Philip IX van Maldeghem, Heer van Maldegem

Oud Maldeghem…cont.

Philip IX of Maldeghem occupies an important place in the general history of the country. He was one of the most excellent knights and one of the most influential men of his time. As the Countess de Lalaing rightly observes, the course of his life offers us the stage of the noblest and most magnanimous deeds; in this respect he showed himself a worthy heir to the beautiful name of Maldegem and presented himself as the epitome of a perfect knight. However, when one takes a look at his private life, one notices facts that cast a very dark shadow on his personality...

The historians Meyer and Monstrelet tell how Philip IX rescued the brave Simoen de Lalaing from the hands of the Gentenaars around Zwevezele in 1452, for what brave deed he was awarded the knighthood on the day of the battle of Gavere (Wouters: Histoire des Environs de Bruxelles, tome III, p. 83).

In the years between 1452 and 1477, the city of Bruges, where his ancestors had performed so many important ministries, elected him as alderman or mayor. He was part of the embassy appointed by the board of the Brugse Vrije to inaugurate Charles the Bold as Count of Flanders. When Charles the Bold entered Ghent, he was appointed by that prince, together with other distinguished nobles, to pacify the rebellious people through their mediation. The accounts of the Brugse Vrije show how perpetually vigilant he was to serve the interests of his homeland and how he, as one of the first, was always willing to sacrifice his life for the land of his birth. After the death of Charles the Bold, the States of Flanders sent him, with several other influential nobles, up to the French king Louis XI, to get this prince to abandon his plans of conquest. He was also one of the judges appointed by Mary of Burgundia, at the insistence of the States, to sentence the counselors Hugonet and Imbercourt (Van Duyse: Inventaire analytique des chartes de la ville de Gand, p. 248).

It is sufficient to show that he was one of the most excellent and influential men of his time.
Before 1459 he had married a fair and noble damsel, namely Joanna van Wavrin, only daughter of Waleram van Berles, knight, lord of Wavrin, etc., and of Livina van Robaais. He won from her only one son, who died prematurely.

Cornelius Gaillard testifies somewhere in his notes that there was a memory of this child in the church of Lauwe, between Menen and Kortrijk. It was a stained-glass window, destroyed by the Iconoclasts in 1578, depicting Philip IX van Maldeghem, his wife Joanna van Wavrin and their son. Behind them stood the Bishop of Saint Aubert and next to them a donkey loaded with loaves, which Gaillard had mistakenly taken for a bear (Mme de Lalaing, Maldeghem la Loyale, p. 123).

Philip IX, having thus become childless and no longer in love with his wife, from then on led an irregular life. He indulged in all sorts of excesses. He forgot his duties as a husband and fell in love with an Antwerp fair widow, a real man-eater. It came to the point that he cast off his lawful wife for good and took his mistress with him on September 21, 1475, by secret marriage. The forsaken wife, indignant at this course of action, did not hesitate to charge him with the spiritual court and the secular authorities. The chamber of the Brugse Vrije, after dealing with this vexatious matter, first and foremost wanted to obtain the opinion of the faculty of Leuven.

However, the ecclesiastical court ruled in 1484: Philip IX was banished from the bosom of the church and sentenced to immediately leave his concubine. Ultimately Philip IX seems to have done so; but the ties of marriage were too broken to be able to reconcile with his wife...

The Memory Book of the City of Ghent tells us that the same Philip IX of Maldegem had seriously violated this city. In 1483 he was ordered to erect, at his own expense, a column at each of the four corners of the fish market, each crowned with a white lion, a banner bearing the arms of Austria, of Burgundia, of Flanders and of Ghent in the keeping informed. Cannaert says that for a long time the criminals were bound to be flogged to these columns. From this arose the expression, which can be found in various ancient writings: "yemene in den stocstellen ter vischmerth". Dierickx gives some details about this in his Mémoires sur la ville de Gand , part II, p. 537. It is wrong that Sanderus, in whose Fasti consulares rerum Gandavensium the drawings of these columns appear, attributing their erection to Simoen Borluut and Jacob de Grutere (De Potter- Broeckaert, pp. 53-54).

We have been unable to find any indication of the reason for the intended condemnation of Philip IX of Maldegem.
As he grew older, Philip IX of Maldegem led a very unorganized life and in the long run had wasted his fortune to such an extent that he was forced to forfeit his glorious inheritance in order to pay his debts. On December 26, 1483, by a feigned deed of sale, he dedicated his seigniory of Maldegem, with the dependent fief at Hallincx, to Karel van Halewijn.

