Background
In 1715, after Louis XIV died, France was heavily in debt after many years of war. Feeling unfairly taxed, the Estates of Brittany gathered in Saint-Brieuc and refused to extend new credits to the French state. The Estates sent three emissaries to Paris to explain its position to the Regent. However, the Regent responded by sending Pierre de Montesquiou d'Artagnan to Brittany as representative of the King. Montesquiou decided to raise taxes by force.
The Regent decided to convene the Estates anew. On 6 June 1718, it assembled in Dinan. It was dominated by the gentry, the composition of which was very different from the rest of France, since a significant proportion of the population were counted as "dormant nobles". This concept allowed noble status, and consequent political rights and exemptions, even among the poor if they could prove noble ancestry. In some areas the overwhelming majority of "nobles" were living in poverty. The Estates resisted new taxation arrangements that threatened the poorer nobles. Exasperated by the taxes, the lesser nobles dreamed of an aristocratic republic. On 22 July 1718, 73 of the more radical delegates to the Estates were exiled.
Meanwhile links were established with Philip V of Spain and the Duke and Duchess of Maine, who were conspiring to overthrow the Regency which had originally been promised in Louis XIV's will to the Dukes of Maine and Orleans jointly. Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse, who was also Duke of Penthièvre and thus a Breton aristocrat, liaised with the Duke of Maine.
Read more about this topic: Pontcallec Conspiracy
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