The rituals and significance of ducal civic entries in late medieval Brittany

Journal of Medieval History 29 (2003) 287–314www.elsevier.com/locate/jmedhist

The rituals and significance of ducal civicentries in late medieval Brittany

Michael Jones∗

School of History, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG2 7RD, UK

Abstract

Although not so richly documented as some other French principalities, enough evidencesurvives to describe various rituals connected with ducal civic entries in late medieval Brittany,which have been largely ignored in recent general literature. This article synthesises thismaterial, highlighting in particular the political and ideological as well as ceremonial impera-tives which governed evolving Breton practice between the fourteenth and early sixteenthcenturies as the duchy passed from independent rule under the Montfort dynasty into the handsof the kings of France. 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Brittany; Civic entries; Coronation; France; Queen Anne

In the summer of 1505 Anne of Brittany, queen of France, made a leisurely pro-gress around her duchy. Leaving Blois and making her way down the Loire by boatand carriage, the Queen arrived at Nantes on 8 July, in time to take part in theCorpus Christi procession of 11 July, then travelled on via Vannes, Hennebont andQuimper to Le Folgoe¨t. From here she visited Brest to seeLa Cordeliere, the greatwar-ship which she had ordered a few years earlier, before beginning her slow returnalong the north coast of Brittany, finally reaching Vitre´ by 28 September and arrivingback in the Touraine in October.1 The ostensible reason was pilgrimage to the shrine

∗ Tel.: +44-1636-636-365; fax:+44-1159-515-948.E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Jones).

1 The best guide to her journey is the itinerary of the Breton Chancery which accompanied her asindicated in its register (A[rchives] d[e´partementales de la] Loire-Atlantique, B 15, fos. 85r et seq.). A.de La Borderie and B. Pocquet,Histoire de Bretagne, iv (Rennes 1906), 601–3 provides a sound account.Anne’s several civic entries as duchess-queen in Brittany are strangely omitted in the otherwise excellentsurvey of source material by B. Guene´e and F. Lehoux,Les entrees royales francaises de 1328 a 1515(Paris 1968), and from the updated list in C. de Me´rindol, ‘Theatre et politique a` la fin du moyen aˆge.

0304-4181/$ - see front matter 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.jmedhist.2003.09.005

288 M. Jones / Journal of Medieval History 29 (2003) 287–314

of Our Lady at Le Folgoet in northern Finistere in fulfilment of a vow taken duringthe recent severe illness of her husband, Louis XII. But her chief reason for doingso was a desire to escape the tensions of the royal court for a period, following herfeud with the powerful royal adviser, Pierre de Rohan, marechal de Gie, whosesubsequent trial was still proceeding in the summer of 1505, and associated bitterarguments over the proposed marriage of her only surviving daughter. These hadfinally been decided against her wishes by the king, restored to health: Claude wasto marry Francis, count of Angouleme, rather than the future Emperor Charles V,as Anne had hoped.2

The queen’s progress has thus been seen by most commentators as a re-assertionof her authority as wife, duchess and queen. Although the evidence for much of thejourney is sketchy, it is clear that every opportunity was taken to propagate politicalmessages in the towns through which she passed: contemporaries expected no less,and we have long been taught the same, most recently in the remarkable study ofcivic triumphs by Gordon Kipling, in which the liturgical, theatrical and religiousaspects of these ceremonies are fully explored.3 Late medieval and early modernmonarchy depended on regular public displays to reinforce its power, justify its auth-ority, assuage the demands of the politically articulate, and impress the populace atlarge. Royal progresses and civic entries were major manifestations of a still essen-tially personal and dynastic style of rule, one of many ceremonial ways in whichmonarchs were presented to their people and enjoyed dialogue with them, often ina Christ-like form. In this particular case, the recent union of the duchy of Brittanywith the kingdom of France in 1491, totemically symbolised by the successive mar-riages of Anne to Charles VIII and Louis XII (Figs. 1 and 2), gave a particular twistto the political imperatives informing Anne’s progress.4 It raises interesting questions

Les entrees royales et autres ceremonies mises au point et nouveaux apercus’ , Theatre et spectacles hieret aujourd’hui. Moyen Age et Renaissance, Actes du 115e Congres national des Societes savantes(Avignon, 1990) (Paris 1991), 179–212, at 207–12 where the only Breton entry noted is that into Rennesin 1532. Nor does the remarkable synthesis of Gordon Kipling, Enter the King. Theatre, liturgy, andritual in the medieval civic triumph (Oxford 1998), make use of the Breton entries of Anne, her daughter,Claude, or grandson, Francis III, though their entries into Paris, Lyon, Rouen and other towns are cited.

2 A[rchives] N[ationales], Paris, J 951 no. 5, joint oath with Louise de Savoie, mother of the count,over the marriage, 31 May 1505. The contract was finally drawn up on 22 May 1506 (Dom HyacintheMorice, Memoires pour servir de preuves a l’histoire ecclesiastique et civile de Bretagne, 3 vols (Paris1742–6), iii, 878–81). For the earlier treaty of Blois by which Claude was promised to the duke ofLuxembourg on 22 September 1504, with Anne’s ratification of 4 October 1504, see ibid., 866-9. LouisXII had renounced this treaty in his will of 10 May 1505 by which he forbade Claude from leaving therealm before her marriage (cf. B. Quillet, Louis XII (Paris 1986), 323, and more fully in J. S. C. Bridge,A history of France from the death of Louis XI, 5 vols (Oxford 1921–36), iv, 204–50).

3 Kipling, Enter the King. Limitations of space here (and shortcomings in the surviving evidence)preclude the kind of very detailed analysis Kipling provides for some royal and ducal entries, but theparallels are often clear. See also Rolf Strøm-Olsen, ‘Dynastic ritual and politics in early modern Bur-gundy: The baptism of Charles V’ , Past and Present, 175 (May 2002), 34–64 for another illuminatingdiscussion of an aspect of court ceremonial for which only brief hints survive in Breton sources.

4 Kipling, 289–356, Chapter VI, The Queen’s Advent, is fundamental for the general context, thoughhe does not discuss this progress.

289M. Jones / Journal of Medieval History 29 (2003) 287–314

about how far those responsible for mounting civic displays of welcome were con-cerned to reinforce this union, and how they reconciled local traditions with long-developed rituals of royal entries (given that the duchy had evolved largely in oppo-sition to the crown over many generations). But before seeking answers to suchquestions, we must first establish what local traditions were in this regard.

In general terms, their origins were indeed ancient: since Carolingian times, therulers of medieval Brittany had been inaugurated in the town of Rennes, in a cer-emony of which the elaboration only becomes clear in the later Middle Ages, butin which most essential elements appear to have been present by the early thirteenthcentury at latest.5 As early as 1048 the bishop of Rennes, the usual officiant in laterceremonies, is reported preaching a sermon at the inauguration of Duke Conan II forwhich the text was Honoravimus hodie principem terrenum, honermus et celestem. In1237, John I in receptione insignium ducatus Britannie was girded with a sword andreceived a banner. But it is only with the inauguration of John V in 1401, that wecan trace events in fuller detail.

Briefly, the ceremony consisted of a staged entry into the city through the PorteMordelaise (Fig. 3), where at the barrier the young duke took a first oath to defendthe catholic faith, to maintain the church and nobility of his duchy in their rights,to treat the populo Britannico with justice and equity, and to preserve undiminishedthe superioritatesque, prerogativas, jura Regalia, & nobilitates Regni sue DucatusBritannie inviolabiliter.6 Then the gate was opened and he processed to the cathedral,where he and many of his entourage spent the night in vigil before the high altar.On the following day, before Mass was celebrated, the former Constable of Franceand leading Breton noble, Olivier de Clisson, knighted the young duke and he inturn knighted his brothers, Arthur and Giles. John V then took a second oath tomaintain as his predecessors had done the Breton church and other franchises ofBrittany, of which he was fully informed by the oldest canon present (in the unavoid-able absence of the bishop).

