I have been away from my Italian roots of late, focusing on my many noble French lines.. Tonight I found an amazing discovery!!!

A letter from Margaret de Savoy to King Henry VIII of England which mentions MY ancestor Antoine de Gerbier! Henry VIII would have read this letter. (Yes this is the man who executed two of his wives, the most famous of which Anne Boelyn) It also gives me clues to my ancestor's heritage, while he lived in Holland in 1512 (the date of the letter) he is called "a frenchman" which means I should be able to find more on him in France. Here is the letter:



What makes this interesting is that England and France were very much at odds in 1512.. that is why the ship was seized, since my ancestor was French.

(Wikipedia)

France and the Habsburgs

In 1511, Pope Julius II proclaimed a Holy League against France. This new alliance rapidly grew to include not only Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, but also England. Henry decided to use the occasion as an excuse to expand his holdings in northern France. He concluded the Treaty of Westminster, a pledge of mutual aid with Spain against France, in November 1511 and prepared for involvement in the War of the League of Cambrai. In 1513, Henry invaded France and his troops defeated a French army at the Battle of the Spurs. His brother-in-law, James IV of Scotland, invaded England at the behest of Louis XII of France,[9] but failed to draw Henry's attention away from France. The Scots were disastrously defeated at the Battle of Flodden Field on 9 September 1513. Among the dead was the Scottish King, which ended Scotland's brief involvement in the war.

Wow...how cool is that! Thanks for taking the time to share this with us!

Thanks Nuccia! Im so exited, to be a part of history.

Very interesting and Gerbier sounds very French!

This is wonderful Jim! Here is a link for a 1500's map so you can see how the territories were broken up at the time of the letter.

www.google.com/imgres?...CA4Q9QEwAg

Thanks Billie! That's a great map!

Here is a picture of Antoine Gerbier's daughter Isabeau and her husband and children (one of her daughters is married with a child, and they are in the painting also). The boy all the way to the left standing with his arm bent and finger pointing up is my (many) great-grandfather Francois de Moucheron.


The painting is from 1563

Pierre de Moucheron & Isabeau de Gerbier 1563

Jim, that is amazing! I can't find a picture of my grandma's grandfather who died in 1945 and you have a painting from 1563! Makes my mouth water! Your family really is amazing, tell me when can I buy the book? LOL!

Re: the painting
James, I'm sure you noticed that the ages of Pierre and Isabeau, as well those of their children can be read above their heads...

Yes, isn't that interesting! Evidently I never did the math correctly because my ancestor Francois de Moucheron was only 6 or 7 when this was painted.. so here he is (in red)

You look like if you were twins!

That's funny Livio!

I wrote up a quick doc on how i descend from Antoine de Gerbier and also from his grandson Francois de Moucheron... here it is:


My descent from Antoine de Gerbier of Middleburg

Jim according to your chart Francois was 8 years old when he got married He must have been a......eh hum....."unique" little boy! Either that or his wife was a bit disappointed for a few years

Hey Billie, where do you see that? It says his wife was born in 1565, there is no marriage date listed.