fjt_07523 - ANGOUMOIS AND LE VALOIS - Gentry and Towns François Cardinal de la Rochefoucault, Grand Aumonier de France 1629

ANGOUMOIS AND LE VALOIS - Gentry and Towns

Angoumois roughly corresponds to the department of Charente and part of the Dordogne. The capital of the county is Angoulême, the Gallo-Roman Iculisna, to the Franks since 507. With Périgord, Angoumois is a fief of the Duchy of Aquitaine which passes by marriage to the Lusignans then, by will, to the Crown in 1308. It then became the prerogative of Louis d'Orléans and the origin of the Valois-Angoulême branch. François I, Count of Angoulême erected the county into a duchy for his mother, Louise de Savoie. On the death of the latter, the duchy was reunited with the Crown before being again given as an appanage from 1574 to 1650 to the natural children of Henry II and then Charles IX..