Bertrand d'Argentré (1519–1590) was a Breton

Breton people

The Bretons are an ethnic group located in the region of Brittany in France. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brythonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain in waves from the 3rd to 6th century into the Armorican peninsula, subsequently named Brittany after them.The...

 jurist and historian.

Argentraeus was born the son of Pierre d'Argentré, seneschal

Seneschal

A seneschal was an officer in the houses of important nobles in the Middle Ages. In the French administrative system of the Middle Ages, the sénéchal was also a royal officer in charge of justice and control of the administration in southern provinces, equivalent to the northern French bailli...

 of Rennes

Rennes

Rennes is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France. Rennes is the capital of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department.-History:...

, and the nephew of historian Pierre Le Baud. After studies of law in Bourges

Bourges

Bourges is a city in central France on the Yèvre river. It is the capital of the department of Cher and also was the capital of the former province of Berry.-History:...

, he was named seneschal of Vitré

Vitré

Vitré may refer to communes in France:* Vitré, Ille-et-Vilaine* Vitré, Deux-Sèvres...

 in 1541 and seneschal of Rennes in 1547. Dismissed from that post, he was named head of the présidial

Présidial

The Présidial was a judicial tribunal of the French Ancien Régime, set up in January 1551 by Henry II of France and suppressed by a decree of the National Assembly in 1790....

 court of Rennes in 1582 instead, but refused to leave Brittany

Brittany

Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

 even when offered coveted court positions in Paris.

In his judicial capacity, he frequently clashed with other jurisdictions such as that of the Parlement

Parlement

Parlements were regional legislative bodies in Ancien Régime France.The political institutions of the Parlement in Ancien Régime France developed out of the previous council of the king, the Conseil du roi or curia regis, and consequently had ancient and customary rights of consultation and...

, which he considered ignorant of Breton customs. His principal legal work is the influential Nouvelle coutume de Bretagne (1580), a compilation of customary Breton law. In that work, D'Argentré fought against the influence of French and Roman law

Roman law

Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the 7th century AD — when the Roman–Byzantine state adopted Greek as the language of government. The development of Roman law comprises more than a thousand years of jurisprudence — from the Twelve...

, which he considered overly procedural and inquisitive, unmerciful to the weak, and detrimental to individual liberty.

His work as a historian also emphasised the historical independence of Brittany. The Estates of Brittany commissioned him in 1580 to write a Histoire de Bretagne, which was promptly seized on the order of Henry III

Henry III of France

Henry III was King of France from 1574 to 1589. As Henry of Valois, he was the first elected monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the dual titles of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1573 to 1575.-Childhood:Henry was born at the Royal Château de Fontainebleau,...

 for "indignities against King and realm". The book was only allowed to appear in 1588, with extensive censorship of sensitive passages relating to the history of French-Breton relations. However, clandestine reprints of the unedited work remained widely available.

In 1589, he supported the insurrection of the Duke of Mercœur, was persecuted by the French authorities and died one year later.

Works

• L'histoire de Bretaigne, des roys, ducs, comtes et princes d'icelle: l'établissement du Royaume, mutation de ce tiltre en Duché, continué jusques au temps de Madame Anne dernière Duchesse, & depuis Royne de France, par le mariage de laquelle passa le Duché en la maison de France. Jacques du Puys, 1588.
• Coustumes générales des pays et duché de Bretagne, Paris, Nicolas Buon, 1608 (rédigé en 1568)
• Advis sur le partage des nobles (1570)
• Commentaires (sur l'Ancienne Coutume de Bretagne), on various topics (1576, 1584)
• Aitiologia (1584), summary of the debates about the reformation of the Breton customary law.
• L'Histoire de Bretaigne, des rois, ducs, comtes, et princes d'icelle, depuis l'an 383 jusques au temps de madame Anne Reyne de France dernière Duchesse. Troisième édition revue et augmentée par messire Charles d'Argentré. Paris, by Nicolas Buon (1618).