Barons and castellans · Duchy of Brittany · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Fougères

The march barony facing Normandy and Maine, with its great castle in the loop of the Nançon, which Henry II razed in 1166 and the family rebuilt.

Its lords are patrons of the Norman abbey of Savigny and hold lands in England, so they can never ignore the Angevin king.

Who he is

Name
Geoffrey of Fougères (Geoffroy de Fougères)
Title
Lord of Fougères
Since
1194, on the death of his grandfather Ralph II (his father William died before Ralph)
Born
Not pinned; young in 1194
Family
Grandson of Ralph II of Fougères, the leader of the Breton revolt against Henry II in 1173; his mother was of the Norman house of Le Hommet (constables of Normandy). He will marry a daughter of the count of Porhoët. Dies 1212.
Confidence
medium

General knowledge of the Fougères genealogy; whether he was still under wardship in 1199-1200 is not pinned.

Overlord

The duke of Brittany; his English and Norman lands of the king-duke

What it holds

  • Castle and town of Fougères
  • Louvigné and the Coglès country
  • Antrain and Bazouges
  • Lands in Normandy and England

How it was acquired

Inherited 1194.

Allies and rivals

Norman kin (Le Hommet); Vitré to the south; the ducal court.

How things stand that morning

Holds the barony; no war on the Norman march that winter.

Wealth

March tolls, forest of Fougères, the town market.

Military

Castle of Fougères, one of the strongest on the Breton march.

Threats

  • The Norman march if war resumes
  • Conflicting duties to John for his English and Norman lands

Places of note

  • Castle of Fougères: Seat

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Holder known in outline; not checked against a dated act.

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

  1. Medieval Lands: Brittany (Ralph of Fougères)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.