History of the Moors (department)

The Landes is one of the five departments which account the French Région of Aquitaine. It is partly constitutive of the Landes of Gascogne, from where it draws its name.

Presentation

Originally, the territory of the Moors is appeared as a sand extent, often marshy, on which the men were established all the same. Naturally hostile area of Moor famous to the the Middle Ages, here the perception of the pilgrims who crossed it to go to Saint-Jacques-with-Compostelle:

When we were inside the Moors

Bien astonished

Avions by water to semi-legs

On all sides

Compagnons is necessary for us to walk on

In great days

to draw us from this country

Of so great dew

Extract of: the Great Song

The villages there were very insulated and the hard cultures: only the ploughing was facilitated because of the nature of the ground, of the Sable.

Under the influence of the Lights, the French State undertook to cleanse this territory by planting the adequate trees there: the Cork oak. That made it possible to stabilize the ground, to decrease moisture, and to establish the Industrie Bouchon.

Then, the cleansing and the setting in culture were encouraged by Napoleon III, giving his current face to the French moors: maritime pines and Corn.

Chronology

It is probably at the time of an interglacial period, 40.000 years ago, that the Homme of Cro-Magnon arrives in Aquitaine.

Paleolithic superior

Paléolithique superior reached us celebrates it Dame of Brassempouy or Rams with the Hood, fragment of ivory statuette constituting one of the oldest realistic representations of the human face., discovered in the village landais Brassempouy, in Chalosse. This period of the Préhistoire is characterized by the arrival of the Homo sapiens in Europe. Ranging between 35.000 and 10.000 years before our era, it corresponds at the end of the last Glacial period.

The pax romana

Crassus, the young lieutenant of Jules César, undertook the conquest of the Aquitaine history in 56 av. J. - C.. This one reappears at the 3rd century under the denomination of Novempopulanie, or Aquitaine of the new people . Among them, the Tarbelli , present of the Coast Basque in Chalosse, with like capital future the Dax.

In margin of these nine people, others could be individualized, among which:

the Belindes ( Belindi ) to which one generally allots Belin-Béliet
the Cocosates of the Pays of Born of Linxe to Sanguinet ( Cocosa, Caequosa ), close to Morcenx
the Tarusates of the Pays of Marsan and Chalosse (Tartas) become the Aturenses at the 4th century.

The romanisation of Novempopulanie will lead to the Gascogne.

Visigoths

Aquitaine passes under the domination of the Visigoths, made of Provence and Italy in 412 - 413. In 418, a treaty founds the statute of federate (Fœdus) of the Visigoths in the Roman Empire, which installs them in Aquitaine. Quitterie, young princess Goth E, is martyrisée in 472 to have refused to abjure its Christian faith. She is decapitated on the site of the current city of Aire-sur-l'Adour.

Counts de Gascogne

At the end of the 10th century, Guillaume Sanche reign on Gascogne. It organizes its economic and cultural revival while resting in particular on on ten abbeys which it founds, among which powerful the Abbaye of Saint-Sever or that of Mimizan. While the Sauveté of Mimizan attracts and fixed populations, the abbey of Saint-Sever accumulates innumerable possessions (land fields, vineyards etc), which extend as of the 11th century from the Médoc until Pampelune in Spain. The various priories are distant of approximately thirty kilometers, corresponding to a stage on the Pèlerinage of Saint-Jacques-of-Compostelle. This one is organized and developed at that time. As of the 12th century, the Guide of the Pilgrim of Aimery Picaud describes the four ways of Saint-Jacob, of which three pass by the Moors:

The Foundation of Mount-of-Marsan date of 1133. It is organized around the Castelnau established by Pierre de Lobaner, Viscount of Marsan, the Tursan and the Gabardan.

One hundred year old war

Following the marriage of Aliénor of Aquitaine with Henri Plantagenêt, become Henri II of England in 1154, the Moors, constitutive of the Duchy of Aquitaine, pass under English domination during nearly three centuries. The population finds refuge behind the walls of the cities during the disorders of the Guerre One hundred Year old, while country houses in the surroundings rose. Mount-with-Marsan drives out English in 1441.

Wars of religion

In 1550 is made up the Duché of Albret by and for the king de Navarre Henri II of Albret, with personal capacity. His/her daughter Jeanne d' Albret succeeds to him in 1556 and converts with the Protestantisme into 1560. By the ordinance of the July 19th 1561, it imposes the Calvinisme in its kingdom, involving rough fights in the Moors between Catholics and Huguenot S. In 1569, the troops of Montgomery devastate the catholic buildings (abbey of Saint-Sever, Holy-Quitterie church of Surface). The advent in 1589 of the son of Jeanne d' Albret, Henri IV with the France throne makes enter various countries landais in the royal Domaine. The signature of the edict of Nantes in 1598 alleviates the tensions related to the wars of religion.

French revolution

The departments are created the March 4th 1790 by the constituent Assembly in order to replace the Provinces of France. The department of the Moors is created at that time, starting from two heterogeneous units, located on both sides Adour.

Development

The Moors have the reputation to be a hostile environment. The life organizes in the High-Moor around thin a agro-pastoral system. The development of the territory will be articulated in two times:

the Fixing of the dunes in Aquitaine, controlled by Nicolas Brémontier, will put an end to the threats stranding and of flood weighing on the communes of the littoral.
the Law of June 19th, 1857, also called law of cleansing and setting in culture of the Moors of Gascogne , will encourage the drainage, the plantation of pines, the development of the forestry economy, while condemning in the space of a generation the agro-pastoral system. This deep socio-economic change will not be done without clashes. The Gemmeur S thus little by little will replace the shepherds landais.

Nowadays

See too

Old communes of the Gascon Moors

External bonds

social History of the Moors with XIXe and XXe centuries.
Archeolandes the site of the research center archaeological on the MOORS.

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