History of Aquitaine

The Aquitaine is the name given since at least first century BC to an area anchored on the Atlantic frontage and the northern slope of the the Pyrenees.

Prehistory

the man of Cro-Magnon

A few 45.000 years ago, the human wise one ( Homo sapiens ) penetrates (with the Tadjikistan) in vast the Steppe Eurasiatique. In a few millenia, it populated it of West in East.

It is probably at the time of an interglacial period, 40.000 years ago, that the Homme of Cro-Magnon arrives to Aquitaine. In 1868, several skeletons of this species were found in the Abri of Cro-Magnon to Eyzies-with-Tayac at the edge of the Vézère in the Dordogne.
It supplanted gradually its brilliance predecessor, the Homme of Néandertal, a " cousin" too much distant so that they could mix their bloods.

artists of the Paleolithic one

The Aquitanian ones of the Paléolithique superior left many vestiges of their know-how of which the Dame of Brassempouy, those of the Paléolithique, remarkable paintings of the Grotte of Lascaux (- 17 000 years).

the climatic refuge

During the last Glaciation, Aquitaine proved to be the principal climatic refuge of Western Europe. She played a central role in the emerging settlement of Europe of the ices, as various genetic markers testify some who present their maximum concentration at the Basques.

age of the megaliths

With the Neolithic , developed on the Atlantic Littoral civilizations of stockbreeders who left us many Dolmen S or Menhir S.

the age of metals

The Bronze Age is well represented in Aquitaine (bronzes old in Médoc, Harrespil S of late bronze to the Basque Country…).

It is less true recent iron in Gascogne. On arrival of the Romans, the Celtic pressure butted against the Garonne. On the other hand the Celtes were well established in the high valley of the Garonne and in the Gironde where the Bituriges Vivisques founded Noviomagus (the current hamlet of Brion with Saint-Germain-with Esteuil) and taken the control of Burdigala.

Antiquity

Protohistoric Aquitaine

Protohistoric Aquitaine differs from current administrative Aquitaine. It extends between the Garonne and the Pyrenees, of the Atlantic to the Couserans. Its population, qualified by Jules César of “ibère”, presented ethnic affinities with the Vascon S of the average valley of the Èbre.

Their Onomastique is coherent and often understandable by the current Basque. The social status of the woman was privileged there ( before the Revolution, the Pyrenean women inherited as well as the men ).

The Roman conquest

Crassus, the young lieutenant of Jules César, undertook the conquest of Aquitaine in 56 av. J. - C.

The pax romana

Under the Roman Empire, the Aquitaine denomination applies to a large South-west of the Gaulle, the Pyrenees with banks of the the Loire, Auvergne included. Holy and Bordeaux were the ancient capitals of the Gaulle Aquitaine.

Ancient Aquitaine reappears in IIIe century under the denomination of Aquitaine of the new people or Novempopulanie. Its romanisation will lead to the Gascogne.

See also: Aquitanian (protohistoire), Aquitanian (Roman province), Novempopulanie

The Middle Ages

Wisigothic Aquitaine

Aquitaine passes under the domination of the Visigoths, made from Provence and Italy in 412 - 413.

In 418, a treated gives the Statut of federate (fœdus) of the Visigoths in the Roman Empire, which installs them in Aquitaine.

Aquitaine and Francs

In 507, Clovis, called by the bishops of Novempopulanie, integrates it into the kingdom of the Francs, by beating Alaric II, king of the Visigoths, with the Bataille of Vouillé.

671 sees the Indépendance of Aquitaine, directed by the duke Loup.

Between 719 and 732, the dukes Eudes, Hunald and Waïfre hold the Albi geois where they have goods. Eudes combat the Buckwheats in Albigensian.

732 sees the defeat of the duke of Aquitaine and the invasion of the Gascogne by the emir Abd el Rahman, stopped with the battles of Poitiers by Charles Martel, which begins the meeting of Aquitaine to the frank kingdom.

742 and 743 see the campaigns of wire of Charles Martel, Carloman and Pépin the Brief, against Aquitaine (and the Bavaria).

