There follows a précis of Caroline’s paper ‘What did the Bretons bring to the “feudal revolution”?’
An investigation of the political situation of Brittany at the beginning of the eleventh century, and its relationships with Insular and continental powers, led to the conclusion that Brittany was emerging from a very different past from that of its immediate neighbours, particularly its new ally, Normandy. However, ‘high medieval’ social forms such as feudal lordships, castles and knights are prominent in the sources for eleventh-century Brittany, just as they are elsewhere in northern France at the same time. Up to now, historians of medieval Brittany have generally considered that these features originated in the period of Brittany’s dependence on the Carolingian Empire, in the ninth century. However, it seems more likely that they were introduced in the second half of the tenth century, when Brittany’s leaders came to be based in the eastern, French-speaking part of the province and were dominated as never before by neighbouring magnates. The paper concluded by discussing the evidence that there was one particular feature of ‘feudal’ society in which Bretons were at the forefront of innovations in France, rather than following them: the development of mounted combat.