From Kings to Dukes: Brittany between the 5th and the 12th Century

Abstract

Brittany owes its name to the Brythonic immigrants who moved from insular Britain to north-western Gaul, then known as Armorica, between the 4th and the 7th centuries. The north and west of the Breton peninsula were colonised by these settlers from across the Channel, while the eastern part of modern Brittany, the area around Rennes and Nantes came under the control of the Franks. By the end of the 5th century, the latter had taken over control of the whole of ancient Gaul, apart from the tip of ancient Armorica where the Bretons resisted the Frankish kings’ domination for some time. Brittany even witnessed the emergence of a royal lineage recognised in due course by the Franks in 851, but the new Breton kingdom was soon weakened by the Viking raids and internal fighting. This weakening of the central Breton power in the 10th century effectively benefited the aristocracy which wielded power at a local level. In the 11th and 12th centuries, counts, viscounts and castellans would gain power under the relative authority of a prince: the Duke of Brittany. At that time, Brittany was a principality with little effective power for two centuries, until the prince’s power was reinforced by the Plantagenets during the second half of the 12th century. Lying in the westernmost part of France, on the fringes of the Kingdom of the Franks, Brittany had a distinct and peculiar history, shaped by dual Brythonic and Frankish influences.