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Louis XIV., there are handsome quays, slips for building, and extensive storehouses, rope-walks, and barracks; also a building for the reception of the convicts who are sentenced to the galleys, called Le Bagne. This last-mentioned building is on the summit of a hill, and large enough for 4000 convicts. The various establishments for the navy occupy nearly the whole of the port; and the commerce of Brest is trifling compared with what it might become. It has been projected to form a harbour for merchant vessels, by cutting a canal from the naval port to the road so as to make the site of the castle an island. It is considered that this project, if executed, would supply a great desideratum; viz., a considerable mercantile harbour between Nantes and Le Havre. Brest has several establishments for the promotion of knowledge, a botanic garden, a marine library, an observatory, and a museum of natural history. The pop. in 1832 was 29,860,

The bay or road of Brest is perhaps one of the finest natural harbours in the world. The passage, Le Goulet, by which it is entered is less than a mile in width, but within there is room for 500 vessels of the line. The road may be considered as the estuary of several small streams which flow into it, none of which however are of any importance except the riv. of Châteaulin, which forms part of the system of inland navigation connecting Brest with Nantes. There are two main arms or branches of the bay, each of which penetrates several miles inland; and several smaller indentations.

Brest is the chief town of an arrond., containing in 1832 156,810 inh.

BRETAGNE, or according to the English manner of writing it, BRITTANY, one of the most important of the prov. into which France was divided before the revolution, is at present divided into the five dep. of Ille et Vilaine, Loire Inférieure, Côtes du Nord, Morbihan, and Finistère. Bretagne is situated at the extremity of that part of France which, jutting out into the sea, forms with the Spanish coast the Bay of Biscay. On the N. and W. and S.W. sides it is washed by the sea, and on the E. side, which is towards the land, it is bounded by Normandie, Maine, Anjou, and Poitou. The length of the prov. E. and W., from opposite the Isle of Ouessant or Ushant to the neighbourhood of Fougères is about 170 m.; the greatest breadth N. and S. from St. Malo to the neighbourhood of Machecoul S. of the Loire is about 125 to 130 m. The greatest dimension that can be taken is from N.W. near Brest to S.E. 195 m. Bretagne is usually divided into the Haute or Upper Bretagne, and the Basse or Lower Bretagne. It is traversed from E. to W. by the chain of the Menez mountains, which entering the prov. from Maine run towards the sea, before reaching which they part into two branches and enclose the road of Brest. The northern branch, called the Arrée mountains, terminates in the headland opposite Ouessant; the southern branch, the Black mountains, terminates at the Bay of Douarnenez. The highest point of this range of the Ménez mountains

is not more than 1300 ft. The coast of Bretagne is of great length, first extending westward from the mouth of the little riv. Couésnon (which separates this province from Normandie) to the headlands opposite the Isle of Ouessant; and then running S.E. to the neighbourhood of the Isles of Boui and Noirmoutier, which belong to Poitou. The N. coast runs parallel to and not very far from the northern slope of the Ménez mountains. This coast is very irregular in its form, being indented by a succession of bays, those of Cancalle, St. Malo, St. Brieuc, &c., between which the land juts out into headlands. This coast is skirted by a number of small islands and rocks, as the Chausey Isle and Les Minquiers, which are some distance from the coast towards the Isle of Jersey; the Isles of Brehat, les Sept Iles (the Seven Isles), les Meloines, and the Isle of Bas. At the western extremity of Bretagne we have the two deep bays, the Brest Road and the Bay of Douarnenez; and off the coast are the Isle of Ouessant (Ushant) and several smaller ones, as Balance, Beniguet, and the Isle of Saint or Sein. The S.W. coast has an outline as irregular as the N. coast. The bays of Audierne, Benodet, and Forest, with the points or headlands of Raz, Penmarch, and Trevignon, succeed one another; these are followed after an interval of many miles marked only by the outfall of the riv. Blavet, forming the harbours of l'Orient and Port Louis, by the pen. of Quiberon, by the bay of Morbihan, and by the embouchures of the Vilaine and the Loire. The isles along this coast exceed in importance those of the N. coast; among them are included Groix and Belle-Ile, with the several smaller isles of Glenan, Houat, Hædik, and Dumet. The rivers of Bretagne rise for the most part in the Ménez mountains. From the proximity of the mountains to the northern shore the streams which flow from them on that side have too short a course to become of magnitude. The principal streams, enumerating them from E. to W., are the Couésnon, which rises near Fougères, and after separating Bretagne from Normandie, flows into the sea below Pontorson; the Rance, which flows past Dinan, where it becomes navigable, and enters the sea at St. Malo; the Trieux, and the Guer. The space included between the Arrée mountains and the Black mountains forms the basin of the Aulne, which passing Châteaulin (where it becomes navigable), and assuming from it the name of the Châteaulin, falls into the road of Brest. The rivers which flow from the southern declivity of the Ménez are for the most part larger than those above named. The Odet indeed is small, but it is navigable up to Quimper; the Blavet, a longer river, is navigable up to Pontivy, which is 35 m. above its outfall. The Oust, after receiving several tributary streams, falls into the Vilaine, which, though rising just within the boundary of Maine, has the greater part of its course in Bretagne. It flows W. to Rennes, where it becomes navigable, and then turning to the S.W. passes Redon and Roche Bernard, and falls into the sea a little below the latter. Its whole length may be estimated at 110 m., and the length of its navigation at 70 m. The southern part of

