Montfort of Brittany
Encyclopedia
The House of Montfort was a French noble family, who reigned in the Duchy of Brittany from 1365 to 1514. It was a cadet branch
Cadet branch
Cadet branch is a term in genealogy to describe the lineage of the descendants of the younger sons of a monarch or patriarch. In the ruling dynasties and noble families of much of Europe and Asia, the family's major assets – titles, realms, fiefs, property and income – have...

 of the Breton
Breton people
The Bretons are an ethnic group located in the region of Brittany in France. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brythonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain in waves from the 3rd to 6th century into the Armorican peninsula, subsequently named Brittany after them.The...

 House of Dreux, itself a branch of the House of Dreux; it was thus ultimately part of the Capetian dynasty
Capetian dynasty
The Capetian dynasty , also known as the House of France, is the largest and oldest European royal house, consisting of the descendants of King Hugh Capet of France in the male line. Hugh Capet himself was a cognatic descendant of the Carolingians and the Merovingians, earlier rulers of France...

. It shouldn't be confused with the older House of Montfort which ruled as Counts of Montfort-l'Amaury
Montfort-l'Amaury
Montfort-l'Amaury is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the south-western suburbs of Paris N of Rambouillet....

 and were the female line ancestors of this royal house.

It succeeded the Brittany branch of the House of Dreux, invoking already in 1341 a right to succeed John III, Duke of Brittany
John III, Duke of Brittany
John III the Good was duke of Brittany, from 1312 to his death. He was son of Duke Arthur II and Mary of Limoges, his first wife...

. A war ensued, ultimately won by Montforts in 1364.

The dynasty was succeeded by Valois family, first Claude, the daughter of Montfortine duchess Anne, and then Claude's sons. Already from the time of Duchess Anne's marriage, however, the duchy was gradually subsumed to the French state, in practice, so it can be said that French central government succeeded the Montforts.

Rise to power

Count John of Montfort
John IV, Duke of Brittany
John IV of Montfort , was duke of Brittany, from 1341 to his death. He was son of Duke Arthur II and Yolande de Dreux, countess of Montfort, his second wife.In 1322 he succeeded his mother as count of Montfort, and in 1329, he married Joanna of Flanders at Chartres...

 (1295–1345) was the sole surviving son of Yolande of Dreux, Countess of Montfort suo jure (and dowager queen of Scotland) from her second marriage to Arthur II, Duke of Brittany
Arthur II, Duke of Brittany
Arthur II , of the House of Dreux, was Duke of Brittany from 1305 to his death. He was the first son of John II and Beatrice, daughter of Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence....

. John inherited in 1322 Montfort-l'Amaury
Montfort-l'Amaury
Montfort-l'Amaury is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the south-western suburbs of Paris N of Rambouillet....

 from his mother. However, he was only a younger son of the Duke, who had several older sons from his first marriage. John only received some appanage
Appanage
An apanage or appanage or is the grant of an estate, titles, offices, or other things of value to the younger male children of a sovereign, who would otherwise have no inheritance under the system of primogeniture...

 in Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

, and his maternal inheritance, a countship, was a much more important possession.

However, his eldest half-brother, John III, Duke of Brittany
John III, Duke of Brittany
John III the Good was duke of Brittany, from 1312 to his death. He was son of Duke Arthur II and Mary of Limoges, his first wife...

, was childless in spite of his three marriages. Duke John III died in 1341, and his duchy's nobles proclaimed Countess Joan of
Joan, Duchess of Brittany
Joanna of Penthièvre or Joanna the Lame was reigning Duchess of Brittany together with her husband Charles of Blois between 1341 and 1364...

 reigning duchess. She was the daughter of the late Guy de Bretagne, comte de Penthièvre, Duke John III's younger full brother, and thus John III's full niece.

John of Montfort however invoked both the principle of Salic Law
Salic law
Salic law was a body of traditional law codified for governing the Salian Franks in the early Middle Ages during the reign of King Clovis I in the 6th century...

 (allowing only males to succeed) and the principle of proximity of blood
Proximity of blood
Proximity of blood, or closeness in degree of kinship, is one of the ways to determine hereditary succession based on genealogy. It was at loggerheads with primogeniture in numerous medieval succession disputes....

