Alan Rufus (le Roux), Lord of Richemont in Upper Normandy, 1st Earl of Honour of Richmond (1026 – 1089)

Post author By Steven Wood Collins
Post date November 17, 2021
182 Comments on Alan Rufus (le Roux), Lord of Richemont in Upper Normandy, 1st Earl of Honour of Richmond (1026 – 1089)

“In life, he was noble, of glittering British stock.
A star in the kingdom, Count Alan’s flesh now withers.
England is troubled, for the fairest of magnates has turned to dust.
Now the flower of the Kings of Brittany marks the natural order of things.
He was an officer of the law, in whom ran the blood of kings.
A commander who throve and reached the highest ranks, his glory was second only to the King.
Weep for seeing this, and pray ‘May he rest in peace, O God’.” – Alan Rufus’ epitaph displayed at his burial site in the Abbey of St Edmund.

“I William, surnamed Bastard, King of England, does give and grant unto thee my Nephew[d] Alane Earle of Britaine, and to thine heires for ever, all and every the manour houses and lands which late belonged to Earle Eadwine in Yorkeshire, with the knights fees and other liberties and customes, as freely and in as honorable wise as the said Eadwin held the same. Given at our leaguer before the City of Yorke.”

Alan and his Breton forces arrived at the Hastings battle site more than a half-hour before the rest of William The Conqueror s army. At the vanguard of the Norman advance, Bretons were positioned in the left wing or the rear guard of the army. In L’Estoire des Engles, Alan received praise as the Breton commander (“…Alan and his men struck well”). In Roman de Rou, Wace states that they did the English “great damage”.

Richmond’s role in the Norman invasion of England must have represented a kind of homecoming to him as well as an opportunity to reestablish himself and his people to the land of his Welsh forefathers. He was an agnatic descendant of Conan Meriadoc ap Gereint (305 – 367) King of Dumnonia, 1st Duke of Brittany and Conan I “The Crooked” de Rennes, Duke of Brittany (944 – 1027). Thus,there’s there’s little doubt in my mind that in signing the Roll of Muster as “Alan le Roux, King of England” (although anyone, except William, reading the entry must have thought him daft) he held a preeminent position of power at the Battle of Hastings as one of the Conqueror’s most-trusted knight commanders. He may well also have been one of William’s closest allies and vassals after the Battle of Hastings.

According to the Domesday Book, Alan’s total land holdings (a 250,000-acre tract that stretched from Yorkshire to London) was the third largest registered, behind that held by William and Robert, Count of Mortain. Nevertheless, given the enormous economic wealth of his property, he was by any measure the richest Englishman in history. So, while he and his heirs never held the title as King of England, Earls of Richmond certainly held the means to wield unrivaled economic and financial clout as one of the wealthiest British peerages. Add in his French landholdings and he’s the 11th wealthiest person of all-time

King Henry VII Tudor (1457 – 1509) was the last Earl of Richmond. His son Henry VIII Tudor (1491 – 1547) King of England and Ireland elevated the Richmond earldom to the status of a dukedom in 1525. Charles Gordon-Lennox (1955 – ) is the 11th Duke of Richmond of its last creation (agnatic descendant of Conan Meriadoc ap Gereint (305 – 367) King of Dumnonia, 1st Duke of Brittany and Robert II Stewart (1316 – 1390) 1st House of Stewart King of Scotland).

Alan commenced construction of Richmond Castle in 1071. His grand-nephew Conan IV (1138 – 1171), Duke of Brittany, constructed the magnificent keep that still stands intact today. According to legend, King Arthur‘s cavern, wherein he and his Round Table knights lie asleep, is located somewhere beneath the castle’s grounds.

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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