Viscounty of Léon

Historical regions in Brittany

The Viscounty (or County) of Léon was a feudal state in extreme western Brittany in the High Middle Ages. Though nominally a vassal^[1] of the sovereign Duke of Brittany, Léon was functionally independent of any external controls. It thus became the focus of revolts and wars when Brittany was drawn into the Angevin empire.

The history of Léon's early counts is obscure. The original vicecomites (viscounts) of Léon were public officials appointed by the comites (counts) of Cornouaille, but by the mid-eleventh century they had usurped public authority in their province. Their ability to remain independent of both count and duke was likely due to their remoteness in the extremity of the Armorican peninsula. Unlike their Breton neighbours they did not participate in the Norman conquest of England in 1066.^[2] Count Harvey, however, did participate on the side of Stephen of Blois in the nineteen years of civil war in England called The Anarchy.

In 1235 the subvassals of Léon and Penthièvre brought a series of complaints, the Communes petitiones Britonum, against the duke, Peter of Dreux, to Louis IX of France.^[3] They claimed that the viscounts of Léon had never theretofore been subject to the custody of or relief from the duke nor had they been required to seek permission for the construction of fortresses. They had always had the right of wreck, that is, a monopoly on shipwrecks and their cargoes on the coasts. They had the right to draw up testaments and to dispense with alms and make arrangements for debt-payment freely. The duke, they said, did not have a right to exact oaths of homage from the viscount's men and the viscount had the right of placitum spade ("pleas of the sword").^[3] The right of wreck alone yielded 100,000 solidi per annum in revenues from a single rock on the treacherous coast, which an earlier viscount, Guihomar, had called his "most precious stone."

The territory of Léon was preserved in the Bishopric of Léon. It is now part of the department of Finistère.

Notes

1. ^ Even the status of vassalage is questionable. No duke of Brittany entered the territory of Léon, and the terms of the Communes petitiones Britonum assert complete independence.
2. ^ Everard, 16.
3. ^ ^{a b} Everard, 18.

Sources

• Everard, Judith A. Brittany and the Angevins: Province and Empire, 1158–1203. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. ISBN 0 52166 071 8.