1.
Auvergne
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Auvergne is a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it is part of the new region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and it comprises four departments, Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Haute-Loire. The administrative region of Auvergne is larger than the province of Auvergne. The Auvergne region is composed of the old provinces, Auvergne, departments of Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal, northwest of Haute-Loire. The province of Auvergne is entirely contained inside the Auvergne region Bourbonnais, a small part of Bourbonnais is also contained inside the Centre-Val de Loire region. Velay, centre and southeast of department of Haute-Loire, velay is entirely contained inside the Auvergne region. A small part of Gévaudan, extreme southwest of Haute-Loire, Gévaudan is essentially inside the Languedoc-Roussillon region. A small part of Vivarais, extreme southeast of Haute-Loire, Vivarais is essentially inside the Rhône-Alpes region. A small part of Forez, extreme northeast of Haute-Loire, Forez is essentially inside the Rhône-Alpes region. Velay, Gévaudan, and Vivarais are often considered to be sub-provinces of the old province of Languedoc, Forez is also often considered to be a sub-province of Lyonnais. Therefore, the region of Auvergne is composed of the provinces of Auvergne, major part of Bourbonnais. The region is home to a chain of volcanoes known collectively as the chaîne des Puys, the last confirmed eruption was around 4040 BCE. The volcanoes began forming some 70,000 years ago, and most have eroded, Auvergne has a surface area of 26,013 square kilometres equivalent to 4. 8% of Frances total surface area. Auvergne is one of the smallest regions in France, Auvergne is known for its mountain ranges and dormant volcanoes. Together the Monts Dore and the Chaîne des Puys include 80 volcanoes, the Puy de Dôme is the tallest volcano in the region, with an altitude of 1,465 metres. The Sancy Massif in the Monts Dore is the highest point in Auvergne, the northern region is covered in hills while the southern portion is mountainous and dotted with pastures. The Forest of Tronçais covers nearly 11,000 hectares and is the largest oak forest in Europe, the Loire runs through the southeast and borders the northeast, and the Allier runs from north to south down the center of Auvergne, with branches going east and west. Over many years the Allier river has created what are known as the Allier gorges, Auvergne has about 50 freshwater ponds and lakes
2.
Provinces of France
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The Kingdom of France was organized into provinces until March 4,1790, when the establishment of the department system superseded provinces. The provinces of France were roughly equivalent to the counties of England. In some cases, several regions or departments share names with the historic provinces. The list below shows the provinces of France at the time of their dissolution during the French Revolution. Capital cities are shown in parentheses, bold indicates a city that was also the seat of a judicial and quasi-legislative body called either a parlement or a conseil souverain. In some cases, this body met in a different city than the capital, comtat Venaissin, a Papal fief 36. Imperial Free City of Mulhouse 37, montbéliard, a fief of Württemberg Partial display of historical provincial arms, Ancien Régime in France Gallery of French coats of arms Coat of arms Heraldry
3.
Arverni
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The Arverni were a Celtic tribe. The tribe was located in what is today the French Auvergne region, one of the most powerful tribes in ancient Gaul, the Arverni opposed the Romans on several occasions. Their most important stronghold was Gergovia, near the commune of Clermont-Ferrand. The Arverni are known to have had the most powerful tribal hegemony in Gaul during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC under their kings, Luernios, and his son Bituitus. But when Arvern king Bituitus was defeated by the Romans of Quintus and Gnaeus Ahenobarbus in 121 BC, their ascendancy passed to the Aedui and Sequani. No further Arvernian kings are mentioned in the record between 121 BC and 52 BC, and they may have adopted a constitutional oligarchy at this time. However, there were at least two attempts to re-establish rulership by Celtillos and Vercingetorix. The King Luernios was mentioned in writing by the Greek ethnographer Posidonius, Luernios was known to have scattered gold and silver coins to his followers while riding in his chariot. Under Luernios, the Arverni were at the head of a formidable Gallic military hegemony which stretched from the Rhine to the Atlantic coast and they joined Bellovesus migrations towards Italy, together with the Aeduii, Ambarri, Aulerci, Carnutes and Senones. The Arverni later played an important role in the Gallic Wars of Julius Caesar from 58 BC to 51 BC, at first the Arvenian nobles tried to avoid confronting Caesar during his early incursions. They executed the leader Celtillus, evidently for trying to gain sovereignty over all the Gauls, in 52 BC, Celtillus son Vercingetorix rallied his supporters to fight the Romans, but was expelled from Gergovia by the nobles, including his uncle Gobanitio. He then raised an army in the country, and returned to the city where he ejected his opponents and was declared king. This accomplished, Vercingetorix forged an alliance with at least 15 Gallic tribes and he then led the majority of the Gauls and won the Gergovia battle against Julius Caesar and his cavalry did marvels in pursuing the Roman troops. After Julius Caesar saved half of his legions and received food from other Gauls, Vercingetorix was defeated by Caesar at the Battle of Alesia, after several months where the legions built 14 ranges of military equipment to block the Gallic soldiers. After several weeks of support from the western Gallic people with huge troops coming to support Vercingetorix, when the western Gallic people decided to depart, Vercingetorix took the decision to surrender to save the people of Alesia. The Arverni territories and over 75% of the Gauls were subsequently incorporated into the Roman imperium, Quintus Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus, conquered King Bituitus Alba Fucens, town where Bituitus was held after capture
4.
Gauls
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The Gauls were Celtic peoples inhabiting Gaul in the Iron Age and the Roman period. Their Gaulish language forms the branch of the Continental Celtic languages. The Gauls emerged around the 5th century BC as the bearers of the La Tène culture north of the Alps, Gaul was never united under a single ruler or government, but the Gallic tribes were capable of uniting their forces in large-scale military operations. They reached the peak of their power in the early 3rd century BC, after this, Gaul became a province of the Roman Empire, and the Gauls were culturally assimilated into a Gallo-Roman culture, losing their tribal identities by the end of the 1st century AD. The Gauls of Gallia Celtica according to the testimony of Caesar called themselves Celtae in their own language, the name Gaul itself may be derived from Latin Galli, or it may be derived from the Germanic word Walha. Gaulish culture developed out of the Celtic cultures over the first millennia BC, the Urnfield culture represents the Celts as a distinct cultural branch of the Indo-European-speaking people. The spread of iron working led to the Hallstatt culture in the 8th century BC, the Hallstatt culture evolved into the La Tène culture in around the 5th century BC. The Greek and Etruscan civilizations and colonies began to influence the Gauls especially in the Mediterranean area, Gauls under Brennus invaded Rome circa 390 BC. Following the climate deterioration in the late Nordic Bronze Age, Celtic Gaul was invaded in the 5th century BC by tribes later called Gauls originating in the Rhine valley. Gallic invaders settled the Po Valley in the 4th century BC, defeated Roman forces in a battle under Brennus in 390 BC and raided Italy as far as Sicily. A large number of Gauls served in the armies of Carthage during the Punic Wars, in the Aegean world, an invasion of Eastern Gauls appeared in Thrace, north of Greece, in 281 BC. However, according to the Roman legend of the gold of Delphi. One king Cerethrius invaded the Thracians, while another Gallic king Bolgios invaded Macedonia and Illyria where he killed the Macedonian king Ptolemy Keraunos, in 278 BC Gaulish settlers in the Balkans were invited by Nicomedes I of Bithynia to help him in a dynastic struggle against his brother. They numbered about 10,000 fighting men and about the number of women and children. They were eventually defeated by the Seleucid king Antiochus I, in a battle where the Seleucid war elephants shocked the Galatians. While the momentum of the invasion was broken, the Galatians were by no means exterminated and continued to demand tribute from the Hellenistic states of Anatolia to avoid war,4,000 Galatians were hired as mercenaries by the Ptolemaic Egyptian king Ptolemy II Philadelphus in the 270 BC. According to Pausanias, soon after arrival the Celts plotted “to seize Egypt, ”, Galatians also participated at the victorious in 217 BC Battle of Raphia under Ptolemy IV Philopator, and continued to serve as mercenaries for the Ptolemaic Dynasty until its demise in 30 BC. They sided with the renegade Seleucid prince Antiochus Hierax, who reigned in Asia Minor, after the defeat, the Galatians continued to be a serious threat to the states of Asia Minor
5.
Vercingetorix
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Vercingetorix was a king and chieftain of the Arverni tribe, he united the Gauls in a revolt against Roman forces during the last phase of Julius Caesars Gallic Wars. Vercingetorix came to power after his designation as chieftain of the Arverni at the oppidum Gergovia in 52 BC. He immediately established an alliance with other Gallic tribes, took command and combined all forces and he won the Battle of Gergovia against Julius Caesar in which several thousands Romans and allies died and Caesars Roman legions withdrew. However, Caesar had been able to exploit Gaulish internal division to easily subjugate the country, at the Battle of Alesia, the Romans besieged and defeated his forces. In order to save as many of his men as possible he gave himself to the Romans and he was held prisoner for five years. In 46 BC, as part of Caesars triumph, Vercingetorix was paraded through the streets of Rome, Vercingetorix is primarily known through Caesars Commentaries on the Gallic War. To this day, Vercingetorix is considered a hero in Auvergne. The generally accepted view is that Vercingetorix derives from the Gaulish ver-, cingeto-, in his Life of Caesar, Plutarch renders the name as Vergentorix. He made use of the factionalism among the Gallic elites, favoring certain noblemen over others with political support, the revolt that Vercingetorix came to lead began in early 52 BC while Caesar was raising troops in Cisalpine Gaul. Undeterred, Vercingetorix raised an army of the poor, took Gergovia and was hailed as king and he made alliances with other tribes, and having been unanimously given supreme command of their armies, imposed his authority through harsh discipline and the taking of hostages. He adopted the policy of retreating to natural fortifications, and undertook an early example of a scorched earth strategy by burning towns to prevent the Roman legions from living off the land. Vercingetorix scorched much of the land marching north with his army from Gergovia in an attempt to deprive Caesar of the resources and safe haven of the towns, however, the capital of the Bituriges, Avaricum, a Gallic settlement directly in Caesars path, was spared. Due to the strong protests, naturally defendable terrain, and apparently strong man-made reinforcing defenses. Upon reaching Avaricum however, the Romans laid siege and eventually captured the capital, the next major battle was at Gergovia, capital city of the Arverni and Vercingetorix. During that battle, Vercingetorix and his warriors crushed Caesars legions and allies, Vercingetorix then decided to follow Caesar but suffered heavy losses during a cavalry battle and he retreated and moved to another stronghold, Alesia. In the Battle of Alesia, Caesar built a fortification around the city to besiege it, the relief came in insufficient numbers, estimates range from 80,000 to 250,000 soldiers. Vercingetorix, the leader, was cut off from them on the inside. However, the attacks did reveal a point in the fortifications and the combined forces on the inside
6.
Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
7.
