County of La Marche

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Flag of Marche

The County of Marche was a medieval French county, approximately corresponding to the modern département of Creuse.

Marche first appeared as a separate fief about the middle of the 10th century when William III, duke of Aquitaine, gave it to one of his vassals named Boso, who took the title of count. In the 12th century it passed to the family of Lusignan, sometime also counts of Angoulême and counts of Limousin, until the death of the childless Count Guy in 1308, when it was seized by Philip IV of France. In 1316 it was made an appanage for his youngest son the Prince, afterwards Charles IV and a few years later (1327) it passed into the hands of the family of Bourbon. The family of Armagnac held it from 1435 to 1477, when it reverted to the Bourbons, and in 1527 it was seized by Francis I and became part of the domains of the French crown. It was divided into Haute Marche and Basse Marche, the estates of the former being in existence until the 17th century. From 1470 until the Revolution the province was under the jurisdiction of the parlement of Paris.

[edit] Counts of Marche

[edit] Marche dynasty

Boso I the Old, count of Marche and Périgord (958–988)
Aldebert I, count of Marche and Périgord (988–997)
- Boso II, count of Marche and Périgord (988–1010)
Bernard I (1010–1041)
- His daughter, Almodis, married firstly with Hugh V of Lusignan, and their son Hugh VI inherited later the county of Marche by her right.
Aldebert II (1047–1088)
Boso III (1088–1091)
- Eudes I, son of Bernard I, probably ruled as regent for his nephew Boso III (1088)

[edit] Lusignan dynasty

Hugh VI the Devil, son of Hugh V of Lusignan and Almodis de la Marche (1091–1102)
Hugh VII (1102–1151)
Hugh VIII (1151–1165)
Hugh IX (1203–1219)
Hugh X the Brown (1219–1249)
Hugh XI (1249–1260)
Hugh XII (1260–1275)
Hugh XIII (1270–1303)
Guy (1303–1308)
Annexed by Philip IV of France and given as an appanage to Philip’s son Charles the Fair

[edit] Capetian dynasty

Charles the Fair (1314–1322)
On Charles’ succession to the throne in 1322, he exchanged the county with Louis of Bourbon for the County of Clermont.

[edit] Capetian-Bourbon dynasty

Bourbon La-Marche.

Louis I of Bourbon (1322–1342)
Peter I of Bourbon (1342–1356)
James I of Bourbon (1356–1362)
Peter II of Bourbon-La Marche (1362)
John I of Bourbon-La Marche (1362–1393)
James II (1393–1438), married Joan II of Naples

[edit] Armagnac dynasty

Bernard, count of Pardiac and of Marche, duke of Nemours (1438–1462) (in right of his wife, Eleanor, daughter of James II)
James of Armagnac, count of Pardiac and of Marche, duke of Nemours (1462–1477)
In 1477, James was convicted of treason and his territories were confiscated by Louis XI of France.