History of Rennes

This article contains a summary of the history of Rennes , the capital of the Brittany in France.

Old written forms

Celtic name : Condate
Civitas Riedonum at the 3rd century
Civitas Redonum at the 4th century
Ecclesia Redonensis at the 5th century
Redonicum oppidum in 830
Gave again oppidum in 850
Urbe Redonensis , Urbs Redonis and Redhonis at the 12th century
Rennes and Rennes at the 14th century

Condate

People Armorican of Give again founded Condate or Condatum in Latin (name which means “confluent” in old Celtique), with the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine and made its capital of it.

The term Condate is found in the name of more than one hundred of common Frenchwomen in the form of Condat, Condé or Candé. With 3rd and 4th centuries, like much regional metropolises, Condate changes its name and takes that of the people of which it is the capital. These toponymic changes intervened at one time when the Roman Empire crumbled. One observes then, inter alia significant elements, a rebirth of the antiques divinities Gaulois be local in the religious sculptures and the inscriptions dédicatoires.

Roman epoch

At the time Roman Condate became Condate Riedonum , capital of the Civitas riedonum (quoted of the Riedones, of the name of the Gallic people of which it is the chief town).

Oldest Of Rennes known is Titus Flavius Postuminus , whose name on Stèle S found in Rennes in 1968 is reproduced, Duguay-Trouin quay. As its first names indicate it, it would have obtained the Roman Citoyenneté under the dynasty of the Flaviens and under the reign of Titus, i.e. between 79 and 81 after J. - C. One of the steles says to us, in Latin, that it exerted all the public offices in its fatherland, the Civitas Riedonum . It was twice Duumvir and Flamine with life of the god Mars Mullo.

At the time Roman, the strategic position of the city contributes to make a town of importance of it. Towards the west the principal Roman way leads of Condate to Vorgium (current the Carhaix) at the Osismii.

In the year 275, the threat of the Bagaude S leads the city to be surrounded by a robust brick wall, Rennes becomes “ the red city ” and reduces its surface from 90 to 10 hectares. With its Roman wall, it will put more than one attacker in failure in the history, not all.

Melaine, the bishop of Rennes, played a big role with the peace treaty between the Francs and the Armoricain S, in the year 497. When he declared: “It is necessary to make peace between Christians”, his remark historical did not pass unperceived.

The Middle Ages

Early middle ages

As from the 5th century, the Breton S occupy the Western part of the Armorican peninsula which one starts to call small Brittany, then Brittany very short, while the Francs take the remainder of the Armorique. To contain the pressure and to avoid the Breton incursions, the Carolingien S institute a Marche of Brittany including/understanding the counties of Rennes, of Nantes and of Valves and whose most famous prefect is Roland de Roncevaux.

This walk-plug very whole is absorbed by the Breton kingdom at the 9th century and Rennes is Breton in 851, after the Bataille of Jengland. In 850, when Nominoë and Lambert II of Nantes forces the doors of Rennes, the franque garrison left in the walls of the city by Charles II the Bald person, makes his rendering.

Kingdom of Brittany

Politically frankly under the reign of its owner and benefactor Louis the Piles, Nominoë becomes politically Breton under the reign of Charles II the Bald person.

The descendants of Nominoë and his/her son Erispoë make of Rennes their stronghold and parvienennt also to make of it the ducal and capital city of Brittany in spite of some contrary events.

Came five years after the muscular arrival from Lambert and Nominoë to Rennes, it is Gurvant, the Of Rennes one, son-in-law of Erispoë, which in the year 875, although patient and dying man, inflicts two successive defeats with the count of Vannes Pascweten, thanks to its cavalry.

In 875, that made 25 years that Lambert and Nominoë forced the doors of Rennes, but Gurwant still did not make them repair. Pascweten is with the current. The engagements take place a little with the south of Rennes between Gurwant and the large army of Pascweten. Knowing that they were less 1 000 men against definitely more 3 000 in the army of Pascweten, the pessimists who had released Gurvand and joined Pascweten had accentuated still a little more this imbalance. Gurwant called to its faithful: “This is not the number but God who gives the victory! ”

The band Viking of Hasting benefitted from it to invest Rennes during the battle like agreed with Pascweten. In 875, they entered Rennes easily, but they did not expect a victorious return of Gurwant in its city. As with Brissarthe in 866, Vikings of Hasting in a church, the church Saint-Melaine. But they do not have leave there in the middle of the night. In the small hour, there was nobody any more in the church.

In spite of its first defeat, Pascweten took again soon the road of Rennes, after having learned that the Gurwant dying man was with the anguish. This time, the dying man inflicted in Pascweten a defeat even more severe than the preceding one. Gurwant had still gained, but exhausted per so many efforts, it returned its last sigh while returning at his place to Rennes. Pascweten did not come to its burial. A few months later, it was learned that Pascweten had been made kill by its mercenaries Vikings who undoubtedly had with him a financial disagreement.

