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Brian Fitz Count

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Brian fitz Count (also Brian of Wallingford) was descended from the Breton ducal house, and became an Anglo-Norman noble, holding the lordships of Wallingford and Abergavenny. He was a loyal adherent of Henry I, King of England, and a staunch supporter of his daughter, the Empress Matilda, during the Anarchy (1135–1153).

Life

Brian fitz Count was an illegitimate son of Alan IV, Duke of Brittany and Lucie de Ballon[1] (see also Hamelin de Ballon), and thus the half-brother of Conan III, Duke of Brittany.[2] Brian's maternal uncles were Hamelin de Ballon and Wynebald de Ballon. He was sent to be raised at the court of King Henry I of England.[a][2] He served Henry well at the Battle of Tinchebray in 1106 and elsewhere, winning the king's favor.[3] Brian became a close friend of Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester, Henry I's illegitimate son, and the two remained longstanding allies.[4] In 1127 Brian and Robert were chosen by Henry to accompany his daughter, Empress Matilda, to Anjou during the negotiations for her marriage to Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou.[2]

Brian married an English heiress, Matilda D'Oyly, widow of Miles Crispin, and through her obtained the Honour of Wallingford c. 1127.[5] Brian also inherited the castle and Barony of Abergavenny in the Welsh Marches from his uncle, Hamelin de Balun.[citation needed] He held the honour of Grosmont Castle, but by what right is uncertain. He gave this to Walter de Hereford, the son of Miles de Gloucester, 1st Earl of Hereford about 1141.[citation needed] Brian held the honour of Wallingford by marriage, and his extensive estates in the counties of Berkshire and Wiltshire ran from the Chilterns to the Thames.[6]

He supported the Empress Matilda against King Stephen from 1139 on. Although Stephen's forces repeatedly besieged Wallingford Castle, they failed to take the fortification and had to retreat.[b] His castle of Wallingford was the easternmost point of the Angevin defenses in the Thames valley[7] and it held off King Stephen's forces for over thirteen years.[4] The Empress Maud's nighttime escape from the siege of Oxford was to the safety of Wallingford Castle.[8]

When Brian died is unknown. After his death Matilda became a nun at Bec and died in the 1150s. As they had no heirs their lands and castles in England and Wales reverted to the Crown early in the reign of Henry II of England.[9]

Family

Brian and Matilda D'Oyly had two sons who were both stricken with leprosy, and died young.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ Henry's patronage of Brian fitz Count, the illegitimate son of his brother-in-law Alan Fergent, could be seen as patronage to a nephew and his presence at court could be the result of having been sent there either out of friendship or a family relationship. Regardless, Brian fitz Count proved to be a loyal and valuable adherent to Henry I. See: Charlotte A. Newman, 'Family and Royal Favor in Henry I's England', Albion, Vol. 14, no. 3/4 (Autumn 1982), p. 301 & n. 27
  2. ^ A.L. Poole wrote of Brian: "Brian, a man of intelligence and education, was one of the better types of baron of the anarchy, a type more numerous perhaps than is usually supposed, whose honest purpose is lost sight of at a time when the majority of the class was making the very name of baron a byword for faithlessness, cruelty and lawlessness". See: K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, 'The Devolution of the Honour of Wallingford, 1066–1148', Oxoniensia Vol. 54 (1989), p. 315.

References

  1. ^ a b Thomas Christopher Banks "The dormant and extinct baronage of England" : or, An historical and genealogical account of the lives, public employments, and most memorable actions of the English nobility who have flourished from the Norman conquest to ... 1806[-1837] , vol II. pp.1-2, T. Bensley, Bolt Court, 1808
  2. ^ a b c C. Warren Hollister, Henry I (Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2003), p. 314
  3. ^ H. W. C. Davis, 'Henry of Blois and Brian Fitz-Count', The English Historical Review, Vol. 25, No. 98 (Apr., 1910), p. 298
  4. ^ a b Donald Matthew, King Stephen (Hambledon and London, London, 2002), p. 97
  5. ^ K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, 'The Devolution of the Honour of Wallingford, 1066–1148.' Oxoniensia Vol. 54 (1989), p. 315
  6. ^ Donald Matthew, King Stephen (Hambledon and London, London, 2002), pp. 96-7
  7. ^ H. W. C. Davis, 'Henry of Blois and Brian Fitz-Count', The English Historical Review, Vol. 25, No. 98 (Apr., 1910), p. 299
  8. ^ The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Trans. James Ingram (Echo Library, Middlesex, 2007), p. 165
  9. ^ I.J. Sanders, English Baronies: a study of their origin and descent, 1086-1327 (The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1963), p. 93

Further reading

  • Round, J. Horace (1885). "Fitzcount, Brian" . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 1. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  • Remfry, P. M., Grosmont Castle and the families of Fitz Osbern, Ballon, Fitz Count, Burgh, Braose and Plantagenet of Grosmont (ISBN 1-899376-56-9)
  • King, Edmund. (2004). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. [1].
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