Austromoine
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Stremonius or Saint Austremonius or Saint Stramonius or Austromoine, the apostle of Auvergne, was the first bishop of Clermont. At Clermont he is said to have converted the senator St. Cassius, nectarius and Antoninus into other parts of Auvergne, and to have been beheaded in 92. Peter from Palestine to Rome and subsequently became the Apostle of Auvergne, as well as of Berry and Nivernais. This local view found its origin in a life of St. Austremonius written in the 10th century in the Abbey of Mozac, the Vita was rewritten and amplified by the monks of Issoire, who retained as a relic the saints head. There is a further elaborated Vita of the late 11th century, with new episodes, the tomb was opened in 1197. Catholic Encyclopedia BQR sources hagiographiques Hagiographic sources for Auvergne
8.
Visigoths
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The Visigoths were the western branches of the nomadic tribes of Germanic peoples referred to collectively as the Goths. These tribes flourished and spread throughout the late Roman Empire in Late Antiquity, the Visigoths emerged from earlier Gothic groups who had invaded the Roman Empire beginning in 376 and had defeated the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. Relations between the Romans and the Visigoths were variable, alternately warring with one another and making treaties when convenient, the Visigoths invaded Italy under Alaric I and sacked Rome in 410. The Visigoths first settled in southern Gaul as foederati of the Romans – a relationship established in 418, however, they soon fell out with their Roman hosts and established their own kingdom with its capital at Toulouse. They next extended their authority into Hispania at the expense of the Suebi, in 507, however, their rule in Gaul was ended by the Franks under Clovis I, who defeated them in the Battle of Vouillé. After that, the Visigoth kingdom was limited to Hispania, in or around 589, the Visigoths under Reccared I converted from Arianism to Nicene Christianity, gradually adopting the culture of their Hispano-Roman subjects. Their legal code, the Visigothic Code abolished the practice of applying different laws for Romans. Once legal distinctions were no longer being made between Romani and Gothi, they became known collectively as Hispani, in the century that followed, the region was dominated by the Councils of Toledo and the episcopacy. In 711 or 712, a force of invading African Moors defeated the Visigoths in the Battle of Guadalete and their king and many members of their governing elite were killed, and their kingdom rapidly collapsed. During their governance of the Kingdom of Hispania, the Visigoths built several churches that survive and they also left many artifacts, which have been discovered in increasing numbers by archaeologists in recent times. The Treasure of Guarrazar of votive crowns and crosses is the most spectacular and they founded the only new cities in western Europe from the fall of the Western half of the Roman Empire until the rise of the Carolingian dynasty. Many Visigothic names are still in use in modern Spanish and Portuguese, contemporaneous references to the Gothic tribes use the terms Vesi, Ostrogothi, Thervingi, and Greuthungi. Most scholars have concluded that the terms Vesi and Tervingi were both used to refer to one particular tribe, while the terms Ostrogothi and Greuthungi were used to refer to another. In addition, the Notitia Dignitatum equates the Vesi with the Tervingi in a reference to the years 388–391, the earliest sources for each of the four names are roughly contemporaneous. The first recorded reference to the Tervingi is in a eulogy of the emperor Maximian, delivered in or shortly after 291 and it says that the Tervingi, another division of the Goths, joined with the Taifali to attack the Vandals and Gepidae. The first known use of the term Ostrogoths is in a document dated September 392 from Milan and this would explain why the latter terms dropped out of use shortly after 400, when the Goths were displaced by the Hunnic invasions. Wolfram believes that the people Zosimus describes were those Tervingi who had remained behind after the Hunnic conquest, for the most part, all of the terms discriminating between different Gothic tribes gradually disappeared after they moved into the Roman Empire. The last indication that the Goths whose king reigned at Toulouse thought of themselves as Vesi is found in a panegyric on Avitus by Sidonius Apollinaris dated 1 January 456, most recent scholars have concluded that Visigothic group identity emerged only within the Roman Empire
9.
Franks
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Some Franks raided Roman territory, while other Frankish tribes joined the Roman troops of Gaul. In later times, Franks became the rulers of the northern part of Roman Gaul. The Salian Franks lived on Roman-held soil between the Rhine, Scheldt, Meuse, and Somme rivers in what is now Northern France, Belgium, the kingdom was acknowledged by the Romans after 357 CE. Following the collapse of Rome in the West, the Frankish tribes were united under the Merovingians, who succeeded in conquering most of Gaul in the 6th century, which greatly increased their power. The Merovingian dynasty, descendants of the Salians, founded one of the Germanic monarchies that would absorb large parts of the Western Roman Empire, the Frankish state consolidated its hold over the majority of western Europe by the end of the 8th century, developing into the Carolingian Empire. This empire would gradually evolve into the state of France and the Holy Roman Empire, in the Middle Ages, the term Frank was used in the east as a synonym for western European, as the Franks were then rulers of most of Western Europe. The Franks in the east kept their Germanic language and became part of the Germans, Dutch, Flemings, the Franconian languages, which are called Frankisch in Dutch or Fränkisch in German, originated at least partly in the Old Frankish language of the Franks. Nowadays, the German and Dutch names for France are Frankreich and Frankrijk, respectively, the name Franci was originally socio-political. To the Romans, Celts, and Suebi, the Franks must have seemed alike, they looked the same and spoke the same language, so that Franci became the name by which the people were known. Within a few centuries it had eclipsed the names of the tribes, though the older names have survived in some place-names, such as Hesse. Following the precedents of Edward Gibbon and Jacob Grimm, the name of the Franks has been linked with the word frank in English and it has been suggested that the meaning of free was adopted because, after the conquest of Gaul, only Franks were free of taxation. It is traditionally assumed that Frank comes from the Germanic word for javelin, there is also another theory that suggests that Frank comes from the Latin word francisca meaning. Words in other Germanic languages meaning fierce, bold or insolent, eumenius addressed the Franks in the matter of the execution of Frankish prisoners in the circus at Trier by Constantine I in 306 and certain other measures, Ubi nunc est illa ferocia. Feroces was used often to describe the Franks, contemporary definitions of Frankish ethnicity vary both by period and point of view. According to their law and their custom, writing in 2009, Professor Christopher Wickham pointed out that the word Frankish quickly ceased to have an exclusive ethnic connotation. North of the River Loire everyone seems to have considered a Frank by the mid-7th century at the latest. Two early sources describe the origin of the Franks are a 7th-century work known as the Chronicle of Fredegar. Neither of these works are accepted by historians as trustworthy, compared with Gregory of Tourss Historia Francorum, the chronicle describes Priam as a Frankish king whose people migrated to Macedonia after the fall of Troy
10.
France in the Middle Ages
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From the 13th century on, the state slowly regained control of a number of these lost powers. The crises of the 13th and 14th centuries led to the convening of an assembly, the Estates General. From the Middle Ages onward, French rulers believed their kingdoms had natural borders, the Pyrenees, the Alps and this was used as a pretext for an aggressive policy and repeated invasions. The belief, however, had little basis in reality for not all of territories were part of the Kingdom. France had important rivers that were used as waterways, the Loire, the Rhone and these rivers were settled earlier than the rest and important cities were founded on their banks but they were separated by large forests, marsh, and other rough terrains. Before the Romans conquered Gaul, the Gauls lived in villages organised in wider tribes, the Romans referred to the smallest of these groups as pagi and the widest ones as civitates. These pagi and civitates were often taken as a basis for the imperial administration and these religious provinces would survive until the French revolution. Discussion of the size of France in the Middle Ages is complicated by distinctions between lands personally held by the king and lands held in homage by another lord, the domaine royal of the Capetians was limited to the regions around Paris, Bourges and Sens. The great majority of French territory was part of Aquitaine, the Duchy of Normandy, the Duchy of Brittany, the Comté of Champagne, the Duchy of Burgundy, and other territories. Philip II Augustus undertook a massive French expansion in the 13th century, only in the 15th century would Charles VII and Louis XI gain control of most of modern-day France. The weather in France and Europe in the Middle Ages was significantly milder than during the preceding or following it. Historians refer to this as the Medieval Warm Period, lasting from about the 10th century to about the 14th century, part of the French population growth in this period is directly linked to this temperate weather and its effect on crops and livestock. At the end of the Middle Ages, France was the most populous region in Europe—having overtaken Spain, in the 14th century, before the arrival of the Black Death, the total population of the area covered by modern-day France has been estimated at around 17 million. The population of Paris is controversial, josiah Russell argued for about 80,000 in the early 14th century, although he noted that some other scholars suggested 200,000. The higher count would make it by far the largest city in western Europe, the Black Death killed an estimated one-third of the population from its appearance in 1348. The concurrent Hundred Years War slowed recovery and it would be the mid-16th century before the population recovered to mid-fourteenth century levels. The vast majority of the population spoke a variety of vernacular languages derived from vulgar Latin. Modern linguists typically add a group within France around Lyon
11.
Duchy of Aquitaine
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It originated in the 7th century as a duchy of Francia, ultimately a recreation of the Roman provinces of Aquitania Prima and Secunda. It reappeared as a duchy, and in the High Middle Ages and their claims in France triggered the Hundred Years War, in which the kingdom of France emerged victorious in the 1450s, with many incorporated areas coming to be ruled directly by the French kings. Gallia Aquitania fell under Visigothic rule in the 5th century and it was conquered by the Franks under Clovis I in 507, as a result of the Battle of Vouillé. During the 6th and early 7th century, it was direct rule of Frankish kings. Under Chlothar II, Aquitaine was again part of Francia. This subkingdom, consisting of Gascony and the fringe of Aquitaine proper, is conventionally known as Aquitaine. Charibert campaigned successfully against the Basques, but after his death in 632, the duchy of Aquitaine as a quasi-independent realm within the Frankish empire established itself during the second half of the 7th century, certainly by 700 under Odo the Great. The first duke is on record under the name of Felix, as his successor Lupus, he probably owed allegiance to the Frankish kings. Odo succeeded Lupus in 700 and signed a treaty with Charles Martel. He inflicted on the Moors a crushing defeat at the Battle of Toulouse in 721, however, Charles Martel coveted the southern realm, crossed the Loire in 731 and looted much of Aquitaine. Odo engaged the Franks in battle, but lost and came out weakened, soon after this battle, in 732, the Moors raided Vasconia and Aquitaine as far north as Poitiers and defeated Odo twice near Bordeaux. Odo saw no option but to invoke the aid of Charles Martel, Odo was succeeded by his son Hunald, who reverted to former independence, so defying the Frankish Mayor of the Palace Charles Martels authority. The Carolingian leader attacked Hunald twice in 735 and 736, but was unable to subdue the duke. Eventually, Hunald retired to a monastery, leaving both the kingdom and the conflict to Waifer, or Guaifer. For some years Waifer strenuously carried on a struggle with the Franks. As a consequence, male-preference primogeniture was the succession law for the nobility. The autonomous and troublesome duchy of Aquitaine was conquered by the Franks in 769, in order to avoid a new demonstration of Aquitain particularism, Charlemagne decided to organize the land within his kingdom. In 781, he made his son, Louis then 3 years of age
12.
