The duke of Aquitaine (, , ) was the ruler of the medieval region of Aquitaine (not to be confused with modern-day Aquitaine) under the supremacy of Frankish, English, and later French kings.
As successor states of the Visigothic Kingdom (418âÂÂ721), Aquitania (Aquitaine) and Languedoc (Toulouse) inherited both Visigothic law and Roman Law, which together allowed women more rights than their contemporaries would enjoy until the 20th century. Particularly under the Liber Judiciorum as codified in 642/643 and expanded by the Code of Recceswinth in 653, women could inherit land and titles and manage their holdings independently from their husbands or male relations, dispose of their property in legal wills if they had no heirs, represent themselves and bear witness in court from the age of 14, and arrange for their own marriages after the age of 20. As a consequence, male-preference primogeniture was the practiced succession law for the nobility.
The Merovingian kings and dukes of Aquitaine used Toulouse as their capital. The Carolingian kings used different capitals situated farther north. In 765, Pepin the Short bestowed the captured golden banner of the Aquitainian duke, Waiffre, on the Abbey of Saint Martial in Limoges. Pepin I of Aquitaine was buried in Poitiers. Charles the Child was crowned at Limoges and buried at Bourges. When Aquitaine briefly asserted its independence after the death of Charles the Fat, it was Ranulf II of Poitou who took the royal title. In the late tenth century, Louis the Indolent was crowned at Brioude.
The Aquitainian ducal coronation procedure is preserved in a late twelfth-century ordo (formula) from Saint-ÃÂtienne in Limoges, based on an earlier Romano-German ordo. In the early thirteenth century a commentary was added to this ordo, which emphasised Limoges as the capital of Aquitaine. The ordo indicated that the duke received a silk mantle, coronet, banner, sword, spurs, and the ring of Saint Valerie.
Merovingian kings are in boldface.
The Carolingian kings again appointed Dukes of Aquitaine, first in 852, and again since 866. Later, this duchy was also called Guyenne.
The following were also Count of Auvergne.
From 1152, the Duchy of Aquitaine was held by the Plantagenets, who also ruled England as independent monarchs and held other territories in France by separate inheritance (see Plantagenet Empire). The Plantagenets were often more powerful than the kings of France, and their reluctance to do homage to the kings of France for their lands in France was one of the major sources of conflict in medieval Western Europe.
In 1337, King Philip VI of France reclaimed the fief of Aquitaine from Edward III, King of England. Edward in turn claimed the title of King of France, by right of his descent from his maternal grandfather King Philip IV of France. This triggered the Hundred Years' War, in which both the Plantagenets and the House of Valois claimed supremacy over Aquitaine.
|- | Edward III<br/>Edward of Windsor<br/>1337âÂÂ1360 | | <br/><hr/><br/> | 13 November 1312<br/>Windsor Castle<hr/>Son of Edward II<br/>and Isabella of France | Philippa of Hainault<br/>York Minster<br/>25 January 1328<br/>14 children | 21 June 1377<br/>Sheen Palace<br/>Aged 64
In 1360, both sides signed the Treaty of Brétigny, in which Edward renounced the French crown but remained sovereign Lord of Aquitaine (rather than merely duke). However, when the treaty was broken in 1369, both these English claims and the war resumed.
|- | Edward III<br/>Edward of Windsor<br/>1337âÂÂ1360 | | <br/> | 13 November 1312<br/>Windsor Castle<hr/>Son of Edward II<br/>and Isabella of France | Philippa of Hainault<br/>York Minster<br/>25 January 1328<br/>14 children | 21 June 1377<br/>Sheen Palace<br/>Aged 64
In 1362, King Edward III, as Lord of Aquitaine, made his eldest son Edward, Prince of Wales, Prince of Aquitaine and Gascony.
|- | Edward, Prince of Wales<br/>19 July 1362 <br/>âÂÂ<br/>6 October 1372<br/> | | | 15 June 1330<br/>Woodstock Palace<hr/>Son of Edward III<br/>and Philippa of Hainault<br/>2 children | Joan of Kent<br/>1361 | 8 June 1376<br/>Westminster Palace<br/>Aged 45
On 6 October 1372, Prince Edward (who had returned to England the previous year) resigned the Principality of Aquitaine and Gascony, stating that the revenues he earned from Aquitaine were no longer sufficient to cover his expenses. Thus, King Edward III, his father, resumed his title as Duke of Aquitaine.
