_____ DE MENTHON (ID #I27098)
(female)
- TITLES/'DIT' NAMES/OCCUPATIONS: noble
Father: Janus DE MENTHON (d. aft 1540)
Mother: Marie DE GILLIERS (d. aft 1588)
Family 1
:
Gabriel BÉGOZ (b. bef 1514, d. 1546?)
- Gabriel BÉGOZ (b. abt 1528?, d. aft 1578?)
- Jean Jaques BÉGOZ (dates unknown)
There have been several theories about the marriages and relationships of Marie de Gilliers, supposed to have been the wife of Gabriel Bégoz, and who may or may not have been the wife of Janus de Menthon or of his son. By 1552, shortly before the death of this woman, she was a party to the sale of the office of Vidomne of Morges to Their Excellencies of Bern, along with her three (possibly minor?) grandchildren François, Claude, and Jaques de Menthon. A few years earlier, in 1546, she was the "tutrice" or guardian of the brothers Gabriel and Jean Jaques Bégoz, whose father Gabriel Bégoz had held the office of Vidomne. Gabriel and Jean Jaques were her children, and we think it should be presumed from the rather cryptic proceedings that Gabriel the Vidomne had died. The relevant documents are cited in Louis de Charrière's "Le vidomnat de Morges et ses attributions" (Mémoires et documents publiés par la société d'histoire de la Suisse romande, 24:425-432, 1868).
The next previous hereditary Vidomne had apparently been Janus de Menthon. Marie must have been his wife, and, after his death, the next in line to inherit the office must have been the minor children of their deceased son Jean de Menthon. During their minority, the office must have been delegated to Gabriel Bégoz, whom she is supposed to have married. When this Gabriel died, about 1546, she now asked that François Mandrot be appointed to hold the office, implying that her grandsons by Janus de Menthon were still minors. By 1552, the heirs who ultimately sold the rights to the Vidomnat of Morges to Their Excellencies of Bern were her grandchildren, apparently no long minors, but she was still a party to the transaction. In order to find our way through the confusing citations, it seems appropriate to ask why Marie was involved in each transaction. The situation is still not completely clear, in that the de Menthod grandchildren appear to have reached the age of majority by 1552, even though she was still involved in the transactions. All of this leads to other questions of chronology: how old was Marie? If her three grandsons had reached the age of majority in 1552, Jean de Menthon must have married no later than about 1524, implying in turn that he must have been born no earlier than about 1506. It is this line of reasoning that led Louis de Charrière to suggest that the records at Aubonne were defective, and that it was not Marie de Gilliers who was the mother of the children of Gabriel Bégoz, but rather, that she was the grandmother of those children. In that case, it would have been one of the daughters of Janus de Menthon and Marie de Gilliers who had married Gabriel Bégoz the vidomne, thus giving us a plausible reason why he came to hold this office.
In order to verify this scenario, we will have to review the documents cited by Louis de Charrière. The one that mentions the Bégoz children is evidently a "manual de conseil" for the city of Morges, an entry dated 08 mar 1546, which he quotes as follows: "Noble et généreuse dame Marie de Gillict, tutrice de ses enfants de Gabriel Bégos, d'Aubonne, présente François Mandrot pour vidompne de Morges, lequel est reçu, réservant l'agrément de M. le Bailli." De Charrière notes that this passage is undoubtedly defective in that it implies but does not state that Gabriel is deceased. And, in another passage, de Charrière suggests that "enfants" should be understood as "(petits) enfants", meaning grandchildren. In that case, the passage as written would be elliptical, at best, intended to read something like "Noble et généreuse dame Marie de Gillict, tutrice de ses petits enfants, enfants de feu Gabriel Bégos, d'Aubonne, présente François Mandrot pour vidompne de Morges, lequel est reçu, réservant l'agrément de M. le Bailli." De Charrière also cites a terrier, a "Grosse Mandrot", in which Marie recognizes the obligations of her grandchildren, the nobles François, Claude, and Jaques de Menthon, and their sisters, children of the late Jean de Menthon, son of the said Janus, son of Claude. This is evidently ACV Fg 73, compiled in 1547 by Amé Mandrot, de Rances, bourgeois d'Yverdon. The sale to Their Excellencies is ACV IB 224:656. In a later publication ("Les dynastes d'Aubonne", Mémoires et documents publiés par la société d'histoire de la Suisse romande, 26:137-455, 1870, see p. 277), de Charrière notes a reference to accounts of the Vidomnat of Morges 1545-1548 apparently prepared by, or under the name of, Gabriel Bégoz, and therefore supposes that Gabriel the Vidomne had not died. That conclusion seems completely at odds with the context, however. De Charrière identifies this reference as no. 586 in the "Inventaire général des droits de la baronnie d'Aubonne", which we have not been able to identify, described as "comptes rendus de Gabriel Bégoz des revenues d'Aubonne, de Pampigny et du vidomnat de Morges, dans les années de 1545, 1546, 1547 et 1548, pour les hoirs du noble et puissant Jean de Menthon." In our opinion, this is simply a reflection of the functions of the notary Gabriel Bégoz, whom we suppose to be the son of the Vidomne Gabriel Bégoz.
The preceding analysis leads us to suppose that, as Marie de Gilliers seems unlikely to have produced at least one son no later than 1506 by Janus or Jean de Menthon and then remarried to Gabriel Bégoz and produced two sons who were still minors in 1546, a better solution is to show her as the mother-in-law of Gabriel the Vidomne, who therefore must have married one of the de Menthon sisters.
The 1650 de Menton genealogy by Samuel Guichenon lists only two children of Janus de Menthon and Marie de Gilliers, a son Jean who made his testament in 1542, and a daughter Amblarde, about whom Guichenon gave no further information. Could Amblarde have been the wife of Gabriel Bégoz?
_Jean DE MENTHON ____+
|
_Claude DE MENTHON _____|
| |
| |_Colette des CLÉS ___
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_Janus DE MENTHON ___|
| (.... - 1540) |
| | _Antoine DE GERBAIS _
| | |
| |_Marguerite DE GERBAIS _|
| |
| |_____________________
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|
|--_____ DE MENTHON
|
| _____________________
| |
| ________________________|
| | |
| | |_____________________
| |
|_Marie DE GILLIERS __|
(.... - 1588) |
| _____________________
| |
|________________________|
|
|_____________________
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