Angevin Empire
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Its rulers were Henry II, Richard I, and John. The empire was established by Henry II, as King of England, Count of Anjou, in 1152, through marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, he became ruler of the Duchy of Aquitaine. Despite the extent of Angevin rule, Henrys son, John, was defeated in the Anglo-French War by Philip II of France of the House of Capet following the Battle of Bouvines, John lost control of all his continental possessions, apart from Gascony in southern Aquitaine. This defeat set the scene for the Saintonge War and the Hundred Years War, the term Angevin Empire is a neologism defining the lands of the House of Plantagenet, Henry II and his sons Richard I and John. Another son, Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany, ruled Brittany, the term Angevin Empire was coined by Kate Norgate in her 1887 publication, England under the Angevin Kings. In France, the term Espace Plantagenêt is sometimes used to describe the fiefdoms the Plantagenets had acquired. The term Angevin itself is the demonym for the residents of Anjou and its capital, Angers. The demonym, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, has been in use since 1653, the use of the term Empire has engendered controversy among some historians, over whether the term is accurate for the actual state of affairs at the time. The area was a collection of the inherited and acquired by Henry. Other historians argue that Henry IIs empire was powerful, centralised. There was no title, as implied by the term Angevin Empire. However, even if the Plantagenets themselves did not claim any imperial title, some chroniclers, often working for Henry II himself, Auvergne was also in the empire for part of the reigns of Henry II and Richard, in their capacity as dukes of Aquitaine. Henry II and Richard I pushed further claims over the County of Berry but these were not completely fulfilled and the county was lost completely by the time of the accession of John in 1199. The frontiers of the empire were sometimes well known and therefore easy to mark, one characteristic of the Angevin Empire was its polycratic nature, a term taken from a political pamphlet written by a subject of the Angevin Empire, the Policraticus by John of Salisbury. This meant that rather than the empire being controlled fully by the ruling monarch, he would delegate power to specially appointed subjects in different areas. England was under the firmest control of all the lands in the Angevin Empire, due to the age of many of the offices that governed the country, England was divided in shires with sheriffs in each enforcing the common law. A justiciar was appointed by the king to stand in his absence when he was on the continent, as the kings of England were more often in France than England they used writs more frequently than the Anglo-Saxon kings, which actually proved beneficial to England. Under William Is rule, Anglo-Saxon nobles had been replaced by Anglo-Norman ones who couldnt own large expanses of contiguous lands
13.
Louis VIII of France
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Louis VIII the Lion was King of France from 1223 to 1226. He also claimed the title King of England from 1216 to 1217, Louis VIII was born in Paris, the son of King Philip II of France and Isabelle of Hainaut, from whom he inherited the County of Artois. While Louis VIII only briefly reigned as king of France, he was a leader in his years as crown prince. During the First Barons War of 1215-17 against King John of England, after his victory at the Battle of Roche-au-Moine in 1214, he invaded southern England and was proclaimed King of England by rebellious barons in London on the 2 June 1216. He was never crowned, however, and renounced his claim after being excommunicated and repelled, in 1217, Louis started the conquest of Guyenne, leaving only a small region around Bordeaux to Henry III of England. Louiss short reign was marked by an intervention using royal forces into the Albigensian Crusade in southern France that decisively moved the conflict towards a conclusion and he died in 1226 and was succeeded by his son Louis IX. In summer 1195, a marriage between Louis and Eleanor of Brittany, niece of Richard I of England, was suggested for an alliance between Philip II and Richard, but it failed and this led to a sudden deterioration in relations between Richard and Philip. On 23 May 1200, at the age of 12, Louis was married to Blanche of Castile, daughter of King Alfonso VIII of Castile and Eleanor of England, the marriage could only be concluded after prolonged negotiations between King Philip II of France and Blanches uncle John. In 1214, King John of England began his campaign to reclaim the Duchy of Normandy from Philip II. John was optimistic, as he had built up alliances with Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV, Count Renaud of Boulogne. Johns plan was to split Philips forces by pushing north-east from Poitou towards Paris, while Otto, Renaud and Ferdinand, supported by the Earl of Salisbury, marched south-west from Flanders. Whereas Philip II took personal command of the front against the emperor and his allies. The first part of the campaign went well for the English, with John outmanoeuvring the forces under the command of Prince Louis, John besieged the castle of Roche-au-Moine, a key stronghold, forcing Louis to give battle against Johns larger army. The local Angevin nobles refused to advance with the king, left at something of a disadvantage, shortly afterwards, Philip won the hard-fought Battle of Bouvines in the north against Otto and Johns other allies, bringing an end to Johns hopes of retaking Normandy. In 1215, the English barons rebelled against the unpopular King John in the First Barons War, the barons offered the throne to Prince Louis, who landed unopposed on the Isle of Thanet in eastern Kent, England, at the head of an army on 21 May 1216. There was little resistance when the prince entered London, and Louis was proclaimed king at Old St Pauls Cathedral with great pomp and celebration in the presence of all of London. Even though he was not crowned, many nobles, as well as King Alexander II of Scotland on behalf of his English possessions, on 14 June 1216, Louis captured Winchester and soon controlled over half of the English kingdom. But just when it seemed that England was his, King Johns death in October 1216 caused many of the barons to desert Louis in favour of Johns nine-year-old son
14.
Count of Auvergne
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This is a list of the various rulers of Auvergne. In the 7th century Auvergne was disputed between the Franks and Aquitanians and it was later conquered by the Carolingians, and was integrated for a time into the kingdom of Aquitaine. The counts of Auvergne slowly became autonomous, in the 10th century Auvergne became a disputed territory between the Count of Poitiers and the Counts of Toulouse. During the Hundred Years War Auvergne faced numerous raids and revolts, in 1424 the Duchy of Auvergne passed to the House of Bourbon. Quite contemporaneously, the County of Auvergne passed to the House of La Tour dAuvergne, in 1434, the Dauphinate of Auvergne passed to the House of Bourbon-Montpensier. Victorius Apollonarus Hortensius of Neustria Becco Sigivald Hortensius Evodius, several relatives of surrounding regions made claims. Below are the dates of their effective control, the marriage produced no children and was annulled. Before then they were called bishop of Arvernes, in 2002 the Bishopric of Clermont was incorporated into the Archbishopric of Clermont-Ferrand. The young count was able to maintain his status in part of his county, especially Beaumont, Chamalières, the majority of authors, however, anticipating the formalization of the dauphinate in 1302, choose to call William VII and his successors the Dauphins of Auvergne. Still others, out of convenience, choose to call these successors the Counts-Dauphins of Auvergne, the title of Dauphin of Auvergne was derived from William VIIs mother, who was the daughter of the Dauphin de Viennois, Guigues IV. This meant that William VIIs male descendants were usually given Dauphin as a surname, the numbering of the Counts-turned-Dauphins is complicated. Some authors create a new numbering starting with the first dauphins even though the dauphinate did not really begin until 1302. Others choose to reestablish, beginning with William the Young, the numbering of the viscounts of Clermont who became counts of Auvergne, the parallel existence of the usurpers of the County of Auvergne and of the Counts-Dauphins, who often carried the same first names, also complicates things. To avoid confusion, the system used here is continuous. The duchy of Auvergne was created in 1360 by John II of France, out of the royal territory of Auvergne. After her death in 1531, the passed to the royal domain. Charles X of France The primogenitural heir to the Counties of Boulogne and Auvergne would be Franz, as of 2007, the Bishop of Clermont is Hippolyte Simon, as Archbishop of Clermont-Ferrand. Today, the heir to the Dauphinate of Auvergne would be The Dowager Archduchess of Austria-Este
15.
Alphonse, Count of Poitiers
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Alphonse or Alfonso was the Count of Poitou from 1225 and Count of Toulouse from 1249. Born at Poissy, Alphonse was a son of Louis VIII, King of France and he was a younger brother of Louis IX of France and an older brother of Charles I of Sicily. In 1229, his mother, who was regent of France and it stipulated that a brother of King Louis was to marry Joan of Toulouse, daughter of Raymond VII of Toulouse, and so in 1237 Alphonse married her. Since she was Raymonds only child, they became rulers of Toulouse at Raymonds death in 1249, by the terms of his fathers will he received an appanage of Poitou and Auvergne. To enforce this Louis IX won the battle of Taillebourg in the Saintonge War together with Alphonse against a revolt allied with king Henry III of England, Alphonse took part in two crusades with his brother, St Louis, in 1248 and in 1270. For the first of these, he raised a large sum and he sailed for home on 10 August 1250. His father-in-law had died while he was away, and he went directly to Toulouse to take possession. There was some resistance to his accession as count, which was suppressed with the help of his mother Blanche of Castile who was acting as regent in the absence of Louis IX, the county of Toulouse, since then, was joined to Alphonses appanage. In 1252, on the death of his mother, Blanche of Castile, aside from the crusades, Alphonse stayed primarily in Paris, governing his estates by officials, inspectors who reviewed the officials work, and a constant stream of messages. His main work was on his own estates, there he repaired the evils of the Albigensian war and made a first attempt at administrative centralization, thus preparing the way for union with the crown. The charter known as Alphonsine, granted to the town of Riom and he is noted for ordering the first recorded local expulsion of Jews, when he did so in Poitou in 1249. When Louis IX again engaged in a crusade, Alphonse again raised a sum of money. This time, however, he did not return to France, dying while on his way back, probably at Savona in Italy, Alphonses death without heirs raised some questions as to the succession to his lands. One possibility was that they should revert to the crown, another that they should be redistributed to his family. The latter was claimed by Charles of Anjou, but in 1283 Parlement decided that the County of Toulouse should revert to the crown, Alphonses wife Joan had attempted to dispose of some of her inherited lands in her will. But, her will was invalidated by Parlement in 1274, one specific bequest in Alphonses will, giving his wifes lands in the Comtat Venaissin to the Holy See, was allowed, and it became a Papal territory, a status that it retained until 1791. Hallam, Elizabeth M. Capetian France, 987-1328, women rulers throughout the ages, an illustrated guide. The Feudal Monarchy in France and England from the Tenth to the Thirteenth Century, in R. L. Wolff, H. W. Hazard
16.
County of Toulouse
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The County of Toulouse was a territory in southern France consisting of the city of Toulouse and its environs, ruled by the Count of Toulouse from the late 9th century until the late 13th century. The territory is the center of a known as Occitania. Under the Carolingians, counts and dukes were appointed by the royal court, the Counts of Toulouse ruled the city of Toulouse and its surrounding county from the late 9th century until 1271. At times, the Counts of Toulouse or family members were also Counts of Quercy, Rouergue, Albi, and Nîmes, the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis fell to the Visigothic Kingdom in the 5th century. Septimania within the Frankish realm would become known as Gothia or Marca Gothica by the end of the 9th century, Pippin died in 768 and was followed by his sons Charlemagne and Carloman. Because of this event, Hunald, son of the late Duke Waifer, Charlemagne soon intervened and defeated him. In 771, Carloman died and Charlemagne was left as the ruler of the Frankish realm. In 778, Charlemagne led his army into Spain against the Arabs, on his way back the famous event of Roncesvalles occurred, Charlemagnes rear-guard was attacked in the pass of the same name by some Basque warriors. This led him to realize that Frankish power in Gascony and Aquitaine was still feeble, and that the local populations were not entirely loyal to the Franks. In 781, he set up the Kingdom of Aquitaine, comprising the whole of Aquitaine plus the Mediterranean coast from Narbonne to Nîmes, other such sub-kingdoms were created inside the wider Carolingian empire in places such as Bavaria or Lombardy. They were meant to ensure the loyalty of local populations in territories freshly conquered, crowns were given to the sons of Charlemagne. General supervision of this Basque frontier seems to have placed in the hands of Chorson. Toulouse was a major Carolingian military stronghold close to Muslim Spain, military campaigns against the Muslims were launched from Toulouse almost every year during Charlemagnes reign. Barcelona was conquered in 801, as well as a part of Catalonia. Together with the areas of Aragon and Navarre along the Pyrenees. In 814, Charlemagne died, and his surviving son was Louis, king of Aquitaine. The Kingdom of Aquitaine was transmitted to Pippin, the son of Louis the Pious. Gothia was detached from the Kingdom of Aquitaine and administered directly by the emperor, in 823, Charles the Bald was born from the second wife of Louis the Pious
17.
