House of Bethune

The House of Béthune, or House of Bethune as it is usually written in English, is a French noble house dating back to about 1000 CE. From Béthune in the former province of Artois in the north of France, they were traditionally Lords, in French seigneurs, of the town and castle of Béthune and Advocates of the Abbey of St. Vaast at Arras. Later branches included hereditary princes, dukes, marquesses, counts, viscounts and barons as well as cardinals and archbishops.

Claiming lineage from the Lords of Carency, a disputed descent, a family called des Planques adopted the name Béthune. The first undoubted member was Michel des Planques (died before 1554), whose son Pierre had two sons. Jean, the elder, gave rise to the family of Béthune-Hesdigneul while Georges, the younger, led to the family of Béthune-Saint-Venant which later became Béthune-Sully.

In 1101 King Henry I of England, raised an army of 500 knights, two of its leaders being Robert IV of Béthune and his eldest son Baldwin, Lord of Chocques. When in 1104 the force was doubled to 1000 knights, Robert was again one of the most prominent. Before his death in 1128 he had been granted the lands of Chedworth and Yanworth in Gloucestershire. By 1165 his grandson Robert V was Lord of Gayton, Northamptonshire, his principal seat in England, and held many other manors in Northamptonshire as well as lands in Hertfordshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire. All were sold in 1242 by his grandson Robert VII.

Baldwin of Bethune, the third son of Robert V, gained extensive lands in England, both in his own right as companion of successive kings and in right of his wife, the Countess Hawise of Aumale. On his death in 1212, his estates went to his son-in-law William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke while his wife's holdings went to her son William de Forz, 3rd Earl of Albemarle. After 1242, no mention of members of the Bethune family living in England is found until 1709.

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