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The Seigneurial Domestic Buildings of Brittany: A Provisional Assessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2011

Michael Jones ,
Gwyn I. Meirion-Jones ,
Frédéric Guibal  and
Jon R. Pilcher
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Extract

Since 1983 a multi-disciplinary survey of buildings of the manor-house type in the historic duchy of Brittany has been undertaken. The present paper presents provisional results, chiefly based on work up to the 1987 season in two of the five modern départements of the province: Côtes-du-Nord and Ille-et-Vilaine. After a brief historical introduction discussing the political and social context of the manoirs, their relationship to earlier seigneurial dwellings such as motte-and-bailey castles or maisons-fortes, their origins and numbers are considered. Then the different forms of the manorial ensemble and existing types of building are surveyed, highlighting those where detailed archival, archaeological and dendrochronological studies have been carried out. The survey has brought to light a small number of standard forms originating in the Middle Ages. Their main features and variants are described and the general architectural evolution of this class of building down to the Renaissance is traced, concluding with a limited commentary on the broader historical context.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 69 , Issue 1 , March 1989 , pp. 73 - 110
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1989

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References

NOTES

1 Meirion-Jones, Gwyn I. (ed.), The Seigneurial Domestic Buildings of Brittany. First Interim Report 1983–85 (Department of Geography, City of London Polytechnic, 1986), 6–9.Google Scholar References in following notes to departmental archives will be given in the form: ACN for Côtes-du-Nord, AIV for Ille-et-Vilaine, ALA for Loire-Atlantique, AML for Maine-et-Loire.

2 There is an enormous literature on the subject, most of little scientific value, but three accounts may be mentioned: Messelière, Vicomte Henri Frotier de la, ‘Le manoirs bretons des Côtes-du-Nord’, Mémoires de la société d'émulation des Côtes-du-Nord, 72 (1940), 247–70Google Scholar is the work of a pioneer who claimed to have identified 1,700 manoirs in this département alone and to have visited 1,300 of them in the course of his sixty-year-long career. Mussat, A., Arts et cultures de Bretagne, un millénaire (Paris, 1979), 179–90Google Scholar provides a brilliant aperçu, whilst Déceneux, M., ‘Notes sur quelques aspects des manoirs gothiques bretons’, Arts de l'Ouest, études et documents, 1–2 (1980), 105–26Google Scholar draws on his otherwise unpublished thesis to offer an interesting conspectus, though our investigations challenge several of his findings.

3 cf. the lack of plans in earlier volumes of the Congrès archéologique de France, which has visited parts of Brittany most recently in 1949, 1957, 1968 and 1983.

4 cf. Meirion-Jones, (ed.), op. cit. (note 1), 36–52Google Scholar and below pp. 99–104.

5 The most recent detailed coverage of Breton medieval history is provided in the Ouest France Histoire de la Bretagne; Chédeville, A. and Guillotel, H., La Bretagne des saints et des rois, Ve-Xe siècle (Rennes, 1984)Google Scholar; Chédeville, A. and Tonnerre, N.-Y., La Bretagne féodale, Xle–XIIIe siècle (Rennes, 1987)Google Scholar; Leguay, J.-P. and Martin, Hervé, Fastes et malheurs de la Bretagne ducale, 1213–1532 (Rennes, 1982).Google Scholar

6 Points to be amplified in The Second Interim Report now in preparation, but on feudal military service see Planiol, Marcel, Histoire des institutions de la Bretagne, ed. by Lavergnée, Jacques Brejon de, 5 vols. (Mayenne, 1981–1985), IV, 3–13Google Scholar, though the topic requires fresh examination.

7 Jones, Michael, The Creation of Brittany. A Late Medieval State (London, 1988), 19–24Google Scholar for an outline.

8 Barrai i Altet, X., ‘Motte et maison forte en Bretagne au moyen âge’, in Bur, Michel (ed.), La Maison forte au moyen âge, Actes de la table ronde de Nancy–Pont-à-Mousson, 31 mai-3 juin 1984 (Paris, 1986), 43–51Google Scholar scarcely scratches the surface of this vast subject.

