Maine () is one of the traditional
provinces of France. It corresponds to the former
County of Maine
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
, whose capital was also the city of
Le Mans. The area, now divided into the departments of
Sarthe
Sarthe () is a department of the French region of Pays de la Loire, and the province of Maine, situated in the '' Grand-Ouest'' of the country. It is named after the river Sarthe, which flows from east of Le Mans to just north of Angers. It ha ...
and
Mayenne
Mayenne () is a landlocked department in northwest France named after the river Mayenne. Mayenne is part of the administrative region of Pays de la Loire and is surrounded by the departments of Manche, Orne, Sarthe, Maine-et-Loire, and Ill ...
, counts about 857,000 inhabitants.
History
Antiquity
The Gallic tribe
Aulerci Cenomani
The Aulerci Cenomani (or Aulerci Cenomanni) were a Gallic tribe dwelling in the modern Sarthe department during the Iron Age and the Roman period. The Cenomani were the most powerful of the Aulerci tribes.
Name
Attestations
They are ment ...
lived in the region during the Iron Age and Roman period. The province of Maine was named after them, in the 6th century CE as ''in Cinomanico'' (''in'' ''pago Celmanico'' in 765, ''*Cemaine'', then ''Le Maine'' from the 12th century).
Early Middle Ages
In the 8th and 9th centuries, there existed a Duchy of Cénomannie (ducatus Cenomannicus), which several of the
Carolingian kings used as an
appanage
An appanage, or apanage (; french: apanage ), is the grant of an estate, title, office or other thing of value to a younger child of a sovereign, who would otherwise have no inheritance under the system of primogeniture. It was common in much o ...
. This duchy was a
march
March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March ...
that may have included several counties including Maine, and extended into
Lower Normandy
Lower Normandy (french: Basse-Normandie, ; nrf, Basse-Normaundie) is a former administrative region of France. On 1 January 2016, Lower and Upper Normandy merged becoming one region called Normandy.
Geography
The region included three departme ...
, 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
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first ...
in turn gave it to his younger son,
Charles the Younger
Charles the Younger or Charles of Ingelheim (c. 772 – 4 December 811) was a member of the Carolingian dynasty, the second son of Charlemagne and the first by his second wife, Hildegard of Swabia and brother of Louis the Pious and Pepin Carloma ...
. Charlemagne's grandson, the future
Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald (french: Charles le Chauve; 13 June 823 – 6 October 877), also known as Charles II, was a 9th-century king of West Francia (843–877), king of Italy (875–877) and emperor of the Carolingian Empire (875–877). After a ...
, and his son
Louis the Stammerer
Louis II, known as Louis the Stammerer (french: Louis le Bègue; 1 November 846 – 10 April 879), was the king of Aquitaine and later the king of West Francia. He was the eldest son of Emperor Charles the Bald and Ermentrude of Orléans. Louis ...
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
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
and
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...
. Rorgon's son
Gauzfrid in turn became Count of Maine. He fought against
Salomon, King of Brittany
Salomon ( br, Salaün) (died 874) was Count of Rennes and Nantes from 852 and Duke of Brittany from 857 until his death by assassination. He used the title King of Brittany intermittently after 868. In 867, he was granted the counties of Avranches ...
and in 866 participated in the
battle of Brissarthe alongside
Robert the Strong
Robert the Strong (french: Robert le Fort; c. 830 – 866) was the father of two kings of West Francia: Odo (or Eudes) and Robert I of France. His family is named after him and called the Robertians. In 853, he was named '' missus dominicus'' ...
, the
Frankish
Frankish may refer to:
* Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture
** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages
* Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany
* East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...
Margrave of Neustria
The Marches of Neustria (french: Marches de Neustrie; br, Marz Neustria; Norman: ''Maurches de Neûtrie'') were two marches created in 861 by the Carolingian king of West Francia Charles the Bald. They were ruled by officials appointed by the M ...
. When Gauzfrid died, Charles the Bald granted the title, as well as the county and the wider Neustrian march to
Ragenold of Neustria
Ragenold (or Raino) (killed 25 July 885) was the Count of Herbauges from 852 and Count of Maine and Margrave of Neustria (positioned against the Vikings) from 878. His family is unidentified, but he may have been a son of Reginald of Herbauges. ...
, because Gauzfrid's children were too young to act in that capacity. Ragenold, who may have been the son of
Renaud d'Herbauges Renaud (795–843) was Frankish Count of Herbauges, Count of Poitiers and Count of Nantes. His name is also spelled Rainaldus or Ragenold, and he is sometimes known as Reginald in English. He is referred to as Renaud of Aquitaine, but seems to h ...
, died in 885 fighting the
Vikings
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and ...
who were pillaging
Rouen.