The investment proper followed as the proceres et comites dressed him in vesti-mentis Regalibus, prout tanto Principo decebat. He donned a rich mantle—signifi-cantly termed his habit royal, scarlet or purple in colour, doubled with ermine, con-veniently the heraldic emblem of the duchy—and buskins (calciatus), a cercle ducal(initially a simple, gold circlet, by the fifteenth century a crown decorated with

5 The following discussion of the ducal coronation resumes Michael Jones, ‘“ En son habit royal” : leduc de Bretagne et son image vers la fin du moyen age’ , Representation, pouvoir et royaute a la fin dumoyen age, ed. Joel Blanchard (Paris 1995), 253–78, at 263–8.

6 Morice, i, 81–2, for this account, which is contained in the Chronicon Briocense, compiled in theearly fifteenth century. Francoise Fery-Hue, ‘Le ceremonial du couronnement des ducs de Bretagne auXVe siecle. Edition’ , Questions d’Histoire de Bretagne, Actes du 107e Congres national des Societessavantes (Brest, 1982) (Paris 1984), 249–63, at 250–2, shows that this text glosses the older coronationordo of the dukes, preserved in late fifteenth-century manuscripts but closer in form to the Capetian ordoof the early thirteenth century. She is partly misled in her commentary by failure to realise that the dateof 1300 attributed to these events by Morice is out by a century (cf. Jones, “En son habit royal” , 265and n. 46), and she does not explore the implications of the ‘ regal’ attributions added by the writer ofthe Chronicon.


fleurons) was placed on his head, and an unsheathed sword in his right hand (Figs.4 and 5).7 This he held throughout the Mass antiquo more. All stages of the cer-emony, closely under clerical control, were accompanied by appropriate prayers,blessings, psalms and other liturgical observances. At the end of the Mass, the pro-cession reformed and, with the duke at the rear carrying his still-naked sword, itmade its way on foot out of the great west door of the cathedral, turned right andcircumambulated the building, returning by the same door, after which the dukeapproached the altar again to make an offering. Finally, but now on horseback, theduke and his leading courtiers progressed from the cathedral to the market hall(Cohue) where a banquet was served to courtiers and leading burgesses.

In all essentials this pattern, in which echoes of Valois, even Capetian,8 practiceare clearly evident, was repeated down to the last coronation of a duke of Brittany,Dauphin Francis, in 1532, though by then leading nobles were playing a more promi-nent part in the ceremony than in 1401.9 In its most elaborate form found in apontifical owned by Michel Guibe, bishop of Rennes (1482–1502), recently redisco-vered and edited,10 that seems to preserve a text which in parts dates back to theearly thirteenth century, the Breton coronation had developed an almost baroqueamplitude: two days dominated by religious practices, oath-taking and vigils, fol-lowed by up to a week of secular festivity, suitable for the installation of a dukewith exalted, indeed, regal aspirations. For had not John III (1312–41) argued asearly as 1336 le duc de Bretagne ne la duche ne sont pas de autel condicion commeles autres pers et parries de France and that Brittany had once had its own kings whopour le temps ne recognoissoyent nul soverain en terre? This was a clear allusion tothe contemporary Roman law doctrine of Rex in regno suo imperator est.11

7 Kipling, 151, and passim, for the iconography of Christ the King and the Sword of Justice.8 cf. n. 6 above. I have not been able to consult Richard A. Jackson, Ordines coronationis Franciae:

texts and ordines for the coronation of Frankish and French kings and queens in the middle ages, vol.1 (Philadelphia 1995), but cf. his Vive le Roi! A history of the French coronation from Charles V toCharles X (Chapel Hill and London 1984), 24–34 for the general relationship of the ordo of Charles Vto previous ordines, and his valuable paper ‘Le pouvoir monarchique dans la ceremonie du sacre etcouronnement des rois de France’ , Representation, pouvoir et royaute, ed. Blanchard, 237–51.

9 Morice, iii, 1001–10, for an abridged account of the 1532 ceremony, for which see more fully P. dela Bigne Villeneuve, ‘Extrait d’une relation manuscrite de l’Entree et Couronnement du Duc FrancoisIIIe de ce nom en la Ville de Rennes, capitale du Duche de Bretagne, 1532’ , Bulletin et memoires de lasociete archeologique d’Ille-et-Vilaine, 14 (1880), 307–320, after Nantes, Bibliotheque municipale [nowMediatheque], MS 1338, ‘L’entree et couronnement du duc Francoys, troisiesme de ce nom, en la villeet cite de Rennes’ , apparently the autograph manuscript. Mark Warner, ‘Des Hermines et Fleurs de Lys:l’ importance politique de l’entree muncipale bretonne 1491–1532’ , Bulletin de la societe archeologiqueet historique de Nantes et de la Loire-Atlantique (cited as BSAN), 131 (1996), 87–105 is a valuablegeneral commentary to which I owe a great debt; Pierre Lelievre, ‘Entrees royales a Nantes a l’ epoquede la Renaissance (1500–1551)’ , Les Fetes de la Renaissance, iii, ed. Jean Jacquot and Elie Konigson(Paris 1975), 81–91 is solidly based on the accounts and other documents in Nantes, Arch[ives] mun[ici-pales], AA27-34, chiefly from the royal entry of 1518 onwards, but without citing specific references.

10 Missel Pontifical de Michel Guibe, XVe siecle. Ceremonial du couronnement des ducs de Bretagne[Association des Amis des Archives Historiques du Diocese de Rennes, Dol et Saint-Malo] (Rennes 2001).

11 ‘Some documents relating to the disputed succession to the duchy of Brittany, 1341’ , ed. MichaelJones, Camden Miscellany [Royal Historical Society], xxiv (1972), 5 after AN, K 1152 no. 49.


The account of events in 1401 is preserved in the anonymous Chronicon Bri-ocense, a work in all probability compiled by the ducal archivist, Herve le Grant (d.1416). In any event it is written by someone with a strong sense of Breton history,close to the court, writing in a way that was intended to show the Montfort dynastyin the most favourable light.12 It is possible that the work was deliberately archaising:myth-making is one of the strongest characteristics of surviving Breton historiogra-phy from the fifteenth century, justifying the independent stance and policies of thedukes, especially in regard to their relations with the crown of France. But the Chron-icon, besides glossing older formulae in accordance with contemporary ducal preten-sions,13 probably does also incorporate genuinely ancient traditions. For example,reference to mathibernos among the comitesque, mathibernos, proceres et nobilesRegni Britannie whose privileges the duke promised to maintain, may be evidencethat the rites followed in 1401 were indeed very old. For this extremely rare word(a malformation by someone who was not a native Breton speaker) of machtiern,an official in early Celtic Brittany who combined public and private functions in aunique fashion, is only otherwise found in the Chronicle of Nantes, put togetherbetween 1049 and the early thirteenth century.14 But whatever view is taken on thisspecific point, the Chronicon Briocense’s account of the whole ceremony demon-strates that it had already developed as a sophisticated exercise in political theatre:part of the public representation of the duke and his image on which classicisingvariations were played in later generations. Nor is it coincidence that it was in thereign of John V (1399–1442), that the duke adopted the style ‘John, by the graceof God, duke of Brittany …’ , as well as a seal of majesty showing him seated ona throne beneath a canopy, dressed in his habit royal, holding a bare upright sword(Figs. 6 and 7).15

The same lesson about the regal pretensions of the duke is taught by the promin-ence attributed by later chroniclers such as Pierre Le Baud (d. 1505) and AlainBouchart (d. after 1514) to the subject of coronation when recounting the duchy’shistory. In the case of Bouchart this is obsessive. Not only does he relate compul-sively in spurious detail coronations of the earliest Breton ‘kings’ , the mythicalConan Meriadec, Gradlon, Salomon, Audran and Budic, which according to himoccurred at Rennes in 386, 392, 405, 412 and 422 AD respectively, but he seizesevery opportunity elsewhere in his narrative to glorify the Breton past by anachron-istic allusions to the panoply of its rulers and the venerability of its institutions (e.g.Parlement (Fig. 8)).16 He even engages in a substantial comparison of crowning

12 Jones, “En son habit royal” , 267 for this paragraph.13 cf. n. 6 above.14 J. G. T. Sheringham, ‘Les machtierns. Quelques temoignages gallois et corniques’ , Memoires de la

societe historique et archeologique de Bretagne, 58 (1981), 61–72 is the best short discussion.15 Sixteenth-century depictions of the duke presiding over the Parlement de Bretagne show him simi-

larly seated on a cloth-draped throne under a canopy but holding a sceptre and a main de justice (Jones,“En son habit royal” , 277).

