source: Wikipedia
Alain le Roux (c. 1040–1094) is one of my favorite historical characters who seems to have been relatively important in his time, but nobody seems to have heard of him. Why do I like him so much? Well, as I see it he went with the flow (so to speak), amassed an incredible fortune (according to Wikipedia, at the time of his death he was worth around $166.9 billion, the equivalent of 7% of England’s national income. Forbes placed him 9th in the list of most wealthy historical figures) and modestly did his thing, managing to keep King William happy as well as historians.
Alain – called le Roux because of his red beard – hits the historical stage around the time of the Norman Conquest. He was in charge of the Breton contingent, a sizeable part of William’s invasion force. If you recall, the Breton wing of the Norman army at the Battle of Hastings nearly lost the day: they were the first to panic and flee from the ferocity of the Saxons. For a moment all was in chaos, then many of the inexperienced Saxon fyrd broke the shield wall and pursued the Bretons. However, William rallied his men and cut off the Saxons from the rest of the army, wiping them out to a man. Seeing the success of the maneuver, William instructed the Bretons to do it a couple of times more throughout the battle, with great success.
After William become king he rewarded his supporters with grants of land and titles. Alain was created the first Earl of Richmond, and a Norman keep stands on the site of his original castle overlooking the River Swale. In 1069, during the great Harrying of the North after the insurrection of Durham, Alain was the man William appointed to do the job. By the end of his career, he had amassed over 250,000 acres in land grants. Yet he is said to have died childless and his estate was inherited by his brother Alain le Noir (so- called because of his black beard).
Early in my research for my upcoming novel, “Heir to a Prophecy” I unearthed a story that my protagonist Walter actually went to Brittany and married Alain’s daughter, later taking her to Scotland and the court of Malcolm III where he was a favorite. Although this is probably apocryphal, I did recently find an anecdote that makes me wonder if it could be true.
Just the other day I was reading the book “The House of Godwine: The History of a Dynasty” (by Emma Mason) which was written 5 years ago. Four pages from the end, the author states that King Malcolm planned to marry his daughter Edith to Count Alan the Red in 1093 (she was in the Wilton nunnery at the time), and King William Rufus forbid the union, causing Malcolm to storm out of the royal court. Now, why would Malcolm care about Alain unless there was some sort of connection between them (Walter)?
Even more interesting (to me, that is), instead of Malcolm’s daughter, Alain actually took a fancy to another important novice at Wilton: Gunhild, daughter of Harold Godwineson and Edith Swanneck. At the same time Malcolm took his daughter out of Wilton, Alain removed Gunhild (by then well into her 30s) and brought her to live with him…on the very estates he had taken over from her wealthy mother after Hastings. When Alain died around 1094, Gunhild stayed and became the partner of Alain’s brother Le Noir, who succeeded to the estates. What did she have to lose, after all?
Visit me on Facebook
by Geoffrey Tobin
01 Apr 2013 at 21:24
In “A History of the Anglo-Saxons, Volume 1”, page 228, Robert H. Hodgkin imagines the scene at Hastings. Describing the approach of the Normans and their allies, he writes:
“As the invaders drew nigh, Harold saw a division advancing, composed of the volunteers from the Boulogne and from the Amiennois, under the command of William Fitz-Osbern and Roger Montgomery. ‘It is the duke’, exclaimed Harold, `and little shall I fear him. By my forces will his be four times outnumbered!’
Gurth shook his head, and expatiated on the strength of the Norman cavalry, as opposed to the foot soldiers of England; but their discourse was stopped by the appearance of the combined cohorts, under Aymeric, Viscount of Thouars, and Alan [Rufus] of Brittany.
Harold’s heart sank at the sight and he broke out into passionate exclamations of fear and dismay.”
by Geoffrey Tobin
01 Apr 2013 at 21:41
Having noted the use of the specialised Roman javelin, the pilum, against Frankish and Saxon shield walls, I should mention that, according to http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=javelin, the English word “javelin” is the Middle French (feminine) diminutive form of the Old French (probably originally Gaulish) javelot. Compare Old Irish gabul “fork” and Welsh gafl “fork” and gaflach “feathered spear”.
So, probably, the Bretons would have referred to the weapon as a javelot. Compare the Arthurian Cycle’s “Lancelot” and “Camelot”.
by Geoffrey Tobin
01 Apr 2013 at 22:12
The composition of William the Conqueror’s army reflected the family connections of his grandparents Richard II of Normandy and his wife Judith of Brittany.
