Alain (Bretagne) de Poher (abt. 910 - 962)

Born about 0910 in Dol, Ill et Vilaine, Bretagne, France

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 0962 at about age 52 in Dinan, Cotes d'Armor, Bretagne, France

Alain de Poher (ante 919 -952).[1]

bap. England (godfather: Æthelstan King of Wessex)

alias: Alain II de Bretagne

bur. Church of St Donatian and St Rogatian

Titles

• 936: Comte de Vannes et de Nantes
• Alain II de Bretagne "Barbetorte," Duke of Brittany

Parents

• Father: Mathedoi (Matuedo), Comte de Poher.[2]
• Mother: UNKNOWN de Bretagne (p. Alain I "le Grand," Duke of Brittany and Oreguen).[3]

Marriage

m.1 (943) Roscille d'Anjou (d. 943/9; p. Foulques I, "le roux," Comte d'Anjou and Roscille de Loches). No issue.

m. (ante 949/51) UNKNOWN de Blois (p. Thibaut l'Ancient and Richildis (?) UNKNOWN).[4] Issue: 1.[5]

• Dreux "Drogo," Duke of Brittany (949/52 - 958 Angers).

Mistress

mistress.1: Judith UNKNOWN (d. after 952). Issue: 2.[6]

• Hoel, Comte de Nantes (d. 981).

• Guerec "Vuerech" (d. 990).

Sources

• Cawley, Charles. "Medieval Lands": A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families © by Charles Cawley, hosted by Foundation for Medieval Genealogy (FMG). See also WikiTree's source page for MedLands.

Bio 2

Alan II (died 952), nicknamed Wrybeard (French: Barbe-Torte) and also known as Le Renard "The Fox", was Comte de Dol, Comte de Vannes (931), Comte de Nantes (1er, 931), Duc de Bretagne (937-952), Comte de Poher, comte de Vannes, comte de Nantes, comte de Dol et de Poher, and duc de Bretagne (Brittany) from 938 to his death. During his rule, he defended Brittany from Viking invasions.

He had to take refuge, along with his father Mathuedoi, Count of Poher, with the English king, Edward the Elder, because the Norsemen had invaded Armorica.

The Chronicle of Nantes reports: Among the nobles who fled for fear for the Danes, Mathuedoi, the count of Pohel, put to sea with a great multitude of Bretons, and went to Athelstan, king of the English, taking with him his son, called Alan, who was afterwards surnamed "Crooked Beard". He had had this Alan by the daughter of Alan the Great, duke of the Bretons, and the same Athelstan, king of England, had lifted him from the holy font. This king had great trust in him because of this friendship and the alliance of this baptism."^[1]

Alan became ruler of Brittany at the end of a 33-year interregnum after the death of his maternal grandfather, Duke Alan the Great. He landed at Dol in 936, at the invitation of the monk Jean de Landévennec and with the aid of Edward's successor, Athelstan the Glorious. By 937 he was master of most of Brittany, having forced the Vikings back to the Loire.

"... The city of Nantes remained for many years deserted, devastated and overgrown with briars and thorns, until Alan Crooked Beard, grandson of Alan the Great, arose and cast out those Normans from the whole region of Brittany and from the river Loire, which was a great support for them. This Alan was brought up from infancy with Athelstan, king of the English, and was strobg in body and very courageous, and did not care to kill wild boars and bears in the forest with an iron weapon, but with a wooden staff. He collected a few ships and came by the king's permission with those Bretons who were still living there, to revisit Brittany."^[2]

In 938, he was elected Brittonum dux. On 1 August 939, with the aid of Judicael (Berengar), count of Rennes, and Hugh I, count of Maine, his victory was made complete by defeating the Norse at Trans.^[3]. Alan declared that date a national holiday.

Alan was closely allied with King Louis IV of France, for both had been exiles in England at the same time. Alan renounced the Cotentin, Avranchin, and Mayenne, while Louis recognised that Brittany had "never formed part of his kingdom." Alan was also allied to Theobald the Old, the count of Chartres.

He died and was buried in his capital, Nantes, in the Basilique Notre Dame. He was succeeded by his son Drogo.

Sources

• Cawley, (2006). Medieval Lands.[7]

• Wikipedia: Kings and dukes of Brittany family tree

1. ↑ Chronicle of Nantes, chapter 27, ed. Merlet; tr. D. Whitelock, English Historical Documents c. 500-1042. 2nd ed. London, 1979. p. 345
2. ↑ Chronicle of Nantes, chapter 29, ed. Merlet; tr. D. Whitelock, pp. 345-6
3. ↑ Flodoard, Annales AD 939