16 Alain Bouchart, Grandes Croniques de Bretaigne, ed. Marie-Louis Auger and Gustave Jeanneau, 3vols (Paris 1986–98), i, 205 (Conan Meriadec); 206 (Gradlon); 208 (Salomon), 208–9 (Audran), 216(Budic), 289 (Salomon II); 325–31 (Nomenoe); 382 (Conan I).


ceremonies from Antiquity, including discussion of the liquids used for anointing;while accepting that the kings and dukes of Brittany were not anointed, this, he says,is the only significant difference between them and the king of France. Transposingcircumstances from his own day to remote times, a passage on what kings shouldwear for their crowning, at the point when he relates that of Nomenoe (ruler ofBrittany 842–851), produces the following list: ung aneau royal, riches manchons,le main en verge, le ceptre, le manteau de pourpre and le dyademe royal.17 Anathemais pronounced against those who seek to extirpate memory of Brittany’s crown, whileBouchart’s description of the coronation of Francis I in 1442 is a locus classicusfor the rituals of Breton joyeuses entrees.18 These were held in other towns as wellas Rennes.

Unusually, for instance, but reflecting the way in which the duchy had been formedhistorically from separate and often rival Carolingian counties, most of the inaugur-ation ceremony, apart from the actual crowning, was normally repeated within a fewdays or weeks in the other major urban centre of the duchy, Nantes. This was cer-tainly the case for Peter II in 1450, Arthur III in 1457 and Francis II in 1459 asevidence from the town’s accounts shows. In October 1450, when the chapter atNantes was informed of Peter’s decision to make his first entry into the city shortlyafter his coronation at Rennes, it also agreed to process with its relics to the ringingof church bells and to build a bonfire in the square before the cathedral,19 basicfeatures that recur mutatis mutandis, along with increasingly elaborate visual displaysin the streets (fountains running with wine, tableaux vivants, mysteries, allegoricalpresentations, music and military parades, firing of artillery) in all later accounts ofentrees both at Nantes and elsewhere.20 In 1459 we find that not only is there useat Nantes of cannon but also of the Loire during the ceremonial: from that pointonwards dukes and duchesses sometimes arrive at the city on board a specially-prepared craft (as Anne did in 1505), or were entertained by mock naval battles andother dramatic events staged on the river in the commercial heart of the city, or

17 Bouchart, i, 325–7. Much detail on preparations made for various ducal entries into Rennes may befound in the surviving fifteenth-century town accounts, for e.g., on the erection of stands at the PorteMordelaise for that of Arthur III in 1457 (Rennes, Arch. mun., Accounts of Pierre Blanchet and GilletLe Maire, miseurs 1457-8, fos. 32r–34r, ‘Pour l’entree du duc’ ) or Francis II in 1459 (Accounts of GillesBourgneuf and Raoullet Joliff, miseurs 1459–60, fos. 6 et seq.). On this latter occasion 6 l. 17s 6d waspaid to the soldier-poet Jehan Meschinot ‘par mandement de monsr. le cappitaine pour la harangue qu’ ila fait davant le duc pour la ville’ (f. 17r). The most detailed surviving list of expenses incurred is forthe proposed entry of Queen Anne in 1505, cancelled at the last moment after several months of hecticactivity (liasse 20, Accounts of Pierre Robert and Gilles Brecel, miseurs, 1505–6).

18 Bouchart, ii, 322–6.19 Nantes, Arch. mun., AA 26 and CC 243 (1450). Peter II also entered Guingamp ceremonially in

1450 (Guingamp, Arch. mun., CC 7 f. 10v); for the entry of Arthur III into Nantes, see Nantes, Arch.mun. CC 244 fos. 218–9; and for Francis II in 1459 (CC 91, fos. 18v–19r).

20 Jean-Pierre Leguay, Un reseau urbain au moyen age; les villes du duche de Bretagne aux XIVeme etXVemesiecles (Paris 1981), 343–6 and ‘Un aspect de la sociabilite urbaine: cadeaux et banquets dans lesreceptions municipales de la Bretagne ducale au XVe siecle’ , Charpiana. Melanges offerts par ses amisa Jacques Charpy [Federation des societes savantes de Bretagne] (Bannalec 1991), 349–59 for Bretonentrees.


made an excursion on the river, a tradition of welcoming royalty that continuedlocally as late as Napoleon I’s day.21

Such activities are perhaps not as charged with political significance as King Edgarbeing rowed on the Dee by Welsh princes,22 but they do emphasise the increasinglypopulist aspects of these occasions well before the Renaissance, as well as givingleading townsmen and their families ‘un petit moment de gloire’ , as Mark Warnerhas noted. It is thus not inappropriate to mention that Nantes provides evidence forone of the earliest French examples of a Passion guild (1371)—that at Rennes isknown from 1430—and that later performances at ducal entrees not only includedother sacred dramas—for instance, a juggement in 1450—but also secular works likethe playing in 1456 of an allegory, at the request of Peter II, a duke particularlyknown for his governmental reforms, on the theme of Le bien avise et le mal avise.On this occasion, particularly elaborate props were deployed, including a Wheel ofFortune, an impressive Mouth of Hell, and a hundred cows’ tails employed for asatanic monster with genuine flames issuing from its nose, a forerunner of even moreelaborate mysteries and Arcs de Triomphe staged from the days of Duchess/QueenAnne onwards.23

Other stray references show the duke, even a duchess-consort on her own,24 mak-

21 Nantes, Arch. mun., CC 91 fos. 18v–19r, for the construction of three galiotes for the entree ofFrancis II in 1459; one was built for the entry of Duchess Marguerite in 1471 (Warner, ‘Des Hermineset Fleurs-de-Lys’ , 91 after Nantes, Arch. mun., CC 96 f. 16v); and two were converted and elaboratelydecorated for the welcome of Louis XII and Anne in October 1500 (Jean-Pierre Leguay, L’Eau dans laville au Moyen Age (Rennes, 2002), 389, after Nantes, Arch. mun., AA 27 and BB 2). S. de la Nicolliere-Teijeiro, ‘Une visite de la Reine Anne a Nantes (1505)’ , BSAN, 37 (1875), 346-51 after Nantes, Arch.mun., AA 28 and CC 279; Warner, 90 citing J.-C. Renoul, Passage a Nantes de S.M. l’Empereur NapoleonIer (9, 10 et 11 aout 1808) (Nantes 1859), 101. Some use was made of ‘bateaux’ for Parisian entries, butthey were stage-props on dry land: Lawrence M. Bryant, ‘La Ceremonie de l’entree a Paris au moyenage’ , Annales ESC, 41 (1986), 513–42.

22 For recent reassessement of this famous occasion see David E. Thornton, ‘Edgar and the eight kings,AD 973: textus et dramatis personae’ , and Julia Barrow, ‘Chester’s earliest regatta? Edgar’s Dee-rowingrevisited’ , Early Medieval Europe 10 (2001), 49–79 and 81–93.

23 Leguay, Un reseau urbain, 344 after Nantes, Arch. mun., CC 244 fos. 166–169v. The total cost ofstaging this event alone came to more than 100 l. In 1471 the joyeuse entree of Duchess Marguerite deFoix, second wife of Francis II, into Nantes cost 287 1. 14s 2.d. l.t. (Nantes, Arch. mun., CC 96). Thecosts of presents alone for the royal entry into the city in 1518 cost the town authorities 2615 l. 13s 2d(Lelievre, 82), and the full cost of that in 1532 was at least 3210 l. 16s 6d when the town’s budgetnormally ran at about 5000 l. p.a. (Warner, 104). The first known Arc de Triomphe in Brittany appearsto have been erected for Anne’s entry into Rennes in 1497 (Jean-Pierre Leguay, ‘La confrerie des Merciersde Rennes au XVe siecle’ , Francia, 3 (1975), 147–220 at 187–8 and Un reseau urbain, 343).

