In ancient
Gaul the region was the country of the
Nitiobroges with
Aginnum for their capital, which in the fourth century was the Civitas Agennensium, which was a part of
Aquitania Secunda and which formed the
diocese of Agen. From 833 to 848, all the land seems to have been ravaged by the Vikings. Having in general shared the fortunes of
Aquitaine during the
Merovingian and
Carolingian periods, Agenais from about 886 became an hereditary county in the part of the country now called
Gascony (Vasconia). The first count of Agenais (''comte d'Agen'') was William I of Périgord (d. 920), son of
Wulgrin I of Angoulême. In 1038 this county was purchased by
William, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitiers. The marriage of
Eleanor of Aquitaine with the future
Henry II of England in 1152 brought the county under the sway of the
Plantagenet house of Anjou. When
Richard Coeur-de-Lion married his sister Joan to
Raymund VI, Count of Toulouse, in 1196, Agenais formed part of the princess's dowry, and formed part of the other estates of the last independent
count of Toulouse. At the
1259 Treaty of Paris,
Louis IX of France agreed to pay an annual rent to
Henry III of England for Louis' possession of Agenais. The estates of Agenais lapsed to the crown of France in 1271. This, however, was not for long; the king of France had to recognize the prior rights of the king of England to the possession of the county, and restored it to him in 1279. During the
Hundred Years' War between the English and the French, Agenais was frequently taken and retaken, the final retreat of the English in 1453 at last leaving the king of France in peaceable possession. In 1561,
Guyenne was made a
province, and included
Bordelais,
Bazadais,
Limousin,
Périgord,
Quercy,
Rouergue, Agenais,
Saintonge, and
Angoumois. Thenceforth Agenais was no more than an administrative term. At the end of the
Ancien Régime it formed part of the
Gouvernement of
Guienne, and at the
Revolution it was incorporated within the département of
Lot-et-Garonne, of which it constitutes nearly the whole. The title of count of Agenais, which the kings of England had allowed to fall into desuetude, was revived by the kings of France, and in 1789 was held by the family of the
dukes of Richelieu. ==Notes==