House of Armagnac

Two houses followed one another the head of the county of Armagnac and bore the name from there:

the house of Gascogne
the house of Lomagne

The house of Gascogne

The count de Gascogne curved Garcia II the, died in 926, divided its county between its three sons:

Sanche († 955) had the county of Gascogne
Guillaume († 960) accepted the county of Fézensac
Arnaud Ier accepted Astarac

Guillaume, count de Fézensac, detached from his grounds the Comté of Armagnac, to give it to his son junior Bernard the Ladle, which founded the first house of Armagnac. The grandson of this last, Bernard II Tumapaler was briefly count de Gascogne, whom it held of his mother, but was dispossessed by it by his/her cousin Guy-Geoffroy Guillaume VIII, duke of Aquitaine. In 1140 died out the branch elder of Fézensac, with the profit of the counts of Armagnac, heritage which amorça power of the family.

The house of Armagnac-Gascogne dies out in 1215, and the counties of Armagnac and Fézensac passed to Géraud V of Lomagne, a distance cousin that Géraud IV, the last count, had adopted.

The house of Lomagne

It would be also a branch junior by the house of Gascogne and had, in addition to Lomagne, Fézensaguet. The counties of Armagnac and Fézensac, after some successions which transmitted them of branch in branch, re-examined in 1283 with Géraud VI of Lomagne, which adopted the name of Armagnac. Married to Mathe de Moncade, it emitted claims on the Béarn and the Bigorre, but neither him nor its descendants could put forward them vis-a-vis the counts de Foix-Béarn.

On the other hand, Bernard VI, the son of Géraud VI, acquired by marriage the Comté of Rodez. The counts Jean Ier and Jean II approached the court of France, Jean Ier marrying his daughter with the duke of Berry, then Bernard VII marrying a girl of the duke of Berry, then marrying his/her daughter with Charles of Orleans. With died of Louis of Orleans, it took its succession in the conflict against the Burgundian ones, taking the head of the party which became that of Armagnac. To increase its power, it dispossessed the juniors by the family, recovering Fézensaguet and Pardiac, but failing with Comminges. He died in 1418, leaving two wire:

Jean IV, count d' Armagnac and of Rodez
Bernard, count de Pardiac, author of a branch junior which will inherit by marriage Nemours and Walk.

At the end of the 15th century, the king Louis XI destroys the power of Armagnac which asserts regalities then (beat currency, take the qualification of counts by the grace of God ,…). In 1473, Jean V of Armagnac is besieged and killed to Lectoure by the troops French be directed by the cardinal Jean Jouffroy archbishop of Albi which massacred the count among the first, in front of his wife, cut the throat of inhabitants and soldiers, plundered and burned all, and left in life only the unhappy countess Jeanne de Foix (girl of the count Gaston de Foix). This one, that Jean V had married in 1468 was stripped of its jewels and its jewels and was trailed in the castle of Buzet-on-Tarn, become, for the circumstance, prison of State although it was pregnant seven months to be there locked up beside the corpse of her husband. There, on the order of Louis XI, that the scruples did not embarrass and who sought, by addition, the extinction of the House of Armagnac, with the gleam of the flames, the cries of this drunk army rabble of carnage, it lives to enter the evening its dungeon sinks it Cardinal Jouffroy, which, not finding that the emotions of this horrible day were sufficient, after an infamous scene that the Histoire veil while reddening with the two hands gave the order to the apothecaries and to the soldiers who accompanied it to force unfortunate Comtesse to absorb a beverage to destroy, after the Armagnac died, that which did not live yet! Jeanne de Foix fell through of a child still-born child in April 1473.

Others say that this scene occurred to the castle from Castelnau. Any covered with blood and of shame, the cardinal worked triumphantly on Auch, where the same canons were obliged to pay ransom, and charged with the skins of Armagnac, it moved finally towards the Roussillon.

Jeanne de Foix died after February 10th, 1476.

Jacques of Armagnac, duke of Nemours , count de Pardiac and of Walk, Viscount of Carlat and Murat , wire of Bernard of Armagnac count of Pardiac and Éleonore de Bourbon duchess of Nemours , first cousin with the 1st degree of Jean V of Armagnac which was assassinated by the French troops of Louis XI with Lectoure on March 5th 1473, is carried out in 1477 with the Markets with Paris for conspiracy against the person of the king.

Jacques of Armagnac, duke of Nemours and Jean V of Armagnac, count d' Armagnac , both objects of the mortal vindication of the king Louis XI of France against the House of Armagnac was two of the last three grandsons and male heirs to Bernard VII, count d' Armagnac, (deceased in 1418 married in 1393) and of Bonne of Berry (1367 - 1435).

The king of France Louis XI, which made them put at death, was their cousin with the 4° degree, since it had Jean II the Good, of Valois, king de France (1319-1364) and Bonne of Luxembourg (1315-1349) like common great-great-grandparents with Jacques of Armagnac, duke of Nemours and Jean V of Armagnac, count d' Armagnac , like good of other aïeux.

The only male survivor of the House of Armagnac was, seems it, Charles Ier of Armagnac which undoubtedly had the life only with the fact of not having descendants.

Charles Ier of Armagnac was particularly inconvenient and the king Louis XI continued it his anti-Armagnac vindication by making it lock up thirteen long years in prison, of 1472 with 1485 up to the point to destroy his mental health which was very affected by detention. Having yielded its county to Alain d' Albret, it finishes misérablement, with the hands of the curators. Charles Ier of Armagnac, count d' Armagnac, Viscount of Fézensaguet, had been born in 1425 and died without posterity on June 3rd 1497 with Castelnau-with-Montmiral, at the 72 years age. He had married on November 26th 1468 with Castelnau-of-Medoc with Catherine de Foix-Candale († 1510), girl of Jean de Foix, count de Benauges and of Kendall, Viscount of Castillon and Meilles Captal de Buch, (1410 - † 1485) and of Margaret Kerdeston of the Pole Suffolk (1426-1485).

Simplified genealogy

Armorial bearings

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