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