County of Agenois | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 886–1791 | |||||||
 | |||||||
| Capital |  Agen | ||||||
| Religion | Catholicism | ||||||
| Government | County | ||||||
| Legislature | Parlement | ||||||
| Parliament of Bordeaux | |||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages / Early Modern | ||||||
• Established | 886 | ||||||
• Disestablishment of the Provinces | 1791 | ||||||
| |||||||
Agenais (French pronunciation: [aʒ(ə)nɛ] ), or Agenois (French pronunciation: [aʒ(ə)nwa] ), was an ancient region that became a county (Old French: conté or cunté) of France, south of Périgord. [1]
In ancient Gaul the region was the country of the Nitiobroges with Aginnum for their capital, which in the fourth century was the Civitas Agennensium, which was a part of Aquitania Secunda [2] and which formed the diocese of Agen. From 833 to 848, all the land seems to have been ravaged by the Vikings. [3] Having in general shared the fortunes of Aquitaine during the Merovingian and Carolingian periods, Agenais from about 886 became an hereditary county in the part of the country now called Gascony (Vasconia). [4] [5] The first count of Agenais (comte d'Agen) was William I of Périgord (d. 920), son of Wulgrin I of Angoulême.
In 1038 this county was purchased by William, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitiers. The marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine with the future Henry II of England in 1152 brought the county under the sway of the Plantagenet house of Anjou. When Richard Coeur-de-Lion married his sister Joan to Raymund VI, Count of Toulouse, in 1196, Agenais formed part of the princess's dowry, and formed part of the other estates of the last independent count of Toulouse. [4] In 1212, during the Albigensian Crusade, Simon de Montfort captured the Cathar fortress of Penne-d'Agenais and burned Cathars at the stake. [6] At the 1259 Treaty of Paris, Louis IX of France agreed to pay an annual rent to Henry III of England for Louis' possession of Agenais. [7] The estates of Agenais lapsed to the crown of France in 1271. [4]
This, however, was not for long; the king of France had to recognize the prior rights of the king of England to the possession of the county, and restored it to him in 1279. During the Hundred Years' War between the English and the French, Agenais was frequently taken and retaken, the final retreat of the English in 1453 at last leaving the king of France in peaceable possession. [4]
In 1561, Guyenne was made a province, and included Bordelais, Bazadais, Limousin, Périgord, Quercy, Rouergue, Agenais, Saintonge, and Angoumois.[ citation needed ] Thenceforth Agenais was no more than an administrative term. At the end of the Ancien Régime it formed part of the Gouvernement of Guienne, and at the Revolution it was incorporated within the département of Lot-et-Garonne, of which it constitutes nearly the whole. The title of count of Agenais, which the kings of England had allowed to fall into desuetude, was revived by the kings of France, and in 1789 was held by the family of the dukes of Richelieu. [4]
Aquitaine, archaic Guyenne or Guienne, is a historical region of Southwestern France and a former administrative region. Since 1 January 2016 it has been part of the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It is situated in the southwest corner of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain; for most of its written history Bordeaux has been a vital port and administrative centre. It is composed of the five departments of Dordogne, Lot-et-Garonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes and Gironde. Gallia Aquitania was established by the Romans in ancient times and in the Middle Ages, Aquitaine was a kingdom and a duchy, whose boundaries fluctuated considerably.
Guyenne or Guienne was an old French province which corresponded roughly to the Roman province of Aquitania Secunda and the Catholic archdiocese of Bordeaux.
The County of Toulouse was a territory in southern France consisting of the city of Toulouse and its environs, ruled by the Count of Toulouse from the late 9th century until the late 13th century.
The commune of Agen is the prefecture of the Lot-et-Garonne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. It lies on the river Garonne 135 kilometres southeast of Bordeaux.
The Duchy of Aquitaine was a historical fiefdom located in the western, central and southern areas of present-day France, south of the river Loire. Although the full extent of the duchy, as well as its name, fluctuated greatly over the centuries and at times comprised much of what is now southwestern (Gascony) and central France.
The County of Armagnac, situated between the Adour and Garonne rivers in the lower foothills of the Pyrenées, was a historic county of the Duchy of Gascony, established in 601 in Aquitaine. In 960, the title of 'Count of Armagnac' was established, and thus the County of Armagnac was created. In 1751, following the death of childless Charles de Lorraine, Comte d'Armagnac, the county was absorbed into the Crown lands of France and the King, then Louis XV took the title of 'Count of Armagnac'. In 1791, following the decree dividing France into departments, the county was disestablished, but remains an important natural region of France.
