Why did it take so long for France to conquer Brittany?
video description
It would be interesting to see if the Welsh identity would have largely been absorbed by the English one like Bretonic identity was absorbed by the wider french identity if a shared struggle of resistance against an invader didn't cement the Welsh identity as being truly seperate and instead Wales was taken by London via a less romantisable, boring inheretence.
Many people point to Welsh celtisism as being the reason for the survival of its distinction as being separate from England. But both Britanny and many parts of England where Celtic in ethnicity and language long after losing independence but we don't view these lands or places as being any less English simply because of their Celtic history.
Food for thought.
Date: 2023-05-24
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Comments and reviews: 14
Taha
(un)fun fact: France has been forcefully suppressing minority languages since the French revolution when only about half the population spoke a dialect that somewhat resembled French and only about 10% spoke standard French. Among the means used was only teaching French at schools and punishing and humiliating students for speaking their native languages. They were also lied to that their language was inferior and without any written traditions. This discouraged natives to pass on their languages to their children and grandchildren. The languages affected included:
1) German in alsace-lorraine
2) Italian in Corsica
3) Breton which used to be the native language of Brittany
4) Occitan which used to be the native language of southern France and was spoken by about 40% of the population in 1789
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(un)fun fact: France has been forcefully suppressing minority languages since the French revolution when only about half the population spoke a dialect that somewhat resembled French and only about 10% spoke standard French. Among the means used was only teaching French at schools and punishing and humiliating students for speaking their native languages. They were also lied to that their language was inferior and without any written traditions. This discouraged natives to pass on their languages to their children and grandchildren. The languages affected included:
1) German in alsace-lorraine
2) Italian in Corsica
3) Breton which used to be the native language of Brittany
4) Occitan which used to be the native language of southern France and was spoken by about 40% of the population in 1789
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The
I actually wondered this quite a lot, and before actually doing research on it for a recent video I made I used to watch those timeline videos showing the rulers of countries, and I saw that despite France absolutely ballooning in size they didn't conquer Brittany for almost 900 years or so. not even Charlemagne annexed it, he settled with it as a vassal.
Its an amazing thing really, shows that you don't really have to be big and strong to really survive, especially when you realize that Brittany technically lasted longer than the western Roman empire and even the Roman Republic
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I actually wondered this quite a lot, and before actually doing research on it for a recent video I made I used to watch those timeline videos showing the rulers of countries, and I saw that despite France absolutely ballooning in size they didn't conquer Brittany for almost 900 years or so. not even Charlemagne annexed it, he settled with it as a vassal.
Its an amazing thing really, shows that you don't really have to be big and strong to really survive, especially when you realize that Brittany technically lasted longer than the western Roman empire and even the Roman Republic
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Justin
follow the romans and you will know why Denmark invaded england. we didnt rape and murder. we had to go to england, rome back then attacked so many places and germania fought the romans off while scandinavian rebuild their ships to longships. we traded with the world before we was warriors. and the only reason we went to england was because of romans, row row row we did. rowmance. good god - god is good. english is filled with nordic languese
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follow the romans and you will know why Denmark invaded england. we didnt rape and murder. we had to go to england, rome back then attacked so many places and germania fought the romans off while scandinavian rebuild their ships to longships. we traded with the world before we was warriors. and the only reason we went to england was because of romans, row row row we did. rowmance. good god - god is good. english is filled with nordic languese
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NelsonDiscovery
Wow! That's a really good question. I've known that it took some time for the Franks to finally conquer Brittany and even then it wasn't really really incorporated into their Kingdom. But I never actually stood still and wondered if the few Briton tribes on the peninsula were so formidable a force to remain independent for so long.
Nice to see you do a video not about modern history again BTW.
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Wow! That's a really good question. I've known that it took some time for the Franks to finally conquer Brittany and even then it wasn't really really incorporated into their Kingdom. But I never actually stood still and wondered if the few Briton tribes on the peninsula were so formidable a force to remain independent for so long.
Nice to see you do a video not about modern history again BTW.
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Marvin
In pre-history (meaning the Celtic's didn't have writing) when the Celtic people were pushed west, the last Celtic linguistic related areas are Basque, Brittany, old Irish and Scottish. Subsequently, as the Romano Britian's were pushed north by the invading Angles, Saxons and Jutes, one of my great, great, really great grand pappies (23andMe) migrated from Manchester to Brittany. You go Grandpa!
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In pre-history (meaning the Celtic's didn't have writing) when the Celtic people were pushed west, the last Celtic linguistic related areas are Basque, Brittany, old Irish and Scottish. Subsequently, as the Romano Britian's were pushed north by the invading Angles, Saxons and Jutes, one of my great, great, really great grand pappies (23andMe) migrated from Manchester to Brittany. You go Grandpa!
