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Research Article Volume 11 Issue 1
Jordan de Sandford: the real Jordan Fantosme
Fletcher Crowe
Received: March 23, 2026 | Published: April 13, 2026
Citation: Crowe F. Jordan De Sandford: The Real Jordan Fantosme. J His Arch & Anthropol Sci. 2026;11(1):66-80. DOI: 10.15406/jhaas.2026.11.00342
Abstract
In 1174 an author with the pen name of Jordan Fantosme composed a well-known rhyming poem entitled, in English, Chronicle of the war between the English and Scots in 1173 and 1174. Jordan’s Chronicle relates the events of the two-year war in which the troops of Henry II overcame a revolt led by his son, called the “Young King,” allied with Scotland and France, a rebellion that almost overthrew the king’s dominion in Britain. Written in Anglo-Norman French, Jordan’s estoire provides an action-packed eyewitness account of the military campaigns in those two years; the narrative is presented in a rousing, journalistic style almost devoid of religious allusions or mythical fabrications, or other similar fictional trappings of 12 th century historical writing. Although the work has received considerable scholarly attention, the name of the presumed author, Jordan Fantosme [“Jordan the Spirit”] is obviously a nom de plume, and almost nothing has been known about the author himself. A substantial amount of biographical information is available about other 12th century English historians, like Gerald of Wales, Orderic Vitalis, and Master Wace, but the identity of Jordan Fantosme has remained a puzzling mystery. The present study, for the first time, identifies “Jordan Fantosme” as Jordan de Sandford, a cleric related to King Henry II through the king’s mother, Empress Matilda, and to Arlette, the mother of William the Conqueror. Jordan, it can be shown, was a prominent member of the de Sandford family, a wealthy Anglo-Norman baronial lineage. The family included Jordan’s father, Robert de Sandford, the castellan of Wareham Castle, who provided critically-needed assistance to Matilda’s forces during the Anarchy, thereby helping bring Henry II to the throne of England. Other family members had included Warin the Bald (the sheriff of Shrewsbury), as well as the sheriff of Dorset, and the sheriff of Lincolnshire.1 Records link “Jordan Fantosme” directly to Nichols de Chandos a member of Jordan de Sandford’s mother’s family, and to Jordan’s son-in-law Richard de Anesty. Lacking knowledge of the background of Jordan Fantosme, scholars have guessed that the poet might have been a troubadour from the south of France, or an accomplished historian from Metz, France; Sir Francis Palgrave declared him to be an Italian. Jordan de Sandford was none of these: He was a man of affairs: a chancellor to the King of Scotland, an Archdeacon in Wales, and the director of a school in Winchester. Jordan appears to have assumed the cognomen of “Jordan Fantosme” as a young man, long before the family toponymic “de Sandford” was bestowed on his father Robert in about 1141. Without a permanent family name handed down over many decades, it has been difficult for scholars to recognize the connection between “Jordan Fantosme” and the distinguished de Sandford family. Identifying Jordan Fantosme as Jordan de Sandford, a privileged member of the Anglo-Norman ruling caste, leads to an entirely new tentative interpretation of the Chronicle as an after-dinner entertainment recitation to be performed at the king’s Christmas Court in December, 1174.
Keywords: Jordan Fantosme, Jordan de Sandford, King Henry II, Empress Matilda, Scottish Medieval history, the Young King, twelfth-century historians, Robert de Sandford, William the Conqueror, Arlette, Thomas de Sandford, Anglo-Norman England, Angevin England, medieval historiography.
©2026 Crowe. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially.