Pontcallec conspiracy

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The Pontcallec conspiracy was a conspiracy and a rebellion, coupled with the Cellamare conspiracy, by sections of the Breton nobility, which was mainly directed against tax burdens from the central French state . It ended in 1720 with the execution of some of the main conspirators in Nantes , including the namesake Marquis de Pontcallec (1670-1720).

Execution of the conspirators in Nantes in 1720

Most of the Breton nobility were impoverished, and in 1715 the Breton parliament refused a tax increase proposed by regent Philippe of Orleans . The regent then sent the Marshal of France Pierre de Montesquiou d'Artagnan , Count of Montesquiou and cousin of Charles d'Artagnan de Batz-Castelmore , to Brittany to collect taxes by force if necessary. The Breton estates were convened again in Dinan in June 1718 , but again refused to raise taxes, whereupon some particularly unruly Breton nobles were exiled.

This encouraged separation efforts among the Breton nobility, who made contact with the Spaniards and supported the Cellamare conspiracy. A central figure was the Marquis de Pontcallec, who came from a respected Breton family and owned a fortress near Vannes . He continued his plans for a rebellion after the Cellamare conspiracy was blown in late 1718. When state tax collectors were attacked, Marshal Montesquiou marched into Rennes with 15,000 men in September 1719 . After an intended landing of 2,000 Irish troops by the Spaniards who were at war with France ( War of the Quadruple Alliance ) was reversed in view of the balance of power (the insurgents had failed to organize serious military resistance within their own ranks), Pontcallec and other conspirators arrested in late 1719. 23 conspirators were indicted in Nantes in 1720, 16 of whom had escaped trial, and four were sentenced to death, including Pontcallec. They were beheaded in Nantes on March 26, 1720. Soon after, with the collapse of John Law's financial system, the Regent faced other problems and the tax hikes in Brittany were rolled back. Those who had fled were able to return from exile after ten years.

Pontcallec became a Breton folk hero, who was sung about in one of the Breton ballads collected in the Barzaz Breiz by Théodore Hersart de La Villemarqué (Marv Pontkalleg). This ballad was interpreted by Alan Stivell , among others . Breton historians and nationalists also saw him as the last victim of the struggle for Breton independence from the French central state.

The conspiracy plays a role in the novel Une fille du Régent (1845) by Alexandre Dumas and was made into a film in When the feast begins ... ( Que la fête commence ... ) by Bertrand Tavernier (1975), with Philippe Noiret as the regent, Jean Rochefort as its ministers Abbé Dubois and Jean-Pierre Marielle as Pontcallec.

literature

  • Joël Cornette: Le marquis et le Régent. Une conspiration bretonne à l'aube des Lumières. Tallandier, Paris 2008, ISBN 978-2-84734-482-0 (with accompanying CD with interpretations of Marv Pontkalleg).
  • Joël Cornette: Histoire de la Bretagne et des Bretons. Volume 2: Des Lumières au XXIe Siècle (= Points. Histoire. 402). Éditions du Seuil, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-02-082517-1 .
  • Brice Évain: Deux héros de Bretagne. Le Marquis de Pontcallec et Marion du Faouë - histoire et mémoires. 2009, ( online (PDF; 12.01 MB) ).
  • Henri Fréville: L'Intendance de Bretagne. 1689-1790. Essai sur l'histoire d'une intendance en Pays d'Etats au XVIIIe siècle. 3 volumes. Plihon, Rennes 1953, (Université de Paris, Thèse de doctorat, 1952).
  • Guy Gauthier: La Conspiration de Pontcallec. "Nous entrerons dans la forêt". Coop Breizh, Spézet 2011, ISBN 978-2-84346-510-9 .
  • Arthur Le Moyne de La Borderie: Histoire de la conspiration de Pontcallec. 1717-1720. In: Revue de Bretagne et de Vendée. Vol. 1, 1857, ISSN  1149-5340 , pp. 1-21 , 223-252 ; Vol. 2, 1857, pp. 105-148 ; Vol. 3, 1858, pp. 1-22 , 148-171 , 315-344 ; Vol. 4, 1858, pp. 29-54 ; Vol. 6, 1859, pp. 369-395 , 457-473 .
  • Jean Meyer Le Régent. Ramsay, Paris 1985, ISBN 2-85956-404-7 .
  • Jean Meyer La noblesse bretonne au XVIIIe siècle. 2nd edition. Éditions de École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris 1985, ISBN 2-7132-0856-4 .
  • Alain Tanguy: La Conspiration de Pontcallec. Un complot séparatiste sous a régence. In: ArMen. No. 147, 2005, ISSN  0297-8644 , pp. 10-19.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ As Arthur de la Borderie, La Bretagne aux Temps Modernes 1471-1789 , Rennes 1894, Jeanne Coroller-Danio Histoire de Notre Bretagne , 1922