n, came under the regency of Eudo, his uncle, in
infancy, but later turned his sword against him and his abettor,
William of Normandy, the Conqueror.

Notwithstanding the national enmity of the Normans and Bretons, there
existed between the Dukes of Normandy and the Dukes of Brittany ties
of affinity that rendered the relations between the two states
somewhat complicated. At the time when Duke Robert, the father of
William of Normandy, set out upon his pilgrimage, he had no nearer
relative than Alain, Duke of Brittany, the father of Conan II,
descended in the female line from Rollo, the great Norse leader, and
to him he committed on his departure the care of his duchy and the
guardianship of his son.

Duke Alain declared the paternity of his ward doubtful, and favoured
that party which desired to set him aside from the succession; but
after the defeat of his faction at Val-es-Dunes he died, apparently of
poison, doubtless administered by the contrivance of the friends of
William. His son, Conan II, succeeded, and reigned at the period when
William was making his preparations for the conquest of England. He
was a prince of ability, dreaded by his neighbours, and animated by a
fierce desire to injure the Duke of Normandy, whom he regarded as a
usurper and the murderer of his father Alain. Seeing William engaged
in a hazardous enterprise, Conan thought it a favourable moment to
declare war against him, and dispatched one of his chamberlains to him
with the following message: "I hear that you are ready to pass the sea
to make conquest of the kingdom of England. Now, Duke Robert, whose
son you feign to consider yourself, on his departure for Jerusalem
left all his inheritance to Duke Alain, my father, who was his cousin;
but you and your abettors have poisoned my father, you have
appropriated to yourself the domain of Normandy, and have kept
possession of it until this day, contrary to all right, since you are
not the legitimate heir. Restore to me, therefore, the duchy of
Normandy, which belongs to me, or I shall levy war upon you, and shall
wage it to extremity with all my forces."

_The Poisoned Hunting-Horn_

The Norman historians state that William was much startled by so
hostile a message; for even a feeble diversion might render futile his
ambitious hopes of conquest. But without hesitation he resolved to
remove the Breton Duke. Immediately upon his return to Conan, the
envoy, gained over, doubtless, by a bribe