Thus he robbed his next of kin of an inheritance, which had been possessed with honor and splendor by his predecessors for more than four centuries: camere van den raede, ordained in Flanders, held by two fiefs from van der burch van Brugghe, daerof a fief being the glorious of Maldeghem, with three fiefs, winning lands, rents, lakes, ransoms, fields, fisheries, warands, man-ships, the estate of Reesinghen and all others rent rights and belongings, from what their conditions are, not separate nor vuytghe marks. And onward t'ander es ghenaempt 't good in Hallincx, large 48 ghemeten landts letter more or less, lying by the front seyde lovely of Maldeghem, with manships and the other rights clinging to it and belonging to it; and all this by convente of Francois Cavalcantti with joncvrauwe Margueriete van Maldeghem, eldest sister and the nearest primary home of the self, M'her Philips, lord of Maldeghem. And the two of them remained on loan standing in the lord's hands at Joncker Charles van Halewin's need, If he had given him good affections and lovers, and other things, he had given him for this purpose, vuyt puerer jonsten forbidding the kerckghebode that one would do about it. Bailliu Nievenhove, men G. van der Muelne, Pieter van der Muelne, Voorde, Lys, Willem Caervoet, Mergaert, Baers" (Register of the legal passage of the princelycken hove van der Burch van Brugghe, - December 1478 - Hoymaent 1485).

One only has to read this deed from afar, to be convinced that the transfer to Karel van Halewijn did not take place out of "good affection and love", but "om others will purport him to do so" - we would almost write "by extortion".
Besides, it should be known that Philip IX of Maldeghem was almost dying at this time. A few days before, on the road from Moerzeke to Maldegem, he had been badly hit. He then had himself carried to Bruges, to the home of the lord of Uitkerke, Karel van Halewijn's father. And there he died on December 29, 1483, between 8 and 9 p.m. So that transfer was in any case a shady affair...

According to the then existing law, the alienation of the glory could not take place except by means of a deed of disinheritance from Philip's sisters. Now, Maria van Maldeghem, said of Rezinge, was not in full possession of her mental faculties and could act no other than through her guardians. Karel van Halewijn himself was among
them! As for her sister Margareta, who was married to Francesco Cavalcanti, it seems that she agreed to the sale only after much opposition and, as it were, forced, on condition that the sum of £100 offered to her, once paid, and an annual annuity of £80. . That deed is dated 24 December 1483.

A chronicler has noted that Margareta "did not receive any of these promised sums and did not receive it, for she dies after that". Indeed, she already died on March 14, 1484. It is said of grief, because she had thus seen the fortune of her ancestors disappear in other hands...

On July 28, 1484, before the mayor and aldermen of the Brugse Vrije, her goods were divided between Francesco Cavalcanti, her surviving husband, and Karel van Halewijn, lord of Uitkerke, and Jan van Hogheweghe, as guardians of Margareta's only sister.

Francesco Cavalcanti, son of Casino Cavalcanti, a Florentine nobleman, belonged to a distinguished family, settled in Florentia since the 11th century. A member of this family, Guido Cavalcanti, was a friend of the famous great poet Dante Alighieri and was himself a not without merit. Francesco Cavalcanti died in Bruges on April 27, 1506 and was buried in the OL Vrouwekerk in Bruges, where his effigy still hung in the 17th century.

The funeral of Philip IX of Maldeghem was performed with extraordinary magnificence. Karel van Halewijn had taken care of that. Countess de Lalaing, in her work "Maldeghem, la Loyale", gives a description of that funeral, which can serve as an example for the funeral ceremonies of the great nobles in the 15th century:
"Le premier de janvier l484 à une heure après-midy , le corps sorti de la maison dudit 'seigneur d'Uutkerke, fut conduit avec l'ordre qui suit: "Premièrement fut porté en teste le grand blason de ses armes; puis marchoit, prenant la route vers la porte de Ste Croix, les quatre ordres mendians;…

Joanna van Wavrin was not present at the funeral. The unfortunate estranged wife and widow meanwhile had established her residence in Lille, where she led a lonely and devout life. In her old age she was afflicted by a serious illness which deprived her of speech. About 1488, at the age of 72, she completely recovered from it in an almost miraculous way. In gratitude for this she founded 16 masses a year in the convent of the Good Sisters in Lille, for which she insured an interest of 16 pounds 14 stuivers 9 deniers. She also gave her painted portrait to this asylum and had a notebook hung in the chapel of the said monastery, telling the story of her "miraculous" healing. The year of her death is unknown, but there are documents that prove that she was still alive in 1498.