9 For example, the defensive enceintes of La Touche Trébry (Trébry, Côtes-du-Nord), or Kerjean (Saint-Vougay, Finistère), which were remodelled in the latter half of the sixteenth century.

10 Jones, , op. cit. (note 7) 197–218.Google Scholar

11 Chédevlle, and Tonnerre, , op. cit. (note 5), 140–75Google Scholar revise the feudal survey first systematically elaborated by de la Borderie, A. in Essai sur la géographie féodale de la Bretagne (Rennes, 1889).Google Scholar

12 Planiol, , op. cit. (note 6), IV, 325–38Google Scholar; Jones, , op. cit. (note 7), 223–5Google Scholar and 229 for successoral law.

13 Gallet, Jean, La Seigneurie bretonne (1450–1680). L'exemple du Vannetais (Paris, 1983), 79–121.Google Scholar Pocquet du Haut-Jussé, B.-A., ‘De la vassalité à la noblesse dans le duché de Bretagne’, Bulletin philologique et historique, année 1963 (1966), 785–800Google Scholar was an interesting attempt to explain the multiplication of noble tenures from the thirteenth century, but it does not properly tackle the question of how many already existed by that date.

14 Meyer, Jean, La Noblesse bretonne au XVIIIe sècle, 2 vols. (Paris, 1966), I, 24.Google Scholar

15 Chédeville, and Tonnerre, , op. cit. (note 5), 124Google Scholar; René, Père, Réformations de l'évêché de Dol en 1513 (Vannes, 1894), 21Google Scholar ‘Jehan Le Voyez, homme noble et qui va journellement a la charrue’ at Cherrueix, Ille-et-Vilaine.

16 Leguay, and Martin, , op. cit. (note 5), 281Google Scholar; Kerhervé, J., L'État breton aux 14e et 15e Siècles. Les ducs, l'argent et les hommes, 2 vols. (Paris, 1987), 11, 558–60.Google Scholar

17 Ibid., 560. Planguenoal, Finistère, with sixty-one noble families at the time of the Réformations des feux, appears to hold the record for the parish with most noble families, cf. also Minois, G., ‘La démo graphie du Trégor au XVe siècle’, Annales de Bretagne, 83 (1976), 407–24.Google Scholar

18 cf. Contamine, P., ‘The French Nobility and the War’, in Fowler, K. A. (ed.), The Hundred Years War, (London, 1971), 139.Google Scholar

19 Ibid., and cf. Debord, A., La Société laïque dans les pays de la Charente, Xe–XIIe s. (Paris, 1984), 230–53.Google Scholar

20 Chédeville, and Tonnerre, , op. cit. (note 5), 187.Google Scholar Sanquer, R., ‘Les mottes féodales du Finistère’, Bull. Soc. archéol. du Finistère, 105 (1977), 99–126Google Scholar is the starting point for modem studies.

21 Leguay, and Martin, , op. cit. (note 5), 282–4Google Scholar; Gallet, , op. cit. (note 13), 261–4Google Scholar; Jones, , op. cit. (note 7) 353 and 368Google Scholar for seigneurial budgets.

22 cf. Jones, , op. cit. (note 7), 222–5Google Scholar and Meyer, , op. cit. (note 14), 11, 1255.Google Scholar

23 For example, Hac (Le Quiou, Côtes-du-Nord), Meirion-Jones, (ed.), op. cit. (note 1), 66–7Google Scholar; see also below pp. 89–90 and 101–4.

24 Irien, Job, ‘Le site médiéval de Lezkelen en Plabennec: le castel Saint-Ténènan’, Bull. Soc. archéol, du Finistère, 109 (1981), 103–19Google Scholar for the most important excavation of a Breton motte, finally deserted c. 1400. Kerhervé, , op. cit. (note 16), 11, 892–901Google Scholar provides details on the connection between office and the acquisition of manoirs in the fifteenth century.

25 Meirion-Jones, (ed.), op. cit. (note 1), 63–72Google Scholar for Hac; our survey has led us to a very different account of the development of Bien Assis from that provided in Congrès archéologique de France, cviie session, Saint-Brieuc (Paris, 1950), 165–71. Details will appear in The Second Interim Report, together with results of work at La Roche Jagu.

