Family of Laval

The family of Laval is a family which marked the French history. It had the characteristic to be important as well in the Comté of Maine as in the Duché of Brittany. The house of Laval was besides, with those of the Rohan and the Clisson, most powerful with the Duché of Brittany. The English aristocratic family Delaval would come from the family of Laval.

History

Seigniory of Laval

The seigniory of Laval appears in the first quarter of the 11th century. The castle is built by some Guy Ier de Dénéré (or of Laval), vassal of the Count of Maine Herbert Ier Wake up-Dog (death towards 1035).

The direct downward last of the lords de Laval, Emma of Laval, wife in XIIIe century Mathieu II of Montmorency and the châtellenie changes family thus. To the extinction of the male line of the Laval-Montmorency , to died from Guy XII of Laval (1412), the castle is allocated to the son-in-law of this last, Jean de Montfort-Gaël.

In order to respect the local tradition, Jean takes the name of Guy XIII of Laval. His/her son, Guy XIV of Laval, succeeds to him in 1415. This last, companion of Jeanne d' Arc, obtains from the king Charles VII of France the rise in the seigniory of Laval in county in 1429.

The same family will occupy the fortress until in 1794. It is in addition to note that celebrates it Gilles de Retz (or of Ray), notorious murderer and model of Charles Perrault for his " Blue Beard " , belonged to a branch junior by the family of Laval.

Historical legends

The counts of Anjou, the dukes of Brittany, according to their former annalists, had fabulous origins and went up with the Troyen S. the lords of Laval, were satisfied to go down from a nephew with Charlemagne. These legends had for them the dedication of moved back an enough antiquity. Guy-Walla in particular and his first successors was admitted by the tradition when the canon Pierre the Baud gave them entered his history at the beginning of the 16th century.

The house of Laval had its fables already received at the 15th century. At that time and from still the counties of Laval were the heirs to the name of Laval and the patronymic nickname of Guy. There was interest to flatter their self-esteem by going up few degrees the generations of their aïeux.

Alliances that Jean-Baptiste de Goué gives to its ancestors, to establish these remote degrees, are obviously false as that who would create to him family ties with one of the barons of Laval, in the year 1010. It acts a proven historical trickery. The title manufactured to prove this alliance was even the occasion of a serious error for the authors of Art to check the dates , since it decided them to at the head place chronological list of the lords of Laval, a Geoffroy-Guy of Laval which does not have an other proof of its existence.

André Rene Paige also speaks about memories which goes up the origin of the family of Laval until Marcomire, one of the three chiefs of the Francs which shook the yoke of the Romans under the empire of Valérien, approximately in 259. Paige adds that this subject is full with fables and acronyms.

See too

List of the lords of Laval

Genealogy

1. House of Laval

The first starts with Guy Ier of Laval, and finishes with Guy VI of Laval, died in 1218, leaving for heiress, Edme (or Emme), her daughter, who was married in 1220 with Mathieu II of Montmorency, provided that the first child that they would have would take the name and the weapons of Laval. Mathieu II of Montmorency, that the king Philippe Auguste made Connétable of France, did not want to leave the weapons of his house, it broke them only of five money shells on the cross.

A noble family and aristocrat of England, the Delaval would go down from this line.

2. Connect of Laval II

The second branch starts with Mathieu II of Montmorency, and finishes with Guy XII of Laval, which died in 1412, leaving for heiress Anne of Montmorency-Laval, which had married in 1403 or 1404, Jean de Montfort, lord of Kergolay, which obliged by his marriage contract, him and its successors, in infinitum , to take the name and the weapons of Laval.

3. Connect of Montfort-Laval

The third branch begins with Jean de Montfort, known as Guy XIII of Laval, which died in 1415, and finishes by Guy XVII of Laval, which died in 1547, twenty five years old and three months, without leaving children of Claude de Foix, his wife.

4. Connect of Rieux-Laval

The fourth branch begins with Louis of Holy-Moor, known as Guy XVIII of Laval, which had married Renee de Rieux, grand-daughter of Guy XVI of Laval. Louis of Holy-Moor and Renee de Rieux had a named sister Claudine who married in 1547 François de Coligny, lord of Andelot. This branch finishes by Guy XX of Laval, killed in Hungary in 1605, without alliance.

5. Connect Trémoille

Fifth branch started with Henri of Trémoïlle, by representation of Anne of Laval, her great-grandmother, second girl of Guy XVI of Laval, which had married in 1521 François of Trémoille, of which Louis III of Trémoille, which married in 1540 Jeanne de Montmorency, died in 1596, of which Claude of Trémoille, died in 1604, and who left Charlotte-Brabantine of Orange-Nassau, its wife, Henri of Trémoïlle, duke of Thouars, prince de Talmont, count de Laval, etc

Henri III of Trémoïlle, still protesting at that time, has its name on a bell of Montjean, gone back to 1646, to which one gave the names of Maurice-Guy . It is the last echo of the traditional name of the counts de Laval and an invitation to respect this use. The dukes of Trémoïlle did not do anything of it. Mr. the prince de Tarente, writes one of Laval the December 2nd 1668, arrived Thursday evening (November 29th) downtown of Laval. There is seven years that it there avoit esté .

Possessions

The Pays of Retz belonged to the house of Laval, and was in 1581 set up in duchy-peerage in favor of the house of Gondi, which had up to that point had it as baronnie, then county, and it passed in 1676 in the house of Villeroy.

Currency

Famous members of the family

Ecclesiastics

Guy of Laval, († 1338) bishop of Quimper then Mans;
Pierre of Laval, († 1357) bishop of Rennes;
Gilles of Montmorency-Laval, († towards 1502) bishop of Sées
François of Laval, (towards 1500 - 1554) bishop of Fraud-of-Brittany;
Pierre of Laval, (1443 - 1493) bishop of Saint-Brieuc and Saint-Malo then archbishop-duke of Even Rheims and of France;
Jeanne of Laval, abbess of Étival-in-Charnie;
Henri-Marie of Laval de Boisdauphin, (1620 - 1683), bishop of the Leon and La Rochelle;
François of Montmorency-Laval, (1623 - 1708) titular bishop of Pétrée then 1st bishop of Quebec, declared Happy;
Louis-Joseph of Montmorency-Laval, (1724 - 1808) cardinal, Prince-bishop of Metz and Large chaplain of France;
Marie-Louise of Laval-Montmorency, (born in 1723), was the last and forty-third Abbesse of Montmartre.

Soldiers

Gilles of Laval-Montmorency, more known under the name of Gilles de Rais, lord of Ingrandes and the Champtocé-on-Loire, (1404 - † October 26th 1440), Marshal of France in 1429
Andre de Lohéac, lord of Lohéac and Retz (1408 † 1486), Marshal of France in 1439
Urbain of Montmorency-Laval, marquis of Sanded (1557 - 1629), Marshal of France
Guy, count of Montmorency-Laval (1677 - 1751), Marshal of France in 1747
Guy de Montmorency, duke of Laval (1723 - 1798), Marshal of France in 1783
Anne Alexandre Marie Sulpice Joseph de Montmorency, marquis de Laval, then duke of Laval, hero of the War of independence of the United States.
Anne Adrien Pierre of Montmorency-Laval, duke of Laval.

Policies

Henri II of Montmorency

Adventurers

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