Constance duchesse de Bretagne

   Another name for Constance was Constance Duchess of Brittany.

  General Notes:

~Weis' Ancestral Roots. . , 96:27, Constance, was heiress of the Duchy of Brittany, which was the focal struggle between France and England over influence upon the affairs and future of the duchy. ¹⁶⁰

~An Analysis of the Domesday Book of the County of Norfolk, "Predigree of Eudo, Count of Britanny," pg. 13 ⁷⁸²

  Information about this person:

• Background Information. ¹⁴¹
Constance, only daughter and heir of Conan de Bretagne and Margaret of Scotland, in 1166, was betrothed to Geoffrey, 3rd surviving son of Henry II, in 1166 when she was aged five or less. The marriage took place in 1181. In Sep-Oct 1183 or 1184 she issued at Quimperié, a charter for the abbey of Ste. Croix.
In 1184, at Redon, Geoffrey and Constance issued contemporaneous charters founding a chaplaincy in Rouen Cathedral for the soul of the young King Henry and endowing it with a rent from the mills of Guingamp.

On 19 Aug 1197, a year after Geoffrey's death, Constance executed a charter at Rennes confirming certain gifts to the abbey of St. Melaine. Some time in 1187, she married Ranulf, Earl of Chester, but she was averse to the marriage and does not seem willingly to have consorted with him. By a charter, dated at Nantes in 1192, she granted to the Bishop and chapter of St. Malo, with the consent and goodwill of her son Arthur, a weekly market at St. Malo. By another charter of the same year at Nantes, she gave the isle of "Bremen" to the abbey of Buzay. At Rennes, 1193, she issued a charter for the abbey of St. Melaine, and on 15 Mar1194/5 she was at Angers, where she executed one for the hospital of St. John in that City.

In 1196, Constance was captured, at Pontorson, by her husband, the Earl of Chester, who imprisoned her in his castle of St. James de Beuvron. This led to an insurrection in Brittany, which was suppressed by Richard I. Constance seems to have recovered her liberty by the summer of 1198, when she confirmed the peace made between Andrew de Vité and William de la Guerche by a charter which probably passed at Ploërmel. Next year she repudiated her marriage with Earl Ranulf and married Guy de Thouars. The remainder of Constance's life seems to have been spent in peace. In June 1201, she executed a charter at Nantes for the Templars. In the same year, she founded the abbey of Villeneuve in the diocese of Nantes, including among the endowments a rent of £10 sterling charged on the Earldom of Richmond and payable annually at the time of the fair of Boston, Lincs.

Constance married, 1^st, Geoffrey, 4^th son of Henry II, by Eleanor of Aquitaine, born 23 Sept 1158. Upon his marriage in 1181 he was recognized as Duc de Bretagne and Earl of Richmond. Constance married, 2^nd, Ranulf, Earl of Chester. She married for a 3^rd time to Guy de Thouars, brother of Almery, Vicomté de Thouars. Constance died 4 or 5 September 1201, at Nantes, and was buried at Villeneuve. In 1201, after her death, Guy de Thouars was administering the honor of Richmond. The King ratified leases granted by him, and in 1202 he had license to sell his wood of Richmond, half the proceeds to go to the King and half to himself. On 2 Apr 1203 the King ratified the yearly farm to be paid by him for the honor. Later in that year he joined Philip Augustus, and his English lands were confiscated, grants being made from them in September 1203. This terminated his connection with Richmond. In 1204, he invaded Normandy at the head of the Bretons. In Brittany, after Constance's death, he occupied the position of regent until 1213, when Piers de Braine married his daughter Alice and was made Duke. He then disappears from history, and the date of his death is not certainly known. He was ultimately buried at Villeneuve at the same time as his wife and daughter.

~ Cokayne's Complete Peerage, 2nd Edition, Vol. X, (Richmond) pp. 794-797

Constance married Gui Comte de Thouars Duc de Bretagne, son of Guillaume Vicomte de Thouars and Aenor Lusignan, in 1199.²⁶⁴ (Gui Comte de Thouars Duc de Bretagne was born about 1157 in Thours, Vienne, France, died in 1218 in Bretagne ¹⁶⁰ and was buried in 1225 in Villeneuve Abbey, Nantes ¹⁴¹.)