To quote from Ordo Balliolensis; Essai sur l´origine des patronymes Bailleuil-Belle-Belset variantes, 1996:
Increasingly modern historians conclude that the assertion that was considered true for centuries, willing that the Balliols of Scotland originated from Bailleul (Somme, France), is historically totally wrong. M. Vosgier, a 18th century French writer, grounded that theory that was blindly taken over by Mr Blanchard, by Mr René de Belleval (1866), and by subsequent writers and historians.
The misleading was so widespread and deep-rooted among scholars that the famous Flemish Historian Dr. E. Warlop, a world-leading historian on medieval history, to avoid strong and endless historical resistance and polemic, did not even mention the Balliols of England and of Scotland in his masterwork “The Flemish Nobility”. In vol. Iii, he printed a long pedigree of the Flemish Balliols but avoided very carefully to point out any English and Scottish connections to the Lineage.
Another hint that these Balliol came from Flanders is the lack of information we find otherwise for the Norman families. Very old documents mention the most ancient families/Lineages of Normandy, such as the : Aumale, d´Angerville, d´Aulnay, des Briards, d´Escalles,d´Harcourt, Erard, le Normand, (or de Moreton), but nothing about the Balliols.
So when it is ascerted that: “In Normandy, France, we find the name Bailey first mentioned, as early as 1052 A.D. in the form of Bailleul”, it has to be countered with "Bailleul was at that time written either in Latin or in Diets but not in French." It is also contended: “At that time Simon, son of Arnoul de Gramines was the representative of the Bailleuls”. It is true in a limited sense, for he was a representative of one of the 12 families of Bailleuil de Flandre, the connections between which are uncertain. His lineage was to unite with that of the family of Ypres (Ieper en Flamand).
(In anno 960, the long before quoted city of Belle (Balliol) becomes a Lordship belonging to Lord Arnoldius Grameninis and his wife Gertrui van Valkenberghe, whose father was Eripand, Lord of Valkenberg (Fauquenberg). Arnoldius was an officer appointed by the Count of Flanders to “take charge of the fortress erected and to defend the city against the invasion of the Normans”. The châtellenie being hereditary, Lord Arnuldius decided to have his descendants (Hubertus, Simon and some others, not named) to bear its name “Balliol”. The new patronymic is thus a toponymic one as well as one of charge and function. The patronymic Balliol is born. Though little is known of Lord Arnoldius Grameninis, it would seem highly probable that such an important post would have only been given to a member of the comital family).
[To quote from Francis Bayley, The Bailleuils of Flanders, 1881: According to the Douai MS. Arnoul de Gramines, Châtelains of Bailleul in Flanders, who was living A. D. 980, married Plectrude, daughter of Eripand, Sire de Fauquenberg, by whom he had two sons, Hubert and Simon. Simon was Châtelain of Bailleul, and was living A.D. 1052. He married the daughter of Geoffroy, Sire de Mervalle, who brought to her husband the lands of Wiersem and Flammertinghem. By her he had two sons, Baudouin I., Châtelain of Bailleul, and Albert; both of whom went to the Holy Land in 1095. On 14th September 1116, Baudouin de Bailleul was witness to a charter by which Baudouin VII., dit à la Hâche, Count of Flanders, abolished in favour of the burgesses of Ypres, trial by battle, the ordeal by fire, and that by water. Baudouin II. de Bailleul had by his wife, Euphémie de Saint-Omer, two sons and two daughters: viz. Gérard, Hoston, Alix or Adélis and Mathilde. Gerard was the father of 1. Hugues de Bailleul; a witness to a deed, dated about 1140, by which Robert, Avoué of Bethune, for the health of the souls of his father and mother, of himself, his wife and children, granted the town of Mouchy-au-Bois to the Abbey of Saint Pierre at Corbie. According to Lambin the Châtellenie of Ypres passed to Hugues de Bailleul by his marriage with a daughter of the house of Ypres; probably a sister of Anselme, Chatelain of Ypres.'Esquisses sur les Châtelains et Vicomtes d'Ypres' par Lambin, p. vii. 2. Baudoin III. de Bailleul, Châtelain of Bailleul, who is mentioned in documents of the years 1142, 1158, 1161, married Agnes, daughter of Anselme, Châtelain of Ypres. They had two daughters, Mabilie and Marguerite; on the death of Baudouin IV. the Châtellenies of Bailleul and Ypres fell en quenouille, and passed to his two sisters successively, who carried them by marriage, first to the Counts of Rethel, and afterwards to the family of Commines].
