(Proposed Family Tree of Heloise Du Paraclet aka Heloise d'Argenteuil)
Jennifer Lorraine Nielsen
Jennifer Lorraine Nielsen
The Paraclete records hold that Heloise's mother is named Hersinde.
Abelard refers to Heloise's foster father, Fulbert, as her "avunculus" -- her maternal uncle.
Abelard refers to Heloise's foster father, Fulbert, as her "avunculus" -- her maternal uncle.
Hersende of Fontrevaud (Champigne/Champagne) lives to be too old (to at least 1114), and would have had Heloise at too advanced an age, to make a satisfying candidate for Heloise's mother. It would become difficult to justify Heloise's placement at Argenteuil, or Abelard's avoidance of directly referencing Heloise's connection to Fontrevaud.
I've fostered a suspicion for some time that Fulbert is not Heloise's biological uncle. He is too often speculated to be her real dad, or on a different line of thinking, to have had romantic interest in Heloise.
I theorized perhaps Fulbert is her "spiritual" uncle in Christ, and she the product of an ex-wife entering a convent and becoming pregnant upon participation in a scandalous dalliance. Upon entering a convent or monastic life, ties and expectations of marriage were dissolved, replaced with spiritual "brother/sister-hood" in Christ.
I became amused upon locating Fulbert in French genealogies as the proposed one time husband of a wife named Hersinde / Hersende of Chateau-Gontier, who died young and whose mother entered a convent. If Heloise's father and mother both died young, Fulbert, the morally obligated "father", could have been left as next of kin.
While it's common for illegitimate children of men in the 12th century to be acknowledged in a morally neutral way, for a husband to be made a cuckold by his wife is still tremendously scandalous.
Fascinatingly, in his marriage to Hersende de Chateau-Gontier, Fulbert--a relics dealer--is placed in the immediate social milieu of the Templars, with Hersinde's nephew the second Templar Grand Master.
An examination of Fulbert's family tree further establishes a connection to both the Montmorency family (which Heloise is proposed descended from) and a tentative connection to Hugues de Payens (the first Templar Grand Master) who is established as hailing from the Champagne area of France ("Payns near Troyes").
I theorized perhaps Fulbert is her "spiritual" uncle in Christ, and she the product of an ex-wife entering a convent and becoming pregnant upon participation in a scandalous dalliance. Upon entering a convent or monastic life, ties and expectations of marriage were dissolved, replaced with spiritual "brother/sister-hood" in Christ.
I became amused upon locating Fulbert in French genealogies as the proposed one time husband of a wife named Hersinde / Hersende of Chateau-Gontier, who died young and whose mother entered a convent. If Heloise's father and mother both died young, Fulbert, the morally obligated "father", could have been left as next of kin.
While it's common for illegitimate children of men in the 12th century to be acknowledged in a morally neutral way, for a husband to be made a cuckold by his wife is still tremendously scandalous.
Fascinatingly, in his marriage to Hersende de Chateau-Gontier, Fulbert--a relics dealer--is placed in the immediate social milieu of the Templars, with Hersinde's nephew the second Templar Grand Master.
An examination of Fulbert's family tree further establishes a connection to both the Montmorency family (which Heloise is proposed descended from) and a tentative connection to Hugues de Payens (the first Templar Grand Master) who is established as hailing from the Champagne area of France ("Payns near Troyes").
William of Champeaux, Arch-Deacon of Paris and Bishop of Chalons-en-Champagne, and Fulbert of Clairvaux, William's student and Templar founder, are further established as socially related to Fulbert via the Templars and the Champagne/Champigne background. Fulbert's mood towards Abelard may have soured via his increasing Templar-oriented participation in a complex Anti-Abelard social structure.
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