The Breton Nationalist Party (Parti nationaliste breton, or PNB) was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 political party that advocated independence for Brittany

Brittany

Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

. It existed from 1911 to 1914.

Origins

It was founded in October 1911 under the patronage of a committee of seven members, including Camille Le Mercier d'Erm

Camille Le Mercier d'Erm

Camille Le Mercier d'Erm was a French poet, historian and Breton nationalist. He later adopted the neo-Bardic name Kammermor. He is also known as Kamil Ar Merser 'Erm, the Breton language form of his name...

, Louis Napoleon Le Roux

Louis Napoleon Le Roux

Louis Napoléon Le Roux was a Breton nationalist. He is also known as Loeiz-Napoleon Ar Rouz in the Breton language. In 1911 he was one of the founders of the Breton Nationalist Party with Camille Le Mercier d'Erm. He typically signed himself Louis N...

, Georges Le Rumeur, Edouard Guéguen and Emile Masson

Émile Masson

Émile Masson was a Breton writer and thinker. He also used the pseudonyms Brenn, Ewan Gweznou, and Ion Prigent.Born in Brest, he was not brought up speaking Breton, but acquired the language in later life. He received two degrees and moved to Paris...

. The immediate cause of the party's foundation was the proposal to erect a monument to celebrate the unity of Brittany with France, a process which had been finalised by the 1532 treaty of union. The goal of the party was to "always and repeatedly protest against French oppression, and prepare for the resurrection of Brittany in condemnation of this movement regarding the French people depriving this country of the national independence which is its right." It advocated severing all ties between Brittany and France.

The PNB sought to unite the burgeoning Breton political movement, even though other groups already existed, most notably Bleun Brug (Heather Flower) created in 1905 by the Abbe Jean-Marie Perrot

Jean-Marie Perrot

The abbé Jean-Marie Perrot, in Breton Yann Vari Perrot , was a French priest, Breton independentist and collaborator assassinated by the communist resistance. He was the founder of the Breton Catholic movement Bleun-Brug.- Early life :Perrot was raised in a provincial Breton-speaking family...

 with its journal Feiz ha Breiz

Feiz ha Breiz

Feiz ha Breiz is the principal weekly journal in the Breton language. It originally appeared from 1865 to 1884, then was revived from 1899 to 1944, and then again from 1945 onwards.-Original journal:...

(Faith and Brittany). In contrast to the purely Catholic Bleun Brug, the PNB included political radicals, libertarians and leftists, along with conservatives.

At its inception, it published a manifesto and proposed a Breton national holiday on September 29, the anniversary of the coronation of Nominoë, first Duke of Brittany

Duke of Brittany

The Duchy of Brittany was a medieval tribal and feudal state covering the northwestern peninsula of Europe,bordered by the Alantic Ocean on the west and the English Channel to the north with less definitive borders of the Loire River to the south and Normandy to the east...

, and of the victory won in 1364 at the Battle of Auray

Battle of Auray

The Battle of Auray took place on 29 September 1364 at the French town of Auray. This battle was the decisive confrontation of the Breton War of Succession, a part of the Hundred Years' War....

 by John V, Duke of Brittany

John V, Duke of Brittany

John V the Conqueror KG was Duke of Brittany and Count of Montfort, from 1345 until his death.-Numbering:...

 against the French army of Charles de Blois.

Manifesto

• Article 4. We have had stolen in succession our national independence, then our local freedoms and provincial franchises, in constant violation of the Treaty of 1532 which provided these freedoms and these franchises for our country, including the privilege of a parliament and the right to bear arms: all this in lieu of lost sovereignty — the ermine bonnet encircled in gold (derisory compensation it is true, for this glory that we lost). Since the French Revolution, the situation has worsened. Today, the insidious persecution from our masters, all the more dangerous as it is hidden and burrows under our hallowed soil, sought to wrest from us our language and our customs, our civil and religious traditions: whatever remains of the former national heritage, everything that makes our pride and our joy. We oppose with all our strength, and we reclaim the legacy of our ancestors.

• Article 5. One believes us crushed, annihilated, assimilated, Frenchified? Not so! There still exists in the soul of Brittany, something that resists and that survives, something that will not be suppressed, destroyed, and which remains alive and robust today as in the time of our independence and that, conscious or unconscious, is the National sentiment.

Activities

The party's first public action took place on October 29, 1911. This was a protest at the official unveiling of the monument to Breton-French unity the Place de l'Hotel de Ville in Rennes. The monument, created by the artist Jean Boucher

Jean Boucher (artist)

Jean Boucher was a French sculptor based in Brittany. He is best known for his public memorial sculptures which communicated his liberal politics and patriotic dedication to France and Brittany.-Early years:Boucher was born in Cesson-Sévigné near Rennes, Brittany...

, depicted Duchess Anne of Brittany

Anne of Brittany

Anne, Duchess of Brittany , also known as Anna of Brittany , was a Breton ruler, who was to become queen to two successive French kings. She was born in Nantes, Brittany, and was the daughter of Francis II, Duke of Brittany and Margaret of Foix. Her maternal grandparents were Queen Eleanor of...

 rising from a kneeling position before the King of France. During this event Camille Le Mercier d'Erm and André Guillemot were arrested and taken into custody by the local municipal police.

Breiz Dishual ("Free Brittany") was the party's monthly journal, founded in July 1912.

The party ceased to exist in 1914 on the outbreak of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. Its journal ceased publication at the same time.

A new nationalist party was founded in 1931 under the slightly different name Breton National Party

Breton National Party

The Breton National Party was a nationalist party in Brittany that existed from 1931 to 1944. The party was disbanded after the liberation of France in World War II, because of ties to the Nazi party....

(Parti national breton). Party activists destroyed Boucher's monument with a bomb in 1932. In 1941, on the thirtieth anniversary of the foundation of the original PNB, the leaders of the new party organised a celebration of it and a tribute to Camille Le Mercier d'Erm.