hority of their counts and bishops, preserved
the laws and language of their ancestors. To the feeble descendants of
Clovis and Charlemagne, the Britons of Armorica refused the customary
tribute, subdued the neighboring dioceses of Vannes, Rennes, and Nantes,
and formed a powerful, though vassal, state, which has been united to
the crown of France. [137]

[Footnote 135: Cornwall was finally subdued by Athelstan, (A.D.
927-941,) who planted an English colony at Exeter, and confined the
Britons beyond the River Tamar. See William of Malmsbury, l. ii., in
the Scriptores post Bedam, p. 50. The spirit of the Cornish knights
was degraded by servitude: and it should seem, from the Romance of Sir
Tristram, that their cowardice was almost proverbial.]

[Footnote 136: The establishment of the Britons in Gaul is proved in
the sixth century, by Procopius, Gregory of Tours, the second council
of Tours, (A.D. 567,) and the least suspicious of their chronicles and
lives of saints. The subscription of a bishop of the Britons to
the first council of Tours, (A.D. 461, or rather 481,) the army of
Riothamus, and the loose declamation of Gildas, (alii transmarinas
petebant regiones, c. 25, p. 8,) may countenance an emigration as early
as the middle of the fifth century. Beyond that era, the Britons of
Armorica can be found only in romance; and I am surprised that Mr.
Whitaker (Genuine History of the Britons, p. 214-221) should so
faithfully transcribe the gross ignorance of Carte, whose venial errors
he has so rigorously chastised.]

[Footnote 137: The antiquities of Bretagne, which have been the subject
even of political controversy, are illustrated by Hadrian Valesius,
(Notitia Galliarum, sub voce Britannia Cismarina, p. 98-100.) M.
D'Anville, (Notice de l'Ancienne Gaule, Corisopiti, Curiosolites,
Osismii, Vorganium, p. 248, 258, 508, 720, and Etats de l'Europe, p.
76-80,) Longuerue, (Description de la France, tom. i. p. 84-94,) and the
Abbe de Vertot, (Hist. Critique de l'Etablissement des Bretons dans
les Gaules, 2 vols. in 12 mo., Paris, 1720.) I may assume the merit
of examining the original evidence which they have produced. * Note:
Compare Gallet, Memoires sur la Bretagne, and Daru, Histoire de
Bretagne. These authors appear to me to establish the point of the
independence of Bretagne at the time that the insular Britons took
refuge in their country, and that the greater part landed as fugitives
rather than as conquerors. I obser