IT WOULD BE EXTRAORDINARY IF HE DID NOT VISIT THE CITY, PROBABLY...

1181, it would be extraordinary if he did not visit the city, probably thelargest and wealthiest of his domains, for ®ve years, or that monasteries

20

Actes de Henri II, no.

cccclxix.

21

I am extremely grateful to Professor Sir James Holt for bringing to my attention the original

manuscript, AD Maine-et-Loire, 158 H1, no. 3.

22

An eighteenth-century copy of this charter (BN ms latin 5840, p. 117) describes the two seals

which were attached to the original manuscript as those of the bishop and the seneschal. The

original charter (see note above) bears traces of the attachment of only two seals.

there should not have sought his patronage. In fact, the abbey of Buzaydid seek Duke Geoffrey's patronage, but not until 1186.

²³

Meanwhile,Peter ®tzGuy was seneschal of Nantes until at least 1183, and there wasstill a royal seneschal of Nantes in 1185.There is insuf®cient evidence to determine precisely when Henry IItransferred lordship of Nantes to Geoffrey. The earliest possible date is1185 since Henry II's seneschal was still at Nantes during that year.Geoffrey was high in his father's favour in the early months of 1185.Henry II had made him `custodian' of Normandy at the end of 1184and in April 1185 the king came to Geoffrey's defence against Richard.Richard's aggression, probably directed against the county of Nantes,may have precipitated the transfer. Once it was in his possession,Geoffrey certainly wasted no time in fortifying the city of Nantes. Oneof the charters made at Nantes records that Geoffrey has damaged thevineyard of the priory of Saint-Cyr de Nantes by extending theforti®cations of the city. This extension of the walls, from the north-eastern corner of the Roman wall to the bank of the Erdre, correspondswith the course of the new city wall attributed to Dukes Guy deThouars and Peter de Dreux in the early thirteenth century, but thischarter indicates these works began under Geoffrey.

²⁴

Henry II's hesitation in granting Geoffrey all of his endowment isunderstandable. The county of Nantes would have been respectableprovision for a younger son, the duchy of Brittany and the honour ofRichmond generous, but the combination of all three was perhapsexcessive. Together, Nantes and the rest of Brittany had commonborders with all of Henry II's continental dominions. This gave theirpossessor the potential to engage in military action in any of theseterritories, and for rebels from all of them to take refuge in Brittany.Their combined wealth, and the strategic position of Nantes, mighthave encouraged Geoffrey to defy his father and elder brothers, whichis, in fact, what happened in 1186.The turning-point in Geoffrey's career was his marriage and accessionto the duchy of Brittany in 1181. Until then, Geoffrey had been obligedto maintain his father's favour in order to secure possession of the landswhich had been promised him. Although Geoffrey was betrothed toConstance when he was eight, until they were married and Geoffreybecame duke of Brittanyjure uxoris, the betrothal could be quashed by

23

See pp. 121±2.

24

Charters, no. Ge 28; A. CheÂdeville and N.-Y. Tonnerre,

La Bretagne feÂodale, XIe-XIIIe sieÁcles,

Rennes, 1987, pp. 423±4; N.-Y. Tonnerre,

Naissance de la Bretagne: GeÂographie historique et

structures sociales de la Bretagne meÂridionale (Nantais et Vannetais) de la ®n du VIIIe aÁ la ®n du XIIe

sieÁcle, Angers, 1994, pp. 529, 540.

Henry II, especially after the death of the bride's father in 1171, and theproposed disposition of these lands rearranged. Constance could just aswell have been given to Richard or John if Henry II had willed it.

²⁵

Geoffrey was completely dependent on his father's favour towards him.In 1181, two fundamental changes occurred. Firstly, it becamemanifest that Henry II did not intend to give Geoffrey all of his lands atonce, if at all. Secondly, with his possession of Brittany (albeit withoutNantes), the balance of power moved in Geoffrey's favour. Havingmarried the heiress, he could not easily be ousted from Brittany, evenby Henry II himself.

²⁶

For the ®rst time, Geoffrey possessed lands, andhence the source of ®nance and armed men. Instead of being entirelydependent upon his father's goodwill, Geoffrey now had the capacity toachieve his ends by military means. Secure in his possession of Brittany,after 1181, Geoffrey was at last able to defy his father instead ofappeasing him.Geoffrey's military prowess was noted by contemporaries. He hadgained military experience both in tournaments and in the ®eld, havingled Breton knights on campaign in Brittany, under Henry II's orders, in