Bretagne is watered by the Loire and by some of its tributaries, of which the Sevre Nantaise and the Erdre, small streams but navigable for a short distance, are all that deserve mention. Besides the facilities for navigation which these rivs. afford, Bretagne has one can. (that of the Ille and the Rance), which runs from Rennes to Dinan; and a second which runs nearly parallel to the coast, but several m. inland, from Nantes to Châteaulin, whence the communication is continued by the riv. Aulne or Châteaulin to the road of Brest. There is one lake, that of Grandlieu, S.W. of Nantes. (Map of France, by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.)

The soil varies much. In some parts, especially on the coast, it is very fertile, but there are some vast landes or heaths in the interior. The produce of corn, hemp, and flax is considerable. According to Expilly (A.D. 1762) more corn is raised than can be consumed in the province, and a considerable quantity is exported. A little wine is grown, chiefly about Nantes; the common drink of the people is cider. When the quantity of wine is greater than usual, it is converted into brandy. There is much pasture land, and a considerable number of cattle are raised. The butter, especially that made in the neighbourhood of Rennes, is in good repute. The mineral riches of this province consist of an abundance of lead, also of iron, tin, antimony, and some silver; marble and coal. For further particulars of the produce of this province, the reader is referred to the several departments into which it is now divided.

The pop. of the five depts. into which Bretagne is divided was, in 1832, 2,573,935. Expilly, in his Diction. (Paris, 1762), gives the pop. at 1,660,451. Their origin will be more particularly noticed in treating of their history. The language of Lower Bretagne has for its basis that of the antient Celta, but of more modern form and more mixed character than the Welsh, which is another branch from the same stock. In Upper Bretagne French is spoken. The following extracts from Mrs. C. Stothard's 'Letters written during a Tour in Normandy, Britanny, and other parts of France, in 1818,' 4to., 1820, describe the present condition of the peasantry of this province.

The Bretons dwell in huts, generally built of mud; men, pigs, and children live altogether without distinction, in these cabins of accumulated filth and misery. The people are indeed dirty to a loathed excess, and to this may be attributed their unhealthy and even cadaverous aspect. Their manners are as wild and savage as their appearance; the only indication they exhibit of mingling at all with civilized creatures is, that whenever they meet you they bow their heads or take off their hats in token of respect. I could not have supposed it possible that human nature endured an existence so buried in dirt, till I came into this province. The common people are apparently in the very lowest state of poverty. In some parts of Britanny the men wear a goat-skin dress, and look not unlike Defoe's description of Robinson Crusoe. The furry part of this dress is worn outside: it is made with long sleeves, and falls nearly below the knees. Their long shaggy hair hangs dishevelled about their shoulders, the head being covered by a broad flapped straw or beaver hat. Some few of the Bretons go without shoes or stockings; but the generality wear sabots (wooden shoes), and thrust straw into them to prevent the foot being rubbed by the pressure of the wood. You frequently see the women, both old and young, sauntering along the fields with the distaff, employed in spinning off the flax. The girls carry milk upon their heads, in a vessel of rather an elegant form, somewhat resembling the common Roman household vessels.'-pp. 195, 196.

'The Breton language appears to me, from the number of French words I continually hear spoken with it, far more corrupted than the Welsh. I imagine it probably arises from the people of Britanny holding a freer intercourse, and having mixed more with the French than the Welsh formerly did with the English: this may be accounted for, as Britanny is certainly a country easy of access, nor is it defended or insulated by those barrier mountains that characterize Wales.

