The history of Breizh/Brittany and of Cymru/Wales are intertwined; at one time when speaking about the Bretons we didn't know to which side of the British Sea (La Manche/Channel) we were referring. Our heroes, legends & language were the same, until we were invaded, overrun and dominated by the Anglo-Saxons, Normans, Plantagenets & English and French, then we took on a parallel divergence, we had the Law in Wales Act 1536 - 1543 that bound us to the English legal system, and you with the marriages of Anne of Brittany and the Act of Union 1532 that bound you to France, albeit with certain reservations until finally becoming totally subservient after the Revolution. This speech delivered by Matthew Arnold in 1865 could apply equally to both Countries by replacing 'Saxons' with 'Franks', 'Welsh' with 'Breton', 'English' with 'French' (except in relation to Cornwall), 'Wales' with 'Brittany'','England' with 'France', 'Principality' with 'Peninsula', 'Welshman' with 'Breton', and 'these islands' with 'this hexagone'.
"I must say I quite share the opinion of my brother Saxons (Franks) as to the practical inconvenience of perpetuating the speaking of Welsh (Breton). It may cause a moment's distress to one's imagination when one hears that the last Cornish peasant who spoke the old tongue of Cornwall is dead; but, no doubt, Cornwall is the better for adopting English, for becoming more thoroughly one with the rest of the country. The fusion of all the inhabitants of these islands (this hexagone) into one homogenous, English (French) speaking whole, the breaking down of barriers between us, the swallowing up of separate provincial nationalities, is a consummation to which the natural course of things irresistibly tends; it is a necessity of what is called modern civilization, and modern civilization is a real, legitimate force; the change must come and its accomplishment is a mere affair of time. The sooner the Welsh (Breton) language disappears as an instrument of the practical, political social life in Wales (Brittany), the better; the better for England (France), the better for Wales (Brittany) itself. Traders and tourists do excellent service by pushing the English (French) wedge farther and farther into the heart of the principality (Peninsula); Ministers of Education, by hammering it harder and harder into the elementary schools.....The language of a Welshman (Breton) is and must be English (French)...."
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