From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Duchy of Vasconia (sometimes
Wasconia), later known as Gascony, was a Merovingian creation: a frontier duchy on the Garonne, in the border with the rebel Basque tribes.
During the collapse of Frankish authority in the region in the year
660, it gained de facto and possibly de jure
independence, in personal union with the Duchy of Aquitaine (north and east of the
Garonne).
After Muslim invasions and Carolingian restoration of the Frankish Kingdom, the Duchy, separated from
Aquitaine, suffered some fragmentation, specially in the south,
where the Kingdom of
Pamplona and the County of Vasconia arose as separate
states in the 9th century, when it came to be known as Duchy of
Gascony,[1]
as Gascon
Romance was already replacing Basque in most of the region.
After a period of obscurity, it reemerged in the early eleventh
century as a close ally (possible even vassal) of the Kingdom of
Navarre. In 1032, it was inherited by the heir of Aquitaine and
became personally
united to that duchy thereafter. It thus became a part of the
Angevin
Empire. The ducal title was reemployed by Edward Longshanks and it formed a base of
support for the English during the Hundred Years' War. It has been
called England's first foreign colony.
List of
dukes and counts
[2]
Dukes of Vasconia
(Frankish vassals)
Dukes of Vasconia and
Aquitaine
- Felix (660-670)
- Lupus I (670-676 or until 710 in
Vasconia only[1])
- Odo the Great (or Eudes) (688-735
- his reign commenced perhaps as late as 692, 700, 710 or 715,
unclear parentage.
- Hunald I (735-748), son of
previous, abdicated to monastery, may have returned later (see
below).
- Waifer (or Gaifier)
(748-767), son of previous.
- Hunald II (767-769), either Hunald
I returning or a different Hunald, fled to Lupus II of Gascony and
was handed over to Charlemagne.
Independent Dukes of
Vasconia
Dukes of Vasconia and Counts of
Bordeaux (Frankish vassals)
Counts of
Vasconia
- Temporarily segregated from the Duchy. See: Northern Basque
Country
- Aznar Sans (820-836)
- Sans II
(836-855 or 864), fought against the Franks since 848 and
eventually became Duke of Vasconia.
Late Independents Dukes of
Vasconia
Independent Dukes of
Gascony
- United to Duchy of
Aquitaine in 1058.
The unity of Gascony had disappeared already in the 10th
century, and so those wishing to learn more about the history of
Gascony should look at the particular histories of Béarn, Armagnac, Bigorre, Comminges, Nébouzan, Labourd and so on.
Sources
- Auñamendi Encyclopedia: Ducado
de Vasconia.
- Sedycias, João. História
da Língua Espanhola.
- Foundation for Medieval
Genealogy: Gascony.
- Monlezun, Jean Justin.
Histoire de la Gascogne. 1846.
- Charles Oman,
The Dark Ages 476-918. Rivingtons: London, 1914.
- Collins, Roger. The Basques. Blackwell Publishing:
London, 1990.
- Higounet, Charles. Bordeaux pendant le haut moyen age.
Bordeaux, 1963.
- Lewis, Archibald R. The Development of Southern French and
Catalan Society, 718–1050. University of Texas Press: Austin,
1965.
- Pertz, G, ed. Chronici Fontanellensis fragmentum in
Mon. Ger. Hist. Scriptores, Vol. II.
- Pertz, G, ed. Chronicum Aquitanicum in Mon. Ger. Hist.
Scriptores, Vol. II.
- Waitz, E, ed. Annales Bertiniani. Hanover: 1883.
Notes
- ^ a
b
c
d
e
Ducado de Vasconia (Auñamendi
Encyclopedia)
- ^
Nomenclature Before listing the names of the dukes
and counts of Gascony, a long explanation is needed. This is
because these names are recorded under a bewildering number of
variants, which makes identification very difficult. These dukes
and counts were leaders of the Basque clans that dominated Gascony
and so their native names were Basque. However, as the Gascon
language gradually replaced Basque, their names are also recorded
in Gascon. Indeed, eventually the dukes of Gascony probably
themselves adopted Gascon, which is reflected in the declining use
of authentically Basque names by the last dukes. In written
documents, their names were usually recorded in Latin, which was
the favored written language at the time. Today, their names are
also frequently found in their French version, and also sometimes
in their Spanish version. One example: the Basque name Otsoa
(meaning "wolf") was literally translated Lop in Gascon, Lupus in
Latin, Loup in French, and Lobo in Spanish. Thus, Duke Otsoa II of
Gascony can be known by any of these names, which confuses people
not used to the local linguistic situation. Furthermore, even
within a set language, there exist many different variants, as for
the Basque name Santxo (from Latin sanctus, meaning
"holy"), which can be found in Basque documents written Antso,
Sanzio, Santio, Sanxo, Sancio, and so on. Usually, the dukes and
counts of Gascony had two names, the first one being their given
name, the second one being the given name of their father (for
example, Duke Sans I Lop, which means this is Duke Sans I, son of
Lop). This custom later generated the Spanish family names, with
the adding of suffix -ez meaning "son of". "Juan Sánchez"
literally means "John, son of Sancho". For a few dukes of Gascony,
the second name is not the given name of their father, but it is a
nickname that they gained over time and that replaced the given
name of their father, such as the famous duke Sans III Mitarra,
where Mitarra is not the name of his father, but a nickname of Arab
origin. In the list below, the dukes and counts of Gascony are
listed according to their Gascon names (based on the current
spelling of Gascon, not the medieval spelling, which was
fluctuating). Although all the different names under which the
dukes of Gascony are known are just different versions of the same
names in different languages, it should be noted that there is one
duke of Gascony known by two names that are completely different
names and not merely two versions of the same name: Duke Seguin I.
"Semen" is his Basque name (sometimes written Semeno, Xemen, Ximen,
or Jimeno). Nobody knows for sure if Semen is the Basque version of
the biblical name Simon] or a native Basque name based on the
Basque word seme (meaning "son"). On the other hand,
"Seguin" (modern Gascon "Siguin") is a name of Germanic origin:
sig- means victory (cf modern German Sieg) and
-win means "friend". It has been suggested that some
apparently "Basque" names are merely corruptions of late Germanic
names. For example, Garsinde leading to Garsean, Gendolf or Centulf
to Centule, Aginald or Hunnald to Enneko (in Flanders,and Frisian,still a short form of
the first two frank names), Aginard to Aznar, Belasgytta or
Wallagotha to Velasquita, Belasgutho to Velasco, Arnoald to Arnau,
Theuda to Toda, Theudahilda to Dadildis or Dedadils. Perhaps the
intermarriage of Hispano-Gothic magnates with the local Basque
population led to the modification of Gothic names into Basque
variants.
Wikis
Map
Search