Aquitaine

Aquitaine. Rich wine-producing region in the south-west of France. Originally a province in Roman Gaul, after the 9th cent. Aquitaine became a more or less independent duchy in the kingdom of France. In 1154 when Eleanor of Aquitaine's husband became King Henry II, the duchy became one of the king of England's dominions and remained so, though within fluctuating borders, until 1453. Until Edward III claimed the French throne for himself, the kings of England (as dukes of Aquitaine) owed homage to the kings of France. In 1202 King Philip Augustus pronounced the confiscation of all John's fiefs in France. While Eleanor of Aquitaine lived this had little effect in her duchy, but when she died in 1204 most of the lords and towns of inland Poitou (northern Aquitaine) transferred their allegiance to Philip. In 1224 Louis VIII conquered La Rochelle and the remainder of Plantagenet Poitou. This left a duchy of Aquitaine comprising little more than Gascony and from then on the two names were used interchangeably. Continuing Anglo-French disputes over the status of Aquitaine contributed to the outbreak of the Hundred Years War in the 1330s. By the treaty of Brétigny (1360) Edward III obtained Poitou and in consequence the Black Prince was briefly prince of a greater Aquitaine, but when war was renewed in 1369 these gains were soon lost. From then on the history of ‘English’ Aquitaine was essentially the history of Gascony.

John Gillingham