Counts and Dukes of Angoulême

Angoulême (L'Angoumois) in western France was part of the Carolingian Kingdom of Aquitaine. Under Charlemagne's successors, the local count of Angoulême was independent and the county was not united with the French crown until 1308. By the terms of the Treaty of Brétigny (1360) the Angoumois, then ruled by the counts of Angoulême, was ceded to King Edward III of England. In 1371 it became a fief of Duke John of Berry and then passed to Duke Louis I of Orleans, both of whom were cadets of the French royal family. From then on it was held by cadets of the Valois House of Orleans, until Francis of Angoulême, became king of France in 1515. Angoumois was definitively incorporated into the French crown lands, as a duchy.

Counts of Angoulême

House of Guilhelmides

• Turpio (839–863)^[1]
• Emenon of Poitiers (863–866),^[2] brother of Turpio
  • Aymer of Poitiers (Aymer I of Angoulême) (916–926),^[3] son of Emenon

House of Taillefer

Coat of arms of the counts of Angoulême

• Wulgrin I (866–886),^[4] first hereditary count, appointed by Charles the Bald
• Alduin I (886–916),^[5] son of Wulgrin I
• William II ("Taillefer" I) (926–c.945),^[6] son of Alduin I
• Aymer II (after 945–before 952),^[7] son of William II (Taillefer I)
• Bernard (after 945–before 952),^[8] son of William I (William I is the son of Wulgrin I and brother to Alduin I)
• Arnald I "Voratio" (after 950–before 952),^[9] son of Bernard
• William III Talleyrand (952– 962),^[10] son of Bernard
• Rannulf "Bompar" (962–975),^[11] son of Bernard
• Richard the Simple (975?),^[12] son of Bernard
• Arnald II "Manzer" (975–988),^[13] son of William II (Taillefer I)
• William IV (Taillefer II) (988–1028),^[14] son of Arnald II
• Alduin (II) (1028–1031),^[15] son of William IV (Taillefer II)
• Geoffrey (1031–1047),^[16] son of William IV (Taillefer II)
• Fulk (1047–1087),^[17] son of Geoffrey
• William V (Taillefer III) (1087–1120),^[18] son of Fulk
• Wulgrin II (1120–1140),^[19] son of William V (Taillefer III)
• William VI (Taillefer IV) (1140–1179),^[20] son of Wulgrin II
• Wulgrin III (1179–1181),^[21] son of William VI (Taillefer IV)
• William VII (Taillefer V) (1181–1186),^[22] son of William VI (Taillefer IV)
• Aymer III (1186–1202),^[23] son of William VI (Taillefer IV)
• Isabella (1202–1246),^[24] daughter of Aymer III
  • John of England (House of Plantagenet) (1202–1216), first husband of Isabella
  • Hugh X of Lusignan (House of Lusignan, see below) (1220–1249), second husband of Isabella

House of Lusignan

Coat of arms of the lords of Lusignan

• Hugh X of Lusignan (Hugh I of Angoulême) (1219–1249).^[25] His father, Hugh IX of Lusignan, was married to Mathilde of Angoulême, daughter of Wulgrin III Taillefer (see above)
• Hugh XI of Lusignan (II of Angoulême) (1246–1250)
• Hugh XII of Lusignan (III of Angoulême) (1250–1270)
• Hugh XIII of Lusignan (IV of Angoulême) (1270–1303)
• Guy (1303–1308)
• Part of Aquitaine (1308–1317)
• Royal Domain (1317–1328)

Royal Grantees

• Joan (1328–1349) House of Capet, with her husband, Philip III of Navarre. House of Évreux
  • Philip (1328–1343) House of Évreux
• Charles de La Cerda (1350–1354) House of La Cerda
• John I (1356–1374) House of Valois
• Louis I (1404–1407), Duke of Orléans. House of Valois-Orléans
• John II (1407–1467) House of Valois-Orléans-Angoulême
• Charles (1459–1496) House of Valois-Orléans-Angoulême
• Francis (1496–1515) House of Valois-Orléans-Angoulême

Dukes of Angoulême

Coat of arms of the counts of Angoulême of the Valois-Orléans family

• Louise (1515–1531)
• Royal domain
• Charles (1540–1545)
• Royal domain
• Charles (1550)
• Henry (1551–1574)
• Henry (1574–1582)
• Diane (1582–1619)
• Charles (1619–1650)
• Louis Emmanuel (1650–1653)
• Frances Marie (1653–1696)
  • Louis II (1653–1654)
• Royal domain
• Élisabeth Marguerite d'Orléans (1675–1696)
• Royal domain
• Charles de France (1710–1714)
• Royal domain
• Charles Philippe de France (1773–1836)
• Louis Antoine d'Artois (1836–1844)
• Royal domain

Duchesses of Angoulême

• Louise of Savoy (1476–1531) - wife of Charles, Count of Angoulême from 1488.
• Marie Thérèse of France (1778–1851) - wife of Louis Antoine from 1799.

