House of du Souich

The House du Souich is a French noble family. Its senior branch descends from the Kings of France and Dukes of Normandy. The family is also connected with the Counts of Blois, Troy, Meaux, Eudes, and Vermandois, as well as the Princes de Poix. Its junior branch has held the title Seigneur and Knight of Le Souich and Amiens since the 1550s. The family descends from three main branches of European nobility: The House of France (de France) originating with Charlemagne through his son Pepin (later King of Italy) and his son Louis (later Louis I of France), as well as the Ducs of Normandie through William the Conqueror (later King of England). The seat of the family is the town of Le Souich in northern France, in the old province of Picardy.
The Family Crest
The Family Crest is displayed in the Church of Le Souich (1094) along with the names of the members of the du Souich family who died in the Great Wars.
The Coat of Arms of the House of du Souich is a Ecu crest consisting of four quarters. Diagonally opposed, two quarters (2 and 3) contain left to right diagonal crimson strips interlaced with three gold strips. On the opposing diagonal (1 and 4), three Alerions birds are found on a silver background. The whole is supported by two greyhounds.
History and Lineage
Most of French history begins with Charlemagne, the French Emperor who ruled in the first millennium over much of wait we know as France today. Two of his sons play a role in the beginning of the du Souich family history: Louis I of France and Pepin I of Italy. If we follow the Louis I line, we go through a number of Charles and Louis until we get to a marriage between Berthe de Bourgogne, granddaughter of Louis IV de France, and Eudes I de Blois. We then continue down the Counts of Blois family tree until we reach a marriage between the daughter of Etienne II de Blois, Gillette, to Gautier II de Heilly. And from there we continue along the de Heilly family tree for a couple hundred years until we reach the marriage of Beatrice de Heilly to Clothaire de Raincheval whose great-grandson's daughter, Jehanne de Raincheval, married Nicolas Judas.
Now, Jehanne's parents play a key role in this family story: her father Charles de Raincheval married Marie de Soissons in the early 1500s. Marie's great-grandfather was the son of Marguerite Tyrel de Poix, daughter of Jean IV Tyrel Prince de Poix. From Jean IV, we can go straight back 13 generations to Gautier I Tyrel de Poix, the first Prince de Poix and son of Osmont I de Normandie, he himself brother to Richard II de Normandie, great-grandson of the Rollon, first Duke of Normandy, and grandfather of, what for it, William the Conqueror (Guillaume le Conquérant de Normandie). William, interestingly enough, married Mathilde de Flandres in the early 1050s (more becoming King of England) and their daughter Adèle de Normandie married Etienne II of the de Blois family, who we spoke of a little earlier on. It was Adèle and Etienne's daughter, Gillette, who married Gautier II de Heilly. All of this, of course, takes us back to the straight line toward Nicolas Judas and Jehanne de Raincheval.
Nicolas and Jehanne's son François Judas married Marie Pruvost in 1671 and their son Vincent Judas de Souich was born in 1687. The name Judas du Souich is first seen at this stage in the family story. Jehanne brought with her into her marriage the Lordships of le Souich, l'Estouny, and la Bellegarde with the surrounding territories. As a result her husband became Lord of these regions and as a family they took on the name Judas du Souich.
The Judas du Souich family tree continues a few generations in another straight line until we stop at Charles Amable Alban Judas du Souich. During the Judas du Souich period between Nicolas and Charles, the du Souich family as Knights, Lords at the French Court and counsellors to the King, had given up their public positions due to the period of Terror following the French Revolution.
By the time Charles was born, his family was an old, non-political noble house from the Picardie region of northern France; the titles has become redundant since the Revolution. Charles Amable is the one who put the family back into the public spotlight. As Inspector General of the Mines, member of the Academie de Sciences and decorated as Commandeur of the Région d'Honneur, Charles was instrumental in the development of the Haussman vision of Paris under Napoleon III.
Charles married Emma Fevez during the Belle Époque and they had five children all named du Souich. Two of them, Adrien and Jeanne, are relevant to our story. Adrian married Marie Pauline Jeanne de Baecque in 1880 and they had nine children. Jeanne, Adrian's sister, married Paul Nicolas Jules Alfred Morin in 1874 and they had five children.
