Brittany: The Limits of Elite Solidarity

Abstract

Far removed from Provence and Dauphiné lay Brittany, the last of the three pays d’états and a fiercely independent province. Unlike the others, however, Brittany and its provincial estates were not objects of tax reform under Louis XIII. Cardinal Richelieu did not attempt to introduce the élus and élections to the province, and thereby avoided the confrontations that such initiatives provoked elsewhere. Indeed, the Bretons only fell subject to the scrutiny of an intendant in 1634, and the intendant only became a permanent fixture in 1689. Thanks to the minister’s special interest in Brittany and to the cooperation of its elites, the province was spared most of the changes, reforms, and attendant conflicts that defined the histories of Provence and Dauphiné in the early seventeenth century. It was only after Richelieu was gone and under Colbert that relations between the province and the crown deteriorated to the point of violence. The expenditures of Louis XIV’s reign induced the crown to make demands sufficient to threaten the financial interests of the Breton landed elite. The resulting breakdown of cooperation between king and provincial nobles contributed to the rebellion of 1675. In resorting to hard-hitting tactics, Louis and his agents exposed the self-interests of the parlementaires and revealed the extent to which horizontal ties had formed in this provincial society and the challenges that they posed for central government.