Armagnac

Armagnac, historic region of southwestern France, now contained in the département of Gers. It is a region of hills reaching a height of 1,000 feet (300 m) and is drained by the Gers and other rivers, which descend fanwise from the Lannemezan Plateau. On the slopes of its hills grow the grapes from which the well-known Armagnac brandy is made.

A part of the duchy of Gascony in Merovingian and Carolingian times, Armagnac became an autonomous political unit during the 10th century. From the 12th century on it gained strategic importance as a buffer zone between lands controlled by the kings of France (Toulouse) and those controlled by the kings of England (Guyenne). Its counts used their position to shift allegiance and became highly independent. The Treaty of Calais (1360) during the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453) gave suzerainty over Armagnac to the English; an appeal by the Armagnac count Jean I against English rule (1368) gave Charles V of France a pretext to resume that war.

During the 14th century the counts of Armagnac greatly increased their holdings. By the beginning of the 15th century, their lands reached from the Garonne River to the Pyrenees and also included parts of the Massif Central.

The position of his holdings, along with the services of Gascon mercenaries, made it possible for Count Bernard VII to play a major role in France’s internal conflicts of the early 15th century. The Armagnac party was formed in opposition to the Burgundians as a result of the murder of Louis, duke of Orléans (brother of the mad king Charles VI), by John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy (1407). With the marriage of his daughter to the son of the victim, Bernard came to head what had been the Orleanist party. Because the Burgundians often aligned with the English, the Armagnacs seemed to be a national party but were basically a power-seeking group. They gained control of the mad king from 1413. Bernard was named constable, chief of the army, and governor of all finances. The Armagnacs led the resistance to the English king Henry V’s invasion of France but suffered a setback in the Battle of Agincourt (1415). Profiting from discontent caused by the harsh government of the Armagnacs, the Burgundians entered Paris and killed Bernard and many of his followers in the summer of 1418. After 1418 the Armagnacs rapidly lost power as the new king Charles VII gained leadership and was reconciled with Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy.

The counts gradually lost their regional position. In 1473 a royal army captured their capital of Lectoure, and Count John V was killed. On the death of his brother Charles in 1497, the countship was united to the crown of France by Charles VIII. Francis I of France, however, bestowed it upon another Charles (nephew of the last count) and at the same time gave him his sister Margaret in marriage. After the death of her husband, by whom she had no children, Margaret married Henry II of Navarre; and thus the countship of Armagnac came back to the French crown along with the other dominions of their grandson, who became king of France as Henry IV (1607). During the 17th and 18th centuries, Armagnac existed as an administrative division of the gouvernement-général of Guyenne-et-Gascogne.