Brittany, whose ancient name was Armorica (Ar mÔr, by the sea), and which was known to the Britons and Irish as Llydau, was originally peopled by the race of the Dolmen-builders, a brown eyed and dark haired people, who strewed it with their monuments. To them followed the Gauls, blue eyed and with flaxen hair; these latter were divided into five tribes that occupied severally the departments of Ille-et-Vilaine (Redones), with their capital at Rennes; CÔtes-du-Nord (Curiosoliti), with their headquarters at Corseul, near Dinan; FinistÈre (Osismi), their capital of Carhaix; Morbihan (Veneti), with their centre at Vannes; Loire InfÉrieure (Nanneti), with a capital at Nantes.

These tribes were subjugated by CÆsar, and the Veneti almost exterminated by him. Under the Romans, the culture and the language of the conquerors were rapidly assimilated. Christianity took root at Rennes and Nantes and Vannes, but almost nothing was done for the rural population, which probably still spoke its agglutinative tongue akin to the modern Basque. The stately bishops of these Gallo-Roman cities confined themselves to ministering to the cultured residents within their walls, and in villas scattered along the coast. The Gallo-Roman population had dwindled to an incredible extent, under the exactions of the imperial tax-gatherers, so that all the country residences fell into ruin, and the impoverished Gallo-Romans withdrew into the towns. But early—very early in the 5th century, fleets of British settlers came over, flying from the swords of Picts and Scots, and occupied the land about the mouth of the Loire. By 469 they were so numerous as to be able to send a contingent of twelve thousand men to the assistance of the Romans against the Visigoths.

As a consequence of the Saxon invasion of Britain the immigration grew, and the dispossessed islanders sought and found a new home in the Armorican peninsula, where they established themselves under their own princes, with their own institutions, civil and ecclesiastical, and their own tongue. Thenceforth Armorica ceased to be so called, and received the name of Lesser Britain, and the current language became British, identical with that now spoken in Wales, and spoken till the 17th century in Cornwall as well. Contact with France along the East has gradually thrust back the Breton language, but it is still spoken from Guingamp, in a slanting line to the mouth of the Loire. Two British kingdoms were formed, Domnonia and Cornubia; the former included the CÔtes-du-Nord and FinistÈre above the river Elorn, and Cornubia or Cornouaille was the district below that river, the basin between the Monts d'ArrÉe and the Montagnes Noires, and stretched to the river EllÉ at QuimperlÉ. All the department of Morbihan was the Bro-Weroc, a county, but the British chief did not call himself its king, probably because the colonists did not get hold of Vannes, the capital, which they enveloped but left unmolested.

At first the British colonists admitted their allegiance to their native princes in Britain, who certainly came over, and were granted certain lands as the royal dominium in the newly settled land. Thus we have Geraint, King of Devon, with his palace in Belle Ile, and portions of the newly-acquired territory on the Blavet, in Morbihan, and near Matignon, in CÔtes-du-Nord. His son Solomon, or Selyf, as was his British name, also came over, and is said to have fallen at Langollen, probably whilst endeavouring to enforce taxes on the native original pagan inhabitants.

But as the insular power of the Britons was broken, the colonists considered themselves independent, and acknowledged a loose and ill-defined submission to the Frank kings at Paris, who, however, left them to be governed by their native rulers.

But not only did Britons settle in the land. Large numbers of Irish arrived from Ossory and Wexford, at the close of the 5th century, and settled along the west and north coast. No traces of them are found south of Hennebont, or west of Guingamp, but all the coastline of Cornouaille and LÉon was studded thick with them.

Now only was a serious attempt made to convert the native population. The chiefs who came over were attended or followed by their brothers and cousins who were ecclesiastics, and these were granted lands on condition that they educated the young of the freeborn colonists of the tribe, and ministered in sacred matters to the tribesmen.

The work of the evangelisation of Ireland seems to have sent a thrill through Brittany, and to have been taken up there with energy. Missionary colleges were formed by some of the assistants of Patrick, which should serve as training places for those who were to assist in carrying on the apostolic work in Ireland.

