Nantes (Municipality, Loire-Atlantique, France)

Naoned

Last modified: 2004-01-17 by ivan sache
Keywords: nantes | naoned | loire-atlantique | ship | ermine (black) | cross (white) | cross (black) |
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by Arnaud Leroy

Source: Mairie de Nantes & Les drapeaux bretons de 1188 à nos jours, by P. Rault [rau98].

• Presentation of the city
• Description of the flag
• Variant used in the 1970s
• Breton nationalist variants of the flag
• Historical flags of Nantes

See also:

• France
• Loire-Atlantique (Department, France)
• Pays de Nantes (Brittany, traditional province)
• Football-Club Nantes-Atlantique
• Bagad Naoned

Presentation of the city

Nantes is the prefecture of the department of Loire-Atlantique and regional prefecture of Region Pays de la Loire. The population of the city, including the outskirts, is ca. 500,000 inhabitants. Nantes is the administrative center of a bishopric, an académie (educational administrative division), and has a university.

Nantes (in Breton, Naoned) was founded by the Gaul tribe of Namnetes on the confluency of three rivers (Loire, Sèvre and Erdre), being therefore both a maritime and mainland city. The city was strongly disputed between the Frank kings and the Breton counts and dukes, and was eventually seized by the Normans.
In 939, Alan Barbe-Torte (litt. Alan with a crooked beard), the leader of the Breton lords sheltered in Britain, came back to Brittany and expelled the Normans from the country. He rebuilt the city of Nantes and established it as the capital of his duchy.
During the golden age of the duchy of Brittany, Nantes competed with Rennes for the title of capital city of Brittany. The Parliament was hosted in Rennes, but the ducal castle was in Nantes. The most famous duke, François II established in XVth century in the castle of Nantes a rich court, with five ministers, seventeen chamberlains, and very loose morals.

In 1499, king of France Louis XII married duchess Ann of Brittany, François II's daughter, in the castle of Nantes, thus preparing the annexation of Brittany to France (1532).
On 13 April 1598, king Henri IV prepared in the castle of Nantes the 92 articles of the Edit de Nantes (Edict of Nantes). The edict allowed theProtestants to practice freely their religion in any place where it had been previously authorized, and at least in two cities and villages in every bailiwick. Protestants were granted legal and political rights. Moreover, they were granted about a hundred of military 'safe places' inthe kingdom. On 18 October 1685, Louis XIV