Guyenne or
Guienne (; ) was an old
French province which corresponded roughly to the
Aquitania Secunda of the Romans and the
archbishopric of Bordeaux. In the 12th century it formed with
Gascony the
duchy of Aquitaine, which passed under the dominion of the kings of England by the marriage of
Eleanor of Aquitaine to
Henry II. In the 13th century, through the conquests of
Philip Augustus,
Louis VIII and
Louis IX, it was confined within the narrower limits fixed by the
treaty of Paris (1259). It is at this point that Guyenne became distinct from Aquitaine. It then comprised the
Bordelais (the old countship of Bordeaux), the
Bazadais, part of
Périgord,
Limousin,
Quercy and
Rouergue, and the
Agenais ceded by
Philip III to
Edward I in 1279. Still united with Gascony, it formed a duchy extending from the Charente to the Pyrenees. This duchy was held as a
fief on the terms of
homage to the French kings, and both in 1296 and 1324 it was confiscated by the kings of France on the ground that there had been a failure in the
feudal duties. At the
treaty of Brétigny (1360), King
Edward III acquired the full sovereignty of the duchy of Guyenne, together with
Aunis,
Saintonge,
Angoumois and
Poitou. The victories of the Frenchmen
Bertrand du Guesclin and
Gaston Phœbus restored the duchy soon after to its 13th-century limits. In 1451 it was conquered and finally united to the French crown by
Charles VII. In 1469
Louis XI gave it in exchange for
Champagne and Brie to his brother
Charles, Duke of Berry, after whose death in 1472 it was again united to the
royal dominion. Guyenne then formed a government (
gouvernement général) which from the 17th century onwards was united with Gascony. The government of Guyenne and Gascony, with its capital at Bordeaux, lasted till the end of the
Ancien Régime (1792). Under the
Revolution the departments formed from Guyenne proper were those of
Gironde,
Lot-et-Garonne,
Dordogne,
Lot,
Aveyron and the chief part of
Tarn-et-Garonne.