King
Rudolph of France
Rudolph (french: Rodolphe), sometimes called Ralph (; c. 890 – 14/15 January 936), was the king of France from 923 until his death in 936. He was elected to succeed his father-in-law, Robert I, and spent much of his reign defending his realm fr ...
is said to have given Maine to the
Norse nobleman
Rollo
Rollo ( nrf, Rou, ''Rolloun''; non, Hrólfr; french: Rollon; died between 928 and 933) was a Viking who became the first ruler of Normandy, today a region in northern France. He emerged as the outstanding warrior among the Norsemen who had se ...
,
Duke of Normandy, in 924.
High Middle Ages
Angevin period (c. 1000–1063)
Bordering the county 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
**Duk ...
to the south and the Duchy of
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
to the north, Maine became a bone of contention between the rulers of these more powerful principalities.
Hugh III of Maine
Hugh III (c. 960 – c. 1015) became Count of Maine on his father Hugh II's death, c. 991.
Life
He was the son of Hugh II, Count of Maine and succeeded his father as Count of Maine Detlev Schwennicke, '' Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafel ...
(ruled c. 991–c. 1015) was forced to recognize
Fulk III, Count of Anjou
Fulk III, the Black ( 987–1040; fro, Foulque Nerra), was an early count of Anjou celebrated as one of the first great builders of medieval castles. It is estimated Fulk constructed approximately 100 castles, along with abbeys throughout the Lo ...
as his overlord.
Sometime between 1045 and 1047
Hugh IV married
Bertha
Bertha is a female Germanic name, from Old High German ''berhta'' meaning "bright one". It was usually a short form of Anglo Saxon names ''Beorhtgifu'' meaning "bright gift" or ''Beorhtwynn'' meaning "bright joy".
The name occurs as a theonym, s ...
, daughter of
Odo II, Count of Blois
Odo II () (983 – 15 November 1037) was the count of Blois, Chartres, Châteaudun, Beauvais and Tours from 1004 and count of Troyes (as Odo IV) and Meaux (as Odo I) from 1022. He twice tried to make himself a king: first in Italy after 1024 a ...
and widow of
Alan III, Duke of Brittany. The
Angevins did not want Maine to come under the influence of
Blois
Blois ( ; ) is a commune and the capital city of Loir-et-Cher department, in Centre-Val de Loire, France, on the banks of the lower Loire river between Orléans and Tours.
With 45,898 inhabitants by 2019, Blois is the most populated city of the ...
, and Count
Geoffrey Martel Geoffrey, Geoffroy, Geoff, etc., may refer to:
People
* Geoffrey (name), including a list of people with the name
* Geoffroy (surname), including a list of people with the name
* Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1095–c. 1155), clergyman and one of the ...
invaded Maine. But the
Normans
The Normans ( Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Franks and Gallo-Romans. ...
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.
Norman conquest and rule (1062–1070)
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
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 108 ...
, then Duke of Normandy, his heir. His sister Marguerite was engaged to William's eldest son,
Robert Curthose
Robert Curthose, or Robert II of Normandy ( 1051 – 3 February 1134, french: Robert Courteheuse / Robert II de Normandie), was the eldest son of William the Conqueror and succeeded his father as Duke of Normandy in 1087, reigning until 1106. ...
and Herbert had taken refuge at William's court in 1056 when
Geoffrey Martel Geoffrey, Geoffroy, Geoff, etc., may refer to:
People
* Geoffrey (name), including a list of people with the name
* Geoffroy (surname), including a list of people with the name
* Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1095–c. 1155), clergyman and one of the ...
, Duke 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
**Duk ...
, invaded
Le Mans.
While the county was in Angevin hands, Anjou had its own succession problem. Duke
William
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
of Normandy claimed the county on their behalf of Herbert's young sister Margaret, betrothed to his son
Robert Curthose
Robert Curthose, or Robert II of Normandy ( 1051 – 3 February 1134, french: Robert Courteheuse / Robert II de Normandie), was the eldest son of William the Conqueror and succeeded his father as Duke of Normandy in 1087, reigning until 1106. ...
. The other claimant was Herbert's aunt Biota, a sister of Hugh IV, and her husband Walter, Count of the
Vexin
Vexin () is an historical county of northwestern France. It covers a verdant plateau on the right bank (north) of the Seine running roughly east to west between Pontoise and Romilly-sur-Andelle (about 20 km from Rouen), and north to south ...
. William invaded Maine in force in 1063 and despite stiff opposition from
Fulk IV, Count of Anjou Fulk is an old European personal name, probably deriving from the Germanic ''folk'' ("people" or "chieftain"). It is cognate with the French Foulques, the German Volk, the Italian Fulco and the Swedish Folke, along with other variants such as F ...
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. 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.
