the town must be raised. These considerations would Athelstan. lead us to expect an age of peace, till happiness had produced satiety. What leisure can expatriated penury afford for civil feud; what temptation can it present to ambitious war. Alas! misery is unfriendly both to virtue and to peace. It indurates the heart; it clouds the mind; it engenders cruelty, ferocity, and turbulence: it exiles benevolence; it cherishes malignity. Man therefore has seldom been in any states of want and pain, but his actions and his history have become too faithful mirrors of his misfortunes and his depravity.

THE British emigrants soon augmented the evils which accompanied their exile by political calamities. Their history is confused by their numerous assassinations, wars, and usurpations. Soon after their full establishment, we read of Chanao, one of the princely exiles, killing his three brothers, and imprisoning Macliau the other. Macliau being liberated, rebels, flies, conceals himself from his pursuers in a chest within a tomb, turns monk and bishop; but on Chanao's death, takes his wife and kingdom. 46

WE hear also of crimes like those of Arabian romance attached to the character of Conomer, or Conon Mawr, or the Great, another chieftain. As soon as his wives became pregnant, the wild tradition transformed into fable asserts, that he destroyed them. 47 His political cruelties, the crimes of his ambition, are more probable, because more common. He killed Iena, the grandson of Ruval, and by submitting himself to the Frankish king, he sought safety from the enmity of his countrymen. Judual, the son of Iena, flew to the court of Childebert to escape the search of murder. 48 Conon is also stated to have destroyed Canao, his wife, and son. 49 The Frankish sword, in 560, at last released Bretagne from his oppressions.

50

46 Gregory of Tours, 1. 4. c. 4. p. 70. Ed. Hanov. 1613. 47 Vita Gildæ, written by a Monacho Ruyensi about 1008. Boll. 2 Jan. 961.

48 Lobineau, 1. p. 9.

49 Lobineau, p. 10.

50 Gregory of Tours, 1. 4. c. 20.

Gregory names this person

218

Athelstan.

SOON afterwards Macliau expelled his nephew Theodoric, who, in return, in 577, killed his uncle and cousin. Waroc succeeded to the part of Bretagne which his father Macliau had held, and Theodoric to the other. 51 roc defeated the Frankish confederacy, and destroyed the WaSaxons of Bayeux. 52 Contests then ensued in the efforts of Waroc to possess himself of Rennes and Nantz. 53

IN 590, Judual was reigning in Armorican Devonshire, and Waroc in Vannes. 54 Judual was succeeded by his son Judichael, whose moral and religious character impresses us like an apparition of benign beauty in a stormy night. At first he retired to a cloister on his father's death, but he was persuaded to accept the crown.

time, about 635, some Bretons made incursions on the In his frontiers of Dagobert; but Judichael, after receiving an embassy of expostulation 55, paid a visit of peace to the Frankish court. 56

THE good Judichael, in 636, choosing to secede from the

sometimes Conomer, and sometimes Conober; but so he calls Bobolen, 1. 8. c. 32. Beppolen in c. 43. This diversity of orthography is inseparable from this period.

51 Gregory, p. 101.

52 When the Saxons invaded Britain, some went towards Armorica, and settled near Nantz and Bayeux. They mingled with the ancient inhabitants, and had a common appellation with them. Charles the Bald, in his laws, names their language the linguam Saxonicam. They were called Saxones Bajocassimi. Bouquet, v. 2. p. 482. and 250.

53 Gregory 108, 109, 110. 199. 224.

54 Lobineau, 20. After Conon's death, Judual in tota cum sua sobole regnavit Domnonia. Vit. Sampsoni, by a contemporary in Bouquet, v. 3. p. 433.

55 Eligius was the Frankish ambassador, an ecclesiastic of much skill in the goldsmith's art, and of much moral merit. See his life, Bouquet, 3. 552.

56 Aimonius de Gest. Franc. Bouquet, 3. 132. St. Ouen, the chancellor of France, who was present at the interview, has mentioned it in his life of Eloi. Ib. The Cronicon Britannicum, from the ancient MS. of the church of Nantz, dates this peace in 643. See it in Lobineau, v. 2. p. 30.

cares and employments of royalty, wished to transfer his Athelstan. power to his brother Judoc; but this prince had imbibed the love of a private life so strongly, that he fled to avoid the honours intended for him. 57 These unambitious characters are so rare, and the want of them sometimes causes such calamity, that whenever they appear they ought to be extolled.

