Free-Breton war (1489-1491)

This war takes place of 1489 with 1491 and prolongs the insane Guerre. She concludes herself by the Breton defeat and the marriage from the Anne duchess with the king Charles VIII.

Name

This last war is the conclusion of a succession of conflicts between the king of France and the large feudal ones of the kingdom at the time of the insane Guerre. It is also named, war of Brittany or war of Breton independence , by omitting the components of internal war, and the outside contributors, because it implies nonthe respect of treated preceding signed by François II and the king of France.

Origins

The origins of this war come straight of the will from the kingdom of France to benefit from the arrival on the throne from Brittany from a girl from 11 years, of which the rights can be disputed according to the French chancellery, as well as diplomatic awkwardnesses and disorganization of the Breton government.

The first treated of Guérande (1365) regulated the War of succession of Brittany. This one had seen to clash during more than two decades two families, Penthièvre and Montfort. The seconds end up carrying it. The rights of the two families are however recognized:

the duchy is transmitted of male in male in the family of Montfort;
in the event of male absence of descendant at Montfort, it must pass to the males of the family of Penthièvre.

To note that this treaty does not exclude the girls from the succession, and even less transmission of the rights (it specifies that the duchy will not be allocated to the women as long as there will be male heirs ). To also note that Montfort had hardly shown that they would agree to respect this treaty (Jean IV, François II). To note finally that Penthièvre had lost any hope after their breach of 1420 (they had removed and sequestered the duke Jean V).

However, at the end of the reign of François II, the two families do not have any more male heirs: François II has only two girls, Anne and Isabeau, and the Penthièvre last are also women. Consequently, can claim with the throne:

of the chief of Montfort

the sisters Anne and Isabeau of Brittany, girls of the reigning duke, last heiresses of the family coming in first in the order of succession of the duchy, but they are not men;
Jean II, Viscount of Rohan and Leon, husband of Marie of Brittany (girl of the duke François Ier). Without the treaty of Guérande, his wife would have been duchess as from 1469, with died of her Marguerite older sister. Thus the husband of this one (François II) it should have left the capacity with the profit of Jean II. To transform this competition into association, Jean II proposed to make marry his François sons and Jean with Anne and his Isabeau sister. François II refused it. Later, Jean II will be entitled duke of Brittany;
Jean de Chalon, prince d' Orange, wire of Catherine of Brittany (sister of the duke François II). He is the heir nearest with died to François II with Anne and Isabeau;
François d' Avaugour, bastard of the duke François II and Antoinette de Maignelais. It gives up in front of the States its hypothetical rights.

of the chief of Penthièvre:

Charles VIII, of which the father Louis XI bought on January 3rd, 1480 the rights to the duchy of Nicole of Blois-Brittany, countess of Penthièvre. He is recognized heir to Brittany by five Breton rebels with the Traité of Montargis;
Jean II of Brush, count de Penthièvre (wire of Nicole of Blois-Penthièvre and Jean Ier de Brosse), but his mother by had twice given up its rights (in 1480 at the time of the sale, confirmed in 1485);
Alain d' Albret, half-brother of Francoise de Dinan, widower of Francoise of Blois-Penthièvre (dead in 1481), itself cousin of Nicole of Blois-Brittany, the chief of which he claimed without success in the county of Penthièvre. It wishes to marry Anne, then to make him marry his son. One promises finally the hand to him of Isabelle (younger sister by Anne) for his son, but the small Isabelle dies before the marriage.

Certain applicants try to make sure of the supports: Charles VIII and Jean II clientélisent part of the Breton nobility. Various matrimonial projects aim at joining together the rights of two branches on same the tête.
But for more safety in front of these claims, François II fact of recognizing his daughters by the States of Brittany like heiresses of the duchy, then Anne is made crown duchess in Rennes. ,

Unfolding

Diplomatic operations

September 9th, 1488, the duke François II dies.

As of on September 18th, Charles VIII sends messengers in Brittany, to assert the Tutelle of Anne of Brittany, to prohibit to him to take the title of duchess, to announce the formation of a charged commission to study the succession, and to assert the lease of the duchy while waiting for that this commission decides. He declares the war in December, in front of the failures of Brittany and the return of the foreign mercenaries. He even had refused to evacuate the Breton places as envisaged that its army occupied.

February 10th, 1489, the Traité of Rennes is signed between the duchy and England: the king Henri VII provides 6000 men of mid-February to the All Saints' day, each year, with load for Brittany to balance the troop and to maintain it.

February 14th, two pacts between Austria and Spain and Austria and England are signed with Dordrecht, against France; they are supplemented on March 27th by a Anglo-Spanish treaty with Medina del Campo.

Within the duchy, various ambitions clash. The marshal of Rieux, tutor of the duchess, is best placed to collect, or to choose that which will collect the Breton heritage. Alain d' Albret, who has thin rights, and which especially holds Nantes since 1489, is his ally, like his uterine sister Francoise de Dinan, controlling it of Anne of Brittany.

Campaigns of 1489-1490

The Viscount Jean de Rohan (who claims to inherit the duchy because of his ascent and his Marie wife of Brittany) tries to conquer part of the duché while starting with an attack on Guingamp in November, that the marshal of Rieux ruins. It starts again in January 1489 with his brother Pierre de Quintin and of the French reinforcements, and succeeds, then seizes without difficulties Hédé, Montfort, Moncontour, Quintin, Quimper, Lannion, Tréguier, Morlaix, Concarneau, and Brest in February with part of the ducal fleet. Only Concarneau asks for a seat of 15 days to him. He then asks for the hand of Anne for his Jean son. But Charles VIII, anxious of his progression, repudiates it and obliges it to subject itself.

