Régis de l'Estourbeillon

Who was Régis de l'Estourbeillon?

Régis-Marie-Joseph de l'Estourbeillon de la Garnache was a French aristocrat and politician who was associated with Breton regionalist activism. He is generally known as Régis de l'Estourbeillon, but held the title Marquis de l'Estourbeillon.

He was born in Nantes. He became interested in preserving Breton regional identity as a young man, founding the Breton Regionalist Union in 1898. He edited La Revue de Bretagne with the Count René de Laigue. The publication appeared from 1902 to 1943.

He was elected to the national Chamber of Deputies of France for the department of Morbihan, becoming one of the most active members of Action libérale, a rightist pro-Catholic faction within the Republic. L'Estourbeillon was associated with anti-Dreyfusard views, and attended a "grand reunion antisemite" in Nantes with Jules Guérin in 1898. Liberals and Drefusards left the Breton Regionalist Union to found the rival Blues of Brittany in the same year.

In 1909, deputed by the first district of Vannes, he led the delegation to lobby for the teaching of the Breton language in Breton schools and colleges. He attempted to interest the Minister of State for education Gaston Doumergue who refused their request by claiming that "teaching of Breton would support the separatist tendencies".