*** Welcome to piglix ***

Harvey II, Viscount of Léon


Harvey II (Breton: Hoarvei, French: Hervé, or Latin: Herveus; c. 1110 – 1168), also known as Hervey Brito or Hervey le Breton, was a Breton nobleman. He was the Earl of Wiltshire in England between 1140 and 1141. About 1157, he succeeded his father, Guihomar III, as the Viscount of Léon in Brittany.

According to William of Malmesbury, Harvey declined an invitation from King Henry I of England (1100–35) to attend his court. However, he went to England to assist King Stephen in the war against Matilda. The Gesta Stephani describes Harvey as "a man of distinction and soldierly qualities". He was careful to state that he was going of his own free will and not out of compulsion or allegiance owed to the English king. Around 1139, in reward for his service to Stephen, who was at the time secure on his throne, Harvey received the hand in marriage of the king's illegitimate daughter Sybilla. He also received the Earldom of Wiltshire and the honour of Eye in Suffolk, which had been Stephen's before his accession.

As lord of Eye, Harvey seems to have had the ambition to turn its priory, which depended on the abbey of Notre-Dame de Bernay in Normandy, into an abbey. He issued a charter confirming the priory's liberties and listing his predecessors as lord of Eye. He confirmed that the priory owed 10,000 herrings to the abbey of Bernay every year, asserted his right to select the prior with the abbot's approval and also asserted his right to raise the priory to an abbey at any time. Whatever his long-term intentions were, he did not hold the honour long enough to see them through.


...
Wikipedia

...