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RoiDrannoc
Since Alan II became Duke, Brittany was a Duchy of France, and the Dukes were nominally vassals to the French kings. But since it was only nominally (feudal world, as per usual) Brittany acted as an independant country (which it was not, it was only an autonomous province.
So Brittany was part of France all along, but de facto independant from the French kings. Until shenanigans.
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Since Alan II became Duke, Brittany was a Duchy of France, and the Dukes were nominally vassals to the French kings. But since it was only nominally (feudal world, as per usual) Brittany acted as an independant country (which it was not, it was only an autonomous province.
So Brittany was part of France all along, but de facto independant from the French kings. Until shenanigans.
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Ian
During the C12th the heiress of Brittany was Constance. She married Geoffrey of England (Henry ll son. She had two kids by him, Arthur who was done in by bad uncle John and Eleanor. By later practice the heiress of English throne was Eleanor not Henry lll, as John the younger son of Henry ll. She was detained for about 40 yrs in various castles.
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During the C12th the heiress of Brittany was Constance. She married Geoffrey of England (Henry ll son. She had two kids by him, Arthur who was done in by bad uncle John and Eleanor. By later practice the heiress of English throne was Eleanor not Henry lll, as John the younger son of Henry ll. She was detained for about 40 yrs in various castles.
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Hermes
It is ironic how by not allowing her to marry Maximiloam Habsburg he married Mary of Burgundy and then their child Philip married Juana of castille thus making their son, Charles V of Germany and I of Spain the ruler of both the holy roman empire and the spanish crowns thus having France surrender by powerful enemies '
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It is ironic how by not allowing her to marry Maximiloam Habsburg he married Mary of Burgundy and then their child Philip married Juana of castille thus making their son, Charles V of Germany and I of Spain the ruler of both the holy roman empire and the spanish crowns thus having France surrender by powerful enemies '
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William
Technically Brittany was held in personal union under the French king, but was not actually part of the Kingdom of France, until the Revolution. This had some practical effects, like exemption of Brittany from certain taxes, which allowed its economy to grow both directly and through being a tax haven.
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Technically Brittany was held in personal union under the French king, but was not actually part of the Kingdom of France, until the Revolution. This had some practical effects, like exemption of Brittany from certain taxes, which allowed its economy to grow both directly and through being a tax haven.
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Alexander
Brittany's independent streak continued even after it became part of France. It was one of the few provinces to retain its provincial estates until the revolution, and its parlement (court) was one of the more likely parlements to resist anything it saw as royal tyranny.
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Brittany's independent streak continued even after it became part of France. It was one of the few provinces to retain its provincial estates until the revolution, and its parlement (court) was one of the more likely parlements to resist anything it saw as royal tyranny.
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history_matters
Anne of Britanny was EXTREMELY mistreated by the French Kings and so when Germany invaded in WWII, a group of Bretons actually began working with the Germans in collaboration for a potentially semi-independent Breton State - which would make an interesting video.
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Anne of Britanny was EXTREMELY mistreated by the French Kings and so when Germany invaded in WWII, a group of Bretons actually began working with the Germans in collaboration for a potentially semi-independent Breton State - which would make an interesting video.
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Christopher
The Nazis encouraged the Bretons to think of themselves as separate from France in 1940-44, even to the extent of resurrecting the traditional Breton flag of white and black. Some of this worked and, as a result, the flag is banned in France.
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The Nazis encouraged the Bretons to think of themselves as separate from France in 1940-44, even to the extent of resurrecting the traditional Breton flag of white and black. Some of this worked and, as a result, the flag is banned in France.
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Chris
Fun Fact: a French force, led by William Du Chastel, raided the town of Plymouth in August 1403, pillaging everything that wasn't nailed down. They fled the following day, burning the harbour to the ground; the area is known today as Bretonside.
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Fun Fact: a French force, led by William Du Chastel, raided the town of Plymouth in August 1403, pillaging everything that wasn't nailed down. They fled the following day, burning the harbour to the ground; the area is known today as Bretonside.
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Albert
I heartily recommend the wikipedia page on the lineage of the royal houses of Brittanny - there are some excellent names in there.
Also 02: 44 perfectly distilled coerced into breeding - exhaustion face. Also: incest, hooray.
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I heartily recommend the wikipedia page on the lineage of the royal houses of Brittanny - there are some excellent names in there.
Also 02: 44 perfectly distilled coerced into breeding - exhaustion face. Also: incest, hooray.
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