History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 80

THE HOUSE OF EREMBALD
FROM WEST FLANDERS TO SCOTLAND
The Rutherfurds, like their cousins the Douglases, most likely trace their ancestry back
to West Flanders and to the powerful Erembald family. Other families in Britain who
share these roots are the Ypres [Douglas], Furnes, Harnes, Lucy, Hacket and Winter
families. The political events of the 11th and 12th centuries within Flanders were to
change the lives of these families and push them down a migratory path which began
in today's Belgium and ended up in Scotland, Ireland, America, Canada, New Zealand
and Australia.
The noble families of Flanders were jealous descendants of Charlemagne until the
coastal invasions by the Vikings began and military resources in Flanders were
stretched dangerously thin. During the ninth and tenth centuries, Europe, and
particularly West Flanders, were ravaged by the Vikings. Traditional tactics were
insufficient to stop these raiders and a new "non-noble" class of knight was born, the
'ministeriales'. The ministeriales manned cavalry units throughout Flanders, thus
solving the problem of fast response to Viking assaults and creating a new social
class.
At this time we see the rise of a new class of family, the Karls. The Karls did not
belong to the nobility - in fact, they despised feudalism and were proud self-made
freemen. They were the hereditary chiefs of the comme rcial guilds and free members
of the Flemish burghs which were later copied in Scotland. The hamlet of
Ruddervoorde, the origin of the modern name of Rutherfurd/Rutherford, was part of
the political and military structure of the beautiful city of Bruges [Brugge]. Cities like
Bruges had a mixed population; noblemen and freeman merchants who ran the
powerful guilds. David I of Scotland used these free burghs as the model for
Jedburgh, Roxburgh and Berwick on the Scottish Borders. The most important social
distinction in a burgh was not between nobles and merchants, or between merchants
and craftsmen, but between those who held the status of burghers and those who
didn't. The Ruddervoordes enjoyed a unique position as freemen, burghers and
ministeriales.
Many of the maternal lines of the Erembalds were noble and here lay the problem in
future years. The nobles of Flanders were required to prove their noble descent
through both the paternal and maternal lines. At Gent, Courtrai, Saint-Omer, Bergues,
Bourbourg and Ypres, the comital and castellan families came from nobles who had
held estates and public authority in these areas since the establishment of the
Baldwins as Counts of Flanders. At Veurne, however, power was held by the
Erembalds, who were ministeriales from the Veurne region. The Erembalds of Veurne
who were rewarded for helping Robert I in his conquest of Flanders in 1071. After that,
the Erembald's rights as freemen were acknowledged throughout Flanders, their
chiefs were received at court on an equal footing with the nobles, they occupied high
positions in the church and state and their daughters were married to feudal lords. The
most powerful of these Karl families was the House of Erembald.
Following the death of Robert I things began to change for the worse for the
Erembalds. Charles "the good" became the new count of Flanders just when the

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