The principal Irish founders in the country were:—Fiacc, Bishop of Sletty, called in Breton Vi'ho; Tighernac, Bishop of Clogher and Clones, in Breton ThÉgonnec; Eugenius, Bishop of Ardstraw, in Breton Saint Tugean; Senan, Abbot of Inniscathy (Breton Seny), Setna, his disciple, in Breton Sezni; Conleath, Bridget's domestic bishop, in Breton Coulitz, Ronan and Brendan.

The principal British founders were:—Cadoc, Brioc, Tugdual, Leonore, Paulus Aurelianus, Curig, Caradoc, Gildas, and his crippled son Kenneth; David, Samson, Malo, Arthmael, Meven, and Mancen or Mawgan—this latter closely allied with the Irish mission. Nonna, mother of S. David, Ninnoc, Noyala, and disciples of S. Bridget, established institutions for the education of the daughters of the freemen of the tribe to which the schools were attached.

In 845, Nominoe, who had been invested with the lieutenancy of Brittany by Louis the Pious, led a revolt against Charles the Bald, and established the independence of Brittany that lasted till the Duchess Anne brought it under the French crown, 1491. From the close of the 9th century, and throughout the 10th, the coast was ravaged by the Northmen, Frisians and Danes, and the insecurity inland caused the desertion of the country and the flight of the monks carrying the relics of their founders to walled towns in the heart of France. That Brittany should thus fall a prey to these invaders was largely due to the divisions that existed among its princes, who could not or would not combine against the common foe. At length Alan, Count of Vannes, did succeed in rallying the Britons, and defeated the Northern pirates, which secured rest for fifteen years. For the first time under him did the Gallo-Roman towndwellers consent to make common cause with the descendants of the British colonists.

On the death of Alan (907) the Northmen reappeared, and a great many Bretons under Count Matthuedoi of Poher fled to England and threw themselves on the protection of Athelstan.

In 938, Alan Barbetorte, godson of Athelstan, returned from England and drove out the Normans. Nantes was in such complete ruin that when Alan sought to reach the fallen altar of the cathedral church, there to offer up his thanks for victory gained, he was constrained to hew his way to it through a thicket of thorns and brambles.

After the expulsion of the Northmen Brittany was reorganised. Hitherto the colonists had been divided into tribes, each of which was a plou, and no Gallo-Roman could enter into one such. But after the victories of Alan Barbetorte the plous were not reconstructed, and the feudal system succeeded to that which was tribal.

Brittany was now broken up into a hierarchy of counties and seigneuries, and the king abandoned the royal title and contented himself with that of duke. The great counties were those of LÉon, Cornouaille, Poher, Porhoet, PenthiÈvre, Rennes and Nantes. Five barons defended the eastern frontier, holding their fiefs under the Count of Rennes; these were ChÂteaubriant, la Guerche, VitrÉ, FongÈres and Combourg. The whole vast inland forest was given to the Counts of Rennes, it was Porhoet. It was divided into two parts. In the east the seigneuries of Gael, LoudÉac and Malestroit were created as fiefs. In the west there was but a single seigneurie, that of Porhoet; the viscount lived at Josselin. Later it was broken up and gave birth to the viscounty of Rohan.

The old kingdom of Cornouaille became a county with vassal barons at Pont l'AbbÉ, Pont Croix, the abbot of Landevennec, and the viscount of Le Faou. In the interior were the viscounts of Poher and Gourin.

The old kingdom of Domnonia was divided into three counties, LÉon, PenthiÈvre and TrÉguier.

The Ducal crown did not long remain in the family of Alan Barbetorte. After internecine war lasting forty years, Conan, Count of Rennes, assumed the title (990), and the dukes of his house spent their time in fighting and crushing their own kinsmen. Geoffrey I. had married a Norman wife, and he had by her two sons, Alan and Eudo. In 1034 Eudo, jealous and ambitious, demanded of his brother a share in the duchy. Alan gave him the counties of TrÉguier and PenthiÈvre, and thus Eudo became the ancestor of that great and dangerous family of PenthiÈvre, which maintained undying rivalry with the ducal house, and made of Brittany a field of civil war for centuries. Conan II. succeeded as a child of three months, and his uncle ruled in his name, aided by the Normans. When Conan came of age, he had to fight against Eudo; he invaded Normandy, but was cut off by poison. When William the Conqueror became King of England, Brittany was nipped between France and Normandy, and became an object of ambition to both, and a common battlefield.

