| Duchy of Anjou Duché d'Aniu | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1360–1482 | |||||||||
 Coat of arms | |||||||||
| Capital | Angers | ||||||||
| Demonym | Angevin, Angevins, Angevine, Angevines | ||||||||
| Government | |||||||||
| • Type | Duchy | ||||||||
| King of France | |||||||||
• 1360–1380 | Charles V | ||||||||
• 1461–1482 | Louis XI | ||||||||
| Duke of Anjou | |||||||||
• 1360–1384 | Louis I of Anjou | ||||||||
• 1480–1481 | Charles IV of Anjou | ||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||
• County of Anjou raised to Duchy | 1360 | ||||||||
• Integrated into Kingdom of France | 1482 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
TheDuchy of Anjou (French:[ɑ̃ʒu]ⓘ;UK:/ˈɒ̃ʒuː,ˈæ̃ʒuː/,US:/ɒ̃ˈʒuː,ˈæn(d)ʒuː,ˈɑːnʒuː/;[1][2][3]Latin:Andegavia) was aFrench province straddling the lowerLoire. Its capital wasAngers, and its area was roughly co-extensive with thediocese of Angers. Anjou was bordered byBrittany to the west,Maine to the north,Touraine to the east andPoitou to the south. The adjectival form isAngevin, and inhabitants of Anjou are known as Angevins. In 1482, the duchy became part of the Kingdom of France and then remained a province of the Kingdom under the name of the Duchy of Anjou. After the decree dividing France into departments in 1791, the province was disestablished and split into six newdépartements. The majority of its area formed the newMaine-et-Loire department and its remaining area split between the departments ofDeux-Sèvres,Indre-et-Loire,Loire-Atlantique,Sarthe, andVienne.
The county of Anjou was united to theroyal domain between 1205 and 1246, when it was turned into anapanage for the king's brother,Charles I of Anjou. This second Angevin dynasty, a branch of theCapetian dynasty, established itself on the thrones ofNaples andSicily, and the joint throne ofCroatia andHungary.[4][5] Anjou itself was united to the royal domain again in 1328, but was detached in 1360 as theDuchy of Anjou for the king's son,Louis I of Anjou. The third Angevin dynasty, a branch of theHouse of Valois, also ruled for a time the Kingdom of Naples. The dukes had the same autonomy as the earlier counts, but the duchy was increasingly administered in the same fashion as the royal domain and the royal government often exercised the ducal power while the dukes were away.
On 17 February 1332,Philip VI bestowed it on his sonJohn the Good, who, when he became king in turn (22 August 1350), gave the countship to his second sonLouis I, raising it to a duchy in the peerage of France by letters patent of 25 October 1360. Louis I, who became in timecount of Provence and titular king of Naples, died in 1384, and was succeeded by his sonLouis II, who devoted most of his energies to his Neapolitan ambitions, and left the administration of Anjou almost entirely in the hands of his wife,Yolande of Aragon. On his death (29 April 1417), she took upon herself the guardianship of their young sonLouis III, and, in her capacity of regent, defended the duchy against the English. Louis III, who also devoted himself to winning Naples, died on 15 November 1434, leaving no children. The duchy of Anjou then passed to his brotherRené, second son of Louis II and Yolande of Aragon.[6]
| Province of Anjou Province of Anjou | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1482–1791 | |||||||||||||||||||
 Flag Coat of arms | |||||||||||||||||||
.png) Location of Anjou and Saumurois within the Kingdom of France in 1789 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Capital | Angers | ||||||||||||||||||
| Demonym | Angevin, Angevins, Angevine, Angevines | ||||||||||||||||||
| Government | |||||||||||||||||||
| • Type | Province | ||||||||||||||||||
| King of France | |||||||||||||||||||
• 1482 – 1483 | Louis XI | ||||||||||||||||||
• 1774 – 1791 | Louis XVI | ||||||||||||||||||
| Duke of Anjou | |||||||||||||||||||
• 1515 – 1531 | Louise of Savoy | ||||||||||||||||||
• 1755 – 1791 | Louis Stanislas Xavier de Bourbon | ||||||||||||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages /Early Modern | ||||||||||||||||||
• Integrated into Kingdom of France | 1482 | ||||||||||||||||||
• Decree dividing France into departments | 1791 | ||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
