Year 851 (DCCCLI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.
Charles the Bald, also known as Charles II, was a 9th-century king of West Francia (843–877), King of Italy (875–877) and emperor of the Carolingian Empire (875–877). After a series of civil wars during the reign of his father, Louis the Pious, Charles succeeded, by the Treaty of Verdun (843), in acquiring the western third of the empire. He was a grandson of Charlemagne and the youngest son of Louis the Pious by his second wife, Judith.
Year 888 (DCCCLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar.
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.
Erispoe was Duke of Brittany from 851 to his death. After the death of his father Nominoe, he led a successful military campaign against the Franks, culminating in his victory at the Battle of Jengland. He is subsequently referred to as "King of Brittany".
Salomon was count of Rennes and Nantes from 852 and duke of Brittany from 857 until his assassination in 874. In 867, he was granted the counties of Avranches and Coutances, and he used the title king of Brittany intermittently after 868.
Pascweten was the count of Vannes and a claimant to the rule of Brittany. He was a son of Ridoredh of Vannes, a prominent and wealthy aristocrat first associated with the court of Erispoe in the 850s. He owned vast landed estates and salt works in southeastern Brittany and was a patron of Redon Abbey.
Wrhwant, Gurwant, Gurwent or Gurvand was a claimant to the Kingdom of Brittany from 874 until his death in opposition to Pascweten, Count of Vannes.
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.
Judicael was the Duke of Brittany from 876 to his death. He was a son of a daughter of Erispoe and claimed Brittany after the death of the pretenders Wrhwant and Pascweten in mid 876.
Judicael or Judicaël (Welsh:Ithel), also spelled Judhael, was the King of Domnonée, part of Brittany, in the mid-7th century and later revered as a Roman Catholic saint.
Berengar II was the Count of Bayeux and Rennes and Margrave of the Northern or Norman March from 886 until his death a decade later.
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.
The counts of Nantes were originally the Frankish rulers of the Nantais under the Carolingians and eventually a capital city of the Duchy of Brittany. Their county served as a march against the Bretons of the Vannetais. Carolingian rulers would sometimes attack Brittany through the region of the Vannetais, making Nantes a strategic asset. In the mid-ninth century, the county finally fell to the Bretons and the title became a subsidiary title of the Breton rulers. The control of the title by the Breton dukes figured prominently in the history of the duchy. The County of Nantes was given to Hoel, a disinherited son of a duke. He lost the countship due to a popular uprising. That uprising presented an opportunity for King Henry II of England to attack the Breton duke. In the treaty ending their conflicts, the Breton duke awarded the county to Henry II.
The Battle of Jengland took place on 22 August 851, between the Frankish army of Charles the Bald and the Breton army of Erispoe, Duke of Brittany. The Bretons were victorious, leading to the signing of the Treaty of Angers in September 851 and the recognition of Erispoe as the legitimate ruler of the Bretons under Charles the Bald.
The Battle of Ballon took place on 27 March 845 between the forces of Charles the Bald, king of West Francia, and Nominoë, Duke of Brittany. Nominoë was appropriating border territory and opposing Charles' attempt to impose Frankish authority. Nominoë defeated Charles, initiating a period of Breton expansion and consolidation of power.
The Battle of Blain, also called the Battle of Messac, was fought on 24 May 843 by the forces of Lambert II of Nantes and Erispoe, prince of Brittany, against Renaud, Frankish Count of Nantes. It arose from Breton resistance to Frankish power within Brittany and disputes over control of the County of Nantes. The defeat of the Franks led to a period of Breton expansionism.
Count of Vannes was the title held by the rulers of the County of 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.