Ryserhove, Alfons. “Oud Maldegem.” Ons Meetjesland, vol. 19, 1986, pp. 1–6.
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Maldeghem La Loyale by Mme la de Lalaing

Filips IX, heer van Maldegem, liet zich vanaf zijn jeugdjaren opmerken door zijn ta­ lenten en schitterde op de tornooien van Brugge en Rijsel in 1445. In 1448 liet hij leen­ verheffing doen voor Machelen-Sint-Gertrudis nabij Vilvoorde. Kort daarna verscheen hij voor de Raad van Vlaanderen voor een geding met zijn schoonvader, heer van Croisilles, om rekenschap af te leggen van het beheer van diens goederen. Verscheidene oorkonden tonen aan dat hij van 1452 tot 1477 fungeerde als schepen en burgemeester van het Brugse Vrije.
Vóór 1459 huwde hij met de 33-jarige Jeanne de Wavrin, dame van Penin en Autreville in het provoostschap van Aubigny, graafschap Saint-Pol. Zij was de enige dochter van Walleran de Berles, ridder, heer van Wavrin, Lillers, Malanoy, Saint-Venant, Quernes, enz" raadsheer en kamerling van Maximiliaan, en van Liévine de Roubaix, dochter van Jean, heer van Roubaix en ridder van het Gulden Vlies. Bij haar had hij een zoon, die op jonge leeftijd stierf.
Filips IX maakte deel uit van de bijzondere commissie die op 27 maart werd aangesteld en Hugonet en Himbercourt, raadsheren van hertogin Maria, veroordeelde. In hoofdstuk XIX hiervóór bespraken we reeds zijn levensloop.
Filips IX overleed te Brugge op 29 december 1483. Met hem verdween de oude tak van het huis van Maldeghem, waardoor het geboorterecht en het volle wapen overging naar de zijtak van de heren van Leischoot'.

English translation by DeepL: Philip IX, Lord of Maldegem, made himself known from his youth by his talents and shone at the tournaments of Bruges and Lille in 1445. In 1448, he had a feudal lordship created for Machelen-Sint-Gertrudis near Vilvoorde. Shortly afterwards, he appeared before the Council of Flanders for a dispute with his father-in-law, Lord of Croisilles, to account for the management of his goods. Several charters show that from 1452 to 1477 he served as alderman and mayor of the Brugse Vrije.
Before 1459 he married the 33-year-old Jeanne de Wavrin, lady of Penin and Autreville in the provostship of Aubigny, county of Saint-Pol. She was the only daughter of Walleran de Berles, knight, lord of Wavrin, Lillers, Malanoy, Saint-Venant, Quernes, etc" councillor and chamberlain of Maximilian, and of Liévine de Roubaix, daughter of Jean, lord of Roubaix and knight of the Golden Fleece. By her he had a son, who died in infancy.
Philip IX was a member of the special commission appointed on March 27, which condemned Hugonet and Himbercourt, councillors to Duchess Mary. We have already discussed his life in chapter XIX above.
Philip IX died in Bruges on 29 December 1483. With him the old branch of the house of Maldeghem disappeared, leaving the birthright and the full coat of arms to the side branch of the lords of Leischoot'.

Martens, Marc, translator. “MALDEGHEM DIE LOYALE.” De Heemkundige Kring Het Ambacht Maldegem, Jaarboek 6, 26 Dec. 2000, p. 194
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(Curator note: due to the length of the article I’ve shown only the English translation of the original Dutch here.)

English translation by DeepL: Philip IX is one of the Maldeghems who has earned a brilliant place in the annals of Flanders. The historians Jacques Meyer and Enguerrand de Monstrelet tell how he saved the brave Simon de Lalaing in 1452, when he fell in the middle of a shelling by the Gentenarians near Zwevezele. As usual, the punishment for this heroic deed did not last long: the castle of Reesinghe was again destroyed by the insurgents.