24 Morice, ii, 1161, for the entry of Duchess Jeanne into Rennes, c. 1414; Duchess Francoise d’Amboiseentered Rennes in 1452 (Rennes, Arch. mun., compte de 1452); Marguerite d’ Etampes’s entry into Nantesin 1465 is the first occasion in Brittany on which mention is made of a ‘dais’ or canopy, locally calleda ‘paesle/pesle/poele’ (Warner, ‘Des Hermines et Fleurs de Lys’ , 95); she also entered Vannes (Morice,iii, 204). The most detailed description of a ‘pesle’ is that made for the entry of Anne into Rennes in1505 (Rennes, Arch. mun., liasses 20 and 41; see Appendix below). In 1498 she had also entered Rennesand Nantes during her widowhood when the decor and dress used the Breton ‘national’ colours of white,violet and black in a striking fashion, the queen herself being clothed in black under a black canopy(Warner, 95).


ing entrees into other towns like Vannes,25 Guingamp and St-Malo, though only inthis latter case, and in unique political circumstances, can we learn much about theceremonial during the ducal period before its very last days. It is worth spending amoment on these events since, apart from the entry into Rennes at his inauguration,it provides the earliest detailed evidence for a duke of Brittany acting in the triumphalmode associated with Roman Emperors entering conquered cities, one of the distantmodels suggested by modern scholars for late medieval entry-ceremonies.26 It hap-pened in 1368 when John IV (1364–99) temporarily got the upper hand in a long-running contest with the bishop and inhabitants of Saint-Malo that in 1308 had seenthe town unsuccessfully declaring itself a commune, the only Breton example of atown trying to shake off allegiance to its feudal lord. We cannot examine in detailhow by exploiting the various clashing interests of bishop, chapter and townsmen,John IV had come briefly to dictate terms, suffice it to say that he was able to forcethe various parties, endlessly at loggerheads, to admit him ceremoniously. In theprocess, the dean, chapter and townsmen (the bishop prudently keeping his distance),in their barest dress, were forced to come in solemn but humble procession to meetthe ducal cavalcade at a certain rock, a traditional meeting point, on the Sillon, thestrand or isthmus, then connecting the island-city of St-Malo to the mainland. Herein a further gesture of ritual humiliation, they knelt before him, before all processedback to the town’s cathedral where another submission was made in which the vari-ous parties formally acknowledged their abject contrition and swore oaths of fealty;in many respects this is a parody of a joyeuse entree.27 But no-one who witnessedit could be in any doubt whatsoever about its political message and, lest one perform-ance was insufficient to instil it, the whole ceremony was repeated on the next dayfor the benefit of the duchess. Many years ago and in another context, I analysed howthe Montfort dukes of Brittany appropriated for themselves the protection offered bythe Roman law concept of laesa majestatis;28 these events at St-Malo in 1368 couldhardly be a better visible display of injured majesty exacting its revenge. Certainly,when in comparable circumstances in 1384, a later bishop of St-Malo, his chapterand the townsmen were once again forced to admit John IV in similar humiliating

25 Very little is known about entrees into Vannes, the third city of the duchy after Nantes and Rennes,but see Jean-Pierre Leguay, ‘Vannes au XVe siecle. Aspects institutionnels, economiques et sociaux’ ,Bulletin de la societe polymathique du Morbihan, 1976, 1–76, at 67 for the announcement of forthcomingreligious processions and their itinerary by the Chapter of Vannes. Traditionally dukes ceremoniallyentered the town by the Porte St-Patern, that closest to the cathedral.

26 Michael Jones, ‘Malo au riche duc?: events at St-Malo in 1384 reviewed’ , La Ville medievale endeca et au-dela de ses murs. Melanges Jean-Pierre Leguay, ed. Philippe Lardin and Jean-Louis Roch(Rouen 2000), 229–42, after Morice, ii, 466–71.

27 cf. Kipling, 48–60 for Philip the Good’s much more elaborate entry into Bruges in 1440 ‘ the firstcivic triumph ever performed in Flanders’ , following an urban rebellion of 1437. There are also parallelswith Richard II’s humbling of London in 1392 (Kipling, 11–21). I have not yet seen J. Hurlbut, “Bour-gongne est nostre cry”; Ceremonial Entries of Philip the Good and Charles the Bold (1419–1477), whichwas announced as forthcoming in 2001.

28 Michael Jones, ‘Trahison et l’ idee de lese-majeste dans la Bretagne du XVe siecle’ , La faute, larepression et le pardon. Actes du 107e Congres national des Societes savantes (Brest, 1982) (Paris 1984),91–106.


fashion, the document recording this placed particular stress on how the duke wassimply exacting the allegedly time-honoured sovereign rights of his ancestors Roys,princes et ducs de Bretagne.29

The circumstances for most ducal entrees were of course less charged with polit-ical menace than was the case at St-Malo under John IV. Medieval Brittany was aprovince of small towns, around 60 in all. The largest, Nantes and Rennes, mayhave contained 14–15,000 inhabitants at most; in the next category came Fougeres,Dinan, Morlaix and Vannes, with around 5000 inhabitants, and then a whole hostof smaller centres of 1000–3000 inhabitants, which could easily be cowed orappeased by gracious acts (release of prisoners, remission of taxes, confirmation ofprivileges). Moreover urban institutions were slow to develop and towns, even atthe end of the Middle Ages, remained for the most part under the close control oftheir feudal lords, of whom the duke was the greatest, and collectively the bishopsthe most numerous. Urban society was predominantly deferential and conservativein which rank was accorded high respect, and the chief municipal officer was usuallya captain or constable representing the lord not a mayor representing the citizens.30

So if we can detect in Brittany, as Guenee and Lehoux did for Valois France, ageneral trend towards allowing local burgesses more say in the programmes devisedfor particular entrees, this was done within a framework that re-inforced traditionalhierarchies and values.31 It was also done in close collaboration with the prince and

29 Morice, ii, 466–8. The notarial instrument that follows (469–71), purporting to date to 1384, shouldprobably be redated to 1368, as argued in Jones, ‘Malo au riche duc?’ .

30 cf. Leguay, Un reseau urbain, and for a case study, Leguay, La ville de Rennes au XVeme siecle atravers les comptes des Miseurs (Paris 1969), esp. 301 et seq. for the town’s officers.

31 Guenee and Lehoux, Les entrees royales francaises, 26-8. The main contribution to medieval Frenchroyal entries since this seminal study, has been by Lawrence M. Bryant (cf. ‘La Ceremonie de l’entreea Paris au moyen age’ , Annales ESC, 41 (1986), 513–42; The king and the city in the Parisian royalEntry ceremony: politics, ritual and art in the Renaissance (Geneva 1986) and ‘Configurations of thecommunity in late medieval spectacles. Paris and London during the dual monarchy’ , in: City and Spec-tacle in Medieval Europe, ed. Barbara A. Hanawalt and Kathryn L. Reyerson (Minneapolis and London1994), 3–33). Elie Konigson, ‘La Cite et le Prince: Premieres entrees de Charles VIII (1484–1486)’ , LesFetes de la Renaissance, iii, ed. Jacquot and Konigson, 55–68, for an illuminating case study. Gueneeand Lehoux showed that the entry into Paris in 1380 is the first royal one for which evidence of fountains,histoires and other theatrical and musical displays survives. A near-contemporary princely exampleappears to have been overlooked by all recent authors: in June and July 1379 Angers incurred the consider-able expense of £101 9s 3.d t. ‘pour les ystoires faiz pour le parement de la ville contre la venue etentree de monsieur le duc … lesquelles ystoires sont parfaites et en garde en un hostel a louage, enattendant ladicte venue et entree dud. mons. le duc’ . Various materials like gold-leaf, vellum and paintswere also acquired, some from as far away as Saumur, Laval, Chateaugontier and Nantes for paintersemployed on painting shields and heraldic beasts, and on their daily rations in food and drink (Inventaireanalytique des Archives anciennes de la Mairie d’Angers, ed. C. Port (Angers and Paris 1861), 323-6).David Rivaud, ‘Les entrees royales dans les «bonnes villes» du Centre-Ouest aux XVe et XVIe siecles:theatres et decors histories’ , La ville au Moyen Age, II, Societes et pouvoirs dans la ville, ed. N. Couletand O. Guyotjeannin (Paris: Editions du CTHS, 1998), 277–94, deals chiefly with entries into La Rochelle(1372, 1472, 1520 and 1565) and Poitiers (1462, 1487, 1501, 1520, 1539, 1559 and 1577), concentratingon the sixteenth century; de Merindol (above n. 1), 207 only lists entries at Angers from 1462.


his council though the evidence for this chiefly comes from the time of Queen Anne,whose visits to Brittany after 1491 were infrequent and usually planned well inadvance,32 though individual municipalities were allowed some scope for inventionas the case of Morlaix in 1505 shows.

