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Show Brittany, in Ancient Times Known as Armorica, Dates Back to Fifth Century Bretagne, or Brittany, is situated on the large triangular peninsula which forms the northwestern extremity ex-tremity of France. In ancient times it was known as Armorica, and was inhabited by a confederation of independent in-dependent Celtic tribes. It received the name Brittany, or Little Britain, about the middle of the Fifth century, cen-tury, on account of the settlement of numerous colonies from Great Britain, driven there by the Anglo-Saxon Anglo-Saxon invasion. Under Charlemagne, states a writer in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Deal-er, the Franks conquered the country, coun-try, but the successors of this king exercising their sovereignty but feebly, the Breton princes regained and held the form and privileges of independence. The feudal lords of the province always regarded one of their number as their chief, because of his superior strength, but otherwise the fiefs of the nobles were each held independent of the others. About the mid'He of the Twelfth century one of these nobles succeeded in bringing all the country coun-try under his control and called it the County of Brittany. It was the daughter of this count, Constance, who married Geoffrey Plantagenet, the third son of Henry I of England, and was the mother of little Prince Arthur who was so cruelly murdered mur-dered by his uncle, King John of England. Readers of Shakespeare's play, "King John," are familiar with the story. The stepsister of Arthur, Alice, was married to Pierre Pi-erre de Dreux, who took the title of duke of Brittany and became the founder of a line which held control of the country, under the protection of France, until the latter part of the Fifteenth century. In 1491 the male line had become extinct and the heiress of the ducal estates, Anne of Brittany, was wedded to Charles VIII, King of France, thus attaching the duchy to the property of the French crown. In 1532 the province was formally united to France. It retained a separate Parliament, Par-liament, however, until the French revolution. |