Brittany

cultural area located in northwestern France

46 dated entries naming Brittany, drawn from 40 separate years between 56 BCE and 1978 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

JSONWikipedia articleWikidata Q327

1st century BC

  • 56 BCEBattle of Morbihan: Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, one of Caesar's subordinates, defeats the Veneti of Brittany. The Gauls lose most of their warships to the Romans in a sea battle at modern-day Quiberon Bay. The strongholds on the coast are stormed, and the population is slaughtered or sold into slavery.source

5th century

  • 444Flavius Aetius, Roman general (magister militum), settles the Alans around Valence and Orléans, to contain unrest in Brittany.source
  • 446Bishop Germanus of Auxerre visits Ravenna, seeking to soften imperial hostility towards the Bagaudae. On his arrival at the capital, empress-mother Galla Placidia sends him a silver dish with a choice selection of prepared dainties—all vegetarian, out of respect for the bishop's strict diet. Germanus petitions the Senate for leniency for the citizens of Armorica (Brittany).source
  • 460Budic II, king of Brittany (approximate date)source

6th century

  • 520King Budic II returns to Cornouaille (Brittany), to claim the Breton throne (approximate date).source
  • 521February 22 – Samson of Dol is ordained as bishop in Brittany, on the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter.source
  • 564Samson of Dol, one of seven founder saints of Brittany, attends a council in Paris and witnesses several royal decrees (approximate date).source
  • 585Columbanus, Irish missionary, gathers 12 companions for his journey to Britain, probably to the Scottish coast. After a short time, he crosses the English Channel and lands in Brittany (France).source
  • 587King Guntram sends envoys to Brittany, to stop the raiding on Frankish territory. He compels obedience from Waroch II and demands 1,000 solidus for looting Nantes.source

7th century

  • 635Judicaël, high king of Domnonée (Brittany), visits King Dagobert I at his palace in Clichy (northwest of Paris), to promise he will remain under Frankish lordship. The Breton king arrives with gifts, but insults Dagobert by refusing to eat at the royal table.source
  • 645Gwynedd and much of Wales is in the grasp of famine. Would-be king Cadwaladr Fendigaid flees to Brittany. Civil war continues in his kingdom (approximate date).source

8th century

  • 753Grifo, Frankish duke and illegitimate son of Charles Martel, rebels against King Pepin III ("the Short") (his half-brother), in alliance with the Bretons. He flees to Italy to join King Aistulf of the Lombards, but is caught and killed while passing the Alps.source
  • 778A Frankish army (supported by Burgundians, Bavarians, Bretons, Lombards, and Visigoths) under King Charlemagne invades Al-Andalus (modern Spain), and conquers the cities of Pamplona and Barcelona. However, the Franks are halted at Zaragoza, in the thughur or frontier zone of the Emirate of Córdoba.source

9th century

  • 830Emperor Louis the Pious returns from a campaign in Brittany, and is captured by his son Pepin I, king of Aquitaine. He is put under house arrest at Compiegne, and his wife Judith is incarcerated at Poitiers.source
  • 844Summer – King Charles the Bald struggles against the repeated rebellions in Aquitaine, and against the Bretons in West Francia. He besieges Bernard I at the Battle of Toulouse, while Duke Nominoe raids into Maine, and plunders other Frankish territory.source
  • 847Danish Vikings land in the Breton March (western part of Gaul). Duke Nominoe of Brittany fails to withstand them in battle, but succeeds in buying them off with gifts and persuading them to leave (approximate date).source

10th century

11th century

  • 1005Bertha of Blois, duchess consort of Brittany (approximate date)source

12th century

  • 1134Count Hugh II (du Puiset), in alliance with the Egyptian city of Ascalon, revolts against King Fulk V of Jerusalem, attempting to take Jaffa. Hugh submits to Fulk and is exiled for three years. While awaiting for a boat to Italy he is attacked by a Breton knight, but survives the attempted murder. Hugh retires to the Sicilian court of his cousin, King Roger II, who appoints him to the lordship of Gargano, where he dies soon afterwards.source
  • 1166Summer – Henry II of England invades and conquers Brittany to punish the local Breton barons. He grants the territory to his 7-year-old son Geoffrey.source

