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From the 16th to the 18th centuries, the small rural community of Gavre, north of Nantes, tried to retain a few privilegies which it had been granted by the Dukes of Brittany in the 13th century. Because the titles it held came directly from the sovereign power, and were buttressed by extensive archival records, it chose to do so almost entirely through litigation. However, it could not prevent the gradual curtailing of these privileges, a process which accelerated in the 18th century