Disputes, their conduct and their settlement in the village communities of eastern Brittany in the ninth century

There were formal and informal means for the settlement of disputes within the village communities of ninth-century eastern Brittany, although both depended essentially on local knowledge of local history and on confidence in the good faith of those with the knowledge. This chapter discusses village communities in ninth-century Brittany and the way that they handled their problems in public. The political status of Brittany throughout this period of change for western and central Europe was a fluctuating matter and was sometimes decidedly anomalous. The fundamental question of the relationship between government and localities is clearly complicated in this case by the comparatively recent introduction and probably imperfect application of Carolingian institutions to Brittany and also by the fluctuating political status of the area itself.