In 1069 the citizens of Le Mans revolted against the Normans. Soon some of the
Manceaux barons joined the revolt, the Normans were expelled in 1070, and young
Hugh V Hugh V may refer to:
* Hugh V of Lusignan (died 1060)
* Hugh V, Count of Maine, ruled 1069–1072
* Hugh V, Viscount of Châteaudun (died 1180)
* Hugh V, Duke of Burgundy
Hugh V (1294 – 9 May 1315) was Duke of Burgundy between 1306 and 13 ...
was proclaimed Count of Maine.
Independent period (1070–1129)
Hugh was the son of
Azzo d'Este and his wife Gersendis, the other sister of Count Hugh IV. Azzo returned to
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, leaving Gersendis in charge. The real power, however, was one of the Manceaux barons,
Geoffrey of Mayenne, who may also have been Gersendis' lover. After Norman attacks in 1073, 1088, 1098 and 1099,
Elias I succeeded his cousin Hugh V, who sold Maine to him in 1092 for ten thousand shillings. His daughter married
Fulk V, Count of Anjou, who took Maine over in 1110 after the death of Elias.
Henri Beauclerc, agreed to recognize him as Count of Maine so long as he acknowledged the Duke of Normandy as his overlord.
Plantagenet period (1129–1204)
Fulk's son
Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou inherited Maine. When Geoffrey died in 1151, it passed to his son, King
Henry II of England
Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189), also known as Henry Curtmantle (french: link=no, Court-manteau), Henry FitzEmpress, or Henry Plantagenet, was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189, and as such, was the first Angevin king ...
. Since Henry had been Duke of Normandy since 1150, Anjou, Maine, and Normandy all had the same ruler for the first time. Henry later founded the
Plantagenet
The House of Plantagenet () was a royal house which originated from the lands of Anjou in France. The family held the English throne from 1154 (with the accession of Henry II at the end of the Anarchy) to 1485, when Richard III died in ...
dynasty in England.
When
Richard the Lionheart
Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overl ...
, ruler of England, Normandy, Aquitaine, Anjou, Brittany, Maine and Touraine, collectively known as the
Angevin Empire
The Angevin Empire (; french: Empire Plantagenêt) describes the possessions of the House of Plantagenet during the 12th and 13th centuries, when they ruled over an area covering roughly half of France, all of England, and parts of Ireland and W ...
, died in 1199, it sparked a
war of succession
A war of succession is a war prompted by a succession crisis in which two or more individuals claim the right of successor to a deceased or deposed monarch. The rivals are typically supported by factions within the royal court. Foreign pow ...
that lasted until 1204. While
John Lackland
John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empi ...
managed to become recognised as King of England, the Plantagenet holdings of Normandy, Touraine, Anjou and Maine were
invaded and conquered by King
Philip II of France
Philip II (21 August 1165 – 14 July 1223), byname Philip Augustus (french: Philippe Auguste), was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks, but from 1190 onward, Philip became the first French m ...
.
During the invasion, the French seneschal
William des Roches
William des Roches (died 1222) (in French Guillaume des Roches) was a French knight and crusader who acted as Seneschal of Anjou, of Maine and of Touraine. After serving the Angevin kings of England, in 1202 he changed his loyalty to King Philip I ...
took Touraine, Anjou and Maine on behalf of the French king.
Late Middle Ages
In 1331 the Count of Maine became a peer of the realm.
After the
Battle of Verneuil
The Battle of Verneuil was a battle of the Hundred Years' War, fought on 17 August 1424 near Verneuil-sur-Avre in Normandy between an English army and a combined Franco- Scottish force, augmented by Milanese heavy cavalry. The battle was a s ...
in 1424, the English occupied Maine, and
John of Lancaster took the title of Duke. The English held Le Mans until 1448 and Fresnay until 1449. In 1481,
Charles IV, Duke of Anjou
Charles IV, Duke of Anjou, also Charles of Maine, Count of Le Maine and Guise (1446 – 10 December 1481) was the son of the Angevin prince Charles of Le Maine, Count of Maine and Isabelle of Luxembourg.
He succeeded his father as Count of Maine ...
bequeathed his lands to
Louis XI of France, thus returning the county to the crown.
French Revolution
![Location map of the Pays de la Loire region, France](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Location_map_of_the_Pays_de_la_Loire_region%2C_France.svg)
At the beginning, a part of the Maine population supported the French revolution that took place in Paris. The extension of it and the general opposition of the other European countries provoked a war, that forced the authorities of the new founded French Republic to engage soldiers to fight against its European enemies. The growing need of soldiers had bad consequences in the Maine, the south of Normandy and the eastern part of Brittany: Young men refused to join the army and preferred to disappear and hide themselves. They organized a sort of secret army and they got the name of
Chouan
Chouan ("the silent one", or "owl") is a French nickname. It was used as a nom de guerre by the Chouan brothers, most notably Jean Cottereau, better known as Jean Chouan, who led a major revolt in Bas-Maine against the French Revolution. Par ...
s, from the nickname of their chief,
Jean Cottereau. With such chiefs, Maine became quickly the centre of Chouan counter-revolution. They found local support everywhere among the peasants, who were shocked by the way the administration and the army treated the priests and the Roman Catholic religion.