Those children included two Dukes of Normandy (Richard III and Robert the Magnificent), one Countess of Burgundy (Alice), one monk (named William), and one countess of Flanders (Eleanor).
While distant Burgundy may not have sent a contingent to Hastings, later Kings of England were able to call on the Burgundians to assist them mightily against the French during the Hundred Years War – that is, until Joan of Arc and her sponsors the Breton-descended House of Lorraine persuaded the Burgundians to change sides.
by Geoffrey Tobin
01 Apr 2013 at 22:42
Through their great-aunt Emma, Duke Alan III of Brittany and his brother Eozen were, like Duke Robert of Normandy, cousins of Edward the Confessor.
So, as the Norman writers acknowledge, it’s true that Alan’s family, with their better pedigree, had a superior claim to England than did his cousin William.
That neither Alan nor his heirs pushed the point, shows remarkable loyalty.
At a trivia competition last night, I was told by a fellow team-member with middle eastern connections and an interest in history that the bond between the Breton and Norman ruling families was an example of a “blood debt” – a mutual allegiance that cannot be broken.
by Geoffrey Tobin
03 Apr 2013 at 11:07
The Breton sovereign house maintained its links with Cambridge and its University: Ivo (a.k.a. Guy) la Zouche was thrice Chancellor of CU in the late 1300s. Sources: http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/v-c/chancellor.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chancellors_of_the_University_of_Cambridge and ,
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_Norfolk/Volume_6.
Of Ivo la Zouche, more is written on page 202 of “The topographer: containing a variety of original articles, illustrative of the local history and antiquities of England”, Volume 1, edited by Sir Egerton Brydges.
Ivo (alternatively rendered in English as Ives or in French as Eudes or in Breton as Eozen) is also the name of a Breton saint (reference: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08256b.htm) who lived from 1253 to 1303. He was born in Kermatin, near Tregor, and is the patron saint of lawyers “though, not, it is said, their model”.
There was also a Cornish bishop of the first millenium A.D. named Ivo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivo_of_Ramsey) honoured by the Abbey of Ramsey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsey_Abbey) in Cambridgeshire (), and after whom the town of St. Ives in historic Huntingdonshire, but now in Cambridgeshire (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Ives,_Huntingdonshire), is named.
Yet another Ivo is a reputed Persian bishop heard of by Withman, Abbot of Ramsey, while the latter was serving in the Holy Land.
Goscelin of Saint Bertin and Canterbury (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goscelin), who was born about 1040 and died after 1106 (and therefore was a contemporary of Alan Rufus), recorded a tradition identifying the latter two bishops Ivo as the same person, a notion discounted as “completely spurious” by Cyril Hart in his 1964 article “[Abbot] Eadnoth I of Ramsey and Dorchester”.
Interestingly, many of the place names, especially the rivers’ names, in this region of East Anglia are Old British, not Anglo-Saxon. Examples are Cam, meaning a meandering stream, and Ouse, possibly meaning water or a slow stream.
The cathedral city of Ely in Cambridgeshire has an uncertain derivation: is it to do with eels, or does its name begin with the Brythonic syllable “e” (sometimes “a”) signifying water?
by Geoffrey Tobin
03 Apr 2013 at 11:32
The arms of the City of Westminster (q.v. http://www.internationalheraldry.com/) are flanked by two Lions Ermine, representing the prominent Cecil (Seisyllt) family (http://www.ngw.nl/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=Westminster).
The Cecils came (around 1500) from Alt-yr-Ynys in Herefordshire (anciently a Welsh speaking area) and their surname is Welsh. So I wonder why they chose ermine, the emblem of Brittany, merged with lions, often associated with Normandy?
by Geoffrey Tobin
08 Apr 2013 at 01:43
Alan Rufus owned land in London. Moreover, in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Lord_Mayors_of_London, one finds a number of Breton names:
1189-1212 Henry Fitz-Ailwin de Londonestone: First Mayor of London (24 terms!) – his second son was named Alan.
1212-1214 Roger Fitzalan: Second Mayor of London.
…
1217 Salomon de Basing – possibly Breton because a King of Brittany was named Salomon (aka Salaun).
1246 Peter Fitzalan.
1251 Adam de Basing (Breton if Salomon was).
1265 John Walerand (his sister Alice’s son was Alan Plugenet).
1265 John de La Linde (whether Breton or not, he is interesting as the husband of Joan de Nevill, later Nevilles being descended from Alan Rufus’s brother Ribald and from Matilda d’Ayncourt).