In 1467, on the entry of Duke Charles of Burgundy into Ghent, Philip IX, together with Louis of Gruuthuse, the Commines and other celebrities were entrusted with the task of calming the rebellious inhabitants of Ghent. After the death of Charles the Bold, his political role became even more important. To try to make the king of France abandon his plans for conquest, Duchess Maria had sent him a first delegation composed of her most trusted advisors. The States of Flanders soon asked for a second delegation to leave, and again Philip IX of Maldeghem was among those chosen. With entreaties and promises they appealed to the king's sense of justice, but without result. The famous Philippe de Commines relates in detail the account of these futile negotiations; all the facts of which reference is made here are recorded in his immortal memoirs. Allow me, therefore, my dear Ottmar, to continue with it for a while.

The king's cunning and audacity had terrible consequences this time. The Ghent envoys received assurances from him that Duchess Mary of Burgundy was conforming to other advice than that of the States General. The king had presented them with the duchess' letters, and when they went back to their sovereign, they did not hesitate to accuse her of duplicity and falsehood. At this news, the anger of the people of Ghent knew no bounds: blood had to flow to calm them. Death to the unworthy councillors who had ventured into such negotiations and who deceived the people!* The Duchess herself was close to losing her life. In vain she asked for a pardon for her ministers; she was forced to appoint the judges to whom, if necessary, the death sentence would be extracted.

Among those who sat on this famous commission, the supreme jury that had to pass judgment on men who had previously held so much power and were honored, was Philip IX, lord of Maldegem. The victims were handed over to the people, who loudly claimed them for themselves. History does not tell us whether the judges had reached a unanimous decision. We do not know whether Philip IX had the courage to resist these expressions of blind rage and vindictiveness, or whether he was so weak was cowardly in following them up. It is unfortunate for the reputation of the judges that history has almost never bequeathed procedural documents of this nature.

What is certain is that the lord of Maldegem, despite a gap of centuries, seems to have preserved the old feudal traditions of his ancestors and was no more inclined to bow down than they were to the new power of a steadily rising bourgeoisie that threatened to shed the last remnants of power of the old aristocracy. Because of a crime, a mésus against the city of Ghent as the Bouc van memorien of that city calls it, Philip was sentenced by court to have four pillars made and erected at his expense on the four corners of the fish market; on each of them there had to be a white lion with a banner with the arms of Austria, Burgundy, Flanders and Ghent.

In his book Bijdragen tot de kennis van het oude strafrecht in Vlaenderen, Ghent, 1835, p. 187-88, Cannaert says that for a long time criminals were flogged at these columns, and that they were demolished in 1785 because of their age. The fish market of Ghent at the time was where the vegetable market is now held. Sanderus, in his Fasti consulares rerum Gandavensium, also talks about those columns and even had them depicted in engraving. He believed that they had been erected by Simoen Borluut and Jacob de Grutere. This misconception was corrected by Cannaert, who demonstrated that they were erected in execution of a sentence by which Philip of Maldeghem was punished for infringing upon the liberties of the city of Ghent. The exact nature of the infringement is not specified in the Bouc van memorien. Probably the lord of Maldeghem had only performed a minor act of retaliation against the people of Ghent for numerous mésus from their side against his family.

With the end of the life of Philip IX, Lord of Maldegem, in mind, I am inclined to prefer to consign it to oblivion. It would be better for his reputation if historical rigor gave way to moral diffidence. Nevertheless, truth has its rights, and in the end the stain of a few missteps can be as instructive and salutary as the praise of virtues. By the way, the notes of the lord of Grimarez serve me as a guide, and if there is anything in them about members of our family, that means it was worth mentioning to him. So why gloss over it?

Before the year 1459, Philip IX was married to Jeanne de Wavrin, sister of Philippe, lord of Wavrin. According to Rombaut the Brave she would have been a remarkably beautiful woman: a schoone joncvrauwe. Philip had only one child by her, a son, who died young1, and it seems that he soon lost hope of seeing other children born from that marriage. For this reason or for any other, the lord of Maldegem began to neglect his companion and finally left her as well. Little concerned about people's criticism, he went to do his honors to an Antwerp widow with whom he was in love.

No doubt Jeanne de Wavrin initially tried to get him back by pleading and reasoning, but Philip remained deaf to them and flouted all his duties by secretly - by night - marrying his mistress on September 21, 1475. His legal wife was so outraged by this that she did not hesitate to denounce him before the clergy and the civil authorities. In the course of September and October 1476, the legal chamber of the Free State, which had to deal with these scandalous facts, declared that it wanted to seek the advice of the faculty of Louvain before making a settlement. How this civil trial ended, I do not know. Philip was too powerful and held too high a position in Flanders for him to be easily convicted. The sad affair therefore dragged on for years. Jeanne de Wavrin, however, continued to tirelessly appeal to the spiritual authorities to seek justice. Her defender, Canon Antoine Dubuisson of Arras, went to Rome to obtain a final judgment, an almost impossible task, as he later wrote. On July 10, 1480, he informed the poor woman of the difficulties he was experiencing: "I hope," he wrote, "to obtain a result and to be able to send you soon a letter with a decision in your interest, that he absolutely must not live with his concubine on pain of excommunication.