 (as used earlier e.g. by John I of England against Arthur of Brittany), having himself proclaimed Duke John IV. This led to the Breton War of Succession
Breton War of Succession
The Breton War of Succession was a conflict between the Houses of Blois and Montfort for control of the Duchy of Brittany. It was fought between 1341 and 1364. It formed an integral part of the early Hundred Years War due to the involvement of the French and English governments in the conflict; the...

, a part of the Hundred Years' War
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of separate wars waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings...

. His patron in this quest was king Edward III of England
Edward III of England
Edward III was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe...

. The rivals, Duchess Joanna and her husband Charles of Blois
Charles, Duke of Brittany
Charles of Blois , claimed the title Duke of Brittany, from 1341 to his death.Charles is the son of Guy I of Blois-Châtillon, count of Blois, by Margaret of Valois, a sister of king Philip VI of France. He was a devout man, who took piety to the extreme of mortifying his own flesh...

 were supported by the Valois kings of France. John IV died without accomplishing his objective of becoming sole ruler of Brittany, but his wife Joanna of Flanders
Joanna of Flanders
Joanna of Flanders , also known as, Countess Jeanne, Jehanne de Montfort, and Jeanne la Flamme, was consort Duchess of Brittany by her marriage to John IV, Duke of Brittany...

 continued the fight in the name of their son John V, Duke of Brittany
John V, Duke of Brittany
John V the Conqueror KG was Duke of Brittany and Count of Montfort, from 1345 until his death.-Numbering:...

 (1339/40-99) who ultimately got the upper hand in the strife.

In the midst of the conflict, in 1352, the Estates of Brittany
Estates of Brittany
The Estates of Brittany was the States Provincial for the province of Brittany in ancien regime France. It gathered members of the high clergy, a large number of nobles and delegates from the 42 towns and cities of Brittany...

 (États de Bretagne) were established. They would develop into the Duchy's parlement
Parlement
Parlements were regional legislative bodies in Ancien Régime France.The political institutions of the Parlement in Ancien Régime France developed out of the previous council of the king, the Conseil du roi or curia regis, and consequently had ancient and customary rights of consultation and...

.

Ruling as dukes

When the peace was sealed in 1365, it was stipulated that the Montfort branch will succeed in Brittany restricted to the Salic Law
Salic law
Salic law was a body of traditional law codified for governing the Salian Franks in the early Middle Ages during the reign of King Clovis I in the 6th century...

 and in the case of their male line going extinct, the heirs of Joanna of Penthièvre will succeed the last male Montfortist duke. The Blois-Penthièvre family received more estates in Brittany as partial compensation.

Brittany kept autonomous, actually rather independent, although continuously giving lip service to French sovereignty. After the Breton War of Succession
Breton War of Succession
The Breton War of Succession was a conflict between the Houses of Blois and Montfort for control of the Duchy of Brittany. It was fought between 1341 and 1364. It formed an integral part of the early Hundred Years War due to the involvement of the French and English governments in the conflict; the...

, Brittany still had links with the English through the Earldom of Richmond
Earl of Richmond
The now-extinct title of Earl of Richmond was created many times in the Peerage of England. The earldom of Richmond was held by various Bretons, Normans, the royal families of Plantagenet, Capet, Savoy, Tudor and Stuart.-History:...

, until the Wars of the Roses
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the houses of Lancaster and York...

.

John V, Duke of Brittany
John V, Duke of Brittany
John V the Conqueror KG was Duke of Brittany and Count of Montfort, from 1345 until his death.-Numbering:...

 was deserted by his nobles in 1473 and left for exile in England. Louis, duke of Anjou
Louis I of Naples
Louis I of Anjou , or Louis I of Naples, was the second son of King John II of France and Bonne of Luxembourg...

, brother of the French king, and a son-in-law of the deposed Penthièvre Duchess Joanna, was appointed lieutenant-general of Brittany by the king, who in 1378 sought to annex Brittany to France, which provoked the Bretons to recall John V from exile.

The second Treaty of Guérande
Guérande
The medieval town of Guérande is located in the département of Loire-Atlantique in western France.The inhabitants are so called Guérandais, for men, and Guérandaise, for women....

