Penthièvre

Who he is

Name

Alan (Alain), son of Count Henry

Title

Count (of Tréguier, Goëlo and Penthièvre), lord of Avaugour

Since

1183, on the death of his father Henry of Tréguier

Born

Not pinned

Family

Of the Penthièvre branch of the ducal house (descended from Eudo, brother of Duke Alan III). His son Henry of Avaugour, born about 1205, will be betrothed to Constance's daughter Alix in 1209.

Confidence

medium

From general knowledge of the Penthièvre genealogy; dates of his marriages not checked.

Overlord

The duke of Brittany

What it holds

• Guingamp, his chief town and castle
• Tréguier (the bishop's city) and the Trégor
• Goëlo with Châtelaudren and Paimpol; the castle of Avaugour (in Saint-Péver)
• Penthièvre proper with Lamballe and Moncontour (whether wholly his in 1200 is not pinned)
• A mint at Guingamp (not pinned for 1200)

How it was acquired

Inherited 1183.

Allies and rivals

Kin of the ducal house; the bishops of Tréguier and Saint-Brieuc are his neighbours; rival of the ducal government when it suits him.

How things stand that morning

Holds his counties under Constance and Arthur; no war known on his lands.

Wealth

North coast ports and fisheries, the Guingamp market, tolls on the coast road from Morlaix to Dinan.

Military

Castles of Guingamp, Châtelaudren, Lamballe, Moncontour and Avaugour; a following large enough to matter in any Breton quarrel.

Threats

• A ducal government that wants Penthièvre back
• English raids on the north coast if war resumes

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.

1. 1202Founds the abbey of Beauport near Paimpol (1202).Depends on: His own choice. Stopped by: Ruin or death.

Places of note

• Guingamp: Chief town
• Avaugour: Castle of Avaugour
• Lamballe: Chief castle of Penthièvre proper
• Moncontour: Castle

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Holder well known in outline; his acts of 1199-1200 and the exact extent of his Penthièvre holdings in 1200 were not checked.

On the map: Drawn on the later dioceses of Tréguier and Saint-Brieuc; the bishop's own lands at Saint-Brieuc and Tréguier are on the Church map.

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