Alain de Bretagne Earl of Richmond

   Another name for Alain was Alan of Brittany.

  General Notes:

~Weis' Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700, 8th Edition, 119:26, 227:25, Alan, Earl of Richmond and son of Éttienne, duc de Bretagne, married Bertha de Bretagne, daughter of Conan III, duc de Bretagne by Maud, natural daughter of Henry I, King of England. Their son was Conan IV who married Margaret of Huntingdon. ¹⁶⁰

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

  Information about this person:

• Background Information. ¹⁴¹
Alan II, the Black (Niger), a count of Brittany and Earl of Richmond, 2^nd son of Stephen, born before 1100. He seems to have been marked out as the successor to his father's English lands. In 1139, an unnamed nephew of his was killed at the King's court by the servants of Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, and of the Bishops of Lincoln and Ely, and Alan urged the King to reprisals, thus contributing to the fall of the bishops. In 1140, he seized the castle of "Galclint" with its treasure, ejecting William d'Aubigny therefrom; he afterwards built a castle at "Hotun," being land of the Bishop of Durham, and ravaged Ripon and the property of the archbishopric of York. In the same year, 1140, King Stephen deprived Reynold de Dunstanville, illegitimate son of Henry I, of his lands in Cornwall and,gave the county, (patriam) to Alan, who seems to have had some claim to it as heir of his uncle Brian; he thereupon became, or at any rate assumed the style of Earl of Cornwall.

Alan fought on the side of Stephen at the battle of Lincoln, 2 Feb 1141, but was put to flight at the outset by the charge of the "Disinherited." Later in the same year he was taken prisoner by Ranulf, Earl of Chester, who forced him to do homage and to surrender the Earldom of Cornwall to Reynold de Dunstanville. At Christmas 1141 he was with the King at Canterbury, where as "comes Alanus ," he witnessed the King's second charter for Geoffrey de Mandeville. After Easter 1142, the King stopped a tournament between him and William, Count of Aumale. In 1143 he invaded the church of Ripon and insulted Archbishop William at the tomb of St. Wilfred. In or shortly before 1145 he issued two charters of confirmation for the abbey of Jervaulx, adding a gift of common of pasture. In 1145 he crossed to Brittany, whence he never returned, and later in the year at Quimper issued a charter confirming the abbey of St. Melaine at Rennes in its rights over the church of St. Sauveur at Guingamp and over their possessions in England. In Brittany, he executed two other charters, which have survived one at Rennes on 6 Jan1146 and the other at Ploërrnel.

Alan married Bertha, daughter of Conan III, Duc de Bretagne, by Maud, illegitimate daughter of Henry I. He, died in Brittany, 15 Sep 1146, and was buried at Bégard. His widow married, 2^nd, in or before 1148, Eudon, Vicomté de Porhoët, who on the death of Conan III in 1148 was recognized as Duke of Brittany jure uxoris; she had Costessy and othcr lands in Norfolk In dower, and was living in 1162, but dead in 1167.

~ Cokayne's Complete Peerage, 2nd Edition, Vol. X, (Richmond) pp. 788-791

Alain married Bertha de Bretagne, daughter of Conan III Duc de Bretagne and Maud of England ¹⁴¹.^,782