County of Ponthieu

Old country of France, chief town Abbeville, ranging between the courses of the Somme and the Canche.

The beginnings of the Comté of Ponthieu are not formally attested. It would seem that to defend the Picardy against the Viking S, the kings of the Francs successors of Charlemagne created a walk around Abbeville, whose Angilbert would have been one of the first recipients. The marquis in charge of this command would manage Ponthieu and to have incomes sufficient to finance troops, the load of acknowledged of Saint-Riquier had. After Angilbert and its Nithard son, Ponthieu was allotted to Welfs, then at the house of Montreuil, whose members took the title of count de Montreuil . The Robertiens annexed it in second half of the 10th century, and Hugues Capet gave it in stronghold to one of his/her sons-in-law, the knight Hugues {{Ier}} of Ponthieu. The son of this last Enguerrand {{Ier}}, took the title of count de Ponthieu only in 1024, after having killed the count of Boulogne and having married his widow.

The county passes then to the Famille of Montgommery, then with that of the Dammartin, with the kings de Castille and the Plantagenêts. In 1336, at the beginning of the War One hundred Year old, Philippe VI of Valois confiscates it with Edouard III of England, his/her son Jean II the Good returns it in 1360 by the Traité of Brétigny and Charles V reconquers it in 1369. It is then given in prerogative to several noble.

See too

List of the counts de Ponthieu
historical Ponthieu
List of the French counties

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