BRETAGNE (bre'tan) or BRIT TANY, one of the provinces into which France was divided. It now forms the departments of Finistere, Cotes-du-Nord, Morbihan, and Loire-Inferieure. In an cient times, under the name of Armorica, it was the central seat of the confeder ated Armorican tribes, who were of Celtic and Kymric origin. Traces of them still remain in the old Kymric dia lect of the three most westerly depart ments, and in the numerous so-called Druidical monuments. The Breton has generally a tinge of melancholy in his disposition; but often conceals, under a dull and indifferent exterior, lively imag ination and strong feelings. Under the Romans, the country, after 58 B. C, was made the Provincia Lugdunensis Tertia; but its subjugation was hardly more than nominal, and it was entirely liberated in the 4th century, when it was divided into several allied republican states, which afterward were changed into petty mon archies. Bretagne became subject to the
Franks in the reign of Charlemagne, and was handed over by Charles the Simple to the Northmen in 912. After some fierce struggles, the Bretons appear to have at length acknowledged the suzerainty of the Norman dukes. Geoff roi, Count of Rennes, was the first to assume the title of Duke of Bretagne in 992. The Duchy of Bretagne was in corporated with France in 1532, by Francis I., to whom it had come by mar riage, and subsequently shared in the general fortunes of the Empire, but re tained a local parliament until the out break of the Revolution. During the Revolution, Bretagne, which was in tensely loyal, was the arena of san guinary conflicts, and especially of the movements of the Chouans, who reap peared as recently as 1832.