1267 Alan la Zuche (a descendant of the De La Z(o)uche line of the Breton sovereign house).
1271-1272 Walter Hervey (2 terms) – “Hervey” is Breton.
1273 Henry le Walleis (1st term) (“Walleis” suggests he was Celtic, anyway).
1281-1283 Henry le Walleis (terms 2-4).
1289 John le Breton (1st term).
1293-1298 John le Breton (terms 2-7).
1298 Henry le Walleis (5th term).
by Geoffrey Tobin
08 Apr 2013 at 01:58
Alan la Zouche (1205–1270), an interesting character (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_la_Zouche_%281205%E2%80%931270%29) was a benefactor of the Knights Templars, to whom he gave lands at Sibford.
Indeed, some other members of the Breton sovereign house are recorded as being Knights Templar as well as donors to the Order – donors, not lenders or borrowers as most other royal families were.
Viewers of “Les Rois Maudis” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Accursed_Kings) will quickly sense that when the spendthrift King Phillippe IV of France seized the treasury of the Knights Templar and killed Jacques de Molay and other leaders of the Order, he was also robbing the Bretons, which may go some way to explaining why the French Crown was deeply unpopular in Brittany for much of the Hundred Years’ War.
by Geoffrey Tobin
22 Apr 2013 at 22:56
Philippa Gregory, writing on Jacquetta de Luxembourg in “The Women of the Cousin’s War” (War of the Roses to most of us), asserts (on page 32 in the Introduction) that “her daughter and son sponsored the first printing press in England and edited the first ever book printed in England”.
I presume the daughter referred to here is Elizabeth Woodville, Queen of England (as wife of Edward IV) and mother of Elizabeth of York (who was the mother of Henry VIII). Professor Gregory speculates that Thomas Malory’s Camelot was based on Elizabeth Woodville’s court.
Jacquetta’s first husband, John the Duke of Bedford, brother of Henry V and Regent of France during the minority of Henry VI, was scholarly and had built up an important library, which, among many other books, contained tales of King Arthur. On the Duke’s death, he bequeathed all his property to Jacquetta, who kept the library – perhaps she was its keenest reader.
I had previously found Jacquetta by following the Breton lines of descent from Stephen Tregor, but since I had not looked at her descendants I had not realised how important she was.
by Geoffrey Tobin
22 Apr 2013 at 23:12
The first movable-type printing press in England was cornstructed and operated in Westminste by William Caxton (ca. 1415~1422 – ca. March 1492), and the first book he printed in England was Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” (1476).
Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1395 – February 3, 1468), from Mainz in Germany, invented movable type and a process for mass producing it. His colleagues borrowed money (apparently interest-free) in Strasbourg (in Alsace) to fund it.
Now, the Breton sovereign house was closely connected with Strasbourg (and ruled the neighbouring Duchy of Lorraine), so I’m thinking, did they lend the capital for the printing press? It’s the sort of thing they were wont to do: they had given a large sum of money to bail out the de Brosse family who’d given their all for Joan of Arc, and they later sponsored Leonardo da Vinci.
Combining this with the known involvement of the Bretons in the English Civil War, the American War of Independence, the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, the Industrial Revolution, and leading politicians and industrialists of the 19th and 20th centuries, and one begins to form a picture of a people who, while themselves subject to the vicissitudes of history, contributed mightily to material and social progress over a very long period of time.
by Geoffrey Tobin
27 Apr 2013 at 04:21
I’m almost convinced that Sir Lancelot’s characteristics are based on Count Alan Rufus.
Lancelot was Breton, the most trusted and valiant knight of a formidable fighting king, in a doomed and forbidden love affair with a royal lady (Guinevere/Gunnhild). Even the first syllable “Lan” resembles “Alan”.
by Geoffrey Tobin
27 Apr 2013 at 04:21
Lancelot seems to have been invented by the troubadour Chrétien de Troyes who gave him a starring role in “Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart” (written between 1177 and 1181).
As for Chrétien de Troyes himself (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrétien_de_Troyes), “between 1160 and 1172 he served at the court of his patroness Marie of France, Countess of Champagne, daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine, perhaps as herald-at-arms”. Marie of France was thus a sister of the Geoffrey who was betrothed before 1171 to Constance of Brittany. (Geoffrey and Constance married in 1181.)
