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AQUITAINE

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 253 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AQUITAINE , the name of an See also:

ancient See also:province in See also:France, the extent of which has varied considerably from See also:time to time. About the time of See also:Julius See also:Caesar the name Aquitania was given to that See also:part of See also:Gaul lying between the See also:Pyrenees and the See also:Garonne, and its inhabitants were a See also:race, or races, distinct from the Celts. The name Aquitania is probably a See also:form of Auscetani, which in its turn is a lengthened form of Ausces, and is thus cognate with the words Basque and Wasconia, i.e. See also:Gascony. Although many of the tribes of Aquitania submitted to Julius Caesar, it was not until about 28 B.c. that the See also:district was brought under the See also:Roman yoke. In keeping with the Roman policy of denationalization, the See also:term Aquitania was extended, and under See also:Augustus it included the whole of Gaul See also:south and See also:west of the See also:Loire and the See also:Allier, and thus ceased to possess ethnographical importance. In the 3rd See also:century A.D. this larger Aquitania was divided into three parts: Aquitania Prima, the eastern part of the district between the Loire and the Garonne; Aquitania Secunda, the western part of the same district; and Aquitania Tertia, or Novempopulana, the region between the Garonne and the Pyrenees, or the See also:original Aquitania. The seats of See also:government were respectively See also:Bourges, See also:Bordeaux and Eauze; the province contained twenty-six cities, and was in the See also:diocese of See also:Vienne. Like the See also:rest of Gaul, Aquitania absorbed a large measure of Roman See also:civilization, and this continued to distinguish the district down to a See also:late See also:period. In the 5th century the Visigoths established themselves in Aquitania Secunda, and also in parts of Aquitania Prima and Novempopulana, but after the defeat of their See also:king See also:Alaric II. by the See also:Franks under See also:Clovis in 507, they were supplanted by their conquerors. Clovis and his successors extended their authority nominally to the Pyrenees, but, as See also:Guizot has remarked, " the See also:conquest of Aquitania by Clovis See also:left it almost as See also:alien to the See also:people and king of Franks as it had formerly been." Subsequently during the -Merovingian period it was contended for by the feeble rulers of the various Frankish kingdoms, and was frequently partitioned among them; but the Aquitanians had little difficulty in effectually resisting this authority, although they did not establish themselves as a See also:separate See also:kingdom. About 628, indeed, they gathered around See also:Charibert, or Haribert, a See also:brother of the Frankish king, Dagobert I., in the See also:hope of See also:national See also:independence; but after his See also:death in 63o they returned to their former See also:condition.

But this effort, although a failure, brought about a certain measure of See also:

concord between the two See also:principal races inhabiting the district, and so prepared 1 According to H. Nissen, Ital. Landeskunde (See also:Berlin, 1902), ii. 665, a road ran from here to See also:Minturnae; but no traces of it are to be seen.the way for the stubborn resistance which, subsequently, the Aquitanians were able to offer to the Franks. The first See also:line of See also:dukes began about 66o with one See also:Felix, who, like his successor, See also:Lupus, probably owned See also:allegiance to the Frankish See also:kings, and whose seat of government was See also:Toulouse. About the end of the 7th century an adventurer named See also:Odo, or Eudes, made himself See also:master of this region. Attacked by the See also:Saracens he inflicted on them a crushing defeat, but when they reappeared, he was obliged to invoke the aid of See also:Charles Martel, who, as the See also:price of his support, claimed and received the See also:homage of his ally. Odo was succeeded by his son See also:Hunald, who after carrying on a See also:war against the Franks under See also:Pippin the See also:Short, retired to a See also:convent, leaving both the kingdom and the conflict to Waifer, or Guaifer. For some years Waifer strenuously carried on an unequal struggle with the Franks, but he was assassinated in 768, and with him perished the national independence, although not the national individuality, of the Aquitanians. In 781 See also:Charlemagne bestowed Aquitaine upon his See also:young son, See also:Louis, and as Louis was generally described as a king, Aquitaine is referred to during the Carolingian period as a kingdom, and not as a duchy. When Louis succeeded Charlemagne as See also:emperor in 814, he granted Aquitaine to his son Pippin, on whose death in 838 the Aquitanians See also:chose his son Pippin II. (d.

