Le Claire

Renaissance

Mengin II Le Clerc

⚭Mengette

Pulligny, Lorraine

Continuation of the Pulligny line, an important bridge between the early civic family and the later noble branches.

The Name Through History

A single continuous line, recorded under many forms as it passed through Lorraine, France, the Rhineland and Britain.

  1. Von Mengen

    before 1310

    Lords of Dalheim — Rhenish-Lorrain ministerial nobility

  2. Moingins dis li clers

    c. 1310 – 1400

    Lorrain vernacular byname, 1355 charter

  3. Le Clerc · Leclerc

    15th – 17th c.

    French-Lorraine seigneurial line

  4. Le Claire

    late 17th – 18th c.

    Transitional French spelling of the direct line

  5. Leclaire

    18th – 19th c.

    Napoleonic-era French form

  6. Le Clair · Leclair

    19th c.

    Rhineland branch, German civil registers

  7. Licklär

    1880 – 1970

    Germanised orthography, 20th-century Rhineland

  8. LeClaire

    21st c.

    Restored British form, House of Greenland-LeClaire

Family connection

Parents. Son of Jehan Leclerc de Pulligney.

Spouse. Mengette.

Married Mengette, mother of Claude Leclerc de Pulligny and Thierry Le Clerc de Roville.

Position in the Direct Line

Generation 4 of 19 in the continuous bloodline shown on the home-page pedigree, from Mengin Le Clerc of Lorraine (c. 1355) to Brandon Noble LeClaire.

  1. Generation 1·Le Clerc

    Johannes Von Mengen III, Lord of Dalheim (Moingins dis li clers)

    c. 1310

  2. Generation 2·Le Clerc

    Colin Le Clerc

  3. Generation 3·Leclerc

    Jehan Leclerc de Pulligny

    c. 1410

  4. Generation 4·Le Clerc

    Mengin II Le Clerc

  5. Generation 5·Leclerc

    Claude Leclerc de Pulligny

    c. 1485

  6. Generation 6·Leclerc

    Claude II Leclerc de Pulligny

    1532

  7. Generation 7·Le Clerc

    Alexandre Le Clerc de Pulligny

    1585

Historical context

Mengin II Le Clerc was one of the great architects of the family's ascent. By the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, the Le Clercs were no longer merely a family of local standing, they were involved in civic government, trade and the financial administration of Nancy.

A 1498–1499 register records the second account of receipts and expenses made by the four governors or sworn officers of Nancy, including Mengin II Le Clerc. His position enabled his sons Claude and Thierry to receive renewed noble recognition under Duke Antoine of Lorraine in 1512.

In family terms, he represents the point at which wealth, office and noble ambition converged.

Known records & evidence

  • Documented record, 1498–1499 register of the four governors of Nancy.
  • Documented record, 1512 letters patent of ennoblement of Claude and Thierry, sons of the late Mengin II.

Related entities

Other documented people, family branches, places and armorial records connected to this entry in the archive.

Related places

Sources & references

Authoritative archives, libraries and reference collections that hold — or can be used to verify, records of this entity. External sources are cited only where they genuinely support the historical record; not every claim on this page is yet matched to a digitised primary source.

  • Parish, notarial, seigneurial and military records of Lorraine, Alsace and the Rhineland preserved in the LeClaire Family Historical Archive.

Canonical URL: https://leclaire.co.uk/people/mengin-ii-le-clerc