Duchy of Vendôme

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The county and later duchy of Vendôme ( Vendômois ) is a historical province of France which corresponded in its scope to the north of the present-day Loir-et-Cher department . The territory arose from the Roman pagus vindocinensis , the area around the Carnut settlement of Vendôme . In addition to the eponymous capital, the county continued to consist of the burgraves Lavardin and Montoire (whose lords became Counts of Vendôme in 1218), Beaugency on the Loire passed to the County of Blois at an early stage , and in the 15th century the Vendômois became Mondoubleau and Saint -Calais expanded.

Geographically, the Vendômois was surrounded by the following counties. To the west of Maine , to the north of Le Perche , to the northeast of Châteaudun , to the southeast of Blois and to the south of Tours .

Coat of arms of the Counts of Vendôme

history

In Carolingian times , the area of ​​the later county of Vendôme belonged to the dominion of the Robertines , who, as margraves of the Neustrian march, ruled almost the entire north-west of what is now France. This mark was directed primarily against the Bretons , who raided the center of France several times, the Breton king Nominoë died in 851 not far from Vendôme. The Robertine Hugo the Great put counts and vice counts in the most important cities to better manage his territory, in Vendôme it was Burchard's council pilate who, as a vassal of the Bishop of Chartres , founded the county of Vendôme. His son Burchard the Venerable was a close confidante of Hugo Capet and supported him in the election to King of West Franconia (France). In terms of power politics, however, the Vendômois was under pressure from the House of Blois at that time , whose ownership of the counties of Blois, Châteaudun and Tours leaned on the entire southern and eastern border of the Vendômois and thus cut off this territory from the Île de France , the immediate domain of the kings. The counts therefore sought a closer political and family relationship with the counts of Anjou , who in turn were natural opponents of the Blois.

However, this had the consequence that the county under his new house Monceaux increasingly fell under the influence of the Anjou. In 1032 Gottfried II of Anjou drove out the incompetent Count Fulko , called the Gosling ( Foulques l'Oison ), and took over the rule in Vendôme for more than 30 years. It was not until 1060 that Fulko was able to take possession of his property again following the mediation of King Henry I , but on the condition that the Count of Anjou must henceforth be recognized as feudal lord for Vendôme. This vassality to Anjou, founded in this way, was to continue for another 400 years.

Politically, the Counts of Vendôme played only a subordinate role in the 12th century, under the House of Preuilly , who came from Touraine . Mostly they fought with the abbey de la Trinité over sovereignty rights or fought against the lords of Amboise for the possession of the castle Mondoubleau, furthermore they had to defend themselves several times against attacks by the house Blois. Count Gottfried III. was in 1105 by Theobald IV./II. captured by Blois-Champagne , whose son Theobald V. von Blois besieged Vendôme in 1161 and could only be driven out by a timely relief from Heinrich Plantagenet .

The already mentioned vassality of the Counts of Vendôme to the Counts of Anjou led in the middle of the 12th century to their affiliation to the dominion of the Plantagenet dynasty , which in modern historiography is referred to as the " Angevin Empire " ( Empire of Anjou ). As a result, the Vendômois, due to its geographical proximity to the Île de France, became a venue for the power struggle between the Plantagenets and the French royal family. In 1188, King Philip II of France took the castle of Vendôme, which was recaptured a little later by Richard the Lionheart . In 1194 Philip again took the city of Vendôme and besieged the castle again, with the relief army brought in by the Lionheart, Philip delivered the battle of Fréteval (northeast of Vendôme) on July 3rd , in which Lionheart was victorious.

At the beginning of the 13th century, the French king was finally able to conquer the Plantagenets and disempower them in most of their possessions. So also in Anjou, which was added to the crown domain , Count Johann III. von Vendôme therefore submitted to the French crown in Soissons in 1212 . With Count John IV , the House of Montoire , which was once a vassal of the Counts Vendômes, inherited the previous Preuilly. The vassal status to the Anjou continued for the new count's house, so Count Peter had to pay homage to the newly paraged Count Karl I of Anjou in 1246 . As a consequence, the counts took part in the campaigns of Anjou to Naples and Sicily , as well as in the crusades in Egypt and Tunisia . In the 14th century the counts Vendômes inherited in the Languedoc located domination Castres , which was upgraded in 1356 to a county. In the further course of this century the counts fought on the French side in the Hundred Years War ; Count Johann VI. got into English captivity in the battle of Maupertuis (1356).