Unlike his predecessors, who had rarely stayed long in Anjou, René from 1443 onwards paid long visits to it, and his court at Angers became one of the most brilliant in the kingdom of France. But after the sudden death of his sonJohn in December 1470, René, for reasons which are not altogether clear, decided to move his residence toProvence and leave Anjou for good. After making an inventory of all his possessions, he left the duchy in October 1471, taking with him the most valuable of his treasures. On 22 July 1474 he drew up a will by which he divided the succession between his grandsonRené II of Lorraine and his nephew Charles II, count of Maine. On hearing this,King Louis XI, who was the son of one of King René's sisters, seeing that his expectations were thus completely frustrated, seized the duchy of Anjou. He did not keep it very long, but became reconciled to René in 1476 and restored it to him, on condition, probably, that René should bequeath it to him. However that may be, on the death of the latter (10 July 1480) he again added Anjou to the royal domain.[6]
Later,King Francis I again gave the duchy as an appanage to his mother, Louise of Savoy, by letters patent of 4 February 1515. On her death, in September 1531, the duchy returned into the king's possession. In 1552 it was given as an appanage by Henry II to his sonHenry of Valois, who, on becoming king in 1574, with the title of Henry III, conceded it to his brotherFrancis, duke of Alençon, at the treaty of Beaulieu near Loches (6 May 1576). Francis died on 10 June 1584, and the vacant appanage definitively became part of theroyal domain.[6]
At first Anjou was included in thegouvernement (or military command) of Orléanais, but in the 17th century was made into a separate one. Saumur, however, and the Saumurois, for whichKing Henry IV had in 1589 created an independent military governor-generalship in favour of Duplessis-Mornay, continued till the Revolution to form a separategouvernement, which included, besides Anjou, portions of Poitou and Mirebalais. Attached to thegénéralité (administrative circumscription) of Tours, Anjou on the eve of the Revolution comprised fiveêlections (judicial districts):--Angers,Baugé,Saumur,Château-Gontier,Montreuil-Bellay and part of theêlections ofLa Flèche andRichelieu. Financially it formed part of the so-calledpays de grandegabelle, and comprised sixteen special tribunals, orgreniers à sel (salt warehouses):--Angers,Baugé,Beaufort,Bourgueil,Candé, Château-Gontier,Cholet,Craon, La Flèche,Saint-Florent-le-Vieil,Ingrandes,Le Lude,Pouancé,Saint-Rémy-la-Varenne, Richelieu, Saumur. From the point of view of purely judicial administration, Anjou was subject to the parlement of Paris; Angers was the seat of a presidial court, of which the jurisdiction comprised thesénéchaussées of Angers, Saumur, Beaugé, Beaufort and the duchy of Richelieu; there were besides presidial courts at Château-Gontier and La Flèche. When the Constituent Assembly, on 26 February 1790, decreed the division of France into departments, Anjou and the Saumurois, with the exception of certain territories, formed the department of Maine-et-Loire, as at present constituted.[6]
Under thekingdom of France, Anjou was practically identical with thediocese of Angers, bound on the north byMaine, on the east byTouraine, on the south byPoitou (Poitiers) and theMauges, and the west by the countship ofNantes or the duchy ofBrittany.[7][6] Traditionally Anjou was divided into four natural regions: the Baugeois, the Haut-Anjou (or Segréen), the Mauges, and the Saumurois.
It occupied the greater part of what is now thedepartment ofMaine-et-Loire. On the north, it further included:Craon;Candé;Bazouges [fr] (Château-Gontier); andLe Lude. On the east, it further addedChâteau-la-Vallière andBourgueil; while to the south, it lacked the towns ofMontreuil-Bellay,Vihiers,Cholet, andBeaupréau, as well as the district lying to the west of theIronne andThouet on the left bank of theLoire, which formed the territory of theMauges [fr].[6]
Since the end of the provincial system in 1791, the name of 'Anjou' has been used to describe the former region in which the duchy and province occupied. This region roughly correlates to several regions: Mayenne angevine (north west), Haut Anjou (centre-northern), Segreen (western), Baugeois (eastern), Les Mauges (south western), andSaumurois (south).
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Halphen, Louis (1911), "Anjou", inChisholm, Hugh (ed.),Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 2 (11th ed.), Cambridge University Press, pp. 55–58
.svg)