Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany

Geoffrey (September 23 1158 – August 19 1186) was Duke of Brittany between 1181 and 1186, through his marriage with the heiress Constance. Geoffrey was the fourth son of King Henry II of England and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Family

He was a younger maternal half-brother of Marie de Champagne and Alix of France. He was a younger brother of William, Count of Poitiers, Henry the Young King, Matilda of England and Richard I of England. He was also an older brother of Leonora of Aquitaine, Joan of England and John of England.

King Henry arranged for Geoffrey to marry Constance, the heiress of Brittany. Geoffrey was invested with the duchy, and he and Constance were married in 1181. Geoffrey and Constance would have three children, one born posthumously:

Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany (1184-1241)
Maud of Brittany (1185-before May 1189)
Arthur I, Duke of Brittany (1187-1203)

Life

He was fifteen years old when he joined the first revolt against his father, and was later reconciled to Henry in 1174, when he took part in the truce meetings at Gisors (when Richard was not present) and later, when Richard was reconciled at a place between Tours and Amboise. Geoffrey also figured prominently in the second revolt of 1183, fighting against Richard on the side of the Young King.

He was a good friend of the French king Philip Augustus, 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 seneschal. 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 August 19, 1186, at the age of twenty-eight. There are two possible versions of what happened to him: the more common story is that he was trampled to death during a jousting tournament. At his funeral, a grief-stricken Philip was said to have tried to jump into the coffin with him. The source of this story is Roger of Hoveden's chronicle, and the detail of Philip's hysterical grief comes from Gerald of Wales. However, the chronicle of Rigord, a French royal clerk, claims that Geoffrey died of a sudden illness: an attack of acute abdominal pain, which apparently happened immediately after Geoffrey made a speech to Philip, boasting of his intentions to lay waste to Normandy. It is possible that this version of events was an invention of the chronicler, the sudden illness representing God's judgement on an ungrateful son for plotting rebellion against his father and for his lack of regard for religion. It is more likely, however, that the tournament story was itself an invention, created by Philip to prevent a plot from being discovered by Henry II. By inventing a purely social reason, a tournament, for Geoffrey to be in Paris, Philip obscured the probable nature of their plotting. See ^*

Fictional Portrayals

With a character closely resembling that given by Gerald of Wales above, Geoffrey appears as a major character in the James Goldman play The Lion in Winter. In the 1968 film version of the play, Geoffrey is played by John Castle and in the 2003 film version the role is portrayed by John Light.

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

External links

Hoveden on the The 1183 Revolt
The Medieval Sourcebook contains many primary sources including Hoveden and Gerald of Wales, some of which pertaining to Geoffrey