Count Bernard VI. Bernard VI, disputing the succession of the viscounty of Béarn, also
initiated the great quarrel with the counts of Foix. Thereafter, the history of Armagnac is
dominated by this rivalry and by the counts’ determined alliance with the cause of the
French monarchy against the English. Count Jean I (r. 1319–73), royal lieutenant in
Languedoc, vainly opposed the Black Prince’s raid in 1355. Bernard VII, constable of
France, murdered in 1418, animated the anti-Burgundian party known as the Armagnacs.
The reign of Count Jean V brought the downfall of the house of Armagnac. Charged with
rebellion against the king, he was besieged and assassinated at the castle of Lectoure in
- The domains of Armagnac passed to the family of d’Albret and finally to the
monarchy with the accession of Henry IV in 1589.
Alan Friedlander
[See also: ALBRET; ARMAGNACS; FOIX]
Badout, Louis. “La chute de la maison d’Armagnac.” Bulletin de la Société Académique des
Hautes-Pyrénées (1982–83): 130–42.
Baqué, Z. “Les comtes d’Armagnac.” Bulletin de la Société Archéologique Historique Littéraire et
Scientifique du Gers (1944–48). [Series of continuing articles.]
Bordes, Maurice. Histoire d’Auch et du pays d’Auch. Roanne: Horvath, 1980.
Samaran, Charles. La maison d’Armagnac au XVe siècle et les dernières luttes de la féodalité dans
le Midi de la France. Paris: Picard, 1907.
ARMAGNACS
. During the summer of 1411, the name Armagnacs began to be used by the Parisians for
the faction supporting the duke of Orléans against the duke of Burgundy, John the
Fearless. The origin of this ducal struggle was the murder of Louis of Orléans in 1407 at
the instigation of Burgundy. At the Peace of Chartres (March 9, 1409), the king pardoned
Burgundy, saying that the murder was committed for the good of the kingdom. He
commanded Louis’s sons Charles, duke of Orléans, and Philip to swear not to pursue
vengeance, but the feud did not end.
The nickname reveals the strong influence within the group of Count Bernard of
Armagnac, son-in-law of the duke of Berry. Bernard became important when he joined
Berry on April 15, 1410, in an alliance with the dukes of Orléans and Brittany and the
counts of Alençon and Clermont, aimed against Burgundy and called today the League of
Gien. At this time, a marriage was arranged between Bernard’s daughter Bonne and
Charles d’Orléans. Civil war was averted by the Peace of Bicêtre, announced by the king
on November 2, 1410. It was the quick result of a royal threat to confiscate the property
of members of the league.
The duke of Orléans initiated new strife on January 30, 1411, with a kidnaping and
then began to skirmish with the Burgundians in Picardy. On July 14, Orléans and his
brothers sent the king the “Manifesto of Jargeau,” which claimed that the royal pardon to
Burgundy in 1409 was against divine law and the oaths given at Chartres were therefore
invalid. Hostilities resumed, and in October the Armagnacs took Saint-Denis and the
bridge of Saint-Cloud. Intercepted letters proved Berry’s complicity with their faction,
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