1.
Armagnac (province)
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The county of Armagnac, situated between the Adour and Garonne rivers in the lower foothills of the Pyrenées, is a historic county of the Duchy of Gascony, established in 601 in Aquitaine. It is a region in southwestern France that includes parts of the Departments of Gers, Landes, the region is predominantly agricultural and is noted for its Armagnac brandy, the oldest French brandy. Once an important county, it reached its greatest power and extent during the 14th and 15th centuries, under Roman rule, Armagnac was included in the Civitas Ausciorum, or district of Auch, of Aquitania. Under the Merovingians it was part of the duchy of Aquitania, near the end of the ninth century the part now known as Fezensac became a hereditary county. About 1140 Bernards grandson, Géraud III, briefly reunited the comté of Fezensac, when Gascogne was linked once more to Aquitaine by the Treaty of Meaux in 1229, the county of Armagnac was the most powerful of the fiefs of Gascony. The chance of dynastic succession continued repeatedly to separate Fezensac, the three great territorial lords in the south were the Count of Armagnac, the Count of Foix, and the Lord of Albret. The counts of Armagnac increased their territory through marriage and purchase, Jean I, comte dArmagnac and his successors joined to Armagnac the comté of Rodez and that of Carlat, and the vicomtés of Lomagne and Auvillars, Comminges and briefly Charolais. During the Hundred Years War the southern part of France, including Armagnac, was ceded to England by the Treaty of Brétigny, Edward, the Black Prince, administered the region for his father, King Edward III of England. He soon alienated the nobles by giving privileges to the towns, by submitting themselves to King Charles V of France, noble families like the Armagnacs were able to retain much of their former power and assure themselves of protection. In 1410 the daughter of Count Bernard VII of Armagnac was married to Duke Charles I of Orleans, Charles father had been killed by supporters of the duke of Burgundy, who resented Orleans influence on the king. After the marriage, the Armagnac family became associated with the part of King Charles VI against Burgundy, until his death in 1418, Count Bernard remained a bitter enemy of Burgundy. When Burgundy allied itself with England during the stages of the Hundred Years War. The two factions engaged in a civil war that ended in 1435. After peace was established, many veterans originally recruited by Count Bernard VII formed mercenary bands that became known as the Armagnacs. Although they were in the service of King Charles VII, the Armagnacs became notorious for their rapacious plundering in the north of France. In 1444 they were sent to Switzerland on a known as the Armagnac War. Although the Swiss were badly defeated, their determined resistance persuaded the Armagnacs to withdraw from Switzerland, soon after, the Armagnacs were incorporated into Charles VIIs regular army. After the death of Bernard VII in 1418, the counts of Armagnac gradually lost their position in southern France
2.
Bernard VI, Count of Armagnac
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Bernard VI, Count of Armagnac and Fezensac, was the son of Gerald VI, Count of Armagnac, and Mathe de Béarn. In 1302, Bernard fought in Italy under the command of Charles of Valois, subsequently, he participated in all the campaigns in Flanders directed by Philippe le Bel and his son Louis X. He then served as head of large detachments of the royal army and he contributed particularly to the victory of Mons-en-Alarcon on 18 August 1304, with four hundred armed men and a thousand policemen on foot. This military activity was very expensive and impoverished Bernard VI and he was obliged to borrow 2500 gold florins for the funeral of his wife. After the death of Gaston VII, Viscount of Béarn, his grandfather, the will favored the Count of Foix and Bernard refuted its legitimacy. The conflict escalated into a war between the houses of Foix and Armagnac, which took place during nearly all of the fourteenth century. He first married Isabella dAlbret, daughter of Bernard Ezy IV Sire of Albret, through this marriage, Bernard VI carried the title of lord of Albret between the years 1280 and 1294. In 1298, he married Cecilia de Rodez, heiress of Henri II Count of Rodez, children, all born of the second marriage were, John I, Count of Armagnac, of Fezensac and Rodez. Mathe, married in 1321 to Bernard Ezi IV, Sire dAlbret, Bernard had an illegitimate son, John, Bastard of Armagnac, called la Guerre, participated in wars in Gascony. He was captured by the men, then released after promising to be faithful. He left arms, embraced the state, was Patriarch of Alexandria. Archives historiques de la Gascogne, Ed, société historique de Gascogne, Cocharaux Frères Imprimeur,1887
3.
Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac
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Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac was Count of Armagnac and Constable of France. He was the son of John II and Jeanne de Périgord and he succeeded in Armagnac at the death of his brother, John III, in 1391. After prolonged fighting, he also became Count of Comminges in 1412, when his brother, who claimed the Kingdom of Majorca, invaded northern Catalonia late in 1389 in an attempt to seize the kingdoms continental possessions, Bernard commanded part of his forces. Bernards wife was Bonne, the daughter of John, Duke of Berry and he first gained influence at the French court when Louis, Duke of Orléans married Valentina Visconti, the daughter of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan. Bernards sister Beatrice married Valentinas brother Carlo, after Louis assassination in 1407, Armagnac remained attached to the cause of Orléans. He married his daughter Bonne to the young Charles, Duke of Orléans in 1410, Bernard dArmagnac became the nominal head of the faction which opposed John the Fearless in the Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War, and the faction came to be called the Armagnacs as a consequence. He became constable of France in 1415 and was the head of the government of the Dauphin, the future Charles VII, until the Burgundians invaded Paris in the night of 28-29 May 1418. On 12 June 1418, he was one of the first victims of the massacres in which over 550 of his real or suspected followers were killed in the course of weeks throughout the summer
4.
Antoine of Navarre
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Antoine was the King of Navarre through his marriage to Queen Jeanne III, from 1555 until his death. He was the first monarch of the House of Bourbon, of which he was head from 1537 and he was the father of Henry IV of France. He was born at La Fère, Picardy, France, the son of Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme. He was the brother of Louis I de Bourbon, Prince de Condé. On 20 October 1548, at Moulins, he married Jeanne III, Queen regnant of Navarre, daughter of Henry II of Navarre and his wife Margaret of Angoulême. By his marriage, he became King of Navarre, Count of Foix, of Bigorre, of Armagnac, of Périgord and it was reported that Jeanne was much in love with him, but his subsequent actions show that he had little loyalty to her. The southern territory of the Kingdom of Navarre had been occupied by the Spanish since 1512 and he was ready to sacrifice anything to his political interests. Antoine appears not to have had real religious conviction and officially changed religions several times and his reconversion to Catholicism separated him from his wife and he threatened to repudiate her. He had an affair with Louise de La Béraudière de lIsle Rouhet, la belle Rouet, with whom he had a son, although his brother Louis was the head of the Protestant faction, Antoine spent most of his life fighting for the King of France. Catherine de Medici, regent for her son Charles IX, named him lieutenant general of the kingdom in 1561, when his wife allowed the Huguenots to sack the chapel of Vendôme and the churches of the town in 1562, he threatened to send her to a convent. He often disappointed his followers and was manipulated by his superiors and he laid siege to Rouen and was mortally wounded on 13 November 1562. He died at Les Andelys, Eure, with his wife, Jeanne III of Navarre, he had the following issue, Henry, Duke of Beaumont Henry IV of France Louis, Count of Marle Madeleine Catherine. Married Henry II, Duke of Lorraine in 1599, with his mistress, Louise de La Béraudière de lIsle Rouhet, King Anthony had a son named Charles. Charles was Archbishop of Rouen from 1554 until 1610, achaintre, Nicolas Louis, Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de Bourbon, Vol.2, Publisher Mansut Fils,4 Rue de lÉcole de Médecine, Paris,1825. Bergin, Joseph, The making of the French episcopate, 1589–1661, bryson, David, Queen Jeanne and the Promised Land, Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden,1999. Dupuy, Trevor, Curt Johnson and David L. Bongard, The Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography, Castle Books, duruy, Victor, John Franklin Jameson and Mabell Shippie Clarke Smith, A history of France, Thomas Y. Dussieux, Louis, Généalogie de la maison de Bourbon, de 1256 à1871, the French wars of religion, 1562–1629, Cambridge University Press, New York,2005. Robin, Diana Maury, Larsen, Anne R. and Levin, Encyclopedia of women in the Renaissance, Italy, France, and England
5.