For five hundred years this continued. Brittany writhed and strove for her independence, and had no desire to become either a province of France or an English colony. The war broke out under Duke Hoel in 1076 when he invoked the aid of Philip I. against William the Conqueror. However, under Alan Fergant and Conan III. the land had rest for eighty years, and then the trouble began again with renewed violence. Conan's death in 1148 gave rise to a war of succession that lasted eight years. Conan IV. assisted by the English succeeded in establishing himself in the ducal seat, and he favoured the English in every way. Henry II. of England married his son Geoffrey Plantagenet to Constance, daughter of Conan IV., the heiress of Brittany, and Geoffrey was crowned at Rennes in 1169. This was of advantage so far that it introduced Norman civilisation into a duchy that was backward and barbarous. The churches built in the 12th century were erected by architects of the Norman and French schools. Such are the cathedrals of S. Pol-de-LÉon and S. Malo and the churches of GuÉrande. Geoffrey died in 1187, and his son Arthur fell into the hands of his uncle, King John, who had him murdered at Rouen (1203). Constance did not die broken-hearted and despairing, as represented by Shakespeare, but married Guy de Thouars, and had by him a daughter and heiress, who was married to Pierre de Dreux.

We may pass over the ensuing history till we reach John III. who died in 1341, without issue, and who, hating his half-brother, Jean de Montfort, bequeathed the succession to his niece Jeanne de PenthiÈvre, whom he married to Charles de Blois, nephew of Philip VI. of France. This was the signal for the outbreak of the terrible and desolating War of the Succession of the two Jeannes. In it, neither of those most interested were for the most part of the time leaders of their hosts. At the outset Jean de Montfort was taken prisoner (1342), and was kept in prison till his health was broken, and he was discharged only to die (1345). But his intrepid wife Jeanne of Flanders carried on the conflict. At the Battle of La Roche-Derrien (1347) Charles of Blois was captured and conveyed a prisoner to England, and the conduct of the war fell to his wife Jeanne. The English espoused the side of Montfort, and the French that of Charles of Blois. The success of the battle of La Roche was followed by the signal victory of Mauron (1352). The war dragged on, and Charles was released in 1356, to renew the contest with fresh cruelty. He had now as his best assistant Bertrand du Guesclin, an heroic and honourable soldier, and one of the best captains France has produced. But in the decisive battle of Auray (1364) Charles was killed, and Du Guesclin taken prisoner. A few months later, Jean de Montfort the younger was recognised duke under the title of John IV. But the war was not at an end. Now that Charles was dead, the Bretons of PenthiÈvre rallied about Oliver de Clisson, and the old strife continued under other names.

The country was ravaged by Companies, under commanders who passed from one side to the other as suited their convenience. John IV. attempted to have Clisson assassinated in Paris (1392). The attempt failed, and served only to exasperate Clisson and aggravate the war. It was resolved into a family vendetta. In 1420 Oliver de Clisson, grandson of Charles de Blois, and of Oliver, treacherously obtained possession of John V. and imprisoned him. A war ensued, and before the duke could be liberated, much blood was shed; as the cause of the PenthiÈvre family was not, on this occasion, espoused by France, it was crushed and the apanage of PenthiÈvre was confiscated.

Francis I. (1442-50) conceived an animosity against his brother Gilles de Bretagne whom he accused of favouring the English. He delivered him over to his mortal enemy, who starved the unhappy prince to death. Pierre II. succeeded, but as he died without issue, as well as Francis, the succession passed to Arthur of Richmond their uncle. He was succeeded by Francis II. who died in 1488, leaving an heiress, Anne, who married first Charles VIII. of France (1491), and on the death of Charles (1498) married Louis XII., and thus, the duchy was finally united to the crown of France.