The Bretons do not resemble in countenance either the Normans or French, nor have they much of the Welsh character. They are a rude, uncivilized, simple people, dirty and idle in their habits.. The women are invariably dressed in the particular costume I have already described.* It differs here and there, but not importantly, • This description is not quoted here,

in some of the districts. Many of the women of the very poorest kind wear this dress till it becomes so dirty, patched, tattered, and ragged, that you can scarcely trace what it had originally been; and I have seen several children so wretchedly off for clothing, that they run about almost in a state of nature. The women who appear tolerably respectable, and are dressed decently in their singular costume, look florid and healthy; while those attired in the ragged garments, bear a squalid and meagre aspect-this arises, I am induced to believe, from the greater dirt and poverty of the latter class.

The chestnut abounds in Britanny; there are many large forests composed entirely of that tree: their produce, boiled in milk, supplying a means of subsistence for the poor during the greater part of the year. The people collect the chestnuts in sacks, and pile them up within their cabins: several families are even so needy, that they seldom taste the luxury of bread; but these are amongst the children of wretchedness in the extreme degree. I am informed that in the neighbourhood of Brest the lower orders resort to acorns as well as chesnuts for food, which have some nutritious qualities when boiled in milk. The Breton houses (excepting in the towns) are generally built of mud, without order or convenience. It is absolutely a common thing in Britanny for men, women, children, and animals, all to sleep together in the same apartment, upon no other resting-place than that of the substantial earth, covered with some straw. We once saw, near Josselin, a man drive into his cabin a cow and a horse, followed by a pig, and afterwards entering himself he shut the door.'-p. 253-255.

The Bretons inhabit a fine country, capable of render ing them prosperous and wealthy, but little cultivated by their own exertions; and they owe their chief support to the abundant forests of chestnut, and the indigenous productions of their soil. Vast tracts of country appear overgrown with wood, in some parts impenetrably thick and wild; others, where a richly-laden harvest would amply repay the labours of the plough, remain totally neglected. The Breton grovels on from day to day, and from year to year, in the same supine idleness and dirt. If you chance to meet a Breton, and ask him why, when there are so many groves of apple-trees, he does not make cider (for the greater quantity is imported from Normandy), he will tell you, his father never did so. If you say, why not grow more corn? he answers, I have gathered chestnuts from a boy.'-p. 256.

Bretagne possessed before the revolution a local legislature (Les Etats Généraux-States General), once held every year, but after 1630 only every two years. The order of the nobles and of the clergy formed constituent parts of these states: the third part, Le Tiers Etat, consisted of the deputies of the following places, which may be considered as antiently of the greatest importance in the prov. The pop. is from the returns of 1832.

Rennes (on the Vilaine)
Vannes (on the bay of Morbihan)
Nantes (on the Loire)
St. Malo (on the sea)
Dol (near the sea)
St. Brieux (near the sea)
Quimper (on the Odet)
St. Pol de Léon (on the sea)
Tréguier (on the sea)

POPULATION.

Town. Commune.

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3,360

4,477

4,112

5,956

La Guerche (near the Seiche, a branch of
the Vilaine)
Fougères (on the Couesnon)
Hédé (between Rennes and Dinan)
Vitré (on the Vilaine)
Guérande (on the sea)
Le Croisic (on the sea)
Ancenis (on the Loire)
La Roche Bernard (on the Vilaine)
Chateaubriand (on the Cher, a branch of
the Vilaine)
Rédon (on the Vilaine)
Malétroit (on the Oust, a branch of the
Vilaine).
St. Gildas de Rhuys (on the sea)
Auray (on the Auray, near the sea)
Hennebon (on the Blavet)
Pontivy (on the Blavet)

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Lorient (on the Blavet, near the sea) 14,396 18,322 For an account of the more important of these towns the reader is referred to their respective articles; for the others to the dep. in which they are situated.

The staple manufacture of Bretagne is linen and hempen cloth of all degrees of fineness: there is a great deal made of a half-bleached linen called blanchard, of medium fineness, exported to hot countries. The articles of superior fineness and excellence are exported to Spain, South America, and the French colonies. The people of the coast are much employed in fishing: the sardine or pilchard, the mackerel and the cod, are the fish most taken. That part of the coast which is near the mouth of the Loire has some salt marshes, in which a considerable quantity of salt is made. (Malte Brun, Expilly, Encyc. Method.)