Jeanne d'Albret
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Jeanne dAlbret, also known as Jeanne III, was the queen regnant of Navarre from 1555 to 1572. She married Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, and was the mother of Henry of Bourbon, who became King Henry III of Navarre and IV of France and she became the Duchess of Vendôme by marriage. Jeanne was the spiritual and political leader of the French Huguenot movement. After her public conversion to Calvinism in 1560, she joined the Huguenot forces, during the first and second war she remained relatively neutral, but in the third war she fled to La Rochelle, becoming the de facto leader. After negotiating a treaty with Catherine de Medici and arranging the marriage of her son, Henry, to Catherines daughter, Marguerite. Jeanne was the last active ruler of Navarre, in 1620, Jeannes grandson Louis XIII annexed Navarre to the French crown. Her mother, the daughter of Louise of Savoy and Charles and she received an excellent education under the tutelage of humanist Nicolas Bourbon. Described as a frivolous and high-spirited princess, she also, at an early age, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, offered to have her married to his son and heir, Philip, to settle the status of the Kingdom of Navarre. Despite having been whipped into obedience, she, nevertheless, continued to protest and had to be carried bodily to the altar by the Constable of France, before her wedding, Jeanne signed two documents which she had officers of her household sign. She remained at the royal court, after the death of Francis in 1547 and the accession of Henry II to the French throne, Jeanne married Antoine de Bourbon, first prince of the blood, at Moulins in the Bourbonnais on 20 October 1548. The marriage was intended to consolidate territorial possessions in the north and south of France, Jeannes marriage to Antoine was described by author Mark Strage as having been a romantic match. A contemporary of Jeanne said of her that she had no pleasure or occupation except in talking about or writing to and she does it in company and in private. The waters cannot quench the flame of her love, in 1554, he fathered an illegitimate son, Charles, by Louise de La Béraudière de lIsle Rouhet, a court beauty known as La belle Rouet. Antoines frequent absences left Jeanne in Béarn to rule alone, and in charge of a household which she managed with a firm. The couple had five children, of only two, Henry, king of France and king of Navarre, and Catherine, duchess of Lorraine. On 25 May 1555, Henry II of Navarre died, at which time Jeanne, on 18 August 1555 at Pau, Jeanne and Antoine were crowned in a joint ceremony according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church. The previous month, a coin commemorating the new reign had been minted. It was inscribed in Latin with the words, Antonius et Johanna Dei gratia reges Navarrae Domini Bearni
6.
Gerald VI, Count of Armagnac
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Gerald VI, was Viscount Fezensaguet from 1240 to 1285, then Count of Armagnac and Fezensac from 1256 to 1285. He was the son of Roger dArmagnac, Viscount of Fezensaguet, in this war Gerald was supported by his overlord, Count Raymond VII of Toulouse. Captured, he was released for ransom and continued the fight successfully, during his captivity, his mother, Pincelle dAlbret, presented in his name the county of Fezensaguet as tribute to Alphonse of Poitiers, the successor of Raymond VII, in return for continued support. It was not until 1255 that Gaston, Viscount of Bearn, in 1256, after the death of the childless Mascarós II Lomagne, Gerald, being her closest relative, inherited the counties of Armagnac and Fezensac. Following numerous quarrels with the Seneschal of Languedoc, he was captured and imprisoned two years in the castle of Peronne, liberated, he paid homage to Edward I, King of England. In 1260, he married Mathe de Béarn, daughter of Gaston, Viscount of Bearn and Mathe, bulletin de la Section de géographie, Vol.15, Ed. Ernest Leroux, Imprimerie Nationale,1900. Société historique de Gascogne, Imprimerie et Lithographie Felix Foix,1880
7.
Henri, Count of Harcourt
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Henri de Lorraine, known as Cadet la Perle, was a French nobleman. He was count of Harcourt, count of Armagnac, count of Brionne and he was the younger son of Charles I, Duke of Elbeuf and his wife Marguerite de Chabot, countess of Charny. He did his first military service at the siege of Prague in November 1620, in France he fought the Protestants and took part in the Siege of La Rochelle and Saint-Jean-dAngély. He was made a knight in the Order of the Holy Spirit in 1633, Grand Squire of France in 1643, in 1637 he fought in Piedmont during the Franco-Spanish War, where he defeated a Spanish army, very superieur in numbers near Chieri. He was also in charge of the Siege of Turin, where he took the city after a siege of three months and he then fought in Sardinia and Catalonia, where he was named viceroy in 1645. During the Fronde, he remained loyal to the regent-queen Anne of Austria, but clashed with Mazarin, georges Poull, La maison ducale de Lorraine,1991 Media related to Henri, Count of Harcourt at Wikimedia Commons
8.
