period
the family probably left Flanders to settle in Brittany, where they
remained until the Revolution. The corsair of Boulogne became a
ship-builder at Saint-Malo, having his own reasons for changing
parishes. The Flemish tradition then gives place to that of Brittany,
which is authenticated by documents. One Olivier Guinemer gave a receipt
in 1306 to the executors of Duke Jean II de Bretagne. He held a fief
under Saint-Sauveur de Dinan, "on which the duke had settled tenants
contrary to agreements." The executors, to liquidate the estate, had to
pay immense sums for "indemnification, restitution and damages," and
took care to "take receipts from all those to whom their commission
obliged them to distribute money."[37] The Treaty of Guerande (April 11,
1365), which ended the war for the Breton succession and gave the Duchy
to Jean de Montfort, though under the suzerainty of the King of France,
is signed by thirty Breton knights, among whom is a Geoffrey Guinemer. A
Mathelin Guinemer, squire, is mentioned in an act received at Bourges in
1418; while in 1464, an Yvon Guynemer, man-at-arms, is promoted to full
pay, and he already spells his name with a _y_.

[Footnote 36: _Catalogue des actes d'Henri I, Roi de France_
(1031-1060), by Frederic Soehnee, archivist at the National Archives.]

[Footnote 37: _Histoire de Bretagne_, by Dom Lobineau (1707), Vol. I, p.
293. _Recherches sur la chevalerie du duche de Bretagne, by A. de
Couffon de Kerdellech_, Vol. II (Nantes, Vincent Forest and Emile
Grimaud, Printers and Publishers).]

It is somewhat difficult to trace the history of this lesser provincial
nobility, engaged sometimes in petty wars, sometimes in the cultivation
of their domains. In a book glorifying the humble service of ancient
French society, _Gentilshommes Campagnards_, M. Pierre de Vaissiere has
shown how this race of rural proprietors lived in the closest contact
with French agriculture, counseling and defending the peasant, clearing
and cultivating their land, and maintaining their families by its
produce. In his _Memoires_, the famous Retif de la Bretonne paints in
the most picturesque manner the patriarchal and authoritative manners of
his grandfather who, by virtue of his own unquestioned authority
prevented his descendant from leaving his native village and
establishing in Paris. Paris was already exercising its fascination and
uprooting the youth of the time. The Court of Versailles had already
weak