War of Breton Succession

Transcript:

The War of Breton Succession:

Welcome back. Thank you for being so understanding of me taking a holiday, I’m a big advocate of taking a break, especially around holidays. I think we all probably work too much, especially if one looks at wage gap to productivity measurements. I hope you all had a great break as well. If you’ve come from the History of England Podcast or Queens Podcast, welcome. I feel I’ve been really lucky making some great podcasting connections and friends over the last year and I’m so grateful for the support I’ve received from these more experienced podcasters. If you haven’t checked them out please do. 

With a new year comes a few changes. For me there’s a big one, my oldest child is starting school! Yes, she’s entering preschool this week. This is a huge change for us, but I’m very excited. With this I will need to reevaluate my posting schedule once I finish this current not-so-mini-series. There are two parts to this, first, I really love making these shows, but research, recording, editing, and writing take a lot of time, time that I’m not working and could be. Second, purchasing books, my university library membership, and journal articles and hosting fees are starting to add up. So, to continue on a close to weekly release schedule I’ll need to start funding this a bit. My patrons are wonderful and help, so if you’re interested please come join us. I’ve decided to keep all special episodes patron only, so if you want to hear my episodes about Edward III and Charles of Navarre that will be the only place to find them. I’ll be adding Henry V and Joan of Arc in the coming weeks. My goal is to continue a near weekly posting schedule, and any support will help with this!

Now, I do have some good news. I will be releasing a short, ten minute episode once a fortnight, so more episodes for you! These will be called This to Shall Passed. Thank you patron David for the name suggestion. You may have noticed this as the subtitle to the Christmas Special episode. This new series will show up as the 100th season, but of course it is not the 100th season of Passed, I haven’t been doing this for that long, but I figure I’ll use this season since I’m unlikely to reach it any time soon (that would be over 400 episodes based on my current series structure, over eight years). These will be short episodes, less than ten minutes long, that will cover a single topic, basically all those little random things I research as parts of episodes. Things like wardships, consanguinity, clothing, titles of nobility, geographical locations, great marches, really anything that isn’t a person. I’m keeping these short because I’ll be continuing the main podcast, and want to make sure my focus is there. These are really just a supplement and completely random in topic. I hope you will enjoy these, and I’m open to suggestions. In addition I’ll be recording shorts of these that will be going up on YouTube and Instagram. I won’t be announcing my sources in the episode, since they’ll be so short, but I’ll include them in the episode notes. I hope you’ll take a look at those. Patrons will get these episodes on Monday with the regular weekly episode, everyone else will get them on Wednesday. If there’s enough interests in the special episodes I may be persuaded to make some for the previous two mini-series. Let me know if there are any subjects that you’d love to hear about. 

With that, let’s get on to today’s proper episode: The War of Breton Succession.

I’m sure a few of you are wondering why I’d give the War of Breton Succession it’s own episode. It’s not a person and it’s not a distinct subject, well, the honest truth is I’m fascinated by two facets of it. Hypocrisy and proxy wars. Hypocrisy is something we all suffer from, yes, even me, of course. But my hypocrisy doesn’t led to wars, at least I don’t think it does, I’m not that powerful. The hypocrisy of kings though, can and does lead to war. Or at least can influence wars to continue. Proxy wars are something that I find interesting in so many ways, using others to injure your opponent while keeping your hands mostly clean. I know I’m not one to talk about battles but the politics and casus belli that leaders use to justify wars is something I could spend at least 20-45 minutes on it. This war, unlike the Hundred Years’ War doesn’t have a surfeit of ‘cool’ battles, instead it starts with a bang, relaxes for a while, before finishing in surprising fashion. My main source for this episode is a primary source, The True Chronicles of Jean le Bel. Of course I spent some time reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica, but getting to use a translated version of a primary source is always fun. I actually read a lot more of the Chronicle than just the bits focusing on Brittany. It’s interesting to see the flourish chroniclers added to their stories. It does convince me to be very aware of finding multiple sources for events, because just like today, people had biases. 