14th century

  • 1342Soldiers from Ireland are sent to campaign for Edward III in Brittany.source
  • 1346June 9 – Battle of St Pol de Léon: The English army defeats Charles of Blois in Brittany.source
  • 1346June 20 – The English win a small victory at La Roche-Derrien in Brittany.source
  • 1373April 28 – Hundred Years' War: The French re-capture most of Brittany from the English, but are unable to take Brest, and John IV, Duke of Brittany, is forced into exile.source
  • 1373April 28 – Hundred Years' War: The French re-capture most of Brittany from the English, but are unable to take Brest.source
  • 1374September – Joanna of Flanders, Duchess of Brittany (born 1295)source
  • 1379In the Hundred Years' War, the French lose control of most of Brittany to the English.source

15th century

  • 1403November – An English revenge raid on Brittany by Sir William Wilford captures 40 ships and causes considerable damage ashore.source
  • 1434April 14 – The foundation stone of Nantes Cathedral in Nantes, Brittany, is laid.source
  • 144816 March – Hundred Years' War: peace negotiations break down over the issue of English control over Brittany.source
  • 1466Charles of France, Duke of Berry, Normandy, and Guyenne flees to Brittany in the aftermath of the War of the Public Wealsource
  • 1487Late May – 15,000 French troops enter Brittany as part of the French–Breton War.source
  • 148910 February – Treaty of Redon is signed between England and Brittany to prevent France from annexing Brittany.source
  • 148922 July – Treaty of Frankfurt is signed between MaximilianI of Austria and King Charles VIII, surrendering French occupation of part of Brittany to Anne of Brittany. In return Brittany committed to expelling English forces from the duchy.source
  • 1499November 5 – The Catholicon is published in Tréguier (Brittany). This Breton–greek–Latin dictionary had been written in 1464 by Jehan Lagadeuc. It is the first dictionary of either French or Breton.source
  • 1499November 5 – The Catholicon is published in Tréguier (Brittany). This Breton–French–Latin dictionary had been written in 1464 by Jehan Lagadeuc. It is the first dictionary of either French or Breton.source

16th century

  • 1512August 10 – War of the League of Cambrai – Battle of Saint-Mathieu: The English navy defeats the French-Breton fleet. Both navies use ships firing cannons through ports, and each loses its principal ship — Regent and Marie-la-Cordelière — through a large explosion aboard the latter.source
  • 1522July 4 – Brought on ships across the English Channel, an English fleet and army under the command of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, attacks Brittany and Picardy after landing at Le Dourduff-en-Mer, near Calais, and burns and loots the countryside.source
  • 155510 November - In Brazil, a French expedition strong of three ships and 600 colonists and directed by Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon, lord of Torcy and vice-admiral of Brittany, settles in the bay of Rio de Janeiro, to constitute the starting point of a Protestant colony called "France Antarctique" (Antarctic France). Around Guanabara, where the colony settles, two tribes, the Tupinambás and the Margaïas fight each other continuously, submitting their respective prisoners to the worst abuse. The colony of Fort Coligny, built by Villegaignon and his nephew Legendre de Boissy on the Villegaignon island, will be destroyed by the Portuguese on 16 March 1560.source

17th century

  • 1639June–October – Dry summer in the Loire Valley and in Brittany.source

18th century

  • 1759November 20 – Battle of Quiberon Bay: The British fleet of Sir Edward Hawke defeats a French fleet under Marshal de Conflans, near the coast of Brittany. This is the decisive naval engagement of the Seven Years' War – after this, the French are no longer able to field a significant fleet.source
  • 1795British forces land off Quiberon to aid the revolt in Brittany.source
  • 1795June 16–17 – War of the First Coalition: Cornwallis's Retreat – A British Royal Navy battle squadron commanded by William Cornwallis fends off a numerically superior French Navy fleet, off the coast of Brittany.source
  • 1795October 2 – British forces capture the Île d'Yeu off the coast of Brittany.source
  • 1797January 13 – Action of 13 January 1797, part of the War of the First Coalition: Two British Royal Navy frigates, HMS Indefatigable and HMS Amazon, drive the French 74-gun ship of the line Droits de l'Homme aground on the coast of Brittany, resulting in over 900 deaths.source

20th century

  • 1978March 17 – An oil tanker, Amoco Cadiz, runs aground on the coast of Brittany.source

Named in the same entries