Countship Sentence Examples

The countship of Angouleme dated from the 9th century, the most important of the early counts being William Taillefer, whose descendants held the title till the end of the 12th century.

In 1394 the countship came to the house of Orleans, a member of which, Francis I., became king of France in 1515 and raised it to the rank of duchy in favour of his mother Louise of Savoy.

Through their grand-daughter Marie, the countship of Eu passed by marriage to the house of Brienne, two members of which, both named Raoul, were constables of France.

King John confiscated the countship in 1350, and gave it to John of Artois (1352).

His sister's son, John of Burgundy, count of Nevers, now received the countship, which passed through heiresses, in the 15th century, to the house of Cleves, and to that of Lorraine-Guise.

Texel was already separated from the mainland in the 8th century, but remained a Frisian province and countship, which once extended as far as Alkmaar in North Holland, until it came into the possession of the counts of Holland.

By the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine with Henry Plantagenet, the countship passed under the suzerainty of the kings of England, but at the same time it was divided, William VII., called the Young (1145-1168), having been despoiled of a portion of his domain by his uncle William VIII.,called the Old,who was supported by Henry II.

The countship, however, had passed in 1422 to the house of La Tour, and was not annexed to the domain until 1615.

Dammartin is historically important as the seat of a countship of which the holders played a considerable part in French history.

His son, Jean de Chabannes, left three heiresses, of whom the second left a daughter who brought the countship to Philippe de Boulainvilliers, by whose heirs it was sold in 1 554 to the dukes of Montmorency.

In 1632 the countship was confiscated by Louis XIII.

Hesse-Nassau was formed in 1867-1868 out of the territories which accrued to Prussia after the war of 1866, namely, the landgraviate of Hesse-Cassel and the duchy of Nassau, in addition to the greater part of the territory of Frankfort-on-Main, parts of the grand-duchy of Hesse, the territory of Homburg and the countship of HesseHomburg, together with certain small districts which belonged to Bavaria.

The history of the city is closely associated with that of the countship of Flanders (q.v.), of which it was the seat.

The one claimed an existing kingdom, and obtained full possession of it in a comparatively short time; the other formed for himself a dominion bit by bit, which rose to the rank of a kingdom I Roger de Hauteville, the conqueror of Sicily, was a brother of the first four dukes or counts of Apulia, and was invested with the countship of Sicily by the pope before starting on his adventure.

It was raised to a countship in 1492, and passed by marriage to the family of Orange-Nassau.

For Charles de Beauvillier, gentleman of the chamber to the king, governor and bailli of Blois, the estate of Saint Aignan was created a countship in 1537.

During the middle ages it was the chief town of the district of Beauce, and gave its name to a countship which was held by the counts of Blois and Champagne and afterwards by the house of Chatillon, a member of which in 1286 sold it to the crown.

Avesnes was founded in the 11th century, and formed a countship which in the 15th century passed to the house of Burgundy and afterwards to that of Habsburg.

Before its incorporation with the domains of the crown of Naples Sarno gave its name to a countship held in succession by the Orsini, Cappola, Suttavilla and Colonna families.

Bar-le-Duc was at one time the seat of the countship, later duchy, of Bar, the history of which is given below.

His grandson, Louis Duverger, seigneur de La Rochejacquelein, was a devoted adherent of Henry II., and was badly wounded at the battle of Arques; other members of the family were also distinguished soldiers, and the seigniory was raised to a countship and marquisate in reward for their services.

In 1237 Artois, which was raised to a countship the following year, was conferred as an appanage by Saint Louis on his brother Robert, who died on crusade in 1250.

After his death, his son Philip having predeceased him (1298), Artois was adjudged to his daughter Mahaut, or Matilda, as against her nephew Robert, son of Philip, who attempted to support his claim to the countship by forged titles.

About the end of the 9th century Fezensac (comitatus Fedentiacus), in circumstances of which no trustworthy record remains, was erected into an hereditary countship. This latter was in its turn divided, the south-western portion becoming, about 960, the countship of Armagnac (pages Armaniacus).

The domain of this countship, at first very limited in extent, continued steadily to increase in size, and about 1140 Count Gerald III.

On the death of Charles of Armagnac, in 1497, the countship was united to the crown by King Charles VII., but was again bestowed on Charles, the nephew of that count, by Francis I., who at the same time gave him his sister Margaret in marriage.

Under the Normans Matera was a countship for William Bras de Fer and his successors.