26 So far little evidence has been discovered on the cost of building any of the manoirs which have been subjected to detailed survey because of the dearth of relevant financial records. But documents relating to La Chatière en Tremblay, Ille-et-Vilaine, for the years 1452–4 show outlay of some 78l. 6s. 6d. breton on what was clearly a major rebuilding of the manoir (AIV, 2 Eg 80 and 81). Gallet, , op. cit. (note 13), 261–71Google Scholar for the nature of seigneurial income.

27 cf. above note 2; the classic discussion of the significance of the word manoir on both sides of the Channel remains Bloch, Marc, Seigneurie française et manoir anglais (Paris, 1960).Google Scholar The earliest usages of manerium in Breton sources occur shortly after 1200, for example, AIV, 1 F 501 no. 74 ‘terra et nemore et prato infra ambitum manerii de Trouble sitis’; ibid., 1 F 1619, 16 May 1208, agreement over the ‘manerium de Bou’ between the abbey of Saint-Melaine and Guillaume, senechal de Rennes; Rosenzweig, L. (ed.), Cartulaire du Morbihan, (Vannes, 1895), no. 254Google Scholar, 1221 ‘manerium suurn’ of Bodieuc.

28 cf. Desvaux-Marteville, Elisabeth, ‘Les manoirs du Perche: d'une image littéraire à la realité archéologique’, Archéol. Médiévale, 3–4 (1973–1974), 365–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29 See above, note 20.

30 Durand, Gildas, ‘Le château de Trémazan en Landunvez, Léon’, Gwechall. Le Finistère Autre fois, 1 (1978), 159–93.Google Scholar

31 Danet, G., ‘Le château-fort de Largoët en Elven’, Arts de l'Ouest, Etudes et Documents, 1–2 (1980), 143–56Google Scholar; Mussat, A., ‘La tour du Grand-Fougeray’, Mém. de la Soc. d'hist. et d'archéol. de Bretagne, 63 (1986), 419–26.Google Scholar

32 See above note 24 for Lezkelen; R. Bertrand, ‘Une fouille en cours: Sainte-Geneviève en Inzinzac-Lochrist (Morbihan)’, in Bur, (ed.), op. cit. (note 8), 53–4.Google Scholar

33 ACN, E 1529 m. 5, testimony of Jean Ladire, aged about 50, in the case of Geoffroy du Quelenec, lord of Bien Assis against Jean du Quelenec, vicomte du Fou.

34 André, P., ‘Le château de Suscinio, XIIIe-XVe siècles’, Congrès archéol. de France, 141e session, Morbihan 1983 (Paris 1986), 254–66.Google Scholar

35 Little documentary evidence has been found so far, but in 1513 it was held by Guillaume Kersauzon.

36 Held in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by the Du Rest family (cf. ALA, B 2980 fo. 30, 1426; ACN, E 1542; AIV, 23 J 56). An oval motte 30m × 24m and between 3m and 5m high stands close by.

37 In the mid-sixteenth century Coadélan was held by the family of Le Chever. As early as 1427 Laurence Le Chever is Usted as a noble in the parish of Prat, whilst in 1381 Jean Le Chever swore at La Roche-Derrien to uphold the terms of the second treaty of Guérande. Was this family the original builder of Coadélan? Accounts for extensive rebuilding in the mid-seventeenth century have recently come to light (ACN, 53 J).

38 Robert de Quedillac, lord of Taden, aged 55, is cited in a procès of 1476 (ACN, E 3466).

39 Unfortunately no documentation has been found before 1545 when it was held by Renault, sire de la Touche, de Kerimel, de Coëtfrec et de la Ville Basse. By 1561 Kerandraou had passed to Pierre de Boisgelin, sire de Kersaliou and by 1599 to Louis de Guebriant, sire de la Hirilaye, who sold it to Jeanne Louaisel for 9000 écus (ACN, E 3283).