Here the centrepiece was a genealogical table, a Jesse tree, displaying the Queen’sancestry in a real tree with real people in its branches proclaiming the union ofFrance and Brittany, heraldically represented by the fleur-de-lis and the ermines,which allegedly brought tears of joy to the Queen’s eyes (Fig. 9).33 Though an inci-dent while she was then being formally received threatened to turn the event into apublicity disaster. Among the town’s gifts was a live ermine, with a jewelled collar,which leapt from its keeper onto the Queen’s bosom threatening to bite her neckand causing her to fall back in fright. Fortunately the day was saved by the quickwit of the leading Breton noble, Jean, vicomte de Rohan: Que craignez-vous. Mad-ame, ce sont vos armes!34

Since Guenee and Lehoux also demonstrated how one of the most striking andsymbolically-charged innovations in French royal entries at the end of the fourteenthcentury was influenced by popular religious practice—the use of a canopy borneover the king’s person in imitation of that used in Corpus Christi processions35—some speculation on the role taken by the Breton church in the evolution of localpractice may be permissible. For example, new Breton bishops were inaugurated inceremonies which involved swearing of oaths to the laity as well as to protect clericalrights and privileges in the same way dukes did at their inauguration. A processionalso formed an essential element in the ceremony. Indeed in the case of the bishopof Rennes, the route that he took to his cathedral was identical to that of the dukeat his inauguration: I cannot say which came first.36

32 Anne asked Rennes to mount various tableaux at the traditional crossroads along the ceremonialroute, including one of the Immaculate Conception in 1505 (Rennes, Arch. mun., liasse 20). In 1532,since Francis I himself took the role of Mars in the entry into Rennes of his son, the need for liaisonbetween urban and royal officials is clear, though Michel Champion, procureur des bourgeois, claimedthat the city had only been given three days’ notice of the coronation (Morice, iii, 1001; Warner, ‘DesHermines et Fleurs de Lys’ , 97).

33 Warner, 95, 98; as Kipling, esp. 54-71, shows, the Jesse tree was a very popular theme in civictriumphs ‘always designed to suggest that the king springs from a sacred genealogy in the image ofChrist’ (64). As a result members of ruling families often replaced Biblical figures, whilst in royal Francethe trees often take the form of giant fleur-de-lys. An especially lavish one was prepared for the entryof Francis I and Queen Claude into Paris in 1517, showing Claude at the top of the tree, with Anne onthe right-hand branch beneath her, while on the left-hand branch were her two husbands, Charles VIIIand Louis XII (Kipling, 69–70, and his Fig. 10).

34 La Borderie and Pocquet, iv, 602 and n. For the presentation of gifts at entrees, see Kipling, 115 etseq. The town of Rennes also proposed to present a live ermine on a lead to Anne in 1505.

35 Guenee and Lehoux, 13–14, citing the entry into Beziers in 1389, though as Peggy Brown has shown,canopies had been borne at French royal funeral ceremonies since the days of the last Capetians (E. A.R. Brown, ‘The ceremonial of royal succession in Capetian France: the funeral of Philip V’ , Speculum,55 (1980), 266–93, at 288). For the ‘pesle’ , elaborately decorated with heraldic symbolism signifying theunion of Brittany and France, designed for Anne’s entry into Rennes in 1505, see Appendix below.

36 Morice, ii, 1739 (1459), and Rennes, Arch. mun., comptes de 1480–1, f. 34v and 1480–2, f. 8, forepiscopal entries into Rennes.


The most striking occurrence on such episcopal occasions was not, however,adopted by the duke and his advisers. This was the physical carrying of the bishopin his sedes into his church, usually by the four most prominent barons of his diocese,a matter which frequently gave rise to quarrels over precedence, fortunately so forus since it is through them that we learn most about the practice.37 How old it waslocally is debatable (the dioceses of Nantes, Rennes, Quimper and Vannes haveGallo-Roman origins; those of Dol, St-Brieuc, St-Malo, St-Pol-de-Leon and Treguierare foundations of the sixth to tenth centuries). In all probability the practice startedin the central Middle Ages. It was certainly practised in most if not all nine Bretondioceses by the fourteenth century. At Nantes in 1384, having recently seized thelordship of Rays, whose possessor was one of the four barons traditionally privilegedto carry the bishop, Duke John IV was summoned to perform the service in person,whilst since he was currently holding another of the baronies, the lordship ofChateaubriant, by escheat on the death of its lord, he was able to claim the bishop’shorse as a perquisite following the ceremony!38

To conclude: the coronation of Francis III in 1532 was the last occasion on whichthe full panoply of Montfort ducal ceremonial was deployed. Since 1491 much ofthis had already been absorbed and subtly changed by the incorporation of the duchyinto the crown as more extensive analysis than has been possible here of the visualdisplay of royal visits would demonstrate. In 1492 when Anne entered Paris, FrancVouloir (France) and Seure Alliance (Brittany) were kept apart in one tableau byGuerre, to the universal complaints of representative groups in society – church,nobles, merchants and labourers – before the arrival of Paix brought an end to alllamentations.39 PAIX EUREUSE ET BON TEMPS announced an Arc de Triompheat Rennes in 1497;40 Bon Desir, accompanied by Foy and Leaulte, were to presentthe town keys while reciting various rondeaux for the planned visit of the Queen to

37 Morice, ii, 1132–4, entry of Philippe de Coetquis into St-Pol-de-Leon (1422), provides a goodexample. In 1505, Jean, vicomte de Rohan, protested that his accompanying the Queen into the samecity should not prejudice his rights there (iii, 869-70). In 1370 Geoffroi Le Marhec, bishop of Quimper,was in dispute with the lords of Nevet and Juch over similar matters (AD Loire-Atlantique, E 112 no.15). The practice of carrying Frankish bishops into their cathedrals (deportatio ad cathedram) was veryold (cf. J. L. Nelson, ‘The earliest surviving royal Ordo: some liturgical and historical aspects’ , Authorityand power. Studies on medieval law and government presented to Walter Ullmann on his seventiethbirthday, ed. Brian Tierney and Peter Linehan (Cambridge 1980), 29–48, at 44). It was certainly used ineleventh-century Limoges (Timothy Reuter, ‘Rites of passage, rites of community: episcopal funerals andinstallations in the pre-Gregorian era’ , typescript of a conference paper, Chicago 2001, 7–8 citing Adhemarof Chabannes’s description of the installation of Bishop Gerard in 1018). I am indebted to the late Prof.Reuter for sending me a copy of this important paper. My colleague, Dr Alison McHardy, informs methat most medieval English bishops appear to have entered their cathedrals on foot, some after considerablebarefoot, penitential processions.

38 Morice, ii, 439, 448 (of which the originals are now AD Loire-Atlantique, E 88).39 Warner, 96, and cf. Kipling, 62, 101–2, 310–2, and esp. 330.40 Leguay, ‘La confrerie des merciers’ , 188 and Un reseau urbain, 343 after Rennes, Arch. mun.,

compte de 1497 f. 9r.


the town in 1505, which was cancelled at the last moment;41 in 1532, a triumphalcar was rolled out containing two maidens, one symbolising the town of Rennes,the other, the Virgin and Beauty, denoting the city’s loyalty.42 Similarly the physicalunion of the dynasties of Montfort and Valois in the persons of Queens Anne andClaude provided the decorative scheme for most entrees.43 After the destructive warsof 1487-91 that ended Breton independence, not surprisingly peace and unity wasalso the theme on the occasion of an entry for most public harangues, which wereincreasingly laced with Classical allusions. In 1518 at Nantes, two Trojans, Francusand Brutus appeared at the Carrefour St-Nicolas reciting how Francis I and his queenwere descended from each of them, a happy resolution of rival claims to Trojanorigins that French and Breton rulers had competitively made for centuries.44 Amongother chars de triomphe at Rennes in 1532 one bore the God Mars (King Francis Ihimself) and a young boy representing the Dauphin who, on passing two philosophersin Antique dress, heard one declaim:

Le grand Dieu Mars des rebelles dompteur,De nous Bretons regardant la natureNous a donne de sa progenitureSon premier filz d’armes vroy armateur45

When Francis III entered Nantes shortly afterwards at the Carrefour St-Nicolashe discovered a great ermine decorated with fleur-de-lis which opened up to showa dolphin frolicking between further ermines and fleur-de-lis,46 and so on and soforth. Occasional dissonant voices can be heard—in 1517 the Nantais protested thatlocal Breton privileges were being undermined by a request from Queen Claude toendorse a marriage treaty with Aragon about which the king had written to themwithout reference to ducal rights, and reminded Claude that her mother did not stand

41 Rennes, Arch. mun., liasses 20 and 41; cf. Warner, 94. At Nantes in 1498 the town’s keys had beenhanded over to Anne by an adolescent girl riding an artificial elephant (ibid.).

