Between France and England: Politics, Power, and Society in Late Medieval Brittany (Variorum Collected Studies Series, 769)

This work characterizes the role played by most rulers of the duchy of Brittany during the late Middle Ages, before it was finally united with Valois France. These essays (including three appearing for the first time in English) explore political and institutional aspects of the changing relationship between France and Brittany, within the context of Anglo-French relations, as well as social consequences of the development of a largely autonomous state within the larger French kingdom during a period dominated by war and economic crisis. The transformation of medieval France into an early modern state changed the traditional relationship between the king and his great feudal princes. But some princes reacted by imitating the crown, creating their own more advanced administrations and an ideological base for claims to exercise "regal rights" within their lordships, often expressed in striking visual and symbolic form. These trends are evident in the late medieval duchy of Brittany where the Montfort dynasty all but succeeded in nullifying royal control.