In 1252 the countship was sold to the bishops of Munster; but their rule soon became little more than nominal, and in Emden itself the family of Abdena, the episcopal provosts and castellans, established their practical independence.

Having in general shared the fortunes of Aquitaine during the Merovingian and Carolingian periods, Agenais next became an hereditary countship in the part of the country now called Gascony (Vasconia).

In 1038 this countship was purchased by the dukes of Aquitaine and counts of Poitiers.

This, however, was not for long; the king of France had to recognize the prior rights of the king of England to the possession of the countship, and restored it to him in 1279.

Dissatisfaction arose under Aragonese rule from the periodical grants of Malta, as a marquisate or countship, to great officers of state or illegitimate descendants of the sovereign.

Sestao (10,833) is the only other town of more than io,000 inhabitants; the port of Bermeo (9061) is the chief fishing station; Durango (4319), on the river of the same name, was founded by the early kings of Navarre in the 10th century, obtained the rank of a countship in 1153, and contains.

This was afterwards preserved as an administrative district under the Franks with the name first of pagus, then of comitatus, or countship of Anjou.

This countship, the extent of which seems to have been practically identical with that of the ecclesiastical diocese of Angers, occupied the greater part of what is now the department of Maine-et-Loire, further embracing, to the north, Craon, Bazouges (Chateau-Gontier), Le Lude, and to the east, Chateau-la-Valliere and Bourgueil, while to the south, on the other hand, it included neither the present town of MontreuilBellay, nor Vihiers, Cholet, Beaupreau, nor the whole district lying to the west of the Ironne and Thouet, on the left bank of the Loire, which formed the territory of the Mauges.

It was bounded on the north by the countship of Maine, on the east by that of Touraine, on the south by that of Poitiers and by the Mauges, on the west by the countship of Nantes.

Hugh the Abbot succeeded him in the countship of Anjou as in most of his other duties, and on his death (886) it passed to Odo, the eldest son of Robert the Strong, who, on his accession to the throne of France (888), probably handed it over to his brother Robert.

Grisegonelle (Greytunic) (c. 960-21st of July 987), who inaugurated a policy of expansion, having as its objects the extension of the boundaries of the ancient countship and the reconquest of those parts of it which had been annexed by the neighbouring states; for, though western Anjou had been recovered from the dukes of Brittany since the beginning of the 10th century, in the east all the district of Saumur had already by that time fallen into the hands of the counts of Blois and Tours.

Finally, the victory gained by Geoffrey Martel (21st of June 1040-14th of November 1060), the son and successor of Fulk, over Theobald III., count of Blois, at Nouy (21st of August 10 44), assured to the Angevins the possession of the countship of Touraine.

At the same time, continuing in this quarter also the work of his father (who in 1025 took prisoner Herbert Wake-Dog and only set him free on condition of his doing him homage), Geoffrey succeeded in reducing the countship of Maine to complete dependence on himself.

Geoffrey Martel, having no children, had bequeathed the countship to his eldest nephew, Geoffrey III.

But Fulk le Rechin (the Cross-looking), brother of Geoffrey the Bearded, who had at first been contented with an appanage consisting of Saintonge and the chcitellenie of Vihiers, having allowed Saintonge to be taken in 1062 by the duke of Aquitaine, took advantage of the general discontent aroused in the countship by the unskilful policy of Geoffrey to make himself master of Saumur (25th of February 1067) and Angers (4 th of April), and cast Geoffrey into prison at Sable.

Compelled by the papal authority to release him after a short interval and to restore the countship to him, he soon renewed the struggle, beat Geoffrey near Brissac and shut him up in the castle of Chinon (1068).

All the while that Fulk the Young and Geoffrey the Handsome were carrying on the work of extending the countship of Anjou, they did not neglect to strengthen their authority at home, to which the unruliness of the barons was a menace.

In 1139 Geoffrey took Mirebeau, and in 1142 Champtoceaux, but in 1145 a new revolt broke out, this time under the leadership of Elias, the count's own brother, who, again with the assistance of Robert of Sable, laid claim to the countship of Maine.

Henceforward Henry succeeded in keeping the countship of Anjou all his life; for though he granted it in 1168 to his son Henry "of the Short Mantle," when the latter became old enough to govern it, he absolutely refused to allow him to enjoy his power.

After Henry II.'s death in 1189 the countship, together with the rest of his dominions, passed to his son Richard I.

