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Maine (province)
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Maine (province)
Maine (French: [mɛːn] ⓘ) is one of the traditional provinces of France. It corresponds to the former County of Maine, whose capital was also the city of Le Mans. The area, now divided into the departments of Sarthe and Mayenne, has about 857,000 inhabitants.
The Gallic tribe Aulerci 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 as in Cinomanico (in pago Celmanico in 765, *Cemaine, then Le Maine from the 12th century).
In the 8th and 9th centuries, there existed a Duchy of Cénomannie (ducatus Cenomannicus), which several of the Carolingian kings used as an appanage. This duchy was a march that may have included several counties including Maine, and extended into Lower Normandy, all the way to the Seine. In 748, Pepin the Short, then Mayor of the Palace and thus the most powerful man in Francia after the king, gave this duchy to his half-brother Grifo. In 790 Charlemagne in turn gave it to his younger son, Charles the Younger. Charlemagne's grandson, the future Charles the Bald, and his son Louis 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 from Normandy and Brittany. Rorgon's son Gauzfrid in turn became Count of Maine. He fought against Salomon, King of Brittany and in 866 participated in the battle of Brissarthe alongside Robert the Strong, the Frankish Margrave of Neustria. When Gauzfrid died, Charles the Bald granted the title, as well as the county and the wider Neustrian march to Ragenold of Neustria, because Gauzfrid's children were too young to act in that capacity. Ragenold, who may have been the son of Renaud d'Herbauges, died in 885 fighting the Vikings who were pillaging Rouen.
King Rudolph of France is said to have given Maine to the Norse nobleman Rollo, Duke of Normandy, in 924.
Bordering the county of Anjou to the south and the Duchy of Normandy 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 recognize Fulk III, Count of Anjou as his overlord.
Sometime between 1045 and 1047 Hugh IV married Bertha, daughter of Odo II, Count of Blois and widow of Alan III, Duke of Brittany. The Angevins did not want Maine to come under the influence of Blois, and Count Geoffrey Martel invaded Maine. But the Normans 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 son Herbert 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 declaring William 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 when Geoffrey Martel, Duke of Anjou, invaded Le Mans.
While the county was in Angevin hands, Anjou had its own succession problem. Duke William of Normandy claimed the county on their behalf of Herbert's young sister Margaret, betrothed to his son Robert Curthose. The other claimant was Herbert's aunt Biota, a sister of Hugh IV, and her husband Walter, Count of the Vexin. William invaded Maine in force in 1063 and despite stiff opposition from Fulk IV, Count of Anjou and from local barons such as Geoffrey of Mayenne and Hubert 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 successful invasion of England in 1066.
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Maine (province) AI simulator
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Maine (province)
Maine (French: [mɛːn] ⓘ) is one of the traditional provinces of France. It corresponds to the former County of Maine, whose capital was also the city of Le Mans. The area, now divided into the departments of Sarthe and Mayenne, has about 857,000 inhabitants.
The Gallic tribe Aulerci 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 as in Cinomanico (in pago Celmanico in 765, *Cemaine, then Le Maine from the 12th century).
In the 8th and 9th centuries, there existed a Duchy of Cénomannie (ducatus Cenomannicus), which several of the Carolingian kings used as an appanage. This duchy was a march that may have included several counties including Maine, and extended into Lower Normandy, all the way to the Seine. In 748, Pepin the Short, then Mayor of the Palace and thus the most powerful man in Francia after the king, gave this duchy to his half-brother Grifo. In 790 Charlemagne in turn gave it to his younger son, Charles the Younger. Charlemagne's grandson, the future Charles the Bald, and his son Louis 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 from Normandy and Brittany. Rorgon's son Gauzfrid in turn became Count of Maine. He fought against Salomon, King of Brittany and in 866 participated in the battle of Brissarthe alongside Robert the Strong, the Frankish Margrave of Neustria. When Gauzfrid died, Charles the Bald granted the title, as well as the county and the wider Neustrian march to Ragenold of Neustria, because Gauzfrid's children were too young to act in that capacity. Ragenold, who may have been the son of Renaud d'Herbauges, died in 885 fighting the Vikings who were pillaging Rouen.
King Rudolph of France is said to have given Maine to the Norse nobleman Rollo, Duke of Normandy, in 924.
Bordering the county of Anjou to the south and the Duchy of Normandy 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 recognize Fulk III, Count of Anjou as his overlord.
Sometime between 1045 and 1047 Hugh IV married Bertha, daughter of Odo II, Count of Blois and widow of Alan III, Duke of Brittany. The Angevins did not want Maine to come under the influence of Blois, and Count Geoffrey Martel invaded Maine. But the Normans 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 son Herbert 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 declaring William 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 when Geoffrey Martel, Duke of Anjou, invaded Le Mans.
While the county was in Angevin hands, Anjou had its own succession problem. Duke William of Normandy claimed the county on their behalf of Herbert's young sister Margaret, betrothed to his son Robert Curthose. The other claimant was Herbert's aunt Biota, a sister of Hugh IV, and her husband Walter, Count of the Vexin. William invaded Maine in force in 1063 and despite stiff opposition from Fulk IV, Count of Anjou and from local barons such as Geoffrey of Mayenne and Hubert 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 successful invasion of England in 1066.
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