The chancellor Philippe de Montauban, Dunois, the Orange prince, Raoul de Lornay take along the heiress with them, initially with Redon, then flee with Nantes, without entering there, the city being held by the marshal of Rieux. Finally, the party of the duchess takes refuge in Rennes, and in spite of the requests of the king, on February 10th, Anne is crowned in Rennes. However, the treasure is empty, the incomes of the field in fall: the jewels are sold, the molten crockery. As that is not enough, one carries out loans compulsory on the cities (François II had already had recourse there); the chancellery requires advances and loans (the Orange prince gives more 200 000 pounds, the duke of Orleans 45 000); the devaluation, started in 1472, is amplified; finally, various communities repurchase their taxes (they once pay in hundred times the annual amount, and are released from it thereafter).

Austrians and Spaniards send mercenaries in March and April (respectively 1500 and 2000 men which joins Anne of Brittany), as well as England (6000 men sent to Rieux). That makes use of it to take again in Rohan the towns of Low-Brittany (Lannion, Tréguier, Morlaix from May to October).

The December 3rd 1489, the party subscribes to the Paix of Frankfurt, signed between Maximilien of Austria and the king of France the July 22nd. That preserves Brest, plus the places which it had since the treaty of the Orchard: Dinan, Ferns, Saint-Aubin-of-Cormier and Saint-Malo. Brittany returns its mercenaries. Peace lasts one year, but one arms oneself on the two sides.

During the summer 1490, a Jacquerie bursts: the peasants of Cornwall, carried out by Jean the Old one, constitute themselves in commune, and plunder the town of Quimper. They are massacred by the Spanish mercenaries with Pratanros.

July 4th, the States of Brittany are joined together in Vannes. They ratify the new taxes, grant new taxes. These additional resources make it possible to pay the rallyings of:

Jean de Rieux, extremely from the places taken again in Low-Brittany, which is exonerated of its treason, and receives a premium of 100 000 ecus, more 14 000 of revenue;
Alain d' Albret, which obtains to him also 100 000 ecus and the hand of Isabeau for his/her son Gabriel d' Avesnes;
Francoise de Dinan, her half-sister.

These gifts represent four times the annual budget of the duchy, and are poured by sections.

Countryside of 1491

January 2nd, 1491, Alain d' Albret signs the treaty of Mills with the king: the town of Nantes is promised to him.

It seizes the castle of Nantes on March 19th. April 4th, Easter Day, the king makes his entry in the city which does not oppose any resistance, this one having been evacuated by the marshal of Rieux. The royal army counts 50 000 men. Brittany consequently is regarded as conquered: royal institutions are created (administration of finances, with Jean François de Cardonne named Général of Finances; the Orange prince is named lieutenant-general). In July, the seat is put in front of Rennes, where the party of Anne resists with twelve thousand men, but not enough vivres.

October 27th, 1491, convened in Vannes by Charles VIII, the States of Brittany advise in Anne to marry the king of France. A preliminary interview with Laval lays down these conditions:

occupation of the duchy by the army of the king;
the Viscount of Rohan is named general lieutenant of the king for the duchy (governor);
the question of the right to the duchy is subjected at a joint committee of 24 members;
Anne of Brittany is authorized to join her Austrian husband.

At the conclusion of the head office of Rennes, the marriage with the king of France is accepted on November 15th, by the Traité of Rennes: it guarantees 120 000 pounds of revenue to the duchess, and 120 000 pounds with the treasure of the duchy, to pay the mercenaries and to disencumber the duchy of it. Engagement takes place on November 23rd, in Rennes, and the marriage on December 6th with the Château of Langeais.

Continuations and consequences

Payment

The conflict is regulated by various treaties, by which the king of France obtains the renunciation of their rights of the various possible heirs, and regulates various aspects of the succession, in particular the payment of the debts of the duchy.

the marriage contract between Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany:
:: the two husbands have gift of their death taxes mutually;
:: Jean de Chalons, prince d' Orange and cousin of Anne of Brittany, give up his rights to king de France for 100.000 books; he is named lieutenant-general of the king in Brittany (representative of the king for the military businesses of the duchy)
the peace of Étaples, signed on November 3rd, 1492 with the king of England: the two sovereigns agree on the payment of the 620 000 crown S of gold of debts of the duchy. This agreement makes it possible to release the cities been mortaged.
the treated of Barcelona, signed on January 19th, 1493, allows the payment of the debts of the duchy with regard to the Spanish sovereigns, who also held some rights to the heritage.
Thereafter, Louis XII and Anne of Brittany engage of the lawsuits in Rohan, which were thus dispossessed of their rights.
the preferences and the rights of Breton are confirmed (for example: not new law without the authorization of the States of Brittany, nomination of civil officers reserved for only Breton or with their authorization, not of military service out of Brittany, the Breton ones could not be judged out of Brittany, taxes decided by the States…).

Consequences

From a political point of view, Brittany is consequently plain in France, definitively according to the chroniclers of the reign of Louis XII (only in 1532 according to the Breton authors and the modern authors) and gradually comparable. It loses its autonomy there (under Charles VIII), before finding of it a part in 1492 and 1499. But it is then about a purely personal union.

Brittany seems overall satisfied with this marriage because peace returned. A little later the plot of 1492 (which gathers forgotten payment: officers of the duchy, captains, middle-class men, who hoped for places, carried out by the Viscount of Rohan in connection with England) turns short.

The Breton fleet, on order of Anne of Brittany, will fight as regards French fleet, as the episode of shows it Cordelière in 1513.

See too

Random links: