Aquitaine

Aquitaine (Latin Aquitania), traditional name for southwestern France, first used by Julius Caesar in the 1st century bc. Under the Romans, the province of Aquitania extended almost as far north as the Loire River. Novempopulana (Gascony), the portion south of the Gironde, was made a separate province in the late 3rd century. The remainder became a separate kingdom in the Frankish period. The title duke of Aquitaine was held by the counts of Poitiers from the 10th to the 12th century. The last duke was William X. When his daughter, Eleanor of Aquitaine, married the heir to the throne of England in 1152, the area became an English possession and remained so until the 15th century, when it was annexed by France at the end of the Hundred Years' War. From the 13th century until the French Revolution, Aquitaine was usually known as Guyenne. The name Aquitaine was revived in the 1960s to designate the economic region comprising the French departments of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes, Gironde, Dordogne, and Lot-et-Garonne. Area, 41,309 sq km (15,949 sq mi). Population 3,099,000 (2005 estimate).