Duchess of Brittany at eleven, twice Queen of France. Under her reign ended the independence of the duchy in which Briord lies.
Anne of Brittany is the figure who embodies, forever, the end of independent Brittany — that duchy of which Briord was, for centuries, a seigneury.
Duchess at eleven
Born at Nantes in 1477, daughter of Francis II, Anne became Duchess of Brittany on her father's death in 1488, at barely eleven years old. She inherited a weakened duchy, coveted by France, and found herself at the heart of the ambitions of the greatest princes of Europe.
Twice Queen of France
In 1491 she married King Charles VIII: Brittany entered the French orbit. Widowed in 1498, the following year she married the new king, Louis XII, becoming Queen of France once more. Twice a queen, she strove all her life to preserve the autonomy of her native duchy.
Briord under French Brittany
In Anne's day, Briord belonged to the heirs of Pierre Landais — the L'Épervier family — then, through marriage, passed into the kinship of the La Noue family. The estate followed the fate of Brittany: from an almost sovereign principality, it became a seigneury of a province gradually drawn into the Kingdom of France.
The legacy
Anne died in 1514. Her daughter Claude of France would inherit the duchy, which was permanently united to the Crown in 1532. Anne of Brittany remains, in Breton memory, the last sovereign of a free Brittany.