Gascony

Overview

Gascony appears as the reduced remnant of English-held Aquitaine centered on Bordeaux, and as the territorial hinge where English royal sovereignty and French feudal overlordship collide before the Hundred Years’ War.

Current Profile

The source treats Gascony as a structural cause of Anglo-French conflict. The 1259 Treaty of Paris recognizes English rule there but requires the English king to perform homage to the French king. That makes the English ruler sovereign at home and subordinate in France.

Gascony also matters economically. Bordeaux exports large quantities of wine to England, making the region part of a wider commercial relationship as well as a legal dispute. The ability of Gascon subjects to appeal over the English king’s head to the French king makes local disorder a tool of French pressure.

Key Characteristics

• English-held remnant of the larger Aquitaine inheritance.
• Centered on Bordeaux in the episode’s account.
• Governed through a homage arrangement created by the 1259 Treaty of Paris.
• Allows appeals from Gascon subjects to the French king.
• Creates humiliation and sovereignty ambiguity for English kings.
• Economically tied to England through Bordeaux wine exports.

Evidence

• Territorial identity: 318: Hundred Years’ War: A Game of Thrones (Part 1) identifies Gascony as the reduced remnant of Aquitaine centered on Bordeaux.
• Treaty structure: 318: Hundred Years’ War: A Game of Thrones (Part 1) says the 1259 Treaty of Paris recognized English rule while requiring homage to France.
• Appeal problem: 318: Hundred Years’ War: A Game of Thrones (Part 1) says Gascon subjects could appeal above the English king to the French king.
• English grievance: 318: Hundred Years’ War: A Game of Thrones (Part 1) says Edward I found this humiliating and limiting.
• Economic tie: 318: Hundred Years’ War: A Game of Thrones (Part 1) says Bordeaux exported large quantities of wine annually to England.

Qualifications

This page covers Gascony only as an origin mechanism for the Hundred Years’ War. Local Gascon society, exact legal procedure, and later campaign history remain outside the current source set.

What Changed

• Created Gascony as the feudal-homage and wine-economy hinge in the Anglo-French crisis.

Relationships

• Aquitaine - larger duchy of which Gascony is the remnant in the source.
• England - kingdom whose ruler holds Gascony but is constrained by homage.
• France - overlord kingdom that can hear appeals and threaten forfeiture.
• Edward III of England - English king pressured by Gascony’s vulnerable status.
• Philip VI of France - French king whose confiscation of Aquitaine triggers war.
• Feudal Homage Sovereignty Conflict - concept named by Gascony’s structural ambiguity.
• Hundred Years’ War - conflict whose origin story uses Gascony as a core cause.