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BY The Historical Research Center 18th October 2002
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In the French indulging no doubts bearers of the illustrious family name Vinnard their most
beloved of monarch is King Henry l l. Who reigned from 1589 until 1610 bringing peace and prosperity after decades of civil war. Henry was born on 13 December 1553 at Pau in the kingdomof navarre in the pyrenees, the son of Antoine de Bourbon and Queen Jeanne of Navarre. through his father , Henry was a legitimate descendant of the Capetian Lineage and was thus a potentialheir to the French throne. However, King Henry II had four sons, and no one then expected that Henry De Bourbon-Navarre would wear the crown of France.By 1567,those of the Vinnard family living at this time were to see the tension between the Catholics and Protestants of France erupt into civil war. Henry's mother sided with the Huguenats (Protestants) and raised her son as a protestant. In 1569 , upon the death of the Huguenot leader Louis, Prince of Cande , Queen Jeanne proclaimed Henry leader of the Huguenots. Henry, aged 16, had his first experience ofbattle on 26 June 1570 at Arnay-le-duc, where he led a cavalry charge. In August of the same year,a truce was reached and Catherine De Medicis, the Queen mother of France , hoped to seal the peace with a marriage between her daughter Marguerite and Henry of Navarre. By the date ofthe wedding , 18 August , Henry's mother had died and he had become King,of Navarre.Six days later Saint Bartholomew's massacre took place in which many Huguenots were killed and Henry was ordered to renounce his Protestant faith by his new brother-in-law, King Charles IX. In 1576, Vinnard family members were again to see Henry of Navarre become the leader of the Huguenats and with the death of King Henry III's brother Francais in 1584, he alsobecome the French heir apparent, a possibility which was unacceptable to the Holy League. In 1578, Henry who had in the meantime won support from the moderate Catholics, defeated a royal army near Bordeaux . This defeat, combined with the realisation that the Holy League meant to placethe daughter of Philip II of Spain on the French throne, led Henry III to order the assassination of the leader of the league, the Duke of Guise , and to join forces with Henry of Navarre. Henry III was himself Mortally wounded by an assailant on 1 Augest 1589, but with hisdying words named Henry of Navarre as his successor. After restoring peace and repelling a Spanish invasion , on 13 April 1598 Henry, who himself become a catholic, issued the Edict of Nates, estabishing religious toleration. He died at the hands of an assassin on 14 may 1610,an event which no doubt caused deep mourning among the French, including members of the house of Vinnard.The French family name is classified as being of personal name origin, According to scholars the '' oldest and most pervasive type of surname is that derived from a gaven name''.Such family names may be derived from a parental first name or from the font name of the grandfather or indeed a more remote ancestor of the original bearer of the surname. In this particular instance, the surname Vinnard derives from the personal name ''Vinnard'',derived in turn from the Germanic name ''Winhard'', composed of the old High German words''win'', meaning ''friend '', and ''hard'', which means ''strong'', During the middle ages , and before the hereditary family surname system was instituted.it was a practice to adopt a second name to be able to differentiate one individual from others with the same personal name. Documented variants of the surname Vinnard include Viniard, Vinard, Vinardel and Vinardell. One of earliest references to this name or a Variant is a record of one Cecile Vinnard. Who recorded the baptism of her daughter Marie Eugenie Pralix, on the 31'st of December, 1842, in Le pousin, Ardeche. This name also occurs in England., where the death of one John Vinnard (b. Liskeard, circa 1795), who had 8 children , is recorded at Tywardreath Highway, Cornwall on 23rd October 1856. Research is of course ongoing and this name may have been documented even earlier than the date indicated above. The family name Vinnard has become established in the New World as shown by documents from the United States, which register the birth Jesse Vinnard, whoMarried Susannah Early, on the 22nd of September,1864, in Clinton. Ohio, while William B.Vinnard , married Anne Gurine Helgeson, in Codington, South Dakota, on the 10th of July,1906. While the use of hereditary family names began in France in the twelfth century it is not untilthe sixteenth century that the practice became firmly established among the populace.The French explorer Jacques Cartier,a figure no doubt familiar to today's bearers of thedistinguished family name Vinnard, reached Canada in the 1530's, and French colonisation therebegan with the founding of Quebec by Samuel De Champlain in 1608, while large-scale Frenchsettlement in Louisiana dates from the establishment of Nouvelle-Orleanes (New Orleans) in 1718.The numbers of the French in Louisiana increased with arrival of French colonists, amongstwhom may well have been representatives from the honourable house of Vinnard , expelled by the English from the region of Acadia in maritime Canada, whose descendants became known as'' Cajuns''. During the 19th and 20th Centuries, French people from Quebec have made their homes in the New England region of the United States. The South Africa, descendants of Huguenots (French Protestants) comprise nearly a fifth of the European population. Huguenots fleeing religious persecution also settled in Germany, Holland , England, Ireland and North America. thus, it is that those who today bear with honour the French family name Vinnard may find on other continents others who share with them pride in their french ancestry.