Conan IV, Duke of Brittany

Conan IV, called the Small ( † 1171 ) was Duke of Brittany from 1155 to 1166.

He was the son of Alain de Bretagne, Mr. Guingamp and Earl of Richmond, and the Brittany Duchess Bertha, daughter of Duke Conan III ..

Conan III. appointed him as his heir under regency of Eudon de Porhoët, the second husband Bertha, which he disinherited his own son Hoël II, who had to settle with the county Nantes.

Conan IV revolted against his grandfather, allied with Hoël, but then had to flee to Henry II, who confirmed him as Honneur de Richmond, which he had inherited from his father beaten in 1154 to England.

Conan has received military aid from England, which allowed him to return to Brittany; he found several allies, but the fact that he appeared as a vassal of the English king, also provoked an uprising under the leadership of other Big Odo of Porhoëts, but was defeated and his turn had to leave Brittany. Conan was proclaimed in 1156 to the Duke. In the same year Nantaiser drove his uncle Hoël and familiar to Count Gottfried VI. of Anjou, brother of Henry II After the death of Godfrey in 1158 believed Conan, Nantes recover, but it had passed Henry II.

Odo of Porhoët now launched a new revolt, which also had success, but Henry II also provided the pretext to intervene directly in Brittany. He took Odo first Porhoët from, then - after a last uprising in 1173 - also the county Penthièvre. Conan IV was forced to abdicate in 1166 and Henry made ​​himself regent of the duchy for his son Gottfried II Plantagenet, the betrothed the heiress Constance, granddaughter Conan III. , Up to the age of majority.