should have reverted to the Penthièvre branch of the ducal family, now represented by
Nicole of Brittany, whose claim Louis XI had acquired in 1480. In 1486, as the prospect
of conflict grew, the Estates of Brittany promised to support the duke’s daughters. A
French army invaded in 1487 and again in 1488, when it gained an important victory at
Saint-Aubindu-Cormier over the Bretons and their English and other allies (July 28). In
the aftermath of this disaster, François died on September 9, 1488, leaving Anne (aged
eleven) and a group of Breton diehards to continue the struggle with France.
Michael C.E.Jones
[See also: ANNE OF BEAUJEU; ANNE OF BRITTANY; ARISTOCRATIC
REVOLT; BRITTANY; CHARLES VIII]
Dupuy, Antoine. Histoire de la réunion de la Bretagne à la France. 2 vols. Paris: Hachette, 1880.
Labande-Mailfert, Yvonne. Charles VIII et son milieu (1470–1498). Paris: Klincksieck, 1975.
Pocquet du Haut-Jussé, Barthélemy-Amadée. François II, duc de Bretagne, et l’Angleterre (1458–
1488). Paris: Boccard, 1929.
FRANKS
. The Germanic people known as the Franks expanded their political control out of their
original lands of the middle and lower Rhine and in the 6th century created a kingdom
that extended over the modern areas of western Germany, the Low Countries, and most
of France. Established by Clovis I (d. 511), the Frankish kingdom lasted until the Treaty
of Verdun (843) divided it among the three sons of Louis the Pious. It thus gave rise to
the medieval kingdoms of both France and Germany. The Franks were always a small
minority in their own kingdom, and it is an irony that both France and the French
language take their names from the Franks, although there are only a few hundred
Frankish words in French and few Franks actually settled in France.
The Franks were a West Germanic people, and the modern Dutch and Flemish
languages are direct descendants of Frankish. The Franks (the name means “fierce” or
“proud”) first appear in historical sources in the 3rd century A.D., as the product of one
of the periodic dissolutions and regroupings of Germanic tribal confederations. The late
and artificial character of the origin of the Franks left them without a long tribal history, a
deficit that was corrected in the 7th century by the myth that they were descendants of
Trojans. There also was little cohesion or unity among the Franks, and each of their
major branches comprised many subgroups under their own chieftains. The Salian Franks
were on the lower Rhine, while the Ripuarians were on the middle Rhine. But there were
also many other groups of Franks, among them the Chati, Bructeri, Chamavi, and
Amsivarii.
In the later 3rd century and throughout the 5th, the Franks, along with the Alemanni
and other Germanic tribes, constantly tested Roman defenses along the Rhine. The
Romans generally had the upper hand, and many of the defeated Franks were settled in
Roman Germany and northern Gaul as laeti (farmer soldiers). The Salians were given
land in Toxandria, southwest of the mouths of the Rhine. Many Franks were enrolled in
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