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Conan I “The Crooked” de Rennes, Duke of Brittany (944 – 1027)

Post author By Steven Wood Collins
Post date December 14, 2021
201 Comments on Conan I “The Crooked” de Rennes, Duke of Brittany (944 – 1027)

Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey

10th century

19th to 21st century

Plan of the mount by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc

Illumination from 1460 representing the marriage of Geoffroi, Count of Rennes and Duke of Brittany, with Havoise de Normandie, sister of Richard II, Duke of Normandy.

Duke Conan I de Rennes endowed Mont Saint-Michel Abbey in a charter dated 28 July 990. In recognition of this initial contribution and others, he and his eldest son, Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany (989 – 1008) were interred there.

Previously sacked and occupied by Vikings, who ran off the monk inhabitants, Rollo Ragnvaldsson, 1st Duke of Normandy, Count of Rouen (860 – 930) restored the ruined church and invited the monks to return. His successors contributed to the building construction development and management of the church abbey at considerable expense for the next 300 years. (William The Conqueror (1028 – 1087) was his agnatic descendant).

Count Alan Rufus (1026 – 1089; his agnatic descendant), 1st Earl of Richmond, fought as a knight-commander at the Battle of Hastings (1066). In reward for his heroic contribution to the Conquest, he was granted the Honour of Richmond (see Domesday Book) as a magnate fiefdom. By the time of his death, the land grant made him the fourth-wealthiest man in the history during the Middle Ages (behind William, who was second on the list) as well as one of the most powerful men in England.

Henry VIII Tudor (1491 – 1547) King of England and Ireland elevated the Richmond earldom to a dukedom in 1525. Charles Gordon-Lennox (1955 – ) is the 11th Duke of Richmond.

He was to become the maternal grandfather of Duke Robert I “The Magnificent” who was the 3rd great-grandson of Ganger Hrólf “Rollo” (860 – 930) 1st Duke of Normandy, Count of Rouen.

The Duke of Rennes was an agnatic descendant of Conan Meriadoc ap Gereint (305 – 367) King of Dumnonia, 1st Duke of Brittany The Rohans of Brittany were also his agnatic descendants.

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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