Henry IV of France
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Henry IV, also known by the epithet Good King Henry, was King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first French monarch of the House of Bourbon, baptised as a Catholic but raised in the Protestant faith by his mother Jeanne dAlbret, Queen of Navarre, he inherited the throne of Navarre in 1572 on the death of his mother. As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the French Wars of Religion, barely escaping assassination in the St. Bartholomews Day massacre, and later led Protestant forces against the royal army. Henry, as Head of the House of Bourbon, was a direct descendant of Louis IX of France. Upon the death of his brother-in-law and distant cousin Henry III of France in 1589 and he initially kept the Protestant faith and had to fight against the Catholic League, which denied that he could wear Frances crown as a Protestant. To obtain mastery over his kingdom, after four years of stalemate, as a pragmatic politician, he displayed an unusual religious tolerance for the era. Notably, he promulgated the Edict of Nantes, which guaranteed religious liberties to Protestants and he was assassinated in 1610 by François Ravaillac, a fanatical Catholic, and was succeeded by his son Louis XIII. Considered a usurper by some Catholics and a traitor by some Protestants, an unpopular king immediately after his accession, Henrys popularity greatly improved after his death, in light of repeated victories over his enemies and his conversion to Catholicism. The Good King Henry was remembered for his geniality and his concern about the welfare of his subjects. He was celebrated in the popular song Vive le roi Henri, Henry was born in Pau, the capital of the joint Kingdom of Navarre with the sovereign principality of Béarn. His parents were Queen Joan III of Navarre and her consort, Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, although baptised as a Roman Catholic, Henry was raised as a Protestant by his mother, who had declared Calvinism the religion of Navarre. As a teenager, Henry joined the Huguenot forces in the French Wars of Religion, on 9 June 1572, upon his mothers death, he became King of Navarre. At Queen Joans death, it was arranged for Henry to marry Margaret of Valois, daughter of Henry II, the wedding took place in Paris on 18 August 1572 on the parvis of Notre Dame Cathedral. On 24 August, the Saint Bartholomews Day Massacre began in Paris, several thousand Protestants who had come to Paris for Henrys wedding were killed, as well as thousands more throughout the country in the days that followed. Henry narrowly escaped death thanks to the help of his wife and he was made to live at the court of France, but he escaped in early 1576. On 5 February of that year, he formally abjured Catholicism at Tours and he named his 16-year-old sister, Catherine de Bourbon, regent of Béarn. Catherine held the regency for nearly thirty years, Henry became heir presumptive to the French throne in 1584 upon the death of Francis, Duke of Anjou, brother and heir to the Catholic Henry III, who had succeeded Charles IX in 1574. Because Henry of Navarre was the senior agnatic descendant of King Louis IX, King Henry III had no choice
9.
John V, Count of Armagnac
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John V of Armagnac, the penultimate Count of Armagnac of the older branch. He was the son of John IV of Armagnac and Isabella of Navarre, when word got out that two boys had been born in the castle of Lectoure, the couple promised to reform their controversial behavior. Other serious breaches ensued, John refused to seat a bishop of Auch selected by the King and assented to by the Pope, events came to a head in May 1455. Tried in absentia in 1460 before a parlement of Charles VII, he was convicted of lese-majeste, rebellion, forces were sent to capture him but he escaped punishment by fleeing to his cousins in Aragon. Though he pleaded his case in Rome, the couple were separated, within a few years a new King of France, Louis XI, reinstated John in his domains, where John rashly undid his fathers acts and broke faith with his promises. Betraying Louis, Armagnac was part of the league that called themselves Bien public, in 1469, Louis responded, under the pretense that John was treating with ambassadors from England, and sent an army to rout him. John fled to Spain, only to reappear in 1471 in the train of the rebellious brother. Louis had John besieged in his stronghold of Lectoure and put to death by Jean Jouffroy, in Lectoure on 19 August 1469, John married Joan, daughter of Count Gaston IV of Foix and Queen Eleanor of Navarre, later monarch of Navarre. April 1473 so that the race of the Count could be ended, in consequence, the title of Count of Armagnac passed, first fruitlessly to his younger brother Charles, and in 1497 to his cousin of the cadet branch, Armagnac-Nemours. His union with his sister Isabelle of Armagnac, produced three children, John of Armagnac, Seigneur of Camboulas, married in 1507 with Jeanne de La Tour, anthony of Armagnac, called the Bâtard dArmagnac. Rose of Armagnac, married in 1498 with Gaspard II de Villemur, Seigneur of Montbrun, a contemporary chronicler described him, Fire ran in his veins. He was as violent in his desires as imperious in his actions and his physical aspect was not seductive, short and stocky of stature, even pot-bellied, but gifted with great bodily strength. His neck was short, sumounted with an acne-pocked visage, with squinty eyes, un vrai feuilleton documentary history of Jean dAramagnac
10.
