MORLAIX, a town of western France, capital of an arron dissement in the department of Finistere, 37 m. E.N.E. of Brest on the railway to Rennes. Pop. (1931) 11,029. Coin finds sug gest that Morlaix was probably occupied in the time of the Rom ans. The counts of Leon held the lordship in the 12th century, but the dukes of Brittany disputed possession with them, and in 1187 Henry II. of England, guardian of Arthur of Brittany, be sieged and took the town. During the Hundred Years' War Mor laix was held by French and English in turn, and was pillaged by the latter in 1522. Mary Queen of Scots, on her way to be mar ried to the dauphin, made solemn entry into Morlaix in 1548. The town having joined the League, the castle was taken by storm in the name of Henry IV. in 1594. Morlaix lies 5 m. from the English Channel in a narrow valley. Below the town the river Dossen widens into an estuary, the mouth of which is com manded by the Château du Taureau, built in 1542 for defence against the English. The railway from Paris to Brest crosses
the valley on a two-storeyed viaduct 200 ft. above the quays. Morlaix contains several wooden houses of the 15th, 16th and I 7th centuries. These have large covered courts, with huge open fireplaces and carved wooden staircases, supported on pillars, lead ing from the court to the upper storeys.
The town of Morlaix has a sub-prefecture, besides a tribunal of commerce and a chamber of commerce. The industries include the manufacture of tobacco, tanning, brewing and the manufacture of casks, wooden shoes and candles; there is an active trade in grain, agricultural produce, oil-seeds, leather, wax, honey and in horses and other livestock. Fruit and vegetables are exported to Great Britain and the Channel islands. The port, consisting of an outer tidal harbour and an inner basin, admits vessels drawing 16 ft. at spring tides and II ft. at neap tides.