Castelferrus
Castelferrus is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Occitanie region in southern France. Communes of the Tarn-et-Garonne department INSEE
Bourret, Tarn-et-Garonne
Bourret is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Occitanie region in southern France. Communes of the Tarn-et-Garonne department INSEE
Bessens
Bessens is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Occitanie region in southern France. Communes of the Tarn-et-Garonne department INSEE
Tarn-et-Garonne
Tarn-et-Garonne is a department in the southwest of France. It is traversed from which it takes its name; this area was part of the former provinces of Quercy and Languedoc. The department was created in 1808 by Napoléon Bonaparte, with territory being taken from the departments of Lot, Haute-Garonne, Lot-et-Garonne and Aveyron; the department is rural with fertile agricultural land in the broad river valley, but there are hilly areas to the south and north. The departmental prefecture is Montauban, some of the other large communes include Castelsarrasin, Molières, Valence-d'Agen and the medieval town of Lauzerte. Quercy was part of Aquitania prima under the Romans, Christianity was introduced during the 4th century. Early in the 6th century the area fell under the authority of the Franks, in the 7th century became part of the autonomous Duchy of Aquitaine. At the end of the 10th century its rulers were the powerful counts of Toulouse. During the hostilities between England and France in the reign of Henry II of England, the English placed garrisons in the county, by the 1259 Treaty of Paris lower Quercy came under the control of England.
The kings of both England and France around this time tried to curry favour by adding to the privileges of the towns and the district. In 1360, the Treaty of Brétigny was signed and the whole of Quercy passed to England. However, in the 1440s the English were expelled by the newly created army of Charles VII of France. In the 16th century Quercy was a stronghold of the Protestants, the scene of fierce religious conflicts; the civil wars of the reign of Louis XIII took place around Montauban. After Napoleon's defeat in 1815, the monarchy was re-established in France, but the discredited Bourbon Dynasty was overthrown in the July Revolution of 1830, which established the constitutional July Monarchy, which lasted until 1848. During this time the divide between the rich and poor increased. Before the department's formation in the nineteenth century, the northern half formed part of the old province of Quercy and the southern half, part of Languedoc; the department was created on 4 November 1808 during the First French Empire by a decision of Napoleon.
The emperor had been invited to visit the town of Montauban, an important industrial and commercial centre at the time, whose populace thought the town was central enough and sufficiently important to be the capital of a new department. He was granted their request; the department was formed out of territories, part of neighbouring areas. More than half of the territory was taken from the Department of Lot, over one-third was taken from Haute-Garonne, the rest from the departments of Lot-et-Garonne and Aveyron; the first Prefect was Félix Le Peletier d'Aunay, installed in his post on 31 December 1808. Tarn-et-Garonne constitutes part of the Occitanie region in southern France, it borders on the departments of Lot to the north, Aveyron to the northeast, Tarn to the east, Haute-Garonne to the south, Gers and Lot-et-Garonne to the west. The capital of the department is Montauban. Montauban is situated on the right bank of the river Tarn at its confluence with the river Tescou, the Tarn is joined by the Aveyron about 10 km further downstream.
The second largest commune in the department is Castelsarrasin which stands near the confluence of the Tarn and River Garonne. Montauban is connected to the Garonne via the 11 km Canal de Montech; the central part of the department is a broad river valley that does not exceed 150 m in altitude, but near the commune of Valence-d'Agen, in the extreme west of the department, the valley narrows as the hilly regions of Bas-Quercy to the north and Lomagne to the south draw closer together. In the northeast of the department is higher land in the form of limestone plateaus known as the Causses, part of the Massif Central; the highest point in the department, at 510 m, is the Pech Maurel, situated in the commune of Castanet. The economy of the department depends on agriculture but there is some industry, it benefits from its proximity to Toulouse; the commercial importance of Montauban is due to its trade in agricultural products, horses and poultry, but it does have some manufacturing industries, which include cloth-weaving, cloth-dressing, flour-milling, wood-sawing, the manufacture of furniture, silk-gauze and straw hats.
