Amédée de Francheville

Amédée de Francheville belongs to a famous family installed in the Presqu'île of Rhuys since the marriage of Isabeau of Scotland with the duke of Brittany François II: Pierre de Francheville came from Scotland to accompany the future duchess. It was distinguished with the Bataille from St-Aubin-of-Cormier the, became Sénéchal of Rhuys and emphasized the Salines of Truscat (Sarzeau) which were at the origin of its fortune. Several of its descendants were seneshals of Rhuys or Valves, and one counts also Worthy, Catherine de Francheville.

The grandfather of Amédée, All Saints' day de Francheville, had been, just like Cart, put of force at the head of the peasants of his region rising against excesses of the Révolution. Former officer, All Saints' day knew very well that these country brave men did not have any chance vis-a-vis a regular army, but it valiantly fulfills its role of chief Chouan, in particular in the country of Guérande. His/her son Gabriel de Francheville took again a command chouan at the end of the chouannery.

Born the February 11th 1802, from formation of lawyer (license in right 1824), Amédée passed his youth to Paris then returned to Brittany to seek peace following the events of 1830 to deliver itself to the Peinture and with the Poésie, he was mayor of the current canton of Sarzeau formerly called “ community of Rhuys ” where he made large good, then general adviser.

He knows the language of Virgile (of which he translates “ Buccoliques ”, but also, and very well, English (“ the anthem with the Eternal ” of Thomson, ED. Lafoye Valves 1884). He writes also some poetries, of which “ Traversée in Morbihan ”, “ Fête of a vault frairiale ”, “ Prières with Holy-Anne-D' Auray ” as well as many articles published in books or reviews, on the topic of the area vannetaise. He took part in the gazetteer of Ogée.

Amédée de Francheville is an example among so many others of gentilhommes Breton which were interested in all in this 19th century. If it were influenced by the ambient Romantisme, one can note that his political responsibilities and its love of its fatherland, the Pays vannetais, led it to make serious studies in fields touching more with the Sociologie and the economy, for example “ historical and statistical Notes of Rhuys ”, in the directory of the Morbihan of 1838.

It was an important support of the Church, of course, and in 1842 it accommodated with more regards and records that a Head of State Mgr Dubreuil in the peninsula where it mobilized the totality of the population.

Following this big event for the peninsula, it notes about the Breton Langue: “ enthusiasm was with its roof when the new bishop (nonBreton) started to preach into Breton. It was a true feat of ingenuity (…). It was the first bishop of Valves which one intended to preach in this old language that bequeathed us our fathers and that our descendants will speak, it should be hoped for, as much as the Brittany old woman will preserve her granite belt”.

Man of contrasts (a painter-poet who devotes himself to the policy!), it has in him a passion for the Breton language and wrote a lexicon for the use of the pleasure sailing in Morbihan, of which it is one of the precursors. It goes until translating and classifying by topics of the sentences vannetaises for the operation: its oarsmen (races with oars) and its sailors (yatch) spoke Breton with him. On its Yatch, made remarkable, Amédée raised one century advances of them a Breton flag very near to current the Gwenn-ha-of the since it contains already bands black and white and a sowing of hermines. The Breton language is an invaluable good for him, one has just seen it with the visit of Mgr Dubreuil. In 1838, it was invited to accompany Hersart by Villemarqué in Eisteddfod d' Abergaveny with an aim of supporting the Celtic rebirth of the Wales. They were accepted by Lady Herbert with the castle of Llanover. In this Breton delegation, one finds in addition Marc' hallac' H, Jacquelot of Boisrouvray, Antoine de Mauduit like one of the principal organizers of this event, Alexis-François Rio, author of “ small the Chouannerie of 1815 ”.

The Marquis of Estourbillon will take again the heritage of these predecessors in 1899 by saying them “ that they could not achieve all that they had wanted to do (…) (for) Breton work to which they had dedicated all their sympathy and their heart, the way that they traced is however rather broad so that we can follow the way by them laboriously open. ”

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