Alain II Barbetorte Duke of Brittany

✓ Alain II 'Barbetorte' (Twisted-Beard), Duke of Brittany ([before 919]-952), son of Mathuedoi, Comte de Poher, by a daughter of Alain I 'the Great'; taken to England as a child by his father, baptised there with King Athelstan as godfather; returned 936 and drove the Vikings out of Brittany (Nantes 937); m. (1) Roscille of Anjou, (2) a sister of Theobald of Blois; father by Judith of Hoel and Guerech, Counts of Nantes. Source: Medieval Lands (fmg.ac, Cawley), 'Brittany Dukes' (Families of the Comtes de Poher and of Nantes) and 'Brittany Nobility - Nantes', read 2 Nov 2026; the filiations rest on the 11th-century Chronicle of Nantes (chronicle-only, hence ~). [DIRECT ANCESTOR OF THE COMPILER: flag added 2 Nov 2026 by walking the tree from Aynsley, so that this marker is reliable and can be searched.] ||2 Nov 2026 - EVIDENCE AUDIT|| PERSON attested: Flodoard's contemporary Annals (936) record the Bretons returning 'a transmarinis regionibus, Alstani regis praesidio'; Lauer's edition identifies Alain Barbetorte as 'petit-fils par sa mere d'Alain le Grand'. FILIATION (son of Mathuedoi by a daughter of Alain the Great): Chronicle of Nantes c. 27 ('Mathuedoi, comes de Poher ... ducens secum filium suum nomine Alanum, qui postea cognominatus est Barbatorta, quem Alanum ex filia Alani Magni, Britonum ducis, genuerat'); accepted without qualification by Merlet, La Borderie ('si sa fille mariee a Matuedoi n'etait devenue la mere d'Alain Barbetorte, Alain le Grand serait dans la tombe descendu tout entier'), Lauer and Medieval Lands. Grade stays ~ pending ruling. Sources checked 2 Nov 2026: R. Merlet (ed.), La Chronique de Nantes (1896), text and notes; A. de La Borderie, Histoire de Bretagne II (1906); P. Lauer (ed.), Les Annales de Flodoard (1905), notes; Medieval Lands 'Brittany Dukes'. Not reachable: J. M. H. Smith, Province and Empire (1992) and Guillotel/Chedeville (lending-only or not online). ||2 Nov 2026 - UPGRADED TO ✓|| Filiation (son of Matuedoe by Alan I's daughter) confirmed by Smith (1992) - see above; consensus with Merlet, La Borderie, Lauer, Medieval Lands. Source: Julia M. H. Smith, Province and Empire: Brittany and the Carolingians (Cambridge, 1992), Figure 2 'The rulers of Carolingian Brittany' (p. xvii: ALAN I = Oreguen; daughter = Matuedoe; ALAN II (Twistedbeard); 'Counts of Nantes'), p. 139 ('his grandson Alan II on reconquering Brittany ... in 936-7'), pp. 196-7 (Matuedoe, count of Poher, fled to Athelstan's court; Athelstan godfather to 'Matuedoe's infant son Alan II'); read 2 Nov 2026 from Aynsley's copy. Smith calls the Chronicle of Nantes 'a late compilation ... generally extremely unreliable' (p. 94 n. 27), yet gives this descent in her own voice. ||2 Nov 2026 - FURTHER CONFIRMATION|| Kernevez (2023): 'Alan II (known as Alan Barbetorte ...), the son of Mathuedoi and grandson of Alan the Great', who negotiated his return in 936 (Guillotel showed it was by negotiation, not reconquest); later gave up the royal title for that of Duke. Source: Patrick Kernevez, 'From Kings to Dukes: Brittany between the 5th and the 12th Century', Studia Celto-Slavica 13 (2023), pp. 29-44 (doi 10.54586/GAJV1095; HAL hal-04721566), p. 37, drawing on Chedeville & Guillotel (1984); read 2 Nov 2026 from Aynsley's copy.