Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad": Volume 12, Slice 6Various
Science
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad": Volume 12, Slice 6
Various
Encyclopedias and dictionaries
GUIENNE, an old French province which corresponded roughly to the
_Aquitania Secunda_ of the Romans and the archbishopric of Bordeaux. In
the 12th century it formed with Gascony the duchy of Aquitaine, which
passed under the dominion of the kings of England by the marriage of
Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry II.; but in the 13th, through the
conquests of Philip Augustus, Louis VIII. and Louis IX., it was confined
within the narrower limits fixed by the treaty of Paris (1259). It is at
this point that Guienne becomes distinct from Aquitaine. It then
comprised the Bordelais (the old countship of Bordeaux), the Bazadais,
part of Perigord, Limousin, Quercy and Rouergue, the Agenais ceded by
Philip III. (the Bold) to Edward I. (1279), and (still united with
Gascony) formed a duchy extending from the Charente to the Pyrenees.
This duchy was held on the terms of homage to the French kings, an
onerous obligation; and both in 1296 and 1324 it was confiscated by the
kings of France on the ground that there had been a failure in the
feudal duties. At the treaty of Bretigny (1360) Edward III. acquired the
full sovereignty of the duchy of Guienne, together with Aunis,
Saintonge, Angoumois and Poitou. The victories of du Guesclin and Gaston
Phoebus, count of Foix, restored the duchy soon after to its
13th-century limits. In 1451 it was conquered and finally united to the
French crown by Charles VII. In 1469 Louis XI. gave it in exchange for
Champagne and Brie to his brother Charles, duke of Berry, after whose
death in 1472 it was again united to the royal dominion. Guienne then
formed a government which from the 17th century onwards was united with
Gascony. The government of Guienne and Gascony, with its capital at
Bordeaux, lasted till the end of the _ancien regime_. Under the
Revolution the departments formed from Guienne proper were those of
Gironde, Lot-et-Garonne, Dordogne, Lot, Aveyron and the chief part of
Tarn-et-Garonne.
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