Alan Rufus

Alan Rufus (alternatively Alain le Roux or Alan the Red) (c. 1040 – 1093) was a probable companion of William the Conqueror during the Norman Conquest. He was the second son of Odo, Count of Penthièvre, by Agnes, daughter of Alain Cagnart, Count of Cornouaille.

Historian K. S. B. Keats-Rohan speculates that Rufus joined William's household before 1066 and was probably present at the Battle of Hastings. Rufus was William's second cousin and received the honour of Richmond in Yorkshire after the Harrying of the North in 1069–1070. To secure his new lands Rufus founded Richmond Castle in 1071. He later became Earl of Richmond, followed by his brother, Alan Niger (Le Noir), who was in turn followed by Stephen, Count of Tréguier. His other brother Brian was granted lands in Cornwall, but relinquished his own estates for a Breton wife and her dowry.

Analysis of the Domesday Survey of 1086 shows that aside from the king and his two half-brothers there were just nine barons in England with an annual income in excess of £750. Rufus' income of £1,200 put him third among the baronial class behind William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford and Roger de Montgomerie, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury. St Mary's Abbey in York was jointly founded by Rufus in 1088. There are conflicting sources for the year of Rufus' death. The Margam Annals and a 13th-century chronicle assert he died in 1089, however Keats-Rohan concludes these are unreliable and that 1093 is more likely based on the Memorials of St Edmund's Abbey and letters written between 1093 and 1095. When Rufus died in 1093, his income was £1,100 per year.