W. C a r e w H a z l i t t Coinage of the European Continent

494 The Coins of Europe
Brittany deserves to be comprised in the Anglo-Gallic
zone by reason of the occasional exchange of relations
between the two countries from the tenth to the fourteenth
century the asylum obtained in England by Alen II.,
Barbetorte, during the Norman occupation, the dramatic story
of Arthur and his sister Eleanor, and the part played by
Edward III. in the contest for the crown between Jean de
Montfort and Charles de Blois. The deeds of daring ascribed
to more than one of the early dukes, and especially to the
just-mentioned Alen II. (937-52), may have constituted the
foundations of the romance of Arthur of Little Britain, which
became popular in
England from the familiarity of the name,
and is indeed a work of more than ordinary merit. It is
supposed that Alen II. was the first who assumed the title
of Duke of the Bretons a form which recommended itself
to some of his successors, who are, however, found
on their
coins with varying designations as Conies (i.e. of Rennes or
Vannes), Dux BritanifZ, or simply Dux. After her marriage
to two kings of France in succession, Anne of Brittany, the
royal lady whom we usually associate with a splendid livre
cTHeures, continued to place
her name alone on the Breton
An ecu d'or without date reads on obverse: Anna
currency.
D.G. Fran. Regid Et Britonvm Dvcissa. In a second she
styles herself Dux Britonuni. This legend possibly referred
to the interval between the death of Charles VIII. and her
remarriage to Louis XII., or to the period of her second
widowhood. It was not till about 1530 that the formal
political union with France was consummated, and that we
cease to find special provincial issues for this division of the
kingdom.
In ordinary history the name of BURGUNDY is almost
the four-
exclusively identified with the duchy as it existed in
teenth and fifteenth centuries and with the careers
Burgundy.
and fortunes of two or three great military and
political characters, such as Philip le Bon, Charles le Tmraire,
and Philip le Beau. There had been, however,
from the same period the middle or third quarter of the
ninth century two other governments of a regal com-