History of Bretagne. Celtic and Roman periods.-Bretagne was an early seat of the druidical superstition, and contains some vast monuments at Carnac and elsewhere, which tradition represents as consecrated to the purposes of this antient religion. Invasions of Bretagne from the British isls, or of the isls. from Bretagne, figure in the accounts of the early historians, or the traditions of antient times: but little or nothing certain seems to have been known before the time of Cæsar's invasion of Gaul.

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At that time the states along the coast from the Seine to the Loire had the general epithet of Armorica, a name which the most probable etymology explains to mean 'maritime, from the Celtic words Ar Mor, 'on the sea." Of these Armorican states the Rhedones, the Curiosolites (Cæsar), or Cariosuelites (Pliny), the Osismii, Corisopiti (not mentioned, so far as we know, by Cæsar), and the Veneti, were included in Bretagne. Among the Armorican states mentioned by Cæsar are the Lemovices (de B. G., vii. c. 75.); but as a people of the same name, whose situation (the Limousin) was not maritime had been previously enumerated, some persons (M. de Valois and others) have suggested that the original reading was Leonenses, and that the people dwelt in the country near St. Pol de Léon. D'Anville amends the conjecture by substituting Leonnices for Leonenses; and if this be adopted we must add this people to those included in Bretagne. The remainder of the Armorican states were beyond the frontier of Bretagne, chiefly in Lower Normandie. The Namnetes, who are not enumerated among the Armorican states, were included in Bretagne, which also comprehended part of the territory of the Pictones (the people of Poitou), acquired by the dukes of Bretagne at a subsequent period. The names of these antient people, embodied in the names of their chief towns or other places, have been transmitted to the present day: thus we trace the Rhedones in Rennes, and perhaps in Rédon; the Curiosolites in Corseult, between Dinan and Lamballe; the Veneti in Vannes; the Namnetes in Nantes; and the Leonnices or Leonenses, if we adopt the conjecture of M. D'Anville or M. de Valois in St. Pol de Léon.

In the second year of Caesar's command in Gaul he sent * The Slavonic words Po Mor have a similar meaning; whence the German part of the Baltic coast has the name of Pommern, called by the English Pomerania. In like manner the coast of the Black Sea had among the antients the name of Pontus, abbreviated from Cappadocia ad Pontum.

one of his lieutenants, P. Crassus, with one legion to subdue the Armorican states; and so great was the terror of the Roman arms that they submitted without striking a blow. But they revolted the next year, having seized the envoys whom P. Crassus had sent to procure corn; the Veneti taking the lead in the revolt and instigating the others. The influence of this state, according to Cæsar, far exceeded that of any other on this part of the coast, not only because they had more ships (in which they traded with Britain), and greater knowledge and experience in naval affairs, but also because their possession of the few harbours which lined the coast of the wide and tempestuous ocean enabled them to exact tribute from those who frequented that sea. Cæsar acted with his usual vigour. He ordered a fleet to be built on the Loire, and manned with seamen from the coasts of the Mediterranean; he despatched his lieutenants into different parts to check those who might be inclined to aid his enemies, and to detain them at home for the defence of their own country. He himself marched into the country of the Veneti, who trusting to the difficulties which would impede his march, to the scarcity of provision, and to the ignorance of the Romans of their coast, fortified their towns, collected into them the corn that was out in the country, allied themselves with other states as far off as the Morini and Menapii (people of Picardie and the Netherlands), sent for aid over into Britain, and prepared for a stout resistance. Cæsar describes their vessels as having flatter bottoms than the Roman, and as being thus better adapted for a coast abounding with rocks and shallows, while the height of the prow and stern enabled them to withstand the violence of the tempests, and the general strength with which they were built secured them from being much injured by the beaks of the Roman ships. Their sails were of hides, which they used either for their strength or because they knew not the art of manufacturing linen cloth. Their fleet consisted of 220 vessels. Cæsar stormed their towns, defeated their navy in a great battle, and forced them to submit. To punish them for violating the law of nations by detaining the Roman envoys, he put all their senate to death, and sold the rest of the people into slavery.

In the general rising of the Gauls, towards the close of Cæsar's command, when the different states sent their respective contingents to the force destined to raise the siege of Alesia, the whole of the Armorican states contributed but 6000 men; and this appears to have been the last effort they made for independence while Cæsar was in Gaul. During the continuance of the Roman government we hear little of them. One or two revolts served to show either their unsubdued love of freedom, or the intolerable yoke to which they had been forced to succumb: but these revolts were unsuccessful, and only riveted faster the chains they were intended to burst. In the subdivision of Gaul, Bretagne formed part of the prov. Lugdunensis Tertia.

