Historical region at the northwest of France, former province and duchy, which is divided into five departments: Finistère, Côtes-du-Nord, Morbihan and Ille-et-Vilaine. It forms a peninsula of 13,136 sq mi, with 2.800.000 inhabitants, and is washed by the Atlantic Ocean on its western and southern coasts, and by the English Channel in its northern limit.

 Geographical location:

Bretons are very affectionate people and of generous features, lovers of the good food and their traditions, dances, folklore, etc. They are very religious - it is the most catholic region of France-, and very nationalistic, with a marked separatist tradition. Their dialect, the Breton, which is a language of Celtic origin, is still spoken  by more than one million persons. One of the Breton's characteristics is to be mysterious and difficult to know, as their prehistoric megaliths.

 Megaliths; dolmens and menhires:

They are a people full of legends and fantastic stories and tales of family traditions. Fairies' stories, goblins, and spirits of the forests, as the Korrigans, spirits of grotesque and disgusting form destined to guard the treasures of the hills. Inside their mythological stories, they preserve the legend of the King Arthur, with Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table.

HISTORY:

In the prehistory, the former Bretons - who were not Celtic, but a people of laborious nomad shepherds, found, in their first settlements, the Armorica . About the years 3000 to 1800 B.C. there appear the first sedentary farmers who construct the mysterious dolmens and  megaliths. In the Bronze Age, (1800 to 600 B.C.) the armoricans already are prosperous and trade jewels and products of bronze with their neighbors: Scandinavian, German, Iberian, etc. In the 5th century B.C. (Iron Age), the Celts, Germanic people from Central Europe, invade Armorica and there bring with them the iron, precious metals and an important military development, as well as organized armies, and also their language and their customs, giving origin to the Gauls, as they were called by the Romans.

In the year 56 A.C. Julius Caesar invades the region and it becomes a Roman province, the "Galia Lugdunensis". At the retreat of the Romans, at the 5th Century, Great Britain, which had been invaded by the Anglo-Saxons, initiates an immense emigration of their Celtic population, who cross the English Channel and come to the peninsula, named after that invasion "Brittany" (Bretagne) and their inhabitants, Bretons. There are still many similarities between people from the South of England and Bretons, like their ethnical features, their dialects, their music, musical instruments, and even their last names.
 

The Gallic king Vercingétorix deposes his weapons before Julius Caesar.

There begins another political and religious organization, with the insertion of the Roman christianity of the Irishes. From that age comes to us the King Arthurs' legend.

In the 7th and 8th century several principalities are formed, until they fall all under the power of the Franks under Charlemagne's reign. In 846, the duke Nominoe obtains, after several battles, the independence of Brittany. During the second half of the 9th century, the Bretons recognized the government of the Norman dukes. In 922, Geoffrey, count of Rennes,  was proclaimed  Duke of Brittany. In 1066 William the Conqueror, Norman king, invades England, where the French Normans will stay for more than 400 years. Around 2000 Bretons came along with him.

In 1171 the duchy of Brittany passed, across a matrimonial alliance, to Geoffrey Plantagenet, Norman prince, son of Henry the 2nd. of England. By then the capital of the duchy was Nantes. The 14th and 15th centuries mark the height of the Breton civilization. After long periods of fight with the Frenchmen, towards the end of the 15th century the Duchess Anne of Brittany agrees to marry the King of France, Charles the VIII.

DUCHESS ANNE OF BRITTANY - By Josette Solan.

 And here we have the most popular historical character of Brittany.

It is about the Duchess Anne of Brittany, born on January 25th, 1477 in Nantes. She was twice Queen of France (with Charles the VIII and then with Louis the XII). She was daughter of Francis the II, sovereign Duke of Brittany and of Margaret de Foix, Princess of Navarre.
 

The Duke of Brittany, Francisco II, not having male children as inheritors,  makes recognize her daughter Anne a heiress of the Duchy in 1486.
She is emphatically placed in the collective memory of the Bretons, on having done a strong defense of the Duchy of Brittany of the neighbor regions. But after her death, in 1514, Brittany was annexed to France.
She had 5 children with the King Charles the VIII and 8 children with the King Louis the XII (only 2 of all of them survived).

The queen contributed immensely to the progress of the sea-coast of France. Twelve crafts of line were constructed and equipped under her command during the expedition of the Christian princes against the Turkish Empire. On the other hand, she was not only prominent for her political talent and her energy, but she was in addition one of the most illustrated women of her age.

She always appears as the luminous protector of the arts and the sciences; we might say that she prepares at a great extent the epoch of the Renaissance, which worth to Francis the I the name of Glorious Restorer of  Letters.

Emphasized into one of the most brilliant and cultivated moments of Europe, her qualities of reflection, energy and captivation made of her one of the most illustrious women of her times.

The Queen died at her 36 years of age. She asked in her will that her heart should be sent to her place of origin. Enclosed inside a golden coffin, it was deposited inside the funereal monument raised by her assistants to Francis the II and to Margaret de Foix, in Nantes.

Castle of the Dukes of Brittany in Nantes, 15th and 16th century

During the 16th and 17th century, the castle is chosen as the Breton residence of the Kings of France. A place of prestige that places Nantes among the most relevant villages of the province.
 

Duchess Anne, Queen of France, Coat of Arms.

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