42 Warner, 94, after ‘Extrait … de l’entree … 1532’ , 312.43 cf. Warner, passim. As Kipling shows, they were also popular for the Queens’ entries in the kingdom

at large.44 Warner, 98–9, citing Nantes, Bib. mun., MS 2280, Joyeulse advenue et nouvelle entree des roys et

royne duc et duchesse de ce pays et duche de Bretaigne, nos souverains seigneur et dame, en ceste villede Nantes, 1518, f. 14. (This manuscript is an artificial collection made by S. de la Nicolliere-Teijeiroin the late 19th century from contemporary records, including the town accounts). See also Lelievre (aboven. 9), 82–3 for this entry into Nantes. A combat between a giant, Flolo, and King Arthur, who waspresented after his victory with an ermine mantle by the Virgin, to the sound of angels singing, in thecoronation pageant at Rennes in 1532, is plausibly viewed by Warner (101) as evidence of historic claimsto divine origins for Brittany’s arms.

45 Warner, 97 after ‘Extrait … de l’entree … 1532’ , 314; cf. Lelievre, 83–6 for fuller details on thevarious tableaux, arcs triomphants, etc. prepared by Mr Jean Bouschet who was brought from Poitiersto stage the event. For his career see also Rivaud (above n. 29), passim.

46 Warner, 101 after Nantes, Arch. mun., AA 30 piece 17.


for such affronts.47 Some tableaux in 1532 can be seen as emphasising the historicalroots and traditions of the duchy endangered by union with France. But these areisolated cases; for the most part the crown and subservient municipal authorities saweye to eye and had long adapted their displays to mirror current political realitieswithin a ceremonial liturgy. These retained massive and enduring religious overtones,despite being chiefly now in the hands of influential laymen rather than leading cler-ics.

Appendix. Extracts relating to the proposed entry of Queen Anne intoRennes, 1505

Deliberations of the captain, nobles and burgesses of Rennes, 8 July 1505(Rennes, Archives municipales, liasse 20, art. 7, paper, 8 fos.)

f. 1r Ou conseil, convocacion et assemblee des nobles, bourgeois, manans et habit-ans de la ville et cite de Rennes en suffisant nombre congregez, convoquez etassemblez en la maison, manoir et demourance de monsr. le capitaine dicelle villeet cite pour convoquer, determiner et deliberer du fait et police de lad. ville et cite,et de ce que a este propose et delibere de faire pour la tresjoieuse et tres desiree,venue et arrivee de la Royne et duchesse, nostre souveraine damme et princessenaturelle, qu’on espoire de brief estre en ceste sa ville. Ou quel estoint presens etassistans mons. sgr. le capitaine,48 Gilles de Beaulieu, l’un des connestables, ThomasFeillee, contrerolleur des deniers de la dite ville, Michel Tierry, Michel Carre, Mathu-rin Baud, Thomas Brullon, Pierre Champion, Vincent le Valloys, Jehan Champion,Raoullet Martin, Francoys Pares, Jehan le Valloys, Michel Boussouniel, Eonnet duBot, Francoys de Sorie, Jehan Belot, Pierre Ogier, Gilles Brecel et Pierre Robert,miseurs, sur l’aparicion des lettres de nostredite souveraine damme tant a mond. sgr.le capitaine que ausd. bourgeois, manans et habitans en ce jour, faicte par Bretaigne,herault et officier d’armes de nostredit souveraine dame, donnee le XIIIe jour de cepresent moys contenant en signature Anne, Marchant, ont este les choses et chacunecy apres declairees, ordonnees et commandees estre faictes.

f. 1v Et premierement a este advise, delibere et ordonne pour la recepcion denostred. souveraine damme et princesse naturelle a sa tresjoieuse et treslouable venueet arrivee en cested. sa ville que la semblance de l’ istoire de la concepcion de latressacree Vierge et mere de Dieu sera faicte en l’un des carrefours delad. ville sellonet au desir des divis et ordonnances qui en cest endroit ont este aparuz et exhibez,qui sont demorez es mains dud. contrerolleur o addicion de deux prophetes qui serontou bas ca et la, et y aura une pucelle qui representa la Royne qui diroit quelquesrondeaux ou feroit aucuns signes pour donner a congnoistre led. histoire. Et seralad. representacion accoustree et habillee de robbe de damas mypartie de pers et

47 Warner, 99 after Nantes, Bib. mun., MS 2280 fos. 29–33.48 Jacques Guibe.


blanc semee de fleur de lis et ermynes adenoter la treseureuse aliance et union deFrance et Bretaigne.

Mesmes a este advise et ordonne estre fait ung pesle de damas pers et blanc, etle champ seme de fleur de lis et ermynes a painture consonante en signifiante desarmes de France et Bretaigne. Et pour faire led. pesle seront levees huyt aulnes dedamas ou par autant que besoign sera.

f. 2r Aussi a este ordonne achater deux trompetes qui seront garnies de deuxbannyeres de soye de la sorte et faczon qu’est celle qui est a la trompete de la ville.

Item, a este ordonne faire a la porte par laquelle la Royne et duchesse nostred.souveraine damme entrera en cested. ville certaine fainte et histoire du divis quiensuilt, scavoir ung chevalier arme nomme Bon Desir tenant en sa main ung estand-art, et deux jeunes filles belles, l’une nommee Foy, l’autre Leaulte, lesquelles presen-teront les clefs de la ville a nostredite souveraine damme, et presentera led. chevalierlesd. deux jeunes filles a lad. damme en disant quelque rondeau, et y aura quatrebourgeois delad. ville qui seront habillez de bons accoustremens, quelx porteront surlad. damme lad. pesle.

Aussi a este regarde s’ il est veu estre bon qu’en ung autre lieu qui sera deputesera fait pour l’entree de nostredite souveraine damme ung Moyse qui sera ou desertgarni d’une verge devant lequel aura grant congregacion de peuple Judeicque ledejournent, dont ung seul parlera et demandera avoir pour lui et ses compaignons.Et ce fait led. Moyse/ f. 2v se mectra agenoulz faignant de prier, et sa priere faictefrapera o sa verge sur ung perron par deux foiz et les derrenier coup frape duditperron sortira par art vin ou eaue a grant habondance ainsi qu’on advisera.

Et pour faire partie des choses devant declairees a este advise que Martin Thomas,menusier, quel est homme scavant et expert esdites choses, est sambles et il presenta pris et accepte la charge lesd. choses requises a faire de menusier, au quel a esteordonne pour journee quil vacquera oud. oeuvre cinq soulz monnoie. Et pour com-paignon qui besoignera et sa compaignie salaire49 sellon la commun cours et stillede la ville et asamblee les autres manoupvriers.

