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| Guerech | |
|---|---|
| Duke of Brittany | |
| Reign | 981–988 |
| Predecessor | Hoël I |
| Successor | Alan of Nantes |
| Died | 988 |
| Spouse | Aremburga of Ancenis |
| Issue | Alan, Count of Nantes |
| House | House of Nantes |
| Father | Alan II, Duke of Brittany |
| Mother | Judith |
Guerech of Brittany, was Count of Nantes and Duke of Brittany from 981 to 988.
Guerech was the second illegitimate son of Alan II and Judith. He succeeded his brother Hoël I upon his death.
Guerech had been brought up at the Abbey of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, near Orléans. He was appointed bishop of Nantes in 981 but was presumably not consecrated. He did not exercise priesthood and it was Hugh (Hugo), who reportedly had the "character of wise and austere life" according to Albertus Magnus, who ruled de facto over the spiritual part of the Church of Nantes. However, Guerech kept the temporal rule of the bishopric, which he ruled with the County of Nantes for the seven years of his reign as duke.
He pursued the war his brother had started against Count Conan I of Rennes. In 982, Guerech signed a treaty with Count William IV of Poitou, who confirmed the possessions of Nantes south of the Loire — the pagi of Herbauges, Tiffauges and Mauges — which his father, Alan II of Brittany, had obtained in 942. [1] The following year, Guerech wento to the Court of the King of West Francia, Lothair to pay homage. [2] On the way back, he was stopped by Count Geoffrey I of Anjou, who kept him a prisoner and demanded that Guerech admitted he had received Nantes from the Count of Anjou and became his vassal. [3]
The same year, Guerech's wife Aremburga had a strategic fortress built in Ancenis, the Château d'Ancenis. [4] Conan, who had ordered Hoël I's murder according to the Chronicle of Nantes and rightly feared that the counts of Nantes and Anjou would unite against him, is said to have convinced Guerech's physician, a Heroicus, also abbot of the Redon Abbey, to poison the duke.
Like his brother, Guerech died prematurely in 988 and was buried in Redon Abbey.
Guerech had married Aremburga of Ancenis. They had an only son, Alan, who succeeded him as Duke of Brittany but died two years later.
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The counts of Nantes were originally the Frankish rulers of the Nantais under the Carolingians and eventually a capital city of the Duchy of Brittany. Their county served as a march against the Bretons of the Vannetais. Carolingian rulers would sometimes attack Brittany through the region of the Vannetais, making Nantes a strategic asset. In the mid-ninth century, the county finally fell to the Bretons and the title became a subsidiary title of the Breton rulers. The control of the title by the Breton dukes figured prominently in the history of the duchy. The County of Nantes was given to Hoel, a disinherited son of a duke. He lost the countship due to a popular uprising. That uprising presented an opportunity for King Henry II of England to attack the Breton duke. In the treaty ending their conflicts, the Breton duke awarded the county to Henry II.
Ricwin, Ricuin, Richwin, or Richovin was the Count of Nantes from 831 to 841. A Rihwinus comes witnessed the will of Charlemagne in 811.
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Judith of Nantes was titular Countess of Nantes from 1051 to her death in 1063.
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Guihomar III of Léon was a Viscount of Léon. He succeeded his father Harvey I.
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Guihomar I of Léon was one of the first Viscounts of Léon. He lived c. 970 - 1055.
Vikings were active in Brittany during the Middle Ages, even occupying a portion of it for a time. Throughout the 9th century, the Bretons faced threats from various flanks: they resisted full incorporation into the Frankish Carolingian Empire yet they also had to repel an emerging threat of the new duchy of Normandy on their eastern border by these Scandinavian colonists.
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Guerech's life, as well as his brother Hoël's, is mainly known through the Chronicle of Nantes , compiled in the 11th century and which is unfavourable to the Bretons in general and to the inhabitants of Rennes in particular.
