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

Mengin Le Clerc, also recorded as Moingins dis li clers, was born c. 1310 in the Duchy of Lorraine and stands at the beginning of the documented Leclaire history. Associated with Deyvillers in the Vosges, he appears in the Lorraine charter tradition through the middle decades of the fourteenth century, reaching maturity in the years around the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War and the Black Death.

His earliest surviving act is dated 1355, when, then in his mid-forties, he sold to Jean de Nomeny two inherited portions from the estate of the late Philippin de Girecourt, écuyer, in the place of Folz beneath the castle of Faucompierre, for the sum of 26 small gold florins. The transaction places him firmly within a documented world of property, inheritance, fortified places and local noble networks, and shows him already acting on estates inherited through his wife's family.

His marriage to Catherine de Gircourt connected the family to the lesser nobility of Lorraine and to families associated with Pulligny, Parroye, Haute-Pierre and the Counts Palatine of Metz. In him, the family first emerges from the obscurity of medieval records into the documented world of land, inheritance and local influence.

Mengin Le Clerc lived during the fourteenth century in the Duchy of Lorraine, then an independent principality within the Holy Roman Empire. He is among the earliest documented ancestors of the Le Clerc family and occupies an important position in the lineage due to his marriage to Catherine de Girecourt, a member of an established noble house of Lorraine.

Catherine was the sister of Philippin de Girecourt, an écuyer (esquire) and member of the local nobility. The Girecourt family possessed its own heraldic bearings and formed part of the network of landed noble families that served the Dukes of Lorraine. Their recorded arms were: Gules, a lion argent, overall a chevron azure charged with three stag heads or, the shield semy of crosses pommety fitchy argent.

In medieval Lorraine, marriages between noble families were carefully arranged to preserve status, property, and influence. Whilst surviving records do not explicitly describe Mengin's rank, his marriage into the House of Girecourt strongly suggests that he belonged to the same social class. Noble families rarely married daughters into common households, particularly where inheritance, land rights, and political alliances were concerned.

The significance of this marriage becomes even clearer when viewed alongside the later emergence of the Le Clerc de Pulligny family. The territorial designation "de Pulligny" was associated with landed status and was borne by descendants of the Le Clerc line for generations. This continuity indicates that the family's noble position did not originate solely through marriage, but was already established within the social structure of Lorraine.

Through Mengin and Catherine, the Le Clerc family became connected to several recognised noble houses of the region, including the families of Girecourt, Pulligny, and Paroye. Contemporary genealogical research traces portions of these lineages to some of the oldest aristocratic families of medieval Lorraine and the former Counts Palatine of Metz.

Living during the era of the Hundred Years' War, Mengin belonged to a generation whose responsibilities would likely have included military obligations, local administration, and service to regional lords. Although specific details of his life have been lost to time, the noble alliances formed through his marriage provide valuable insight into his status and standing within society.

Today, Mengin Le Clerc can be regarded as one of the foundational figures in the documented history of the Le Clerc de Pulligny lineage, representing the point at which surviving records first place the family firmly within the noble society of medieval Lorraine.