Et aussi pour ce que par les lettres de nostred. souveraine adreczees ausd. capitaineet bourgeois s’est fait mention de certaines joustes, tournoy et combatz tant a pieque a cheval qui se doivent et a l’on delibere de faire en cested. ville apres sad.venue et entree, et pour icelles mande ausd. capitaine et bourgeois faire dreczer etconstruire places, lices et chaffaulx pour ce faire aux despens et des deniers com-munes delad. ville a este en l’endroit dit, advise et ordonne par led. capitaine ol’advis, conseil et assentement de plussours notables personnes dicelle ville y estanset assistans estre/ f. 3r fait unes lices propices et convenables sur la derriere desdouves estantes entre les portes de Saint Michel et Mordelaise qui auront neuf vigntsdix piez de long et sept piez deux doiz de haulteur hors terre et qui les terres quisont oud. lieu soint razees et unies a distance d’environ IIIIxx dix piez ou cent piezpour faire le cours aux chevaulx pour faire laquelle union a este ordonne mectre desmanoupvriers pour ce faire.

49 salaire interlined.


Et en l’endroit a este present Thebault Morice quel a prins a faire et fournir deue-ment tant de boais que d’ouvrage sellon le divis cy dessus ou autrement sellon quedeviseront et ordenneront mond. sgr. le capitaine et Bretaigne lesd. lices, parmy ceque lui a este promis pour en faire, et quil ne reaminara ne retirera a lui ne a sapossession aucuns des merrains y apposez ains demoureront au prouffilts et voulloirdud. capitaine et bourgeois de la ville pour en desposer a leur plaisir, la somme dequarante livres monnoie, quelle somme a este ordonnee ausd. miseurs lui paier etfournir faisant et fournissant ce que dit est, dit et condicionne, que ledit Moricepourra et lui sera promis prandre du boais ad ce convenable par tout ou trouver cypourra le paiaint a just et leal pris par lui ou par lesd. miseurs a valloir et deducersur sond. marche et feur.

f. 3v Aussi a este advise et ordonne estre fait ung chaffault pour nostred. souverainedamme pres et jouxte le lieu depute a tenir et faire lesd. joustes et tournoy ou lieupred. du coste devers la ville qui sera fait de bon et fort boais apostailles qui serontassises sur quatre peulles bien clos devant et derriere et de touz costez, et bien liea vignt cinq piez venant a veue et en evriere de quatorze piez, et sera couvert et enseront les couvertures et clostures de quartier ou douvelles. Et en seront les postaillesde demy pie quatre doiz de grosseur en carre et de vignt piez de haulteur ou mylieudes quelz, quest a dix piez du moyns, sera l’estage pour estre et s’en tenir nostred.souveraine damme. Et a iceluy chaffault sera faict ung huys pour y entrer deuxpersonnes ensamble et eschalle aisee a monter dedans iceluy tellement que deuxpersonnes ensamble y puissent entrer et monter, aussi oudit chaffault sera fait ungcabinet et ung huys pour y entrer avec sera fait ung autre chaffault au derriere dud.chaffault et environ le mylieu qui sera de huyt piez en carre et de telz divis et estoffesque l’autre cydevant quel sera pour le retraict du gobelet.

f. 4r Item, jouxte et au coste dud. chaffault pour nostred. souveraine damme d’entrela Porte Mordelaise sera ung autre chaffault pour les filles du trayn de nostred. sou-veraine damme, qui sera gallouyer venant aveue de telle ou plus grande espace queled. chaffault de nostredite souveraine damme et de quatorze piez en euvriere, et ysera fait ung huys et montee adce appartenans et convenables et y aura clouaisonentre les deux chaffaulx et ung huys pour aller de l’un a l’autre si mestier est, etsera led. chaffault couvert et tendu de tapicerie seullement.

Et pour le tendre seront sur led. chaffault mis soliveaux ou autres boais conven-ables et seront lesd. deux chaffaulx garniz de soliveaux et carreaulx dessur biencousuz.

De l’autre coste dud. lieu et champ a tenir lesd. joustes sera fait une gallerie quisera de bon gros boais et fors bien lice et assise es jardrins et contiendra venant aveue quarante piez a tout le moins et en arriere doze piez. Et sera a trois estres closde quartier ou douvelles et sera lad. gallerie devant et derriere close de bonnes grosseset fortes reilles de paroille haulteur que led. chaffault de la Royne et acoudoues surle devant, et atour environ et audessur delad. gallerie sera tenu de tapicerie.

f. 4v Et pour asseoir et tendre led. tapicerie sera mis au boais adce convenable.Et sera le soubzain estre vis a vis du chaffault de nostred. souveraine damme etprepare pour les juges desd. joustes, et l’autre estage du mylieu pour les gens deconseill, et l’autre pour les personnaiges qu’on advisera y mectre.


Et au dessoubz dud. estre ou seront lesd. juges et hors lesd. jardrins sera fait ungpetit chaffault pour les heraulx et officiers d’armes qui sera de telle haulteur queaisement les juges desd. joustes pourront parler au greffier d’ icelles joustes estantoud. chaffault.50

Mesmes led. champ sera clos de deux barrieres a hault et a bas des lices o doublesroulles qui traverseront tout led. champ, a chacune barriere sera fait une entree oubarriere au lice qui sera es lieux et de telle grandeur qu’on advisera, et seront lesd.barrieres de haulteur telle que cheval ne puisse sortir par dessur.

Item, a este advise estre fait une contre lice devers la ville qui joindra a la barrieredevers la porte Mordelaise et au chaffault de nostred. souveraine damme, qui serade haulteur telle que cheval ne puisse sortir par dessur.

f. 5r Et en tendroit desd. ordonnances ont este presents Thomas Poignaut, RobinLe Loleu et Guillaume Foullart, charpentiers, quelx ont prins desd. miseurs presentzmond. seigneur le capitaine et bourgeois dessurd. lesd. chaffaulx, gallerie, barrieres,contrelice et aultres choses mentionnes et divises cydevant pour fournir de touteschoses a ce faire necessaires et requises, et rendront lesd. chaffaulx, gallerie et autreschoses prestz dedans temps suffisant et a recevoir lesd. tapiceries. Et pour leur enpaier lesd. miseurs pour toutes choses la somme de soixante quinze livres monnoie.Et led. tournoy fait auront et retireront lesd. charpentiers les boys quilz auront emplo-iez a celles choses faire et en porroient faire leur prouffilt comme bon leur samblera,quelle somme de LXXV l. monnoie a este ordonne ausd. miseurs paier et fournirauxdessusd. faisans et accomplisans lesd. choses.

Et pour faire les choses et chacune surd. et autres qui sera advise pour lad. tresjoi-euse venue paier, acquiter et delivrer toutes et chacune les choses requises decenteset necessaires estre faictes appellez adce lesd. connestable et contrerolleur ensambledeux des nommez cy apres, scavoir Pierre Champion, Vincent le Valloys, ThomasBrullon, Yvonnet Jouhan, Eonnet du Bot et Robinet Goubin, a la relacion desquelxconnestable, contrerolleur et deux desd. nommez les mises quilz auront faictes etpaies vauldront comme mise et descharge ausd. miseurs a lours comptes de lad.miserie sans aucune difficulte et sans que besoing soit en avoir autre garant ne acquit.

f. 5v Et adce que de la part desd. miseurs a este dit ne remonstre que les deniersdud. recepte et miserie n’estoint suffisans pour fournier et satisfaire au paiementdesd. choses et autres qui poevent entrevenir, a este dit, convenu et ordonne que leschoses cy dessur declairiees seront par eulx fournies et parfaictes. Et ou cas que lesdeniers de leurd. recepte de ceste presente annee ne sont suffisans et correspondanspour satisfaire au tout du paiement desd. choses ordonnees et a ordonner, leur onteste touz et chacun les deniers de l’annee prochaine avenir obligez. Et en iceluiesgart des a present ont este creez et maintenuz miseurs pour lad. annee prochainea fin de se remplir et rembourser de leur exces et passe. Et des apresent leur onteste et sont les deniers dicelle prochaine annee, le cas occurrent, obligiez et attournez

50 estant oud. chaffault added in different hand.


sans contredit ne objection. Donne et fait oudit conseill le51 VIIIe jour de Juillet l’anmil cinq cens cinq.