Who knows where Brittany is? I do, but I researched this episode. If you look at a map of France it’s almost a square, the upper left corner though, the northwest, the Armorican peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic a bit, that’s basically Brittany. I’ll give you a quick, and incomplete history of Brittany, just for a better idea of the area I’ll be discussing, this is no where near exhaustive. It has been inhabited by people since at least 10,000 BCE. The Romans were particularly violent towards those living on the Armorican peninsula, mainly due to the uprisings by those inhabitants. These inhabitants though weren’t Bretons, but the Roman response depopulated the area. This meant as Rome withdrew from its more remote outposts the area was emptier than most. The first Bretons began arriving in larger numbers in the late 300 CE. These were migrants from England, they were either fleeing invading barbarians or just people moving for a better life. Unlike the earlier inhabitants who likely spoke a Gaelic language or possibly Latin, these spoke a Celtic language, related Cornish, Breton. Until the 12th century the elites in the Breton area spoke this language and the common people continued to speak it for even longer. The Bretons were their own kingdom from 851 until 939 when viking invasions led to it becoming a duchy within the Kingdom of France. Even though it was part of France it still had a bit of an independent streak. During the rule of Henry II of England his third son, Geoffrey Plantagenetent, rejected his father’s attempts to add Brittany to the Angevin Empire. Geoffrey was the duke of Brittany juri ux oris through his marriage to Constance of Brittany. (Yes, I promise to do the early Plantagenants soon.)

From the death of Arthur of Brittany, Geoffrey’s son, killed on the orders of his uncle, King John in 1203 the Duchy had been ruled by the descendants of his maternal half-sister, Alix. Alix’s mother, Constance, had married Guy Thouars (twars) after Geoffrey Plantagenant’s death, with whom she had three daughters, including, of course Alix. Due to King John’s decision to have his nephew murdered he lost any chance of bringing Brittany into the English sphere of influence in his lifetime. Instate, Philip August, the king of France was able to control events. Alix, who was only 13 when she became duchess, was married to Peter Mauclerc, a cousin of the French king. Their son, John I would inherit Brittany in 1221 at the age of either three or four. Then John’s son, also John, would inherit as John II. Everything was going well in Brittany, it was maintaining its independence, ruling as well as can be expected for the time, enjoying trade with France and England. There was occasional manipulation or attempted manipulation from its larger neighbours, but overall it was okay. Until it wasn’t. John II’s son, Arthur II had three surviving sons with his first wife, and after her death remarried and had one surviving son and four surviving daughters. 

So, everything should be good, plenty of sons, right? Wrong, for unknown reasons Arthur’s oldest son, the future John III of Brittany hated his father’s second marriage. He actually tried to have their marriage annulled, after his father’s death, and have his younger half-siblings declared bastards. Yeah, talk about hard feelings in a blended family. Now, his father’s second wife wasn’t some unworthy (pardon the phrasing) trollop, she was actually Yolanda of Dreux, dowager queen of Scotland, and John’s late mother’s second cousin. There was no reason for her marriage to be questioned, her first husband really was dead, his death actually caused a lot of political issues between Scotland and England (see Edward I of England). I could imagine an argument about consanguinity (marriage was seen as blending a family both legally and spiritually, so Arthur’s late wife’s cousins were also his cousins), but I can find no evidence that John III tried that. Now, none of this should have mattered, John III was only 26 when he became duke in 1312. His first wife had died, but his second wife was still young, and they could have been expected to have children. Surprise, they didn’t, but John III married again, surly this third time would…nope, third time wasn’t a charm, no children for John III. You’ll remember though that John III had two full brothers. But only one of his brothers, Guy, had a child, John III’s niece Joan or Joanna of Penthiever (pont ee evau). So, John’s options were his hated half-brother or his niece.

