Conan Meriadoc - Later Developments

Later Developments

Earlier traditions of the foundation of the Brythonic settlement in Armorica are recorded in Gildas' De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae and in the hagiographies of various saints. Especially important in this regard are the stories of the so-called Seven Founder Saints of Brittany, which were largely forgotten or overlooked after the spread of the Conan legend. At any rate the Conan story became a dominant founding myth for the Bretons for hundreds of years.

In the wake of Geoffrey and the The Dream of Macsen, Conan subsequently appears as a founder-figure in several genealogies of Breton aristocratic families. He is venerated as the ancestor of the Rohans, according to the Life of Saint Meriadoc, the protagonist of which is said to have been descended from him. Meriadoc appears in one of the genealogies from Jesus College MS 20, which traces the descent of Geraint mab Erbin, king of Dumnonia in the West Country, back to "Cynan map Eudaf Hen". In the Cornish miracle play Beunans Meriasek, Conan is a kinsman of Saint Meriasek who tries (unsuccessfully) to dissuade Meriasek from pursuing a religious life.

In the 15th century the Bretons used the Conan story as it appears in the Life of Saint Meriadoc to establish precedence for the Breton aristocracy over the kings of France. The story's political impact declined with the Union of Brittany and France in 1532, and it thereafter declined in popularity. However, in the 17th century the Rohans used their supposed descent from Conan Meriadoc in order to seek status as "foreign princes" at the French court; King Louis XIV recognized their pedigree, but denied their foreign status. Beginning in the mid 18th century Breton historians attempted to establish the historical existence of Conan, though he is now regarded as a mythical figure.