|- | Edward III<br/>Edward of Windsor<br/>1372<br/>âÂÂ<br/>21 June 1377<br/>(5 years) | | rowspan="2"|<br/> | 13 November 1312<br/>Windsor Castle<hr/>Son of Edward II<br/>and Isabella of France | Philippa of Hainault<br/>York Minster<br/>25 January 1328<br/>14 children | 21 June 1377<br/>Sheen Palace<br/>Aged 64 |- | Richard II<br/>Richard of Bordeaux<br/>22 June 1377<br/>âÂÂ<br/>1390<br/>(13 years) | | 6 January 1367<br/>Archbishop's Palace of Bordeaux<hr/>Son of Edward the Black Prince<br/>and Joan of Kent | Anne of Bohemia<br/>14 January 1382<br/>Westminster Abbey<br/>No children<hr/> Isabella of Valois<br/>Church of St. Nicholas, Calais<br/>4 November 1396<br/>No children | 14 February 1400<br/>Pontefract Castle<br/>Aged 33 |- | John II<br />John of Gaunt<br />1390<br/>âÂÂ<br/>1399<br/>9 years | | | 6 March 1340<br />Ghent<br />son of Edward III and Philippa of Hainault|| Blanche of Lancaster<br />19 May 1359 â 12 September 1368<br />8 children<br />Constance of Castile<br />21 September 1371 â 24 March 1394<br />2 children<br />Katherine Swynford<br />13 January 1396<br />4 children | 3 February 1399<br />Leicester Castle<br />aged 58 |- | Richard II<br/>Richard of Bordeaux<br/>3 February<br/>âÂÂ<br/>30 September 1399<br/>() | | <br/> | 6 January 1367<br/>Archbishop's Palace of Bordeaux<hr/>Son of Edward the Black Prince<br/>and Joan of Kent | Anne of Bohemia<br/>14 January 1382<br/>Westminster Abbey<br/>No children<hr/> Isabella of Valois<br/>Church of St. Nicholas, Calais<br/>4 November 1396<br/>No children | 14 February 1400<br/>Pontefract Castle<br/>Aged 33 |- | Henry III of Aquitaine<br/>Henry IV of England<br/>30 September 1399<br/>âÂÂ<br/>c. 1400<br/> | | <br/> | April 1367<br/>Bolingbroke Castle<hr/>Son of John of Gaunt<br/>and Blanche of Lancaster | Mary de Bohun<br/>Arundel Castle<br/>27 July 1380<br/>6 children<hr/> Joanna of Navarre<br/>Winchester Cathedral<br/>7 February 1403<br/>No children | 20 March 1413<br/>Westminster Abbey<br/>Aged 45 |- | Henry IV of Aquitaine<br/>Henry of Monmouth<br/>c. 1400<br/>âÂÂ<br/>31 August 1422<br/>(22 years) | | <br/><hr/><br/><hr/><br/> | 16 September 1386<br/>Monmouth Castle<hr/>Son of Henry IV<br/>and Mary de Bohun | Catherine of Valois<br/>Troyes Cathedral<br/>2 June 1420<br/>1 son | 31 August 1422<br/>Château de Vincennes<br/>Aged 35 |- | Henry VI<br/>1 September 1422<br/>âÂÂ<br/>1453<br/>(31 years) | | | 6 December 1421<br/>Windsor Castle<hr/>Son of Henry V<br/>and Catherine of Valois | Margaret of Anjou<br/>Titchfield Abbey<br/>22 April 1445<br/>1 son | 21 May 1471<br/>Tower of London<br/>Allegedly murdered aged 49 |- |colspan="6" |Duchy of Aquitaine annexed into the Kingdom of France, title abolished
The Valois kings of France, claiming supremacy over Aquitaine, granted the title of duke to their heirs, the Dauphins.
With the end of the Hundred Years' War, Aquitaine returned under direct rule of the king of France and remained in the possession of the king. Only occasionally was the duchy or the title of duke granted to another member of the dynasty.
The Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia, son of Alfonso XIII of Spain, was one of the Legitimist pretenders to the French throne. In 1972, he conferred the hereditary title of Duke of Aquitaine on his son, Gonzalo, who died in 2000 without legitimate progeny.