THE TOWN OF
JOSSELIN IN BRITTANY
Josselin
is a small town of about 3,000 inhabitants in the district of Morbihan in
Brittany.
It is 45 miles west of Rennes and 53 miles east of Lorient.
The town
is dominated by its medieval castle which stands on the river Oust that skirts
the town.
The first castle was built early in the 11th century by
Guethenoc, who gave it the name of his son Josselin.
This castle was razed to
the ground by King Henry II of England. In 1173 rebuilding of the castle began,
this continued until 1488 when Jean de Rohan the occupier was ordered by
Francois II,
Duke of Brittany to pull down some of the main fortifications,
(Which had made it one of the strongest castles in Brittany,)
as a punishment
for siding with the King of France against him.
Hugh de Rohan the leader
of the French Huguenots was ordered to further demolish parts of the castle on
the orders
of Cardinal Richelieu in 1629. Despite this the Rohan family still
own the Chateau today.
In 1008 Guethenoc, Viscount of Porhoet, left his castle in
Tro in Gulliers, 12 miles to where he built Josselin.
It was possibly of wooden
construction. Guethenoc was succeeded by his son, Josselin,
who gave his name to
it and the small town that grew around it.
On the death the Duke of Brittany
without an heir, his son-in-law, Eudes II de Porhoet who owned Josselin Castle,
claimed rights to the duchy against opposition from King Henry II Plantagenet
England who wished to promote a relative
Duke of Brittany.
In 1168 King Henry II captured Josselin after a bloody battle, and
destroyed it to break Eudes II's resistance.
After several years exile, Eudes 11
returned and rebuilt Josselin. From
1231 this Josselin passed in succession or marriage
to the houses of Fougeres,
Lusignan and France. Josselin played a major part in the One Hundred Years War.
On 26 March 1351 Combat of the Thirty took place. Jean de Beaumanoir,
acting commander for Charles of Blois,
left Josselin with thirty Breton and
French knights to do battle with thirty Anglo-Breton knights led by the
Englishman
Bemborough, who was Captain of Ploermel for Monfords party and had
been pillaging the area for a long time.
The battle took place half way between Josselin and
Ploermel, and was fought furiously to the last man standing.
Beaumanoir was
victorious, and returned to Josselin with eighteen English prisoners.
In 1370 the castle was exchanged, and the great Captain Olivier de
Clisson who was related to the Dukes of Brittany
the Penthievres, and to the
Lavals, and was very wealthy when he became the new owner.
In 1380 Du Guesclin
died and de Clisson was granted a knighthood, making him the most powerful man
in France after the King.
The second wife of Olivier de Clisson was Marguerite
de Rohan, Beaumanoir's widow.
In 1407
de Clisson died in Josselin leaving his huge fortune to his daughter Beatrice
and his son-in-law Alain Vill de Rohan.
He was succeeded by Alain IX who married
Mary of Lorraine in Joessline in 1450.
Alain IX was a strong supporter of his
brother-in-law Duke Jean V of Brittany, and the enmity between Rohans and
Duchy
of Brittany died away. The peace was short lived, and following the marriage of
Alain IX's son Jean II to Mary of Brittany,
the daughter of Duke Francois I, his
relationship with his brother-in-law Duke Francois II was far from cordial,
and
he was forced to take refuge at the
court of France, where he was involved in many plots to unseat the Duke of
Brittany.
In 1488 Duke Francois II is
said to have had part of Josselin demolished as a punitive measure.
In 1491 Charles VIII married Duke Francois II's daughter Anne of
Brittany, and as compensation to Jean II for his help in
winning the hand of
Anne (who he really wanted the marriage to his own son), Charles VIII granted
the incomes from the estates
of Dinan and Lehon, and the income from tax on
strong drink for a five year period to Viscount de Rohan,
to assist him in the
restoration of his castles.
Thanks to this the manor house was rebuilt including
the Renaissance facade erected between 1490 and 1510.
When Jean II died
childless, Josselin Castle passed through the marriage to Rohan-Gie's a junior
branch of the Rohan family.
As a result of the marriage of Rene II de Rohan, and
Isabeau d'Albret the protestant daughter of the King of Navarre,
this Rohan
branch was converted to the Reformed Religion and as Duke de Rohan became
military head of the Calvinist
movement, and was obliged to fight royal
authority during the final stages of the Wars of Religion,
which made an enemy
of Cardinal Richelieu. As a punishment the cardinal ordered the demolition of
Josselin in 1629,
and it took two weeks to blow up the huge keep and south
eastern corner of the rock foundation,
also demolishing Rohan's castle at Blain
the same time. Henry de Rohan was at
Court during this period,
not aware of what was happening, until the cardinal
came up to him and said, 'Your Grace,
I have just thrown a rather good bowl
along your skittle alley'.
In the 17th
and 18th centuries Josselin Castle became derelict and in ruins, with the Rohans
living mainly at court.
In 1760 the two
great towers and the drawbridge flanking the first gate were demolished.
In 1776 the Duchess de Rohan allowed a cotton mill to be set up in the
ground floor rooms to provide work for poor children.
In 1835 Charles-Louis
Josselin, Duke de Rohan, undertook the castles restoration, and major
re-building was started
to restore the outside to its original state, and
refurbishing of the interior.
The members of the
Josselin Society in England have made two group visits to Josselin;
one in
September 1994 and again in September 1997. a future visit is being considered
for 2007-8
My daughter Karen visited in
July 2002 and provided the photographs for this page.
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