The count of Toulouse was the ruler of Toulouse during the 8th to 13th centuries. Originating as vassals of the Frankish kings, the hereditary counts ruled the city of Toulouse and its surrounding county from the late 9th century until 1270. The counts and other family members were also at various times counts of Quercy, Rouergue, Albi, and Nîmes, and sometimes margraves of Septimania and Provence. Count Raymond IV founded the Crusader state of Tripoli, and his descendants were also counts there. They reached the zenith of their power during the 11th and 12th centuries, but after the Albigensian Crusade the county fell to the kingdom of France, nominally in 1229 and de facto in 1271.
The County of Foix was a medieval fief in southern France, and later a province of France, whose territory corresponded roughly the eastern part of the modern département of Ariège.
The term Angevin Empire describes the possessions held by the House of Plantagenet during the 12th and 13th centuries, when they ruled over an area covering roughly all of present-day England, half of France, and parts of Ireland and Wales, and had further influence over much of the remaining British Isles. It may be described as an early example of a composite monarchy. The empire was established by Henry II of England, who succeeded his father Geoffrey as Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou. Henry married Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, acquiring the Duchy of Aquitaine, and inherited his mother Empress Matilda's claim to the English throne, succeeding his rival Stephen in 1154. Although their title of highest rank came from the Kingdom of England, the Plantagenets held court primarily on the continent at Angers in Anjou, and at Chinon in Touraine.
Quercy is a former province of France located in the country's southwest, bounded on the north by Limousin, on the west by Périgord and Agenais, on the south by Gascony and Languedoc, and on the east by Rouergue and Auvergne.
James I of Bourbon, was a French prince du sang, and the son of Louis I, Duke of Bourbon and Mary of Avesnes. He was Count of Ponthieu from 1351 to 1360, and Count of La Marche from 1341 to his death.
The Duchy of Gascony or Duchy of Vasconia was a duchy located in present-day southwestern France and northeastern Spain, an area encompassing the modern region of Gascony. The Duchy of Gascony, then known as Wasconia, was originally a Frankish march formed to hold sway over the Basques. However, the duchy went through different periods, from its early years with its distinctively Basque element to the merger in personal union with the Duchy of Aquitaine to the later period as a dependency of the Plantagenet kings of England.
The County of Fézensac was an 8th-century creation on the north-eastern fringes of the Duchy of Gascony following Charlemagne's policy of feudalisation and Frankish colonisation. The move was aimed at offsetting and undermining the authority of the duke of Gascony Lupo II after the setback suffered by the Franks at the Battle of Roncevaux in 778 and failure to restrain the Basques. That advance clearly displeased the Basques, with these policies sparking a stir on the banks of the Garonne.
Brassac is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Occitanie region in southern France.
The crown lands, crown estate, royal domain or domaine royal of France were the lands, fiefs and rights directly possessed by the kings of France. While the term eventually came to refer to a territorial unit, the royal domain originally referred to the network of "castles, villages and estates, forests, towns, religious houses and bishoprics, and the rights of justice, tolls and taxes" effectively held by the king or under his domination. In terms of territory, before the reign of Henry IV, the domaine royal did not encompass the entirety of the territory of the kingdom of France and for much of the Middle Ages significant portions of the kingdom were the direct possessions of other feudal lords.
Constance of France was a French princess of the House of Capet, the only daughter of Louis VI of France and his wife Adélaide de Maurienne. Amongst her siblings was Louis VII, who succeeded their father in 1137.
Occitania is the southernmost administrative region of metropolitan France excluding Corsica, created on 1 January 2016 from the former regions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées. The Council of State approved Occitania as the new name of the region on 28 September 2016, coming into effect on 30 September 2016.
Miss Aquitaine is a French beauty pageant which selects a representative for the Miss France national competition from the region of Aquitaine. Women representing the region under various different titles have competed at Miss France since 1920, although the Miss Aquitaine title was not used regularly until 1985.
Gaillard I de Durfort, known as the Archdeacon (l'Archidiacre), was a French priest and nobleman of the Durfort family. He inherited the Lacour–Durfort lands in 1345 and abandoned his clerical career to marry Marguerite de Caumont.
The Treaty of Amiens was signed by King Philip III of France and King Edward I of England in Amiens, Picardy, on 23 May 1279. It principally concerned control of the borderlands between the French royal demesne and the English possessions in Aquitaine, particularly Agenais, Quercy, and Saintonge.
44°12′N0°37′E / 44.20°N 0.62°E