Now, in 1907 Adrian's daughter Madeleine married her cousin George, son of Jeanne and Paul. Madeleine and George had ten children from where the current branches arise.
Let me back up a moment to outline another pillar of this family tree. If we follow the line from Pepin I, later the King of Italy, and son of Charlemagne, rather than that of his brother Louis I, we descend down several generations through the Counts de Vermandois until we get to Beatrice de Vermandois who married Robert I de France. Their son was Hugues le Grand Capet, Duc des Francs and Marquis de Neustrie, who married Hedwige de Saxe, a German princess, and their son was Hugues Capet who began the Capet dynasty of French kings. If we continue straight down the line through five more generations to Louis VII le Jeune de France, we see that he married Aliénor d'Aquitaine, a major figure in the European history of her day. Their daughter Marie married Henri de Champagne who is the son of Thibaut IV de Blois, brother of Gillette who we know married Gautier de Heilly on the other side of this family tree.
From Marie de Champagne, if we continue down six more generations we'll find that Marguerite de Châtillon, the great-granddaughter of Marie four times removed, married none other than Jean III Tryel Prince de Poix, whose son Jean IV Tyrel Prince de Poix is the father of Marguerite Tryel de Poix who married Valérin de Soissons. Valérin de Soissons, as we know, is Marie de Soissons great-grandfather. And Marie herself married Charles de Raincheval whose daughter Jehanne married Nicolas Judas. So we've come once again full circle.
The most recent members of this branch of the du Souich family include the ten children of cousins George and Madeleine du Souich, who all have a double helping of the du Souich blood as both sets of their grandparents were from the House of du Souich.
Hundreds of cousins are now part of this branch of the family. A list of the relevant last names is outlined below.
Notable Ancestors
The House of du Souich is an ancient and illustrious French family. Connected by birth or marriage to a great number of the noble houses of France, the du Souich family reigned over northeastern France for hundreds of years as Lords of le Souich and Amiens as well as the surrounding territories. The family descends from three main branches of French nobility and royalty: the House of de France through two of Charlesmagne's sons Louis I and Pepin I, the Ducs of Normandie and the Princes of Poix. As Knights of the crown, and counsellors to the Kings and regional rulers, the House of du Souich held a prominent place within the country for hundreds of years until the French Revolution. During the destruction of the French noblesse in the late 1790s, the House of du Souich retired to their land in northern France and has since largely led a quiet, non-political existence.
One exception to this general rule is Charles Amable Alban Judas du Souich 1812-1888 (later his name was legally shortened to du Souich) who was a conseiller to Napoleon III in the mid-1800s.
The family is presently quite diverse (see related families below) and dispersed all over the country and beyond.
Notable people in the lineage of the House of du Souich:
Charlemagne, Emperor of France
Pepin I, King of Italy, son of Charlemagne
Louis I de France, King of France, son of Charlemagne
Hugues Capet, King of the French (Francs)
Robert I of Normandie, Duke of Normandy
William the Conqueror of Normandie, First Norman King of England
Gautier I, Tyrel Prince de Poix
Aliénor d’Aquitaine de Portier, Queen of France and England
Bernard VI de Moreuil-Soissons
Jean I de Soissons, Count of Soissons
Charles-Amable-Alban Judas du Souich, Vice-president of the General Consulate of Mines, member Académie de Sciences, Commandeur Légion d'Honneur, former director of the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Étienne
References and Notes
Further Reading
La généologie de la Famille JUDAS, Louis-Edmond-Ernest du Gard, 1890
Archives départementales du Pas de Calais: Registre aux vingtième du Souich 1759
Armorial d'Artois et de Picardie 1696 - Louis XIV, A. Borel d’Hauterive http://www.abebooks.fr/Armorial-dArtois-Picardie-g%C3%A9n%C3%A9ralit%C3%A9-dAmiens-recueil/6383094529/
Maisons et paroisses de Pissaleu, Beauvais 1887, p. 41
Noblilaire universel de France, 1886
Annulaire de la Noblesse 1897 http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/Visualiseur?DestinationGallica&ONUMM-36624 page 382
--France2007 (talk) 18:12, 15 November 2012 (UTC)--France2007 (talk) 16:42, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

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