Alan of Dol

  General Notes:

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ^{733,736,742,871}
Dr. Round in his famous paper* proved that the Scottish Stuarts or Stewarts and the England FitzAlans were descended from a certain Alan Dapifer of Dol in Brittany circ 1080, who was subsequently identified by Dr. Round in 1902 as being the son of Flaald [Genealogist, New Series, vol. 18 1902, pgs. 1-16]. Alan of Dol in turn had three sons: (1) Alan Jr., Dapifer of Dol, who occurs in Brittany circa 1095, and in 1097, was a leader in the First Crusade. (2) Flaald, called son of Alan, who appears in Mommouth in 1101/02 as a follower of its lord, William son of Baderon, another Breton, and was the male ancestor of the Stuarts and FitzAlans. (3) Rhiwallon, who was a monk of the abbey of St. Florent de Saumur, near Dol.

Flaald, who became heir to his elder brother Alan, was father of Alan FitzFlaald, Sheriff of Shiropshire, whose rise under Henry I is linked by Dr. Round with the support given to Henry by the Bretons before his accession, when he was lord of Cotentin. Alan founded Sporle abbey, Norfolk, as a cell of Stl Florent, and had three sons by his wife Aveline de Hesdin: (1) Jordan FitzAlan, Dapifer of Dol in Brittany. (2) William FitzAlan, Lord of Oswestry in Shropshire, who died in 1160 and was the ancestor of the FitzAlans, Earls of Arundel from about 1290 to 1580. (3) Walter the Steward, or FitzAlan, who went northwards to Scotland and became Dapifer Regis under the Scots King David. From Walter the Steward, the Royal House of Stuart, as well various still existing familes of Stuart or Stewart. In the year 1335, the office of Steward of Scotland was claimed by Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel, as his hereditary right; the real holder, Sir Robert Stewart (later King Robert II) the representative of Walter the Steward (FitzAlan) the first grantee, having been temporarily dispossessed by invading English. [The Scots Perrage, vol. I, p. 11]
~"The Origin of the Stuarts and the Fitzalans." The New England Genealogical Register. Vol. 116, January 1962, pp. 21-23

*Reverand Robert William Eyton had discussed this subject years (1858) before, (and is quoted later by, Dr. Round) in his Antiquities of Shropshire, Vol. VII

• Background Information: Foundation for Medieval Genealogy Web Site at Dukes of Brittany 831-1213 . ⁷⁰⁹
Hereditary Seneschal of Dol, 1045.
~Charles Cawley's Medieval Lands: The Dukes of Brittany