Facing the Other Way: Conversations with My Daughter

Publisher Marketing: Author's note: If I had known just how difficult an ancestor Erkenbald the Fleming would be, I would possibly have stuffed him back into the academic journal in which I first found him, namely: History, volume 28, issue 108, September 1943, pp. 129-147, Companions of the Conqueror by David C. Douglas. Most academics seem to concur with Professor Douglas that Erkenbald (Erchenbaldo filio Erchenbaldi vicecomitis = Erkenbald, son of Erkenbald the vicomte) had probably taken part in the Battle of Hastings in 1066. However, when I suggested that this same Erkenbald was the true ancestor of the medieval Fleming families in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, I ran into considerable opposition. I was told that it is common knowledge that the Flemings of the British Isles descend from any number of unrelated immigrants from Flanders who took the surname Fleming. Apparently, there cannot possibly have been any "first Fleming." With the publication of this present volume, I hope to give Erkenbald some of the notoriety that I believe he deserves by having made him an interesting character in a story. Later, perhaps, we can re-examine the historical evidence without burdensome preconceptions.