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Historical person
11th century–1093
Alan Rufus, or Alan the Red, was a Breton nobleman who supported William the Conqueror and became one of the richest magnates in post-Conquest England. His extensive lands formed the basis of the Honour of Richmond in Yorkshire, and his career shows how William rewarded continental followers with estates taken from the defeated English elite.
Alan’s position combined military service, lordship and close connections to the new Norman regime. Medieval evidence also associates him with Gunhild, a daughter of Harold Godwinson, creating a striking personal link between a leading beneficiary of the conquest and the family of the king defeated at Hastings.
In Carol McGrath’s The Swan-Daughter, Alan Rufus is a major historical character and the love interest of Gunhild of Wessex, with their relationship set against the redistribution of power and land after 1066.
Series
Carol McGrath’s Daughters of Hastings Trilogy follows the women of Harold Godwinson’s family as the Norman Conquest destroys one political world and forces them to build lives in another. The Handfasted Wife centres on Edith Swanneck after Hastings and during resistance to William the Conqueror; The Swan-Daughter follows…
All books in this series
