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County of Velay Comtat del Velai(in Occitan) Comté du Velay(in French) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1142–1790 | |||||||||
 Coat of arms | |||||||||
 In red, the modern territory of Haute-Loire (most of it was formerVelay) within France | |||||||||
| Capital | Le Puy-en-Velay | ||||||||
| Common languages | Occitan,French | ||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism,Calvinism | ||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||
• Established | 1142 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1790 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | France | ||||||||
Velay (French pronunciation:[vəlɛ]ⓘ) is a historical area ofFrance situated in the eastHaute-Loiredépartement and southeast ofMassif Central.
Julius Caesar mentioned thevellavi as the subordinate of thearverni.Strabon suggested that they might have made secession from thearverni andPtolemy located them asvellauni.
The country is well delimited by natural obstacles:Allier river in the south, Mount Boutières and Mézenc in the east, andDevès massif in the west. Devès has Celtic toponyms clearly suggesting an antic border (Fix fromfinis; la Durande from GaulishEquiranda meaning frontier).
No explanation concerning the toponym, except 19th century naïve scholastic ones that connected the name toPIE rootwel (land of "well ... people") or even to the mythologicalHel (“land or mountains of the hell” referring to the volcanic geology).
In the earlyMiddle Ages Velay was known asPagus Vellaicus and was placed under the rule of theDuchy of Aquitaine, and followed theAuvergne destiny.
The first mention of a county of Velay was in 1142.
By the beginning of the 10th century,Le Puy-en-Velay had supplanted Ru-Essio (Saint-Paulien) as the religious and administrative capital of the Velay.
In 1162, Velay became an independent county, with its bishop as count reporting directly to the King.
Velay was divided into eighteenbaronies. From the mid 14th century it was part ofLanguedoc but kept its ownStates General until 1789. During the same period,[specify] it was a crossroads of pilgrimage trails.
At the beginning of the 16th century, Velay was wealthy, but thereligious wars ruined the country. Le Puy was ardently catholic but the extreme south east of Velay was deeply Protestant. It is still nowadays the most Protestant area of France.
Velay ceased to exist after theFrench Revolution on March 4, 1790. The department ofHaute-Loire was created from the former county of Velay, on top of it a portion ofAuvergne,Gévaudan andVivarais are added.
The first part ofTravels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879) byRobert Louis Stevenson is entitled Velay, the country being the starting point of the writer's trip.
The name is kept for geographical terms (Mounts of the Velay) or new French geographical administrative entity (Communautés de communes du Velay).
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