It was towards the close of the Roman dominion that those immigrations from the isl. of Britain are said to have commenced to which this prov. owes many of its peculiarities.

In 284 some Britons, harassed by the piracies of the Saxons and other Germans, forsook their native land and settled in Armorica, where the Emperor Constantius Chlorus gave them lands. A similar emigration is said to have taken place in the year 364. These emigrations were however unimportant in their character and influence, unless we suppose that from them the prov. or some portions of it received the name of Britannia, which is given to it by Sulpitius Severus before any subsequent invasion had taken place. (Carte, Hist. England, vol. i. p. 6.) The next settlement, that which took place under the usurper Maximus, has been the subject of much dispute. Those writers who have engaged in the controversy have had political interests to serve; the native Bretons contending for their provincial privileges, other writers contending against them on behalf of the crown, and each conceiving that the success of their cause depended on their proving or disproving the independence of the early Breton princes of the crown of France.

The account which has been received by Daru (Histoire de Bretagne, 3 tom. 8vo., Paris, 1826), though contested by many, and among others by Gibbon (Decline and Fall, ch. xxxviii. note 136), Turner (Hist. Anglo-Sax., c. viii.) and Vertot (Histoire Critique de l'Etablissement des Bretons dans les Gaules), is as follows:-When Maximus, in the year 383, was chosen emperor by the revolted legions of Britain, and passed over into Gaul to dethrone Gratian, who then shared the Western empire with his younger brother

likely that it was not incorporated with the kingdom of the Franks, and that it retained its laws and even its native princes, though with a subordinate title.

Valentinian II., he took with him a considerable force of Gregory of Tours, and by other testimony brought forward native Britons. Thus much is admitted on all hands; it by Daru, to admit that several succeeding chieftains, and is the following part which is disputed. The commander perhaps Conan himself, took the title of king. The express of these auxiliaries was Conan, a British prince. Maximus testimony of Gregory must be admitted as sufficient to landed with his troops near the mouth of the Rance, de-establish the subjection of Bretagne to Clovis, though it is feated with great slaughter the army of Gratian at Aleth, now Quidallet, near St. Servan, took Rennes and Nantes, distributed lands to his companions in arms, and bestowed the government of Armorica upon Conan, whom he sent back from Paris, to which city he had advanced, to take possession of his government. Upon the defeat of Maximus by Theodosius the Great (A.D. 388), many of his soldiers took refuge with Conan, who managed to retain the government which he had received from the usurper, and even assumed the title of king. When the further decay of the empire left the remoter provs. in the possession of independence, the Armoricans were released from the subjection in which they had been held; and in the year 419 the Romans recognized as their allies those who had lately been their subjects. Conan appears to have ruled his states in peace and with considerable ability till the year 421, when he died. He is usually designated Conan Meriadec, the latter name signifying, according to some, great king.' His successors are said to have borne the title of king till the time of Alain II., in the 7th century, and were engaged in various wars with the Romans, or with the barbarous nations, Franks, Alans, and others, who had obtained settlements in Gaul. Their dominions, though the extent of them fluctuated with circumstances, were for the most part coincident or nearly so with the modern Bretagne.

In opposition to this history there are writers who deny that any immigration of the insular Britons into Armorica took place until the commencement of the 6th century, when the pressure of the Saxons forced the unhappy islanders to abandon their native seats and retire, some to the western side of the isl., Cornwall, Wales, &c., and others beyond sea into Armorica. These writers also assert the conquest of Armorica by Clovis; and they cite triumphantly a passage of Gregory of Tours, the earliest of the French historians, who says, Semper Britanni sub Francorum potestate post obitum regis Clodovei fuerunt, et comites non reges appellati sunt. The Britons have been always under the power of the Franks since the death of the king Clovis, and have been called counts, not kings. (Greg. Tur., 1. iv. c. 4, quoted by Vertot and Daru.) But this passage of Gregory when carefully examined will rather countenance the supposition of the earlier settlement of the Britons, and of their previous independence under kings of their own; for the limiting expression, since the death of the king Clovis,' intimates that antecedently they were independent of the Franks, which is hardly probable if they landed as fugitives only a few years before the death of Clovis, which occurred in 511 ;* and the notice, that since the same epoch their chiefs had been 'counts, not kings, is an intimation that before that date they had possessed the regal dignity. The whole passage, although it does not fully bear out the statements of the Breton writers, is by no means consistent with the representations of Vertot and other historians in what may be called the French interest.

