![[Angoumois]](../images/f/fr-angou.gif)
by Arnaud Leroy
Last modified: 2004-07-03 by ivan sache
Keywords: angoumois | angouleme | lozenge (red) | lozenge (yellow) |
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by Arnaud Leroy
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Angoumois was originally known as the pagus engolismensium. In the IXth century, Pépin, king of Aquitaine, created the county of Angoulême, or Angoumois. There were two successive kings of Aquitaine named Pépin: Pépin I (803-838) was a son of the Carolingian emperor Louis le Pieux, and struggled against his father. Pépin II (823-865), Pépin I's son, struggled against his uncle Charles le Chauve, who had received Aquitaine by the treaty of Verdun (843).
During the Hundred Years' War, Angoumois was annexed to England, along with the south-west of France, by the treaty of Brétigny (1360). King Charles V reconquered Angoumois in 1373.
The county was then granted to a member of the royal family
according to the systeme of
apanage. In 1515,
François, count of Angoulême, was crowned king of France
as François I, and incorporated Angoumois to the royal domain.
François I succeded his cousin Louis XII after having married
Louis XII's daughter, Claude de
France. François I was the root of the house of
Valois-Orléans-Angoulême,
who ruled France until the death of Henri III in 1589.
François I' sister, Marguerite deValois (1492-1549), a.k.a.
Marguerite d'Angoulême, was a brilliant woman. She corresponded
in Hebrew, Greek and Latin with Erasmus of Rotterdam, and could also
speak Italian and Spanish. Most of the French humanists of her time
(Marot, Rabelais, Lefèvre d'Etaples...) took benefit of her
protection. She wrote several poems and comedies. Her masterpiece was
a series of tales called Heptaméron, written on the
model of Boccacio's Decameron. Marguerite was also queen of
Navarre and the grand-mother of king of
France Henri IV.
The last Dauphin of France, Louis de Bourbon (1775-1844), son of King Charles X, wore the title of duke d'Angoulême, since the Bourbon kings had reestablished the system of apanage after the 1815 Restauration. He commanded the French military expedition in Spain and died in exile in Görz (Austria). His wife Marie-Thérèse de Bourbon (1778-1851), a daughter of Louis XVI, nicknamed Madame Royale, exerted a great influence on kings Louis XVIII and Charles X.
Ivan Sache, 11 December 2002
The banner of arms of Angoumois is:
Losangé d'or et de gueules
In English:
Lozengy, or and gules
These arms belonged to the counts of Angoulême before the house of Valois-Orléans-Angoulême ruled Angoumois.
Ivan Sache, 11 December 2002