OF Judichael's children, we only knew that he had two sons; "by whom," says Ingomar, "long after his death, the Breton nation was so irradiated, that every province and country in their occupation continued to be governed by their descendants.” 58

THE kingdom or county of Armorican Cornwall has Armorican escaped the notice of the old annalists, who have reached Cornwall. us. We have a catalogue of its chiefs, written in the twelfth century, but no narration accompanies it. 59 The ancient romances of the country, indeed, abound with matter. The heroic actions of Daniel Denruz transcend in glory the greatest achievements that have amazed us; but fiction has written in the page which history left a blank. We can only assert with truth, that Breton Cornwall had always its own counts to the time of Alain Cagnart; and that in the eleventh century they rose from the possession of an in

57 See the Vita Judoci, by an author of the eighth century, in Bouquet, 3. p. 519.

58 Lobineau, 1. p. 26.

59 It may be worth inserting from Lobineau, 2. p. 17. "Catalogue des Comtes de Cornouaille tiré des Cartulaires de Landevence et Quimper ecrits dans le douzieme siecle:".

Ulfres Alesruda

Diles Heirguer Ehebre

Budic

Binidic

Alan Canhaiart (died 1058)
Houel.

Athelstan. ferior province of Bretagne to the government of all the

IN 753, the Bretons were defeated by Pepin, but not subdued. Under Charlemagne there was a Comte des Marches de Bretagne. This Comte was the famous Roland, who fell in 778, at the well known battle of Ronceval, and whose memory has been consecrated by the genius of romance, and the admiration of our forefathers. 61

WE are trespassing with an episode of some length, but we now hasten to its close. Charlemagne appointed the Count Gui, a potent warrior, to watch the frontiers of Bretagne. The endangered people, instead of repulsing their general enemy, wasted their strength in civil wars, and for the first time, all Bretagne was conquered and subjected to France by the indefatigable Gui. The troops were joined to the Imperial armies 62; disdaining a long submission, they revolted. Vannes had been for 200 years the object of war between the Bretons and the French. It was the key of Bretagne, by which the French could enter at their pleasure into the very heart of the kingdom. The most violent efforts were therefore made to take and to keep this city. The Bretons mastered it in 809; the army of Charlemagne retook it in 811. The miseries which this nation suffered at last ended their civil dissensions. In 814, Jarnithin was reigning in Britain, and afterwards Morvan. 63

Louis le Debonnair twice subdued Bretagne 64, and made Nominoe its lieutenant-governor. 65 In 848, Nominoe was consecrated king of Bretagne at Dol. 66 He baffled three Frankish expeditions of Charles the Bald. 67 In 851 he died, the most prosperous and powerful prince which the Bretons had yet enjoyed. 68 At his accession, the

60 Lobineau, 1. p. 27.

62 Lob. p. 28. Eginhart, 5.

64 Ib.

66 Lob. 47.

61 Lobin. ib.

63 Lob. ib.

63 Lob. 30.

67 Lob. 40-49. and see Daniel, History de France, v. 2. p.42, 43. 46.

68 Lob. p. 50.

history of Bretagne breaks out into distinct notice, and flows Athelstan. into a clear and regular stream.

His son Erispoe, defeated Charles again; who, in revengeful policy, supported Salomon, the heir of Erispoe's eldest brother, against him. Erispoe allowed Salomon to govern subordinately the county of Rennes. 69 In 857, Salomon, by an atrocious act (he killed his cousin 7o), began a reign of ability, but of guilt.

SALOMON, assuming the sovereignty of all Bretagne, conciliated the French king, who, for his services against the Northmen, sent him a crown enriched with gold and jewelry, and also the ornaments of regal dignity 71; but in 874, he experienced the instability of all power which has been obtained by crime. So many minds are depraved by the example, and encouraged by the success, that usurpation is generally dethroned by usurpation, till it ceases to be enviable. Pasquitan, count of Vannes, and also Gurvaint, the count of Rennes, who has obtained by his bravery a ray of fame, because all was gloom around him, caballed against Salomon, and destroyed him.72 The revolters then fought for the undivided sovereignty, and both perished in 877. 73

ALAIN, brother of Pasquitan, succeeded at Vannes; and Judichail, son of Erispoe's daughter, at Rennes. Their civil discord was overawed by a Northman invasion. They united for the time; but in 878, Judichail, too eager for glory, fought alone with the enemy and perished. Alain, with better collected strength, conquered them, with decisive slaughter, and was acknowledged the sovereign of all Bretagne.74 He reigned till 907 with splendour and tran70 Lob. p. 54.

69 Lob. p. 52.

71 Lob. 62. Daniel states, 66., that the Council of Savoniers, held 859, mentioned Salomon with the periphrasis qui Britannorum tenet regionem, to avoid calling him king. of Soissons afterwards styled him merely duke. follows this obligatory authority, and gives no any ruler in Bretagne.

The Council Father Daniel higher title to

72 Lob. 66. Gurvaint, called by Regino, Vurfandus, challenged Hastings. See Regino's detailed account in 874. p. 43. 73 Lob. 67, 68.

74 Annales Metenses Bouquet, 8. p.71.: they state, that out of