40 The earliest document so far discovered relating to Les Fossés dates from 1339 and shows that it was held under the lordship of Montafilant by the Le Borgne family (ACN, E 1762). An inquiry of 1497 (ibid., 32 J Fonds Kernabat) shows that c. 1400 Jean Le Borgne, sire des Fossés died leaving two daughters, one of whom, Perinnete, married Olivier de la Bouexière, sire du Plessis, who is styled ‘sire des Fosses’ in 1423. Witnesses at the inquiry provided a very full description of the buildings of the manoir which will be published in The Second Interim Report.

41 After being held by the Du Plessix family in the fourteenth century, the manoir passed to Geof froy de Beaucé (d. Oct. 1404) and descended directly through five generations until first one and then a second daughter of Jean de Beaucé (d. c. 1571 ) took it to their respective husbands (AIV, 1 F 1724).

42 Before 1123 (Grand, R., L'Art roman en Bretagne (Paris, 1958), 197).Google Scholar AML, H 3354 provides some evidence for its history from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries. In 1606 it was handed over to the Jesuits of Rennes, who held it until their expulsion from France in 1762, for the purpose of maintaining their Collège de Rennes. The aveux rendered to the Crown in the seventeenth century provide some brief details of its physical state. On 19 January 1759 ‘noble homme Pierre Le Fort’ of Dol and his wife, Françoise Anne le Coq, under took to pay 1,700l. per annum for nine years for ‘la maison prieuralle’, and other buildings including the stable, press, grange, chapel and colombier, together with the adjoining lands. Sold as ‘bien national’ in 1793 for 40,500l., it was finally converted into the farm it still is (AIV, 3 D 2 and 3 D 4; AML, H 3506). This building will be studied in detail in The Second Interim Report.

43 Meirion-Jones, (ed.), op. cit. (note 1), 63–72Google Scholar for Hac. The principal archival sources are ACN, E 3435–6, 3465–8, 3542.

44 Geslin de Bourgogne, J. and de Barthélemy, A. (ed.), Anden évêchés de Bretagne, 6 vols. (Saint-Brieuc and Paris, 1855–1879), V, 250–63Google Scholar provides a brief outline of the descent of this important seigneury. The main archival sources are ACN, E 1797, 2656–63 and 108 J 1; AIV 23 J 118 and 121–2. La Roche Jagu was held in succession by the families of Tronguidy, du Parc and Péan during the fifteenth century. Jean Péan, sire de Grandbois et de la Roche Jagu was promoted to the rank of banneret in 1451 whilst Francis II promoted the seigneury of Grandbois to the same level in 1487 (ACN, E 1797). There is a possible motte site at La Roche Jagu that may represent the earliest seat of the lordship. The castle there had been severely damaged during the civil wars of the fourteenth century and some rebuilding was certainly in hand in 1407 (R. Blan chard (ed.), Lettres et mandements de Jean V, duc de Bretagne, 5 vols. (Nantes 1889–95), 1, nos. 108 and 844). Recently discovered accounts for 1510–11 furnish some minor details on repairs there (ACN, 108 J 1 fos. 81v-82r).

45 In 1427 Hervé Le Galee, noble, held Marc'hallac'h ALA, B 2981 fo. 71v and in 1553 Jean Le Galee, sire du Marc'hallac'h provided an aveu to the lordship of Guingamp for his holdings in Plestin (ACN, E 1002).

46 Permission was granted on 22 July 1417 to Pierre de la Marzelière to enclose and fortify his residence (Lettres de Jean V, no. 1245 bis), and the licence was renewed by Francis I in 1442 (Bull. Soc. archéol. Dépt. Ille-et-Vilaine, 4 (1866), 220). Seized by the Leaguers in 1592, it was partly demolished in 1598 and its state in 1619 is revealed by a detailed description (Rev. hist, de l'Ouest, Mémoires, 8 (1892), 232). Déceneux, in his thesis (p. 209) cited in note 2 above, dates the manoir to c. 1380–5, but dendrochronology suggests much more importance should be attached to building campaigns connected with the licence of Francis I in 1442.

47 In the 1427 Réformation de la noblesse mention is made of Olivier and Roland de Kernac'hriou, nobles, their métayer Merien and of an Alain Toullic at Kernac'hriou (ALA, B 2981 fos. 67r and 169r). In a muster at Tréguier in 1554 the sire de Ker nac'hriou was present as a man-at-arms (AIV, 23 J 56). By the end of the century it was held by Madame de la Marche, heiress to her uncle, the Chantre de Tréguier (ACN, E 2704).