When the House of Montoire died out in 1372, the Bourbons inherited the county. This was occupied by the English in the late phase of the Hundred Years War, after the appearance of the Maid of Orléans the occupation was ended in 1430. The barony Mondoubleau was merged with Vendôme in 1484, at the same time the feudal dependence of Vendôme on Anjou was ended and the county was placed directly under the crown. In 1515, Vendôme was elevated to a duchy by King Francis I in favor of Charles of Bourbon († 1538) and given the dignity of a peer . In 1562 Charles's grandson Henry of Bourbon, who later became King Henry IV , became Duke of Vendôme. As a Protestant in a strongly Catholic duchy, he had to accept the closure of the Protestant churches and the appointment of a Catholic governor, while watching the city of Vendôme draw closer and closer to the Catholic League . In 1589, now as king, Heinrich had to conquer Vendôme, with several castles, including those of Vendôme and Lavardin, being destroyed.

After Henry IV ascended the throne of France, he gave the duchy in 1598 as Paragium to the eldest of the sons born to him by Gabrielle d'Estrées , César , Grand Admiral of France , who became the founder of the House of Vendôme.

Whose older son was the future Cardinal Louis , Duke of Vendôme, Viceroy of Catalonia . His second son was François de Vendôme , a military man, courtier and conspirator against the Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin .

The cardinal's eldest son and successor to the ducal office was Louis II Joseph , the famous general of Louis XIV in the War of the Spanish Succession . His younger brother Philippe , General and Grand Prior of the Order of Malta in France , was the last of his line.

The Duchy of Vendôme fell back to the Crown in 1712, was then again Paragium from 1772 to 1789, now for the Count of Provence , the later King Louis XVIII.

Since the victory of King Philip II over the Plantagenets, the royal authority in Vendôme was represented by a Bailli ; In the 15th century, this was accompanied by a subordinate Bailli ( Bailli secondaire ) in Mondoubleau and Saint-Calais . From 1558, these Bailliages were subordinate to the Governorate ( Généralité ) of Orléans . On the General Estates of 1789 Vendôme was represented by four deputies. After the outbreak of the French Revolution , the region was incorporated into the Loir-et-Cher department .

Counts and Dukes of Vendôme

Burchardinger

House Monceaux

First house in Anjou

House Monceaux

House Preuilly

  • 1085–1102: Gottfried II Jordan ( Jourdain ) († around 1102), lord of Preuilly , by marriage Count of Vendôme (1086–1101), ∞ Euphrosine of Vendôme, daughter of Fulkos
  • 1102–1137: Gottfried III. Grisegonnelle , Count of Vendôme († 1137), son of Gottfried II.
    • 1102–1105: under the tutelage of his mother Euphrosine of Vendôme
  • 1137–1180: Johann I , Count of Vendôme (* 1110 † 1180), son of Gottfried III.
  • 1180–1202: Burchard IV. , Count of Vendôme (* 1139 † 1202), son of John I.
  • 1202–1211: John II , Count of Vendôme († 1211), grandson of Burchard IV.
    • 1202–1211: under the tutelage of his great-uncle Gottfried von Vendôme, a son of John I.
  • 1211-1217: John III. l'Eclésiastique , Count of Vendôme († 1217), son of Burchard IV.

House Montoire

Bourbons

House Vendôme

Title of the Orleanist pretender

swell

  • Eudes de Saint-Maur: Vie de Burchard le Vénérable.

literature

  • Dominique Barthélemy: La société dans le comté de Vendôme. De l'an mil au XIVe siècle. Fayard, Paris 1993, ISBN 2-213-03071-5 .
  • Johann-Claude Pasquier: Le Château de Vendôme. Une histoire douce-amère. Ed. du Cherche-lune, Vendôme 2000, ISBN 2-904-736-18-2 .

Web links