Poitou
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Poitou was a province of west-central France whose capital city was Poitiers. The region of Poitou was called Thifalia in the sixth century, there is a marshland called the Poitevin Marsh on the Gulf of Poitou, on the west coast of France, just north of La Rochelle and west of Niort. By the Treaty of Paris of 1259, King Henry III of England recognized his loss of continental Plantaganet territory to France. During the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries Poitou was a hotbed of Huguenot activity among the nobility, many of the Acadians who settled in what is now Nova Scotia beginning in 1604, and later in New Brunswick, came from the region of Poitou. After the Acadians were deported by the British beginning in 1755, a large portion of these refugees were also deported to Louisiana in 1785 and eventually became known as Cajuns. The common thread connecting both phenomena is an assertion of a local identity and opposition to the central government in Paris, whatever its composition. Large parts of the Angelique series of novels are set in 17th century Poitou. Count of Poitiers for a list of the Comtes de Poitou, poitou-Charentes for the present-day région including Poitiers. Poitevin, the French regional language spoken in Poitou
18.
Comtat Venaissin
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The Comtat Venaissin, often called the Comtat for short, was a part of the Papal States in what is now the Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur region of France. The Comtat also bordered the Principality of Orange, the region is still known informally as the Comtat Venaissin, although this no longer has any political meaning. In 1096, the Comtat was part of the Margraviate of Provence that was inherited by Raymond IV and these lands in the Holy Roman Empire belonged to Joan, Countess of Toulouse, and her husband, Alphonse, Count of Poitiers. Alphonse bequeathed it to the Holy See on his death in 1271, since this happened during an interregnum, there was no Holy Roman Emperor to protect Joans rights. The Comtat became a Papal territory in 1274, the region was named after its former capital, Venasque, which was replaced as capital by Carpentras in 1320. Avignon was sold to the papacy by Joanna I, Queen of Naples and Countess of Provence, in 1348, the enclaves inhabitants did not pay taxes and were not subject to military service, making life in the Comtat considerably more attractive than under the French Crown. It became a haven for French Jews, who received treatment under papal rule than in the rest of France. The Carpentras synagogue, built in the 14th century, is the oldest in France, successive French rulers sought to annex the region to France. It was invaded by French troops in 1663,1668 and 1768–74 during disputes between the Crown and the Church and it was also subjected to trade and customs restrictions during the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV. Papal control continued until 1791, when a plebiscite, under pressure from French revolutionaries, was held. A few years later, Vaucluse département was created based on Comtat Venaissin including the exclave of Valréas, the papacy did not recognise this formally until 1814
19.
Crown lands of France
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The crown lands, crown estate, royal domain or domaine royal of France refers to the lands, fiefs and rights directly possessed by the kings of France. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, the first Capetians—while being the kings of France—were among the least powerful of the feudal lords of France in terms of territory possessed. Patiently, through the use of law, conquest, annexation, skillful marriages with heiresses of large fiefs, and even by purchase. However, the system of appanage alienated large territories from the royal domain. During the Wars of Religion, the alienation of lands and fiefs from the domain was frequently criticized. These lands were largely the inheritance of the Robertians, the ancestors of the Capetians. 988, Montreuil-sur-Mer, the first port held by the Capetians, is acquired though the marriage of the crown prince Robert with Rozala,1016, acquisition of the Duchy of Burgundy. The king was the nephew of Duke Henry of Burgundy, who died without heirs, other additions to the royal domain include, Montlhéry and Châteaufort, Chevreuse, Corbeil, Meung-sur-Loire, Châteaurenard and Saint-Brisson. 1137, marriage of Louis with Eleanor of Aquitaine, Duchess of Aquitaine and Gascony, by this marriage, Louis hopes to attach most of South-West France to the royal domain. 1137, Louis gives Dreux to his brother Robert,1151, separation of Louis VII and of Eleanor of Aquitaine, who in 1152 weds Henry Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine and Duke of Normandy, who becomes in 1154, King of England. Eleanors lands come to Henry in her dowry,1160, gives Norman Vexin to his daughter Margaret as a dowry. Margaret is later forced to surrender her dowry,1185, by the Treaty of Boves, gains Amiens and Montdidier, Roye, Choisy-au-Bac, and Thourotte and rights to the inheritance of Vermandois and Valois. 1187, seizes Tournai from the bishop, confiscates Meulan, Gisors, and other castles. 1191, at the death of Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders, the County of Artois and its dependencies and these areas would not become integrated into the royal domain until 1223 when Louis becomes king. 1191, the County of Vermandois is acquired by the king, after the death of Elisabeth of Vermandois, confirmed in 1213, by Eléonore of Vermandois sister of Elisabeth. 1200, the Norman Vexin is annexed 1200 the County of Évreux and Issoudun are annexed,1204, confiscation of the Duchy of Normandy, the Touraine, Anjou, Saintonge and, temporarily, of the Poitou from John of England. 1208, La Ferté-Macé confiscated from Guillaume IV of Ferté-Macé1220,1223, Philip Hurepel, half-brother of the king, received in appanage the Counties of Boulogne, and of Clermont, as well as the fiefs of Domfront, Mortain and Aumale. Poitou, Saintonge, Angoumois, Périgord and a part of the Bordelais were confiscated from the king of England,1241, the king confirms the appanage grant of Poitou for his brother Alfonso, Count of Poitou
20.
Council of Clermont
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The Council of Clermont was a mixed synod of ecclesiastics and laymen of the Catholic Church, which was held from November 18 to November 28,1095 at Clermont, France. Pope Urban IIs speech on November 27 was the point of the First Crusade. In 1095 Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus sent envoys to the west requesting military assistance against the Seljuk Turks, the message was received by Pope Urban II at the Council of Piacenza. Later that year, in November, Urban called the Council of Clermont to discuss the matter further, in convoking the council, Urban urged the bishops and abbots whom he addressed directly, to bring with them the prominent lords in their provinces. The Council lasted from 18 November to 28 November, and was attended by nearly 300 clerics from throughout France, Urban discussed Cluniac reforms of the Church, and also extended the excommunication of Philip I of France for his adulterous remarriage to Bertrade of Montfort. On November 27, Urban spoke for the first time about the problems in the east and he promoted Western Christians fight against the Muslims who had occupied the Holy Land and were attacking the Eastern Roman Empire. Included in measures passed at the Council was the Truce of God, which declared that it was not allowed for Christians to fight one another except on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. This measure was put in place in part to encourage Christians to go fight the enemy in the east instead, all of these accounts were written down quite a bit later than the council, they follow different literary traditions and differ consequently widely from one another. Let those who for a time, have been robbers. Let those who have been fighting against their brothers and relatives now fight in a way against the barbarians. Let those who have been serving as mercenaries for small pay now obtain the eternal reward, let those who have been wearing themselves out in both body and soul now work for a double honor. In Fulchers version of the speech, Urban does not mention Jerusalem at all, for your brethren who live in the east are in urgent need of your help, and you must hasten to give them the aid which has often been promised them. They have occupied more and more of the lands of those Christians and they have killed and captured many, and have destroyed the churches and devastated the empire. If you permit them to thus for awhile with impunity. Robert records that the pope asked western Christians, poor and rich, to come to the aid of the Greeks in the east, because Deus vult, and more alleged atrocities expressed in inflammatory images that were derived from hagiography. Nor ought women to set out at all, without their husbands or brothers or legal guardians, like Fulcher he also recorded that Urban deplored the violence of the Christian knights of Gaul. It is less wicked to brandish your sword against Saracens, Baldricks Urban cries, the violence of knights he wanted to see ennobled in the service of Christ, defending the churches of the East as if defending a mother. Baldrick asserts that Urban, there on the spot, appointed the bishop of Puy to lead the crusade, guibert, abbot of Nogent also made that Urban emphasize the reconquest of the Holy Land more than help to the Greeks or other Christians there
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First Crusade
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The First Crusade was the first of a number of crusades that attempted to capture the Holy Land, called by Pope Urban II in 1095. An additional goal became the principal objective—the Christian reconquest of the sacred city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. During the crusades, nobility, knights, peasants and serfs from many regions of Western Europe travelled over land and by sea, first to Constantinople and then on towards Jerusalem. The Crusaders arrived at Jerusalem, launched an assault on the city and they also established the crusader states of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch, and the County of Edessa. The First Crusade was followed by the Second to the Ninth Crusades and it was also the first major step towards reopening international trade in the West since the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The majority view is that it had elements of both in its nature, the origin of the Crusades in general, and particularly that of the First Crusade, is widely debated among historians. The confusion is due to the numerous armies in the first crusade. The similar ideologies held the armies to similar goals, but the connections were rarely strong, the Umayyad Caliphate had conquered Syria, Egypt, and North Africa from the predominantly Christian Byzantine Empire, and Hispania from the Visigothic Kingdom. In North Africa, the Umayyad empire eventually collapsed and a number of smaller Muslim kingdoms emerged, such as the Aghlabids, who attacked Italy in the 9th century. Pisa, Genoa, and the Principality of Catalonia began to battle various Muslim kingdoms for control of the Mediterranean Basin, exemplified by the Mahdia campaign and battles at Majorca and Sardinia. Essentially, between the years 1096 and 1101 the Byzantine Greeks experienced the crusade as it arrived at Constantinople in three separate waves, in the early summer of 1096, the first large unruly group arrived on the outskirts of Constantinople. This wave was reported to be undisciplined and ill-equipped as an army and this first group is often called the Peasants’ or People’s Crusade. It was led by Peter the Hermit and Walter Sans Avoir and had no knowledge of or respect for the wishes of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. The second wave was not under the command of the Emperor and was made up of a number of armies with their own commanders. Together, this group and the first wave numbered an estimated 60,000, the second wave was led by Hugh I, Count of Vermandois, the brother of King Philip I of France. Also among the wave were Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse. It was this wave of crusaders which later passed through Asia Minor, captured Antioch in 1098 and finally took Jerusalem 15 July 1099. ”The third wave, composed of contingents from Lombardy, France. At the western edge of Europe and of Islamic expansion, the Reconquista in the Iberian Peninsula was well underway by the 11th century and it was intermittently ideological, as evidenced by the Codex Vigilanus compiled in 881
22.