In Rennes, Judicaël which had taken the changing of Gurwant, his/her father, became soon a frightening and dreaded adversary Vikings. In Vannes, Alain, which had succeeded his/her Pascweten brother, decided to agree with Judicaël to drive out the Vikings. However, Alain let impetuous Judicaël undertake some. Judicaël was made kill by pousuivant Vikings, which made it possible Alain to become Alain the Large one by completing work, the children of Judicaël not having probably the age to take over their father on the ground.

After the death of Alain Ier, the Vikings returned in force, forcing the descendants of the house vannetaise of Pascweten to seek refuge in the island of Brittany, in the Saxon kings.

Gurwant, Judicaël, Juhel, Conan I {{er}}, is the successive counts of Rennes at the 9th century.

Rennes does not preserve by chance the best memory of its bishop Sylvestre of Guerche, founder of the district “Borough the Bishop”, according to 1078 with its death in 1093. Between these two dates, there be in theory a short interruption of its functions, since it was temporarily deposited by the council of Poitiers. Sylvestre Mainguené was the baron of Guerche, father also, but widowed. Its situation was completely in conformity with the uses in the Breton Church, which did not have until there the practice of the celibacy and the vow of chastity. If it took again its place after the council of Poitiers deposited it, it is only because the population of Rennes had been raised to keep it as bishop. A contrario, its successor, the prelate angevin Marbode, author in his youth of an unpleasant Latin poem on Rennes, rejected by the Of Rennes one waited three years to come to take his functions in Rennes, by the will of the pope who imposed it on the Of Rennes one.

1182 Henri II of England besieges and seizes the city.

Ducal Brittany

War of succession of Brittany

During the War of succession of Brittany, in 1356 and 1357, the city is besieged by the army of the Duc of Lancaster, brother of king d' Angleterre. But Bertrand of Guesclin discreetly makes its entry in the city takes the direction of its resistance, which is victorious. Called elsewhere, Lancaster gives up in 1357 at the conclusion of almost one year to English seat.

Anne of Brittany

Hundred thirty-four years later in 1491, it is the army of the king de France Charles {{VIII}}, directed by its généralissime Trémoille which besieges Rennes. The young duchess Anne of Brittany wisely chooses to capitulate but not without condition. Rennes is not taken and the royal army remains out of the walls, Charles VIII having agreed to be even satisfied with safe conducts for him and its small delegation, comes to meet the young Anne duchess there but without her army rabble.

Modern time

At the 15th century, Rennes is a flourishing city.

The 1430-1448 urban development of Rennes is concretized by the reinforcement of the primitive wall and the construction of another enclosure in the East of the first. (There remains today the doors mordelaises to which is still coupled a wall portion and boulevard of defense with its casmates; the tower Duchesne and a low vestige of wall (place of the Mission). In the court between the street Mound-Fablet and behind the houses with wood sides of the place Holy-Anne the ditch of the door is visible with the Fullers length of which were built the houses of the Saint-Aubin suburb - the Place current Co.-Anne).

1463 Epidemic of plague. The 1449-1476 third enclosure supplements the two first in the South.

1489 Anne of Brittany is crowned duchess, in front of the Door Mordelaise, it is 11 years old.

1491 Seat of the city by Charles IX (King de France). Anne of Brittany ends up becoming engaged to him in Rennes in the Notre Dame vault of Good-News in the convent of the Jacobins. (Place Holy-Anne).

E century the city is managed by a prosecutor of the middle-class man, renewed each year and which takes the title of prosecutor-syndic starting from 1568. (The title of mayor appears to the E century).

1532 Brittany is definitively attached to France by the Treaty of union of Valves implemented and signed by François er, married to Claude of France, (girl of Anne of Brittany and Louis its second husband).

In 1554, the king Henri {{II}}, last duke of Brittany in title, decides to replace “the Great days” (two annual sessions held in Vannes until 1550) by a “Parliament and seat of sovereign justice to the duchy of Brittany”. A 7 year old arm wrestling takes place between Rennais and Nantes for obtaining its seat. Initially, the meetings of the Parliament are taken place every 6 months alternatively in Rennes and Nantes. On the petition of Nantes, king Henri grants the seat to the town of Nantes in June 1557, which causes an outcry in Rennes. In 1561, Charles {{IX}}, the regent being Catherine de Médicis, orders that “the ordinary meeting of known as Parlement will be and remain always hereafter downtown the aforementioned of Rennes, without for some cause and occasion that it is, it being able about it to occur it estre ostée and transferred downtown the aforementioned from Nantes, nor elsewhere. ”

1598 Henri IV, king de France, enters Rennes after being gone in Nantes signed the Edict. It places with the castle of Prévalaye. (Destroyed by German in 1945. (There remains about it today the pigeon one).

1618 Beginning of the construction of the Parliament of Brittany of Solomon de Brosse (architect).

1624-1632 Epidemics of plague.

1655 Inauguration of the Palate of the Parliament.

With the 17th century, consequence of the economic role of Brittany in the center of the maritime economic traffics between Europe of the south and that of north, Rennes is the second monetary place of the kingdom after Paris.