Brittany was sort of French, but they didn’t follow Salic law, as Alix and her mother Constance showed, both were duchess in their own right and their husbands were duke juri ux oris. However, if there was a male in a direct line he would often be chose over his niece or sister (imagine if instead of Philip VI inheriting France when his cousin, Charles V died, Joan II of Navarre had inherited France, instead of just Navarre). But, John III had spent most of his time as duke trying to prevent his younger half-brother, John of Montfort, from inheriting anything (trying to have your younger brother declared a bastard is pretty harsh). Joanna was 21, married to Charles of Blois, a nephew of Philip VI of France. Joanna and Charles actually had at least one child at this point, a daughter, so John III would know that the duchy would remain in the family. He had even considered willing the duchy to Philip VI of France, but his nobles had convinced him not to. So, with all this it would be very surprising when in 1340 he named his hated brother, John of Montfort his heir (maybe he hadn’t liked sharing a name with his brother?). John III would die one year after reconciling with his brother, in 1341 at the age of 55

Now I hope this means you can see the main characters of this argument, because just like everything around the Hundred Years’ War this is a family disagreement. With the characters in mind why did this war start? The previous duke had declared his heir, following the traditions of the duchy, there was no reason for a fight, let alone a 24 year fight to happen. 

This is where hypocrisy comes in. The French, especially Philip VI who could thank Salic law for all he had, supported Joanna, and England, where Edward III was claiming the throne of France through his mother, supported John of Montfort. So, each king supported the side that claimed power through the same means that his opponent in the Hundred Years War claimed the French throne. Edward supporting the claim through Salic Law, Philip supporting the claim through a female line. Don’t think the hypocrisy stopped either of them. I doubt they gave it a second thought. But who did the Bretons support, the nobility (and we know they were the only ones who mattered then), supported Joanna. Her husband, Charles of Blois, was seemingly popular with the Breton nobility. 

John of Montfort on the other hand had less support in the duchy, but he acted quickly. Montfort’s wife, Joanna of Flanders, supposedly encouraged her husband to make a move. He secured the city of Nantes and then Limoges, where the duchy’s treasury was (sounds a bit like the Normans, right, spoilers). Both cites recognised him as their rightful duke. 

This war is nicknamed Guerre des deux (ger de du Jhean)  Jeannes the War of the Two Jeannes, after Joanna of Penthiever (pont ee evau) and Joanna of Flanders, but in reality, while one may have had the claim and the other may have encouraged her husband it really was the war of Charles and John until it became the war of Charles and John’s son, with help from Philip and Edward. But this help from their larger neighbours didn’t come at the start of the war. Remember, Brittany was a vassal of France, the duke owed homage to Philip VI. Things stayed internal at first, but Edward III sent agents to Montfort, not apparently to act as military power since England and France had a truce in 1341, but this attention from England was enough for Philip to take notice. Montfort fled to Paris to appeal to the king at the Court of Peers. In his mind Montfort was the duke by both historical rights and being named so by his older half-brother. It would be expected that Philip would listen to the two sides and choose the one with the best claim. Instead, and probably not surprisingly he threw Montfort into prison, accusing him of conspiring with the English (I mean technically he did, but not against Philip). I am not surprised by Philip’s decision, choosing his nephew over the friend of his enemy was probably a smart choice. Montfort was able to escape prison and return to Brittany to mount a defence. 

With French intervention Montfort asked Edward for official help. Edward, bound by his truce couldn’t intervene, but Philip had decided to put his house in order and his support was instrumental for Charles of Blois at the Battle of Champtoceaux (chat to sue) (also known as the Battle of l’Humeau le umo). Calling this a battle kind of ignores the facts. Montfort really didn’t have an army at his disposal, his forces were spread out through various strong points and he was only able to gather a small force. Charles on the other hand had at least 7,000 men, 5,000 of whom were French. It should have been the easiest victory for Charles, but Montfort, looking for additional troops, came upon Charles at a farmstead l’Humeau outside of Champtoceaux. Charles only had his bodyguard with him and Montfort almost took the win. Charles got lucky and was able to fight off Montfort until his French troops arrived at which point Montfort and his much smaller forces engaged in skirmishes with Charles’ forces before Montfort admitted loss and rode for Nantes. The townspeople, who had welcomed him as their duke weeks earlier turned on him and he was forced to surrender, but not to Charles. It seems that this was easy, Charles wins, it’s over, why does this go on for 23 further years? Well, Montfort’s wife, Joanna of Flanders, and his son, John, were able to escape. And this is where Edward III finally comes in. Well, not actually Edward, but his support.

