- Agenais
Agenais, or Agenois, was a former province of
France located in southwest France south ofPérigord .Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. “Agenais.” "Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary". 9th ed. Springfield, MA:Merriam-Webster Inc., 1985. ISBN 0-87779-508-8, ISBN 0-87779-509-6 (indexed), and ISBN 0-87779-510-X (deluxe).]In ancient
Gaul the region was the country of the Nitiobroges with Aginnum for their capital, which in the fourth century was the Civitas Agennensium, which was a part of Aquitania Secunda and which formed thediocese of Agen . Having in general shared the fortunes ofAquitaine during theMerovingian andCarolingian periods, Agenais next became an hereditary county in the part of the country now calledGascony (Vasconia).In
1038 this county was purchased by the dukes of Aquitaine, counts ofPoitiers . The marriage ofEleanor of Aquitaine withHenry Plantagenet in1152 brought it under the sway ofEngland ; but when Richard Coeur-de-Lion married his sister Joan toRaymund VI, Count of Toulouse , in 1196, Agenais formed part of the princess's dowry; and with the other estates of the last independentcount of Toulouse it lapsed to the crown of France in 1271.This, however, was not for long; the king of France had to recognize the prior rights of the king of England to the possession of the county, and restored it to him in 1279. During the
Hundred Years' War between the English and the French Agenais was frequently taken and retaken, the final retreat of the English in 1453 at last leaving the king of France in peaceable possession.Thenceforth Agenais was no more than an administrative term. At the end of the
Ancien Régime it formed part of the "Gouvernement" ofGuienne , and at the Revolution it was incorporated in the département ofLot-et-Garonne , of which it constitutes nearly the whole. The title of count of Agenais, which the kings of England had allowed to fall into desuetude, was revived by the kings of France, and in 1789 was held by the family of the dukes ofRichelieu .References
*1911
* [http://icarus.umkc.edu/sandbox/perseus/pecs/page.86.a.php Richard Stillwell, ed. "Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites", 1976:] "Aginnum (Agen), Lot-et-Garonne, France"Note
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