The surrounding countryside supports nursery-gardening, wine-making and the growing of maize and mulberries. This area is at the northern limit for the commercial production of the latter two crops because of the vagaries of the climate. Cantons of the Tarn-et-Garonne department Communes of the Tarn-et-Garonne department Arrondissements of the Tarn-et-Garonne department Prefecture of Tarn-et-Garonne website General council of Tarn-et-Garonne website Arkheia History Review of Tarn-et-Garonne website
Communes of France
The commune is a level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are analogous to civil townships and incorporated municipalities in the United States and Canada, Gemeinden in Germany, comuni in Italy or ayuntamiento in Spain; the United Kingdom has no exact equivalent, as communes resemble districts in urban areas, but are closer to parishes in rural areas where districts are much larger. Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and are vested with significant powers to manage the populations and land of the geographic area covered; the communes are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France. Communes vary in size and area, from large sprawling cities with millions of inhabitants like Paris, to small hamlets with only a handful of inhabitants. Communes are based on pre-existing villages and facilitate local governance. All communes have names, but not all named geographic areas or groups of people residing together are communes, the difference residing in the lack of administrative powers.
Except for the municipal arrondissements of its largest cities, the communes are the lowest level of administrative division in France and are governed by elected officials with extensive autonomous powers to implement national policy. A commune is city, or other municipality. "Commune" in English has a historical bias, implies an association with socialist political movements or philosophies, collectivist lifestyles, or particular history. There is nothing intrinsically different between commune in French; the French word commune appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia, for a large gathering of people sharing a common life. As of January 2015, there were 36,681 communes in France, 36,552 of them in metropolitan France and 129 of them overseas; this is a higher total than that of any other European country, because French communes still reflect the division of France into villages or parishes at the time of the French Revolution. The whole territory of the French Republic is divided into communes.
This is unlike some other countries, such as the United States, where unincorporated areas directly governed by a county or a higher authority can be found. There are only a few exceptions: COM of Saint-Martin, it was a commune inside the Guadeloupe région. The commune structure was abolished when Saint-Martin became an overseas collectivity on 22 February 2007. COM of Wallis and Futuna, which still is divided according to the three traditional chiefdoms. COM of Saint Barthélemy, it was a commune inside the Guadeloupe region. The commune structure was abolished when Saint-Barthélemy became an overseas collectivity on 22 February 2007. Furthermore, two regions without permanent habitation have no communes: TOM of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands Clipperton Island in the Pacific Ocean In metropolitan France, the average area of a commune in 2004 was 14.88 square kilometres. The median area of metropolitan France's communes at the 1999 census was smaller, at 10.73 square kilometres. The median area is a better measure of the area of a typical French commune.
This median area is smaller than that of most European countries. In Italy, the median area of communes is 22 km2. Switzerland and the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia in Germany were the only places in Europe where the communes had a smaller median area than in France; the communes of France's overseas départements such as Réunion and French Guiana are large by French standards. They group into the same commune several villages or towns with sizeable distances among them. In Réunion, demographic expansion and sprawling urbanization have resulted in the administrative splitting of some communes; the median population of metropolitan France's communes at the 1999 census was 380 inhabitants. Again this is a small number, here France stands apart in Europe, with the lowest communes' median population of all the European countries; this small median population of French communes can be compared with Italy, where the median population of communes in 2001 was 2,343 inhabitants, Belgium, or Spain.
