Henri Martin

Professor Heather WILLIAMS, research fellow (CAWCS)

Résumé :

Henri Martin (1810-1883) est un historien français. Intéressé par la littérature galloise, il se rend par deux fois au pays de Galles. Ses voyages font l’objet d’échanges épistolaires, de discours, de récits de voyages et de publications revenant notamment sur les relations entre la France et le pays de Galles. L’article publié ici étudie cette production.

Portrait d’Henri Martin, par Eugène Pirou (source : Gallica / BNF)

Henri Martin (1810-1883) was not Breton, but rather a French historian who was part of a France-wide enthusiasm for all things Celtic that peaked in the second half of the nineteenth century. His interest in Welsh literature brought him to Wales twice, the first time in August 1861, and the second a year later. His account of the 1861 visit was published first in the journal Le Siècle, and then a decade later together with an account of the second visit, in his book Etudes d’archéologie celtique: notes de voyages dans les pays celtiques et scandinaves in 1872.

Manuscripts of letters, and a speech, by Henri Martin, which shed light on connections between Brittany and Wales, are preserved in the National Library of Wales and the Archives départementales du Finistère. At the NLW there are letters in the Dolau Cothi Estate papers, NLW GB 0210 DOLTHI, L3354-58, and the Thomas Stephens papers NLW 964E i–ii, these have been transcribed by the ‘Knowledge Transfer and Social Networks: European Learning and the Revolution in Welsh Victorian Scholarship’ project. A speech given by Henri Martin in Wales also survives in a translated (English) version by ‘Mr James’, in a memorandum book kept by Stephens in Thomas Stephens papers, NLW MS 947A.

Henri Martin’s address at the Aberdare eisteddfod, 1861. National Library of Wales, NLW MS 947A.

Eight letters by Henri Martin from 1861 that describe his time in Wales and his Welsh research projects in detail are preserved in the Fond Théodore de La Villemarqué at the Archives départementales du Finistère, available digitally here: Moteur de recherche des Archives départementales du Finistère – Recherche sur « henri_martin » (finistere.fr).

Henri Martin to La Villemarqué, 26 April 1861.
Archives départementales du Finistère, 263 J 2/2048

Henri Martin was in Wales for scholarly reasons, spending days poring over Welsh manuscripts in the back room of Thomas Stephens’s (1821 – 1875) pharmacy in Merthyr Tydfil; ‘J’ai travaillé à fond trois ou quatre jours dans son arrière-boutique remplie des trésors de la littérature cymrique’, he wrote to La Villemarqué,2 who had obligingly penned him a letter of introduction.3 He had every intention of writing a book that would make Iolo Morganwg (bardic name of Edward Williams 1747-1826) known back in France, but he was also in Wales to observe living Celts first hand in order to hone his own pro-Celtic arguments. This, he said, was nothing less than the duty of a French historian; ‘mes devoirs d’historien français et ma sympathie fraternelle pour un peuple si fidèle aux souvenirs de nos communs ancêtres’.4 He then travelled to north Wales for discussions with John Williams ab Ithel (1811 – 1862), the cleric and antiquary who, despite being taken in by Iolo’s ingenious forgeries, was widely regarded as the principal Welsh scholar of his day. Martin intended to wait for the publications of Ab Ithel’s book on Iolo, as well as some information that he promised to send him beforehand, before writing his own work on the Welsh genius and forger.5

During his first trip to Wales, Martin’s decision to attend the 1861 Eisteddfod in Aberdare, south Wales, was certainly fruitful, for not only did the Welsh bards make the Frenchman into an honorary Breton, or ancient Briton (the same word, ‘Breton’ is used for both in French), but he was also afforded the opportunity to address the crowds and to set forth his Celtic pact formally. Though his rather rousing Celtic speech was entirely dependent on translation (French into English) for its impact, its real significance lies in the cross-cultural gesture made by Martin, who reassured the Welsh crowds that: ‘If I speak with a foreign tongue I do not speak to you with a foreign heart nor have I foreign blood’. The speech belongs to a fascinating episode in Franco-Celtic and Franco-Welsh relations, coming less than a decade after Renan’s essay ‘La poésie des races celtiques’, but preceding the full flowering of pan-Celticism by a whole generation. It is an episode that might be dubbed Celtomaniac, and whose beginnings were the valorization of the Celts in the immediate aftermath of the French Revolution, when the Republic forged a new narrative about its own Gaulish ancestors. This is the idea present in Martin’s claim in 1861: ‘As our France becomes better acquainted with its past and its origins, she feels more and more that she is not the daughter of the Germans or of the Romans.’ The speech is a call for solidarity between Celtic peoples, in this case between the Welsh and the French. Martin’s idea for such a Celtic pact is presented to the crowds as a glorious route towards world peace, as Celticity spreads beyond Wales to England, with the working classes of England accepted as honorary Celts, such that ‘Gallic France and British England, will, and must be Friends’. It ends:

