Trenchelion

Two very similar names are quoted by Sir Francis Palgrave as instances of significant Norman sobriquets. "Trenchevent was evidently a messenger distinguished by his swiftness of foot. And the name of Alan de Trenchemer, Richard Coeur de Lion's Sea Admiral, indicates his profession and his skill." Trenchelion should, by analogy, describe a champion who had overcome and slaughtered a lion; even as Trencheloup designates a wolf-slayer. This seemed so improbable an etymology that I was inclined to believe it stood for Trenquelleon, a French barony that belonged to the family of De Broquas, extinct in the male line in 1703.—Laine, Noblesse de France. But I found that there was beyond all doubt a family of this name, several times mentioned in Anselme's Histoire de la Noblesse. Two De Trenchelions, Gilles and Charles, were Seigneurs de Palluau in the sixteenth century; the former married Blanche, daughter of Eustace de Montberon, Vicomte d'Aunay. Again, Charles Tranchelyon, Seigneur de Boisward, was the son-in-law of Jean de Culant, Seigneur de Brecy, who died in 1605. The earliest in date is an heiress, Anne de Tranchelion, who carried the Seigneurie de la Motte d'Usseau in marriage to Pierre de Brissac; their daughter again inherited, and was the wife of Guillaume de Bec, who died in 1449.

Unlike its predecessor, this name is scarcely noticed in the English records. Robert Traceleu held the fourth part of a knight's fee in Suffolk of the Honour of Clare in 1165.—Liber Niger. Nearly two hundred years afterwards, Roger Trenchebien of Framlingham attended the array and muster of the Hundred of Loose, in the same county.—Palgrave's Parl. Writs.

-- Cleveland