The town and castle at the head of the Rance estuary, with Bécherel inland: the old lordship of Roland of Dinan, Henry II's justiciar in Brittany (died 1186), passed through the Vitré line to an heiress.
Whether a husband from Maine already rules it is the open question.
Who he is
- Name
- Gervaise of Vitré, heiress of Dinan, and her husband Juhel III of Mayenne (marriage date not pinned)
- Title
- Lady of Dinan
- Since
- Inherited from her father Alan of Vitré, lord of Dinan, who died in the 1190s (date not pinned)
- Born
- Not pinned
- Family
- Kin of the lords of Vitré; wife of Juhel III of Mayenne by the early 1200s. After Juhel's death (1220) she will marry Richard Marshal.
- Confidence
- low
Isabelle de Meulan article gives Juhel's wife as Gervaise of Vitré; the marriage date is not given.
Overlord
The duke of Brittany
What it holds
- Dinan castle and port on the Rance
- Bécherel
- Corseul and Évran country
How it was acquired
Inheritance through the Vitré line.
Allies and rivals
Vitré and Mayenne kin.
How things stand that morning
In the heiress's hands; whether under Juhel III of Mayenne yet is not pinned.
Wealth
Rance river trade to Saint-Malo; Dinan market.
Military
Castles of Dinan and Bécherel.
Threats
- A Maine husband pulling Dinan into Angevin politics
Places of note
- Dinan: Seat
- Bécherel: Castle
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Succession through Gervaise is attested; dates are not.
On the map: Approximate.
Primary sources for Brittany
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Chronicles of the Churches of Anjou (Saint-Aubin, Saint-Serge, Saint-Florent and others), Various (monks of Angers and the Loire) (11th to 13th centuries; the Saint-Aubin annals run to the 1220s). The Angevin houses' own annals of the succession crisis in their city: Arthur received at Angers in 1199 with Constance and the Breton and Angevin barons, John's counter-moves, the defection of William des Roches and the Angevin lords to John, and the peace of 1200 that left Arthur John's vassal. Read online
- The Great Chronicle of Tours, Anonymous (a canon of Saint-Martin of Tours) (about 1227). The Loire valley's view of the Angevin succession. Read online
- History of the Dukes of Normandy and the Kings of England, Anonymous of Bethune (a clerk in the household of Robert VII of Bethune) (about 1220). A Flemish lord's clerk writing twenty years on, with a soldier's interest in who fought whom. Read online
- The Acts of Philip Augustus, with Delisle's Calendar, Various (the French royal chancery) (1179 to 1223). The king's own charters and treaties for the year: the peace of Peronne with Baldwin IX in January 1200, the treaty of Le Goulet with John on 22 May 1200, the marriage settlement for Louis and Blanche, the privilege for the scholars of Paris, grants to towns, abbeys and Norman lords, and the first acts of the king's new acquisitions in the Vexin, Evreux and Berry. Read online
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.