COUNISH DEDICATIONS. 359 



Rennes was not included in Brittany till after tlie conquests 

 of Noniinoe in 846-50. The border land was at that time 

 ravaged remorselessly by Franks and Bretons in turn, and it is 

 quite probable that a good many of the inhabitants of the 

 marches then abandoned their homes, and crossed into Britain, 

 taking with them the relics of their Saints. But the great 

 exodus was later, and was due to the ravages of the Danes and 

 Northmen. They "burnt the towns, the castles, the churches, 

 the monasteries, the houses, ravaged the country, devastated 

 Brittany through its length and breadth, till they had reduced 

 the whole land to a solitude, to one vast desert. Then it was 

 that the bodies of the Saints were conveyed ou.t of the land."* 



Another chronicler says : "As the pirates by the permission 

 of the Almighty, devastated the whole of Brittany and reduced 

 it to servitude, the inhabitants, overwhelmed by the invaders, 

 abandoned their homes and found places of refuge in other lands, 

 but carried away with them the precious relics of the Saints. "f 



On this occasion, in 919, Nantes fell into the hands of the 

 Northmen. Eobert, Duke of France, attempted vainly to expel 

 them, but in 921, says Flodoard, " he abandoned to them the 

 Brittany they had desolated as well as the country of Nantes." 



It was in 919, according to the Chronicle of Nantes, that 

 Matuedoi, Count of Poher fled to Athelstan, King of England, 

 with a crowd of Bretons fcuni ingenti multitudine BritonumJ, and 

 with his own son Alan, whom he had had of the daughter of 

 Alan the Grreat, and who later on was called Barbetorte. 

 Previously the King Athelstan had stood godfather to this son, 

 and was warmly attached to him."| 



Athelstan was not king till 924, so tliat the title given to 

 him is anticipatory. Athelstan, at the same time that he took 

 these fugitives under his protection, received large consignments 

 of relics which he distributed among churches in England ; 

 amongst others, Exeter was gratified with a large number, the 

 list of which is preserved. 



* Vet. Coll. MSS. de rebus Britaunise, in De la Borderie, Hist, de la Bretague 

 T. II., p. 356. See also : Doni Plaiue, L,es invasions des Normands, Paris, 1899. 

 tDe la Borderie, p. 357. 

 t Chron. Namnetense, cd, Merlet, p. 82. 



