History of the Le Roux Family

1) The Le Roux of History - 300 BC to 1300 AD

     The Le Roux family entered Western written history through the reports of Roman military commanders and through Roman plays and literature. The "Alain Le Roux’s", as the Romans referred to them collectively, were a tribe of nomadic people.  They lived near the Aral Sea in what is today the southern Ukraine. Their lives revolved around their flocks and herds, which grazed the rich native grasses of the region. The men and boys spent most of their waking hour on horseback, training to defend their camps from all variety of predators. Women and small children stayed close to the tribal camp.  Their camp consisted of a collection of ox-carts which carried their family's possessions, and in which the family slept during stormy weathers.

     The Alain Le Roux’s stood out as being tall, fair-skinned, and in the eyes of the Roman officers looking for new recruits, a handsome and favourable group. The Le Roux’s had a unique brutal fighting style; unlike that of the short bow and short sword of the typical Steppe fighter.  The Le Roux’s favoured the long wooded lance for frontal attack, and the very heavy two-handed "Barbarian" sword strapped across his back for "close work". The Le Roux warriors and their horses were heavily armoured against the light darts of their enemies. Their enemies tried to isolate and destroy individual Le Roux horseman.  The Le Roux’s fought more like a highly disciplined World War II tank corps, destroying everything that crossed their path.

    The Le Roux’s had the history and the advantage that they rarely lost a battle, but the down side was that their casualties in almost every encounter were severe. The penalty for capturing was almost certainly death or life-long slavery, so the Le Roux warriors were strongly motivated to win. To make up for their severe casualties, the Le Roux’s typically adopted the young boys and fertile women among their captives, killing off the babies, the young females and the old or crippled, and selling the men as slaves. While the Le Roux’s could hold their own against the undisciplined tribes of the Steppes, they arranged to sell their services to the Romans as "native shock troops" where they are also a real match for the even more highly disciplined Roman Legions.

     Things changed permanently on the Steppes around 300BC. The Le Roux’s grew to dominate the region, sweeping aside everything in their path. The Roman Legions took them on in a frontal assault, and were soundly overpowered!  But, as recognition of the Le Roux fighting skills, the Romans offered to live with them, keeping their own leaders and culture, and fighting under the Roman direction. The combination of a heavily armoured Le Roux "corps" to flush the enemy out of fortified positions, and the faster, more mobile troops to pursue and capture the fleeing enemy worked well, and both groups prospered, at one time even sacking Constantinople.

    The Roman Empire together with the Roman Legions and the Le Roux’s followed across Danube into central Europe, fighting as Roman mercenaries whenever the opportunity arose. It was the Le Roux’s who taught the Romans the "feigned retreat", which became their trademark military tactic.

    The Le Roux’s had separated themselves from the Romans and had taken the position as rulers of Brittany. The fighting skills of the Le Roux mercenaries were the key to the two greatest victories; against Attila in 451 at Chalons, France, and against Harold in 1066 at Hastings, England. The feigned retreat is familiar to anyone who has ever played with a puppy; the idea is to pretend to be frightened and run away, enticing your adversary to follow. But as everyone who has played with a puppy knows, this strategy rarely fools anyone, particularly a trained and disciplined enemy. And when it fails, it fails disastrously.

    The Le Roux fighting forces had several characteristics in their favour. They had the reputation for slow, deliberate attacks right into the heart of the enemy's defences, taking severe casualties to achieve their goals. So the first part of the tactic is not to arouse any suspicion. Their heavily armoured horses and men made a deliberate attempt to target as they battled to outrun their pursuers. The game is to be completely convincing. The technique required extreme discipline of all the attacking troops; if anyone revealed the game too early, the enemy could simply pull aside, allowing the attacking horsemen into their midst where they could be easily isolated and slaughtered. If the attackers withdraw too soon, before they suffered severe losses, the enemy could get suspicious and simply witness their withdrawal. The Romans were taught the finer art of the technique by the Le Roux’s at great loss of Roman troops.

    In 451 the Le Roux's had their first major test against the Huns in central. The Romans planned to get rid of the Huns, who had been terrorizing Europe and the Roman Legions. They were unable to stop the Hun cavalry. The Roman's planned a classic power warfare. The Hun's cavalry, led by their King Sangiban, attacked directly into Attila's camp, while the Visigoths and the Romans waited in defence of the attack. If all went as planned, Attila would leave his strengthened camp to teach his former allies a lesson, the Le Roux’s. When the Hun troops were strung out in hot pursuit, the Visigoths and the Romans would close in from both sides and massacre them, while the cavalry would turn and block off escape from the front. The Romans promised to the Visigoths, as pay-off ( regarded as a classic Roman tactics)  gold and safe passage out of France into Spain , where they would be free from Roman control. The reward to the Le Roux’s for fighting under the Roman banner, was promised the land to the west and north of the battle site. But the Franks and Goths living on the land were not consulted, for the army that had defeated Attila would have no trouble with a few unorganized Franks. And the Romans would be free of "Attila, The Scourge of God" forever, or so they hoped.

