Gilles de Bretagne

Gilles of Brittany (1420 – 25 April 1450) was a Breton prince and Lord of Chantocé. He was the son of John V of Brittany and Joan of France, and the younger brother of the dukes Francis I and Peter II. Biography Gilles was born in 1420 to the incumbent duke, John V of Brittany and his wife, Joan of France, the daughter of the French king, Charles VI. He received a small appanage. Upon his accession in 1442, his brother Francis I sent him to the embassy to Henry VI of England, where he was granted a pension. In 1444, after returning to Brittany, Gilles kidnapped and married the eight-year-old Françoise de Dinan, a rich heiress. He thus obtained the barony of Châteaubriant, and many other places in Brittany including the Guildo Castle situated in Crehen in the department Côtes-d'Armor. Gilles's growing power led him to demand a larger portion of his father's inheritance from his brother. Faced with his brother's refusal, he approached the King of England and offered his services. A letter from 5 July 1445 was intercepted by agents of the Duke, who refused to pardon his younger brother until the intervention of his uncle, the connétable de Richemont. The arrival of English archers from Normandy at Guildo Castle caused the "French Party" led by Arthur de Montauban at the court of his brother the Duke, to arrange Gilles's arrest by Prigent de Coëtivy on 26 June 1446 by orders of the King of France. He was taken to Dinan, then Rennes where his brother refused to see him and then finally Châteaubriant. His property and that of his wife, Françoise de Dinan, which kept near the Duchess of Brittany, was confiscated.