In 1675, the Révolte of the stamped paper begins in Brittany in Rennes on April 3rd. The governor of Brittany, the duke of Chaulnes, has only thin troops, the army being occupied at the borders by the Guerre of Holland. But to the summer, the regiments made available bring back the order in all the peninsula, and plunder the in October city - November. Rennes must still lodge other regiments all the winter, and loses the Parliament during 15 years, with the profit of Vannes. The city, which lived primarily of the presence of the Parliament, sees its population dropping during this period.

In Rennes, a third of the High street (the current street Saint-Malo) is shaved by the royal army, and prohibition is made under Capital punishment, to carry help to without shelters.

1690 Return of the Parliament in Rennes.

1694 Rennes is subjected to a great famine.

The December 23rd 1720, Rennes is devastated by a fire, party of a bakery (?) (close to the current place of the Martyrdom). During six days, the large fire destroys the three quarters of the city (thirty three streets, and nine hundred houses are destroyed…) It is Rallier of Baty, mayor of the time, which launches the rebuilding. Wood is interdict in frontage, the cross walls out of stone become systematic. The architects Robelin then Gabriel will build the most beautiful city of the kingdom of France of then, on a plan with orthogonal screen and according to the traditional esthetics of this time. It is the birth of the place of the Town hall and the Parliament of the street Bastard… The center town is built in Granit… seemingly only since only the frontages and the cross walls of the investment properties are high out of stone, the floors, the interior partitions are out of wood according to the constructive techniques of the time, but the frontages on court and their gangways are with wood sides… (What explains the leaning stone frontages towards the interior of the building of the Street of Bertrand for example, of which the structure of wood does not allow any more the wind-bracing of origin).

At the beginning of September 1788, a British, Arthur Young, which makes his turn of France, remains four days in Rennes and note the presence with the doors of the town of a camp of two regiments of dragon S and four of infantry because of the dissatisfaction with Of Rennes run up against by " the exil" of their Parliament and the dearness of the bread.

On January 26th and 27th 1789, a riot bursts place of the Parliament between the students and the noble ones. It is the suspension of the States of Brittany. The battle which follows is described by Chateaubriand in its memories like the “first blood of the Revolution”.

1790 Rennes adds up ten parishes: Saint-Aubin (approx. 4 000 faithful); Saint-Etienne (approx. 5 500 faithful); Saint-Pierre-in-Saint-Georges (approx. 1 000 faithful); Saint-Germain (approx. 7 500 faithful); The St. Lawrence (approx. 2 000 faithful); Saint Martin's day (approx. 2 000 faithful); Saint-saver (approx. 2 000 faithful); and Toussaints (approx. 9 000 faithful). To the E century, Rennes is an ecclesiastical city: in addition to ten churches, it has seven vaults; ten priories; seven convents of men, of which that of the Jacobins, and thirteen convents of women of which that of the Visitandines.

1795 the peace treaty between Breton royalists Chouans and republicans is signed with the Manor of Mabilais. (Still visible today street of Mabilais).

Modern history

E Rennes century becomes a city Militaire, many convents are transformed into barracks.

1857 the railroad arrives at Rennes, the station is built in the South of the city what makes it possible to develop the city in its southernmost part while urbanizing of advantage North, noble part of the city (Place Holy-Anne; Place and Street Shakes).

In 1899, at the time of the revision of famous the Business Dreyfus judged in Rennes, it is the whole world which unloads in station of Rennes. Dreyfus is condemned in spite of famous supports, like that of Jean Jaurès. It is pardoned later a few days by the president of the Republic Emile Loubet.

During the Second world war, Rennes is occupied by the German armies on June 18th, 1940, the shortly after a bombardment of the ways of the marshalling yard by three German planes which caused a thousand of deaths, Britanniques soldiers, French and taken refuge, stationed in trains beside a train of ammunition. September 17th, 1940 the Germans shoot Marcel Brossier, 33 years, condemned for sabotage of cable: one of the French first shot for act of resistance. In 1943 (March and May) and in 1944 (June) sudden Rennes of heavy American bombardments and British who made a thousand of victims and destroyed or damaged hundreds of buildings, damage to which those caused by the destruction of the bridges by the Germans were added at the dawn of the day of the release of the city by the American troops of the general Patton, on August 4th, 1944. The shortly after the war the city was to accommodate, in addition to its 100.000 inhabitants, some 50.000 German prisoners parked in four camps.

1950-1990 - the construction of the great real units and the by-pass with condemned buildings and formidable traces of the past that the countryside still preserved (Castle of Bréquigny; of Maurepas; of Ormeaux; manor of the Mound to the Chancellor; the Largeone…).

1960 -… Rennes is a University town, its military past grows blurred more and more. In 2006 the city is the seat of the military region western northern ground. March 15th 2002 Rennes becomes the smallest metropolis of the world to be obtained a subway.

See too

External bonds

files of Rennes

Books

Seigniory of Prévalaye-Matignon , relates to Rennes and close parishes (southern, south-western), (22 bailliages): dimensions 16 J 1 to 16 J 74 > Fonds of Prévalaye, (16 J) Files I&V, (6,20 ml).
History of Rennes , Gauthier Aubert, Alain Croix and Michel Denis, 2006

Sources

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