Régis-Marie-Joseph de l'Estourbeillon de la Garnache (11 February 1858 - 7 September 1946) was a French aristocrat and politician who was associated with Breton regionalist activism. He is generally known as Régis de l'Estourbeillon, but held the title Marquis de l'Estourbeillon.

He was born in Nantes

Nantes

Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....

. He became interested in preserving Breton regional identity as a young man, founding the Breton Regionalist Union

Breton Regionalist Union

The Breton regionalist union , was a Breton cultural and political organisation created August 16 1898. It was a broadly conservative grouping dedicated to preserving Breton cultural identity and regional independence...

 in 1898. He edited La Revue de Bretagne with the Count René de Laigue. The publication appeared from 1902 to 1943.

He was elected to the national Chamber of Deputies of France

Chamber of Deputies of France

Chamber of Deputies was the name given to several parliamentary bodies in France in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries:* 1814–1848 during the Bourbon Restoration and the July Monarchy, the Chamber of Deputies was the Lower chamber of the French Parliament, elected by census suffrage.*...

 for the department of Morbihan

Morbihan

Morbihan is a department in Brittany, situated in the northwest of France. It is named after the Morbihan , the enclosed sea that is the principal feature of the coastline.-History:...

, becoming one of the most active members of Action libérale, a rightist pro-Catholic faction within the Republic. L'Estourbeillon was associated with anti-Dreyfusard views, and attended a "grand reunion antisemite" in Nantes with Jules Guérin

Jules Guérin

Jules Guérin was the founder and leader of the French Ligue Antisemitique, an organisation similar to the Ligue des Patriotes. The Ligue was involved in many anti-semitic and anti-Dreyfus protests during the Dreyfus Affair. Guérin was indicted, with Déroulède and his Ligue de Patriotes for...

 in 1898. Liberals and Drefusards left the Breton Regionalist Union to found the rival Blues of Brittany

Bleus de Bretagne

The Ligue des bleus de Bretagne was a liberal organisation in Brittany founded in 1899, dedicated to promoting the ideals of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution in Brittany, and combating the influence of the aristocracy and clergy...

 in the same year.

In 1909, deputed by the first district of Vannes

Vannes

Vannes is a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France. It was founded over 2000 years ago.-Geography:Vannes is located on the Gulf of Morbihan at the mouth of two rivers, the Marle and the Vincin. It is around 100 km northwest of Nantes and 450 km south west...

, he led the delegation to lobby for the teaching of the Breton language

Breton language

Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...

 in Breton schools and colleges. He attempted to interest the Minister of State for education Gaston Doumergue

Gaston Doumergue

Pierre-Paul-Henri-Gaston Doumergue was a French politician of the Third Republic.Doumergue came from a Protestant family. Beginning as a Radical, he turned more towards the political right in his old age. He served as Prime Minister from 9 December 1913 to 2 June 1914...

 who refused their request by claiming that "teaching of Breton would support the separatist tendencies".

He participated in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 as a volunteer, joining French forces at the age of 56. For his actions he was decorated with the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 and made Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur

Légion d'honneur

The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...

.

After the war he withdrew from national politics, but continued to pursue his demands for official teaching of the Breton language. In January 1919 he wrote a public declaration reasserting the demand published by Libre parole..

In the 1920s he became a member of the Breton cultural movement Seiz Breur

Seiz Breur

Seiz Breur was an artistic movement founded in 1923 in Brittany. Although it adopted the symbolic name seiz breur, meaning seven brothers in the Breton language, this did not refer to the number of members, but to the title of a folk-story...

, sometimes writing under the Breton pseudonym Hoël Broërec'h.

He died at the château de Penhoët, Avessac

Avessac

Avessac is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France....

.

Publications

• Les frairies de la paroisse de Macerac - par le conte Régis de l'Estourbeilon - Inspecteur de la société française d'archéologie, Nantes 1883

• Nominoé, père de la patrie - Marquis de l'Estourbeillon, député du Morbihan, directeur de l'Union régionale bretonne - Rennes MCMXII

• Le droit des langues et la liberté des peuples, Saint-Brieuc, 1919

• La Nation bretonne - Conférence sur l'histoire de Bretagne - par Mr de l'Estoubeillon, ancien député du Morbihan, président de l'ORB - 8 septembre 1924

• L'Ame de la Bretagne , ses légitimes revendications, rapport présenté par mr de l'Estroubeillon, ancien député au congrès de l'A.N.O. le samedi 20 mai 1933

• Pour nos costumes nationaux, la presse seule peut les sauver - Hoël Broërec'h - édité par l'union régionaliste bretonne.