48 Probably held in 1426 by Geoffroy Gilbert (ALA, B 2978 fo. 376v), whose descendant Olivier Gilebert, sire de Kerjegu et de Ros, presented an aveu for what he held in Ploëuc and Plémy in 1517 (ACN, E 3271).

49 ACN, 60 J 16, Fonds de la Messelière provides a descent of the family of Le Mintier which traces the branch that held La Ville Norme to Eonnet Le Mintier, second son of Guillaume II Le Mintier, sire des Granges, who with his son, Roland, appeared at musters at Moncontour in January 1479 and Henon in 1483 and whose line became extinct c. 1560. See also Meirion-Jones (ed.), op. cit. (note 1), 73–6 and Kerhervé, op. cit. (note 16), passim for the Le Mintier family as office-holders.

50 Thebaud de la Gahardière, sire du manoir de la Gahardière is named in the Réformations of 1437 and 1445 (AIV, 2 F 2 fo. 6r). By 1513 it was held by Bintin, Jean de (cf. Bull. Soc. archéol. Dépt. Ille-et-Vilaine, 44 (1915), 292–3).Google Scholar

51 Olivier and Raoul du Kaerguezec are Usted amongst the nobles of Trédarzec in 1427 (ALA, B 2981 fo. 132r). It may be assumed that it was their descendant Vincent de Kerguezec, sire du Carbont, who appeared as an archer at musters at Tréguier in 1554 and 1568 (AIV, 23 J 56).

52 Although a thirteenth-century origin for the family of Tehel has been claimed (cf. Kerhervé, , op. cit. (note 16), 11, 740)Google Scholar, a connected descent can only be established from Olivier Tehel, sire de Saint-Symphorien in 1427 (AIV, 1 F 1725). Held in 1513 by Jean Tehel, Le Téhel had passed by 1532 to Jean Hattes.

53 Couffon, R., ‘Le château de Guernanchanay en Plouare?, Méms. de la Soc. d'Émulation des Côtes-du-Nord, 103 (1974), 37–9Google Scholar argued that it was built c. 1535–50 by Guillaume de la Lande and Anne de Lesmais, whose arms appear on a window above the gallery. It descended with their daughter Constance, who married Michel de Cozkaer, their son Yves, his daughter Anne, married to Jean de Baud, sire de la Vigne, and their daughter Mathurine (d. 1673 ob.s.p.). The property was then sold to the Robién family who held it until the Revolution.

54 At a muster at Guingamp in 1549 two men-at-arms and one archer appeared from Plouaret, but it has not yet been discovered which of them held Kerbridou (AIV, 23 J 56).

55 Duportal, Anne, ‘La seigneurie de la Ville Daniel en Plainehaute’, Méms. de la Soc. d'Émulation des Côtes-du-Nord, 41 (1903), 98–160.Google Scholar

56 The earliest description of what may be deemed a manoir in Brittany is provided by Stephen of Fougères, Bishop of Rennes (1169–79), relating how he constructed a palatium at Rannée, Ille-et-Vilaine: ‘Nos vero ibi palatium lapideum fere centum pedes habens in longitudine, et appendicia et murum in circuitu, propriis sumptibus reedificavimus … et viridarium quod adjacet palatio proprio sumptu emimus, et in eo plures propriis manibus inseruimus surculos’ (Rennes, Bibliothèque municipale MS 17, edited in Morice, Dom H., Mémoires pour servir de preuves à l'histoire ecclésiastique et civile de Bretagne, 3 vols. (Paris 1742–1726), I, 672–3Google Scholar and commentary in de La Borderie, A. and Pocquet, B., Histoire de Bretagne, 6 vols. (Paris and Rennes 1896–1914), III, 253–4).Google Scholar All nine Breton bishops possessed at least one manoir in the later Middle Ages, those of Rennes and Nantes usually maintaining three or four simultaneously. For that at Dol see Déceneux, M., ‘La résidence des évêques de Dol à la fin du moyen âge’, Annales de la Soc. d'hist. et d'archéol. de Saint-Malo, Année 1977, 232–7.Google Scholar