De Troyes wrote several other Arthurian romances: “Erec and Enide” (c. 1170) where Lancelot first appears; “Cligès” (c. 1176); “Yvain, the Knight of the Lion” (also 1177-1181); and the unfinished “Perceval, the Story of the Grail” (1181-1190).
by Geoffrey Tobin
27 Apr 2013 at 07:55
In Erec and Enide, Lancelot is listed as the third knight in importance, with Gawain (Arthur’s nephew) listed first. Opinions differ as to the origin of Gawain’s name – see e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gawain – but I note that Gwenn is Breton for the colour white. In “Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart”, Lancelot is described as the white knight.
There are other similarities between the two, which also match Alan Rufus’s reputation.
“Gawain is often portrayed as a formidable, courteous, and also a compassionate warrior, fiercely loyal to his king and family. He is a friend to young knights, a defender of the poor, and as “the Maidens’ Knight”, a defender of women as well.”
by Geoffrey Tobin
30 Apr 2013 at 06:39
The glowing testimony to Alan Rufus I cited in an earlier comment was by Orderic Vitalis (1075 – c. 1142), who was a Benedictine monk atthe Abbey of Saint-Evroul in Lower (western) Normandy. (Incidentally, Alan’s brother Ribald spent his last years as a Benedictine monk at the Abbey of St Mary’s which Alan founded in York.)
Two books that contain that quote from Orderic are “The religious houses of Yorkshire” (1853) by George Lawton, and “The Peerage of England, Or A Genealogical and Historical Account of All the Peers of England Now Existing …” (January 1735) by Arthur Collins.
A fuller version (from Collins’ book) of the quote is as follows:
“He was ever studious for peace, a great lover of the poor, and an especial honorer of the religious; his death without issue occasioned no little sadness to the people”.
by Geoffrey Tobin
02 May 2013 at 19:39
A line of descent from Alan Rufus’s brother, Stephen Count of Treguier, to King George I of Great Britain, through the senior Rohan line:
Stephen Count of Treguier and Lord of Richmond, Count Alan the Black the Lord of Richmond (not to be confused with his uncle Alan Niger also Lord of Richmond), Constance of Brittany, Alan IV de Rohan, Alan V de Rohan, Alan VI de Rohan, Olivier II de Rohan, Alan VII de Rohan, Jean I de Rohan, Alan VIII de Rohan, Alan IX de Rohan, Marguerite de Rohan (1412-1497), Charles de Valois the Duke Angouleme and Duke of Orleans (1459-1496) (who was also father of King Francis I of France whose first wife was Duchess Claude of Brittany), Jeanne d’Angouleme, Jacqueline de Longwy, Charlotte de Bourbon-Montpessier (wife of William the Silent of Orange-Nassau), Louise Juliana of Orange-Nassau (1576-1644), Frederick V (de Simmern) Wittelsbach (who married Elizabeth Stuart, Princess of Great Britain), Sophia Wittelsbach (who married Ernest Augustus the Elector of Hanover), King George I of Great Britain.
by Geoffrey Tobin
04 May 2013 at 09:21
Orderic Vitalis said of King William I, regarding the Harrying of the North in the winter of 1069-70:
“The King stopped at nothing to hunt his enemies. He cut down many people and destroyed homes and land. Nowhere else had he shown such cruelty. This made a real change.
To his shame, William made no effort to control his fury, punishing the innocent with the guilty. He ordered that crops and herds, tools and food be burned to ashes. More than 100,000 people perished of hunger.
I have often praised William in this book, but I can say nothing good about this brutal slaughter. God will punish him.”
by Geoffrey Tobin
04 May 2013 at 10:30
Not only Orderic Vitalis but also William of Malmesbury, Symeon of Durham and Florence of Worcester condemned the Harrying as unacceptable behaviour by the Conqueror.
The Wikipedia article on the Harrying of the North, citing K.S.B. Keats-Rohan’s summary biography “Alan Rufus (d. 1093)” in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, says:
“Having effectively subdued the population William carried out a wholesale replacement of Anglo-Saxon leaders with Norman ones in Yorkshire. He granted one of his most trusted followers, Alain Le Roux, the Honour of Richmond in 1071 giving him control of York.”
by Geoffrey Tobin
05 May 2013 at 21:38
The House of Luxembourg and/or the Woodvilles apparently retained close ties to Brittany, as the brothers Anthony and Edward Woodville (see http://www.susanhigginbotham.com/subpages/edwardwoodville.html) brought 1000 archers to Brittany in April 1472.
In 1483-1485 Edward was in Brittany again, where he joined Henry Tudor and received a pension from Duke Francis.
