This is a translation of the 'Memoires of Jacques du Clercq', published in 1823 in two volumes, edited by Frederic, Baron de Reissenberg. In his introduction Reissenberg writes: 'Jacques du Clercq tells us that he was born in 1424, and that he was a licentiate in law and a counsellor to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in the castellany of Douai, Lille, and Orchies. It appears that he established his residence at Arras. In 1446, he married the daughter of Baldwin de la Lacherie, a gentleman who lived in Lille. We read in the fifth book of his Memoirs that his father, also named Jacques du Clercq, had married a lady of the Le Camelin family, from Compiègne. His ancestors, always attached to the counts of Flanders, had constantly served them, whether in their councils or in their armies.' The Memoires cover a period of nineteen years beginning in in 1448, ending in in 1467. It appears that the author had intended to extend the Memoirs beyond that date; no doubt illness or death prevented him from carrying out this plan. As Reissenberg writes the 'merit of this work lies in the simplicity of its narrative, in its tone of good faith, and in a certain air of frankness which naturally wins the reader’s confidence.' Du Clercq ranges from events of national and international importance, including events of the Wars of the Roses in England, to simple, everyday local events such as marriages, robberies, murders, trials and deaths, including that of his own father in Book 5; one of his last entries.
Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback format.
Paternal Family Tree: Obrien
On 22nd January 1663 Katherine O'Brien was born to [her father] Henry O'Brien [aged 21].
Samuel Pepys' Diary. 29th April 1667. After dinner Sir G. Carteret [aged 57] and I alone in his closet an hour or more talking of my Lord Sandwich's [aged 41] coming home, which, the peace being likely to be made here, he expects, both for my Lord's sake and his own (whose interest he wants) it will be best for him to be at home, where he will be well received by the King [aged 36]; he is sure of his service well accepted, though the business of Spain do fall by this peace. He tells me my Lord Arlington [aged 49] hath done like a gentleman by him in all things. He says, if my Lord [Sandwich] were here, he were the fittest man to be Lord Treasurer [aged 60] of any man in England; and he thinks it might be compassed; for he confesses that the King's matters do suffer through the inability of this man, who is likely to die, and he will propound him to the King. It will remove him from his place at sea, and the King will have a good place to bestow. He says to me, that he could wish, when my Lord comes, that he would think fit to forbear playing, as a thing below him, and which will lessen him, as it do my Lord St. Albans [aged 62], in the King's esteem: and as a great secret tells me that he hath made a match for my Lord Hinchingbrooke [aged 19] to a daughter [aged 22] of my Lord Burlington's [aged 54], where there is a great alliance, £10,000 portion; a civil family, and relation to my Chancellor [aged 58], whose [her future husband] son [aged 5] hath married one of the daughters [aged 4]; and that my Chancellor do take it with very great kindness, so that he do hold himself obliged by it. My Lord Sandwich hath referred it to my Lord Crew [aged 69], Sir G. Carteret, and Mr. Montagu [aged 49], to end it. My Lord Hinchingbrooke and the lady know nothing yet of it. It will, I think, be very happy. Very glad of this discourse, I away mightily pleased with the confidence I have in this family, and so away, took up my wife, who was at her mother's, and so home, where I settled to my chamber about my accounts, both Tangier and private, and up at it till twelve at night, with good success, when news is brought me that there is a great fire in Southwarke [Map]: so we up to the leads, and then I and the boy down to the end of our, lane, and there saw it, it seeming pretty great, but nothing to the fire of London, that it made me think little of it. We could at that distance see an engine play-that is, the water go out, it being moonlight.
John Evelyn's Diary. 10th June 1673. Came to visit and dine with me my [her future husband] Lord Viscount Cornbury [aged 11] and his Lady [aged 10]; Lady Frances Hyde, sister to the Duchess of York; and Mrs. Dorothy Howard [aged 22], Maid of Honour [Note. Dorothy Howard and Colonel James Graham [aged 24] were married in 1675 - may be an example of Evelyn writing his diary retrospectively she being referred to as 'Mrs' although possibly the term was used irrecspective of marriage - see John Evelyn's Diary 9th October 1671]. We went, after dinner, to see the formal and formidable camp on Blackheath, Greenwich [Map], raised to invade Holland; or, as others suspected for another design. Thence, to the Italian glass-house at Greenwich, Kent [Map], where glass was blown of finer metal than that of Murano [Map], at Venice.
