A fact from Barrau de Sescas appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 12 February 2022 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that Barrau de Sescas, a Gascon knight, was the first person appointed by an English king to a position titled admiral?
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Latest comment: 2 years ago3 comments3 people in discussion
The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.
... that Barrau de Sescas, a Gascon knight, was the first person appointed by an English king to a position titled admiral? Source: "The first admiral appointed by an English k[ing] under that title was Barrau de Sescas, who on 1 Match 1295 received a commission as admiral of the fleet of Bayonne" from: Pryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (23 February 1996). Handbook of British Chronology. Cambridge University Press. p. 134. ISBN978-0-521-56350-5.
Comment: Note there had been other people appointed to similar positions but that this was the first explicitly called "admiral", earlier appointments will have been under different names, potentially the Latin "admiralis"
Overall: Everything looks good to me... thanks for the interesting article! Slight preference for ALT0, but I'll leave the final pick to the promoter. DanCherek (talk) 05:12, 5 February 2022 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 5 months ago1 comment1 person in discussion
seems mistaken or needs additional caveats to be correct. Other men like William de Leybourne were certainly called admiral in Latin and French (slightly) before 1295. No one was called admiral in the English language (as far as most sources know) for another century or so. This guy doesn't seem to be the first specifically commissioned as an admiral either, per the sources that give that to Gervase Alard a little later.
There was a source for the DYKN from Cambridge University Press so it's valid for what it was... it just seems like there's some additional missing details here for what this guy was first at, if anything. — LlywelynII04:46, 7 May 2024 (UTC)Reply