A last effort on the part of John to possess himself of it, in 1214, led to the taking of Angers (17th of June), but broke down lamentably at the battle of La Rocheaux-Moines (2nd of July), and the countship was attached to the crown of France.

Charles of Valois at once entered into possession of the countship of Anjou, to which Philip IV.

On the 16th of December 1325, Charles died, leaving Anjou to his eldest son Philip of Valois, on whose recognition as king of France (Philip VI.) on the ist of April 1328, the countship of Anjou was again united to the crown.

He was then taken to Europe and his brother Bertrand gave him the countship of Rouergue; in his tenth year, upon Bertrand's death (1112), he succeeded to the countship of Toulouse and marquisate of Provence, but Toulouse was taken from him by William IX., count of Poitiers, in 1114.

The lordship of Almelo belonged to the lords of Heeckeren, who acquired the barony of Rechteren by marriage in 1350 and the countship of Limpourg in 1711.

Sometimes it appears as an independent countship, though held by members of the Caetani family, who about 1297 returned to it.

The lordship of Horn was a fief of the counts of Loon, and after 1361 of the bishop of Liege; but in 1450 it was raised to a countship by the Emperor Frederick II.

On the extinction of the house of Horn in 1540, the countship passed to the famous Philip of Montmorency, who, with the count of Egmont, was executed in Brussels in 1568 by order of the duke of Alva.

In the beginning of the next century the countship was forcibly retained by the see of Liege, and was incorporated in the French department of the Lower Maas at the end of the 18th century.

It is formed out of the former lordships of Dachstuhl and Oberstein, of part of the ancient countship of Sponheim, and sections of the duchy of Jiilich, which were granted to the grand-duke of Oldenburg by the congress of Vienna in 1815.

The castle from which Chateauroux takes its name was founded about the middle of the 10th century by Raoul, prince of Deols, and during the middle ages was the seat of a seigniory, which was raised to the rank of countship in 1497, and in 1616, when it was held by Henry II., prince of Conde, to that of duchy.

This had long given its name to the countship of Bitsch, which was originally in the possession of the dukes of Lorraine.

It embraces the old countship of Foix, and a portion of Languedoc and Gascony.

In the nth century it became the seat of the Eppenstein family, who frequently bore the title of counts of Gorizia; and in the beginning of the 12th century the countship passed from them to the Lurngau family which continued to exist till the year 1500, and acquired possessions in Tirol, Carinthia, Friuli and Styria.

The countship of Gradisca was united with it in 1754.

They arrived at Jerusalem in 1076, the first crusaders reached Asia in 1097, and Bit Adini became the countship of Edessa (q.v.).

Besides the bulk of the old duchy of Silesia, it comprises the countship of Glatz, a fragment of the Neumark, and part of Upper Lusatia, taken from the kingdom of Saxony in 1815.

At the peace of Westphalia (1648), accordingly, Hesse-Cassel was augmented by the larger part of the countship of Schaumburg and by the abbey of Hersfeld, secularized as a principality of the Empire.

Baldwin died of a wound received in battle in 1119, and, having no issue, left by will the succession to his countship to Charles the Dane.

The town of Groningen belonged originally to the pagus, or gouw, of Triantha (Drente), the countship of which was bestowed by the emperor Henry II.

In 1 347 the town passed with the countship of Ravensberg to the duchy of Julich, and in 1666 to that of Brandenburg.

The name Holland is that of the former countship, which forms part of the political, as well as the geographical centre of the kingdom (see the next article).

It corresponds nearly to the old district of Rouergue, which gave its name to a countship established early in the 9th century, and united with that of Toulouse towards the end of the 11th century.

Auxonne, the name of which is derived from its position on the Saone (ad Sonam), was in the middle ages chief place of a countship, which in the first half of the 13th century passed to the dukes of Burgundy.

The territories of the former principality of Cleves and of the countship of Mark (comprising very nearly the basin of the Ruhr), which went to Brandenburg in 1609, must, however, be excepted.

A prevailingly Roman Catholic population is still found in the district of Oppeln and the countship of Glatz, in the province of Posen, in the Polish-speaking Krezse of West Prussia, and in Ermeland (East Prussia).

From about 81 9 to 1082 Carcassonne formed a separate countship, and from the latter date till 1247 a viscountship. Towards the end of the 11th century the viscounts of Carcassonne assumed the style of viscounts of Beziers, which town and its lords they had dominated since the fall of the Carolingian empire.