The median population given here should not hide the fact that there are pronounced differences in size between French communes. As mentioned in the introduction, a commune can be a city of 2 million inhabitants such as Paris, a town of 10,000 inhabitants, or just a hamlet of 10 inhabitants. What the median population tells us is that the vast majority of the French communes only have a few hundred inhabitants. In metropolitan France just over 50 percent of the 36,683 communes have fewer than 500 inhabitants a
Richard I of England
Richard I was King of England from 1189 until his death. He ruled as Duke of Normandy and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Poitiers, Anjou and Nantes, was overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period, he was the third of five sons of Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine. He was known as Richard Cœur de Lion or Richard the Lionheart because of his reputation as a great military leader and warrior, he was known in Occitan as: Oc e No, because of his reputation for terseness. By the age of 16, Richard had taken command of his own army, putting down rebellions in Poitou against his father. Richard was a central Christian commander during the Third Crusade, leading the campaign after the departure of Philip II of France and achieving considerable victories against his Muslim counterpart, although he did not retake Jerusalem from Saladin. Richard spoke both Occitan, he was born in England. Following his accession, he spent little time as little as six months, in England. Most of his life as king was spent on Crusade, in captivity, or defending his lands in France.
Rather than regarding his kingdom as a responsibility requiring his presence as ruler, he has been perceived as preferring to use it as a source of revenue to support his armies. He was seen as a pious hero by his subjects, he remains one of the few kings of England remembered by his epithet, rather than regnal number, is an enduring iconic figure both in England and in France. Richard was born on 8 September 1157 at Beaumont Palace, in Oxford, son of King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, he was a younger brother of Count William IX of Poitiers, Henry the Young King and Duchess Matilda of Saxony. As the third legitimate son of King Henry II, he was not expected to ascend to the throne, he was an elder brother of Duke Geoffrey II of Brittany. Richard was the younger maternal half-brother of Countess Marie of Champagne and Countess Alix of Blois; the eldest son of Henry II and Eleanor, died in 1156, before Richard's birth. Richard is depicted as having been the favourite son of his mother, his father was great-grandson of William the Conqueror.
Contemporary historian Ralph of Diceto traced his family's lineage through Matilda of Scotland to the Anglo-Saxon kings of England and Alfred the Great, from there legend linked them to Noah and Woden. According to Angevin family tradition, there was even'infernal blood' in their ancestry, with a claimed descent from the fairy, or female demon, Melusine. While his father visited his lands from Scotland to France, Richard spent his childhood in England, his first recorded visit to the European continent was in May 1165, when his mother took him to Normandy. His wet nurse was Hodierna of St Albans. Little is known about Richard's education. Although he was born in Oxford and brought up in England up to his eighth year, it is not known to what extent he used or understood English. During his captivity, English prejudice against foreigners was used in a calculated way by his brother John to help destroy the authority of Richard's chancellor, William Longchamp, a Norman. One of the specific charges laid against Longchamp, by John's supporter Hugh, Bishop of Coventry, was that he could not speak English.
This indicates that by the late 12th century a knowledge of English was expected of those in positions of authority in England. Richard was said to be attractive. According to Clifford Brewer, he was 6 feet 5 inches, though, unverifiable since his remains have been lost since at least the French Revolution. John, his youngest brother, was known to be 5 feet 5 inches; the Itinerarium peregrinorum et gesta regis Ricardi, a Latin prose narrative of the Third Crusade, states that: "He was tall, of elegant build. He had long arms suited to wielding a sword, his long legs matched the rest of his body". From an early age, Richard showed significant political and military ability, becoming noted for his chivalry and courage as he fought to control the rebellious nobles of his own territory, his elder brother Henry the Young King was crowned king of England during his father's lifetime. Marriage alliances were common among medieval royalty: they led to political alliances and peace treaties and allowed families to stake claims of succession on each other's lands.
In March 1159 it was arranged that Richard would marry one of the daughters of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona. Henry the Young King was married to Margaret, daughter of Louis VII of France, on 2 November 1160. Despite this alliance between the Plantagenets and the Capetians, the dynasty on the French throne, the two houses were sometimes in conflict. In 1168, the intercession of Pope Alexander III was necessary to secure a truce between them. Henry II had conquered Brittany and taken control of Gisors and the Vexin, part of Margaret's dowry. Early in the 1160s there had been suggestions Richard should marry Alys, Countess of the Vexin, fourth daughter of Louis VII
Castanet, Tarn-et-Garonne
Castanet is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Occitanie region in southern France. Communes of the Tarn-et-Garonne department INSEE
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