The battle proceeded as planned by the Romans, with one secret change. The Le Roux horsemen attacked Attila's camp, raised a major riot, and then charged back out with the Hun army in hot pursuit, exactly as they had planned. The Visigoths attacked the undefended flank of the Hun army, with severe casualties on both sides. But the Romans, in their infinite wisdom, waited quietly until the Visigoths were badly mauled before joining in the attack and finishing off Attila's trapped and defenceless army. A few apologies and a few more sacks of gold pacified the Visigoths, who licked their wounds and made their way slowly back to Aquitaine or over the Pyrenees into Spain, a lot weaker from their recent encounter. A few carcases of meat and local beer, and the Huns departed in peace, to occupy the land between the Romans and the Le Roux’s. The Le Roux’s had no intention of displacing the local residents and learning how to grow grain and grapes; instead they occupied the castles and manor houses of the local chiefs and became the local aristocracy. Their life was one of training for warfare, and collecting taxes, and sampling the local alcohol supply. It was good to be a noble! The Romans gradually lost power and pulled out of France. The Le Roux’s adapted quickly to the local customs, sensing any changes in the political front and being the first to embrace whatever new doctrine was in vogue. But for the Le Roux's these times were destined to get even better.

Across the English Channel, the throne of England was vulnerable, and William, Duke of Normandy, had the most audacious plan; to invade the kingdom for himself by arranging the support of an army in southern England and defeating the indecisive King Harold. The plan had many parts, employing psychological warfare in conjunction with the Pope against the gullible English clergy, and using a Danish threat to northern England to divide and confuse the enemy. But in the end, William needed seasoned troops on the ground to assure his victory, and offered a share of the gains for loyal supporters. The Duke of Brittany, the highest-ranking Le Roux in the region, offered to finance one third of William's forces, under the command of his son, (and William's future son-in-law) Count Alain Fergant (Alain of the Red Hair or more particularly “Le Roux”).

These troops are known in the English history books as the Bretton Knights, who twice at Hastings led the tactic as they are well known for the unsuccessful charges into the English forces, only to withdraw in panic with their enemy in fierce pursuit. Unfortunately for the English army, this panic made the Le Roux horsemen "retreat" right between two ranks of Norman infantry and archers, where their defenceless English pursuers were massacred. The classic Le Roux "feigned retreat" worked flawlessly twice in one day, leaving Harold's forces weak and demoralized, easy prey for William's infantry. William left Hastings in command of the whole of England, and he rewarded his loyal supporters Alain Le Roux’s allies with Dukedoms, Earldoms, and a collection of minor titles. As in France 600 years earlier, the Le Roux’s (as they are now known for) simply moved into the castles and manor houses of the losing aristocracy, married the local beauties, adapt to the local customs for the propose of determining the flow of politics, and went back to living the good life.

2) The Le Roux’s of Myth and Legend

     After their spectacular performance at Hastings in 1066, the Alain Le Roux knights of history had a few more minor military triumphs against the unsophisticated peasant armies of Scotland, Wales and Ireland and then faded into obscurity. Their tactics were no match for the English longbow, the crossbow and finally the infantry musket. These long-range weapons allowed an untrained amateur with minimum equipment to fight effectively against a highly trained and expensively equipped professional warrior, from a distance and usually from ambush, with virtually no risk of injury. But just as the heavily armoured knight was disappearing in reality, he was coming to dominate the world of myth and fantasy.

      The French-speaking writers of the 1300's and 1400's and how they reduced the oral traditions of England and France to writing form, they were searching their history of Super-Heroes for appropriate characters to populate their stories. The strongest, most fearless examples they could find were the Bretton knights (Le Roux's) who had been decisive in securing the kingdom for William the Conqueror. With each time telling, these Super-Heroes stories it became more fierce, strong and fearless. Did no real English king before William ever see mounted knights used in battle? Never mind; the mythical King Arthur has his whole fictional court populated with nothing but Le Roux Bretton Knights on horseback, jousting with their long wooden lances. From Ivanhoe to Monty Python to Dungeons & Dragons, the Le Roux knights became the prototype fantasy Super-Hero for the next millennium. Even the tales of the hero Robin Wood with an authentic English long bow against the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham, prominently features the bumbling Le Roux knights as the Keystone Corps of fourteenth-century England.

When we try to convey the image of a past golden age, the image of Camelot and Arthur's Round Table filled with bravery and the strong and totally honourable (Le Roux's) Bretton knights.

This Castle pointed out the power of the Duke of Brittany and trusty servants of the Duchy. Destroyed in 1341, at the time of the war of succession of Brittany.

The market town of Richmond - from the Norman French riche monte meaning 'strong hill'. The building of the Richmond Castle has commenced in 1071 on land gifted to Alan Le Roux (the Red) of Brittany by his kinsman William the Conqueror as reward for his part in the victory over King Harold and his support to William as one of his most trusted advisers. 

King William I receives the allegiance of his nephew Alain le Roux, Earl of Brittany, and grants him a charter of the Honour of Richmond.

Earl of Brittany Arms.

The Norman Conquest, the (Le Roux's) Bretton Knights formed an very important element in the left flank of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.