Philip II of France
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Philip II, known as Philip Augustus, was King of France from 1180 to 1223, a member of the House of Capet. Philips predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks, but from 1190 onward, Philip became the first French monarch to style himself king of France. The son of King Louis VII and his wife, Adèle of Champagne, he was originally nicknamed Dieudonné God-given because he was the first son of Louis VII. Philip was given the nickname Augustus by the chronicler Rigord for having extended the Crown lands of France so remarkably, the military actions surrounding the Albigensian Crusade helped prepare the expansion of France southward. Philip did not participate directly in these actions, but he allowed his vassals, Philip transformed France from a small feudal state into the most prosperous and powerful country in Europe. He checked the power of the nobles and helped the towns to free themselves from seigniorial authority and he built a great wall around Paris, re-organized the French government and brought financial stability to his country. Philip was born in Gonesse on 21 August 1165 and he spent much of the following night attempting to find his way out, but to no avail. Exhausted by cold, hunger and fatigue, he was discovered by a peasant carrying a charcoal burner. His father went on pilgrimage to the Shrine of Thomas Becket to pray for Philips recovery and was told that his son had indeed recovered, however, on his way back to Paris, he suffered a stroke. In declining health, Louis VII had his 14-year-old son crowned and anointed as king at Rheims on 1 November 1179 by the Archbishop Guillaume aux Blanches Mains. He was married on 28 April 1180 to Isabelle of Hainaut, the daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut, and Margaret I, Countess of Flanders, who brought the County of Artois as her dowry. From the time of his coronation, all power was transferred to Philip. Eventually, Louis died on 18 September 1180, while the royal demesne had increased under Philip I and Louis VI, it had diminished slightly under Louis VII. In April 1182, partially to enrich the French crown, Philip expelled all Jews from the demesne, Philips eldest son Louis was born on 5 September 1187 and inherited the County of Artois in 1190, when his mother Isabelle died. The main source of funding for Philips army was from the royal demesne, in times of conflict, he could immediately call up 250 knights,250 horse sergeants,100 mounted crossbowmen,133 crossbowmen on foot,2,000 foot sergeants, and 300 mercenaries. Towards the end of his reign, the king could muster some 3,000 knights,9,000 sergeants,6,000 urban militiamen, using his increased revenues, Philip was the first Capetian king to build a French navy actively. By 1215, his fleet could carry a total of 7,000 men, within two years, his fleet included 10 large ships and many smaller ones. In 1181, Philip began a war with Philip, Count of Flanders, over the Vermandois, which King Philip claimed as his wifes dowry, finally the Count of Flanders invaded France, ravaging the whole district between the Somme and the Oise before penetrating as far as Dammartin
23.
Department (country subdivision)
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Department is the name given to the administrative and political subdivisions of many countries. Departments are the subdivisions of eleven countries, nine in the Americas. An additional ten countries use departments as second-level subdivisions, eight in Africa, one in the Americas and this attempt to de-emphasize local political identity contrasts strongly with countries which are divided into states. The earliest known suggestion of it is from 1764 in the writings of dArgenson, today, departments may exist either with or without a representative assembly and executive head depending upon the countries constitutional and administrative structure. The United States used this designation for the Department of Alaska during the period of U. S. rule in Alaska
24.
Cantal
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Cantal is a department in south-central France, with its capital at Aurillac. Its residents are known as Cantalians and its principal towns are Aurillac, Saint-Flour, and Mauriac. Cantal is part of the current region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and borders the departments of Puy-de-Dôme, Haute-Loire, Aveyron, Lot, Lozère, the department is named for the Plomb du Cantal, the central peak of the bare and rugged Monts du Cantal mountain chain which traverses the area. Cantal lies in the middle of Frances central plateau, the Cantal range is a group of extinct and eroded volcanic peaks. Its highest point is the Plomb du Cantal, which reaches an elevation of 1,858 meters and its neighbors are Puy Mary and Puy Chavaroche. To their north lie the Cézallier and Dore ranges and the arid Artense Plateau, immediately to their east is the fertile Planèze Plateau, bound on its east by the Monts de la Margeride. The principal rivers are the Alagnon, which is tributary to the Allier, the Celle and Truyère, tributary to the Lot, at an elevation of 250 meters above sea level, the low point of the province lies in the Lot valley. The Truyère valley skirts the Planèze on the south and divides it from the Monts dAubrac, the western area of the department consists of grassy plateaus and beautiful river valleys. At first, Cantal was divided into four arrondissements—Aurillac, Mauriac, Murat, Murat was later merged into the others. The climate of the department varies considerably, prevailing winds and mountain ranges divide Cantal into four climatic zones, The west is subject to oceanic winds which bring rains. The mountains of the Cantal and the Cézallier create a shadow, it rains. The Planèze of Saint-Flour and the region of Massiac receive less precipitation, the plateaux of the Margeride and the Aubrac have harsh winters and pleasant summers. Generally, the weather is mild and dry in the plain between Murat and St-Fleur and around Aurillac, while summer storms and winters can be long and severe in the northern. The west—nearer precipitation coming in from the Atlantic—is well watered, there is abundant snowfall which can remain up to six months on the mountaintops. Winter temperatures can fall to below −15 °C, whereas in summer 25 °C is often reached, the southern part of the department, on its borders with Aveyron and Lot, is the hottest region. Aurillac averaged 2080 hours of sunlight per year over the period from 1991 to 2000, fog is rare and disappears quickly. Wind is usually not very strong, but the lightning flashes in this department are among the most spectacular in France, televised French weather forecasts often note Aurillac as the coldest city in France in the mornings. This status should be understood in light of their derivation from temperature readings by Météo France, of the 30 cities included on its maps, Aurillac is by far the one with the highest altitude, at 640 m above sea level
25.
Haute-Loire
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Haute-Loire is a department in south-central France named after the Loire River. Haute-Loire is part of the current region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and is surrounded by the departments of Loire, Ardèche, Lozère, Cantal, the inhabitants of the department are called Altiligériens. The department covers the upper reaches of the Loire and consists of the Loire Valley and it is one of the original 83 departments of France created in 1790 during the French Revolution. Parts of the department are included in the Livradois-Forez Regional Natural Park, the first known inhabitants of this region were hunter-gatherers and it was later occupied by pastoralists, shepherds living in caves or simple huts. It later came under the control of a Gaulish tribe called Vellavi and at the time of Julius Caesars Gallic Wars, the area became a Roman province in 121 BC, originally under the name Gallia Transalpina. The name distinguished it from Cisalpine Gaul on the side of the Alps to Rome. In 40 BC, during the Second Triumvirate, Lepidus was given responsibility for Narbonese Gaul, after the Gothic takeover, the Visigothic dominions were generally known as Septimania. The king of the Visigoths, Alaric I was killed at the Battle of Vouillé in 507, a battle won by Clovis I and Velay came under Frankish rule. On Clovis death in 511, his kingdom was divided among his four sons and these subdivisions were united under the auspices of his longest surviving son Chlothar I, only to be split again under his four sons at his death. It was reunited once more under Chlothar II who became the ruler of the Frankish people in 613. In about 928, the became a fiefdom of the Count of Toulouse. In 1137, Eleanor of Aquitaine succeeded to the Duchy of Aquitaine and her marriage to Henry, Duke of Normandy, by the end of the thirteenth century the area was known as the Dauphiné d’Auvergne. Haute-Loire is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790, the new departments were to be uniformly administered and approximately equal to one another in size and population. Haute-Loire was formed parts of the former provinces of Auvergne, Languedoc. Two thirds of the department, centred on Le Puy-en-Velay, used to be part of the province of Languedoc and is known as Velay. The geographical distance from Toulouse had allowed this region to enjoy a great deal of autonomy, Haute-Loire is a department in south central France and is part of the region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The capital and largest town in the department is Le Puy-en-Velay, to the north of Haute-Loire lie Puy-de-Dôme and Loire, to the east lies Ardèche, to the south lies Lozère and to the west lies Cantal. The river Loire rises in the part of the department and flows northwards
26.
Allier
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Allier (French pronunciation, , is a French department located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France named after the river Allier. Moulins is the prefecture and the INSEE and Post Code is 03, the inhabitants of the department are known as Elavérins or Elavérines Allier department is composed of almost all of the former Duchy of Bourbonnais. It is part of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and borders the departments of Cher, Nièvre, Saône-et-Loire, Loire, Puy-de-Dome, and Creuse. The Bourbonnais Bocage To the north and just over 500 metres above sea level, almost all of the southern area consists of Combrailles which is sometimes called High Bourbonnais, in an area that goes beyond the departmental boundaries of Creuse and Puy-de-Dôme. This area of the department rises to 778 metres at Bosse, the rivers Sioule, Bouble, and Cher have carved the most picturesque gorges in Allier. Limogne, together with Sioule and Allier, is part of the Gannat / Escurolles / Saint-Pourçain triangle while Forterre covers the Canton of Varennes-sur-Allier ending near Jaligny, as noted Atlantic winds are dominant from the west, northwest, or southwest. The influence of topography, especially in the valleys of Cher and Allier, the history of Allier corresponds to the Duchy of Bourbon with which it shares almost the entire territory. Allier is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790 and it was created from parts of the former provinces of Auvergne and Bourbonnais. In 1940, the government of Marshal Philippe Pétain chose the town of Vichy as its capital, Vichy also became the departments second sub-prefecture in 1940, since the department now found itself split by the demarcation line between the occupied and free zones of France. On 1 January 1997 the population of Allier was estimated at 357,100 inhabitants which represented an average density of 50 people/km², many areas have a density less than 20 people/km². Since the early 1980s Allier has faced many demographic handicaps, the ratio of older people is important and with low fertility rates the natural growth is negative. Meanwhile, net migration has become very negative, at 1 January 2009 the legal population was 343,046 inhabitants. Allier has three cities, Montlucon, Vichy, and Moulins by size. The rest of the department includes some towns and villages scattered mainly along the rivers. The few villages are far from other and it is generally a sparsely populated department. Until the end of the 19th century, however, the population was increasing through the development of its cities compensated by the rural exodus, the department then passed 420,000 inhabitants. After the population losses of the First World War the population stabilized, since then, due to the continuing rural exodus and especially the decline of old industries, the population has decreased and aged steadily from 386,533 inhabitants in 1968 to 343,046 in 2009. The evolution of the number of inhabitants is known through the censuses conducted in the communes of the department since 1793
27.