At the beginning of the 4th century Christianity was preached there by St Firmin, its first bishop. During the middle ages its territory formed the countship of Amienois.

The countship (1499-1796) was purchased in 1546 by the wealthy banker Durini, and remained in his family till the Revolution.

It belonged to the counts of Mors, and was annexed to Prussia, with the countship, in 1702.

In the middle ages Arlon was the seat of a powerful countship (later marquisate), held after 1235 by the dukes of Luxemburg.

Eisenach, the second district in size, and the first in point of natural beauty, stretches in a narrow strip from north to south on the extreme western boundary of Thuringia, and includes parts of the church lands of Fulda, of Hesse and of the former countship of Henneberg.

Near the town are the ruins of the castle of the counts of Arnsberg, the last of whom, Gottfried, sold his countship, in 1368, to the archbishop of Cologne.

The countship was incorporated by the archbishops in their duchy of Westphalia, which in 1802 was assigned to Hesse-Darmstadt and in 1815 to Prussia.

When the countship of Mansfeld was sequestrated, Hettstedt came into the possession of Saxony, passing to Prussia in 1815.

Hamm, which became a town about the end of the 12th century, was originally the capital of the countship of Mark, and was fortified in 1226.

Elizabeth, daughter of Bouchard le Ve'ne'rable, count of Vendome, he had a daughter, Adela, who married Boon of Nevers and transmitted to her children the countship of Vendome.

It became the seat of an independent countship in the 11th century.

Fulk having revolted, he confiscated the countship, which he did not restore till 1050.

Clermont was at one time the seat of a countship, the lords of which were already powerful in the 11th century.

Theobald, count of Blois and Clermont, died in 1218 without issue, and King Philip Augustus, having received the countship of Clermont from the collateral heirs of this lord, gave it to his son Philip Hurepel,whose daughter Jeanne, and his widow, Mahaut, countess of Dammartin, next held the countship. It was united by Saint Louis to the crown, and afterwards given by him (1269) to his son Robert, from whom sprang the house of Bourbon.

Steyr was founded at the end of the Toth century and was the capital of a countship, first belonging to Styria, but annexed to Austria in 1192.

In the 11th and 12th centuries the countship of Penthievre in Brittany (dep. of Cotes-du-Nord) belonged to a branch of the sovereign house of Brittany.

Henry d'Avaugour, heir of this dynasty, was dispossessed of the countship in 1235 by the duke of Brittany, Pierre Mauclerc, who gave it as dowry to his daughter, Yolande, on her marriage in 1238 to Hugh of Lusignan, count of La Marche.

The countship, which was restored to Sebastian of Luxemburg, heir of the Brosses through his mother, was erected for him into a duchy in the peerage of France (duche-pairie) in 1569, and was afterwards held by the duchess of Merceeur, daughter of the first duke of Penthievre, and then by her daughter, the duchess of Vendome.

He was rewarded with the countship of Ivry.

His widow Alida, however, an ambitious woman of strong character, as soon as her husband was dead, hurried on a marriage between Ada and Count Louis of Loon; and attempted with the nobles of Holland, who now for the first time make their appearance as a power in the country, to oppose the claim which William had made to the countship as heir in the male line.

On his succession to the of the countship the Hollanders were willing to receive him, House of but the Zeelanders were hostile; and a long struggle Avesnes.

In 1647 Gradisca and its territory, including Aquileia and forty-three smaller places, were erected into a separate countship in favour of Johann Anton von Eggenberg, duke of Krumau.

In 1077 the last male of the first house of Vermandois, Herbert IV., received the countship of Valois in right of his wife.

By the terms of a treaty concluded in 1185 with the king, Philip Augustus, the count of Flanders kept the countship of Vermandois until his death, in 1191.

In the 9th century it became a countship, which about 1013 passed to the bishops of Beauvais, who ultimately became peers of France.

The countship of Auxerre was granted by King Robert I.

The district was raised in 1108 to the rank of a countship, but did not become a duchy till 1380, after it had passed into the possession of the Jiilich family.

In 1423 the duchy of Jiilich fell to Adolf of Berg, and in 1437 the countship of Ravensberg was united to the duchies.

During the Albigensian crusade it surrendered of its own accord to Simon de Montfort; and in 1356 it was raised to a countship by King John of France.

