Kingdom of Aquitaine

The Kingdom of Aquitaine was a Frankish sub-kingdom in south-western Gaul whose existence was interrupted and renewed several times between the sixth and ninth centuries. The region had been conquered by Clovis at the battle of Vouillé in 507 and organised on the Roman provinces of Aquitania Prima and Secunda. In 629 Dagobert I gave his brother Charibert II a kingdom in southern Aquitaine, and this short-lived realm became the historical basis for later claims. During the second half of the seventh century the dukes of Aquitaine ruled as quasi-independent princes; Odo the Great defeated a Moorish army at Toulouse in 721 before submitting to Charles Martel in 732, and his son Hunald rebelled again. Charlemagne revived the royal title in 781 for his infant son Louis, who was crowned king of Aquitaine and later became emperor. Under Louis and his sons the kingdom, with its capital at Toulouse, was a laboratory for Carolingian government, but it was repeatedly divided among heirs. The last king, Louis the Stammerer, inherited West Francia in 877, and the royal title lapsed. Aquitaine continued as a duchy, passing to the counts of Poitiers and eventually to the Plantagenets.