If amidst these conflicting statements we may venture to give our own conjecture, we should say that the account given by Daru, though perhaps a distorted representation of facts, is not without foundation. It is likely that the British troops, who had followed Maximus into Gaul in 383, were settled by that usurper in Armorica, and were allowed, by the generosity or policy of Theodosius, to retain their lands after the defeat of Maximus. A colony of this kind was much more likely to influence the language and customs of the district in which they settled, than a number of miserable exiles escaping from the pressure of barbarian invaders, and finding their way as they could to a place of refuge in a foreign land. This infusion of a military population serves also to account for the rise of a free state in Armorica, upon the decay of the Roman power, while the rest of Gaul tamely bowed to the yoke either of their Roman masters or their barbarian invaders. The reality of Conan's existence we see no just reason to doubt; and without placing implicit credence in the lists which the Breton writers furnish, we are led by the language of Some antient chronicles place the flight of those Britons into Armorica, who were expelled by the Saxons, after the death of Clovis (see Vertot, vol. i. p. 86), which is likely enough, for the pressure of the Saxons could hardly have been very great before that time. If so, the Britanni of Gregory of Tours must have been some who had settled at an earlier period.

There seems reason to think that in the confusion which marked the continuance of the Merovingian dynasty, the Bretons recovered a precarious independence, and their princes re-assumed the title of kings, though their dominions and authority were contracted by the usurpation of the nobles." This has probably led to the supposition that the regal dignity was never in abeyance. With Alain II., A.D. 690, as noticed above, the title ceased; and Bretagne, divided into a number of principalities, became again subject to the Franks, about A. D. 800, during the reign of Charlemagne, whose predecessors had probably made many encroachments. In the troubles of the following period, the kingdom of Bretagne was once more revived by Nomenoé (A.D. 824-851), who had been nominated governor of Vannes, by Louis le Debonnaire, son and successor of Charlemagne, and had revolted from Charles le Chauve. Erispoe, the son of Nomenoé, A.D. 851-857, acknowledged the supremacy of Charles, but maintained his kingly title. Civil dissensions among the Bretons themselves led to the extinction of this kingdom, A.D. 874. The country was divided into the counties of Rennes, Vannes, Cornouaille (Cornwall), and other portions; and civil discord between the rulers of the petty states thus formed conspired with the invasion of the Northmen or Normans to afflict the country. The kings of France claimed too a kind of sovereignty over the kings or other rulers of Bretagne, similar perhaps to those which the kings of England claimed over the princes of Scotland and Wales; but it is uncertain if this right extended over the whole of Bretagne or over a part only. This right of sovereignty was conveyed to the Northmen by Charles the Simple, when he ceded to them the country afterwards known as Normandie, A.D. 912. The dukes of Normandie thus became the feudal superiors of the rulers of Bretagne, and themselves did homage for this province as well as for Normandie to the kings of France. This cession was the cause of long and bloody wars between the people of the two provinces, for the Bretons struggled fiercely against the barbarians, to whose supremacy they were thus arbitrarily consigned. They seem however at last to have acknowledged the dukes of Normandie as suzerains.

The following periods present little else than a confused series of wars, assassinations, and other violences perpetrated by the turbulent nobles among whom Bretagne was divided, aided by the neighbouring chiefs, the counts of Anjou and the dukes of Normandie. In 992, Geoffroi, count of Rennes, assumed the title of duke of Bretagne. Alain, his son, second duke of Bretagne, was, from the year 1035 to his death in 1040, the faithful guardian of the childhood of William the Bastard (afterwards the Conqueror), duke of Normandie. Several Breton lords accompanied William into England, A.D. 1066: one of these, Alain, count of Penthièvre, built the castle and town of Richmond on the Swale, in Yorkshire, on the lands granted him by the Conqueror: this grant gave to a junior branch of the reigning house of Bretagne, at a period long subsequent, the title of Count of Richemont. Yet the Saxon nobles, who fled from England on the conquest of that island by the Normans, found an asylum with the then reigning duke of Bretagne. Alarmed by the progress of the Norman power, the kings of France and the dukes of Bretagne naturally formed an alliance for their mutual support. Alain Fergent, duke of Bretagne, obtained some advantage in

