Brian of Brittany in English, or Brien (also Brient) de Bretagne in French, was a Breton noble who fought for William I of England. He was born in about 1042, the second (probably illegitimate) son of Odo, Count of Penthièvre.[1] Brian is said to have commanded a band of Bretons with his brother Alan the Black (Alain Niger), at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
At midsummer in 1069, Brian and Alan led a force that defeated a raid by Godwine and Edmund, sons of Harold Godwinson, who had sailed from Ireland with a fleet of 64 ships to the mouth of the River Taw in Devon. They had escaped to Leinster after the Battle of Hastings in 1066 where they were hosted by Diarmait. In 1068 and 1069 Diarmait lent them the fleet of Dublin for their attempted invasions of England. Later in the same year, Brian and William fitz Osbern were sent to relieve sieges at Shrewsbury and Exeter by rebelling Englishmen. They were too late to save the former, but a sally by the defenders of Exeter drove the English into the path of Brian and William who "punished their audacity with great slaughter".[2] Brian received grants of land in Suffolk and Cornwall, although the first mention of him being made Earl of Cornwall was not made until 1140 by his nephew, Alan, 1st Earl of Richmond. He had been given the same title by King Stephen and may have been trying to improve the legitimacy of his new rank.[3] Brian's name is often associated with the construction of Launceston Castle[4]. He left England following the rebellion of Ralph de Gaël in 1075[5]. He lived the rest of his life as a semi-invalid in Brittany[6]. He died before 1086; his estates had by then become part of the grants made by King William to Robert of Mortain.[7]