In 1485 Edward fought for Henry in the Tudor victory at Bosworth Field.
by Geoffrey Tobin
05 May 2013 at 21:38
Quoting Susan Higginbotham:
“In May 1488, Edward “either abhorring ease and idleness or inflamed with ardent love and affection toward the Duke of Brittany,” as Hall’s chronicle has it, asked Henry VII to allow him to assist the duke in fighting the French. Henry VII, who hoped for peace with France, refused the request, but Edward ignored this and returned to the Isle of Wight, where he raised a “crew of tall and hardy personages” and sailed to Brittany. Henry then reconsidered and decided to send Woodville reinforcements, but the French arrived in Brittany before this could be done. At St. Aubin-du-Cormier on July 27, 1488, Edward Woodville fought his last battle. He and almost all of his troops perished.”
by Geoffrey Tobin
05 May 2013 at 21:43
In the battle of St. Aubin-du-Cormier, the French army made the first use of massed cannons. Their victory ensured that Brittany would become a dependancy of the French crown, the French King insisting that if the Duke had no male heirs, then his eldest daughter would marry the French Dauphin, and that the King of France would thenceforth rule the Duchy of Brittany.
Ironically, an effect of this union was that the French royal family subsequently became predominantly of Breton descent.
by Geoffrey Tobin
07 May 2013 at 02:03
Poitou, Queen Mother Eleanor’s capital County, was among those that rebelled against King John when Duke Arthur died, so it’s likely that William of Poitiers’ bigotry against Bretons was not widely shared.
However, one of William of Poitiers’s informants affirmed that both the Norman/Breton/Flemish side and the Anglo-Saxons did use javelins during the Battle of Hastings.
Incidentally, I’ve recently read that the Anglo-Saxons weren’t alone in wielding double-sided battle axes: the Bretons were using them too! Ouch!
by Geoffrey Tobin
07 May 2013 at 06:22
The Breton language forms the names of occupations in the same way as English, German and French, so Breton for laborer/labourer is “labourer”.
In songs employing call (kan) and response (diskan), the caller is “kaner” and the responder is “diskaner”.
Breton for brothers/brethren is “breudeur”, similar to German “bruder”.
by Geoffrey Tobin
07 May 2013 at 20:13
Alan was “very young” when he was noted as a particularly “valiant knight”. So, a bizarre thought occurred to me: is Count Alan Rufus (Alan Ar Rouz) an inspiration for the (very young) Count Octavian Rofrano, the Rosenkavalier in Richard Strauss’s comic opera?
by Geoffrey Tobin
07 May 2013 at 20:26
ON the topic of German opera, historically a Nibelung is not, as depicted in the movie “The Curse of the Ring”, an ethereal otherworldly being, but rather the 5th century name of the ruling house of the Burgundians, who were then based at Worms in Germany, and already famous for their wealth. (Worm is an old slang word for a dragon, so one can see how the legend developed.)
In the 1400s the House of Luxembourg was under the overlordship of the Duke of Burgundy. When the Count of Maine sought a wife for his son, he set a dowry so high that the Duke of Burgundy could not afford to raise the funds. The Luxembourgs, however, did; evidently it’s they who had the larger fortune.
by Geoffrey Tobin
07 May 2013 at 20:49
Brunhilda (c. 543 – 613) was a Visigothic princess who married King Sigebert I of Austrasia. She had a murderous feud with Fredegund (died 597) who had murdered Brunhilda’s sister, Galswintha, wife of King Chilperic I of Soissons, in order to replace her as Queen Consort.
Gregory of Tours (30 November c. 538 – 17 November 594) describes Fredegund as a ruthless murderess. Folklorist Alan Dundes quotes Gregory’s account of Fredegund’s cruelty to her own daughter Rigunth, in support of his suggestion that Fredegund was an inspiration for the stepmother of Cinderella.
by Geoffrey Tobin
07 May 2013 at 20:54
Breton cultural influences on their Habsburg descendants may have influenced the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI in which he defied the Frank’s Salic Law by naming his daughters, (future Empress) Maria Theresa and Archduchess Maria Anna, as his heirs.
by Geoffrey Tobin
07 May 2013 at 21:53
Some interesting Bretons in literature:
Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi, has a Breton given name.
François-René, Vicomte de Chateaubriand, “the founder of Romanticism in French literature”, was Breton, born in the (former pirate base) of Saint Malo and raised in his aristocratic family’s castle in Combourg, Brittany.
The 2007 movie “Silk”, based on Alessandro Baricco’s novel, is a story about Hervé, a Breton officer in the French military, who changes career to become a silk merchant.
