Aquitaine

Moreover, at that very time the affairs of England and France were in a most critical condition.

Yet John of Gaunt, whom his brother the Black Prince had left to defend Aquitaine a year before, returned to England with his newly married wife and empty title just when his presence was most specially wanted in the south of France.

After he had gone, the English arms experienced a series of reverses ending in the complete loss of Aquitaine, and a new invasion of France, which he undertook in order to retrieve these disasters, was even more unfortunate.

Altogether, he had shown little evidence of either military or political capacity, and yet at the commencement of his young nephew's reign in 1378, his influence was so great by the mere fact of his relation to the king that everything was at his disposal.

It was in vain even that the Parliament had committed to Walworth and Philippot the control of the war expenditure.

In May of 1467, Louis received him at Rouen with peculiar honour, and had a number of private interviews with him, which were afterwards made grounds of suspicion against his loyalty.

On his return he brought with him ambassadors from France who were instructed to do all in their power to hinder the alliance between England and Burgundy.

Louis was willing to pay the king of England a pension and refer his claims to Normandy and Aquitaine to the decision of the Pope.

The new governor of Narbonne, Abdel Rahman, resolved upon the conquest of all Gaul.

He had already checked the operations of Ood, who presumed after his victory at Toulouse to carry the war into the Saracens' country, and now he attacked the Tarraconais and boldly invaded Aquitaine, defeated Ood on the bank of the Garonne, captured Bordeaux by assault, and in 732 marched on in triumph toward the Tour, where he had heard of the treasures of the Abbey of St. Martin.

Between Poitiers and Tours he was met by Charles, the son of Pepin the Alistair, then virtual king of France, for the feeble Merovingian sovereign Rotel had no voice to oppose the will of his powerful mayor of the palace.

The Saracens went joyfully to the fight.

While the Arabs, who had only arrived in time to reap the advantage of the conquest, had appropriated all the most smiling provinces of the peninsula, the Berbers found themselves relegated to the most unlovely parts, to the dusty plains of Estremadura, or to the ice mountains of Leon, where they had to contend with the climate which severely tried natures brought up in African heats, and where, too, they had the doubtful privilege of forming a buffer between their Arab allies and the Christians of the north.

Already there had been signs of disaffection.

One of the Taiks' Berber generals, Monousa, who had married the daughter of Oud, Duke of Aquitaine, raised the standard of revolt when he heard the oppression of his countrymen in Africa, and now, when the Berber cause was triumphant across the strait, a general rising took place among the northern provinces.

The Berbers of the borders of Galicia, of Merida, Corea, and all the region round about, took up arms and began to march south upon Toledo, Cordova, and Algeciras, whence they intended to take ship and go to join their compatriots in Barbary.

The well-timed conversion to Christianity and to the Catholic form of Christianity which followed this victory facilitated the next great conquest of Clovis.

In the year 507 he went forth to war against Alaric, king of the Visigoths, defeated and slew him, and thus added Aquitaine, that large and fertile region which lies between the Loire and the Pyrenees, to his dominions.

Four years after this he died, but in the next generation, between 524 and 534, his sons conquered Burgundy, and thus added to their father's kingdom the whole valley of the Rhone, from its source to its mouth, except the narrow but rich land of Provence, which was retained by the Ostrogothic kings of Italy for a few years longer.

But in 536 this also became Frankish.

We perceive a tendency to regard the northeastern portion of the realm, especially that conquered from Siagrius, as the true kernel of the kingdom, and therefore widely as the dominions of the brothers stretch asunder their capitals, Metz, Orléans, Soissons, Paris, all lie comparatively near to one another, all probably within the ring fence of the Siagrian kingdom.

But there is also a tendency to fall asunder into four great divisions.

Burgundy and Aquitaine, though they do not formally resume their independence, are often seen as separate kingdoms under a Frankish king.

But the more important division, the more fateful rivalry, separates the two northern kingdoms, which eventually receive the names of Neustria and Austrasia.

Finally he was forced to recognize its independence, and his son in 856 married the daughter of the king of Brittany.

In the south, Septimania and Aquitaine were nearly as independent.

Even in the north, he had constant trouble in maintaining his power.

Moreover, the country suffered greatly from invasions, for the Northmen ravaged his territory, burning the towns and monasteries, and laying waste the fields.

During the reign of Louis VII, 1137-1180, little progress was made.

In his early years he continued the policy of his father in the Duchy.

He also attempted to establish his authority in Aquitaine, which he had acquired by marrying the heiress Eleanor.

This marriage, arranged by Louis VI, had more than doubled the possessions of the king.

Very importantly, I think he would have been the third or fourth child to a great power couple of the 12th century.

Henry II, who was king of England, and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II was the great-grandson of William the Conqueror.

And William's conquering of England had begun the creation of really what's often referred to as the Adjuvant Empire, one of the family names,

which included

not just England, but also a big chunk of Western France.

And by the time of Richard, Richard inherited this empire that was through all these dynastic connections with his father, Henry II, and his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Eleanor of Aquitaine was the Duchess of Aquitaine, and she had inherited a big chunk of southern France called Aquitaine, which is where Richard actually ends up spending his formative years, and he becomes Duke of Aquitaine before he's anything else.

How does he ascend to the throne?

That's the son of Edward III.

And he launches these chevalier attacks down deep into Aquitaine, into the south of France.

And it's awful.

He commands his troops to... for that whole journey, for a mile in each direction, to damage, destroy, burn, and annihilate everything on either side.

Moreover, at that very time the affairs of England and France were in a most critical condition.

Yet John of Gaunt, whom his brother the Black Prince had left to defend Aquitaine a year before, returned to England with his newly married wife and empty title, just when his presence was most specially wanted in the south of France.

After he had gone, the English arms experienced a series of reverses, ending in the complete loss of Aquitaine, and a new invasion of France, which he undertook in order to retrieve these disasters, was even more unfortunate.

Altogether he had shown little evidence of either military or political capacity, and yet at the commencement of his young nephew's reign in 1378, his influence was so great by the mere fact of his relation to the king that everything was at his disposal.

It was in vain even that the Parliament had committed to Walworth and Philippot the control of the war expenditure.

In May of 1467, Louis received him at Rouen with peculiar honour, and had a number of private interviews with him, which were afterwards made grounds of suspicion against his loyalty.

On his return he brought with him ambassadors from France who were instructed to do all in their power to hinder the alliance between England and Burgundy.

Louis was willing to pay the king of England a pension and refer his claims to Normandy and Aquitaine to the decision of the Pope.