Eventually, Philip IX was put under a spell and had to leave his mistress, but alas, Jeanne de Wavrin never had her husband back. Between them all ties were broken. Woe to the families where such facts occur! They always end in material and moral ruin. Under all circumstances, the consequences are sad. Robert of Maldeghem, lord of Grimarez, tells us the outcome of this affair and the death of Philip IX on December 29, 1483, as follows:
"It seemed that the lord of Wavrin would end his days without heirs: lsabeau de Croy, daughter of Jean 1, lord of Chimay, and of Maria de Lalaing, had given him no children; nor did the said lord of Maldegem have any children with his wife Jeanne, only sister and therefore heiress of Jean de Wavrin, and thus no prospect of succession in his brother-in-law's estate. Thus, the lord of Maldegem developed a certain dislike for his wife. He abandoned her, gave himself completely to a dissolute lifestyle and squandered his property, whereupon Charles of Halewijn, lord of Uitkerke, bailiff of Bruges and the Free, offered him a fortune (as appears from the further course of the proceedings) with the aim of acquiring the seigniory of Maldegem for his eldest son Charles, and he succeeded.

Philip of Maldeghem went to settle in Dendermonde, and with Antwerp nearby he fell in love there with a young widow, Clémence s'Clercs, with whom he lived for a time in concubinage. He denied himself so much that he secretly married her at night on St. Matthew's Day, September 21, 1475, thus falling from one disgrace into another. By excommunication he was then forced to leave her.
One day while riding from Moerzeke to Maldegem, he was struck with a stroke on the way, causing him to partially lose the power of speech. He was taken to Bruges, to the residence of the aforementioned lord of Uitkerke in the Ezelstraat, where he died three days later, on December 29, 1483, feast day of St. Thomas of Canterbury, between eight and nine o'clock in the evening, leaving no children behind. With him, the direct line of the house of Maldeghem died out; the right of name and the full family arms therefore came to the side branch, which lived on in the lords of Leischoot.

Three days before, on December 26, Philip had renounced the seigniory of Maldegem and its dependencies, Reesinghe and Hallinks, in favor of Charles of Halewijn, eldest son of Charles; thus his two sisters and close heirs were deprived of it. Karel van Halewijn came to enjoy it only thirteen years and nine months later, on September 26, 1497. The acquisition and sale under the pretext of donation of the said seigniory is clearly shown by the lawsuit drawn up by Jean de Silly, lord of Risoit and Bernissart, and lwein van Ophem, lord of Nederijsse, a lawsuit that dragged on for more than forty-three years, until 1526".
The account of Robert of Grimarez gives no motive for excusing Philip IX. What, after all, to say of a man who abandons his wife and does not hesitate to marry another in secret? What can be said of a brother who hands over his entire fortune, his entire family patrimony, to strangers, without taking into account either the rights of his sisters or those of other relatives? There are no reasons to justify such a thing, not even with the best will in the world.

In another Dutch-language memorial, other details can be found that confirm the account of the lord of Grimarez.
The alienation of the seigniory of Maldegem in favor of Charles of Halewijn could only take place under the condition of a deed of disinheritance from the sisters of Philip IX and with their consent. One of them, Maria van Maldeghem, also called van Reesinghe, was a minor and only acted through her guardians, among whom Charles of Halewijn himself. Margaret of Maldeghem, married to Francesco Cavalcanti, had to be persuaded by every means imaginable. Nevertheless, she refused her consent. After much resistance and tears there was a final meeting, at which friends of both families were present. Tired of the struggle, Margaret finally gave in and accepted what was offered in exchange for her rights to the patrimony: a paltry sum of money and an annuity. But, says the author, I have heard it said that she never touched any of it, because she died not long after: Then, if I heard you have, they never received it and have, because she dies after that.

You know that all this resulted in a process that would last more than forty years. The consequence of the lifestyle of Philip IX was the squandering of all his assets, the downfall of his family, disputes between them that went all the way to the courts, and besides suffering and mental anguish that led to death.