There are several places named Bailleul in France and many people have sought territorial corroboration for the family's origins form among them. Normandy was the inevitable favourite, and the French 18th century writer, Vosgier, who settled on the small Norman town of Bailleul, two miles from Argentan, was widely followed for a time. He changed his mind, and his later suggestion, Bailleul-en-Vimeu, was taken up in a biography, "Jean de Bailleul, roi d'Ecosse et Sire de Bailleul-en-Vimeu" written in 1866 by René de Bellavel. His work is nowadays accepted as proof that this Bailleul, some five miles south of Abbeville, was the originel birthplace of the Scottish Balliols who had moved into that country from Teesdale.
But the assumption is wrong. Apart from other considerations, at the time of the Conquest, Abbeville was the capital of Ponthieu and the domicile of its count, and neither Vosgier nor de Bellavel seem to have pondered the problems of allegiance which such residence-in-chief would produce.
A number of 11th and 12th century charters survive, signed by Members of the Bailleul family, which give conclusive proof that their home at the relevant dates was another Bailleul, this one near Hazebrouck in the present-day Nord department of France, but then, of course, in Flanders.
All the charters were propounded by counts of Flanders (à la Hache), and it is obvious from their contents that men of the Bailleul family were Members of the Flemish comital court. The subject matter ranges from the foundation of the abbey of Saint-Saveur at Ham, near Bethune, approved by Robert I of Flanders in 1093 and witnessed by Baldewin VII of Flanders in 1116, replacing for the burghers of Ieper "Le judiciaire et les épreuves du fer et de l'eau" by an oath of allegiance. This charter - still in the archives at Ieper - was witnessed by Baldewin de Bailleul, probably Bernard's eldest son, whose heirs inherited the family's estates in Flanders.
Of this family of the comital court, It appears certain that Guido de Bailleul was present at the Battle of Hastings, though, since he fought under the banner of Count Eustace of Boulogne, he would not be listed on the Battle Abbey Roll. Nor does he figure in Doomsday Book, and it would be reasonable to assume that he was one of those killed in the battle. Evidence from north-east England after Doomsday, and Flemish charter evidence (printed by F. Vercauteren in "Actes des Comtes de Flandre") both show that he left sons, Guy and Bernard. Guy was given (by William Rufus) the barony of Bywell in Northumberland and extensive lands in Teesdale. (About 12 miles from Newcastle). Bernard took over the Flemish estates held by his father.
Guido was the brother of Rainald de Bailleuil, and it was Rainald's son, Bernardus I of Balliol, who, in 1095, started the construction of a strong castle that became the “Barnard Castle”, one of the most imposing fortified castles of Northern England. Barnard Castle was the principal fortress and residence of the Balliol family throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
“… The land on which Barnard Castle was built had been given to the Church in the ninth century, but by the eleventh century had been forcibly taken by the Earls of Northumberland. The land reverted back to the Crown at the end of the eleventh century after William II crushed a rebellion by the Earl, and in 1095 the king granted the land to Guy de Baliol, a loyal supporter from Picardy in north-western France ...”.
Picardy was the region situated north of the forest region of Senlis and of Valois (France). It belonged to the Counts of Flanders sphere of influence. In the early years of the 12th century, just as Guy and Bernard had divided between them the English and Flemish estates, on Guy's death in England without direct heirs, another of Bernard's sons, also named Bernard, left Flanders holding to his brother Baldwin, and himself took over his uncle Guy's lands in north-east England and (by now) in Northamptonshire.
The reason for such patronage was because of their association with the ducal family, viz. Guillaume (William) the Conqueror x (anno 1053) Mathilda (Maud) fa. Balduinus V., Count of Flanders. There were two classes of pople among the Anglo-Norman hirarchy - those linked by marriage to the ducal family and those who were not. The former were of the ascendency.
This “inner-relationship” between the most instrumental Lineages of Europe such as the Byzantine Emperors, the Kings of France, the Counts of Flanders, the Dukes of Normandy, the Lords of Balliol, the Counts of Hainaut, the Counts of Eguisheim, the Counts of Alsace, the Emperors of Hohenstaufen, the Kings House of the Wittelsbacher, the Princes of Orange, the Kings of England, the Kings of Scotland, the Dukes of Lotharingia via the “van Bonen” (de Boulogne), the St.Omer, the Pynkeni, the Harcourt, through their familial links to the Crepons, the Coucy, the Montmorency, etc. is precisely what other important individuals and/or families did not have.
The exclusive position of this Lineage whose influence was so powerful that they played, for centuries, the main roles in the administration (Marshals, Municipal magistrates, High Attorney-at-law, Judges, Lowers, Feudal Lords, Lords, Chatelains, Banner Knights, Knights) of cities such as Belle, Leper, Thérouanne, St.Omer, Bruges, Ghent, Kortrijk, Doulieu, Eecke, etc, only to speak of Flanders. In 1120, Baldwin III of Balliol, Viscount of Ypres, married Agnes de Wavrin, her lineage dating back to Karoloman (anno 574).
