Gascony: Encyclopedia II - Gascony - History

Gascony - History

Gascony - Origins

In pre-Roman times, the inhabitants of Gascony were the Aquitanians (Latin: Aquitani), who spoke a language related to the old Basque language. The Aquitanians inhabited a territory limited to the north and east by the Garonne River, to the south by the Pyrenees mountain range, and to the west by the Atlantic Ocean. The Romans called this territory Aquitania, either from the Latin word aqua (meaning "water"), in reference to the many rivers flowing from the Pyrenees through the area, or from the name of the Aquitanian Ausci tribe (whose name seems related to the Basque root eusk- meaning "Basque"), in which case Aquitania would mean "land of the Ausci". In the 50s BC, Aquitania was conquered by lieutenants of C. Julius Caesar and became part of the Roman Empire.

Later, in 27 BC, during the reign of Emperor Augustus, the province of Gallia Aquitania was created. Gallia Aquitania was far larger than the original Aquitania, as it extended north of the Garonne River, in fact all the way north to the Loire River, thus including the Celtic Gallic people that inhabited the regions between the Garonne and the Loire rivers. These Gallic people were quite different from the non-Indo-European Aquitanians. This was a deliberate policy of Rome, which sought to gather people from different ethnic background into a single province, in order the avoid the development of a regional identity.

In 297, as Emperor Diocletian reformed the administrative structures of the Roman Empire, long claims of the now Romanized descendants of the Aquitanians, who had long desired to be separated from the now also Romanized descendants of the Gallic people inhabiting north of the Garonne, were finally heard and Gallia Aquitania was split into three provinces. The territory south of the Garonne River, corresponding to the original Aquitania, was made a province called Novempopulana (i.e. "land of the nine tribes"), while the part of Gallia Aquitania north of the Garonne became the province of Aquitanica I and the province of Aquitanica II. The territory of Novempopulana corresponded quite well to what we call now Gascony. From 297 on, the name "Aquitaine" was never used again for Gascony, despite it having been its original name, and instead became used only for territories north of the Garonne River.

Novempopulana suffered like the rest of the Western Roman Empire from the invasions of Germanic tribes, most notably the Vandals in 407-409. Later in that century Novempopulana was conquered by the Visigoths and became part of the Visigoth kingdom of Toulouse. The Visigoths were defeated by the Franks in 507, and fled into Spain. Novempopulana then became part of the Frankish Kingdom like the rest of southern France. However, Novempopulana was far away from the home base of the Franks in northern France, and was only very loosely controlled by the Franks.

It is then, around 600, that taking advantage of the power vacuum thus created, the Basque clans descended from their refuge in the western Pyrenees and established their hegemony over Novempopulana. This is why Novempopulana became known as Vasconia (i.e. "land of the Vascones", the Latin word "Vasco" later evolving into the word "Basque"). The word Vasconia evolved into Wasconia, and then into Gasconia (w- often evolved into g- under the influence of Romance languages, cf. warrantee and guarantee, William and Guillaume). Although the Basque clans dominated Gascony, the gradual abandonment of the Basque related Aquitanian language in favor of a local vulgar Latin, which was well under its way, was not reversed. This local vulgar Latin later evolved into Gascon. However, Gascon was heavily influenced by the original Aquitanian language (e.g. Latin f- became h-, cf. Latin fortia, French force, Spanish fuerza, Occitan fòrça, but Gascon hòrça).

Gascony - Dukes and counts of Gascony

Before listing the names of the dukes and counts of Gascony (or Wasconia as it was then known), a long explanation is needed. This is because these names are recorded under a bewildering number of variants, which makes identification very difficult. These dukes and counts were leaders of the Basque clans that dominated Gascony, and so their native names were Basque. However, as the language of their subjects was mostly a vulgar Latin that evolved into Gascon, their names are also recorded in Gascon. Indeed, eventually the dukes of Gascony probably adopted themselves Gascon, which is reflected in the declining use of authentically Basque names by the last dukes.

In written documents, their names were usually recorded in Latin, which was the favored written language at the time. Today, their names are also frequently found in their French version, and also sometimes in their Spanish version. One example: the Basque name Otsoa (meaning "wolf") was literally translated Lop in Gascon, Lupus in Latin, Loup in French, and Lobo in Spanish. Thus, Duke Otsoa II of Gascony can be known by any of these names, which confuses people not used to the local linguistic situation. Furthermore, even within a set language, there exist many different variants, such as Basque name Santxo (from Latin sanctus, meaning "holy"), which can be found in Basque documents written Antso, Sanzio, Santio, Sanxo, Sancio, and so on.

Usually, the dukes and counts of Gascony had two names, the first one being their given name, the second one being the given name of their father (e.g.: Duke Sancho I Lobo, which means this is Duke Sancho I, son of Lobo). This custom later generated the Spanish family names, with the adding of suffix -ez meaning "son of". E.g.: Juan Sanchez literally means "Juan, son of Sancho". For a few dukes of Gascony, the second name is not the given name of their father, but it is a nickname that they gained over time and that replaced the given name of their father, such as the famous duke Sans III Mitarra, where Mitarra is not the name of his father, but a nickname of Arab origin meaning "the Terror", a nickname given to him by the Moors after his resounding successes against them.

In the list below, the dukes and counts of Gascony are listed according to their Gascon names (based on the current spelling of Gascon, not the medieval spelling, which was fluctuating anyway). Basque was not chosen, as Basque names present too many variants, and anyway the later dukes adopted the Gascon language. In parenthesis appear the most frequently found versions of their names in other languages.

Although all the different names under which the dukes of Gascony are known are just different versions of the same names in different languages, it should be noted that there is one duke of Gascony known by two names that are completely different names, and not merely two versions of the same name: Duke Semen (a.k.a. Duke Siguin). Semen is a Basque name (sometimes written Semeno, Xemen, Ximen, etc., which gave the Spanish family names Ximenez and Jimenez). Nobody knows for sure if Semen is either the Basque version of the biblical name Simon, or a native Basque name based on the Basque word seme (meaning "son"). On the other hand, Siguin (modern Gascon Seguin) is a name of Germanic origin (Sig-, i.e. "victory", cf. modern German Sieg, and -win, i.e. "friend", related to modern English win). At the time of writing this article, it was not possible to determine which of these two names is the correct name of duke Semen/Siguin. Both are found.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki