InflacncG of the Breton Deputation 15 



CHAPTER I 



The BiiETON Deputies and the Eevolution in Bretagne 



(1788-1789) 

 1 



THE DEPUTIES AS LEADERS IN THIS REVOLUTION 



In Bretagne, several causes existed to hasten the Revo- 

 lution and to make it at first more violent than elsewhere 

 in France. The abuses of the Ancient Regime were 

 greater here than in any other province, while at the same 

 time the people were the more dissatisfied because they 

 had for years agitated for reforms. Long before the open- 

 ing of the Revolution;, the Third Estate had fought in the 

 provincial assembly for increased rights and the removal 

 of some of the most oppressive burdens, only to be met by 

 a resistance that it was unable to overcome.^ 



In the parliamentary^ agitation of 1787 to 1788, the long 

 struggle was momentarily suspended in order to present 

 a firmer resistance to Avliat was believed an encroachment 

 of the general government upon the rights of Bretagne 

 reserved in the "Contract of Union," fixing the conditions 

 under which the province was united to the crown of 



'Duchatellier, Hisioire cle la Revolution dans les departements de 

 Vancienne Bretagne, I, 3-4. "11 y eut en Bretagne, longtemps avant 

 la collision de 89 entre la Noblesse et le tiers, une lutte vive, animee, 

 qui durait pres d'un siecle, quant, en Janvier 1789, la Noblesse bre«^ 

 tonne se retrancha aux Cordeliers de Rennes, poussant ses laquais au 

 combat . . . Mais combien de fois deja, les memes idees et les 

 memes classes d'hommes ne s'etaient-elles pas mesurees dans la salle 

 des Etats et sur la place publique?" 



221 