Modern times
During the French revolution Maine became part of the new created ''
départements
A department (, ) is an administrative or political division in several countries. Departments are the first-level divisions of 11 countries, nine in the Americas and two in Africa. An additional 10 countries use departments as second-level div ...
''
Mayenne
Mayenne () is a landlocked department in northwest France named after the river Mayenne. Mayenne is part of the administrative region of Pays de la Loire and is surrounded by the departments of Manche, Orne, Sarthe, Maine-et-Loire, and Ill ...
and
Sarthe
Sarthe () is a department of the French region of Pays de la Loire, and the province of Maine, situated in the '' Grand-Ouest'' of the country. It is named after the river Sarthe, which flows from east of Le Mans to just north of Angers. It ha ...
, now they are incorporated together in the
Pays de la Loire Region. The State of Maine is widely accepted, however, as "real" Maine.
Gallery
File:Dolmen des erves.JPG, Des Erves dolmen 4000 BC
File:Jardins_Pierre_de_Ronsard.JPG, Gallo-Roman
Gallo-Roman culture was a consequence of the Romanization of Gauls under the rule of the Roman Empire. It was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman culture, language, morals and way of life in a uniquely Gaulish context ...
and medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
city wall in Le Mans
File:Lassay 2.JPG, Lassay Castle 12th → 15th century
File:Laval Town 2007 03.jpg, Laval Castle and Town
File:Laval Town 2007 01.jpg, View of Laval
File:Thévalles (1).JPG, Thévalles Castle
File:Saint-Pierre-sur-Erve.JPG, Maine Bocage
Bocage (, ) is a terrain of mixed woodland and pasture characteristic of parts of Northern France, Southern England, Ireland, the Netherlands and Northern Germany, in regions where pastoral farming is the dominant land use.
''Bocage'' may als ...
-Hedgerows
File:Château-Gontier colombages02.JPG, Medieval half-timbered house in Château-Gontier
Château-Gontier () is a former Communes of France, commune in the Mayenne Departments of France, department in north-western France. On 1 January 2019, it was merged into the new commune Château-Gontier-sur-Mayenne.
Geography
It is about sout ...
File:Panoss.jpg, Panoramic view of Sainte-Suzanne, Mayenne
Sainte-Suzanne () is a former commune in the Mayenne department in north-western France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Sainte-Suzanne-et-Chammes.Counts and Dukes of Maine
This is a list of counts and dukes of Maine. The capital of Maine was Le Mans. In the thirteenth century it was annexed by France to the royal domain.
Dukes of Maine (''duces Cenomannici'')
* Charivius ( fl. 723) – appears as ''dux'' in a do ...
References
Bibliography
*Patrice Morel, "Les Comtes du Maine au IX siècle", in Revue Historique et Archéologique du Maine, Le Mans, 2005, 4° série T.5, tome CLVI de la Collection, pp. 177–264 (avec Index des principaux personnages; Bibliographie).
*Robert Latouche, "Les premiers comtes héréditaires du Maine", in Revue Historique et Archéologique du Maine, Le Mans, 1959, tome CXV de la Collection, pp. 37–41
*Robert Latouche, Histoire du Comté du Maine pendant le X° et XI° siècles, Bibliothèque de l'École des Hautes Études, Paris, 1910.
*Gérard Louise, "La seigneurie de Bellême Xe-XIIe siècles", dans Le Pays bas-normand, 1990, no 3 (199), pp. 161–175
*Jean-Pierre Brunterc'h, " le duché du Maine et la marche de Bretagne " dans La Neustrie. Les Pays au nord de la Loire de 650 à 850, colloque historique international publié par Hartmut Atsma, 1989, tome 1.
*François Neveux, la Normandie des ducs aux rois Xe-XIIe siècle, Rennes, Ouest-France, 1998
*Auguste Bry, Le Maine et l'Anjou, historiques, archéologiques et pittoresques. Recueil des sites et des monuments les plus remarquables sous le rapport de l'art et de l'histoire des départements de la Sarthe, de la Mayenne et de Maine-et-Loire, Nantes et Paris, 1856-1860;
*Abbé Angot, "Les vicomtes du Maine", dans Bulletin de la Commission historique et archéologique de la Mayenne, 1914, no 30, pp. 180–232, 320–342, 404–424.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maine (Province)
Former provinces of France
History of Pays de la Loire
History of Centre-Val de Loire
History of Normandy
History of Indre-et-Loire
History of Loir-et-Cher
History of Mayenne
History of Orne
History of Sarthe