford in Northamptonshire   gave us Olifard then Oliphant, Simon Loccard gave his name to Lockerbie,   but some Flemish knights took  their names from Scottish lands.   For example a Flemish knight called Berowald was  given lands about eight miles west of here and,   taking his appellation from the  area, gave us the name Inness.   But Berowald was also given lands in West  Lothian which were named Berowald s-toun-ness.   That cumbersome tongue twister  became Borrowstounness,   then simply Bo ness William, a Flemish son of Erkenbald...   did I say Archibald? Anyway his son William took the name of his area   William was the first Lord of Douglas. William s son was Archibald Douglas.   He thought he was Archie Of course the Douglas family grew in strength   and prominence as a result of Good Sir James, but I think there s a bigger name yet.   Remember, these are the lands of Macbeth... And bearing in mind it was David   s father who had killed Macbeth, the knight that David sent to control   these lands of Moray had to impose himself. The fact that some low-lying lands along this   coast had to be drained and reclaimed might be another good reason to send dyke   building engineers from The Low Countries. The man David sent was Freskin,   who took his name from these lands  and was known as Freskin de Moravia.   His three times great grandson Andrew de Moray  would stand with Wallace at Stirling Bridge.   I ve got a video about him... Click the link up there   Now, Flemish landowners would bring  Flemish lesser knights with them.   But there was more to the Flemish  incursion than just warrior knights.   Anyone who s visited the great Border abbeys  knows that David was also a great Abbey builder.   Abbeys like Melrose and Dryburgh weren t  just places of prayer and contemplation,   but centres for agricultural  production and advancement.   They were a source for wool  production for export to Flanders   through the heavily Flemish  populated Berwick upon Tweed.   Upper Clydesdale had large Flemish  colonisation round Biggar, Symington,   Lammington, Crawfordjohn, where lands were associated with   Kelso Abbey that also fed Berwick. Of course as well as Berwick,   David created other burghs in Edinbrugh, Roxburgh, Dunfermline, Perth, Stirling   that attracted Flemish traders... and of course once he d subdued Moray   Elgin, Forres and more elsewhere followed. By the time we get to David s descendant   Alexander III, he was marrying  his son to Margaret of Flanders.   Of course, we know that his son pre-deceased him because it was when Alexander died the last of the   Canmore kings, that Edward Longshank  s made his claim over Scotland.   Edward s invasion finally came when the Scots  signed The Auld Alliance with France.   If you want to know more  about the Auld Allliance   Click top right for my list of videos on that.   The thing is that Edward had been  asserting power over Scotland,   but was also at war with the French. So the French embargo on trade with England   also drew in France and England s vassal  states of Flanders and Scotland respectively.   On top of everything else the  loss of trade with Flanders was   a motivating factor for the Auld Alliance, after which trade with Flanders could resume.   So now you might view some of the heroes of  the Wars of Independence differently....   Andrew de Moray with William Wallace, then Thomas  Randolph Earl of Moray with Robert the Bruce...   and of course the greatest of  all Good Sir James Douglas...   all come from Flemish ancestry. The Flemish weren t component parts   in the same way as the Scots, the  Picts, The Britons or The Angles,   but Flemish immigrants and  descendants were a huge part   of the establishment and retention of Scotland from the time of Macbeth to Robert the Bruce.   But there was more Flemish influence  and migration after that.   A charter in 1164 said that St  Andrews was peopled by Scots,   French, Flemish, and English, both  within and without the burgh'.   On the coast, a religious centre, place of  pilgrimage with the need for craftsmen,   it s not entirely surprising that it  should have a cosmopolitan population,   but the town itself was designed and  laid out by one Mainard the Flemming...   another one of David I s imports...  who was also the town provost.   The layout of St Andrews, with South  and North St leading as processionals   towards the cathedral and abbey, designed by that medieval Flemish bloke   is the same design that survives for Students,  tourists and golf enthusiasts today...   Oh and anyone who lives here. Does anyone actually live in St Andrews?   