Europe · The successor kingdoms
Aquitaine
drawn on the map AD 629–632, 661–731, 750–767, 888–895
Aquitaine (Latin Aquitania) was a duchy and later subkingdom in southwestern Gaul, between the Loire and the Pyrenees. In the late Merovingian period it was an autonomous duchy under rulers such as Eudo (Odo) the Great, who defeated a Muslim army at the Battle of Toulouse (721) but was later defeated at the Battle of the Garonne (732), after which Charles Martel intervened decisively.
- Shown on the map
- AD 629–632, 661–731, 750–767, 888–895 (4 periods)
- Peak area
- 648k km²
- Region
- Europe
Overview
Aquitaine (Latin Aquitania) was a duchy and later subkingdom in southwestern Gaul, between the Loire and the Pyrenees. In the late Merovingian period it was an autonomous duchy under rulers such as Eudo (Odo) the Great, who defeated a Muslim army at the Battle of Toulouse (721) but was later defeated at the Battle of the Garonne (732), after which Charles Martel intervened decisively.
Decline and legacy
Charles Martel and his sons subdued Aquitaine's autonomous dukes (notably Waiofar). Under Charlemagne, Aquitaine was made a subkingdom for his son Louis the Pious (crowned king of Aquitaine as a child in 781). Later it passed to Pepin I of Aquitaine and Pepin II of Aquitaine, whose disputes with Charles the Bald over the inheritance complicated the West Frankish succession (Pepin II contested Charles's rule until his capture). Aquitaine retained a distinct identity, and later became a great duchy famous for Eleanor of Aquitaine in the 12th century.
Common questions
- What was Aquitaine?
- Aquitaine (Latin Aquitania) was a duchy and later subkingdom in southwestern Gaul, between the Loire and the Pyrenees. In the late Merovingian period it was an autonomous duchy under rulers such as Eudo (Odo) the Great, who defeated a Muslim army at the Battle of Toulouse (721) but was later defeated at the Battle of the Garonne (732), after which Charles Martel intervened decisively.
- When is Aquitaine shown on the map?
- The border data draws Aquitaine AD 629–632, 661–731, 750–767, 888–895, in 4 separate periods. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.
- How large was Aquitaine?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Aquitaine covered about 648,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
- How did Aquitaine end?
- Charles Martel and his sons subdued Aquitaine's autonomous dukes (notably Waiofar). Under Charlemagne, Aquitaine was made a subkingdom for his son Louis the Pious (crowned king of Aquitaine as a child in 781).
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each polity as the primary basis, cross-checked against Encyclopædia Britannica and the World History Encyclopedia, while flagging entries built on thin or contested evidence — Samo's Empire on a single Fredegar passage, Venice's 697 founding date as legendary, the Pacta conventa as a probable forgery. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Aquitaine en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquitaine
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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