Hoël II, Duke of Brittany

Hoël II (c. 1031–1084) was Count of Kernev (French: Cornouaille, Breton: Kernev), from 1058 as Hoël V. On the basis of his marriage to Hawise, Duchess of Brittany, in 1066, he became Duke of Brittany jure uxoris.

Hoël was the son of Alan of Cornwall and his wife, Judith of Nantes, granddaughter of the illegitimate son of Alan II of Brittany. Hoël started the House of Kernev (Cornouaille) of Brittany,^{[lower-alpha 1]} which ruled the Duchy until 1156.

Little is known of the lives of Hawise and Hoël. However, this political marriage between the House of Rennes in the east and the House of Cornouaille in the west may have further strengthened Brittany at a time when external interference was attempted by William the Conqueror. After Hawise's death in 1072, Hoël acted as regent for his son, Alan IV, until the latter reached his majority^[1] in 1084.

During his reign he faced several rebellions from Breton nobles. Geoffrey Grenonat of Rennes (a natural son of Duke Alan III of Brittany and thus a half-brother of Hawise) led a revolt and was joined by Ralph de Gael^[2] who had returned to Brittany from England after the failure of the previous year's Revolt of the Earls. In 1076, Ralph having plotted against Hoël, was besieged at Dol. William the Conqueror came to Hoël's aid, after which Hoël finally made peace with Ralph.^[3]

Hoël's second son, Matthew, succeeded to the county of Nantes.

Notes

1. The Cornouaille region of Brittany is distinct from the Cornwall region of Britain.

References

1. Following examples given in Bailey et al., this may have been at the age of twenty-one.
2. Keats-Rohan, p. 3.
3. Encyclopædia Britannica & see link.

Bibliography

• Keats-Rohan (1992). "The Bretons and Normans of England 1066-1154" Nottingham Medieval Studies (PDF).
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ralph de Guader". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• B. Gregory Bailey, Meaghan E. Bernard, Gregory Carrier, Cherise L. Elliott, John Langdon, Natalie Leishman, Michal Mlynarz, Oksana Mykhed and Lindsay C. Sidders (January 2008). "Coming of Age and the Family in Medieval England". Journal of Family History. 33 (1). pp. 41–60. doi:10.1177/03631990073084492008.