ON THE OTHER HAND, ANGEVIN SOVEREIGNTY WAS VIGOROUSLYASSERTED IN...

1181. On the other hand, Angevin sovereignty was vigorouslyasserted in speci®c acts of royal intervention. In 1187, Henry IIentered Brittany, led a military campaign in the far western baronyof LeÂon and, after this show of force, according to one source tookoaths of allegiance from the Breton magnates. In 1196, Richard Isought the custody of Arthur, the young heir to Brittany, and whenthe Bretons refused, invaded the duchy while Constance was heldcaptive. Apart from these episodes, Henry II and Richard I in turnwere content to allow Duchess Constance to rule Brittany withoutinterference.King John seems to have followed the same policy after makingpeace with Constance and Arthur in September 1199. As his fatherhad exercised his right to give Constance in marriage, so did John,marrying her to the loyal Guy de Thouars. From then until 1203,John allowed ®rst Constance, then Arthur, to rule without inter-ference. Some change is indicated, though, by the fact that in June1200 John issued orders directly to vicecomites in Guingamp, Lamballeand Dinan.

¹

This may have been justi®ed under the terms of thepeace settlement, which are unfortunately unknown.the seneschal of brittanyWith the exception of Ralph de FougeÁres, the seneschal of Brittany(with or without this title) had been Henry II's deputy in Brittany atvarious times since 1158.

²

For this reason, I have included this discussionof the institution in the period after 1186 in the context of the role ofthe Angevin kings, rather than of the dukes' internal government.Roger of Howden's account of the rebellion of Guihomar andHarvey de LeÂon in the autumn of 1186 includes the detail that thecustodians of the castles seized had been appointed by Ralph deFougeÁres on the orders of Henry II.

³

From this it can be inferred that,in the immediate aftermath of Geoffrey's death, the king recognisedRalph's position as `seneschal of Brittany' and issued royal writs to him,but this state of affairs was not to last.Two seneschals of Brittany are recorded for the period 1187±1203:Maurice de Craon and Alan de Dinan, the lord of Becherel, although itis impossible to determine when each held the of®ce.

⁴

What issigni®cant is that neither was a `foreigner' to Brittany. Alan de Dinanwas a native, but Maurice de Craon also had strong Breton connections.Jean-Claude Meuret has demonstrated how, in the eleventh and twelfthcenturies, the barons of Craon managed to be politically subject to thecounts of Anjou but still maintain close relations with their neighbourson the Breton side of the Breton±Angevin march, notably the Vitre andLa Guerche families. Maurice was the nephew of William II de laGuerche, and seems to have been close to his La Guerche uncle andcousins. This is the background to Maurice's grant to Saint-Melaine deRennes in 1162; the next year he attested a grant by Peter de LoheÂac forSaint-Melaine's priory at Montfort.

⁵

The other connection was throughMaurice's stepson, Juhel de Mayenne, who was married to the daughterand heiress of Alan de Dinan himself.Maurice had also been active in the service of Henry II in Brittany.As a young man, in 1158, Maurice participated in the siege of Thouars,so he may also have been involved in Henry II's seizure of Nantes in

1

Rot. Chart., p. 97.

2

J. Everard, `The ``Justiciarship'' in Brittany and Ireland under Henry II',

Anglo-Norman Studies

20

(1998), 87±105.

3

Gesta,

i, 357; Everard, `Justiciarship', p. 104.

4

Everard, `Justiciarship', pp. 104±5.

5

J.-C. Meuret,

Peuplement, pouvoir et paysage sur la marche Anjou-Bretagne (des origines au Moyen-Age),

Laval, 1993, pp. 297, 325±6, 394±5, 425;

Preuves,

i, 625, 646±8.

the same campaign.

⁶

In 1174, at the height of the rebellion, Henry IImade Maurice custosand dux exercitus of Anjou and Maine. As part ofthis charge, Maurice was given custody of the specially rebuilt castle ofAncenis, at a strategic point at the border of the counties of Nantes andAnjou.

⁷

After peace was restored, there is no further mention ofMaurice in Henry II's administration of Brittany, but he continued toact in royal affairs as one of the king's most trusted barons. Maurice wasone of the three laymen named as sureties for Henry II in the `treaty ofIvry' in 1177, acted as the king's negotiator at the siege of Limoges in