You will undoubtedly wonder, my dear Ottmar, what became of the pitiful Jeanne de Wavrin after all these troubles. She retired to Lille and led a pious but sad life there. In her old age she was struck down by a terrible malady: her tongue shriveled and she lost the power of speech. About 1488, she was then about seventy-two years old, she was cured by the mediation of the Mother of God. The memory of this miraculous event was preserved in a writing that hung in the chapel of Our Lady's Conception in the convent of the Good Daughters in the Rue St. Catherine in Lille. The Lady of Maldegem was represented there, says the lord of Grimarez, "in a wooden statue, kneeling, with white kerchief and black habit like a widow." In gratitude for her cure, Johanna donated to the convent an interest of 16 pounds 14 shillings 9 groats, with charge of sixteen masses a year.
I have not been able to find the exact date of her death, but records from our family archives show that she was still alive in 1498.

Just as I have described to you up to this point, dear Ottmar, as well as I could and in detail the fortunes of our family, so I must also dwell for a moment on the death of Philip IX. The circumstances of this are undoubtedly memorable. With him the old line of descent of the van Maldeghems ceases to exist and the grave is closed above the last direct heir of the old castellanies whose history we have outlined here.
He died in a strange house, surrounded by so-called friends, who had only his magnificent patrimony in mind. As if it were not the funeral of a deceased person, but the funeral of our name, of our past, of our house, the van Halewijn-Uitkerkes spared nothing to surround it with the greatest possible solemnity. The memoirs of the Lord of Grimarez also relate this story. Is this not a fitting ending for the annals of this branch of the family?

Philip IX had asked to be buried in the church of Maldegem; the cere monial of the transfer of his mortal remains proceeded as follows:
"On January 1 of the year 1483, at one o'clock after noon, his body was carried from the house of the lord of Uitkerke, and escorted as follows: In front, at the head of the funeral procession, the great coat of arms; behind them the four mendicant orders stepped up, towards Kruispoort; then followed the pastor and the clergy of the parish church of St. Jakobs; behind that his riding horse, with black covering, was led by the hand; then his unfolded pennon (1) was carried, followed by the also unfolded great standard with the full coat of arms of Maldegem, the helmet with covering of gold set with ermine, with the sign of two watering cans or linen sprinklers back to back, rising from a golden crown with high fleurons; the coat of arms was carried on a small bier; the sword and gloves; the spurs with the wheels on them; behind it the parade horse was led by the hand, a beautiful fungus, adorned with black velvet that reached to the ground;

Then followed the coach or funeral carriage, entirely covered with black cloth, studded with his coat of arms, and with the catafalque under which his dead body lay, the catafalque partly raised and covered lengthways with black velvet, on which was affixed a large blue satin cross with the four quarters, namely Maldeghem, Halewijn, Reymerswaal and Gavere;

The body was accompanied and followed by numerous knights and noblemen on horseback, all dressed in mourning; at the end the bailiff, the mayor and aldermen and the entire magistracy of Maldegem, Adegem and Sint-Laureins joined the funeral procession.
The people had come in such numbers that it was difficult for them to pass.
On arrival at Maldegem the body was laid to rest until the next day in the parish church of St. Peter, where the clergy and the clergymen held vigil.
The next day, Tuesday the second of the month, the whole mourning party went in clean order in the morning to the service, which was held with much solemnity. The chancel and nave of the church were papered with black cloth, bearing the marks of arms.
The body was buried in this church before the main altar with his ancestors, as he had chosen by will his final resting place."

Die eenvoudige samenvatting uit de annalen van de oude tak der van Maldeghems zal volstaan om u aan te tonen dat die in de geschiedenis een mooie en voorname plaats heeft verworven. Straks zullen we zien welke rol de van Maldeghems van de zijtak hebben gespeeld. Wees ervan overtuigd, met hun toewijding aan vorst en vaderland mogen ze naast de eerste staan.
"Het huis van Maldeghem", zo zegt de heer van Grimarez, "is steeds standvastig geweest in zijn trouw aan God en vorsten, zonder dat ambitie, naijver of eigenbelang het konden doen wankelen; daarmee was het steeds als een echt schild tegen rebellie en ketterij".

Martens, Marc, translator. “MALDEGHEM DIE LOYALE.” De Heemkundige Kring Het Ambacht Maldegem, Jaarboek 6, 26 Dec. 2000, p. 124-130