Duke of Brittany

Who he is

Name

Arthur I, with his mother Constance and her third husband Guy of Thouars

Title

Duke of Brittany (Arthur); duchess in her own right (Constance); duke by marriage (Guy of Thouars)

Since

Constance heiress since 1171 and ruling since 1186; Arthur proclaimed duke and co-ruler in 1196; Guy married to Constance between August and October 1199 (their first joint act is from Angers, October 1199) and counted his 'regnal years' from then

Born

Arthur 29 March 1187 (aged 12); Constance about 1161 (about 38); Guy of Thouars, third son of Viscount Geoffrey IV of Thouars and Aénor of Lusignan (birth not pinned)

Family

Arthur's sister Eleanor, the Fair Maid of Brittany (about 15 or 16), is in Angevin hands, not with her mother. Constance's daughter by Guy, Alix, is born in 1200 (day not pinned; Constance may be pregnant that morning).

Confidence

high

Everard and Jones, Charters of Duchess Constance, as cited in the Wikipedia lives; the charter of 27 August 1201 still in Guy's second regnal year fixes the start of his rule between late August 1199 and late August 1200.

Overlord

Disputed. Philip II took Arthur's homage for Brittany (with Anjou, Maine and Touraine) in 1199. The Angevins hold that Brittany is a fief of the duke of Normandy; Le Goulet (22 May 1200) will make Arthur hold it of John.

What it holds

• County of Rennes: the city and castle, the forest of Rennes, Hédé
• County of Nantes: the city (Arthur's birthplace) with its castle on the Loire, the salt and port of Guérande, the Loire tolls
• County of Vannes (Broërec): Vannes, Auray, the peninsula of Rhuys, Ploërmel
• County of Cornouaille with the Poher: Quimper (shared with its bishop), Châteaulin, Carhaix
• Morlaix and the ducal share of Léon, taken in 1179-1187
• Overlordship of the baronies (Penthièvre, Léon, Rohan, Porhoët, Fougères, Vitré, Châteaubriant, Retz, Clisson, Dinan, La Guerche, Ancenis and others)
• The honour of Richmond in England (Constance's title; Arthur does not hold it, and John keeps it)

How it was acquired

Constance inherited from Conan IV (died 1171); Henry II married her to his son Geoffrey (1181), who ruled until his death in Paris in 1186. Arthur, born posthumously, was proclaimed duke in 1196 when Richard tried to take control of him; Ranulf of Chester then imprisoned Constance at Saint-James-de-Beuvron until 1198. Arthur was brought up at Philip's court.

Allies and rivals

Allies: Philip II (Arthur's lord and guardian), the Thouars brothers (Guy and Aimery VII), the Breton barons who backed Arthur in 1199 (Geoffrey of Châteaubriant, William of La Guerche, Geoffrey of Ancenis, Conan of Léon, the lord of Vitré), the bishops of Vannes and Nantes, the abbot of Saint-Melaine of Rennes. Rivals: John, who claims the overlordship and holds Arthur's sister; Ranulf of Chester, Constance's repudiated husband, who marries Clemence of Fougères in 1200 (en.wikipedia; some accounts say late 1199).

How things stand that morning

Constance and Guy of Thouars govern; Arthur, aged 12, has been in the French king's custody since the end of September 1199 and lives at his court in Paris. Arthur has done homage to Philip, not to John. No Angevin garrison is known in the duchy. The pope's ruling of 1 June 1199 subordinating Dol to Tours stands; Constance resisted it and is said to have been excommunicated (date not given).

Wealth

Salt of Guérande and the Bay of Bourgneuf, Nantes and the Loire wine and salt trade, the ports (Nantes, Saint-Malo, Vannes, Quimper), ducal forests, the bréfs (sea passes and wreck rights) sold to shipping, ducal coinage at Rennes, Nantes and Guingamp.

Military

The ducal castles of Nantes, Rennes, Vannes, Auray, Hédé, Ploërmel and Châteaulin; the baronial host; Breton infantry and mercenaries of long reputation. No figures for 1199-1200 in the sources.

Threats

• A peace between Philip and John that gives Arthur's overlordship to John (Le Goulet)
• Arthur being held as a pawn in Paris
• John's possession of Arthur's sister Eleanor and of Richmond
• Constance's health: she dies on 5 September 1201

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. mid-January 1200The two kings agree a truce and the outline of peace; Arthur's claims to Anjou, Maine and Touraine are dropped from the table.Depends on: Philip preferring a settlement with John to war for Arthur. Stopped by: Philip deciding to fight on for Arthur.
2. 22 May 1200Treaty of Le Goulet: Arthur is to hold Brittany of John as duke of Normandy; Arthur and Constance must do homage to John for the duchy.Depends on: Le Goulet being sealed. Stopped by: Collapse of the January truce.
3. 1200 (day not pinned)Constance bears Guy of Thouars a daughter, Alix.Depends on: Natural course. Stopped by: Death or miscarriage.

Later, on the likely course

1. 5 September 1201Constance dies at Nantes (leprosy according to the Tours chronicle, or after childbirth); Arthur rules in his own right, still from Paris.Depends on: Natural course. Stopped by: Not likely to be changed by play except by a cure.

Places of note

• Nantes castle: Ducal city, Arthur's birthplace
• Rennes: Ducal city
• Vannes: Ducal city
• Auray: Ducal castle
• Hédé: Ducal castle north of Rennes
• Ploërmel: Ducal castle and town
• Châteaulin: Ducal castle in Cornouaille
• Guérande: Ducal town and salt
• Morlaix: Ducal since the taking of Léon

Where the sources disagree

• campaign notes (Part 6 B, Tours) give the Dol settlement as 1199; the ruling is dated 1 June 1199 in the Constance article, which adds that she opposed it and was excommunicated. Worth checking before an event post.

Evidence: Dates of Arthur, Constance and Guy are well attested; the ducal officers in post on 1 January 1200 are not pinned in the sources consulted.

On the map: The four counties are drawn on the later diocesan limits, which are close to the comital districts of 1200. The dioceses of Dol and Saint-Malo (Aleth) are left to their bishops and barons (Dinan, Porhoët, Montfort-Gaël, Combourg) and the ducal anchors.

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