Aquitaine

Aquitaine (Lat. Aquitania), the ancient name of that portion of Gaul that is comprised between the Pyrenees and the Garonne. After conquering the country, Caesar extended the limits of Aquitania to the river Loire, and Augustus added to it the territories of the Bituriges Cubi (afterwards Berry and Bourbonnais). Clovis in the next century annexed it to the kingdom of the Franks. In 628 it was for a short time a kingdom in itself, but was reducedto a duchy till 768, when Charlemagne again erected it into a dependent sovereignty. In 877 Aquitaine once more became a duchy and the name was corrupted into Guyenne. In 1137 Eleonora, daughter of the last duke, married Louis VII. of France and brought Guyenne and Gascony as her dowry. On her marriage with Henry II. the duchy "became an appanage of the English crown, and was retained until 1453.