$Laval$

The House of Laval was a baronial family of Maine, named after the town and castle of Laval, where Baron Guy I is recorded early in the eleventh century. By tradition every head took the name Guy.

When the direct line died out in 1211 with Guy VI, his sister Edme had married Matthieu II de Montmorency under a contract requiring her eldest son to keep the Laval name and arms. The Montmorency-Laval branch succeeded and held wide lands in Brittany. It ended in 1412, when the heiress Anne carried the inheritance to the Montfort family by a similar contract.

The Montfort-Laval line lasted until 1547 and the Rieux-Laval branch until Guy XX was killed in Hungary in 1605. The possessions passed to the House of La Tremoille. Gilles de Rais, born Gilles de Montmorency-Laval and a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc, was executed in 1440.