Bourbonnais
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Bourbonnais was a historic province in the centre of France that corresponded to the modern département of Allier, along with part of the département of Cher. The title of the ruler of Bourbonnais between 913 and 1327, was Sire de Bourbon, the first lord of Bourbonnais known by name was Adhémar. Aymons father was Aymar, sire of Souvigny, his son with Ermengarde. Aymar lived during the reign of Charles the Simple who, in 913 and he acquired the castle of Bourbon. Almost all early lords took the name dArchambaud, after the palace, the first House of Bourbon ended in 1196, with the death of Archambault VII, who had only one heir, Mathilde of Bourbon. She married Guy II of Dampierre, who added Montlucon to the possessions of the lords of Bourbon, the second house of Bourbon started in 1218, with Archambault VIII, son of Guy II and Mahaut, and brother of William II of Dampierre. He was followed by his son Archambaut IX, who died in Cyprus in 1249, the House of Burgundy then acquired Bourbonnais. In 1272, Beatrice of Burgundy, Lady of Bourbon, married Robert de France, Count of Clermont, thus began the long-lasting House of Bourbon, which would provide the kings of France from Henry IV to Louis-Phillipe in 1848, when France abolished its monarchy. The Bourbons had concluded an alliance with the royal power and they put their forces at the service of the king, thus benefitting from the geographic position of Bourbonnais, located between the royal fidemesne and the duchies of Aquitaine and Auvergne. This alliance, as well as the marriage of Béatrix de Bourgogne and Robert de France, aided the rise, in 1327, King Charles elevated Boubonnais to the status of a duchy. Sire de Bourbon MonBourbonnais, Site de découverte du patrimoine du Bourbonnais
28.
Lyonnais
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The Lyonnais is a historical province of France which owes its name to the city of Lyon. The geographical area known as the Lyonnais became part of the Kingdom of Burgundy after the division of the Carolingian Empire. The disintegration of Imperial control, especially after the fall of the Hohenstaufens in 1254, led to French encroachment, Lyonnais now often simply refers to the area around the city of Lyon. The local speech-form known as Lyonnais is a dialect of the Francoprovençal language that is spoken in the region, media related to Lyonnais at Wikimedia Commons
29.
Velay
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Velay is a historical area of France situated in east Haute-Loire département and south east of Massif central. Julius Caesar mentioned the vellavi as subordinate of the arverni, strabon suggested that they might have made secession from the arverni and Ptolemy located them as “vellauni””. The country is well delimited has by natural obstacles, Allier river in the south, Mount Boutières and Mézenc on the east, Devès wear celtic toponyms clearly suggesting an antic border. No explanation concerning the toponym, except XIXth century’s naïve scholastic ones that connected the name to PIE root wel or even to the mythological Hel. In the early Middle Ages Velay was known as Pagus Vellaicus and was placed under the rule of the Duchy of Aquitaine, the first mention of a county of Velay was in 1142. In the beginning of the 10th century, Le Puy-en-Velay had supplanted Ru-Essio as religious, in 1162, Velay becomes an independant county, with its bishop as count reporting directly to the King. Velay was divided into eighteen baronies, the country is part of Languedoc from the mid XIV century but with a particular status, Velay kept its own States General until 1789. During the same period, it was a crossroads of pilgrimage trails, in the beginning of the 16th century Velay was wealthy, but the religious wars ruined the country. Le Puy was ardently catholic but the south east of Velay was deeply protestant. It is still nowadays the most protestant area of France, Velay ceased to exist after the French Revolution on March 4,1790. The department of Haute-Loire was created from the county of Velay, on top of it a portion of Auvergne, Gévaudan. The first part of Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes from Robert Louis Stevenson is entitled Velay, Le Puy-en-Velay, éd. des Cahiers de la Haute-Loire,1987, rééd. 2007 The Annotated Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, at Wikisource
30.
Charcuterie
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Charcuterie is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products, such as bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, galantines, ballotines, pâtés, and confit, primarily from pork. Charcuterie is part of the garde manger chefs repertoire, originally intended as a way to preserve meat before the advent of refrigeration, they are prepared today for their flavors derived from the preservation processes. The French word for a person who prepares charcuterie is charcutier and this has led to the mistaken belief that charcuterie can only involve pork. The 1961 edition of Larousse Gastronomique defines it as, The art of preparing various meats, in particular pork, in 15th-century France, local guilds regulated tradesmen in the food production industry in each city. The guilds that produced charcuterie were those of the charcutiers, the members of this guild produced a traditional range of cooked or salted and dried fruits, which varied, sometimes distinctively, from region to region. The only raw meat the charcutiers were allowed to sell was unrendered lard, the charcutier prepared numerous items, including pâtés, rillettes, sausages, bacon, trotters, and head cheese. These preservation methods ensured the meats would have longer shelf-lives, forcemeat is a mixture of ground, lean meat emulsified with fat. The emulsification can be accomplished by grinding, sieving, or puréeing the ingredients, the emulsification may either be smooth or coarse in texture, depending on the desired consistency of the final product. Forcemeats are used in the production of items found in charcuterie. Meats commonly used in the production of forcemeats include pork, fish, seafood, game meats, poultry, game birds, veal, pork fatback is often used for the fat portion of forcemeat, as it has a somewhat neutral flavor. In US usage, there are four styles of forcemeat. Straight forcemeats are produced by progressively grinding equal parts pork and pork fat with a dominant meat which can be pork or another meat. The proteins are cubed and then seasoned, cured, rested, ground, country-style forcemeats are a combination of pork, pork fat, often with the addition of pork liver and garnish ingredients. The finished product has a coarse texture, the third style is gratin which has a portion of the main protein browned, the French term gratin connotes a grated product that is browned. The final style is mousseline, which are light in texture using lean cuts of meat usually from veal, poultry, fish. The resulting texture comes from the addition of eggs and cream to this forcemeat and its name derived through French from the Latin sal, salt, the sausage-making technique involves placing ground or chopped meat along with salt into a tube. The tubes can vary, but the more common animal-derived tubes include sheep, hog, additionally, animal stomachs and bladders, as well as edible artificial casings produced from collagen and inedible plant cellulose or paper are also used. Inedible casings are used to shape, store, and age the sausage
31.
Cheese
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Cheese is a food derived from milk that is produced in a wide range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, during production, the milk is usually acidified, and adding the enzyme rennet causes coagulation. The solids are separated and pressed into final form, Some cheeses have molds on the rind, the outer layer, or throughout. Most cheeses melt at cooking temperature, hundreds of types of cheese from various countries are produced. Their styles, textures and flavors depend on the origin of the milk, whether they have been pasteurized, the content, the bacteria and mold, the processing. Herbs, spices, or wood smoke may be used as flavoring agents, the yellow to red color of many cheeses, such as Red Leicester, is produced by adding annatto. Other ingredients may be added to some cheeses, such as pepper, garlic. For a few cheeses, the milk is curdled by adding acids such as vinegar or lemon juice, most cheeses are acidified to a lesser degree by bacteria, which turn milk sugars into lactic acid, then the addition of rennet completes the curdling. Vegetarian alternatives to rennet are available, most are produced by fermentation of the fungus Mucor miehei, cheesemakers near a dairy region may benefit from fresher, lower-priced milk, and lower shipping costs. Cheese is valued for its portability, long life, and high content of fat, protein, calcium, generally speaking, hard cheeses, such as parmesan last longer than soft cheeses, such as Brie or goats milk cheese. The long storage life of some cheeses, especially when encased in a protective rind, There is some debate as to the best way to store cheese, but some experts say that wrapping it in cheese paper provides optimal results. Cheese paper is coated in a plastic on the inside. A specialist seller of cheese is known as a cheesemonger. Becoming an expert in this field requires some formal education and years of tasting and hands-on experience, the cheesemonger is responsible for all aspects of the cheese inventory, selecting the cheese menu, purchasing, receiving, storage, and ripening. The word cheese comes from Latin caseus, from which the modern word casein is also derived, the earliest source is from the proto-Indo-European root *kwat-, which means to ferment, become sour. The word cheese comes from chese and cīese or cēse, the Online Etymological Dictionary states that cheese comes from Old English cyse, cese. from West Germanic *kasjus, from Latin caseus cheese. The Online Etymological Dictionary states that the word is of. unknown origin, perhaps from a PIE root *kwat- to ferment, Old Norse ostr, Danish ost, Swedish ost are related to Latin ius broth, sauce, juice. When the Romans began to make hard cheeses for their legionaries supplies and it is from this word that the French fromage, proper Italian formaggio, Catalan formatge, Breton fourmaj, and Provençal furmo are derived
32.
Mineral water
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Mineral water is water from a mineral spring that contains various minerals, such as salts and sulfur compounds. Mineral water may be effervescent or sparkling due to contained gases, traditionally, mineral waters were used or consumed at their spring sources, often referred to as taking the waters or taking the cure, at places such as spas, baths, or wells. Today, it is far more common for water to be bottled at the source for distributed consumption. Travelling to the water site for direct access to the water is now uncommon. There are more than 3,000 brands of mineral water commercially available worldwide, in Romania resorts developed since antiquity in places such as Băile Herculane, Geoagiu or Slănic. Tourist development resulted in spa towns and hydropathic hotels, the more calcium and magnesium ions that are dissolved in water, the harder it is said to be, water with few dissolved calcium and magnesium ions is described as being soft. No minerals may be added to this water, in many places, however, the term mineral water is colloquially used to mean any bottled carbonated water or soda water, as opposed to tap water. In the European Union, bottled water may be called mineral water when it is bottled at the source and has no or minimal treatment. No additions are permitted except for carbon dioxide, which may be added, removed or re-introduced by exclusively physical methods, no disinfection treatment is permitted, nor is the addition of any bacteriostatic agents. Bottled water Drinking water Lithia water Mineral spa Water quality LaMoreaux, Philip E. Tanner, Judy T, eds
33.
Michelin
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Michelin is a French tire manufacturer based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne région of France. It is one of the four largest tire manufacturers in the world along with Goodyear, Continental, in addition to the Michelin brand, it also owns the BFGoodrich, Kleber, Tigar, Riken, Kormoran and Uniroyal tire brands. Michelins numerous inventions include the removable tire, the pneurail and the radial tire, Michelin manufactures tires for space shuttles, aircraft, automobiles, heavy equipment, motorcycles, and bicycles. In 2012, the Group produced 166 million tires at 69 facilities located in 18 countries, in 1889 two brothers, Édouard Michelin and André Michelin, ran a rubber factory in Clermont-Ferrand, France. One day, a cyclist whose pneumatic tire needed repair turned up at the factory, the tire was glued to the rim, and it took over three hours to remove and repair the tire, which then needed to be left overnight to dry. The next day, Édouard Michelin took the repaired bicycle into the yard to test. After only a few hundred metres, the tire failed, despite the setback, Édouard was enthusiastic about the pneumatic tire, and he and his brother worked on creating their own version, one that did not need to be glued to the rim. Michelin was incorporated on 28 May 1889, in 1891 Michelin took out its first patent for a removable pneumatic tire which was used by Charles Terront to win the worlds first long distance cycle race, the 1891 Paris–Brest–Paris. In the 1920s and 1930s, Michelin operated large rubber plantations in Vietnam, conditions at these plantations led to the famous labour movement Phu Rieng Do. In 1934, Michelin introduced a tire which, if punctured, would run on a special foam lining, the radial was initially marketed as the X tire. It was developed with the front-wheel-drive Citroën Traction Avant and Citroën 2CV in mind, Michelin had bought the then-bankrupt Citroën in the 1930s. Because of its superiority in handling and fuel economy, use of this quickly spread throughout Europe. In the U. S. the outdated bias-ply tire persisted, also in 1968, Consumer Reports, an influential American magazine, acknowledged the superiority of the radial construction, setting off a rapid decline in Michelins competitor technology. In the U. S. the radial tire now has a share of 100%. In 1989, Michelin acquired the recently merged tire and rubber manufacturing divisions of the American firms B. F. Goodrich Company and Uniroyal, Uniroyal Australia had already been bought by Bridgestone in 1980. This purchase included the Norwood, North Carolina manufacturing plant which supplied tires to the U. S, Michelin also controls 90% of Taurus Tire in Hungary, as well as Kormoran, a Polish brand. As of 1 September 2008, Michelin is again the worlds largest tire manufacturer after spending two years as number two behind Bridgestone. Michelin produces tires in France, Spain, Germany, the USA, on 15 January 2010, Michelin announced the closing of its Ota, Japan plant, which employs 380 workers and makes the Michelin X-Ice tire
34.
