Guéthénoc, 1st vicomte of Porhoët, Rohan and Guéméné (990 – 1040)

Post author By Steven Wood Collins
Post date November 16, 2021
199 Comments on Guéthénoc, 1st vicomte of Porhoët, Rohan and Guéméné (990 – 1040)

Guéthénoc, 1st Vicomte of Porhoët, Rohan and Guéméné,, started construction of the first Château de Josselin built on the site in 1008. He named it after his son. Henry II Plantagenet (1133 – 1189) 1st Plantagenet King of England pulled down the castle entirely in 1175 during his attempt to conquer the Duchy of Brittany for his son Geoffrey Plantagenet. Geoffrey later reigned as Duke of Brittany from 1181 until he died in 1186.

The current structure evolved from several successive iterations that were also partially destroyed as a result of sieges that occurred through the end of the 14th century. It took three hundred years to build out the basic castle and surrounding structures as you see it today. (Château de Josselin is open for guided tours throughout most of the year.)

The estate has been owned by Guéthénoc’s descendants continuously through today, which makes it the longest continuously held private estate in world history.

After fleeing the invasion of southern Wales by Jutes and Angles, Welsh chieftain Conan Meriadoc (305 – 367) and his tribe later succeeded in conquering Armorica (present-day Brittany) during the 4th century AD. He is the primogenitor of the modern House of Rohan.

According to legend, Conan’s first wife, St Ursula, was martyred in Cologne soon after they were married in Rome by Pope Cyriacus. She met her death along with 11,000 virgin handmaidens who accompanied her there on a holy pilgrimage. Huns who occupied the city at the time beheaded every one of them. She gave birth to one son, Cadfan (Gideon), before embarking on her fateful pilgrimage.

Dareca verch Calpurnius, his second wife, supposedly bore him twenty-one children (many of whom were canonized as Catholic saints). She was the sister of Saint Patrick of Ireland (389 – 461) Patron Saint of Ireland .

Guéthénoc and Alan Rufus share Conan I, Duke of Britanny (944 – 1027), as an agnatic ancestor. Alan was one of the proven knight companions of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings. He was created the 1st Lord of Richmond in conjunction with his award of the Honour of Richmond in 1071.

In 1452 Edmund Tudor, Henry VIII‘s grandfather, was created the 1st Earl of Richmond. Henry VIII created the 1st Duke of Richmond for his illegitimate son Henry FitzRoy in 1525. His Grace Charles Gordon-Lennox is the 10th Duke of Richmond (4th creation).

The patrilineal descent of vicomtes de Porhoët from Guéthénoc ended when Anne de Rohan inherited the title as Comtesse de Porhoët. Rene II de Rohan-Gie, her grandson, was the last of Guéthénoc’s descendants to inherit the title. When his son Henri II de Rohan (1579 – 1638) became a Pair de France, the relatively nominal French peerage was essentially elevated to dukedom status. At the age of 24, in 1603 he became the 1st Duke of Rohan (and Prince of Léon).

In 1588, Louis VII de Rohan (1562-1589) was created the 1st Duke of Montbazen (who was also Guéthénoc’s direct descendant). The peerage is extant.

Alan la Zouche, Guéthénoc’s 3rd great grandson, relocated to England during the reign of Henry II. Alan’s 3rd great grandson, Alan III la Zouche, was created Baron la Zouche of Ashby in 1299. The English peerage fell under abeyance with the death of Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche, in 1625.

François Marie-des-Neiges Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc, Grand Master of the Order of Malta, enlisted 1,800 Maltese seamen and Knights of Malta to serve in the French Navy. In 1781 the French Navy assisted by the Maltese sailors defeated the British in the Battle of the Chesapeake.

A graduate of École nationale d’administration (ÉNA), one of France´s foremost civil service graduate schools, Josselin de Rohan-Chabot (born 1938), 14th Duke of Rohan, represented the Morbihan department in the French Senat from 1983 through 2011. He presided over the Senat contingency of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), starting with its formation by President Jacques Chirac in 2002.

In J.R.R. Tolkien‘s Lord of the Rings , Rohan is the name of the “Middle-Earth” realm ruled by the Kings of Rohan.

By Steven Wood Collins

I spent most of my life unaware of my ancestral heritage. Sure, I knew of the personal history of my more immediate relatives; but beyond that, I never had any inkling as to my ancestral heritage. Then one day many years ago my sister said to me, “I sometimes wonder about our family background.” And so my quest to discover our genealogical roots commenced.

I started building my family tree with the very basic relationships, going back in time from my grandparents, one ancestor at a time. That initial effort proved to be the hardest part of the pursuit, mainly due to my lack of expertise as a novice genealogical researcher. As I gained familiarity with the databases and how to efficiently mine them, my progress gained ever-increasing momentum. Today, The Patricians! tree (Ancestry.com) contains nearly 120,000 individuals, stretching over 135 generations, 5,800 of which are my direct ancestors in a genealogical sense.

During this trek back in time, I encountered fascinating figures in both history and obscurity. This blog contains many stories about their genealogical relationship to me (and many of you). By far and away, as a student of history, the historically obscure individuals are of particular interest to me. I cite Baron “Blue Beard” Montmorency-Laval de Rais (1405 – 1440) as an example of a historically maligned personage whose real contribution to history, as both a playwright and hero of France, has yet to be properly recognized. Another example is Earl Edward de Vere (1550 – 1604), who’s yet to gain widespread recognition as the actual author of the body of literary work wrongly ascribed to William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616).

My life-long interest in international economics and finance continues unabated. I primarily demonstrate this professional involvement as a contributor to the Long Room, the members-only international finance professionals' forum hosted by the Financial Times of London.

I'm an avid recreational scuba diver who enjoys traveling to exotic dive sites. My love of the sea and marine life gives me an unbounded appreciation and support of “green” issues, especially those devoted to the conservation of endangered species and coral reefs.

He continually posts results of his personal genealogical research to his Goodreads Authors Blog. Entitled The Patricians - The Ancestral Heritage of Steven Wood Collins, the work represents thousand of hours of his research efforts and related commentary.

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