Joanna of Flanders was besieged at Brest, but in August of 1342 Walter de Bohun (the grandfather-in-law of Thomas of Woodstock and Henry Bolingbroke) landed in Brittany. By the end of September he was able to lift the siege. Philip was worried that Edward would land in Calais and pulled his forces out of Brittany. Instead Edward landed in Brest (surprised Pikachu faces anyone?). Before any battles could be fought though Edward and Philip reached a truce, but English forces were left in Brittany. Charles continued to fight, because he wasn’t bound by his liege lord’s truce. 

Charles had been a very devout man throughout his life. Had he not been the nephew of the French king it’s likely he would have gone into the church, but his father had secular aims for his son. Throughout the War of Breton Succession Charles showed that his piety would not prevent cruelty, he ordered the multiple massacres of civilians at various points. While he was ordering the slaughter of civilians he would confess his sins nightly, stick pebbles in his shoes, and wear a cilis  (silis), a form of hairshirt, under his armour. Even with Philip’s withdraw he was a successful military leader and his eventual leadership of the duchy looked all but certain. He was besieging Hennebont (en oo bon) in 1342.

John of Montfort on the other hand was struggling. He was imprisoned, his son was an infant, and his wife couldn’t lead an army, she was a woman after all, or could she? It turns out she actually could. When she left for England to attempt to gain further support her ships were attacked by French allies. Wielding a form of a poleaxe she literally fought off troops that attempted to board her ship. She earned herself the soubriquet ‘la Flamme’ (flam-eh) the flame. They didn’t make it to England, instead landing in Vannes, in Brittany, taking that city before besieging Rennes and then trying to break Charles’ siege of Hennebont (en oo bon). Montfort was released in 1343, part of his release required him not to leave his properties, so he couldn’t fight his battles, but the English forces his wife had secured were able to keep fighting on his behalf. He would actually be imprisoned once more, only to be released a second time.

Edward’s forces would return with Montfort in 1345, but this would be the end of Montfort’s fight. He would die during the siege of Quimper (camp-erh) on 26th of September 1345. His son, John, would inherit his claim. Joanna would keep Edward’s support, and continue the fight for her son’s claim. Sadly, while her forces and Edwards would keep fighting Joanna would not be directly involved. Sometime after 1345 she would be confined, comfortably and befitting her station in England. Edward used the claim that she had suffered from a mental collapse, but this appears unlikely. The more likely argument was that Edward wanted to use his power in Brittany to help with his claims in France. 

It looked like Joanna of Penthievre (pont ee evau) and Charles of Blois would become the duchess and duke. Montfort’s son, John, wasn’t even six, and his mother was confined, but Edward was still willing to fight. Mainly as part of the proxy war, he also wouldn’t complain about another foothold on the continent. While Edward wasn’t in Brittany fighting his forces were, and the defeats he delivered to Philip removed French troops from assisting Charles in Brittany. And in 1347 Charles would completely eliminate his chance of ever truly being duke. At the Battle of La Roche-Derrien Charles was captured by Edward’s forces. His wife and children avoided capture, but his ransom would be steep, and he would remain in English custody for nine years. His ransom was set at 700,000 florins, this was estimated in 1926 to be the equivalent of nine million francs or seven million US dollars today. For reference, not long after this event the king of France’s ransom would be set between the equivalent of 4 million and 250 million francs, Charles was just a duke, and a contested one at that. He would also be required to surrender his two of his sons, John and Guy, in his stead. He did get something more than his freedom out of paying part of his ransom, the Treaty of Westminster, signed in March of 1353 between Edward III and Charles, recognised Charles as the duke of Brittany. Oddly, the treaty also included a marriage between Charles’ rival, the younger John and Edward’s daughter Mary, though this didn’t take place until 1361, in 1353 Mary was only nine. Charles was able to return to France. This treaty should have lead to peace, at least in Brittany.

Warning, a lot of people named Charles in this paragraph. What prevented the treaty from succeeding was a wee bit of chaos, in the form of Charles of Navarre, decided to try to get the English and French to begin fighting again, because it suited his aims of retaining control of his various lands. He had the Constable of France, Charles de la Credo assassinated (I mentioned this in an earlier episode, and patrons will learn more about Charles of Navarra soon). Due to his interjections the treaty was basically tossed in the waste basket, but Charles of Blois was already home at this point. 

