From the 11th to the 13th centuries, there was a general movement of religious renewal and a search for new inspirations
of all kinds, the whole attesting to the many works on advanced ideas, the principles proposed and the events that
happened around the Mediterranean and in Europe, mostly in what would one day become the regions of Spain and France.
One can cite the incidents of influence on the Diaspora: the Moslem conquests, the Crusades, the Catharism (1000-1350),
the writings of Saint
Bernard (1145), the Councils of Toulouse (1119) of Tours (1163) and of Latran (1179), the Commentaries on Aristotle
by Averroes (1150), the
constitutions of the Franciscan and Dominican communities, the founding of the Universities of Paris (1215 and
1257) of Montpellier (1221 and 1289) and of Toulouse (1229), the teachings of Roger Bacon (1230-1250), the conversations,
long forgotten, between Pope Alexander III and an Almohade ,Sultan of Spain, at Montpellier in 1179: with Francis
of Assisi at Damiette in 1229 during the Fifth Crusade with Sultan Malik-al-Kamil, nephew of Saladin, and finally,
the results of the explorations in Asia by Marco Polo (1271-1295), and even the explanations of the roundness of
the Earth given by the Florentine Bruno Latini around 1265, 250 years before Copernicus and 350 years before Galileo.
Together with the spirituality of this era, this simmering of ideas and knowledge, too often accompanied, alas,
by dramatic opposition, we note two facts much less important on their own, mentioned already in the notes above:
a certain intensity involving demography and a taste for adventure, from where is taken from the south of France
a sort of swarming of family groups from Gascony to the western and central Pyrenees regions.
After the era which saw the building of the cathedrals, after the centuries long known as, the Dark Ages, here
we come across the known details of the groups of SERRES who left their homelands, either for purely intellectual
reasons or, more mundanely, due to defensive concerns about some temporal power, or for both reasons at the same
time.
But, fortunately, we won't let ourselves be confused by chronological vertigo, for at the moment when our line
(family surname) starts, the Phoenician alphabet has already been around for twenty-eight centuries, the war chariot,
the cultivation of silk worms and weaving in China for twenty-five centuries, printing and paper still in China
are fifteen centuries old ... may we exhibit some modesty in this moment ...
EARLDOM VENAISSIN
The Earls (Counts) of Foix, specifically Raymond-Roger the 1st at Gaston Fébus, need of men of arms to fight
against the Counts of Armagnac, their arch-enemies: they go looking for these men, of course in Gascony. It is
thus that the SERRES join the County of Foix (family of Pierre-Arnaud and of Bernard), and that others, on the
spot, declare themselves vassals of the Counts of Foix-Béarn (families of Jean and of Pierre) from 1360-1402).
In Chalosse, diocese of Aire-on-the-Ardour we find:
- Bernard, Lord of Serres-Los, born around 1327, father of numerous children, of which the eldest is named Gration,
and the youngest, Bernardon, he being born around 1352;
- Bernard, Lord of Serres-Gaston, who pays homage by proxy to Jean 1st, Count of Foix-Béarn, in 1428;
- Fortanier, born around 1398, who is at the root of the group in the Pays de Foix and at Toulouse.
Gration and Bernardon prefer distant adventuring and join the companies of scouts under the command of, firstly
the Captal of Buch, and then of the noble Bernardon de la Salle, Knight. The latter joins up with the bands of
the English adventurer Jean d'Hawkwood, whose equestrian portrait by Ucello can be seen on the walls of the Dome
of Florence, and after many episodes in the Kingdom of France the two brothers are found in Avignon, in the service
of the Papacy.
GRATION, Lord of Serres, is not known for his feats of arms or for any other reason: nothing remarkable
in his life, if only that he appears as a simple appendage to his younger brother ... to him was the management,
to the other the contests ...
BERNARDON, on the other hand, ( see Part I, The Coats of Arms) has
passed into posterity by reason of the important functions given to him by reason of his talents as a warrior and
a diplomat.
Let's not get into any details of the continuous, murderous guerilla wars in Italy, from city to city during the
14th and 15th centuries. Let's just
remember that, at the time of Bernardon the Romans and their allies have as sworn enemies the Florentines and their
vassals, and that Clement VII, first Pope from Avignon, as well as the dukes of Anjou Louis 1st and his son Louis
2nd, have as common political support, the Republic of Florence and diverse companies of Italian mercenaries under
hire: our adventurer from Landes (southwestern France) is among the latter.
His merits are recognized by the Pope, by Florence, and by Louis 2nd, Duke of Anjou, King of Naples and Count of
Provence (who is the founder of the Parliament of Aix).
By means of a solemn Papal Bulletin on September 1, 1394, Clement VII grants him the property of the chateau and
the town of Malaucène, in regards to the services our beloved son, nobleman Bernardon de Serres, squire,
from the diocese of Aire, has rendered to us and the Roman Church, in Italy, for the recovery and the defence of
lands and other places and rights belonging to the Church in said country.
In August 1396, the certificate renewed in 1401, the Republic of Florence names Bernardon de Serres ,Captain-General
of the War, the Gascon, prevails over all the other captains in Italy. He retracts the title himself in 1409.
