Vikings and Bretons? The Language of Factional Politics in Late Carolingian Brittany

The prevailing view of the period of Viking rule in Brittany is that Scandinavians came from outside, attempted to subjugate the inhabitants and were eventually driven out by Bretons. On the basis of an examination of political language in Brittany during the ninth century, this paper instead argues that the period of Northman rule in the peninsula was the result of vicious factional politics. The development of regalian, Carolingian-influenced languages of legitimacy in the late ninth century is discussed and compared with alternatives to determine why Northman ideologies emerged as salient. The ‘Viking occupation’ is thus reinterpreted as arising out of the internal dynamics of the peninsula rather than being an alien intrusion.