The Reformation made no way with the people of Brittany, but was embraced by the Rohan, the Rieux, the Laval, and other noble lords, who coveted the estates of the Church. The chateaux of Blain and VitrÉ were for a while centres of Huguenot propaganda in Brittany. The province would, however, have remained at peace, but that its governor, the Duke de Mercoeur was a devoted adherent to the house of Guise, and he proposed to make of Brittany a stronghold of the League. When Henry IV. came to the throne in 1589, he was a Calvinist. There were three parties in Brittany mutually antagonistic, the Leaguers supported from Spain, the Huguenots and the Royalists. The city of Rennes, without abandoning the Faith remained true to Henry IV. Nantes became the headquarters of the League. The Huguenots, from VitrÉ, and the castles of the family of Rohan, swept the country ravaging and burning. Nine years of war ensued between 1589 and 1598. A swarm of brigands placed themselves under the flag of the League, or of the King or of the Bible, and wrought intolerable misery. Moreover, the peasants, maddened by their sufferings, rose against all alike, besieged the castles indiscriminately and massacred every man in harness. Brittany was almost depopulated, and wolves preyed on human corpses in the open day. One of the worst ruffians of this period was Fontenelle, a cadet of the Breton family of Beaumanoir. He sacked Roscoff, Carhaix, and ravaged the diocese of TrÉguier. But his worst atrocities were committed at Pont l'AbbÉ and Penmarch, which was once a flourishing town rivalling Nantes, but which has never recovered the butcheries there committed by Fontenelle, and its ruined houses have never been rebuilt. The atrocities committed by him at Pont l'AbbÉ defy description. He delighted in seating his victims on iron chairs and broiling them to death, or in immersing them in mid-winter in vats of ice-cold water, and thus leaving them to perish in dungeons. In some parishes visited by him, where the population had numbered a thousand adults, he reduced it to twelve. To the miseries produced by civil war succeeded a Black Death, which almost completed the depopulation. Fontenelle was taken in 1598, but pardoned; he was arrested for fresh crimes in 1602, and slowly tortured to death.

The province remained in peace till 1675, when taxation became so burdensome, that the people rose in insurrection. It was put down with great barbarity.

We pass on to the Revolution, and to the noble stand made by the Breton peasantry against the bloodthirsty ruffians, who had grasped the reins of power. Liberty, Equality and Fraternity in the mouths of these latter meant Tyranny, Robbery and Massacre. Again the soil of Brittany was drenched in blood. The curÉs were hunted like wild beasts, and when caught were hung, guillotined or shot. Under the Terror the moderate Breton deputies who belonged to the party of the Girondins had to fly for their lives. The Convention sent down into Brittany Carrier and others, the scum of humanity to "purify" the country. Twenty eight Girondists were guillotined at Brest. Anyone who was held suspect was at once sent to his death. The Loire at Nantes was choked with the bodies of inoffensive men, women and children, drowned in the Noyades.

The Chouans, as the peasants were called who rose against their tyrants, were commanded in Morbihan by Cadoudal. In July, 1795, an English fleet disembarked several regiments of French emigrÉs. Hoche came upon them, and exterminated all in cold blood, to the number of 952. Nantes and S. Brieuc were taken by the peasants, but the firm hand of Bonaparte now held the reins, and put down all opposition. Cadoudal was guillotined.

At the present day, Brittany is still the stronghold of Catholicism in France. As to the rights of legitimists, Orleanists or Bonapartists, the peasants concern themselves little, but to touch their religion is to touch them to the quick. The Republican Government does all in its power to destroy the cohesion of the Breton people, and its attachment to the Faith of its Fathers. The masters have been forbidden to employ the Breton language in the schools, and in 1901 an order was addressed by Waldeck Rousseau to all the Bishops and Clergy of Lower Brittany forbidding them to preach in the language understood by the people, on pain of withdrawal of their stipends: an order that has been very properly disregarded.

Meanwhile national or rather provincial feeling is deepening and intensifying. Opposition only makes the Breton the more stubborn. The Breton has not much ambition. All he asks is to be left alone to work out his own destiny, strong in his religious convictions, "FranÇais—oui, mais Breton avant tout."