royal saints of Welsh or Irish descent; the Merovingian church tried without success to
assert its authority over them.
Carolingian efforts to protect Frankish ecclesiastical interests in the border area and to
realize claims inherited from the Merovingians to hegemony over the Bretons began
when Pepin III sacked Vannes in 751/53; the border march was possibly established at
this time. Victorious campaigns to subdue the Bretons in 786 and 799 were only
temporarily successful: several revolts are recorded in the early 9th century. Louis the
Pious (r. 814–40) tried to integrate Brittany into the Carolingian empire, as witness
imperial diplomas issued for Breton monasteries, references to Frankish counts in Breton-
speaking areas, and the appointment in 831 of the Breton Nominoe as imperial missus in
Brittany. After 840, Nominoe’s position changed; despite some initial support for Charles
the Bald (r. 840–77) in the civil wars of 840–43, he raided western Neustria repeatedly
thereafter until his death in 851. His ejection in 849 of all the bishops of Breton-speaking
sees (Vannes, Alet, Quimper, Saint-Pol, and Dol) became a cause célèbre. Charles the
Bald was badly defeated by the Bretons in 845 and 851, the latter defeat inflicted by
Nominoe’s son and successor, Erispoe (r. 851–57). Territorial concessions and the
promise of a marriage alliance placated Erispoe, but peace was ended by his assassination
by his cousin and successor, Salomon (r. 857–74). Salomon joined in the revolts of
Neustrian magnates in 858–63 and again raided Neustria in 865–66. Additional grants of
Frankish lands in 863 and 867 extended Breton rule yet farther into Neustria; in all,
Charles the Bald yielded the pays de Retz (Rais) and the counties of Nantes, Rennes,
Avranches, Coutances, and
western Anjou to the Bretons. Salomon’s virtual independence from Frankish control was
symbolized by his efforts to extract the Breton church from its dependence on the
archbishop of Tours, creating instead a Breton archbishopric at Dol, and by the title rex
given to him in some Breton charters. There are, nevertheless, clear signs of Frankish
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