Louis XI., who had joined his troops to those of the princes of Anjou, attached Boffille to his own person, made him his chamberlain and conferred on him the vice-royalty of Roussillon and Cerdagne (1471), together with certain important lordships, among others the countship of Castres, confiscated from James of Armagnac, duke of Nemours (1476), and the temporalities of the bishopric of Castres, confiscated from John of Armagnac. He also entrusted him with diplomatic negotiations with Flanders and England.

However, the bishop of Castres recovered his diocese (1483), and the heirs of the duke of Nemours took legal proceedings for the recovery of the countship of Castres.

In order to disinherit his own family, Boffille de Juge gave up the countship of Castres to his brother-in-law, Alain d'Albret (1494).

During the Carolingian period Boulogne was the chief town of a countship that was for long the subject of dispute between-Flanders and Ponthieu.

Seeing his danger Rudolph ceded the countship to Herbert, and Charles was relegated to his prison until his death in 929.

The duke of Burgundy, heir through his wife to the countship of Flanders, wanted to crush the democratic risings among the Flemings.

The history of West Frisia gradually loses itself in that of the countship of Holland and the see of Utrecht (see Holland and Utrecht) .

In 1248 William of Holland, having become emperor, restored to the Frisians in his countship their ancient liberties in reward for the assistance they had rendered him in the siege of Aachen; but in 1254 they revolted, and William lost his life in the contest which ensued.

This state of affairs favoured the attempts of the counts of Holland to push their conquests eastward, but the main body of the Frisians was still independent when the countship of Holland passed into the hands of Philip the Good of Burgundy.

Wilfred the Hairy the Comes Vellosus, so called because his countship was poor and covered with scrub wood, and not because the palms of his hands were covered with hair as the legend has itbecame the founder of the counts of Barcelona.

Catalan, which by the reunion of Aragon and the countship of Barcelona in 1137 became the official language of the Aragonese monarchyalthough the kingdom of Aragon, consisting of the present provinces of Saragossa, Huesca and Teruel, has always been Castilian in speechestablished a footing in Italy also, in all parts where the domination of the kings of Aragon extended, viz, in Sicily, Naples, Corsica and Sardinia, but it has not maintained itself here except in a single district of the last-named island (Aighero); everywhere else in Italy, where it was not spoken except by the conquerors, nor written except in the royal chancery, it has disappeared without leaving a trace.

The northern portion is divided by the New (or Gelders) Ysel into two distinct regions, namely, the Veluwe ("bad land") on the west, and the former countship of Zutphen on the east.

In the middle ages the Perche constituted a countship of which Corbon, Mortagne and Nogent-le-Rotrou were successively the capitals.

He was active in promoting the Union of Utrecht (1579) and the acceptance of the countship of Holland and Zeeland by William (1584) On the assassination of Orange it was at the proposal of Oldenbarneveldt that the youthful Maurice of Nassau was at once elected stadholder, captain-general and admiral of Holland.

Thoros applied for help to Baldwin, brother and successor of Godfrey of Bouillon in the First Crusade, who in 1098 took possession of the town and made it the capital of a Burgundian countship, which included Samosata and Sari-1g, and was for half a century the eastern bulwark of the kingdom of Jerusalem.'

Auvergne was the seat of a separate countship before the end of the 8th century; the first hereditary count was William the Pious (886).

In vain did the pope explain his reasons and yield certain points; the fathers would listen to nothing, and, relying on the decrees of the council of Constance, which amid the troubles of the schism had proclaimed the superiority, in certain cases, of the council over the pope, they insisted upon their right of remaining assembled, hastily beat up the laggards, held sessions, promulgated decrees, interfered in the government of the papal countship of Venaissin, treated with the Hussites, and, as representatives of the universal Church, presumed to impose laws upon the sovereign pontiff himself.

Benedict XIII., who had on his part tried to call together a council at Perpignan, was by this time recognized hardly anywhere but in his native land, in Scotland, and in the estates of the countship of Armagnac. He remained none the less full of energy and of illusions, repulsed the overtures of Sigismund, king of the Romans, who had come to Perpignan to persuade him to abdicate, and, abandoned by nearly all his adherents, he took refuge in the impregnable castle of Peniscola, on a rock dominating the Mediterranean (1415).

When, however, he died on the 14th of November 1060, at the monastery of St Nicholas at Angers, he left no children, and transmitted the countship to Geoffrey the Bearded, the eldest of his nephews (see ANJou).

Though of ancient origin, Blois is first distinctly mentioned by Gregory of Tours in the 6th century, and was not of any importance till the 9th century, when it became the seat of a powerful countship (see below).