Since its inauguration in 1911, the statue, representing Anne of Brittany, had been considered degrading by the Breton movement, due to its kneeling position before the King of France.

Although the event had few concrete political consequences and did not represent a key date in the history of the Breton movement, it immediately acquired a strong symbolic charge among its militants.

The Rennes inauguration in 1911 was accompanied by night parties in the Parc du Thabor and a procession evoking the marriage of Anne of Brittany and Charles VIII at the Château de Langeais.

A number of local artistic movements, including the later Seiz Breur , sought to move away from folkloristic botrelleries,[6] and Boucher's style came in for criticism.

The announcement in 1932 of celebrations to mark the 400th anniversary of Brittany's union with France aroused strong feelings among them, which crystallized around Boucher's sculpture.

[12] On August 7, celebrations to mark the 400th anniversary of Brittany's union with France were scheduled in Vannes, to be attended by French Prime Minister Édouard Herriot.

[2] Since the evening of the previous day, Breton activists from various parties who had travelled to disrupt the celebrations - including PNB president François Debeauvais - had been held in police custody[13] as a precautionary measure,[14] and were not released until the morning of the 7th.

[13] The bomb used was prepared by Célestin Lainé, a chemical engineer by training, and it was another militant, André Geffroy, who placed the mechanism in the monument, at crown level.

[15][16][17][18] Lainé had tested a first device on the moor at Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier[n 1] a short time earlier, burning his jacket in the process, due to his lack of experience with explosives.

[15] In a letter sent to the press claiming responsibility for the action, the signatory Gwenn ha Du, an organization no one had ever heard of,[15] stated: "We open the struggle for the independence of our country on this anniversary of our annexation by destroying the symbol of our subjugation that sits enthroned in the center of our capital[20]".

[16] In the first few days, the investigation focused on the management of the Breiz Atao newspaper, whose head office in rue Edith Cavel was just a hundred meters from the site of the event, and where searches were carried out on August 9.

Le Matin wrote that "passers-by (...) contemplated, appalled, the work of vandalism whose perpetrators they condemned", and L'Ouest-Éclair reported that "the people of Rennes, rightly proud of all the monuments that embellish their great city, were deeply moved[24]".

The Irish republican newspaper An Phoblacht wrote: "the Bretons and all friends of liberty welcome a gesture which proclaims that one more small nation has sworn to emancipation[26]".

[n 4] Due to doubts about the contours of the "historical truth" Boucher was talking about, and threats from nationalists, the project never materialized, and the niche has remained empty ever since.

[30] That same year, on the night of November 19–20,[24] as the presidential train was due to travel to Nantes to mark the 400th anniversary of Brittany's union with France, a bomb blew up the rails at the Breton "border" at Ingrandes,[30] and was again claimed by the group.

[31] Even a future figure in the movement, Pierre-Jakez Hélias, then a student in Rennes, saw it only as "a symbolic attack, committed by a few enthusiasts, but with little connection to the situation (...) in Brittany[20]".