Brenne (legendary king of Brittany)

Brenne (Latin Brennius in ) is a legendary prince of the island of Brittany (current Great Britain), whose “history” is reported by Geoffroy de Monmouth in his Historia regum Britanniae (towards 1135). He is the son of Dunvallo Molmutius and the brother of Belin, his character is probably inspired by the named historical characters Brennos.

The kingdom of the island of Brittany

After the Trojan War, Énée arrives in Italy, with his/her son Ascagne and becomes the Master of the kingdom of the Romans. Its grandson Brutus is constrained with the exile after having accidentally killed his father. After a long navigation, Brutus unloads in the island of Brittany, occupies it and makes its kingdom of it. He marries Innogen of which he has three wire. With its death, the kingdom is divided in three parts and its sons succeed to him: Locrinus receives the center from the island to which it gives the name of “Loegrie”, Kamber receives the “Cambrie” (current Wales) and its name gives him, Albanactus inherits the area of north and calls it “Albania” (Scotland). Following the invasion of Albania by Huns and of died of Albanactus, the kingdom is reunified under the sovereignty of Locrinus. It is the beginning of a long list of sovereigns.

The reign of Brenne

The race with the throne

In the Historia regum Britanniae , Brenne is the king of the Northumberland and the duke of the Allobroges.

With died of Dunvallo Molmutius, the two Belin brothers and Brenne dispute the crown of the kingdom and leave in war one against the other. After several battles, their friends intervene and a compromise is found: Belin, in its capacity as oldest son, becomes king of the Bretons and controls the territories of Loegrie, Cambrie and Cornouailles; in Brenne, which makes tender, returns the Northumbrie, of the Humber to the Caithness. Period of five years peace.

Impostors incite Brenne with insubordination with regard to his/her brother and according to their councils, he marries the girl of king de Norvège. Belin invades Northumbrie and occupies the principal cities. Brenne leaves Norway and takes the sea in direction of the island of Brittany, with the head of a Norwegian army. During the crossing, it is attacked by Guithlacus, king of the Danes, who seizes the wife of Brenne. Their ships accost in Northumbrie, where they are immediately made prisoners by Belin. Brenne unloads in Albania and request the restitution of all its grounds and his wife. In the contrary case, he swears that he will kill Belin at the time of the next battle.

The armies of the two brothers meet in the forest of Calaterium. After one day of confrontations, the Breton ones have the advantage on the Norwegians who flee; this war makes 15.000 dead. Brenne finds refuge in Gaulle, while Belin takes the control of all the island of Brittany, reinforcing the Molmutine laws enacted by his/her father.

The duke of Allobroges

During its exile, Brenne vainly tries to obtain the assistance of the Gallic chiefs, until it meets Seginus the duke of Allobroges, which takes it in friendship. It becomes extremely influential in the circle of the duke and obtains his daughter in marriage. The duke and all his men promise in Brenne that if there is no male heir, he will become to him the chief of all Allobroges. The duke dies in the current of the year and Brenne becomes duke. It divides the treasures of the duke with his people and holds open court.

Shortly after its accession with the ducal crown, Brenne constitutes a new army and concludes a right-of-way with all the Gallic ones. In Normandy, it arms a fleet and unloads in the island of Brittany. On the battle field, their Conwenna mother, convinces Brenne to give up and the two brothers reconcile themselves.

The conquest of Rome

Following pacification, Belin and Brenne amalgamate their armies and, with this new force, invade Gaulle. After one year of conquests, they manage to subject all the frank kingdoms de Gaulle under their authority. They penetrate then in Italy and threaten Rome; the two consuls, Gabias and Porsenna, endeavor to preserve peace and offer richnesses, tribute and hostages, in testimony of their tender. They invade the Germanic one, but Brenne must turn over to Italy, the Romans having broken the treaty; Belin makes the war with German which is helped by other Italian troops.

The German ones demolished, Belin joined Brenne for the head office of Rome. After a resistance of several days, the Breton ones end up entering the city and occupying it. Brenne settles in Italy and reign as a true tyrant.

Source

Geoffroy de Monmouth, History of the kings de Bretagne , translated and commented on by Laurence Mathey-Mesh, Beautiful letters, coll “the Wheel with books”, Paris, 2004.

Historia regum Britanniae
Kingdom of the island of Brittany
List of the legendary kings of the island of Brittany

Random links: