County of Armagnac

The County of Armagnac was the most powerful fief of Gascony, separated from Fezensac in 960 and seated first at Lectoure, later administered from Auch. Its counts grew rich by marriage and purchase, adding Rodez, Carlat, Lomagne and Comminges, and held their own between England and France during the Hundred Years War until the Black Prince drove them into the arms of Charles V in 1369. In 1410 Bernard VII married his daughter to Charles of Orleans, and the royal party against Burgundy took the name Armagnacs, dragging France into a bloody civil war that lasted until 1435. After Bernard's death the house declined: Jean V defied Louis XI and was killed at Lectoure in 1473, the last count died in 1497, and the land passed through the crown to Henry of Navarre, who joined it to the royal domain when he became Henry IV in 1607. The title survived with the house of Lorraine until the Revolution disestablished the county in 1791.