Poitou

Poitou
Poitiers

Flag

Coat of arms
Country France
Area
 – Total 19,709 km2 (7,609.7 sq mi)
Population (2006 estimate)
Residents known as Poitevins[1]
 – Total 1,375,356
Time zone CET
Count 638—677, Guérin de Trèves
1403—1461, Charles VII of France

Poitou (French pronunciation: [pwatu]) was a province of west-central France whose capital city was Poitiers.

The region of Poitou was called Thifalia (or Theiphalia) in the sixth century.

There is a marshland called the Poitevin Marsh (French Marais Poitevin) on the Gulf of Poitou, on the west coast of France, just north of La Rochelle and west of Niort.

Many of the Acadians who settled in what is now Nova Scotia beginning in 1604 and later to New Brunswick, came from the region of Poitou. After the Acadians were deported by the British beginning in 1755, a number of Acadians eventually took refuge in Poitou and in Québec. A large portion of these refugees also migrated to Louisiana in 1785 and following years became known as Cajuns (see Cajuns).

Perhaps paradoxically, during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries Poitou had been a hotbed of Huguenot (French Calvinist) activity among the nobility and bourgeoisie and was severely impacted by the French Wars of Religion (1562–1598).

Post revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, a strong counter-reformation effort was made by the French Roman Catholic Church, this in part was subsequently in 1793 responsible for the three year long open revolt against the French Revolutionary Government in the Bas-Poitou (Département of Vendée). Indeed during Napoleon’s Hundred Days in 1815, the Vendée stayed loyal to the Restoration Monarchy of King Louis XVIII and Napoleon was forced to send 10,000 troops under General Lamarque to pacify the region.

As noted by Lampert, "The persistent Huguenots of 17th Century Poitou and the fiercely Catholic rebellious Royalists of what came be the Vendée of the late 18th Century had ideologies very different, indeed diametrically opposed to each other. The common thread connecting both phenomena is a continuing assertion of a local identity and opposition to the central government in Paris, whatever its composition and identity. (...) In the region where Louis XIII and Louis XIV had encountered stiff resistance, the House of Bourbon gained loyal and militant supporters exactly when it had been overthrown and when a Bourbon loyalty came to imply a local loyalty in opposition to the new central government, that of Robespierre.[2]

Contents

Poitou Donkeys

The Baudet de Poitou is a distinctive and rare breed of donkey associated with the region.

In fiction

  • Large parts of the "Angelique" series of historical novels are set in 17th Century Poitou.

See also

References

  1. ^ Lance Day, Ian McNeil, ed (1996). Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-19399-0. 
  2. ^ Andre Lampert, "Centralism and Localism in European History" (cited as an example of "A Persistant [sic?] Localism" in the Introduction)

External links


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • POITOU — Ancienne province française dont l’essentiel a formé les départements de la Vendée, des Deux Sèvres et de la Vienne. Riche comme tout l’Ouest en mégalithes et en gisements de l’âge du bronze, le Poitou entre dans l’histoire comme territoire des… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • POITOU — POITOU, region and former province of W. France, now included in the departments of Vendée, Deux Sèvres, and Vienne. In the Middle Ages Jews lived in at least 20 localities in Poitou, the most important of which were poitiers , Niort, Vitré,… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Poitou — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Poitou es una antigua provincia de Francia, cuya ciudad capital era Poitiers. Corresponde con los actuales departamentos de la Vendée, Deux Sèvres y la Vienne, al oeste de Francia. La Marisma de Poitevin (en francés …   Wikipedia Español

  • Poitou —   [pwa tu] das, historische Provinz in Westfrankreich, umfasst das fruchtbare, etwa 150 m über dem Meeresspiegel hohe Plateau aus Juragesteinen zwischen dem Armorikanischen und dem Zentralmassiv, das das Pariser und das Aquitanische Becken… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Poitou — Porté notamment dans le Centre (45, 41) et dans les Charentes, désigne en principe celui qui est originaire du Poitou. Les formes Poitout et Poitoux, rencontrées dans l Yonne, devraient avoir le même sens …   Noms de famille

  • Poitou — (spr. Poatuh), ehemalige Landschaft in Frankreich, mit der Hauptstadt Poitiers zwischen Bretagne, Anjou, Touraine, Marche, Angoumais, Saintonge u. dem Atlantischen Ocean; theilte sich in Ober P. (j. Departement Vienne) u. Nieder P. (j. die …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Poitou — (spr. pūatū), ehemalige Provinz im südwestlichen Frankreich, zerfiel in Oberpoitou (das gegenwärtige Depart. Vienne) und Niederpoitou (die Departements Deux Sèvres und Vendée). Hauptstadt war Poitiers. Das Land P. war im Altertum von den… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Poitou — (spr. pŏatuh), ehemal. Provinz des westl. Frankreichs, bildet jetzt die Dep. Vienne, Deux Sèvres und Vendée, zerfiel in Ober und Nieder P.; Hauptstadt Poitiers; 1154 1259 und 1360 71 englisch, seit 1416 bei der Krone Frankreich. – Vgl. Auber… …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • Poitou — (Poatu), ehemalige Provinz in Frankreich, zwischen Bretagne, Anjou, Touraine, Marche, Angoumois, Saintonge und dem atlant. Ocean, war in Ober und Nieder P. getheilt und hatte Poitiers zur Hauptstadt …   Herders Conversations-Lexikon

  • Poitou — [pwȧ to͞o′] historical region of WC France …   English World dictionary

  • Poitou — La province du Poitou au sein du Royaume de France Armoiries du Poitou …   Wikipédia en Français

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