865) as their king. The emperor Louis I., however, opposed this arrangement and gave the kingdom to his youngest son Charles, afterwards the emperor Charles the Bald. Now followed a time of confusion and conflict which resulted eventually in the success of Charles, although from 845 to 852 Pippin was in See also:

possession of the kingdom. In 852 Pippin was imprisoned by Charles the Bald, who soon afterwards gave to the Aquitanians his own son Charles as their king. On the death of the younger Charles in 866, his brother Louis the Stammerer succeeded to the kingdom, and when, in 877, Louis became king of the Franks, Aquitaine was See also:united to the Frankish See also:crown. A new period now begins in the See also:history of Aquitaine. By a treaty made in 845 between Charles the Bald and Pippin II. the kingdom had been diminished by the loss of See also:Poitou, See also:Saintonge and Angournois, which had been given to Rainulf I., See also:count of See also:Poitiers. Somewhat earlier than this date the See also:title of See also:duke of the Aquitanians had been revived, and this was now See also:borne by Rainulf, although it was also claimed by the See also:counts • of Toulouse. The new duchy of Aquitaine, comprising the three districts already mentioned, remained in the hands of Rainulf's successors, in spite of some trouble with their Frankish over-lords, until 893 when Count Rainulf II. was poisoned'by See also:order of King Charles III. the See also:Simple. Charles then bestowed the duchy upon See also:William the Pious, count of See also:Auvergne, the founder of the See also:abbey of See also:Cluny, who was succeeded in 918 by his See also:nephew, Count William II., who died in 926. A See also:succession of dukes followed, one of whom, William IV., fought against See also:Hugh See also:Capet, king of France, and another of whom, William V., called the See also:Great, was able considerably to strengthen and extend his authority, although he failed in his See also:attempt to secure the Lombard crown. William's duchy almost reached the limits of the Roman Aquitania Prima and Secunda, but did not stretch south of the Garonne, a district which was in the possession of the Gascons.

William died in 1030, and the names of William VI. (d. 1038), Odo or Eudes (d. 1o39),who joinedGascony to his duchy, William VII. and William VIII. bring us down to William IX. (d, 1127), who succeeded in 1087, and made himself famous as a crusader and a See also:

troubadour. William X. (d. 1137) married his daughter Eleanor to Louis VII., king of France, and Aquitaine went as her See also:dowry. When Eleanor was divorced from Louis and was married in 1152 to See also:Henry II. of See also:England the duchy passed to her new See also:husband, who, having suppressed a revolt there, gave it to his son See also:Richard. When Richard died in 1199, it reverted to Eleanor, and on her death five years later, was united to the See also:English crown and henceforward followed the fortunes of the English possessions in France. Aquitaine as it came to the English kings stretched as of old from the Loire to the Pyrenees, but its extent was curtailed on the south-See also:east by the wide lands of the counts of Toulouse. The name See also:Guienne, a corruption of Aquitaine, seems to have come into use about the loth century, and the subsequent history of Aquitaine is merged in that of Gascony (q.v.) and Guienne (q.v.).

See E. Desjardins, Geographie historique et administrative de la Gaule romaine (See also:

Paris, 1876, 93) ; A. See also:Luchaire, See also:Les Origines linguistiques de l'Aquitaine (Paris, 1877) ; A. Longnon, Geographie de la Gaule au VI' siecle (Paris, 1876) ; A. Perroud, Les Origines du premier chichi d'Aquitaine (Paris, 1881) ; and E. Mabille, Le Royaume d'Aquitaine et ses See also:marches sous les Carlovingiens (Paris, 187o).

End of Article: AQUITAINE

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