Before 1st September 1678 [her father] Henry O'Brien [aged 36] and [her step-mother] Katherine Stewart [aged 38] were married. He the son of [her grandfather] Henry O'Brien 7th Earl Thomond [aged 58] and [her grandmother] Anne O'Brien Countess Thomond. They were third cousin once removed.
On 1st September 1678 [her father] Henry O'Brien [aged 36] died.
Before 1683 [her brother-in-law] John Fitzgerald 18th Earl of Kildare [aged 21] and [her sister] Mary O'Brien Countess Kildare [aged 19] were married. She by marriage Countess Kildare. He the son of Wentworth Fitzgerald 17th Earl of Kildare and Elizabeth Holles Countess Kildare. They were third cousin twice removed.
In November 1683 [her sister] Mary O'Brien Countess Kildare [aged 20] died.
On 10th July 1685 Edward Hyde 3rd Earl Clarendon [aged 23] and Katherine O'Brien [aged 22] were married. He the son of Henry Hyde 2nd Earl Clarendon and Theodosia Capell. They were fifth cousins.
On 9th November 1695 [her daughter] Theodosia Hyde was born to [her husband] Edward Hyde 3rd Earl Clarendon [aged 33] and Katherine O'Brien [aged 32]. She married August 1713 John Bligh 1st Earl Darnley and had issue.
William of Worcester's Chronicle of England
William of Worcester, born around 1415, and died around 1482 was secretary to John Fastolf, the renowned soldier of the Hundred Years War, during which time he collected documents, letters, and wrote a record of events. Following their return to England in 1440 William was witness to major events. Twice in his chronicle he uses the first person: 1. when writing about the murder of Thomas, 7th Baron Scales, in 1460, he writes '… and I saw him lying naked in the cemetery near the porch of the church of St. Mary Overie in Southwark …' and 2. describing King Edward IV's entry into London in 1461 he writes '… proclaimed that all the people themselves were to recognize and acknowledge Edward as king. I was present and heard this, and immediately went down with them into the city'. William’s Chronicle is rich in detail. It is the source of much information about the Wars of the Roses, including the term 'Diabolical Marriage' to describe the marriage of Queen Elizabeth Woodville’s brother John’s marriage to Katherine, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, he aged twenty, she sixty-five or more, and the story about a paper crown being placed in mockery on the severed head of Richard, 3rd Duke of York.
Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback format.
In 1697 [her daughter] Mary Hyde died.
In 1702 [her step-mother] Katherine Stewart [aged 62] died. Her fourth cousin Katherine [aged 38] succeeded 8th Baroness Clifton of Leighton Bromswold in Huntingdonshire.
On 11th August 1706 Katherine O'Brien [aged 43] died at New York. She was buried at Trinity Church, New York. Her son Edward succeeded 9th Baron Clifton of Leighton Bromswold in Huntingdonshire.
On 31st March 1723 [her former husband] Edward Hyde 3rd Earl Clarendon [aged 61] died. His first cousin Henry [aged 50] succeeded 4th Earl Clarendon, 4th Baron Hyde of Hindon in Wiltshire 1660. Jane Leveson-Gower Countess Rochester and Clarendon by marriage Countess Clarendon.
[her son] Edward Hyde 9th Baron Clifton was born to Edward Hyde 3rd Earl Clarendon and Katherine O'Brien.
[her daughter] Mary Hyde was born to Edward Hyde 3rd Earl Clarendon and Katherine O'Brien.
[her daughter] Catherine Hyde was born to Edward Hyde 3rd Earl Clarendon and Katherine O'Brien.