As for Louis 2nd, he gives Bernardon the domain of Mollans (in the Drôme at present) and the port of Noves,
afer having named him Viceroy of Aquila (in the Abruzzes) in July 1398, in his name, and finally Governor of Asti
(in Piédmont) from 1405-1409.
The little youngster from Gascony, poor from the start, without protection and without support made his way well
in the world.
In November 1411, after a meeting presided over by the Duke of Bourbon, a French gentleman, the Viscount of Caudebec
expresses his admiration for Bernardon ... the best Christian Captain ... who carried a lance half as big as the
thigh of a man and was worth a thousand men of arms.
All of his contemporaries agree in praising his loyal character and his candour, and, under arms, his inflexible
rigour. The people of Florence called him the Tall Bernardo or more simply, The Gascon.
Summing up, on the podium for Captains-Mercenary, from 1390 to his death in 1412, Bernardon de Serres would have
occupied the seat of honour!
This warrior, however, also had a private life. Introduced by his friend Lorenzo Ghiberti to one of the most ancient
families of Siena in Tuscany, the Baschi, Bernardon marries one of the daughters of Guichard and of Jacquette Farnèse,
the very young Romaine de Baschi. But, returning to France and gravely wounded in an obscure battle against some
mercenaries of the Duke of Burgundy nearby Villefranche-sur-Saône, he dies without heirs in 1412.
All his property pass to his brother Gration, on whom we have not been able to acquire any precise information,
although certain chroniclers have imagined that he may have made alliances in Avignon and had children. Perhaps
we may assure ourselves of this by consulting the Archives of the County, in Noves, in Mollans and most especially
in Malaucène, in using as a basis the coat of arms known as SERRES from Avignon which figures in the General
Armorial of France and in the Armorial of Rieststap.
VIVARAIS
The settling of the group de SERRES in Vivarais can be situated at the beginning of the reign of Philippe the Handsome.
Catharism (Catholicism), existence of which in Gascogne had already been mentioned by Pope Alexander III, who declares
at the Ecumenical Council of Latran in 1179 that the Cathars (Cathlics) have made great progress in Gascogne, Albi,
the region of Toulouse ..., is in 1290 practically decapitated. Montségur fell in 1244, Quéribus
in 1255 and there were only a few Perfect Ones, like Pierre Autier of Aix-en-Foix, who would be burned at the stake
on April 9, 1311.
Now, the group in question, tired of the successive vassalage which constrained it to the hazards of war in the
Ardour basin, remains otherwise ready to embrace any faith that doesn't come from Rome. It seeks then a homeland
promising freedom of religion and, taking the route to Compostella passing by Auch, Toulouse and St.-Guilhem-le-Désert,
finds it at last in Vivarais, where, since 1284, the King of France, moreover has accorded his distant subjects
broad privileges, among which are exemption from tallages and a complete independence with regards to local government
and that of the province of Languedoc.
The lands are therefore bought from the family of Flotte des Astards de Laudun, Lords of Mirabel, at Villeneuve
de Berg, there where the domain of Pradel would become famous due to Olivier de Serres. One could see later the
great-grandson of Olivier, Constantin, without a direct heir, would leave his property by his wills of 1672 and
1694 to the noble François Rostaing d'Arlemp de Mirabel.
We are aware, by means of a will made by Pierre des Serres dated August 2, 1348, of the existence of this Pierre,
of Martin his heir and of two others, des Serres: Jean and Pierre de Serres.
The line establishes itself from the time of the great-grandson of the famous agronomist, father of French agronomy
Olivier de Serres.
JACQUES, husband of Guillemette Bonnaud (c. 1490), has five children: Mathieu, Bertrand, who will
be the start of the branch of the de Serres d'Annonay, Jacques, Antoine, in direct relation to Pradel and Louise.
It would be appropriate to note here that there’s the matter of a group that went over to Protestantism, when Luther
separates himself from Rome in 1511, followed by Calvin in 1534. It is therefore, in all likelihood, Antoine, the
grandfather of Olivier, who becomes part of a group of the first adepts of the reformed religion, but his brother
Bertrand remains Roman Catholic.
BERTRAND, leaves at his death five children: Olivier, husband of Marie Cornette, Marie, Jean, who
follows, Jacques and Antoine.
JEAN, notary at Villeneuve de Berg, and court clerk of the local government of Vivarais in
1573, marries Miss Broé, originally from Tournon. They have Charles, who will settle in Annonay.
CHARLES, a magistrate in Annonay, forms the branch called de Serres d'Annonay. He receives from
Louis 13th, on June 7, 1612, letters of Nobility designating as his coat of arms: azure quarters 1 and 4 to a silver
chevron with three mouths of stars accompanied by three clovers of sable 2 and 1 - on 2 and 3 golden lion jaws.
Charles has, among other children:
- Jacques de Serres d'Annonay, who will become Bishop of Puy-en-Velay; and
- Just de Serres d'Annonay, Advisor to the King, Count of Velay, Baron de Montebourg, who will succeed his brother
in the bishopric of Puy (c. 1640).