When Charles of Blois, returned to France his first act was to go on pilgrimage in devotion to Saint Ivo of Kermartin the patron saint of Brittany. Once his religious duties were complete he began to rule Brittany. The younger John was still in England, his forces in Brittany did control a great deal of the country, but it was unlikely in 1353 that he would be able to do anything, seeing that he was 14. 

Everything was going well for Charles until 1362. In that year Edward allowed the younger John to return to the duchy. Edward’s daughter, who had been John’s wife had actually died, and part of his decision to release his young former son-in-law was that John couldn’t marry without Edward’s permission. Because of the actions of Charles of Navarre John wasn’t bound to respect Charles of Blois as his duke. He decided he wanted to press his late father’s claim. The war resumed in 1363 and within a year it was over. 

On the 29th of September 1364 Charles of Blois was killed during the Battle of Auray and his forces were defeated. Without her husband and military power to fight for her Joanna of Prenthievre (pont ee evau) gave up her fight. Joanna and her cousin, John, now John IV of Brittany, signed the First Treaty of Guerande (geh rond) on the 12th of April 1365. This treaty declared John the duke and his male and male-line progeny the heirs to the dukedom. Should he not have any male or male-line heirs the duchy would revert to Joanna’s line. This clause was never tested because the Montfortist line renounced the clause inn 1420 when John IV’s son, then John V, was kidnapped by his Prenthieve (pont ee evau) cousins. He declared the treaty had been broken by this act. Had John V not been kidnapped the clause would have been called on in 1488 when John IV’s grandson, Francis II, died leaving his duchy to his only surviving child, Anne of Brittany. 

Shockingly, Joanna of Prenthievre (pont ee evau) oldest son, John of Penthievre did not challenge his cousin’s claim and renounced his claims at multiple times throughout his life. He would be truly dead before the kidnapping of his cousin, so took not part in the mistake that would completely end his family’s chance of ruling Brittany. 

So, what happened to Brittany after the house of Montfort took power? It would remain independent until Anne of Brittany became the duchess. She was considered a highly sought after young woman on the marriage market, due to holding such a wealthy area. When she was 13 she married the Holy Roman Emperor, but was forced the have the marriage annulled by the king of France, at the time Charles VIII. Charles VIII then married her, not even waiting for papal dispensation, which did eventually come. Anne apparently wasn’t the most willing bride at first. Anne would retain Brittany if Charles died before her. If he died without male issue though she was required to marry his successor. This happened in 1398, after seven years of marriage, Anne was 21. Anne had given birth to at least six children, but none had survived past the age of three. Less than a year after Charles’ death Anne married his successor, Louis XII. The couple would have two surviving children, both girls. Their oldest daughter, Claude of France became the duchess of Brittany in 1514 when Anne died. In a final, and successful, attempt to bring Brittany into the French royal holding Claude was married to her father’s successor (and their mutual cousin), Francis I. Through their son Henry II Brittany would become a holding of the French crown and would remain so until there was no longer a French crown. 

Prior to the French Revolution, more than 400 years after the time this mini-series is looking at, Brittany was a rather autonomous region. It wasn’t until the 19th century that its language began to be replaced by French. Thankfully the linguistic repression has started to change in recent decades. While Breton is not a recognised language for government use in France it is being taught in schools in Brittany again. As you may be able tell I’m a big fan of the continuation of minority languages, especially in their homeland. As part of this research for this episode I listened to a few native speakers of the Breton language through various videos on YouTube. I highly recommend this if you are so inclined. My listeners who have been exposed to Celtic languages will hear the similarity. I played some for my Cornish uncle-in-law over Christmas, he immediately called out the French accent that both speakers had.  

Thank you again for listening. Getting to discuss a conflict in its full history has been good. I’ll be back to focusing on people next week with the Dauphines who wouldn’t succeed Charles VI. To all my new listeners welcome, and thank you for joining us. I would also like to welcome my newest patron Kim. I’m loving the growing community on Patreon and I really hope to see more of you there. Also, remember to get your questions in to me ASAP. I’m still planning a Q and A for the end of this not-so-mini-series.