Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
In the mid-thirteenth century members of two branches of a family based in Savoy came to England and, through royal service, they reached baronial rank. One family, the Grandsons, thoroughly embedded itself in England and its members are recalled even today while the other, the Champvents, lapsed into obscurity, the name disappearing from the records after 1410. To discover why, this article looks at the significance of royal service to the families, the amount of royal patronage they received, their marriage strategies, how they related to the localities into which they were implanted, the extent to which religious loyalties and family piety illustrated their attitudes and whether they cut their ties with their former home lands.