The Duchy of Brittany was a medieval feudal state that existed between approximately 939 and 1547. Its territory covered the northwestern peninsula of Europe, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the English Channel to the north. It was also less definitively bordered by the river Loire to the south, and Normandy, and other French provinces, to the east. The Duchy was established after the expulsion of Viking armies from the region around 939. The Duchy, in the 10th and 11th centuries, was politically unstable, with the dukes holding only limited power outside their own personal lands. The Duchy had mixed relationships with the neighbouring Duchy of Normandy, sometimes allying itself with Normandy, and at other times, such as the Breton-Norman War, entering into open conflict.
Nominoe or Nomenoe was the first Duke of Brittany from 846 to his death. He is the Breton pater patriae and to Breton nationalists he is known as Tad ar Vro.
Alan I, called the Great, was the Count of Vannes and Duke of Brittany from 876 until his death. He was probably also the only King of Brittany to hold that title by a grant of the Emperor.
During the Middle Ages, the counts of Blois were among the most powerful vassals of the King of France.
Fulk II of Anjou, called le Bon was Count of Anjou from 942 to his death.
Conan I nicknamed Le Tort was the Duke of Brittany from 990 to his death.
Drogo was the count of Vannes and Nantes and duke of Brittany from 952, when he succeeded his father, Alan Wrybeard, until his death in 958.
Theobald I (913–975), called the Trickster, was first Viscount of Blois and Viscount of Tours, and then from 956, Count of Blois, Chartres and Châteaudun, as well as Count of Tours.
Judicael, thus called in Breton sources, alias Berengar his name in Frankish sources, and sometimes known as Judicael Berengar, with both names being used together, was a Count of Rennes in the 10th century.
Chronicle of Nantes is an eleventh-century Latin chronicle of history extending from 570 to about 1049 AD. The original manuscript, kept in the city of Nantes, has not survived, but there exist:
- a late fifteenth-century French translation of much of it, made by a certain Pierre Le Baud, who inserted it in two histories of Brittany he wrote;
- Latin excerpts, which have been inserted into other chronicles. The editor of the Chronicle, René Merlet, assembled twenty additional scattered chapters he collected from other sources.
Count of Vannes was the title held by the rulers of the County of Vannes.
The Kingdom of Brittany was a short-lived vassal-state of the Frankish Empire that emerged during the Norse invasions. Its history begins in 851 with Erispoe's claim to kingship. In 856, Erispoe was murdered and succeeded by his cousin Salomon.
The Battle of Trans-la-Fôret was fought on 1 August 939 between the occupying Norsemen and the Bretons, led by a joint army of Alan II, Hugh II of Maine, and Judicael Berengar.
Hoël I of Brittany was an illegitimate son of Alan II and Judith. He was Count of Nantes and Duke of Brittany from 960 to 981.
Mathuedoï I was a Count of Poher. He was the son - in - law of Alan I, King of Brittany, known as Alan the Great through his marriage to Hawise of Vannes. He obtained his countship at Alan's death circa 907. He is listed in several ecclesiastical records at Redon Abbey.
The sieges of Vannes of 1342 were a series of four sieges of the town of Vannes that occurred throughout 1342. Two rival claimants to the Duchy of Brittany, John of Montfort and Charles of Blois, competed for Vannes throughout this civil war from 1341 to 1365. The successive sieges ruined Vannes and its surrounding countryside. Vannes was eventually sold off in a truce between England and France, signed in January 1343 in Malestroit. Saved by an appeal of Pope Clement VI, Vannes remained in the hands of its own rulers, but ultimately resided under English control from September 1343 till the end of the war in 1365.
Guerech of Brittany, was Count of Nantes and Duke of Brittany from 981 to 988.
Alan was the only known son of Guerech, Duke of Brittany, and Aremberg. With his mother he founded the castle of Ancenis around 987, according to the Chronicle of Nantes. In 988, he succeeded his father as Count of Nantes and perhaps nominal Duke of Brittany, after his father was murdered by Count Conan I of Rennes. The following two years were marked by endless warfare between Rennes and Nantes. In 990, Alan died, either of an illness or else killed by Conan, who took Nantes and had himself proclaimed Duke of Brittany by the bishop of Nantes, Orscand de Vannes.
Vikings were active in Brittany during the Middle Ages, even occupying a portion of it for a time. Throughout the 9th century, the Bretons faced threats from various flanks: they resisted full incorporation into the Frankish Carolingian Empire yet they also had to repel an emerging threat of the new duchy of Normandy on their eastern border by these Scandinavian colonists.
Louis IV, called d'Outremer or Transmarinus, reigned as King of West Francia from 936 to 954. A member of the Carolingian dynasty, he was the only son of king Charles the Simple and his second wife Eadgifu of Wessex, daughter of King Edward the Elder of Wessex. His reign is mostly known thanks to the Annals of Flodoard and the later Historiae of Richerus.
