The Bretons

ISBN-13: 9780631201052 / Angielski / Miękka / 1996 / 356 str.

Patrick Galliou; Michael Jones

Opis

This book draws upon a wide range of archaeological and literary material to provide a history of one of the most distinctive and individualistic regions of France and its people, from prehistoric times to the present. Focusing upon such themes as trade, settlement, agriclture, transport, population, religion, art and languages, the authors explore the characteristics of a society which has combined peoples from two different linguistic and cultural traditions in a long-enduring political union.

Recenzje

"Excellent. An ideal and thoroughly readable introduction." History

"It is extremely useful to have a survey of Breton history and archaeology available in English; it is well illustrated, with 40 well–chosen plates and 26 figures, and there is a valuable bibliography. Will be of considerable assistance to university teachers of medieval history." French History

"A very readable – and at times – fascinating account of one of the most individualistic regions of France." Modern and Contemporary France

Spis treści

List of Plates.

List of Figures & Genealogies.

Preface.

List of Abbreviations.

Acknowledgements.

Introduction.

1. Early Armorica.

2. The Early Iron Age.

3. The Late Iron Age.

4. Roman Armorica: Aspects of Colonization.

5. Roman Armorica: Society and Politics.

6. After the Romans: Britons, Bretons and Franks.

7. Carolingian Brittany.

8. The Origins of the Ducal Brittany.

9. Plantagenet Interlude.

10. Consolidation and Growth, 1213–1341.

11. The Civil War, 1341–65.

12. Brittany Under the Montfort Dukes, 1365–1491.

13. Breton Society at the End of the Middle Ages.

14. Conclusion: Brittany and the Bretons since 1491.

Bibliography.

Index.

O autorze

Patrick Galliou is Reader at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale (Brest) and also teaches at the Université of Haute Bretagne (Rennes). Most of his published work concerns Iron Age and Roman Brittany, and he is currently involved in a major survey of North–Western Gaul.

Michael Jones is Professor of Medieval French History at the University of Nottingham. For some years he has been involved in a major multidisciplinary study of Breton seigneurial buildings, and he has also worked on the Romanesque town house of Cluny. He is Editor of Nottingham Medieval Studies and of Volume VI of the New Cambridge Medieval History.

Blurb

This book draws upon a wide range of archaeological and literary material to provide a history of one of the most distinctive and individualistic regions of France and its people, from prehistoric times to the present. Focusing upon such themes as trade, settlement, agriculture, transport, population, religion, art and languages, the authors explore the characteristics of a society which has combined peoples from two different linguistic and cultural traditions in a long–enduring political union.

In the book′s opening chapter, Patrick Galliou reconstructs early Armorica (the Gaulish name for Brittany) where as early as 5000 BC, under gradually changing physical conditions, human communities appeared in the peninsula and a highly idiosyncratic culture evolved. Dr Galliou traces the development of this culture through the later Neolithic, and the Bronze Age, to Roman and post–Roman Brittany. Beginning with the Frankish period, Michael Jones traces Breton history in the Middle Ages. He describes the rise and fall of the Kingdom of Brittany; the Plantagenets; the civil war (1341–65), and the medieval Breton state under the Montfort Dukes. He concludes with an overview of Brittany′s history from the end of the Middle Ages to the present day.

Extensively illustrated with half–tones, maps and diagrams, the book will be of wide interest to archaeologists, historians and anthropologists, as well as to the general reader.