Hydropower
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Hydropower or water power is power derived from the energy of falling water or fast running water, which may be harnessed for useful purposes. A trompe, which compressed air from falling water, is sometimes used to power other machinery at a distance. In the late 19th century, hydropower became a source for generating electricity, cragside in Northumberland was the first house powered by hydroelectricity in 1878 and the first commercial hydroelectric power plant was built at Niagara Falls in 1879. In 1881, street lamps in the city of Niagara Falls were powered by hydropower, since the early 20th century, the term has been used almost exclusively in conjunction with the modern development of hydroelectric power. In China and the rest of the Far East, hydraulically operated pot wheel pumps raised water into crop or irrigation canals, the power of a wave of water released from a tank was used for extraction of metal ores in a method known as hushing. The method was first used at the Dolaucothi Gold Mines in Wales from 75 AD onwards, hushing was also widely used in Britain in the Medieval and later periods to extract lead and tin ores. It later evolved into hydraulic mining when used during the California Gold Rush and these include an endless belt with jugs attached, a cow-powered shadoof, and a reciprocating device with hinged valves. In 1753, French engineer Bernard Forest de Bélidor published Architecture Hydraulique which described vertical-, the growing demand for the Industrial Revolution would drive development as well. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, water was the source of power for new inventions such as Richard Arkwrights water frame. In the 1830s, at the peak in US canal-building, hydropower provided the energy to transport barge traffic up. Technological advances had moved the water wheel into an enclosed turbine or water motor. Francis, while working as engineer of Lowells Locks and Canals company. He applied scientific principles and testing methods to the problem of turbine design and his mathematical and graphical calculation methods allowed confident design of high efficiency turbines to exactly match a sites specific flow conditions. The Francis reaction turbine is still in use today. Hydraulic power networks used pipes to carrying pressurized water and transmit power from the source to end users. The power source was normally a head of water, which could also be assisted by a pump and these were extensive in Victorian cities in the United Kingdom. A hydraulic power network was developed in Geneva, Switzerland. The world-famous Jet dEau was originally designed as the relief valve for the network
35.
Dordogne (river)
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The Dordogne is a river in south-central and southwest France. The Dordogne and its watershed were designated Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO on July 112012, contrary to appearances, the name of the Dordogne is not a recent word resulting from the frequent names of the Dore and the Dogne. It comes from an ancient Durānius, derived from a Pre-Celtic root dur-, dor-, the medieval forms adopted a redoubled suffix -ononia, Dorononia fluvius, Dornonia that evolves in Dordonia by a phenomenon of dissimilation, giving the impression of an etymology *Dore-Dogne. The Dordogne is one of the few rivers in the world that exhibit the phenomenon of a tidal bore, the upper valley of the Dordogne is a series of deep gorges. The cliffs, steep banks, fast flowing water and high bridges attract both walkers and drivers, in several places the river is dammed to form long, deep lakes. Camp sites and holiday homes have proliferated wherever the valley floor is wide enough to accommodate them, below Argentat and around Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne, the valley widens to accommodate fertile farmland, well-watered pasture and orchards. In the towns, which are major tourist attractions because of their history and architecture, in Périgord, the valley widens further to encompass one of Frances main gastronomic regions, with vineyards, poultry farms and truffle-rich woodlands. The main season for tourism in the Valley of the Dordogne is from June to September, with July, the lifestyle and culture of the Dordogne valley attract both visitors and incomers from all over France, but also from many other countries, particularly Britain and Germany. The Dordogne at the Sandre database The Dordogne Valley in the Lot department The Dordogne Valley UNESCO Biosphere Reserve
36.
Auvergnat
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Auvergnat has become known internationally through the folk song arrangements of Joseph Canteloube. A large fringe of eastern Limousin, in the département of Corrèze, near Ussel and this is a transition zone between Auvergnat and Limousin The communities of Noirétable and La Chamba in the western side of the département of Loire. There are strong oppositions between Pierre Bonnaud and for instance Roger Teulat,1, Latin pratus > pra vs. pré2, Latin nepos > nebot vs. neveu… Light blue area labelled fr is for French-Langue d’Oïl. Light purple area labelled frp is for Francoprovençal,0, No paroxyton in the north – defines the Marchois dialect, a name often given to the Occitan spoken in the Croissant area. The area labelled m is the one of the Marchois dialect,3, The ca/cha boundary separated Northern Occitan and Southern Occitan. It is part of the Auvergnat boundary, along with 7, area lm is for the Limousin dialect, va for Vivaro-Alpine, lg for Languedocien. 4, Feminines in –ada have lost intervocalic d and became –aa and these are not characteristic of Auvergnat as a whole but allow for defining a boundary,5 and 6, These match the Core Auvergnat, according to Pierre Bonnaud. They may be used for the boundary of Auvergnat. Area 5 has the pronunciation of èr, area 6 has the palatalisation of cl to or, note that most Occitanists use rather 7 than 8 to define the southern boundary. Note some of the definition boundaries allow defining an internal variation, the most traditional one between Lower or Northern Auvergnat and Upper or Southern Auvergnat is the mutation of s before, and. Lower Auvergnat, defined by Teulat, is the green area labelled 1 on the map. Upper Auvergnat, defined by Teulat, is the light brown-yellow area labelled 2 on the map, a broader area is generally defined. A Northwestern Auvergnat may be defined as well by 5 and 6, the Northeastern has, according to Bonnaud, a stronger influence from French phonetics. Auvergnat is most often categorized in the Northern Occitan dialect group, along with Limousin, there are two primary distinctions in Auvergnat, Northern Auvergnat in Puy-de-Dôme and Allier and Haute-Loire north of Brioude. In the south of Allier, the local nord-auvergnat has been influenced by French. This transition zone to French, called locally le Croissant, includes the northern fringe of Limousin, see also the article on Bourbonnais. Southern Auvergnat spoken in Cantal, Haute-Loire, the suggestion that Auvergnat is an independent language, distinct from Occitan, has found little resonance with linguists, especially Romance linguists. It is strongly defended by those who espouse the norme bonnaudienne a standardization of Auvergnat, an understanding of the vitality and overall usage of Auvergnat can be garnered from a survey carried out in 2006 in the Auvergne region
37.
Occitan language
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Occitan, also known as lenga dòc by its native speakers, is a Romance language. It is spoken in southern France, Italys Occitan Valleys, Monaco, and Spains Val dAran, collectively, Occitan is also spoken in the linguistic enclave of Guardia Piemontese. However, there is controversy about the unity of the language, others include Catalan in this family, as the distance between this language and some Occitan dialects is similar to the distance among different Occitan dialects. In fact, Catalan was considered an Occitan dialect until the end of the 19th century, today, Occitan is an official language in Catalonia, where a subdialect of Gascon known as Aranese is spoken in the Val dAran. Since September 2010, the Parliament of Catalonia has considered Aranese Occitan to be the preferred language for use in the Val dAran. Unlike other Romance languages such as French or Spanish, there is no written standard language called Occitan. Instead, there are competing norms for writing Occitan, some of which attempt to be pan-dialectal, There are also significant lexical differences, where some dialects have words cognate with French, and others have Catalan and Spanish cognates. Nonetheless, there is a significant amount of mutual intelligibility, the long-term survival of Occitan is in grave doubt. According to the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages, four of the six dialects of Occitan are considered severely endangered. The name Occitan comes from lenga dòc, òc being the Occitan word for yes and this was not, of course, the only defining characteristic of each group. The word òc came from Vulgar Latin hoc, while oïl originated from Latin hoc illud, Old Catalan, and now the Catalan of Northern Catalonia also have hoc. Other Romance languages derive their word for yes from the Latin sic, thus, etc. such as Spanish sí, Eastern Lombard sé, Sicilian and Italian sì, or Portuguese sim. French uses si to answer yes in response to questions that are asked in the negative sense, the name Occitan is sometimes considered a neologism, however, it was attested around 1300 as occitanus, a crossing of oc and aquitanus. For many centuries, the Occitan dialects were referred to as Limousin or Provençal, after Frédéric Mistrals Félibrige movement in the 19th century, Provençal achieved the greatest literary recognition and so became the most popular term for Occitan. The term first came into fashion in Italy, currently, linguists use the terms Provençal and Limousin strictly to refer to specific varieties within Occitania, keeping the name Occitan for the language as a whole. Many non-specialists, however, continue to refer to the language as Provençal, NO·L LI TOLRÀ NO·L LI DEVEDARÀ NI NO LEN DECEBRÀ. Nec societatem non AURÀ, si per castellum recuperare NON O FA, et si recuperare potuerit in potestate Froterio et Raimundo LO TORNARÀ, carolingian litanies, both written and sung in Latin, were answered to in Old Occitan by the audience. Occitan was the vehicle for the poetry of the medieval troubadours and trobairises, At that time
38.
Aubrac
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Aubrac is a small village in the southern Massif Central of France. The name is applied to the surrounding countryside, which is properly called LAubrac in French. The Aubrac region has been a member of the Natura 2000 network since August 2006 and it straddles three départements - Cantal, Aveyron and Lozère - and three régions - Auvergne, Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon. Aubrac is a volcanic and granitic plateau that extends over an area of 1,500 km2, the volcanic eruptions occurred between 6 and 9 million year ago and were of Hawaiian type with fluid lavas. There are therefore no individual volcanic cones, the volcanic zone occupies the west side while the other part of the plateau is formed of granite. The average altitude is about 1,200 meters with the highest point at 1,469 meters in the south, all the region has been eroded by glaciers during three glacial periods. The Aubrac includes four lakes, lac des Salhiens, lac de Saint-Andéol, lac de Souveyrols. In the south, the highest summits of the Aubrac dominate the Lot valley, bovine breeding is the main activity on the plateau. Aubrac has its own bovine species called Aubrac, which is adapted to the environment. The cows are bred for their meat while, before the 1960s, the milk was made into cheese in burons or mazucs, which are small structures in the middle of the pastures. Today, the majority of structures are in ruin. The Laguiole cheese is made by a dairy in the village of Laguiole, the region is also known for its knife industry. It is here that the Laguiole knife is made by around thirty local craftsmen, the factory of Forge de Laguiole was designed by Phillippe Starck. By 1000 BC, the Celts had occupied the region, in the period of Roman Gaul, Gaulish tribes called Gabalians and Rutènians occupied the area. Julius Caesar stated that the Gabalians were survivors of the Battle of Alesia, the Rutenians, who may have come from the Danube delta and who gave their name to the Rouergue, became allied with Vercingetorix. In the early Middle Ages, Grégory of Tours recorded an incident of a Pagan rite at the lake near Mount Hélanus. Later, a pilgrim of St. James, Adallard, survived after a fight in the area, the village of Aubrac grew around the hospital. The Dômerie was home to monks and the knights of the Order of Aubrac until the French Revolution, the monks fed and sheltered passing pilgrims, and rang a Bell of the Lost during times of snow
39.
