Alan Rufus
[1] Alan Rufus is first mentioned as a witness (along with his mother Orguen and brothers Gausfridus, Willelmus, Rotbertus, Ricardus) to a charter dated to 1056/1060, issued by his father Eozen to the Abbey of Saint-Aubin in Angers (q.v.
[1] On the journey to the battle site near Hastings, the Breton forces formed the vanguard, arriving a good half-hour before the rest of William's army.
A column of Norman cavalry swept into the Cambridge area in late 1066 and built a castle on the hill just north of the river crossing.
The wording of the proclamation is: Ego Wil(el)mus cognomine Bastardus Rex Anglie do et concedo tibi Nepoti meo Alano Britannie Comiti et heredibus tuis imperpetuum omnes uillas et terras que nuper fuerunt Comitis Edwyni in Eboraschira cum feodis Militum et ecclesiis et aliis libertat(ibus) et consuetudinibus ita libere et honorifice sicut idem Edwinus ea tenuit.
[10]Philemon Holland's English translation of William Camden's "Brittania" (1607) renders the proclamation: I William surnamed Bastard, King of England, doe give and grant unto thee my Nephew[d] Alane Earle of Britaine, and to thine heires for ever, all and every the manour houses and lands which late belonged to Earle Eadwine in Yorkeshire, with the knights fees and other liberties and customes, as freely and in as honorable wise as the said Eadwin held the same.
[19] In Richmondshire, the Domesday Book's "Land of Count Alan", many of the Anglo-Dane lords, or their heirs, were retained in their pre-1066 positions of authority.
Alan is mentioned as a lord or tenant-in-chief in 1,017 entries of the Domesday Book, behind only King William I and Robert, Count of Mortain in the number of holdings.
Alan donated large sums to a number of religious houses, but most famously founded, with King William II, the Benedictine St Mary's Abbey in York in early 1088.
[29] Alan was among the first four magnates to support William II of England against the Rebellion of 1088 in favour of the Duke of Normandy, Robert Curthose.
Beginning in March 1088, Alan was granted additional territory by King William from the confiscated lands of his neighbours who had rebelled.
William de St-Calais had been in the army led by the king against Bishop Odo, but suddenly fled north to his castle at Durham.
After the rebellion was defeated, Roger of Poitou, Alan Rufus, Odo of Champagne,[31] and Walter d'Aincourt[32] were sent to persuade St-Calais to surrender.
[34] According to Christopher Clarkson,[35] in 1089 Count Alan persuaded King William II to convene ("assemble") England's very first "High Court of Parliament" ("under that name") at York.
Two medieval sources (the 12th century Margam Annals and Stephen of Whitby's brief history of St Mary's, York)[40] indicate that he died in 1089 or shortly thereafter, but scholars have concluded that 1093, perhaps on 4 August, is more likely.
