Mello

The Mello were a knightly family of northern France, first recorded in the later eleventh century as holders of the fief of Mello in the Oise country. Early in the twelfth century Aubri I de Mello married Aelis, heiress of Dammartin, and his branch took the Dammartin name, rising to hold several counties.

Renaud de Dammartin, count of Boulogne, joined the coalition against Philip Augustus and was captured at Bouvines in 1214, ending his life in royal captivity. The Mello line proper stayed closer to the crown: Dreux IV de Mello was made Constable of France after the crusade of 1191 and received Loches and Chatillon-sur-Indre in 1204.

His son Dreux V, baron of Mayenne, died on crusade in Cyprus in 1249. By the fourteenth century only a handful of the name survived, and the male line died out soon afterwards.