Sources

1. Luc Bourgeois, Une résidence des comtes d’Angoulême autour de l'an mil: le castrum d’Andone (Villejoubert, Charente); publication des fouilles d'André Debord (1971–1995) (Caen: Publications du CRAHM, 2009), 384.
2. Bourgeois, 384–85.
3. Debord, 99–103; and Bourgeois, 387 and 389–91.
4. André Debord, La société laïque dans les pays de la Charente, Xe-XIIe s. (Paris: Picard, 1984) 99–103; and Bourgeois, 385–89.
5. Debord, 99–103; and Bourgeois, 387 and 389–91.
6. Debord, 99–103; and Bourgeois, 387 and 391.
7. Adémar II was one of two known sons of William II, but his status as count is only supported by one possible reading of his father's will. Debord (99–103) notes that he might have become count, while Bourgeois rejects the possibility (387 and 392). For William II's will, see: Paul Lefrancq, ed., Cartulaire de l’abbaye de Saint-Cybard (Angoulême: Imprimerie Ouvrière, 1930), #222.
8. Debord, 99–103; and Bourgeois, 387 and 392–93
9. Debord, 99–103; and Bourgeois, 387 and 392–93.
10. Debord, 99–103; and Bourgeois, 387 and 392–93.
11. Debord, 99–103; and Bourgeois, 387 and 392–93.
12. Debord, 99–103 omits Richard; Bourgeois, 387 and 392–93, accepts him. Only mentioned in Adémar de Chabannes' chronicle, if he ruled at all it would have been in 975. Ademari Cabannensis opera omnia pars 1: Chronicon, ed. Pascale Bourgain, Richard Landes, and Georges Pon, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 129 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1999), III.28, 148.
13. Bourgeois, 387.
14. Bourgeois, 387.
15. Debord, 171; and Bourgeois, 387.
16. Debord, 171 and 212; and Bourgeois, 387.
17. Debord, 171 and 212; and Bourgeois, 387.
18. Debord, 171 and 212.
19. Debord, 171 and 212.
20. Debord gives William VI death as 1180, and the beginning of Vulgrin III’s rule that same year (212). However, Rowan Charles Watson disagrees. "The Counts of Angoulême from the 9th to the Mid 13th Century" (PhD diss., University of East Anglia, 1979), 453. This is due to charter evidence (Watson, 353–62) and Geoffrey of Vigeois' chronicle, which declares William VI to have died in 1179 and Vulgrin III to have ruled for only two years. "Chronica Gaufredi coenobitae monasterii D. Martialis Lemovicensis, ac prioris Vosiensis coenobii," in Novae bibliothecae manuscriptorum librorum tomus secundus: rerum aquitanicarum. . . . ed. Philippe Labbe (Paris: Sebastian Cramoisy, 1657), 325–26.
21. Watson, 453.
22. Watson, 453.
23. Debord, 573; and Watson, 453.
24. Watson, 453.
25. For Hugh X and the rest of the Lusignan, see: Léopold Delisle, "Chronologie historique des Comtes de la Marche issus de la maison de Lusignan," Bulletin Société Archéologique et Historique de la Charente 4, no. 4 (1867): 3–16; originally published as an appendix to: "Mémoire sur une lettre inédite adressée à la reine Blanche par un habitant de La Rochelle," Bibliothèque de l’École des chartes 4th series, 2 (1856): 537–45.

Further reading

• Hazlitt, W. Carew. The Coinage of the European Continent. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1893.
• Migne, Jacques-Paul. Dictionnaire de l'art de vérifier les dates des faits historiques, des chartes, des chroniques et autres anciens monuments. Paris: 1854.
• Watson, Rowan Charles. The Counts of Angoulême from the 9th to the mid 13th Century. PhD dissertation. University of East Anglia, 1979.