Possibly their independence was never recognized by the Franks: the words of Eginhard, son-in-law and chancellor of Charlemagne, are,-'Is po pulus, à regibus Francorum subactus ac tributarius factus, impositum sibi vectigal licet invitus solvere solebat.'-Ann. Eginhard, ad ann. 786, quoted by Vertot, vol. i. p. 46. This people,' he refers to the Bretons who had, according to his account, settled in Gaul on the invasion of Britain by the Saxons, having been subdued by the kings of the Franks, and rendered tributary, paid, though unwillingly, the tribute imposed upon them. It may be ob served here, that the terms subactus' and 'tributarius factus' imply the previous independence of these Bretons, a fact hardly consistent with their settlement for the first time in the reign or after the death of Clovis, and their subjugation by that prince or his immediate successors. Eginhard's expression licet invitus' also implies a disposition, and indeed an attempt, to withdraw themselves from the yoke. All the evidence leads us to believe that the Bretons, whether under regal government or not, paid tribute when a strong Frankish government obliged them to it, but refused it when the Franks were weakened by division, civil discord, or other causes.

war over William the Conqueror, A.D. 1085; but he afterwards made peace with him, married his daughter Constance, and went in the first crusade to the Holy Land; not however as a prince with a military force, but as a simple pilgrim. He took part with Henry I., the Conqueror's youngest son, in his war with his eldest brother, Robert, duke of Normandie; and the Breton forces signalized themselves at the battle of Tinchebrai, which concluded the contest by the captivity of Robert. Alain Fergent abdicated the ducal coronet in 1112, after a government signalized by the establishment of a supreme court of justice at Rennes, and by the rise of two eminent men, natives of Bretagne, Robert d'Arbrissel, founder of the order of Fontevrault, and Pierre Abeilard. Conan, the successor of Alain, gave to some of the Breton towns municipal constitutions. He died A.D. 1148.

A disputed succession, which led to the dismemberment of Bretagne, and to a civil war, in which the kings of England (Henry II.) and France (Louis VII. le Jeune) took part, followed the death of Conan. The marriage of Constance, daughter of one of the claimants, with Geoffroi, son of Henry II., added the duchy of Bretagne to the already vast possessions of the house of Plantagenet. Geoffroi was invested with the ducal coronet in the church of Rennes, A.D. 1169: he took a busy part in the dissensions of his family, and was killed in a tournament at Paris, whither he had gone to solicit aid against his father, A.D. 1186, aged 28. His posthumous son Artur (Arthur) came to the throne an infant; his early years were troubled by the ambition of his uncle Richard I. (Cœur de Lion) of England; and upon the death of Richard, A.D. 1199, he was involved in new disputes with his uncle John, by whom he was, as it is generally believed, basely assassinated, A.D. 1203. The conquest of Normandie, which was declared to be confiscated, and which was seized by Philippe Auguste, the French king, was the consequence of this atrocity; and Bretagne thus became immediately a fief of the French crown. The duchy came to Allix, daughter of Constance, by her third husband, Gui de Thouars; and in her right to Pierre de Dreux, a younger branch of the royal family of France, to whom she was married A.D. 1212.

Pierre de Dreux, a restless and ambitious prince, reigned from 1213 to 1237; first as duke in right of his wife, and then, upon her death (in or near 1219), as guardian to his son, a minor. He managed to embroil himself with the clergy, was excommunicated by the bishop of Nantes and the archbishop of Tours, metropolitan of Bretagne,* and was only absolved by the pope upon hard conditions. Disputes with the nobles, caused by the attempts of Pierre to depress the counts of Penthièvre, a younger branch of the ducal family, led to a civil war; and though Pierre got a victory near Chateaubriand, in 1223, over the revolted lords and their allies, he does not appear to have gained much by the contest. The rest of his government was passed in a series of disputes or intrigues with the kings of France, Louis VIII. and Louis IX. (St. Louis). On one occasion the duke transferred his homage to the king of England, Henry III., whom he recognized as king of France. In 1237 he abdicated his power as guardian of his son, and was intrusted by the pope with the conduct of an expedition against the infidels beyond sea in 1248 he accompanied St. Louis in his crusade against Egypt, and was wounded and taken by the side of that prince at the battle of Mansoura. He died on his passage back to Europe in 1250.

