Arthur of Brittany

Also known as: Arthur I, Duke of Brittany / Arthur duke of Britaine / Arthur the duke of Britaine / Arthur, Duke of Brittany / duke Arthur / yoong Arthur · Family: Brittany · Role: duke and claimant · First appears: King John 1

Arthur of Brittany, son of Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany and Constance, Duchess of Brittany, was nephew to King John and opposed by his grandmother, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Around 1199, after Richard I’s death, the nobles of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine received Arthur as their liege lord. Constance, Duchess of Brittany, fearing for his safety, entrusted him to Philip II of France, who promised to defend him and placed French soldiers in Breton strongholds. Philip II of France knighted Arthur and received his homage for Anjou, Poitiers, Maine, Touraine, and Brittany. Arthur and his mother fled King John to Angers, where she married Guy de Tours, and Arthur later rendered homage to King John for Brittany and his other lands.

In 1202, Philip II of France appointed guardians for Arthur and sent him with two hundred men-at-arms into Poitou. With Hugh le Brun, Earl of March, Arthur encouraged rebellion against King John, took control of Touraine and Anjou, and proclaimed himself earl of those places. He then captured Mirabeau, where Eleanor of Aquitaine was besieged or escaped into a tower, but King John defeated the assembled forces and captured Arthur alongside Hugh le Brun, Earl of March, Andrew de Chauenie, Raimond de Touars, Savary de Mauléon, and Hugh Bangi.

After the battle, Arthur was imprisoned at Falais and then in Rouen. An order from King John to blind him was resisted by Hubert de Burgh, who preserved him from the injury. A report was spread that Arthur had died, and in the following year he was moved from Falais to the tower of Rouen, “out of the which there was not any that would confesse that euer he saw him go aliue.” In 1204, Philip II of France refused peace and continued war against King John over Arthur’s death; later, Louis VIII’s procurators accused King John of murdering his nephew and forfeiting England and his French lands.