it also enjoyed the favour and protection of the French king, who was ever anxious to find friends among the chief sub-tenants of his great vassals.  Against so formidable an opponent John of Montfort could only secure his rights by promptitude.  Accordingly he made his way to Nantes and, receiving a warm welcome from his burgesses, proclaimed himself duke.  Very few of the great feudatories threw in their lot with him.  His strength was in the petty noblesse, the townsmen, and the enthusiasm of the Celtic population of La Bretagne bretonnante, which made Leon, Cornouailles, and Vannes the strongholds of his cause.  Yet the Penthievre influence took with it the Breton-speaking inhabitants of the diocese of Treguier, and the piety of Charles made the clergy, and especially the friars, devoted to him.

    [1] On the importance of Penthievre, see A. de la Borderie, La
    Geographie feodale de la Bretagne (1889), pp. 60-65.

The fight was not waged in Brittany only.  Montfort had to contend against the general sentiment of the French nobility and the strong interest and affection which bound Philip VI. to uphold the claims of Charles of Blois.  After a few months the parliament of Paris decided in favour of the king’s nephew against Montfort.  Charles’s wife was the nearest heir of the deceased duke, and had therefore a prior claim over her uncle.  Montfort urged in vain that the superior rights of the male, which had made the Count of Valois King of France, equally gave the Count of Montfort the duchy of Brittany.  He had to fight for his duchy.  John, Duke of Normandy, the heir of France, marched to Brittany with a strong force, to secure the establishment of his cousin in accordance with the decree of parliament.  The union of the royal troops, with the levies of Penthievre and the great feudatories of Brittany, was too powerful a combination to withstand.  Montfort was shut up in Nantes, was forced to capitulate, and sent prisoner to Paris.  His place was taken by his wife, Joan of Flanders, a daughter of Louis of Nevers.  This lady shewed “the heart of a man and of a lion,” as Froissart says.  Her efforts, however, did not prevail against her formidable enemies.  Bit by bit she was driven from one stronghold to another, until at last she was closely besieged in Hennebont by Charles of Blois.  Before that, she had recognised Edward as King of France, and offered him the homage of her husband and son.  Edward III. readily took up the cause of Montfort.  He recked little of the inconsistency involved in the prince, who claimed France through his mother, supporting in Brittany a duke, whose pretensions were based upon grounds similar to the claim advanced by Philip of Valois on the French throne.  As in Flanders, he found two rival nations contending in the bosom of a single French fief.  He at once supported the Celtic party in Brittany as he had supported the Flemish party in Flanders.  Both his allies had the same