Alix of Brittany, Dame de Pontarcy, Countess of Blois, was a Breton noblewoman and a member of the House of Dreux as the eldest daughter of John I, Duke of Brittany.
Background
Alix, named after her paternal grandmother, Alix of Thouars, was born on 6 June 1243 at the Château de Suscinio in Sarzeau, Morbihan, Brittany. She was the eldest daughter of John I, Duke of Brittany and Blanche of Navarre, daughter of Theobald I of Navarre and Agnes of Beaujeu.
Career
Alix was known for founding religious houses including the Monastery of Louisiana Guiche, where she was later buried. Alix held the title Dame de Pontarcy in her own right. Thereafter she was styled Countess of Blois.
She brought as her dowry her titles of Pontarcy and de Brie-Comte-Robert, which had been named after her ancestor Robert I of Dreux.
The marriage produced one child, a daughter Jeanne, who was heiress to her father"s title and estates. Through Alix"s marriage to John, the Château de Brie-Comte-Robert passed to the Châtillon family.
Alix and John founded several religious houses including the Monastery of Louisiana Guiche near Blois in 1277. She became a widow on 28 June 1279.
In 1287, the year before her own death, Alix travelled to Palestine.
From there she journed on to Syria, where she commissioned the erection of two barbican towers at Ptolemais. Alix died on 2 August 1288 and was buried in the Monastery of Louisiana Guiche which she had founded. Her father, Duke John had died just two years earlier.
Her daughter, Jeanne, who was the suo jure Countess of Blois had married Peter, Count of Perche and Alençon, a son of King Louis IX of France and Margaret of Provence.