Vitré

Who he is

Name

Andrew II of Vitré (André de Vitré)

Title

Lord of Vitré

Since

1170s (not pinned)

Born

Not pinned

Family

Married Matilda of Mayenne, sister of Juhel III of Mayenne; his kinsman Alan of Vitré held Dinan, whose heiress Gervaise marries Juhel. His son Andrew III will marry Constance's daughter Catherine in 1212.

Confidence

medium

Isabelle de Meulan article for the marriage; numbering from the Vitré genealogy.

Overlord

The duke of Brittany

What it holds

• Castle and town of Vitré
• Châtillon-en-Vendelais
• Marcillé-Robert

How it was acquired

Inherited.

Allies and rivals

Kin of Mayenne and Dinan; neighbour of Laval and La Guerche.

How things stand that morning

Holds Vitré for Arthur's government; quiet.

Wealth

Market town on the Rennes-Laval road; cloth-making (later famous) not pinned for 1200.

Military

Castle of Vitré.

Threats

• The Maine march

Places of note

• Castle of Vitré: Seat

Where the sources disagree

• The French Wikipedia life of Arthur names 'André III de Vitré' as a supporter; in 1199-1203 the lord was Andrew II, whose son Andrew III came of age later.

Evidence: Marriage attested; succession date not checked.

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