General Notes

Earl/Baron of Richmond
Count of Brittany

Founder (1110) Augustinian Abbey of St. Croix at Guincamp, Brittany, France.
Founder Cistercian Abbey of Begard, Brittany, France.
Held Honour of Richmond in England.

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STEPHEN, a count of Brittany, youngest son of Eudon,[a] succeeded his eldest brother, Geoffrey Boterel I, or Geoffrey's son Conan in the Breton lands, and his brother Alan the Black in the honor of Richmond in England, thus uniting all the possessions of the family, but he appears to have been out of possession of the honor of Richmond for a time during the reign of William II. In March 1101, he was a surety for Henry I for the observance of an alliance with Robert, Count of Flanders, and on 3 September 1101 at Windsor he witnessed charters of the King for Herbert, Bishop of Norwich, and for St. Peter's, Bath. On 30 October 1107 he executed at Lamballe a charter for the abbey of SS. Sergius and Bacchus at Angers, and in 1123 at Guingamp one for the abbey of St. Melaine at Rennes. He was a benefactor of the abbey of St. Mary, York, and in the period 1125-35 confirmed to that house gifts of churches, tithes and lands in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk, which formed part of the honor of Richmond. About the year 1110 he and his, wife founded the Augustinian abbey of Ste. Croix at Guingamp, and In 1130 he founded the Cistercian abbey of Bégard.

He married Hawise, whose parentage is unknown (e). He died 21 April, probably in 1135 or I 136. His tomb was in the quire of St. Mary's, York. [Complete Peerage X:786-7, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]

[a] The filiation of Stephen has been a matter of dispute since the lives of him and his father cover about 135 years, and those of the two and Stephen's youngest son, Count Henry, about 180. The descent, however, is beyond doubt, since in a charter for St. Edmund's he describes himself as "Stephanus comes Britanniae Eudonis comitis filius" and refers to his brother Alan the Red and to his sons Geoffrey, Alan and Henry, and this is borne out by other charters, in particular that of Duke Conan. There is no express evidence that Stephen was the son of Eudon's wife Orguen, and he may have been the issue of a second marriage.

(e) She was living in 1135, when, as "comitissa Hadewisa" she witnessed her husband's charter for St. Edmunds. In the first edition of the present work it is stated that she was Countess of Guingamp and that Stephen became Count of Guingamp in her right. For this there seems to be insufficient foundation: Guingamp in the diocese of Treguier would be a part of the lands of Count Eudon.