Berengar II of Neustria

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Berengar II (died 896) was the Count of Bayeux and Rennes and Margrave of the Breton March from 886 until his death a decade later.

Roland and his successors under Guy of Nantes were aristocrats from Maine. Berengar's kin became the first bilingual Breton and Gallo speaking lords holding residence within Brittany (Rennes and Penthièvre, rather than the Loire Valley-predominant Nantes or Vannes, which nevertheless had at least one Franco-Saxon conflict in Angers), as a consequence of the Breton nobility being more or less broken under the Norman invasions of the 880s and as a reward for holding his ground against their attacks.

Berengar was named for Berengar I of Neustria, but was most likely the son of Henry of Franconia, himself a member of the Senior Capets through the Babenberg lineage. He is likely to have been Henry's son because (1) Berengar named his daughter the feminine form of Poppo, a name common among the Babenbergs, and (2) the main Capetian branch had traditionally held the Breton March. Of course, this is all theoretical and the lineage of Berengar might very well have been Saxon, considering the known presence of a raiding colony of that people in the Bessin and the fact that the Frankish element of this region was never strong, despite involved forenames. Compare Wessex across the English Channel and their ethnic mixture with Cornwall, as well as the pre-Norman Conquest presence of Bretons in England, such as Alan II, Duke of Brittany or Ralph the Staller. These theories are alternatives to the traditionally Breton genealogical origin, because the area was once known as "New Brittany" in the Latin language: Brittania Nova, in Merovingian Francia. It may be said that this lineage was due to Berengar perhaps being descended from Breton expansionists in pre-Capetian West Francia and before the establishment of Normandy as a polity dependent upon the County of Rouen, which annexed Bayeux. All three ideas of origin are as intimately related to later conditions during the Hundred Years' War, as they are to the previous status of Britannia as a Roman Diocese within the Prefecture of Gaul and the general interrelatedness of the people and their bicoastal cultural character.

Berengar married the daughter of Gurvand, Duke of Brittany, by which relationship he attained the countship of Rennes. His brother-in-law, Judicael became Duke of Brittany. Berengar's son was Judicael Berengar, who succeeded him as Count of Rennes. His daughter was Poppa, who was strategically wed to Rollo of Normandy.