I don t think they d be watching  videos by the likes of me.   You can see the Flemish influence in the crow  stepped gables of houses and red pan tiles   along this and other east coast  towns and trading ports.   Crail, Cellardyke, Anstruther, Pittenweem  Culross all traded with the Low Countries,   bringing Flemish seamen and adopting  distinctive Flemish architectural features.   In the 16th and 17th century the  trickle of traders, and medieval   artisans turned into a flood. Violent religious wars of   reformation divided Flanders and sent refugees scuppering   looking for a place where Catholics and  Protestants wouldn t be killing each other   Well Scottish monarchs were only too pleased to   encourage them here to boost  the economy and skills base.   In 1581, the Scottish Parliament granted  Robert Dickson of Perth permission:   to learn within this realm the art  of the making and working of silks,   to be as good and sufficient as the same is made  within the countries of France or Flanders   and to be sold within the  same cheaper than the like   silks ...brought here out of other countries. For that he needed access to Flemish weavers   In 1587 some Flemish weavers successfully  appealed to the Scottish Parliament to   allow them: .. to exercise  their craft and occupation   and for instruction of the said lieges in  the exercise of the making of the works,   and have offered to our said sovereign lord  and whole common-wealth of this realm   the experience and sure  knowledge of their labours.   A 1594 act authorised the  establishment of a 'strangers'   church' in Scotland to cater for these incomers. A government initiative of 1600 authorised a   hundred 'stranger' families with textile skills, to migrate to Scotland and to   be made naturalised citizens. The Convention of Royal Burghs recruited   Flemish weavers who were dispersed to work in # Dundee, Perth, Edinburgh and Ayr.   There were Flemish all along the  Tay estuary in Dundee and Perth.   Did I not mention that s where I am just now.   This is Perth Theatre. Apart from Perth s Flemish connection,   I ve brought you here because I ll be  doing my live show Stories of Scotland   in this beautiful theatre on 21st October 2023.   This is going to be the best show of the  tour, because this is where I m fae,   I ve performed in this  theatre more than any other.   The atmosphere is fantastic. So, click top right to buy tickets,   or for details and tickets of ALL the tour shows click the link in the description below.   If you go back the records, you ll find Flemish names for people in key   positions of influence in Perth and Dundee. You find them as: provosts, bailies,   burgesses and tradesmen: bonnet  makers, tailors, weavers and masons.   The 1601Convention of Royal Burghs'  initiative to recruit Flemish tradesmen,   allocated Claus Lossier, a shearer, Cornelius  Dermis, a weaver, and Henri de Turk,   a cloth maker to Dundee.   There were Flemish craftsmen  involved in establishing The   Maltman Incorporation Dundee that still exists today.   Here in Perth that 1601  recruitment drive gave us   Jacques de la Rudge, a camber and a spinner;  Jacob Peterson, a shearer; and one of the   few Flemish women identified by name Abigail van Hort..., also a spinner.   John Drummond, second Earl of Perth,  brought Flemish migrant weavers to   Strathearn, where I live, between 1611 and 1662.   This is just a taste of the impact  that Flemish folk had in Scotland.   Modern Scots are a wonderful  mix of all sorts of folk,   that have arrived over centuries to create  the people who are Scotland today.   Wha s like us? If you want to see the series of videos   on the different people who made Scotland that series of videos are   coming up on screen now. Please help to keep these videos coming.   You can support the channel by clicking  top right to become a Patreon member,   or buy me a coffee in the description below. Tha mi an dochas gum bith lath math leibh
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Channel: Scotland History Tours
Views: 130,296
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Keywords: key dates in scottish history, stories from scotlands history, help me plan a scottish holiday, historic days out in Scotland, help me plan a scottish vacation, day out Scotland, plan a day out in scotland, Bruce Fummey, Scotland history tours, Scottish history tour guides, scottish history for dummies, Perth Theatre, Duffus Castle
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Length: 16min 23sec (983 seconds)
Published: Sat Jun 03 2023
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