John I, Count of Armagnac
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John I of Armagnac, son of Bernard VI and Cecilia Rodez, was Count of Armagnac from 1319 to 1373. In addition to Armagnac he controlled territory in Quercy, Rouergue and he was the count who initiated the 14th century expansion of the county. In summer 1337, with the outbreak of the Hundred Years War, he provided a contingent of 6,000 men for the campaign of Raoul I of Eu, Constable of France, in Gascony. As this threat grew weaker the French offensive in the south was resumed with the siege of Penne-dAgenais in November by John of Bohemia, John provided 1,200 men for this siege, which ended with the surrender of the town, though not the castle. Through these early years of the war the Count of Foix had conducted a series of independent campaigns which allowed him to expand his territory into the Adour valley. This expansion brought him conflict with Armagnac. Just after his return from the north at the end of 1339 John attacked Miramont-Sensacq, a town he laid claim to. This started a short but violent private war, ended by the town taken into royal custody and this quarrel caused John to reconsider his allegiance to the French Crown. As compensation for the territory he expected to once he switched allegiance Armagnac demanded several towns held by the King of France, chief among them Montréal, Mézin. Of these the English only succeeded in taking and holding Mézin, the negotiations therefore came to an end and John remained a vassal of Philip VI. In the north the situation had improved for the English with their victory in the Battle of Sluys. Edward III’s next step was an attack on Saint-Omer by his Flemish allies led by Robert III of Artois, however Robert III failed completely in masking his intentions. This allowed Philip VI to dispatch John of Armagnac to reinforce the already present there under Eudes IV. On 26 July what begun as an attack on the enemy lines by some French knights developed into a major battle as the Duke of Burgundy decided to sally forth in strength. Faced with the loss of the bulk of his army Robert of Artois was forced to retreat from the city in disorder, meanwhile Edward III had with his own army laid siege to the city of Tournai. The siege dragged out and in September Philip VI marched to confront him, the result was not battle, but negotiations in which John of Armagnac took part as one of five French plenipotentiaries. The negotiations resulted in a truce concluded on 24 September, derby’s opened his campaign with the capture of the garrison town of Bergerac by storm. This caused major shock to at the French court as no significant English army was expected in the south, Armagnac helped shore up the French position by gathering some of the survivors and retreating to Périgueux
11.
John IV, Count of Armagnac
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John IV was a Count of Armagnac, Fézensac, and Rodez from 1418 to 1450. He was the son of Bernard VII of Armagnac, Count d Armagnac, of Fézensac, Pardiac, and Rodez and his father had taken the County of Comminges by force, but John IV could not prevent the second marriage of Marguerite to Mathieu de Foix in 1419. Subsequently they took the County of Comminges, in 1425, he recognized the King of Castile as overlord of Armagnac. The French king, occupied fighting the English, could not intervene, later, John IV negotiated the marriage of his daughter Isabelle with Henri VI, but he backed off from this plan after threats from the king of France. In 1440, he took part in a revolt of the barons and the Dauphin of France, but the coalition was overcome by Charles VII and he asked the Count of Armagnac to give up its kingly formula, but this last was refused. Charles VII then asked the Dauphin to punish the recalcitrant John IV, besieged in LIsle-Jourdain, John IV was made prisoner and imprisoned in Carcassonne in 1443. He was pardoned three years later, but his counties were directed by officers, and he did not have any more noble capacities until his death. His second wife was Isabella d Évreux, daughter of Charles III, king of Navarre and they had five children, Marie of Armagnac, married in 1437 John II of Alençon, Duke of Alençon, maternal great-grandparents of King Henry IV of France. Jean V of Armagnac, Viscount of Lomagne, then Count d Armagnac, of Fézensac, eléonore, married in 1446 Louis II of Chalon-Arlay, Prince dOrange, Lord of Arlay and Arguel. Charles I, Count of Armagnac, Viscount of Fézensaguet, then Count d Armagnac, of Fézensac and Rodez
12.
Louis, Count of Armagnac
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Louis of Lorraine was the Count of Armagnac from his fathers death in 1666. The Grand Squire of France, he was a member of a branch of the House of Guise. His descendants include Albert II, Prince of Monaco, Umberto II of Italy, Louis de Lorraine was born in Paris to Henri de Lorraine, Count of Armagnac and his wife Marguerite Philippe du Cambout. His younger brother, Philippe, chevalier de Lorraine, was infamously the lover of Monsieur, i. e. Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, younger brother of Louis XIV. He, like his father before him, was the Grand Squire of France, one of the Great Officers of the Crown of France, at Louis death, the post, as well as style of Monsieur le Grand was taken by his son Charles, Count of Armagnac. His wife was Catherine de Neufville, youngest daughter of Nicolas de Neufville, Duke of Villeroy and she was a sister of François de Neufville de Villeroy, the future governor of Louis XV. The couple had 14 children, of only three would have progeny, He was buried at the Abbey of Royaumont, located near Asnières-sur-Oise in Val-dOise, approximately 30 km north of Paris. With him is his father and son, François Armand
