The Club Breton was a group of
Bretons
The Bretons (; or , ) are an ethnic group native to Brittany, north-western France. Originally, the demonym designated groups of Common Brittonic, Brittonic speakers who emigrated from Dumnonia, southwestern Great Britain, particularly Cornwal ...
representatives attending the
Estates General of 1789 in France
The Estates General of 1789 () was a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm: the clergy (First Estate), the nobility (Second Estate), and the commoners (Third Estate). It was the last of the Estates General of the Kingdom ...
.
They usually met in the ''café Amaury'' at the corner of the Saint-Cloud avenue and the Carnot street at
Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...
, to debate of the Estates General subjects before the constituency debates concerning
Brittany
Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...
of other subjects.
Its influence was much greater than its size, and it became later the ''Société des amis de la constitution'', which finally became the
Club des Jacobins.
Brittany constituency composition
The Brittany situation differed from the rest of France, because related to the absence of agreement between the different estates, only the
Third Estate
The estates of the realm, or three estates, were the broad orders of social hierarchy used in Christendom (Christian Europe) from the Middle Ages to early modern Europe. Different systems for dividing society members into estates developed and ...
and the
Minor orders
In Christianity, minor orders are ranks of church ministry. In the Catholic Church, the predominating Latin Church formerly distinguished between the major orders—priest (including bishop), deacon and subdeacon—and four minor orders— acolyt ...
were represented in the Estates General.
The Brittany
nobility
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...
sent delegates to Versailles to obtain that the election would conform to the old Brittany constitution electoral rules, which stipulated that the delegates would be nominated by the 47 representatives of the 42 towns of the province, excluding small cities and rural areas, without any representatives for the Minor orders.
However, the Brittany Third Estate sent its own delegation and was allowed to send its own delegates.
The nobility and the
Major orders answer was to refuse to elect representatives on 16 April 1789 at
Saint-Brieuc
Saint-Brieuc (, Breton language, Breton: ''Sant-Brieg'' , Gallo language, Gallo: ''Saent-Berioec'') is a city in the Côtes-d'Armor Departments of France, department in Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in northwestern France.
History
...
. The Minor orders then took their place, and the Third Estate ensured that no nobility could be part of its own representatives.
Extension of the club
The representatives from Brittany were the first to encourage the reunion of the three orders in the
Legislative Assembly, arguing that the Third Estate was the only Nation representative, which was agreed on the 17 June 1789.
Just before the 20 June 1789, the number of the club personnel was almost 200 people.
After the
Tennis Court Oath
The Tennis Court Oath (, ) was taken on 20 June 1789 by the members of the French Estates General (France), Third Estate in a real tennis court on the initiative of Jean Joseph Mounier. Their vow "not to separate and to reassemble wherever nece ...
, the Brittany priests joined the club.
Toward the Club des Jacobins
After the transfer of
the March on Versailles
The Women's March on Versailles, also known as the Black March, the October Days or simply the March on Versailles, was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution. The march began among women in the marketplaces o ...
in October 1789, the club reverted to being a provincial caucus for
National Constituent Assembly deputies from Brittany. As of October 1789, the group rented for its meetings the refectory of the
monastery of the Jacobins in the Rue Saint-Honoré, adjacent to the seat of the Assembly.
The name ''Jacobins'', given in France to the
Dominicans (because their first house in Paris was in the Rue Saint-Jacques), was first applied to the club in ridicule by its enemies.
See also
*
Jacobin
The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality () after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club () or simply the Jacobins (; ), was the most influential political cl ...
References
{{French Revolution navbox
Groups of the French Revolution
Political history of the Ancien Régime
Politics of Brittany