NANTES

. A settlement has existed since the Bronze Age in southeastern Brittany at the tidal limit of the Loire at its confluence with the Erdre. Condevincum was the civitas capital of the tribe of Namnetes. Christianity arrived in the late 3rd century, when the town was also enclosed by walls. The cathedral built by Bishop Felix (r. 549-82) is described in a poem by Venantius Fortunatus. Under the Franks, Nantes was part of the March of Brittany, whose most famous holder was the legendary Roland. In 843, the city was sacked by the Vikings, then overrun by the Bretons. The Vikings returned from ca. 920 to 933, but thereafter Nantes remained part of medieval Brittany.

In the 10th and 11th centuries, the counts of Anjou vied with those of Rennes for control. Following the death of Count Mathias (1103), his brother Alain Fergent united Rennes, Nantes, and the other Breton county, Cornouaille, as duke of Brittany (r. 10841113). In Nantes, where the duke was later represented by a seneschal, provost, and receiver, he shared rule with the bishop. Bishop Brice (r. 1112-39), adopting an independent Gregorian stance, even sought confirmation of his episcopal rights from Louis VI of France (1123). After the Plantagenet period of domina-tion in Brittany (ca. 1156-1206), the bishops of Nantes reasserted their rights. Disputes with the duke were frequent, arising particularly from the exercise of regal right during episcopal vacancies. A compromise was reached in 1268, but under Guillaume de Malestroit (r. 1443-62) and Amaury d’Acigne (r. 1462-77) the quarrel violently reerupted.

Until the Breton civil war (1341-65), the inhabitants had little say in government. But the need to involve citizens in all aspects of administration during and after the war allowed them to bargain for privileges. In 1420, Duke Jean V conceded that they could elect ten or twelve bur-gesses and two proctors to represent them, and the community was born. At the same time, the city was transformed physically: the Roman walls had been extended in the early 13th century to enclose sixty-two acres; they were extensively rebuilt again between 1436 and 1487.

Other major public works included the reconstruction after 1434 of the cathedral of Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul, built atop a 6th-century crypt that had been reconstructed in the mid-11th. The cathedral houses the exquisite tomb of Duke Frangois II and Marguerite de

Foix by Michel Colombe (1499) and has more than a hundred bas-reliefs depicting the story of the Old Testament and parts of the New. The church of Saint-Michel was begun in the 13th century, as was the convent of the Cordeliers, and enlarged in the 14th and 15th. A choir school built for the study of psalms and chorales, the Psalette, dates from the end of the 15th century. The Duke’s Castle, constructed in the 10th century over part of the Gallo-Roman wall, was rebuilt in the 13th century and again in 1466 under Frangois II (r. 1458-88); the bridges over the Loire were a constant source of expenditure.

The population of Nantes, living in seven parishes, may have reached a peak of 15,000. The city was a trading rather than industrial center; control of the wine and salt traffic on the Loire can be traced from Carolingian days. Nantes, with Rennes and Vannes, was an administrative center of the duchy. This created wealth and employment. A university was founded in 1460, and the presence of the ducal court encouraged a burgeoning cultural life.

Michael C. E.Jones/Stephen C. Martin

[See also: BRITTANY]

Bois, Paul, ed. Histoire de Nantes. Toulouse: Privat, 1977.

Gisler, Claude, and Frangoise Oliver-Michel. A Guide to the Art Treasures of France, trans. Raymond Rudorff. London: Methuen, 1966.