Alain Roux

Geoffroi Tête-Noire

Geoffroi Tête-Noire, a famous Breton mercenary.

Ventadour

Alain Roux

Pierre Roux

Geoffroi Tête-Noire

Geoffroi Tête-Noire, a famous Breton mercenary.

Auvergne

France, central region at the heart of the Massif Central covering approximately the modern departments of Cantal, Puy-de-Dôme and (parts of) Haute-Loire; bounded to the north by the duchy of Bourbon, the west by Limousin, the south by Viadene, the south-east by Gévaudan and the south-west by Quercy. Major towns: Clermont, Montferrand and Riom.

Limousin

France, centre (modern departments of Corrèze, Creuse and Haute-Vienne); bounded to the north-east by La Marche, the east by Auvergne, the north-west by Poitou, the west by Périgord and Angoumois, and the south by Quercy. Principal city: Limoges, many of whose surrounding fortresses (including Chalusset, Rochechouart, Isle, Châlus, etc) were occupied by routier garrisons during the early 1370s.

France

The kingdom of France, populated up until the Black Death of 1348-9 by 12-16 millions souls and including up to the Treaty of Brétigny (1360) the Ile-de-France together with the apanages of Normandy, Anjou, Bourbon, Champagne, Valois, Auvergne and Languedoc, plus a number of important fiefs such as the counties of Blois, Nevers and Foix, and (from 1349) Montpellier and the Dauphiné; diminished from 1354 by the growing activity and influence in the Cotentin and other parts of Normandy of the king of Navarre, Charles of Evreux, and by English conquests resulting in an enlarged duchy of Guyenne (essentially Gascony; will become the principality of Aquitaine) stretching from the borders of the great and at times pro-English duchy of Brittany to the Pyrenees (save for the neutral county of Béarn) and eastwards to embrace the Poitou, Limousin and Rouergue (on the border with the Languedoc); Ponthieu and Guines are also in English hands. The French re-conquest under Charles V and Du Guesclin progressively drives the English from the realm, leaving them (by 1370-80) the ports of Calais, Cherbourg, Brest, Bordeaux and Bayonne, and a much-reduced Aquitaine. Brittany returns to French allegiance from 1365 onwards (Treaty of Guérande).

Grave

Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy (d. 1404)

Philippe, known as 'the Bold', duke of Burgundy (1342 - 1404), fourth son of Jean II of France and Bonne of Luxemburg. The duke of Burgundy was a prominent figure in the government of France during the reign of his nephew Charles VI, especially after 1392 when the king began to suffer from recurring bouts of insanity that gave the dukes of Berry and Burgundy the opportunity to seize power from Charles VI's trusted administrators, known as the Marmousets. Philippe married Margaret de Male, countess of Flanders, and this marriage eventually not only reunited the duchy of Burgundy with the 'free' counties of Burgundy and Artois, but also brought the wealthy counties of Flanders, Nevers and Rethel under the control of the duke of Burgundy. Thus this marriage alliance, and the consequent marriages of the duke of Burgundy's children, created the basis for the Grand Duchy of the West, a quasi-independent state rather than a mere fief of the French crown.

Manuscript reading: et escuiers et escuiers

Emended reading: et escuiers

Manuscript reading: sceure

Emended reading: sceurent

Manuscript reading: Grane

Emended reading: Grave

Manuscript reading: se ce

Emended reading: ce se