Conan, Duc de Bretagne

   Other names for Conan, were Conan IV Duke of Brittany and Conan Fitz Alan Earl of Richmond.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ¹⁴¹
Conan IV, Duc de Bretagne and Earl of Richmond, son and heir, succeeded his father in the Earldom of Richmond, while he was still under age. In September 1156, he crossed to Brittany, besieged and took Rennes and put his stepfather Eudon to flight. Shortly afterwards Eudon was taken prisoner by Raulf de Fougès and Conan was recognized as Duke of Brittany. Between the latter part of 1156 and April 1158, he was in England. While there he was executing charters at Boston and Washingborough in Lincs, York and Richmond, and at Cheshunt in Herts, but on 22 April 1158 he was at Rennes, where he executed with the consent of his mother a charter for the abbey of St. Melaine.

In July 1158, died Geoffrey, brother of King Henry II, who had the comté of Nantes , which Conan thereupon seized. The King ordered the honor of Richmond to be seized and crossed to France. Conan hastened to meet him at Avranches, where on 29 September he surrendered Nantes and made his peace. At some unascertained date after obtaining possession of the Duchy he removed his uncle, Count Henry of Tréguier and Guingamp, which he retained until his death.

Conan must have visited England in 1160, the year of his marriage to Margaret of Scotland. Thereafter he was probably for the most part in Brittany, executing a charter at Guingamp for Savigny on 12 Mar 1162 or 1163, and one at Quimper for the abbey of Ste. Croix of Quimperié on 15 Aug 1162, and another for Savigny at Rennes on 2 February 1163. He was present at the Council of Clarendon in January 1164, about which time he executed at Wilton a charter for Le Mont St. Michel. This seems to be his last visit to England of which record exists. In the latter part of 1166, when Conan's only daughter and heir, Constance, was betrothed to Geoffrey, son of Henry II, he surrendered the Duchy of Brittany to the King, retaining only Guingamp and its dependencies. In the same year he executed at Rennes a charter for Savigny, and on 31 July he with the King was present at the translation of the body of the Breton saint Brieuc in the abbey church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus at Angers. He was again with the King at Angers on 24 Mar 1168, when he witnessed a royal charter. By a charter, of which the limits of date are 1167-1171, he gave land for the foundation of the abbey of St. Maurice de Carnoët.

Conan married, in 1160, Margaret of Scotland, sister of Malcolm IV, King of Scotland, and daughter of Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, by Ada or Adeline, daughter of William de Warenne, Earl of Surrey. He died 20 Feb1171. His widow married, as her 2^nd, husband, sometime before Easter 1175, Humphrey de Bohun, Constable of England. Margaret died in 1201, and was buried at Sawtrey Abbey, Hunts.

~ Cokayne's Complete Peerage, 2nd Edition, Vol. X, (Richmond) pp. 791-793, Vol. XIV, p. 545

Conan, married Margaret de Huntingdon Princess of Scotland, daughter of Henry mac Crínán Earl of Huntington and Ada de Warenne. (Margaret de Huntingdon Princess of Scotland was born after 1144 in Scotland and died in 1201 in England ⁵³⁰.)