Duchy of Aquitaine
The Duchy of Aquitaine (Occitan: Ducat d'Aquitània, IPA: [dyˈkad dakiˈtaɲɔ]; French: Duché d'Aquitaine, IPA: [dyʃe dakitɛn]) was a historical fiefdom in western, central, and southern areas of present-day France to the south of the river Loire, although its extent, as well as its name, fluctuated greatly over the centuries, at times comprising much of what is now southwestern France (Gascony) and central France.
Duchy of Aquitaine
Fief of Francia (602 – late 7th century), independent duchy (intermittently late 7th century – 769)
Feudal monarchy
602
1453
The territory originated in the 7th century as a duchy of Francia, ultimately a recreation of the Roman provinces of Aquitania Prima and Secunda. As a duchy, it broke up after the conquest of the independent Aquitanian duchy of Waiofar, going on to become a sub-kingdom within the Carolingian Empire. It was then absorbed by West Francia after the partition of Verdun in 843 and soon reappeared as a duchy under it. In 1153, an enlarged Aquitaine pledged loyalty to the Angevin kings of England. As a result, a rivalry emerged between the French monarchs and the Angevins over control of the latter's territorial possessions in France. By the mid-13th century, only Gascony remained in Angevin hands. The Hundred Years' War finally saw the kingdom of France gain full control over Aquitaine in the 1450s, with much of its territory directly incorporated into the French royal domain itself.
Over the course of its existence, the duchy incorporated the Duchy of Gascony and, until 1271, the County of Toulouse, which now falls in the region of Occitanie. Most of the rest of the post-1271 duchy now forms the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, though parts fall into the three neighbouring regions of Pays de la Loire, Centre-Val de Loire and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
The county of Aquitaine as it stood in the High Middle Ages, then, was bordering the Pyrenees to the south (Navarre, Aragon and Barcelona, formerly the Marcha Hispanica) and the county of Toulouse and the kingdom of Burgundy (Arelat to the east. To the north, it bordered on Bretagne, Anjou, Blois and Bourbonnais, all of which had passed to the kingdom of France by the 13th century.