I have searched for the titles ‘capital’ and ‘blanch’. I believe ‘capital’ means ‘lord’ but could not verify that. What about ‘Blanch’. Is it a title? it certainly looks like one, but I haven’t been able to verify what it means.
It looks more like the name of someone.
Assuming this is who you are referring to (from Wikipedia)…
Jean III de Grailly (aka. John De Grailly, died 7 September 1376), Captal de Buch, KG, was a Gascon nobleman and a military leader in the Hundred Years’ War, who was praised by the chronicler Jean Froissart as an ideal of chivalry.
It goes on to say…
He was the son of Jean II de Grailly, Captal de Buch, Vicomte de Benauges, and of Blanch de Foix, a cousin of the counts of Foix.
It does, indeed. And, “Blanche” is a woman’s name in French (it translates as “white”), which fits with that sentence in Jean III de Grailly’s Wikipedia entry, where it is giving the names of his parents. (Bear in mind that, until relatively recent history, spelling of people’s names was rather variable.)
Wikipedia entry here. It seems to have been exclusive to (parts of) Gascony.
I first came across the title when reading about the Plantagenets many years ago (Jean III spent much of his career as a retainer of Edward, the Black Prince). My understanding from that is that it was something along the lines of a modifier, indicating a particularly illustrious Count or Viscount.
So ‘Capital’ and "Blanch’ are names rather than. titles.
Captal (under various spellings) was a title. There’s even a Wikipedia entry on “Captal de Buch.” But, yes, I strongly suspect that Blanch was his mother’s given name.
Thanks kenobi_65 for the clarification.
I see it’s anglicized as ‘lord’
Jean III de Grailly, lord de Buch, (died 1376/77, Paris, France), vassal in Gascony under King Edward III of England and his son Edward, …
Since “capo” means head, I suspect that name or title, it implies head of something - Buch? Implies the question of what Buch is - a locale, a family name? (just as the capital city is where the government of the country comes from).
Captal was used in the south of France and yes comes from the latin “caput”.
Buch was a zone near the actual Arcachon. Some communes retains the name now (as “la teste de Buch”)
And Blanche was his mother, the Grailly family married and inherited the captalat when Pierre II married Assahilde of Bordeaux in 1307.
Their son Jean II married Blanche de Foix who was a descendant of the French king Louis VIII.
Their son, Jean III, was a vassal of the king of England, duke of Aquitaine and fought alongside the English at Poitiers.