The history of the dukes, Jean I. (1237-1286), Jean II. (1286-1305), Artur II. (1305-1312), and Jean III. (13121341), present few incidents of moment; but the death of the last-named prince brought on the dispute for the succesion to the duchy between Jean de Montfort and Charles de Blois, and led to the war which forms so important an episode in the wars of England and France under Edward III. of England and the kings of France of the house of Valois. Jean III. left no children: he had two brothers, or rather one brother, Gui, count of Penthièvre, who died before him, and one half-brother, the above-mentioned Jean de Montfort, who, immediately upon the death of Jean III., took possession of the duchy. Charles de Blois claimed in right of his wife, who was daughter and heiress of Gui, and the In the earlier periods of Breton history, the archbishop of Tours was metropolitan of Bretagne; but when Nomenoé revolted against the Carlovingian dynasty, and re-established the kingdom of Bretagne, he erected Dol into a metropolitan see. The rival archbishops appealed to the popes, who kept the dispute undecided for above 350 years. In 1199, Innocent III., at

the solicitation of Philippe Auguste, decided the cause, giving it in favour of

the archbishop of Tours, who is still metropolitan of this part of France,

decision was referred to the king of France as suzerain, The case was argued before a court of the peers and grandees of the kingdom; Montfort, who had reason to fear an unfavourable decision, fled secretly from Paris; and a decree of the king declared Charles de Blois duke of Bretagne. Montfort immediately sought the protection of the king of England, who willingly gave him his support; and, by a singular concurrence, Edward III., who claimed the crown of France through a female, supported Montfort against a female claim; while Philippe VI., the actual possessor of the crown of France, whose right rested upon the exclusion of females from the succession, supported a female in her claim to the ducal coronet of Bretagne. But interest and ambition little regard such inconsistencies.

'This question of political order,' says Daru, 'once left to the decision of fortune, was alternately on the point of being decided in favour of each party. In the many changes of a war which lasted more than twenty years, the two competitors became in turn each the captive of the other. It was not merely the dispute of a province, it was the struggle of two mighty empires, for the hatred of France and England had been renewed, and a struggle of 400 years dates from this epoch. These rival nations drew into the war numerous allies. On the side of Charles de Blois were seen the dukes of Normandie, Bourgogne, and Lorraine, the king of Navarre, the duke of Athens, and Spanish and Genoese auxiliaries. Montfort, on his side, counted, among the defenders of his cause, the king of England and Robert d'Artois, brother-in-law of the king of France, some German mercenaries, and the greater part of the towns of Bretagne. The nobility was divided between the two competitors; but, according to the expression of Froissart, Charles de Blois had always on his side five out of seven. This war was a series of remarkable events. The kings of France, England, and Navarre took part in it personally. The names of Beaumanoir, of Clisson, of Duguesclin, throw a brilliancy over these events, which were besides important in themselves. The war was carried on by sea and by land. Negotiations were repeatedly entered upon and broken off; and in the midst of this strife of arms, in these political struggles, three illustrious women manifested a courage worthy of the brightest heroines.(Histoire de Bretagne, vol. ii. p. 86.)

The war had nearly been concluded at its very commencement. The army of Charles de Blois invested Nantes A.D. 1341, in which Jean de Montfort was, and throwing into the city the heads of thirty Breton prisoners of the Montfort party, so frightened the townsmen, that they opened their gates, and Jean was taken, carried to Paris, and shut up in the tower of the Louvre. Jeanne of Flanders, countess of Montfort, was at Rennes when she heard of her husband's captivity; with matchless courage she reanimated her husband's partizans, raised troops, acquired numerous other partizans by fair speeches, promises, and gifts, and throwing herself into Hennebon, a town on the river Blavet, not far from the coast, awaited the succours which she expected from England.

Upon the departure of the countess from Rennes, that place was invested by the troops of Charles de Blois and surrendered by the townsmen, and the victorious army advanced to Hennebon, hoping by the capture of the countess and her son (a child of three years of age) to settle the matter. But they found this no easy task; Jeanne, attacked vigorously by the besieging army, and having to counteract within the town the intrigues of the bishop of Léon, who wished to persuade the townsmen to surrender, defended herself with undaunted courage. In a sally during a fierce assault she entered the hostile camp, set the tents on fire, and being unable to re-enter Hennebon took refuge in the neighbouring town of Auray, recruited her forces, and again made her way into Hennebon. The siege continued, the bishop of Léon exhorted to surrender, and the heroic countess could only obtain of her now dispirited soldiers a promise to hold out for three days longer. Two days passed away; on the third the besiegers were seen preparing for a last assault, when the English fleet hove in sight, the valiant Sir Walter Manny. landed at the head of the relieving force, and having burned the machines of the besiegers, entered the town. Whoever then saw the countess,' says Froissart, come down from the castle and kiss Sir Walter Manny and his companions, one after the other two or three times, might well say that she was a valiant lady. The siege was forthwith raised.

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