Bal-musette
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Bal-musette is a style of French music and dance that first became popular in Paris in the 1880s. Parisian and Italian musicians who played the accordion adopted the style and these places often were frequented by members of the French upper-class looking for excitement among the poor and downtrodden. Some establishments even staged mock police raids for their patrons benefit, performers of this era include Antoine Bouscatel, Émile Vacher, Martin Cayla, Charles Péguri, and Gus Viseur. Musette dance forms arose from people looking for easier, faster and more sensual dance steps, an original musette dance also appeared, known as java. Admission to most bals was free, but dancers bought dance tokens at the cash-desk and these tokens were made of metal in various shapes with the name of the hall stamped on one side. In the middle of the dance, the bal director walked between the couples with a bag and the dancers turned-in a token, by 1945, the bal-musette became the most popular style of dance in France and its biggest stars were widely known across the country. Its popularity declined drastically beginning around 1960, a revival of bals has begun, especially in larger cities, and a modern form of the musette is establishing itself. Amandine Dewaele, Les origines du bal musette, Paris 8e, roger Chenault, La danse musette, Courbevoie, Author edition. Web site of Jo Privat, a French musette accordion player
40.
Joseph Canteloube
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Marie-Joseph Canteloube de Malaret was a French composer, musicologist, and author best known for his collections of orchestrated folksongs from the Auvergne region, Chants dAuvergne. Canteloube was born in Annonay, Ardèche, into a family with roots in the Auvergne region of France. He studied piano from the age of six with Amélie Doetzer, after earning his baccalauréat, he worked at a bank in Bordeaux. He returned to his home in Malaret upon his fathers death in 1896, remaining there until his mothers death in 1899. After a period of silence and mourning, Canteloube married Charlotte Marthe Calaret in 1901 and he began studying with Vincent dIndy via correspondence in 1901, reluctant to leave Malaret. Upon dIndys constant urging, he entered the Schola Cantorum in 1907 in Paris. At the Schola, Canteloube became close friends with fellow composer, in 1907, he wrote a suite entitled Dans la montagne for piano and violin in four movements that was played at the Société Nationale. Canteloube composed his first opera, Le mas, to his own libretto from 1910 to 1925, the three act work won the Prix Heugel in 1925, and was awarded the prize of 100,000 Francs. However, the reaction to this composition by the leaders of the Opéra-Comique in Paris was far less enthusiastic than the jury, after pressure from the publisher, it finally premiered on 3 April 1929, but it was never revived. Vercingétorix, his opera, in four acts, was inspired by a libretto by Étienne Clémentel, mayor of Riom. The Paris Opéra gave the first performance on 22 June 1933, in 1925, Canteloube founded a group called La Bourrée with several young Auvergnats in Paris who were eager to publicize the folklore and the beauty of their home region. Canteloube himself believed that peasant songs often rise to the level of purest art in terms of feeling and expression and he also participated in the creation of the Bardic College of Gaul. In 1941, he joined the government in Vichy France during the Nazi occupation and he participated in numerous radio broadcasts of French folklore with his Songs of France with the tenor Christian Selva. The radio was a vehicle for disseminating regional popular music. Alongside his career as a composer, Canteloube worked as a musicologist, collecting traditional French folksongs and he also wrote biographies of Vincent dIndy and of his friend Déodat de Séverac. Canteloube took more than thirty years to complete the compilation of his most admired and famous collection of songs, passionate, sometimes to excess, the songs reflect the landscapes of the Auvergne in lush orchestral colors and have enabled French folklore and rustic melodies to become better known. He died in Grigny, Essonne, in 1957, aged 78, the New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol.1, A-D, chpt, Canteloube, Joseph by Richard Langham Smith, New York, MacMillan. Boursiac, Canteloube Françoise Cougniaud-Raginel, Joseph Canteloube, chantre de la terre 1879–1957 Cahours dAspry, Joseph Canteloube, chantre dAuvergne et dailleurs
41.
Folk music
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Folk music includes both traditional music and the genre that evolved from it during the 20th century folk revival. The term originated in the 19th century, but is applied to music older than that. Some types of music are also called world music. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways, as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers and it has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. Starting in the century, a new form of popular folk music evolved from traditional folk music. This process and period is called the revival and reached a zenith in the 1960s. This form of music is called contemporary folk music or folk revival music to distinguish it from earlier folk forms. Smaller, similar revivals have occurred elsewhere in the world at other times and this type of folk music also includes fusion genres such as folk rock, folk metal, electric folk, and others. Even individual songs may be a blend of the two, a consistent definition of traditional folk music is elusive. The terms folk music, folk song, and folk dance are comparatively recent expressions and they are extensions of the term folklore, which was coined in 1846 by the English antiquarian William Thoms to describe the traditions, customs, and superstitions of the uncultured classes. Traditional folk music also includes most indigenous music, however, despite the assembly of an enormous body of work over some two centuries, there is still no certain definition of what folk music is. Some do not even agree that the term Folk Music should be used, Folk music may tend to have certain characteristics but it cannot clearly be differentiated in purely musical terms. One meaning often given is that of old songs, with no known composers, the fashioning and re-fashioning of the music by the community that give it its folk character. Such definitions depend upon processes rather than abstract musical types, one widely used definition is simply Folk music is what the people sing. For Scholes, as well as for Cecil Sharp and Béla Bartók, Folk music was already. seen as the authentic expression of a way of life now past or about to disappear, particularly in a community uninfluenced by art music and by commercial and printed song. In these terms folk music may be seen as part of a schema comprising four types, primitive or tribal, elite or art, folk. Music in this genre is often called traditional music. Although the term is only descriptive, in some cases people use it as the name of a genre
42.
Georges Brassens
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Georges Brassens was a French singer-songwriter and poet. He wrote and sang, with his guitar, more than a hundred of his poems, as well as texts from many such as Victor Hugo, Paul Verlaine. In 1967, he received the Grand Prix de Poésie of the Académie française, between 1952 and 1976, he recorded fourteen albums that include several popular French songs such as Les copains dabord, Chanson pour lAuvergnat, La mauvaise réputation, and Mourir pour des idées. Most of his texts are black humour-tinged and often anarchist-minded, Brassens was born in the town of Sète, a town in southern France near Montpellier. He has also set to poems by both well-known and relatively obscure poets, including Louis Aragon, Victor Hugo, Jean Richepin, François Villon. During World War II, he was forced by the Germans to work in a camp at a BMW aircraft engine plant in Basdorf near Berlin in Germany. Here Brassens met some of his friends, such as Pierre Onténiente. They would later close friends. After being given ten days leave in France, he decided not to return to the labour camp, Planche lived with her husband Marcel in relative poverty, without gas, running water, or electricity. Brassens remained hidden there until the end of the war five months later, Planche was the inspiration for Brassenss song Jeanne. Apart from Paris and Sète, he lived first in Crespières, Brassens grew up in the family home in Sète with his mother, Elvira Dagrosa, father, Jean-Louis, half-sister, Simone, and paternal grandfather, Jules. His mother, who came from southern Italy, was a devout Roman Catholic, while his father was an easy-going, generous, openminded, Brassens grew up between these two starkly contrasting personalities, who nonetheless shared a love for music. His mother—whom Brassens labelled a missionary for songs, Simone and Jules, were always singing and this environment imparted to Brassens a passion for singing that would come to define his life. At the time he listened constantly to his idols, Charles Trenet, Tino Rossi. He was said to love music above all else, it was his first passion and he told his friend André Sève, a kind of internal vibration, something intense, a pleasure that has something of the sensual to it. He hoped to enroll at a conservatory, but his mother insisted that he could only do so if his grades improved. Consequently, he never learned to read music, a poor student, Brassens performed badly in school. Alphonse Bonnafé, Brassenss ninth-grade teacher, strongly encouraged his apparent gift for poetry, Brassens had already been experimenting with songwriting and poetry
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Clermont-Ferrand
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Clermont-Ferrand is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, with a population of 141,569. Its metropolitan area had 467,178 inhabitants at the 2011 census and it is the prefecture of the Puy-de-Dôme department. Olivier Bianchi is its current mayor, Clermont-Ferrand sits on the plain of Limagne in the Massif Central and is surrounded by a major industrial area. The city is famous for the chain of volcanoes, the Chaîne des Puys surrounding it, the famous dormant volcano Puy de Dôme is one of the highest of these and well known for the telecommunication antennas that sit on its top and are visible from far away. Clermont-Ferrands most famous square is Place de Jaude, on which stands a grand statue of Vercingetorix sitting imperiously on a horse. The inscription reads, Jai pris les armes pour la liberté de tous and this statue was sculpted by Frédéric Bartholdi, who also created the Statue of Liberty. Clermont-Ferrands first name was Augusta Nemetum and it was born on the central knoll where the cathedral is situated today, known then as Nemossos. It overlooked the capital of Gaulish Avernie, the fortified castle of Clarus Mons gave its name to the whole town in 848, to which the small episcopal town of Montferrand was attached in 1731, together taking the name of Clermont-Ferrand. The old part of Clermont is delimited by the route of the ramparts, the town of Clermont-Ferrand came about with the joining together of two separate towns, Clermont and Montferrand, which was decreed by Louis XIII and confirmed by Louis XV. Clermont ranks among the oldest cities of France, the first known mention was by the Greek geographer Strabo, who called it the metropolis of the Arverni. The city was at that time called Nemessos – a Gaulish word for a sacred forest and it was somewhere in the area around Nemossos that the Arverni chieftain Vercingetorix was born in around 72 BC. Also, Nemossos was situated not far from the plateau of Gergovia, after the Roman conquest, the city became known as Augustonemetum sometime in the 1st century, a name which combined its original Gallic name with that of the Emperor Augustus. Its population was estimated at 15, 000–30,000 in the 2nd century and it then became Arvernis in the 3rd century, and expanded until the mid 3rd century. The city became the seat of a bishop in the 5th century, at the time of the bishop Namatius or Saint Namace, who built a cathedral here described by Gregory of Tours. Clermont went through a period after the disappearance of the Roman Empire and during the whole High Middle Ages. Between 471 and 475, Auvergne was often the target of Visigothic expansion, a generation later, it became part of the Kingdom of the Franks. On 8 November 535 the first Council of Clermont opened at Arvernis, with fifteen bishops participating, including Caesarius of Arles, Nizier of Lyons and Saint Hilarius, bishop of Mende. Sixteen decrees were made there, notably the second canon that recalls that the granting of episcopal dignity must be according to the merits, in 570, Bishop Avitus offered the Jews of his town the alternatives of baptism or expulsion
