Duke of Brittany - Legacy

Legacy

There is no modern-day Duchy of Brittany. The Duchy of Brittany and the sovereign title and role of the Duke of Brittany no longer exist in the modern 5th Republic of France.

The only use of the title Duke of Brittany is as a courtesy title sometimes claimed by the Spanish Legitimist Pretender to the French Throne. The Spanish use of the courtesy title is self-bestowed and thus controversial; the controversy stems from the French Royal tradition that the title may only be used when bestowed by the French monarch, and once it was joined to the French crown its after Claude of France stopped following a strict primogeniture line of inheritance. Its current use as a courtesy title is part of the greater concerns about Legitimist Pretenders to the French crown expressed by Juan Carlos of Spain. Orléanist Pretenders to the French throne representing the House of Orléans have honored the traditional use of the title within the House of Bourbon and neither claimed nor used the courtesy title. In the absence of the sovereign Ducal title, the most frequently observed senior noble title in use today in modern Brittany, is that of Comte although under modern French law ancient noble titles and prerogatives are no longer recognized, if still acknowledged.

Modern French royalty do, however, carry Breton noble titles that had been linked to the title Duke of Brittany. There are two nobles who use the title Duke of Anjou: Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou, the Spanish Legitimist pretender to the French throne and Prince Charles Philippe, Duke of Anjou, a member of the House of Orléans and an Orleanist pretender to the French throne.

The history of the Duchy reflects the various efforts expended by its Dukes to preserve its independence. Some French kings sought to maintain the autonomy of the Duchy for the benefit of their heirs much in the style of the relation between the modern Duchy of Cornwall to the modern Crown of Great Britain. The modern political era continues the Breton tradition of independence whether at the level of the Duchy or the cultural region known as Brittany, with various movements for the independence and autonomy of the Breton region becoming more active and successful in recent times.

The Breton Parlement no longer meets. Its seat was in Rennes where the Parliament building remains in use. It was disbanded by Louis XIV but the Parlement voted to ignore the King's order of dissolution upon the claim it is all alone had the authority to dissolve this legislative and judicial body. The Breton Parlement has no modern analogous body and the Parlement has not met in any form since the French Revolution. The return of an active Breton Parlement remains a cultural possibility, even if the legal preconditions for its reactivation have only a remote chance of being aligned within the current Constitution of the 5th French Republic.

In the modern 5th Republic of France, the lands of the Duchy have been divided into several French departements. There is no single regional governing or representative body for the lands that would comprise the Duchy, were it to re-emerge. In addition in most modern French federal assessments the former Breton capital city of Nantes is placed in the département of Loire-Atlantique rather than one of the four clearly Breton departements. Modern French law allows a local area to hold a referendum that would have the effect of re-locating it within the Départemental system of the French Republic. Thus the legal mechanics exist to re-unite Nantes with the rest of the Duchy's region.

The independent spirit of the Duchy is sometimes expressed culturally. In recent years there has been a resurgence in the use of the Breton language and the emergence of so-called Diwan schools where instruction is in Breton rather than French. Annual Breton cultural festivals and their celebration of Breton's Celtic culture have become increasingly linked with other Celtic and Gaelic festivals throughout the world. While the Breton Departements remain firmly anchored in a Republican France that is a member of the new European Common Union, there have been occasional efforts to amend the French Constitution to provide for autonomy for the Breton Region.