Jules Verne, born on Île Feydeau, “a small island within the town of Nantes” in Brittany.
by Geoffrey Tobin
10 May 2013 at 06:40
Edeva the Fair (identified by some with Edith Swannesha, the mother of Gunnhild) was in 1066 the Overlord (owner) of Cheveley and many other places in Cambridgeshire associated with both Alan Rufus and the Tweed family.
Looking at the list of her former properties, I cannot overlook Stevington [End] in Essex (http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TL5942/stevington-end/), where the 1086 Tenants-in-Chief were:
Aubrey de Vere (Lord of Oxford)
Tihel of HellÈan
Count Alan of Brittany (Lord of Cambridge)
and … wait for it …
Frodo brother of Abbot Baldwin.
by Geoffrey Tobin
10 May 2013 at 06:55
Godric the Steward, who held only Stoke in Suffolk before 1066, occurs as Lord or Tenant-in-Chief 143 times in 1086, frequently in association with Count Alan.
In Walpole, Norfolk, a location within Count Alan’s sphere in 1086, was born Godric of Finchale (c. 1065 – 21 May 1170), a very long-lived popular saint with a very interesting story (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godric_of_Finchale).
There is already a novel about Saint Godric (“Godric” (October 1980) by Frederick Buechner, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize), but the connection with Count Alan might have some mileage.
by Geoffrey Tobin
10 May 2013 at 09:17
It’s said that King William deposed all the Anglo-Dane lords after the rebellion in the North; if so, Count Alan reinstated them!
by Geoffrey Tobin
26 May 2013 at 00:59
A classic example is Godric the Steward, who held just one lordship in 1066, but is associated with 143 entries in the Domesday Book, 28 of them as a Lord in the Land of Count Alan.
All the entries for Godric outside Yorkshire were in counties where Alan was the largest landowner; Godric was Tenant-in-Chief in 56 of those locations.
Alan was in King William’s innermost circle of advisers, and judging by the status of other associates of Alan’s – Bretons, Normans and Anglo-Saxons alike – the Breton Count was persuasive enough with King William to make people of his own choice Tenants-in-Chief.
by Geoffrey Tobin
26 May 2013 at 07:35
In Alan’s northern caput of Richmond, he shared the lordship 50-50 with Enisant Musard, but gave Enisant 90% of the revenues!
Enisant was lord of 26 locations in total, the last 24 listed in the Domesday Book being in the Land of Count Alan. The second listed was in Tochestorp in the hundred of Forehoe in Norfolk which Enisant shared with Ribald brother of Count Alan under Alan’s tenancy-in-chief.
The first listed was in Cheveley in the hundred of Cheveley in Cambridgeshire where Edeva the Fair had been Overlord in 1066; Count Alan was tenant-in-chief in 1086.
by Geoffrey Tobin
26 May 2013 at 08:04
Speaking of Edeva the Fair (Edith Swannesha), by 1086 Alan had taken over many of her properties, but it seems there was a smooth handover, at least for Almer of Bourn. Almer was lord in 5 locations under Edeva in 1066, and not only kept those in 1086 but was given another four by Alan.
Apparently Edeva the Fair, Almer of Bourn and Count Alan had connections, which probably included Matilda D’Aincourt if it’s true that Matilda was Alan’s sister and had married Walter in Bourn in 1065.
This week I read that in “late” 1066 a “Norman” cavalry contingent went to Cambridgeshire. Perhaps this is evidence of Alan heading to Bourn to protect his sister, presumably some time between the Battle of Hastings on 14 October and William’s coronation on 25 December.
by Geoffrey Tobin
26 May 2013 at 08:11
Since Alan chose Enisant Musard, his lord tenant in Cheveley, to be in charge of Richmond, his caput in the North, either Enisant himself or Cheveley town, or both, must have been important to Alan.
by Geoffrey Tobin
26 May 2013 at 08:26
Godric the Steward, incidentally, held land in Thurning in Norfolk.
Thurning is of interest for early American history, because, as Wikipedia states: “In 1659, Peter Elwin of Thurning (1623–1695) married Anne Rolfe, the elder daughter of Thomas Rolfe, who was the son of John Rolfe and his wife Pocahontas. John Rolfe was originally from Heacham in Norfolk, and his granddaughter Anne was brought up there.”
