During the early Middle Ages, the count of Tours was the ruler of the old Roman ''pagus Turonicus'': the city of Tours and its hinterland, the Touraine. Under the Merovingians, counts at Tours were appointed local representatives of the king, such as the base-born Leudast who had made his way at the Paris court of Charibert I and was appointed count at Tours by the king in the 570s, to the disgust of

Gregory of Tours Gregory of Tours (30 November 538 – 17 November 594 AD) was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of the area that had been previously referred to as Gaul by the Romans. He was born Georgius Florenti ...

. Under the early

Carolingians The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippin ...

, the counts of Tours stilled owed their position to the kings. In 828, Count

Hugh Hugh may refer to: *Hugh (given name) Noblemen and clergy French * Hugh the Great (died 956), Duke of the Franks * Hugh Magnus of France (1007–1025), co-King of France under his father, Robert II * Hugh, Duke of Alsace (died 895), modern-day ...

was disgraced and removed from office for his reluctance to act after

Abu Marwan Ubayd Allah (), known as Abu Marwan (), was a general in the service of Emir Abd ar-Rahman II of Córdoba. He was an uncle of the Emir Al-Hakam I. In 826, Aissó revolted and requested help from Abd ar-Rahman, who sent the general Abu Marwan. T ...

's sack of Barcelona. Counts Adalard and

Vivian Vivian may refer to: *Vivian (name), a given name and also a surname Toponyms * Vivian, Louisiana, U.S. * Vivian, South Dakota, U.S. * Vivian, West Virginia, U.S. * Vivian Island, Nunavut, Canada * Ballantrae, Ontario, a hamlet in Stouffville, ...

(count 844–51) were also the lay abbots of St Martin's of Tours. After them the county and the abbacy were usually held together. Robert the Strong who, besides Tours, also ruled the counties of

Anjou Anjou may refer to: Geography and titles France *County of Anjou, a historical county in France and predecessor of the Duchy of Anjou **Count of Anjou, title of nobility *Duchy of Anjou, a historical duchy and later a province of France **Duke ...

and Blois, appointed viscounts to govern the Touraine in his absence. On his death in 866 he was succeeded by his stepson,

Hugh the Abbot Hugh the Abbot (died 12 May 886) was a member of the Welf family, a son of Conrad I of Auxerre and Adelaide. After his father's death, his mother apparently married Robert the Strong, the margrave of Neustria. On Robert's death in 866, Hugh beca ...

, inaugurating the hereditary countship. Hugh was followed by Robert's sons,

Odo Odo or ODO may refer to: People * Odo, a given name; includes a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Franklin Odo (born 1939), Japanese-American historian * Seikichi Odo (1927–2002), Japanese karateka * Yuya Odo (born 1990), J ...

(d. 898) and Robert (d. 923). When Odo became king of France in 888, he gave his counties, including Tours, to Robert. On the death of the Robert's son, Hugh the Great, in 956, the Carolingian monarch reasserted his authority over the counties by refusing for four years to invest Hugh's son, Hugh Capet, with them. During this period, the viscounts of Anjou and Blois–Tours, who had begun to usurp comital power and the comital title, broke definitively with their Robertian overlords.R. E. Barton, ''Lordship in the County of Maine, c. 890–1160'' (Boydell, 2004), pp. 29–31.

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