Kings Wessex: Great x 19 Grand Daughter of King Edmund "Ironside" I of England
Kings Gwynedd: Great x 16 Grand Daughter of Owain "Great" King Gwynedd
Kings Seisyllwg: Great x 20 Grand Daughter of Hywel "Dda aka Good" King Seisyllwg King Deheubarth
Kings Powys: Great x 17 Grand Daughter of Maredudd ap Bleddyn King Powys
Kings Godwinson: Great x 20 Grand Daughter of King Harold II of England
Kings England: Great x 10 Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England
Kings Scotland: Great x 18 Grand Daughter of King Duncan I of Scotland
Kings Franks: Great x 26 Grand Daughter of Charles "Charlemagne aka Great" King of the Franks King Lombardy Holy Roman Emperor
Kings France: Great x 19 Grand Daughter of Hugh I King of the Franks
Kings Duke Aquitaine: Great x 23 Grand Daughter of Ranulf I Duke Aquitaine
Great x 4 Grandfather: Donough O'Brien 2nd Earl of Thomond
Great x 3 Grandfather: Connor O'Brien 3rd Earl of Thomond 8 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Helen Butler 
7 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward I of England
Great x 2 Grandfather: Donogh O'Brien 4th Earl Thomond 9 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 1 Grandfather: Barnabas O'Brien 6th Earl Thomond 7 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: Gerald Fitzgerald 9th Earl of Kildare 
Great x 3 Grandfather: Gerald "Wizard Earl" Fitzgerald 11th Earl of Kildare 5 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Elizabeth Grey Countess Kildare 
4 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England
Great x 2 Grandmother: Elizabeth Fitzgerald Countess Thomond 6 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: Anthony Browne 
4 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 3 Grandmother: Mabel Browne Countess Kildare 5 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Alice Gage
GrandFather: Henry O'Brien 7th Earl Thomond 8 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 3 Grandfather: John Fermor 
Great x 2 Grandfather: George Fermor of Easton Neston
Great x 4 Grandfather: Nicholas Vaux 1st Baron Vaux Harrowden 
Great x 3 Grandmother: Maud Vaux
Great x 1 Grandmother: Anne or Mary Fermor 15 x Great Grand Daughter of King Henry "Curtmantle" II of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: Walter Curzon 12 x Great Grand Son of King Henry "Curtmantle" II of England
Great x 3 Grandfather: Thomas Curzon 13 x Great Grand Son of King Henry "Curtmantle" II of England
Great x 2 Grandmother: Mary Curzon 14 x Great Grand Daughter of King Henry "Curtmantle" II of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: John Hussey of Shipwick, Dorset 
Great x 3 Grandmother: Agnes Hussey
Father: Henry O'Brien 9 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: Donough O'Brien 2nd Earl of Thomond
Great x 3 Grandfather: Connor O'Brien 3rd Earl of Thomond 8 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Helen Butler 7 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward I of England
Great x 2 Grandfather: Donogh O'Brien 4th Earl Thomond 9 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 1 Grandfather: Henry O'Brien 5th Earl Thomond 7 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: Gerald Fitzgerald 9th Earl of Kildare
Great x 3 Grandfather: Gerald "Wizard Earl" Fitzgerald 11th Earl of Kildare 5 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Elizabeth Grey Countess Kildare 4 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England
Great x 2 Grandmother: Elizabeth Fitzgerald Countess Thomond 6 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: Anthony Browne 4 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 3 Grandmother: Mabel Browne Countess Kildare 5 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Alice Gage
GrandMother: Anne O'Brien Countess Thomond 8 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: William Brereton 7 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 3 Grandfather: William Brereton 8 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 2 Grandfather: William Brereton 1st Baron Brereton 9 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: Peter Warburton of Arley
Great x 3 Grandmother: Jane Warburton 14 x Great Grand Daughter of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Elizabeth Winnington 13 x Great Grand Daughter of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England
Great x 1 Grandmother: Mary Brereton Countess Thomond 10 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward I of England
Katherine O'Brien 10 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England