Clement-Jones family 12/22 - Person Sheet
Clement-Jones family 12/22 - Person Sheet
NameSir Gilles “Paon” DE ROET, 12233
Birth1310
Death1380
Spouses
Unmarried
ChildrenKatherine , 12235 (1349-1403)
 Philippa , 12866 (1346-1387)
Notes for Sir Gilles “Paon” DE ROET
Paon de Roet (c.1310-1380), also referred to as Sir Gilles de Roet, was a Belgian herald and knight from Hainaut who was involved in the early stages of the Hundred Years War. He became attached to the court of King Edward III of England's wife Philippa of Hainaut.

He is most notable for the fact that he became the ancestor of the monarchs of England because his daughter Katherine married John of Gaunt. Her children, given the surname "Beaufort", became the forebears of the Tudor dynasty through Margaret Beaufort.

Another of his daughters also made a notable marriage, to the poet Geoffrey Chaucer.

Career

Early life

Paon de Roet was "probably christened as Gilles", but seems to have been known as "Paon" or "Payne", Latinised as "Paganus". He is named in a legal document in the form Paganus de Rodio — referring to Rodium, the mediaeval Latin form corresponding to the Roeulx, or Le Rœulx, the name of a town of 3000 inhabitants, 8 miles north-east of Mons, on the highway leading from Mons to Nivelle located in the Belgian province of Hainaut.

Paon de Roet may have been impelled to seek his fortune in England by the recital of the exploits of Fastre de Roet, who accompanied John of Beaumont in 1326, when, with three hundred followers, he went to assist the English against the Scots. Fastre was the younger brother of the last lord of Roeulx descended from the Counts of Hainault. He and his brother Eustace fell into pecuniary straits, and were obliged to alienate their landed possessions. Fastre died in 1331, and was buried in the abbey church of Roeulx, while his brother Eustace survived till 1336. Paon was, like Fastre, a younger brother — possibly of a collateral line.

In England

Paon de Roet may have come to England as part of the retinue of Philippa of Hainaut, accompanying the young queen in her departure from Valenciennes to join her youthful husband Edward III in England at the close of 1327.

His name does not appear in the list of knights who accompanied the queen from Hainaut, however, described by Froissart to be among additional knights referred to as 'pluissier jone esquier'. Speght (1598)[2] prefixed to his history a genealogical tree which began "Paganus de Rouet Hannoniensis, aliter dictus Guien Rex Armorum", describing de Roet as Guyenne King of Arms, referring to the territory of Guyenne (Aquitaine) which was controlled by Edward III.

France and Hainaut

In 1347, Roet was sent to the Siege of Calais, and was one of two knights deputed by Queen Philippa to conduct out of town the citizens whom she had saved (the so-called Burghers of Calais).

He had returned to the lands of Hainaut, probably by 1349. He went to serve the queen’s sister, Marguerite, who was the empress of Germany and the three younger children—Walter, Philippa and Katherine—were left in the care of Queen Philippa.[4] He died in Ghent in 1380.

Family

Paon had three daughters, Katherine, Philippa and Isabel (also called Elizabeth) de Roet, and a son, Walter. Isabel was to become Canoness of the convent of St. Waudru's, Mons, c. 1366. Philippa married the poet Geoffrey Chaucer in 1366. They met while still children when they were attached to the household of Elizabeth de Burgh, 4th Countess of Ulster.

Katherine became governess to the daughters of John of Gaunt. After the death of John's wife Blanche in 1369, Katherine and John began a love affair which would entail four children being born out of wedlock to the couple and would endure as a lifelong relationship. However, John made a dynastic marriage to Constance of Castille, a claimant to the throne of Castille, after which he called himself "King of Castille". When Constance died he married Katherine and legitimised their children.
Tomb[edit source | editbeta]

Paon de Roet's tomb was in Old St Paul's, near Sir John Beauchamp's tomb (commonly called "Duke Humphrey's"). It was badly damaged in 1644 during the English Civil War, when any precious or semi-precious metals were removed. It was recorded that "Once a fair marble stone inlaid all over with brass, nothing but the heads of a few brazen nails are at this day visible, previously engraven with the representation and coat of arms of the party defunct, thus much of a mangled funeral inscription was of late times perspicuous to be read".

By 1658, viewed without its brass plate and effigies, this tomb was described by William Dugdale. The tomb, along with the tombs of many others, including John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster's, were completely destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.
The former inscription was as follows:

" Hic Jacet Paganus Roet Miles Guyenne Rex
Armorum Pater Catherine Ducisse Lancastrie."

(Here lies Paon de Roet, knight, Guyenne King of Arms, father of Katherine Duchess of Lancaster)
Last Modified 18 Aug 2013Created 4 Mar 2023 using Reunion for Macintosh