Gerry's Collection
of Antique Wax Seal Stamps
d'Adhémar Family
de Monteil, de Grignan, and La Garde, and the link to the branches of Montfalcon and Panat.
Adhémar
Original arms
Adhémar
de Monteil
Adhémar
de Grignan
Adhémar
de La Garde
Adhémar
de Montfalcon
et de Panat
Dauphiné
Rouergue
​
It is very difficult to provide a reliable genealogy of the earliest members of the Adhémar family because a great many forged documents exist. Genealogic work by Jean Gueydan in 2009 demonstrates that the Adhémar family from Montélimar were themselves great forgers: they had wrongfully adopted the name “de Monteil” in order to claim the glory of the Bishop of Le Puy, Adhémar de Monteil, who died during the Crusades, with whom they had no kinship whatsoever. The information found about the family is nevertheless interesting.
Adhémar of Le Puy (c. 1045–1098)
Adhémar of Le Puy was the Bishop of Le Puy-en-Velay and one of the most important figures of the First Crusade. Coming from the noble family of Monteil in the Auvergne region, he was appointed papal legate by Pope Urban II, making him the supreme spiritual authority over all the crusading armies. Highly respected for his piety, integrity, and wisdom, he served as both mediator and religious leader among the often-quarreling crusader princes. During the siege of Antioch, Adhémar organized processions and maintained morale, reinforcing the sense of divine mission that inspired the Crusade. He died in 1098, likely of plague, and his loss was deeply felt. In the years that followed, Adhémar’s reputation grew into legend. His fame was so great that later families falsely claimed kinship with him to enhance their own prestige. Adhémar of Le Puy remains remembered as the conscience and guiding force of the First Crusade.
The House of Adhémar.
The House of Adhémar was an illustrious and ancient family of the nobility of the Dauphiné. During the Middle Ages, it was one of the most powerful in its province. Old and controversial genealogies attributed fanciful origins to it without evidence, and families with the same name claimed, without justification, to be related to it. It became extinct in the male line in 1559 with the death of Louis Adhémar de Monteil de Grignan. His nephew, Gaspard de Castellane, who died in 1563, took up the name and styled himself de Castellane Adhémar de Monteil de Grignan.
In the 11th century, the Adhémar family, probably originating from the Royans region, gradually established their authority around the important lordship of Monteil, which would become Montélimar. The Adhémar built numerous strategic castles around their domain: Savasse, Rochemaure, Monteil, La Garde, Grignan, and others. In the 12th century, they built their palace at Monteil on the Narbonne plateau, replacing the old castle. Around 1198, the lordship of Monteil was held in joint ownership by three cousins: Giraud V Adhémar de Grignan, Lambert I Adhémar de La Garde, and Giraud Adhémar de Rochemaure, and at its height it would encompass around thirty castles.
The family branches.
According to Joseph Cyprien Nadal, the lineage of the House of Adhémar can only be reliably traced beginning with the first Baron of Grignan: Hugues Adhémar, Lord of Monteil and Viscount of Marseille. Between 1032 and 1045, after a youth devoted to a military career, he married Marthe de Toulouse and settled in his barony of Grignan.
The Adhémar family gave rise to three main branches, who were co-lords of Monteil.
The eldest branch, of the barons and later counts of Grignan, became extinct in 1559 due to a lack of male heirs. The name was then taken up by the only son of Blanche Adhémar de Monteil de Grignan (sister of Louis) and Gaucher de Castellane, giving rise to the House of Adhémar de Monteil Castellane, counts of Grignan, on the condition that the Castellane surname be abandoned.
The branch of the lords of La Garde, which became extinct in 1528 for the same reason.
The branch of the lords of Rochemaure, with two successive lines, the first dying out in 1296 and the second in 1410.
An ancestry difficult to trace with precision.​
The disputed genealogy of Jean-Balthazar d’Adhémar de Montfalcon
Jean-Balthazar d’Adhémar de Montfalcon lived in the 18th century. He was a French nobleman, a military officer and diplomat who served as ambassador to Belgium and Great Britain, representing Louis XVI in London (around 1783–1787). He was known simply as the Comte d’Adhémar in diplomatic correspondence.
Traditionally, Jean-Balthazar is claimed to descent from the ancient House of Adhémar de Monteil, the same family of Grignan and Montélimar. In some genealogies published in the 18th century, he is presented as a branch of the old Adhémar, linked through a collateral line called Adhémar de Montfalcon.
However, modern historians and heraldists often dispute this claim. The principal argument against the connection is that the ancient Adhémar de Monteil branches were well documented, and most of them died out in the male line by the 16th century. The name Montfalcon also does not clearly appear in the old Adhémar records. So, several 19th-century genealogists (e.g., Jules Chevalier and later regional historians) described his claimed lineage as unproven and probably fabricated or at least exaggerated to enhance prestige. There is no contemporary document (charter, marriage contract, or royal letters patent) conclusively proving a continuous male descent from the medieval Adhémar de Monteil, and the connection seems to have rested largely on assertion rather than solid archival proof.
The d’Adhémar de Montfalcon were a real noble family in France, though. Their nobility was recognized by the monarchy, and Jean-Balthazar was an active diplomat and officer. But their precise genealogical connection to the medieval counts of Grignan and lords of Montélimar is unproven and viewed skeptically by most serious historians.
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Gerry's Collection of Antique Seal Stamps.