by Geoffrey Tobin
26 May 2013 at 09:00
In “British History Online: Cheveley – Manors and estate”, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=18781, we learn that: “In 1022 Ely abbey gave CHEVELEY to King Cnut in exchange for Woodditton … Between 1086 and 1130 the Crown granted the manor to Alan de Dinan-Bécherel (d. c. 1157) whose son Roland gave it to his sister Emma when she married Robert de Vitré … retaining an overlordship which by 1168 was forfeited to the Crown. The lordship may then have been divided, since until the 1180s both the bishop of Ely and Aubrey de Vere, earl of Oxford, had interests in Cheveley …
Robert de Vitré died in 1173. His son Andrew later gave the manor to his brother Robert the clerk, and their niece Gervaise and her husband Richard Marshal recovered their rights over the tenant in 1229. The Marshal lordship was allotted in 1246 to Richard’s sister Maud, countess of Norfolk, and descended with the earldom (later dukedom) of Norfolk, last being recorded in 1526.”
by Geoffrey Tobin
26 May 2013 at 09:27
Bécherel’s wikipedia article depicts a long and interesting history, of which I’ll excerpt only two passages.
“During Roman times, Bécherel was positioned close to the
important road linking Rennes with Dinan to the north. In 1124 Alain de Dinan was granted a substantial portion of land which he used to build a (stone) castle. This dominated the valley and the present town grew up around the castle.”
The 2nd passage illustrates of how seriously Bretons treat literature and history.
“Bécherel is a small village, called the ‘village of the books’ because there are fifteen bookstores for around 660 inhabitants. Events and performances taking place at Bécherel include: the European Festival of Ancient Greek and Latin, in March, for the national “Spring of Poets” weekend. The “Fête du Livre”, each Easter week-end, the Night of Books (August), “Lire en Fête” (October), Treasures of Bécherel (December).
by Geoffrey Tobin
26 May 2013 at 09:42
Alan de Dinan(-Bécherel) (about 1100-1157) may have married Alianore of Brittany, a daughter of Stephen of Treguier (Alan Rufus’s youngest brother), though some say his wife’s name is unknown. His father and a brother were both named Oliver, and he had a son named Riwallon (Breton for Roland), so this family was a living testimony to the famed “Song of Roland”.
Riwallon of Dol (1015-1065), who rebelled against Duke Conan II (presumably in support of Eozen) and called on Duke William II of Normandy to intervene (perhaps with Count Alan in his army), was an earlier member of this family.
The French Wikipedia presents more information on Brittany than does the English; see in this context https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riwallon_de_Dol.
by Geoffrey Tobin
26 May 2013 at 09:52
Other sources (see http://knight-france.com/geneal/names/1242.htm) say that Oliver de Dinan, brother of the above Alan de Dinan-Bécherel, married Agnorie, a(nother?) daughter of Stephen of Tréguier.
by Geoffrey Tobin
26 May 2013 at 09:58
The House of Percy, the main rivals to the House of Neville, though (or maybe because) they were quite intermarried, were apparently also consciously of Breton descent, their progenitor William de Percy (d. 1096) naming his first two sons Alan and Walter.
(Walter is a form of Gaultier, an evidently Celtic name, as is the English surname Walton.)
by Geoffrey Tobin
27 May 2013 at 09:13
In “Domesday people”, volume 1: Domesday Book, by K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, page 52, one reads this quote from the Norman historian Wace’s “Roman de Rou”, lines 8695-9:
“Bien se combat Alains Ferganz, chevalier fu proz e valienz, les Bretons vait od sei menant, des Engleis fait damage grant.”
As I read this antique Gallo, it means, roughly:
“Well did Alan the Strong fight, a knight who was [whatever “proz” means] and valiant, the Bretons, following his leading, did great damage to the English.”
by Geoffrey Tobin
28 Jan 2018 at 06:44
Old French “proz” is modern French “preux”, meaning “brave, chivalrous”.
There’s a depiction of the “great damage” the Bretons did to the English at Hastings in scenes 52 and 53 of the Bayeux Tapestry. The latter shows Alan charging, dauntless of great carnage of horse and rider, against Earl Gyrth and his men.
by Geoffrey Tobin
27 May 2013 at 20:19
In “Early Yorkshire Charters”: Volume 4, The Honour of Richmond, Part 1, edited by William Farrer and Charles Travis Clay, Plate XIII is a photograph of a charter from Duke Conan IV (grandson of Alan Rufus’s brother Count Stephen of Treguier), dated 1160-1166. The Latin handwriting is beautiful! It also looks a lot like Tolkien’s imagined Elvish writing.
by Geoffrey Tobin
07 Jun 2013 at 02:52
Here’s a pleasant surprise: perusing the Domesday Book, one learns that Count Alan gave Enisant Musard, his first Constable of Richmond Castle, about a dozen manors in Yorkshire, adding to a manor in Tochestorp in Norfolk, and one in Cheveley, Cambridgeshire. Given that Alan is believed by eminent scholars to have first settled in that county, the Cheveley manor is probably the first that Alan gave to Enisant in England.
by Geoffrey Tobin
11 Jun 2013 at 06:51
Not only did the Tweeds in Massachusetts intermarry with the Winthrops, but Count Alan Road in Skegness, Lincolnshire is more precisely adjacent to (or perhaps in) Winthorpe, where the Winthrops came from!
