Breton Club.
A revolutionary club formed in Paris in the early days of the Revolution. Its founders were certain Breton deputies, and among its members were many who were afterwards prominent Jacobins, amongst others Robespierre.
Bretts and Scots, Laws of the.
The code of laws under which the Celtic inhabitants of Scotland were governed, up to the thirteenth century. This code was abolished by an edict of Edward I, when he conquered Scotland in 1305.
Bretwalda.
Under the Saxon Heptarchy, the sovereign of one of the seven kingdoms was often acknowledged as the leader of the Federation, under the title of Bretwalda.
Brewer of Ghent.
James van Arteveldt, the leader of the Burgher party in Flanders in 1338, was so called.
Bridal of Norwich.
A conspiracy against William I, entered into at the bridal feast of Ralph of Gwader, Earl of Norfolk, and Emma, sister of the Earl of Hereford. The two earls, with Waltheof, Earl of Nottingham, designed to depose William and divide the kingdom between them. Waltheof seems to have repented, and confessed the plot to Lanfranc. The conspiracy was at once suppressed, Waltheof executed, and Hereford imprisoned for life, while Ralph escaped to Brittany.