Order of Hermine and Ear
The duke of Brittany Jean IV created in 1381 a Ordre of Hermine, which was attached by the duke François to the Ordre of the Ear, in 1448. These orders were removed during the fastening of the duchy in France in 1532.
The foundation
The Ordre of Hermine is an order of Chevalerie, which was founded in 1381 by the duke of Brittany, Jean IV (1345 - 1399), in order to consolidate its capacity on the duchy and to gather the nobility, around her person. In 1364, the Bataille of Auray had made it possible the Maison of Montfort to eliminate its rival with the ducal throne. Jean IV, thanks to the assistance of the king of England, had beaten Charles of Blois, had supported by the king of France. The new dynasty was to defend the autonomy of the Brittany and to consolidate its administration. It was an instrument of interior policy, but also of diplomacy with regard to the other courses. Under the reign of François Ier of Brittany (1442 - 1450) this distinction becomes purely honorary, and finally was confused with the order of Hermine and the Ear, which one can admire with the neck of lying of François II with the cathedral of Nantes.No text brings back the creation of the order, not more than its statutes are not known, but it intervened after the exile of the duke in England (1373 - 1379). The members met once the year in the Collégiale of Saint-Michel-of-Field to Auray, to attend a mass, been useful by a senior and eight priests. Exceptional fact for the time, the Order accepted the women (nine are listed) as well as the commoners.
The distinctive sign was a collar, fact of two gold chains with fasten stylized by hermines. The two chains stuck by a double crown, with two hermines suspended.
the hermine
According to a legend, the duchess Anne of Brittany, whereas she walked in the province, attended a scene of hunting whose prey was a white hermine. Encircled close to a pond, the animal, rather than to dirty itself, chooses to face the hunters, preferring death with mud. Considering the nobility of this attitude, Anne ordered that one leaves the life to the animal and decided to make his emblem of it. In reference to this adventure, “Rather death that the stain” (into Breton: “ Kentoc' H mervel eget bezañ saotred ”) is the currency of Brittany.Actually, the appearance of the hermine in the weapons of the dukes of Brittany goes back to Pierre Mauclerc (1213 - 1237) which belonged to the Maison of Dreux, resulting from Robert Ier, wire of the king Louis VI. The house of Dreux had for a chequered blazon with a edge. Into 1316, the duke Jean III of Brittany known as the Good , changes armorial bearings, it withdraws the chequered one and the edge, the crack of hermine becomes the full weapons of the duke of Brittany. The heraldic hermine of Brittany finds its origin in France in a capétienne family.
The ear
About 1447, the duke François Ier, set on currencies and emblems, adds to the order of Hermine a corn ear collar, to be little because of the coincidence of form between the tail of hermine and corn ear, which is the reversed double. The beautiful tomb of François II, today to the southern transept of the cathedral of Nantes, presents the lying one of the duke decorated with a collar with the hermine and ear.
See too
A Ordre of Hermine exists since 1973, to distinguish the personalities working in favor of the Breton culture.