The pays de Retz south of the Loire estuary, facing Poitou across the salt marshes of the Bay of Bourgneuf: salt, the port of Pornic and the abbey country of Grand-Lieu.
Who he is
- Title
- Lord of Rays (Retz)
- Confidence
- low
No holder pinned for 1199-1200 in the sources consulted.
Overlord
The duke of Brittany, as count of Nantes
What it holds
- Machecoul
- Pornic castle and port
- The salt marshes of the Bay of Bourgneuf (in part)
How it was acquired
Hereditary.
Allies and rivals
Neighbours of Clisson and of the Poitevin lords of the Marais.
How things stand that morning
Held under the duke; quiet.
Wealth
Bay salt, a growing export trade to England and the Low Countries; Pornic's harbour.
Military
Castles of Machecoul and Pornic.
Threats
- The Poitou border
Places of note
- Machecoul: Seat
- Pornic: Castle and port
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Holder not found.
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.