Poitou

The Poitou ( French name for Piktavien, kelt. Piktavia altnorw. / Norm. Peitaland ) is a landscape in western France and was a historical province and county. The area of the county corresponded approximately to the present-day department of Deux -Sèvres, Vienne and Vendée, except the old Seneschallat of Loudun, which belonged to the province of Anjou. Capital of the former province of Poitou was Poitiers. Today the piktavische ( ' poitevinische ') is language still spoken.

The department of Deux -Sèvres, Vienne form today along with the southern neighbor départements of Charente and Charente -Maritime Poitou -Charentes, while the Vendée belongs to the region Pays de la Loire.

The Ile d' Yeu is part of the territory of the historic province of Poitou.

Location

The historic landscape of Poitou is bounded on the north by Nantais ( area around Nantes), the County of Anjou and Touraine, on the east by Berry and Limousin and in the south of the Charente and the Saintonge. The area is divided into the flat and late populated marsh and alluvial deposits in the Bas -Poitou with the center of La Roche- sur -Yon in the west and in the historically and culturally significant hilly skin -Poitou with the center of Poitiers in the east.

History

In late antiquity, the region belonged to the civitas Pictavorum the Roman province of Aquitania secunda and included six pagi. After the barbarian invasions, the area belonged to the kingdom of the Visigoths, and after their defeat in the Battle of Vouillé 507 ( near Poitiers) to the Franks.

The Holy Warin of Poitou was governor of the Merovingian King of Paris for the Poitou region in the 7th century.

In the adjacent Touraine found 732 the battle of Tours and Poitiers between the advancing Arabs and led by Charles Martel army of Frankish princes instead. In this battle, the coming about Andalusia Muslim Arab expansion into Western Europe was limited and reversible.

The county of Poitou was due to its size one of the main territories of the Frankish Carolingian Empire and was the sub- kingdom of Aquitaine to belong. In addition to the Counts of Auvergne from the family of Wilhelmiden ( Gellones ), the counts were from the family of Ramnulfiden (House Poitiers) in the 9th century, the most powerful prince of Aquitaine and led at times the title of Dux, but without specific assignment, because the Dukes Aquitaine were first provided by the Gellones. Only after the extinction of the Gellones 927 succeeded Ebalus Mancer take over their possessions, which he established his family as new duke dynasty.

The Counts of Poitou were from the 10th to the 12th century as the dukes of Aquitaine alongside the rival Count of Toulouse, the most powerful princes of southwest France and enjoyed by the weakness of the early Capetian kings in fact a sovereign state. The family also includes the Prince of Antioch from 1163 to 1268, the Count of Tripoli from 1187 to 1289, the kings of Cyprus from 1217 to 1489 and thus the Titularkönige of Jerusalem from in 1268.

However, the most famous members of the family are two women: Agnes of Poitou († 1077 ), the Roman - German Empress and regent of the Holy Roman Empire from 1056 to 1062, and Eleanor of Aquitaine († 1204). Through marriage with Eleanor Henry Plantagenet ( 1152 ) and his throne as King of England ( 1154 ) was the Poitou included with the rest of Aquitaine in the territorial conglomerate of the Plantagenets, now known under the name " Angevinisches Reich". Together with her son, Richard the Lionheart, Eleanor in Poitiers led one of the most brilliant courts of the Middle Ages. In the power struggle with King Philip II Augustus, the Plantagenets 1204 all their possessions in France were declared forfeited, but only Phillips son, King Louis VIII the Lion, the Poitou region in 1224 could win militarily. In the Treaty of Paris in 1259, this loss was by King Henry III. recognized by England.

After the dissolution of the old province in the time of the French Revolution, the name of the province is still used as a geographical indication.

Attractions

While in the historical landscape of Haut- Poitou cultural tourism is important, it is in the Bas -Poitou mainly of bathing and recreational tourism. Interesting and historical places are:

Poitiers, Chauvigny, Saint- Savin -sur -Gartempe, Montmorillon, Civray, Thouars, Argenton- les- Vallees, Airvault, Saint -Loup- Lamairé, Saint- Jouin -de- Marnes, Parthenay, Parthenay, Melle Niort

La Roche- sur- Yon, Luçon, Fontenay -le- Comte, Vouvant, Les Sables d' Olonne, Noirmoutier

Also known are the criss-crossed by drainage canals poitevinischen swamps ( Marais Poitevin ), a wetland (some bird sanctuary ) on the Gulf of Poitou on the west coast of France north and northeast of La Rochelle.