57 Although the documentary evidence is lacking, the plans of manoirs like Kernac'hriou and La Grand'Cour en Taden (above pp. 84, 90) are only comprehensible on the assumption that they were built for multiple occupation by families of similar or differing social status. The métayer normally lived in a dwelling adjacent to the principal manoir, sometimes a cause of friction, for example, in 1524 when Raoulet Herlet besieged his master Guillaume de la Roche, sieur des Nos en Maroué, Côtes-du-Nord. The subsequent inquiry provides rich details on conditions at the manoir (ACN, B 852).

58 Leguay, and Martin, , op. cit. (note 5), 219–27.Google Scholar

59 In the case of Geoffroy du Quelenec, sieur de Bien Assis against Jean du Quelenec, vicomte du Fou in 1434, the testimony given makes clear that it was not just after notable social events like weddings when ‘après les espousailles vindrent au manoir de Bienassis pour faire leur feste ensemble oplusours nobles gens’, but everyday that gossips were to be found hanging around the manoir (ACN, E 1529).

60 AIV, 1 F 1225 fo. 60r–61r, inquiry into the sacking of the manoir of L'Hermitage (Lorges, Côtes-du-Nord), by Sylvestre de la Feuillée in 1468, testimony of Guillaume Lelart that he had seen service on four tables ‘qui se dresoint touzjours en la salle dud. lieu de premiere assiepte a digner et a souper de dresouer en taxes, couppes, eguieres et petiz potz dargent’. As a result of the attack the countess of Quintin had been forced to eat off wooden platters borrowed from her métayer.

61 Lewis, P. S., Later Medieval France: the Polity (London, 1968), 201–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Given-Wilson, C., The English Nobility in the Later Middle Ages (London, 1987).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

62 Gallet, , op. cit. (note 13), 398–415Google Scholar, 547–68; Meyer, , op. cit. (note 14), 11, 927–1016Google Scholar demon strates, however, the remarkable social exclusivism of the parlementaires even in eighteenth-century Brittany.

63 Good examples are provided by Le Plessis Beaucé and La Boulaye (Betton, Ille-et-Vilaine) both sited just to the north of Rennes.

64 cf. La Guéhardière, Le Téhel and Boberil (L'Hermitage, Ille-et-Vilaine), and Les Fossés, La Ville Norme and Guernachanay (Côtes-du-Nord).

65 For example, Kerbridou or Kerandraou (Côtes-du-Nord). Coatliquer (above p. 83) is already completely ruined.

66 Pilcher, J. R., ‘A 700 year dating chronology for northern France’, in Ward, R. G. W. (ed.), Current Research in Dendrochronology and Related Subjects, Brit. Archaeol. Rep. S. 333 (Oxford, 1987), 127–39.Google Scholar

67 Bridge, M. C., ‘The dendrochronological dating of buildings in southern England’, Medieval Archaeol. 32 (1988) 166–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

68 Baillie, M. G. L., Tree-Ring Dating and Archaeology (London, 1982), 274.Google Scholar

69 Hughes, M. K., Milsom, S. J. and Leggett, P. A., ‘Sapwood estimates in the interpretation of tree-ring dates’, J. Archaeol. Sci. 8 (1981), 381–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

70 Pilcher, , op. cit. (note 66).Google Scholar

71 Guibal, F. in Meirion-Jones, G. I. (ed.), op. cit. (note 1), 45.Google Scholar

72 M. G. L. Baillie and J. R. Pilcher, ‘A simple cross-dating program—some observations’, in Ward, R. G. W. (ed.), op. cit. (note 66), 157–63.Google Scholar

73 Bridge, op. cit. (note 67).

74 Pilcher, op. cit. (note 66).

75 Some of the dates given here differ by a few years from those given in the First Interim Report (see note 1). At the time the latter was written we had no sapwood information for Brittany and were using the sapwood estimate of 18–50. The new results are calculated, as explained in the text, on the lower estimate of 9–28 based on modern local samples.