  • Cymric people! As our France becomes better acquainted with its past and its origins, she feels more and more that she is not the daughter of the Germans or of the Romans. She understands that she must react against [?all] excessive centralisation, the tradition of which has been left her by the Romans, to return to the old Keltic spirit, to the ancient and yet always young spirit of liberty. She feels, and will feel more and more her ties with you people of Cymry and England too, is she not the daughter of the Gauls? Had she but Saxon blood in her veins, would she be the great nation which she is? Her indefatigable activity, her clear and practical spirit, does she not hold it from our Keltic race? The labouring classes of England, are they not, for the most part, descendants of the ancient Britons? As England too, shall better understand her Keltic origin, England and France will draw nearer and nearer to each other; and the alliance of the two [?great] people of the West, often shaken, never broken, yet please God, will at last repose upon sympathy, and not upon mere interest. Roman France, and Saxon England, might be enemies; Gallic France and British England, will, and must be Friends. Ancient Gaul and Ancient Albion were nursed in the same cradle.6

A letter he wrote to Charles de Gaulle in 1865 outlines Martin’s view that any Celtic Society should be apolitical as well as steer clear of religious debates. True to the spirit of his lecture in Wales, Martin sees Celticism as a potential force for good in Europe, and claims that forming an international Celtic Association is of national, moral and European importance, beyond scholarly interests ‘un but qui me paraît du plus haut intérêt, non seulement scientifique, mais moral, national et européen’. The letter is an attempt to convince de Gaulle that the Breuriez-Breiz must embrace a wide variety of opinions, to eliminate the risk of people associating efforts to preserve the Breton language with reactionary politics. The Celtic spirit, as seen in the Gauls, he argues, is the most vigorous spirit of individuality and moral liberty that the world has ever seen, and has been preserved by the Welsh.

The five letters written by Henri Martin to John Johnes (d 1876) of Dolaucothy between August 1867 and July 1869, kept in the Dolau Cothi Estate papers in NLW show that Martin kept in touch with Wales long after his two visits at the beginning of the 1860s. Essentially Martin is relying on John Johnes to spread the word among his friends, acquaintances and the press about an inter-Celtic meeting, resembling an Eisteddfod, that he is involved in organizing in Brest in September 1869. Referring to the context of Celtic renewal on the continent – ‘renaissance celtique sur le continent’ – he very much hopes that his ‘frères d’outre mer’ from Wales will be able to travel. He mentions an interesting work on Celtic literature by Matthew Arnold, which must be the infamous On the Study of Celtic Literature (London: Smith, Elder & Co, 1867). The letters also refer, again, to his work on Iolo Morganwg, and on 1 October 1868 he mentions an article he is writing on ‘Cyfrinach Beirdd’, using Iolo’s manuscripts, as a response to an article in France Archéologique, which will be published in November. The article is likely to be this one: ‘Le Mystère des bardes de l’ile de Bretagne (suite), Revue Archéologique, nouvelle séries, vol. 18 (1868), 329 – 344, 431-439. This shows that he did not entirely abandon his book project following Williams ab Ithel’s death, but perhaps used the material he had to form an article. Another thing that stayed with him was a fondness for Welsh harp music, and he says here that he often plays tunes from harpist John Thomas’s fine collection of songs on the piano to remind him of Wales and its hospitality.

Further reading

Kathryn Jones, Carol Tully and Heather Williams, Hidden Texts, Hidden Nation: (Re)Discoveries of Wales in Travel Writing in French and German (1780-2018) (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2020)

Charles Rearick, ‘Henri Martin: from druidic traditions to Republican politics’, Journal of Contemporary History 7:3 (1972), 53-64

1‘Le Pays de Galles: notes de voyage’, in Le Siècle: 17 December 1861, 27 December 1861 and January 9 1862, Etudes d’archéologie celtique: notes de voyages dans les pays celtiques et scandinaves (Paris: Didier, 1872), pp. 25-158.

2 Henri Martin to La Villemarqué, 26 April 1861. Fonds Théodore Hersart de la Villemarqué. 263 J.

3 NLW MS 964E, no. 308, Hersart de la Villemarqué to Thomas Stephens, 29 July 1861, in Knowledge Transfer and Social Networks Transcript. Martin had asked La Villemarqué to put them in contact in a letter of 24 July 1861. Fonds Théodore Hersart de la Villemarqué. 263 J.

4 Martin, Etudes d’archéologie celtique, p. 33.

5 He refers in a letter to La Villemarqué of 26 August 1861 to ‘les renseignements qu’Ab-Ithel m’a promis en attendant son livre’, and again on 9 October says: ‘un peu plus tard, après la publication d’Ab-Ithel, j’écrirai quelque chose sur Iolo, sa vie, ses Mss. &a.’ Fonds Théodore Hersart de la Villemarqué. 263 J.

6 NLW MS 947 A, unpaginated.


OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
heatherwilliams (4 avril 2024). Henri Martin. DreAM-CollEx. Consulté le 12 janvier 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/11oek


Laisser un commentaire

Votre adresse e-mail ne sera pas publiée. Les champs obligatoires sont indiqués avec *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.