Signed: Jacques Guibe, Gilles de Beaulieu, P. Tierry, Feillee, G. Sejourne, T.Brullon, P. Champion, R. Martin, J. Champion, F. Pares, V. Le Valloys52

Further deliberations of the town council of Rennes, 17 August 1505 (Rennes,Arch. mun., liasse 20, art. 7, paper, 1 folio)

f. 1r En l’assemblee et conseill des officiers, nobles et bourgeois de ceste ville deRennes, presens messieurs les capitaine, sennechal et procureur dud. Rennes, le Pro-cureur des bourgeois, le contrerolle, Pierre Tierry, Michel Carre, Pierre Champion,Thomas Brullon, Franczoys Pares, Vincent Valloys, Gilles Brecel, Pierre Robert,miseurs et aultres pour deviser et ordonner des affaires de cested. ville touchant lespreparatiffs de la tres joieuse venue de la Roigne et duchesse nostre souverainedamme et princesse naturelle ont este aparuz certains articles et ordonnances quepar avant ce jour ont este avises et descriptes affin dessur ycelles soy deliberezaugmenter ou diminuer ainssi que seroit avise, lesquelles apres avoir este veues etleues ont este de recheff les ordonances touchant l’ istoire de la conception de la tressacree mere de Dieu,53 du chevalier et de la pucelle trouves bonnes et delibere estrefaictes es lieux paravant cedit jour par lesd. articles declairez, en ajoustant esd. art-icles que par avant ced. jour avoit este oppine touchant l’acoustrement et chant desvaux de Vire,54 ensemble o l’article de la fontaine et pompe de mond. seigneur leCapitaine, et de l’acoustrement et reparation des yeulx bien sellon lad. precedantedeclaration, et a este faict injonction a Jehan Champenays de meptre lesd. yeulx bienen estat au desir de lad. premiere ordonnance.

Et pour ce que l’article du devis du pesle, qui sera presente a nostredite souverainedamme a l’entree de la porte par laquelle elle entera n’a este trouve convenable,pour doubte que en aultres lieux ou a faict entree lad. damme peult avoir este presentepesle de paroil devis et blason, a este ordonne led. pesle estre faict de damas myblanc et bleu, ouquel aura hors et ou melieu des deux longieres deux escuczons desarmes de la Royne, savoir de France et Bretaigne, tireintz et avironnez de cordeliereset auxi a chacun des boutz desd. longieres et a joincts o cordelieres. Et hors oudevant dud. pesle ung escuczon des armes de France avironne de l’ordre, et au basung ymaige de St Michel et hors led. pesle au derriere d’ iceluy ung aultre escuczondes armes de Bretaigne qui sera tireint et avironne de l’ordre d’Espiz avec uneermigne en beste au bas dud. escuczon.55

51 The date has been added in a different hand.52 On f. 6r, there is the note: Registre de nostre court de Rennes; folios 6v–8v are blank. The watermark

is a stylised bunch of grapes between the letters d and p.53 de Moyse struck out.54 vaux de Vire, songs from the Vire region, the origin of the modern word vaudeville.55 Christian de Merindol, ‘Le Collier de l’ Epi, en Bretagne d’apres des documents inedits conserves a

Besancon (fonds Chiflet)’ , Revue francaise d’heraldique et de sigillographie, 66 (1996), 67-81 for thefullest discussion of the Epi, though this reference is unknown to him.


f. 1v Mesmes a este faict commendement esd. miseurs faire lever le pave a boutde cohue en l’endroit du lieu qu’ il a este vise pour fere le combat a pie et acouvrizet vivre56 de sablon avec y faire faire les barrieres et clostures du tireint et faireacoustiez et lever ung grande chaere en faczon de gallerie pour estre la Royne aveoir led. combat. Et ung grant degre pour y monter au davant de la maison GeorgesEstoufflart, et les mises que y feront raportees et verifies par celx que par avant cejour ont este commis et deputez aux aultres mises vaudront esd. miseurs mise aleur compte.

Et pour ce que le parlement de ce pays et duche est ordonne a tenir en cested.ville a commancer le XXe jour de ce present moys ou quel doibs estre Gasnaypremier president de ce pays et duche qu’est le bien et utilite de cested. ville, a esteordonne luy estre presente et donne de par lad. ville deux pipes de vin d’Angeoublanc ou claret du meilleur que trouver en poura. Et esd. miseurs a este faict comman-dement en faire la dilligeance paravant et despeche avecques et des choses et chacunedemande et des aultres quelxcomques que entrevendront tant pour les reparationsdes ponts, portes que aultres affaires neantmainz quelz excedent chacune plus de lasomme de cent soulz des quelle mises seront garantiz et leur vaudra a leur comptepar vertu de cestz presentes et la declaration desd. mises verifie par Thomas Feillee,contrerolle des deniers communs delad. ville, faict et expedier57 oud. conseill haut aulogeix dud. capitaine le dimanche dix septiesme jour d’aougst l’an mil cinq cens cinq.

Signed: Jacques Guibe, Julien, Alain Marec, P. Brullon, P. Cohier, P. Tierry,Michel Carrre G. Sejourne, T. Brullon, V. Le Valloys

Extracts from the accounts of Pierre Robert and Gilles Brecel, miseurs, for theexpenses of the canopy (pesle) to be borne at la joieuse venue de la Royne byorder of the captain and bourgeois of Rennes, 1505 (Rennes, Arch. mun., liasse20, paper, 62 fos., audited 6 May 1506)

f. 20v ‘Plus a poie led. Robert aud. Guillaume Guyomar, dit Vermoil, brodeur,pour ung escuczon en broderie estant audevant dud. pesle armoye des armes du Royavecques l’ordre tout alentour dud. escu et ung ymage de St Michel ou bas dud.escu et deux escuczons my partiz de France et de Bretaigne estans es deux costezdud. pesle et en broderie et ou derriere dud. pesle ung escu tout plain armoye desarmes de Bretaigne avecques l’ordre de Bretaigne tout alentour dud. escu et ou basdiceluy escu une ermyne en beste, et aussy pour une grande L et ung grant A tenanso une/ f. 21r cordeliere de fil d’or de Paris estans ou meilleu dud. pesle ou dedensque pour avoir atache58 environ quinze cens grans blancs sur une robe de trippe develoux noir, quelle estoit pour servir a celuy qui devoit jouer argent pour avoir depecedraps de soye pour faire sious et auds a billends plussours fraiz, coustz et mises

56 The reading of this word is uncertain.57 Two illegible words (es ... parav ...) interlined at this point.58 Written over achate erased.


qu’a euz et portez led. Guyomar, luy a este poye par ledit Robert la somme de quinzelivres pour ce.’ 59

MICHAEL JONES is Emeritus Professor of Medieval French History at the University of Nottingham. Hismany publications on medieval Brittany include Ducal Brittany 1364-1399 (Oxford, 1970), The creation ofBrittany (London, 1988), and Recueil des actes de Jean IV, duc de Bretagne (3 vols, Paris and Bannelec,1980-2001). He has also worked extensively on vernacular buildings in the duchy and elsewhere, publishing,amongst other works, Manorial domestic buildings in England and Northern France, ed. G. Meirion Jonesand M. Jones (Society of Antiquaries of London, Occasional Papers 15, 1993).

59 A note in the left margin of f. 20v, refers to the canopy’s later recovery by the town authorities: Ilzont rendu led. poelle avecques les escuzons y ataches et pour ce deschargez.


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Fig. 3. Porte Mordelaise, Rennes (M. Jones).


Fig. 4. Polychrome wooden statue of a duke of Brittany, generally identified as John V (1399–1442),wearing his habit royal, Chapel of St Fiacre, Le Faouet, Finistere (M. Jones).


Fig. 5. The coronation of Duke Francis I (1442), from Pierre Le Baud’s Chroniques de Bretaigne, c.1480 (Bibliotheque nationale de France, MS francais 8699).


Fig. 6. The Great Seal of Majesty of Duke Peter II (1450–7) (Archives departementales de la Loire-Atlantique, E 155 no. 13, actual size 77 mm).


Fig. 7. A fifteenth-century duke of Brittany seated in majesty (Coutumes de Bretagne, Bibliothequenationale de France, MS francais 14397).


Fig. 8. Engraving of a duke of Brittany, holding a sceptre and main de justice, presiding in his Parlement(Alain Bouchart, Les grandes croniques de Bretagne, Paris 1514).


Fig. 9. The arms and devices of Queen Anne of Brittany from Andre de la Vigne’s account of hercrowning at St-Denis and entry into Paris, 1504 (Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, MS 22).

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The rituals and significance of ducal civic entries in late medieval Brittany

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