First Duke of Brittany, he drove the Vikings from Nantes in 937 and made the city the capital of the duchy. A founding figure of the Nantes country.
Of all the regional figures that revolve around Briord, Alan Barbetorte is perhaps the most closely bound to Nantes: it was he who returned the city to the Bretons and made it a capital.
The exiled fox
Born around 900, Alan II — nicknamed Barbetorte ("twisted beard") or al Louarn ("the fox" in Breton) — was the grandson of Alan the Great, last king of Brittany. As a child, he had to flee with his father before the Vikings and go into exile in England.
The liberation of Nantes
In 936, urged on by the abbot of Landévennec, Alan landed near Dol at the head of a force of Bretons and English. He marched on Nantes and, in August 937, drove out the Scandinavian occupiers. He completed the reconquest in 939 with the victory of Trans.
Nantes, capital of the duchy
Though descended from a king, Alan could not reclaim that title: in 938 he became the first Duke of Brittany. He made Nantes the capital of the duchy — a choice heavy with consequences for the whole region, and for the lands of the Pays de Retz that depended on it. He died at Nantes in 952.
A statue in the Dobrée Museum
The memory of Alan Barbetorte has remained vivid at Nantes, where a statue depicting him is kept in the Dobrée Museum. One more discreet link between the great figures of the region and the history of Briord.