Considering Aquitaine too freed, Pépin the Brief makes assassinate the duke Waïfre in 768.

In 778, the army of Roland, trapped by the Wali of Saragossa, was demolished by the Navarreses in the mountains of Roncevaux while returning from Pamplenune. Then Charlemagne creates in 781 for his/her son Louis Débonnaire then three years old, the Royaume of Aquitaine including the territories of the Rhone in the Atlantic. It had as a capital Toulouse in order to federate the Hispanic reconquest.

In 814, Louis Débonnaire, become emperor with died of his Charlemagne father, yields the kingdom of Aquitaine to his/her son Pépin, who dies in 838. Pip II, wire of Ier Pip, is proclaimed king after him. Nevertheless this wire is a bastard son and Louis the Piles decides in his various projects of division to withdraw his kingdom to him and to entrust it to his third wire Charles the Bald person who is then made crown king d' Aquitaine in 848. In 855, Charles the Bald person invests his Charles son of them known as the Child , but the latter dies in 867, and they is its different sons Louis the Stammerer who receives this kingdom.

Duchies of the Middle Ages

Into 877, the kingdom of Aquitaine breaks up into two duchies, a duchy of Gascogne in the south of the Garonne and a Duché of Aquitaine (called Guyenne later) which had as a Bordeaux capital and was composed then of the Fief S of Gascogne, of the Comté of Armagnac, the Comté of Fézensac, the Périgord, the Poitou, the county of Angouleme, the Saintonge and the Comté of Walk.

In 1058, the two duchies meet.

cf List of the dukes of Aquitaine.

The queen Aliénor of Aquitaine, girl of the duke Guillaume X, was with the Middle Ages among the most influential characters of all the Europe. She married in 1152 the duke of Normandy and count d' Anjou, who became in 1154 the king of England Henri II Plantagenêt.

The competition between the two crowns leads to the Guerre One hundred Year old in 1345.

The Duché of Aquitaine takes the name of duchy of Guyenne at the time of the treated of Paris concluded the April 12th 1229 between Saint Louis and Raymond VII count de Toulouse, which thus yielded most of the Languedoc to the France and put an end to the Albigensian conflict.

The May 8th 1360, at the time of the Traité of Brétigny France loses Aquitaine (Guyenne, Gascogne, Quercy, Rouergue, the Limousin and Poitou), Ponthieu and Calais with the profit of the English. Essence is reconquered, except for Guyenne, by Of Guesclin in the Années 1370 and 1380.

The pope Clement V, Aquitanian famous

Bertrand de Goth was born towards 1264 close to Villandraut in the Gironde, and died the April 20th 1314, with Roquemaure (Gard). After having been the archbishop of Bordeaux, he became pope in 1305, under the name of Clément V, and which was that installed papacy with Avignon. Its opposition or participation with the king of France Philippe IV Beautiful the in the lawsuit of the Templiers makes today always debate.

Thanks to his position, Clément V supported construction in the South-Gironde of castles for him and his family. This remarkable unit is known today under the name of castles clémentins . Most known are the Château of Villandraut, the Château of Roquetaillade, the castle of Budos and the castle of Blanquefort.

Fastening with the crown of France

The French victory with the Bataille of Castillon marked the reconquest of Bordeaux in 1453.

Louis XI gives the duchy in Apanage to his/her brother Charles de Valois in 1469. It returns definitively to the French crown to died of this one in 1472.

Rebirth with the Lights

November 25th, 1615 Louis XIII wife Anne of Austria to Bordeaux October 18th, 1649: The slingers of Bordeaux take the Castle-Trumpet.

The Revolution

August 1st

The Industrial revolution

August 1st

Aquitaine at the 20th century

The September 2nd 1914: the government takes refuge in Bordeaux.

The June 10th 1940: The French government leaves Paris for Bordeaux.

The December 19th 1951, one discovers gas of Lacq.

See too

Articles of Wikipédia

External bonds

Aquitanian Origin of the name

Sources

Régine Pernoud, Aliénor of Aquitaine

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