General Notes

Richmond, previous creations: Alan III, a Count of Brittany, whose uncle, another Alan, was probably a companion in arms of William I (The Conqueror) at Hastings and was granted vast land holdings in Yorkshire almost immediately after the Conquest, seems to have been recognized as Earl of Richmond by 1136.  There is no record of his formal investiture with the dignity, however.

His title derived from Richmond Castle in North Yorkshire, which his uncle Alan had built not long before dying in 1089 and which remained the caput or administrative centre of the honor (agglomeration of knight's fees in a single unit under the feudal system).  Richmond Castle was granted to the 1st Duke of Richmond of the present creation in August 1675, the same month he was first ennobled, but the medieval hono comprised lands throughout eastern England, not just in Yorkshire.  Earl Alan sided with Stephen against the Empress Maud at the time of the Anarchyl.  His son Conan IV held the Dukedom of Brittany (right to which he enjoyed through his mother, Alan's wife) as well as the Earldom of Richmond.  [Burke's Peerage, p. 2402]

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EARLDOM OF RICHMOND (II)

CONAN IV, DUKE OF BRITTANY and EARL OF RICHMOND, son and heir, succeeded his father in the Earldom of Richniond, being at that time under age. In 1156 he was in receipt of the third penny of the borough of Ipswich and two hundreds. In September 1156 he crossed to Brittany, besieged and took Rennes and put his stepfather Eudon to flight; shortly afterwards Eudon was taken prisoner by Ralf de FougEs and Conan was recognised as Duke of BrIttany. Between the latter part of 1156 and April 1158 he was in England, executing charters at Boston and Washingborough in Lincs, York and Richmond, and at Cheshunt in Herts, but on 22 April 1158 he was at Rennes, where he executed with the consent of his mother a charter for the abbey of St. Melaine. In July 1158 died Geoffrey, brother of King Henry II, who had the comtE of Nantes, which Conan thereupon seized. The King ordered the honor of Richmond to be seized and crossed to France; Conan hastened to meet him at Avranches, where on 29 September he surrendered Nantes and made his peace. At some unascertained date after obtaining possession of the Duchy he disselsed his uncle Count Henry of TrEguier and Guingamp, which he retained till his death. He must have visited England in 1160, the year of his marriage to Margaret of Scotland. Thereafter he was probably for the most part in Brittany, executing a charter at Guingamp for Savigny on 12 March 1162 or 1163, and one at Quimper for the abbey of Ste. Croix of QuimperIE on 15 August 1162, and another for Savigny at Rennes on 2 February 1163. He was present at the Council of Clarendon in January 1164, about which time he executed at Wilton a charter for Le Mont St. Michel; this seems to be his last visit to England of which record exists. In the latter part of 1166, when Conan's only daughter and heir, Constance, was betrothed to Geoffrey, son of Henry II, he surrendered the Duchy of Brittany to the King, retaining only Guingamp and its dependencies. In the same year he executed at Rennes a charter for Savigny, and on 31 July he with the King was present at the translation of the body of the Breton saint Brieuc in the abbey church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus at Angers. He was again with the King at Angers on 24 March 1168, when he witnessed a royal charter. By a charter, of which the limits of date are 1167-1171, he gave land for the foundation of the abbey of St. Maurice de CarnoIt.

He married, in 1160, Margaret of Scotland, sister of MALCOLM IV, King of Scofland, and daughter of Henry, EARL OF HUNTINGDON, by Ada or Adeline, daughter of William (DE WARENNE), EARL OF SURREY. He died 20 February 1171. His widow married, 2ndly, before Easter 1175, Humphrey DE BoHUN, Constable of England; she died in 1201, and was buried at Sawtrey Abbey, Hunts.  [Complete Peerage X:791-3, XIV:545, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]