The Chateaubriands were divided, soon after their origin, into three branches: the first, that of the Barons of Chateaubriand, was the stock of the two others, and commenced in the year 1000 in the person of Thiern, son of Brien, grandson of Alan III., Count or Chief of Brittany; the second was called the Lords[15] of the Roches Baritaut, or of the Lion d'Angers; the third bore the title of Lords[16] of Beaufort. When the line of the Lords of Beaufort became extinct in the person of Dame Renée, one Christopher II., of a collateral branch of that line, came into possession of the estate of the Guerrande in Morbihan[17]. At this period, the middle of the seventeenth century, great confusion prevailed in the order of the nobility. Names and titles had been usurped. Louis XIV. ordered a visitation, so that each might be reinstated in his rights. Christopher, upon giving proofs of his ancient nobility, was confirmed in his title and in the ownership of his arms, by judgment of the Chamber instituted at Rennes for the reforming of the nobility of Brittany. This judgment was issued on the 16th of September 1669, and ran as follows: "Judgment of the Chamber instituted by the King for the reforming of the nobility in the Province of Brittany, delivered the 16th of September 1669: between the King's Attorney-General and M. Christophe de Chateaubriand, Sieur de La Guerrande; which declares the said Christophe to issue from an ancient noble house, permits him to take the quality of knight, and confirms his right to bear arms gules strewn with fleur-de-lys or without number, and this after production by him of his authentic titles, from which it appears, &c, &c. The said judgment signed Malescot." This judgment declares that Christophe de Chateaubriand de La Guerrande was descended in the direct line from the Chateaubriands, Lords of Beaufort; the Lords of Beaufort were connected through historical evidences with the first Barons of Chateaubriand. The Chateaubriands de Villeneuve, du Plessis and de Combourg were younger branches of the Chateaubriands de La Guerrande, as is proved by the descent of Amaury, brother of Michel, the said Michel being the son of the Christophe de La Guerrande whose descent was confirmed by the above-quoted decree of the reforming of the nobility of 16 September 1669.