Paon de Roet

Paon de Roet sometimes Payne Roet of Guienne (c.1310-1380), and also referred to as Sir Gilles de Roet, was a 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 through the king's marriage to 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.

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, a town of 3000 inhabitants, 8 miles north-east of Mons, on the highway leading from Mons to Nivelle located in the County 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.

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 official list of knights who accompanied the queen from Hainaut. However, Froissart says he was one of a number of additional young knights and squires who added to the queen's retinue, referred to as 'pluissier jone esquier', i.e. "plusiers jeunes escuyers" ('other young squires'); Speght (1598)

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