Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany and Earl of Richmond (23 September 1158 – 19 August 1186) was
Duke of BrittanyThe Duchy of Brittany was a medieval tribal and feudal state covering the Armorican peninsula west of Mont-Saint-Michel and north of Nantes/Naoned, including Rennes/Roazhon and Vannes/Gwened...
between 1181 and 1186, through his marriage with the heiress
ConstanceConstance of Penthièvre was hereditary Duchess of Brittany between 1171 and 1196...
. Geoffrey was the fourth son of King
Henry II of EnglandHenry II, called Curtmantle ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France...
and Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine.
Family
He was a younger maternal half-brother of
Marie de ChampagneMarie of France, or Marie Capet, Countess of Champagne , was the elder daughter of Louis VII of France and his first wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Her younger sister was Alix of France....
and
Alix of FranceAlix of France was the second daughter born to Louis VII of France by his first wife Eleanor of Aquitaine. She was named after her aunt Petronilla of Aquitaine, who was also called "Alix". The birth of a second daughter to Eleanor and Louis instead of a badly needed son was one of the final nails...
. He was a younger brother of William IX, Count of Poitiers,
Henry the Young KingHenry, known as the Young King was the second of five sons of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine.-Early life:...
, Matilda, Duchess of Saxony and
Richard I of EnglandRichard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death in 1199.He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Ireland, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period...
. He was also an older brother of Leonora of Aquitaine, Joan of England and
John of EnglandJohn , King of England, reigned from 6 April 1199 until his death. He acceded to the throne as the younger brother of King Richard I, who died without issue...
.
King Henry arranged for Geoffrey to marry
ConstanceConstance of Penthièvre was hereditary Duchess of Brittany between 1171 and 1196...
, the heiress of Brittany. Geoffrey was invested with the duchy, and he and Constance were married in July 1181. Geoffrey and Constance would have three children, one born posthumously:
- Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany
Eleanor the "Fair Maid of Brittany" was the daughter of Geoffrey Plantagenet and Constance, Duchess of Brittany. Upon the death of Richard I of England, a power struggle commenced between her younger brother Arthur I, Duke of Brittany and King John of England. At the Battle of Mirebeau, Arthur,...
(1184–1241)
- Maud/Matilda of Brittany (1185– before May 1189)
- Arthur I, Duke of Brittany
Arthur I was Duke of Brittany between 1194 and 1203. The posthumous son of Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany and Constance, Duchess of Brittany...
(1187–1203)
Life
Geoffrey was fifteen years old when he joined the first revolt against his father, and was later reconciled to Henry in 1174, when he participated in the truce at Gisors (when Richard was absent) and later, when Richard reconciled at a place between Tours and Amboise. Geoffrey prominently figured in the second revolt of 1183, fighting against Richard, on behalf of Henry the Young King.
Geoffrey was a good friend of
Philip AugustusPhilip II Augustus was the King of France from 1180 until his death. A member of the House of Capet, Philip Augustus was born at Gonesse in the Val-d'Oise, the son of Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of Champagne...
of France, and the two statesmen were frequently in alliance against King Henry. Geoffrey spent much time at Philip's court in Paris, and Philip made him his
seneschalA seneschal was an officer in the houses of important nobles in the Middle Ages. In the French administrative system of the Middle Ages, the sénéchal was also a royal officer in charge of justice and control of the administration in southern provinces, equivalent to the northern French bailli...
. There is evidence to suggest that Geoffrey was planning another rebellion with Philip's help during his final period in Paris in the summer of 1186. As a participant in so many rebellions against his father, Geoffrey acquired a reputation for treachery. Gerald of Wales said the following of him:
He has more aloes than honey in him; his tongue is smoother than oil; his sweet and persuasive eloquence has enabled him to dissolve the firmest alliances and his powers of language to throw two kingdoms into confusion.
Geoffrey also was known to attack monasteries and churches in order to raise funds for his campaigns. This lack of reverence for religion earned him the displeasure of the Church and also of the majority of chroniclers who were to write the definitive accounts of his life.
Death
Geoffrey died on 19 August 1186, at the age of twenty-seven, in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. There are two versions of his death. The more common first version holds that he was trampled to death in a jousting tournament. At his funeral, a grief-stricken Philip was said to have attempted jumping into the coffin.
Roger of HovedenRoger of Hoveden, or Howden , was a 12th century English chronicler.From his name and the internal evidence of his work, he is believed to have been a native of Howden in East Yorkshire. Nothing is known of him before the year 1174. He was then in attendance upon Henry II, by whom he was sent from...
's chronicle is the source of this version; the detail of Philip's hysterical grief is from Gerald of Wales.
In the second version, in the chronicle of the French Royal clerk
RigordRigord was a French chronicler, was probably born near Alais in Languedoc, and became a physician.After becoming a monk he entered the monastery of Argenteuil, and then that of Saint-Denis, and described himself as "regis Francorum chronographus".Rigord wrote the Gesta Philippi Augusti, dealing...
, Geoffrey died of sudden acute abdominal pain, which reportedly struck immediately after his speech to Philip, boasting his intention to lay Normandy to waste. Possibly, this version was an invention of its chronicler; sudden illness being God's judgement of an ungrateful son plotting rebellion against his father, and for his irreligiosity. Alternatively, the tournament story may be an invention of Philip's to prevent Henry II's discovery of a plot; inventing a social reason, a tournament, for Geoffrey's being in Paris, Philip obscured their meeting's true purpose.
Geoffrey was buried at
Notre Dame CathedralNotre Dame de Paris is a Gothic, Roman Catholic Cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral of the Catholic archdiocese of Paris: that is, it is the church that contains the "cathedra", or official chair, of the Archbishop...
.
Fictional portrayals
With a character closely resembling that given by Gerald of Wales above, Geoffrey appears as a major character in the
James GoldmanJames Goldman was an American Academy Award-winning screenwriter and playwright, and the brother of screenwriter and novelist William Goldman....
play
The Lion in WinterThe Lion in Winter is a 1966 Broadway play by James Goldman, who also cinematically adapted it in 1968 for the film directed by Anthony Harvey and a 2003 film by Andrei Konchalovsky.-Original Broadway production:...
. In the 1968 film version of the play, Geoffrey is played by
John Castle- Life and work :Castle was born in Croydon, Surrey. He was educated at Brighton College and Trinity College, Dublin, and trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art....
and in the 2003 film version the role is portrayed by
John LightJohn Light is an English cinema, television and theatre actor.-Career:His theatre performances include The Complete Works Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he starred in Sean Holmes' Julius Caesar as Brutus and in Rupert Goold's The Tempest as Caliban...
.
Ancestry
Sources
- Everard, Judith. Charters of Duchess Constance of Brittany and her Family, 1171-1221, 1999
- Everard, Judith. Brittany and the Angevins: Province and Empire, 1158-1203, 2000
- Gillingham, John. The Life and Tmes of Richard I, 1973
- Reston, James. Warriors of God: Richard the Lion-Heart and Saladin in the Third Crusade, 2001
See also
External links