6 DUKE JEAN I COMMUTED IT INTO A RIGHT TO RECEIVE ONLY A RELIEFEQ...

1275/6 Duke Jean I commuted it into a right to receive only a reliefequivalent to one year's revenue of the estate in the case of allsuccessions, and individual barons made similar arrangements with theirown vassals.

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The Assize thus met the interests of both the duke andthe barons.It may generally be said that Duke Geoffrey's lordship lay relativelylightly upon the Breton barons (with the obvious exceptions ofGuihomar de LeÂon and Alan, son ofcomesHenry of TreÂguier). This canbe the only reason for the troubadour Bertrand de Born to have wishedthat Geoffrey could be duke of Aquitaine.

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Bertrand knew Geoffreypersonally and would certainly not have felt this sentiment if Geoffreyhad been autocratic in his dealings with the Bretons.Duke Geoffrey and the churchIn contrast with Duke Geoffrey's clear policy regarding the governmentof Brittany and his relations with the Breton laity, the evidence availabledoes not indicate any such policy regarding the church.The regular churchDuke Geoffrey's acts indicate his patronage of numerous monasteriesthroughout eastern Brittany. Few, however, represent grants of prop-erty; the majority are con®rmations of grants made by others, or of thedetermination of legal disputes in favour of monasteries.Geoffrey was unusual, as a duke of Brittany, in not founding anymonastic establishment himself. He was content to make modest grantsto existing houses. Geoffrey gave greater priority to the extension andconsolidation of ducal domain than to whatever bene®ts might accruefrom alienating large portions of it to monasteries. The few benefactionsactually initiated by Geoffrey were of cash revenues derived from thepro®ts of ducal mills or rents, of rights of pasture in ducal forests andexemption from payment of tolls and other dues.

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Such grants avoidedany alienation of ducal land or capital. Conversely, Duke Geoffrey wasready to authorise the substantial dispositions of their property made by

77

TAC, pp. 335±8; Planiol, `Assise', pp. 675±80.

78

G. Gouiran, `Bertran de Born et le comte Geoffroy de Bretagne', in P. T. Ricketts (ed.),

Actes

du premier congreÁs international de l'association internationale d'eÂtudes occitanes, London, 1987,

pp. 229±241 at 233, and 236.

79

Charters, no. Ge 7, and 30 (mills), 28 (rents), 20 (forest).

barons when they founded monasteries. Such con®rmations were botha source of ducal prestige, and advantageous because the baronies werediminished, in relation to the ducal domain, by such dispositions. Thatthis was a matter of policy, and not a lack of piety, is indicated byGeoffrey's grant to the cathedral of Rouen to celebrate mass for the soulof his deceased brother Henry.

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It is also possible that Geoffrey would have founded a monastery if hehad reigned for longer. Duchess Constance, for instance, did not foundthe abbey of Villeneuve until 1201, when she had been duchess fortwenty years, and this foundation was no more than the erection of anexisting grange of Buzay into an abbey. Duke Conan IV, similarly, didnot found his abbey of CarnoeÈt until after 1167, when his enforced`retirement' allowed him more time to devote to the project.

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Founding an abbey required years of planning, and Duke Geoffreysimply did not have the opportunity to bring to fruition any such planshe may have had.In terms of Geoffrey's patronage, account should be taken of the factthat, as duke, there was no one house, or region, where his patronagewas naturally directed. Rather, it was appropriate for the duke ofBrittany and earl of Richmond to spread his patronage widely, if thinly.In 1181, Geoffrey took under his protection the priory of Saint-Magloire de Lehon, and in 1184 he determined a dispute in favour ofthis monastery.

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He gave a general con®rmation for the abbey ofBoquen, and con®rmed the foundation of the abbeys of Bonrepos byAlan de Rohan, and Beaulieu by Rolland de Dinan. In the case ofBeaulieu, Duke Geoffrey made an additional grant of rights in the ducalforest of Lanmeur. On a smaller scale, he con®rmed a grant of a tithe byhis courtier, Ivo de la Jaille, to La Vieuville.

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The monastery most patronised by Duke Geoffrey was the abbey ofSavigny. Possibly this was due to the fact that Savigny's patron, Ralphde FougeÁres, enjoyed such favour in the ducal household. In 1185,Geoffrey gave a general con®rmation of the grants of Duke Conan IVand Andrew and Robert de Vitre to Savigny, with an additional grantof immunity from customary dues throughout all his lands, and took theabbey under his personal protection. He also con®rmed a grant ofWilliam ®tzPagan (which had ®rst been made in the ducalcuria in the

80

Charters, no. Ge 7.

81

EYC,

iv, p. 70;

Preuves, col. 664; A. Du®ef,

Les Cisterciens en Bretagne aux XIIe et XIIIe sieÁcles,

Rennes, 1997, pp. 79, 130±1.

82

Charters, nos. Ge 4, and 5;

Preuves, col. 701.

83

Charters, nos. Ge 19, 20, 24, and 26.

presence of Ralph de FougeÁres), and determined, in favour of Savigny,the abbey's dispute with William de Saint-Gilles.

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Curiously, there are as many instances of Geoffrey making grants ofducal property to monasteries in the diocese of Nantes, after he hadacquired the county of Nantes around 1185, as for all of his reign up tothat date. As noted above, Geoffrey made general grants of rights andimmunities to Beaulieu and to Savigny, and a grant to the cathedral ofRouen, all in 1184±5. In the ®rst seven months of 1186, however, hemade three grants in the county of Nantes alone. Admittedly, his grantto the priory of Saint-Cyr de Nantes, as the charter itself states, wascompensation for his extension of the forti®cations of Nantes, whichhad trespassed onto the nunnery's gardens, and the grant of an island tothe abbey of La Blanche Couronne was probably connected with theassertion of ducal authority over the barony of PontchaÃteau.

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However, Geoffrey's grant to Buzay (albeit probably made on hisdeathbed) was made for pious reasons.

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Apart from con®rmation of their rights and arbitration of theirdisputes, Duke Geoffrey does not appear to have imposed any controlover the Breton monasteries. The only known instance of his activeintervention in the election of an abbot is in the case of the abbey ofSaint-Melaine de Rennes.

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The abbey had been reformed in the mid-eleventh century by the introduction of monks from Saint-Florent deSaumur, under the patronage of Conan II, count of Rennes. The dukeof Brittany thus had the right to approve the election of the abbot. Atthe same time, a precedent had been set which led Saint-Florent toassert that abbots of Saint-Melaine must be drawn from the monks ofSaint-Florent, at least if there was no ®t candidate for the abbacy inSaint-Melaine itself.Against this background, Duke Geoffrey intervened in the electionfollowing the death of Abbot William `Privatus', between 1181 and