BÉARN
. The viscounty of Béarn in Gascony, created in the 9th century, consisted of two
principal valleys, the Aspe and the Ossau, draining the northern slopes of the Pyrénées
and extending northwest into the lower lands of the Oloron and Pau rivers. Béarnese
rulers of the 10th and 11th centuries joined in Navarrese and Aragonese military
expeditions against the Muslims and gravitated primarily in an Aragonese political orbit
from the late 11th century to the early 13th, when Catalano-Aragonese influence in
Languedoc was abruptly ended by the victory of the Albigensian crusaders. In 1170,
rights to the viscounty of Béarn passed to members of a Catalan noble lineage,
inaugurating a period of relatively weak vice-comital rule. In 1221, Guillem Ramon de
Montcada, viscount of Béarn, confirmed important additions to the Fors d’Oloron, an
11th-century legal charter. The enhanced text lay the groundwork for the celebrated Fors
de Béarn and led to the establishment of the “estates” of Béarn, an association of nobles,
nonnobles, and churchmen whose consultations with the viscount were institutionalized
in the late 14th century. Béarn vacillated between allegiance to the kingdom of France
and to the English dukes of Aquitaine from 1228 to 1364, when Viscount Gaston
Phoebus declared Béarn independent of England.
John C.Shidelar
Dumonteil, Jacques, and Bernard Cheronnet. Le fors d’Oloron: édition critique réalisée pour le 9e
centenaire de la “Poblation.” Oloron: “Ouvrage publié avec le concours de la municipalité
d’Oloron-Sainte-Marie,” 1980 (1981).
Tucoo-Chala, Pierre. La vicomté de Béarn et le problème de sa souveraineté des origines a 1620.
Bordeaux: Bière, 1961.
BEAUCAIRE
. The town of Beaucaire (Gard) was the site of a fortress guarding the eastern border of
Languedoc. It lay on the right bank of the Rhône, a river that for much of the Middle
Ages marked the frontier of the realm in southeastern France. After lower Languedoc was
taken over by the French crown in 1229, the district was administered by a royal
seneschal whose military headquarters were at Beaucaire, while the judicial and
administrative seat lay at Nîmes, farther west.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
[See also: AUCASSIN ET NICOLETTE]
The Encyclopedia 193