So, who named Count Alan Road, and what motivated them?
by Geoffrey Tobin
11 Jun 2013 at 07:08
My mother says that the Tweeds were “very, very honourable” and excellent singers. I may have mentioned their love of eisteddfods (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisteddfod) and that Rex Tweed won the prestigious Sun Aria, which (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne_Sun-Aria) “forms the aria section of the Royal South Street Eisteddfod, Australia’s oldest and largest eisteddfod”, which Kiri te Kanawa won in 1966 (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiri_te_Kanawa).
by Geoffrey Tobin
11 Jun 2013 at 07:17
Rudyard Kipling’s “Puck of Pook’s Hill” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puck_of_Pook's_Hill), set in Burwash (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burwash), 14 km north-west of Battle Abbey, has three stories about Magnus Maximus.
by Geoffrey Tobin
11 Jun 2013 at 07:28
Geoffrey of Monmouth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_of_Monmouth) recalled the Arthurian story of the “Night of the Long Knives” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives_%28Arthurian%29), according to which, in the 5th century, the Saxons betrayed King Vortigern and killed his unarmed men at a banquet, the only survivor being Eldol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldol,_Consul_of_Gloucester).
The timing of the Norman-Breton invasion of Britain may have been influenced by Harold’s attacks on the Welsh, the Bretons’ ancient kin.
Understandably, when the Normans first proposed to invade Wales, the Bretons (presumably including their leader, Alan Rufus) objected.
by Geoffrey Tobin
15 Jun 2013 at 10:34
Due to the large number of locations where Alan Rufus (abbreviated “A com” for “Alan comes” = “Count Alan” in the Domesday Book) held land, I’ve only viewed a fraction of the manors, towns, villages and farms in http://www.domesdaymap.co.uk/name/23600/count-alan-of-brittany/. However, so far I have gleaned the following names of English lords whom Alan kept in positions of authority in the “Land of Count Alan” despite the Harrying of the North, when supposedly they were all replaced.
Bernwulf;
Gamal son of Barth;
Godric the Steward (given much more property than before 1066);
Gospatric son of Arnketil (inherited his father’s many properties);
Orm;
Thorketil.
In Alan’s patch, most of the English lords who ceased to hold title in 1086 were either deceased (in war, or of natural causes) or had been imprisoned or exiled as leaders of one or more Northern Rebellions. Indeed, much of the land Alan held in the North used to be owned by Earls Edwin and Morcar of Mercia (brothers of Harold’s Queen Edith); they had rebelled multiple times against William, and by 1086 Edwin had died and Morcar was in prison.
Alan retained and evidently trusted the remaining English lords.
by Geoffrey Tobin
02 Jul 2013 at 07:48
David Roffe, an historian himself of Breton descent, wrote in the period 2000-2004 of the Domesday Book. He deduced that the survey proceeded as follows: (1) a very detailed study (ICC) of Cambridgeshire, (2) a detailed investigation of Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, called Little Domesday, but actually larger in number of pages than (3) a less detailed study of the remaining counties of England, beginning with Yorkshire.
Notice that this is exactly the order in which Alan gained his major property interests, which poses the question whether he had some significant input into how the Domesday inquiry was conducted.
by Geoffrey Tobin
05 Jul 2013 at 05:43
Researches by David Roffe (see http://www.domesdaynow.co.uk/) and others suggest that the Domesday survey was conducted in the following order: Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Yorkshire, then the rest of England in sytematic order. It occurs to me that this is the order of counties in which Alan Rufus obtained his major properties!
Hypothesis: one reason why Alan left the command of the garrison outside Sainte Suzanne between 1084 and 1085 was in order to be in England for the Survey, which perhaps he had some hand in directing.
Immediately after the survey, William commenced a campaign against France. (In 1087 he was halfway to Paris when he suffered his unexpected and fatal saddle injury.)
It would seem therefore that one purpose of the Domesday Survey was to assess the financial and military resources of England, to ascertain the feasibility of conquering France: a goal dear to Bretons and Normans alike.