Design
By 1910, France had yet to lay down a single dreadnought battleship; Britain had by then completed ten dreadnoughts and five battlecruisers, with eight and three more of the two types, respectively, under construction. Germany had built eight dreadnoughts and one battlecruiser and the United States had six built and four more building. Late that year, the French Navy laid down the first of the four Courbet class ships. To remedy the inferiority of the French fleet, the government passed the Statut Naval on 30 March 1912, authorizing a force of twenty-eight battleships, to be in service by 1920. The first three ships were to be laid down in 1912.
The Bretagne class were replacements for the battleships Carnot, Charles Martel and Liberté. They were developed from the Courbet class, and were built with the same hulls. The primary reason for the decision to use the same hull design as the Courbet class was limitations of French shipyards. The Courbet class ships were the largest possible ships that could fit in existing dockyards and refitting basins. The Conseil Superieur de la Marine (CSM), the French naval high command, ordered the construction department to prepare designs for a 23,500-metric-ton (23,100-long-ton; 25,900-short-ton) ship armed with twelve 340 mm (13 in) guns in six twin gun turrets.
The additional weight of the 340 mm turrets compared to the 305 mm (12.0 in) of the Courbet class ships imposed insurmountable problems for the designers. To incorporate six turrets with the same arrangement of the earlier vessels, with four on the centerline in superfiring pairs and two wing turrets amidships would have required an additional 3,000 metric tons (3,000 long tons) displacement as well as a significant increase in the length of the hull. After several other proposals, the CSM chose a design with five twin turrets, all mounted on the centerline. This would achieve the same broadside of ten guns, despite the reduction in the number of guns. The width of the armored belt was reduced by 20 mm (0.79 in) to compensate for the increased weight of the main battery.
Provence was the first ship of the class to be laid down, which she was on 21 May 1912 at the Arsenal de Lorient. Bretagne was laid down at the Arsenal de Brest shipyard in Brest on 22 July 1912. Lorraine followed at the Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire shipyard in St. Nazaire almost six months later on 7 November 1912. Due to the outbreak of World War I in the summer of 1914, French industrial capacity was redirected to the army and work slowed on the ships. The Greek Navy ordered a battleship to be named Vasilefs Konstantinos to the same design from AC de St Nazaire Penhoet. Work began in June 1914 but ceased on the outbreak of war in August and never resumed. The contract dispute was settled in 1925.
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