 | This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(July 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Maine | |
|---|---|
.svg) Flag  Coat of arms | |
.svg) | |
| Country | France |
| Time zone | CET |
Maine (French:[mɛːn]ⓘ) is one of the traditionalprovinces of France. It corresponds to the former County of Maine, whose capital was also the city ofLe Mans. The area, now divided into the departments ofSarthe andMayenne, has about 857,000 inhabitants.
The Gallic tribeAulerci Cenomani lived in the region during the Iron Age and Roman period. The province of Maine was named after them, in the 6th century AD asin Cinomanico (inpago Celmanico in 765,*Cemaine, thenLe Maine from the 12th century).[1]
In the 8th and 9th centuries, there existed a Duchy of Cénomannie (ducatus Cenomannicus), which several of theCarolingian kings used as anappanage. This duchy was amarch that may have included several counties including Maine, and extended intoLower Normandy, all the way to theSeine. In 748,Pepin the Short, thenMayor of the Palace and thus the most powerful man in Francia after the king, gave this duchy to his half-brotherGrifo. In 790Charlemagne in turn gave it to his younger son,Charles the Younger. Charlemagne's grandson, the futureCharles the Bald, and his sonLouis the Stammerer inherited the title. The son-in-law of Charlemagne,Rorgon, was the count of Maine between 832 and 839. In the last half of the 9th century, Maine took on strategic importance because of invasions fromNormandy andBrittany. Rorgon's sonGauzfrid in turn became Count of Maine. He fought againstSalomon, King of Brittany and in 866 participated in thebattle of Brissarthe alongsideRobert the Strong, theFrankishMargrave of Neustria. When Gauzfrid died, Charles the Bald granted the title, as well as the county and the wider Neustrian march toRagenold of Neustria,[2] because Gauzfrid's children were too young to act in that capacity. Ragenold, who may have been the son ofRenaud d'Herbauges, died in 885 fighting theVikings who were pillagingRouen.
KingRudolph of France is said to have given Maine to theNorse noblemanRollo,Duke of Normandy, in 924.[3]
Bordering the county ofAnjou to the south and the Duchy ofNormandy to the north, Maine became a bone of contention between the rulers of these more powerful principalities.Hugh III of Maine (ruled c. 991–c. 1015) was forced to recognizeFulk III, Count of Anjou as his overlord.
Sometime between 1045 and 1047Hugh IV marriedBertha, daughter ofOdo II, Count of Blois and widow ofAlan III, Duke of Brittany. TheAngevins did not want Maine to come under the influence ofBlois, and CountGeoffrey Martel invaded Maine. But theNormans did not want Maine to return to the Angevin orbit, so were pulled into the conflict. The precise chronology is disputed, but it is clear that in 1051 Hugh IV died and the citizens of Le Mans opened their gate to the Angevins. Anjou wound up with effective control of most of the county, but the Normans did take several important strongholds on the Maine–Normandy border.
Hugh IV's sonHerbert II fled to the Norman court (though some historians say he was under Angevin control for a few years first) and his death in 1062 precipitated a succession crisis. Herbert died childless in 1062 after declaringWilliam the Bastard, then Duke of Normandy, his heir. His sister Marguerite was engaged to William's eldest son,Robert Curthose and Herbert had taken refuge at William's court in 1056 whenGeoffrey Martel, Duke ofAnjou, invadedLe Mans.
While the county was in Angevin hands, Anjou had its own succession problem. DukeWilliam of Normandy claimed the county on their behalf of Herbert's young sister Margaret, betrothed to his sonRobert Curthose. The other claimant was Herbert's aunt Biota, a sister of Hugh IV, and her husband Walter, Count of theVexin. William invaded Maine in force in 1063 and despite stiff opposition fromFulk IV, Count of Anjou and from local barons such asGeoffrey of Mayenne andHubert de Sainte-Suzanne, he controlled the county by the beginning of 1064. Biota and Walter were captured at the taking of Le Mans. They died sometime later in 1063, poisoned, it was rumoured, though there is no hard evidence for this.[citation needed] Norman control of Maine secured the southern border of Normandy against Anjou and is one factor which enabled William to launch his successfulinvasion of England in 1066.
In 1069 the citizens of Le Mans revolted against the Normans. Soon some of the Manceaux barons joined the revolt, the Normans were expelled in 1070, and youngHugh V was proclaimed Count of Maine.
Hugh was the son ofAzzo d'Este and his wife Gersendis, the other sister of Count Hugh IV. Azzo returned toItaly, leaving Gersendis in charge. The real power, however, was one of the Manceaux barons,Geoffrey of Mayenne, who may also have been Gersendis' lover.[citation needed] After Norman attacks in 1073, 1088, 1098 and 1099,Elias I succeeded his cousin Hugh V, who sold Maine to him in 1092 for ten thousand shillings. His daughter marriedFulk V, Count of Anjou, who took Maine over in 1110 after the death of Elias.Henri Beauclerc, agreed to recognize him as Count of Maine so long as he acknowledged the Duke of Normandy as his overlord.
Fulk's sonGeoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou inherited Maine. When Geoffrey died in 1151, it passed to his son, KingHenry II of England. Since Henry had been Duke of Normandy since 1150, Anjou, Maine, and Normandy all had the same ruler for the first time. Henry later founded thePlantagenet dynasty in England.
WhenRichard the Lionheart, ruler of England, Normandy, Aquitaine, Anjou, Brittany, Maine and Touraine, collectively known as theAngevin Empire, died in 1199, it sparked awar of succession that lasted until 1204. WhileJohn Lackland managed to become recognised as King of England, the Plantagenet holdings of Normandy, Touraine, Anjou and Maine wereinvaded and conquered by KingPhilip II of France.[4] During the invasion, the French seneschalWilliam des Roches took Touraine, Anjou and Maine on behalf of the French king.
In 1331 the Count of Maine became a peer of the realm.
After theBattle of Verneuil in 1424, the English occupied Maine, andJohn of Lancaster took the title of Duke. The English held Le Mans until 1448 and Fresnay until 1449. In 1481,Charles IV, Duke of Anjou bequeathed his lands toLouis XI of France, thus returning the county to the crown.
At the beginning, a part of the Maine population supported the French Revolution that took place in Paris. The extension of it and the general opposition of the other European countries provoked a war, that forced the authorities of the new founded French Republic to engage soldiers to fight against its European enemies. The growing need of soldiers had bad consequences in the Maine, the south of Normandy and the eastern part of Brittany: Young men refused to join the army and preferred to disappear and hide themselves. They organized a sort of secret army and they got the name ofChouans, from the nickname of their chief,Jean Cottereau. With such chiefs, Maine became quickly the centre of Chouan counter-revolution. They found local support everywhere among the peasants, who were shocked by the way the administration and the army treated the priests and the Roman Catholic religion.
During the French Revolution Maine became part of the new createddépartementsMayenne andSarthe, now they are incorporated together in thePays de la Loire Region.
.JPG)
Works related toMaine (province) at Wikisource| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
.svg)
