Fougères is a town in Brittany, just southwest of Mon-St-Michel, overlooked by a spectacular medieval fortress (above), begun in the tenth century. It is "Felger" in Breton. The name means "fern," and the plant appears in the family's arms. The early seigneurs de Fougères intermarried in almost every generation with branches of the Breton ducal house.

Judicaël de Mayenne, who was probably a son of Geoffroi de Mayenne and his wife Constance, daughter of Duke Conan III (see Brittany), was the father of Meen or Maino, first lord of Fougères. His son Alfred or Auffroi de Fougères (c1000-c1032) may have been the same person as Frangalo (below), but more likely they were brothers. The name of Alfred's wife is not known; they were the parents of Maino II, who died about 1089. His wife Adelaide (probably a daughter of Walter Giffard, seigneur de Longueville, and thus a sister of the Rohese Giffard who married Richard FitzGilbert de Clare) was still living in that year. They had five children: (1) Raoul, see below; (2) Eudes; (3) Judicaël or Juhaël; (4) Godehildis; and (5) Junardaudis. We know nothing about the younger four but their names are mentioned in several charters.

Raoul I de Fougères (died 1124) married his cousin Avice, a daughter of Richard FitzGilbert de Clare, Earl of Hertford, and had three children: (1) Maino III (died 1138), married but apparently no children; (2) Henri (died 1154), see below; and (3) Robert, ancestor of the Giffards of Weare in Devonshire (now Weare Giffard). Though related to the more famous Giffards through the female line, I don't think these Giffards are our ancestors.

Henri (died 1154) succeeded his brother as seigneur de Fougères. He married Olive, daughter of Étienne, comte de Penthièvre (see Brittany), and Havise de Guingamp. Five known children: (1) Raoul II, see below; (2) Guillaume, called "l'Angevin," who held a manor at Twyford in Buckingham and may be the father of Richard Giffard of Twyford - not the same family as the Giffards mentioned above; these Giffards held Twyford for many generations, and are not our ancestors as far as I can tell; (3) Frangalo; (4) Clemence (died 1194), married Robert, seigneur de Montfort-sur-Risle, no children - we are descended from his brother Thurstan, see Montfort; and (5) Anne, married Robert de Montfort, seigneur de Hédé.

Raoul II de Fougères (died 1194) married Mathilde (or possibly Jeanne), daughter of Gelduin, seigneur de Dol, and his wife Noga de Brionne. Five children: (1) Juhaël, living in 1173, apparently unmarried; (2) Guillaume, see below; (3) Henri, probably died young; (4) Marguérite, married first Guillaume Bertrand, and second Waleran de Beaumont of Meulan (one son, Raoul, ancestor of the seigneurs de Courselles); and (5) Mabel, married Alain IV, vicomte de Rohan.

Guillaume, who outlived his older brother Juhaël but died before his father Raoul II, married Agathe, daughter of Richard de Hommet and Agnes de Beaumont (possibly the same Agnes who was a daughter of Henry de Beaumont (died 1119), 1st Earl of Warwick). They had two children: (1) Geoffroi, seigneur de Fougères, see below; and (2) Clemence (died 1252), who married first Alain de Dinan and second Ranulf de Blundeville, Earl of Chester, etc (no children; see Kevilioc).

Geoffroi, seigneur de Fougères, succeeded his grandfather in 1194, and died in 1212. He married Mathilde, eldest daughter and heiress of Eudes III, comte de Porhoët, and his wife Berthe, daughter and heiress of Conan III of Brittany. (Her youngest sister Aelis married Guy VI de Mauvoisin, sieur de Rosny, a Martin ancestor.) They had one child, Raoul III de Fougères (died 1256), who married Isabelle, daughter of Amaury I de Craon. They in turn had one child, Jeanne de Fougères, wife of Hugh XII de Lusignan; they were the parents (with six others) of Jeanne de Lusignan, who married Sir Piers de Geneville, Baron de Geneville of Trim and Ludlow Castle, etc, and was the mother of Joan, wife of Roger Mortimer, first Earl of March (see Mortimer).

We return to Frangalo, who was probably a brother of Auffroi de Fougères (c1000-c1032), above. He is recorded as seigneur de Fougères, though Auffroi seems to have held the same title at the same time. He married Chana, daughter of Gelduin II de Saumur, and had at least one child: Denise (died 1081), who married Sulpice I d'Amboise and is our ancestor via that family.