Bertha, Duchess of Brittany

Bertha of Cornouaille (fl. 1125-55), also known as Bertha of Brittany (Breton: Berthe Breizh), was hereditary Duchess of Brittany between 1148 until her death and Dowager Countess of Richmond. Bertha was the elder daughter of Conan III of Brittany by Maude, the illegitimate daughter of King Henry I of England.[1] She was the last member of the Breton House of Cornouaille to reign over Brittany.

Life

Bertha was the daughter of Duke Conan III of Brittany. She married the son of Stephen of Treguier, Alan the Black[2] and she lived in England with Alan until his death in 1146. Alan would eventually become Earl of Richmond. After Alan's death she returned to Brittany as Dowager Countess of Richmond and eventually married Odo II, Viscount of Porhoët.[3] When her father Duke Conan III died, on his deathbed Conan III renounced Bertha's brother Hoèl as heir,[2] and designated Bertha as his heiress. On Conan III's death she became hereditary Duchess of Brittany.[4]

Family

In her first marriage, by 1138, Bertha was married to Alan le Noir [lower-alpha 1]

Bertha and Alan had three children:

• Conan IV, Duke of Brittany, b. 1138, their son and heir, as Duke of Brittany and Earl of Richmond[4]
• Constance, who married Alan III, Viscount of Rohan
• Enoguen, abbess of St. Sulpice

Bertha married her second husband, Odo, Viscount of Porhoet in about 1148.[2][6] Bertha and Odo had three children:

• Geoffroy.
• Adelaide (died in 1220), Abbess of Fontevrault, mistress of Henry II, King of England.[7][8]
• Alix[lower-alpha 2]

Succession

Bertha died between 1158 and 1164, and with her death the ducal throne passed to her son Conan. [lower-alpha 3]

Footnotes

1. Alan le Noir was Count of Penthièvre. He was created 1st Earl of Richmond by Stephen of England for his support against the dispossessed Empress Matilda during the English Civil War.[5] The marriage between Bertha and Alan may have been intended to bring Brittany into the English Civil War on the side of Stephen.
2. Everard states Eudo and Bertha had only one daughter, Adelaide.[8]
3. War broke out between Bertha's son Conan IV, Duke of Brittany and her second husband Odo. Odo may have made a compact with his brother-in-law, Hoel of Nantes to divide Brittany between them. However in late 1156 Conan IV was able to defeat Odo and secure his maternal inheritance.

Notes

1. Bryan 2016, p. 173.
2. Warren 1977, p. 75.
3. Dunbabin 1985, p. 387.
4. Everard 2004, p. 149.
5. Cokayne, G. E., edited by H. A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, & Lord Howard de Walden, The Complete Peerage, London, 1945, vol. x, p. 788.
6. Everard 2004, p. 32.
7. Vincent 2007, p. 331.
8. Everard 2004, p. 46.

References

• Bryan, Elizabeth J. (2016). "Matthew Parker and the Middle English Prose Brut". In Rajsic, Jaclyn; Kooper, Erik; Hoche, Dominique (eds.). The Prose Brut and Other Late Medieval Chronicles. York Medieval Press.
• Dunbabin, Jean (1985). France in the Making, 843-1180. Oxford University Press.
• Everard, J. A. (2004). Brittany and the Angevins: Province and Empire 1158–1203. Cambridge University Press.
• Vincent, Nicholas (2007). "The Court of Henry II". In Harper-Bill, Christopher; Vincent, Nicholas (eds.). Henry II: New Interpretations. The Boydell Press.
• Warren, Wilfred Lewis (1977). Henry II. Yale University Press.