 (1381) established Brittany's neutrality in the Anglo-French conflict, although John continued to make homage to King of France.

In 1420, John VI, Duke of Brittany
John VI, Duke of Brittany
John VI the Wise , was duke of Brittany, count of Montfort, and titular earl of Richmond, from 1399 to his death...

 was kidnapped by Olivier de Blois, count of Penthièvre, son of Joanna of Penthièvre. John's wife, Joan of France besieged the rebels and set free her husband, who confiscated the Penthièvre's goods.

According to the succession order enacted, in 1457 Duke Peter II was succeeded by his elderly uncle Arthur de Richemont instead of his sister Isabelle de Bretagne-Montfort (who married into the Laval family and from whom the future Chabot branch of the Rohan (family)
Rohan (family)
The House of Rohan is a family of viscounts, later dukes and princes, coming from the locality of Rohan in Brittany. Their line descends from the viscounts of Porhoët and said to trace back to the legendary Conan Meriadoc. Through the Porhoët, the Rohan are related to the Dukes of Brittany, with...

 descends).

In 1465, Francis II took the county of Penthièvre from its heiress, Nicole de Bretagne-Blois, thus again undermining the rival family's position in Brittany.

However, the last male Montfort, Francis II, Duke of Brittany (died in 1488) prepared for succession by his daughter Anne of Brittany
Anne of Brittany
Anne, Duchess of Brittany , also known as Anna of Brittany , was a Breton ruler, who was to become queen to two successive French kings. She was born in Nantes, Brittany, and was the daughter of Francis II, Duke of Brittany and Margaret of Foix. Her maternal grandparents were Queen Eleanor of...

 - thus, the first female Montfort rulership abrogated the rights of genealogically more senior Penthièvre family (Catholics) as well as those of Rohan family (future Huguenots).

In the last years of Francis II, French warred against the Breton
Breton people
The Bretons are an ethnic group located in the region of Brittany in France. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brythonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain in waves from the 3rd to 6th century into the Armorican peninsula, subsequently named Brittany after them.The...

 and Brittany was defeated in 1488—the last duke of independent Brittany was forced to submit to a treaty giving the King of France the right to determine the marriage of the Duke's daughter, a young girl 12 years old, the heir to the Duchy.

The independence of Brittany waned under the French dominion. Anne was forced to marry Charles VIII of France
Charles VIII of France
Charles VIII, called the Affable, , was King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. Charles was a member of the House of Valois...

, but their children did not survive. When Charles died, Anne had to marry his distant cousin and successor, Louis XII of France
Louis XII of France
Louis proved to be a popular king. At the end of his reign the crown deficit was no greater than it had been when he succeeded Charles VIII in 1498, despite several expensive military campaigns in Italy. His fiscal reforms of 1504 and 1508 tightened and improved procedures for the collection of taxes...

.

End of dynasty

Jean de Brosse (died 1502), grandson of Nicole de Blois the aforementioned, asserted their claim to the duchy when the last male duke Francis II died. Previous Montfortine rulers of Brittany had however by confiscations and exilings much weakened the Penthièvre family's resources in the duchy and Anne succeeded her father in the administration which wanted to protect Brittany's position to external predators.

Anne died in 1514, leaving her inheritance to her elder daughter Claude of France
Claude of France
Claude of France was a princess and queen consort of France and ruling Duchess of Brittany. She was the eldest daughter of Louis XII of France and Anne, Duchess of Brittany....

 (died 1524), who was proclaimed Reigning Duchess, but it was under the tactical dominion of Anne's widower king Louis (Claude's father, died 1515), and afterwards Claude's husband king Francis. The Montfort family continued only in female line, as nominally and titularly first Claude and then her sons François, Dauphin of France and after him the future Henry II of France
Henry II of France
Henry II was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559.-Early years:Henry was born in the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, the son of Francis I and Claude, Duchess of Brittany .His father was captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 by his sworn enemy,...

 were proclaimed Dukes of Brittany.

Claude's widower Francis I of France
Francis I of France
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...

incorporated the duchy into the Kingdom of France in 1532 through the Edict of Union between Brittany and France, which was registered with the Estates of Brittany.
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