Languedoc

The Languedoc or Lenguadoc (in Occitan, Lengadòc) is a region of south-eastern Occitania in southern France, formerly called Gotia or Narbonne region. Most of the territory is part of the administrative region of Occitanie, although some sectors of Languedoc have been attributed by the French central government to the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. In ancient times it was divided into a high part with its capital in Tolosa and a low part with its capital in Montpellier. It is bordered to the north by the historic Auvergne and Lyonnais, to the east by the Rhône river that separates it from Provence, the Venetian and Dauphiné counties, to the west by the Garonne and the Pyrenees that separate it from Gascogne, also with Guyenne, and to the south with the County of Foix and the Principality of Catalonia, as well as with the Mediterranean Sea with which it has 200 kilometers of coastline. Its territory is divided between eight departments, which are: Aude, Tarn, Haute-Garonne, Hérault, Gard, Lozere, Ardeche, and Haute-Loire.

The Languedoc area proper or "Historic Languedoc" It is 42,700 km² and in the 1991 census it had a population of 3,650,000 inhabitants, 52% of whom lived in the administrative region of Languedoc-Roussillon, 35% in the Midi-Pyrénées, 8% in the Rhône- Alps and 5% in the administrative region of Auvergne.

Lenguadoc alludes to the vernacular language of this region, the so-called lengua de oc.

Historical overview

Before the Roman conquest, the territory that much later would correspond to Languedoc was part of Celtic Gaul, occupied by the Volcas, Tectosages and Arecomics.

It was conquered by Rome in 121 B.C. C., by the proconsul Domitius, and took the name of Province (= "for victory"), a name that has remained in the neighboring region from Provence. The inhabitants kept their laws and the Romans established a military post in Narbonne.

In 412 it was sacked by the Visigoths and Ataúlf concluded an alliance with the Emperor Honorius in that city, marrying his sister Galla Placidia, but he fled to Barcelona and his successor Walia signed a foedus («pact ») to repel the Vandals in exchange for territories in Aquitaine. Tolosa was the capital of the kingdom of the Visigoths.

Later, they were attacked by the Franks at the request of the Catholic Church (the Visigoths were Arians), being defeated in the battle of Vouillé. Toulouse fell and only Septimania and Languedoc remained.

In the year 589, Septimania was inhabited by five different peoples: Romans, Goths, Syrians, Greeks and Jews, although the last three were traders.

Internal tensions among the Visigoths weakened them and in 672 the Count of Nîmes Hiderico agreed with the Bishop of Maguelona and the inhabitants of Nimes to rebel. Wamba, who was in Toledo, marched against the rebels and recovered Narbonne, Beziers, Agda, Nimes and appeased Septimania. This peace was interrupted by the Muslim invasion under the command of Abd-el-Rahman, whose troops sacked Narbonne and Carcassonne.

At the time of this raid, Aquitaine, with the title of hereditary county, was a true kingdom ruled by Merovingian princes descended from Caribert. Odo the Great faced another Saracen army led by Al-Samh and defeated him in a bloody battle, but another Saracen general (Ambessa) recaptured Carcassonne, Béziers, Agde, Nimes, etc. and he died in combat against Eudes. A peace treaty was signed in Narbonne, whereby a wali or Muslim governor would reside there, while the other cities were administered by the Gothic or Gaul counts.

In 732 Charles Martel saved France from a Muslim invasion at the Battle of Poitiers and killed Abd-el-Rahman. In 793 Duke Guillermo had to fight with Abd-el-Melik, who invaded the county at the head of a Muslim army and seized Narbona, whose wealth was used to build the bridge and the mosque of Córdoba.

In the times of Charlemagne and his successors, Languedoc was calm in terms of foreign invasions, since the Norman incursion did not have great results, but there were internal problems, revolts as soon as Aquitaine and Septimania were subdued in times of Luis I, of Carlos the Bald and of Luis the Stutterer.

It didn't take long for them to establish independent fiefdoms and from the reign of Charles the Fat, there were counts of Tolosa and marquises of Narbonne who freely governed those rich and powerful cities.

During the Middle Ages, Urban II gave the signal of the first crusade in Maguenola and one hundred thousand men left that city for the Holy Land under the command of Raymond of Saint Gilles. The so-called "crusade" against the Albigenses brought desolation to those lands and Simón IV de Montfort won the battle of Muret in 1213 against the Aragonese (where Pedro II died) and secured Languedoc by giving Felipe Augusto in 1216 the county of Tolosa, the duchy of Narbonne and the viscounties of Carcassonne and Bezièrs, which thus remained enfeuded to the French crown.

During the Hundred Years War, Languedoc was invaded by Burgundians and English. This is where the dauphin Carlos took refuge after handing over Paris to the English. Carlos VII handed over the territory as a fief to the Duke of Berry, who restored the area based on heavy taxes (abolished by Francisco II).

The Languedoc became permanently feuded to the French crown under the policy of Cardinal Richelieu. After the French Revolution, the Parisian central power, zealous to create a unitary state, abolished the traditional territorial divisions, fragmenting them into departments. Since the 1970s, the French central power based in Paris has established a regionalization system that in no way contemplates historical characteristics. cultural or ethnic within the current French state but rather meets bureaucratic criteria of greater efficiency in the management of economic resources, it is in this way that the name of Languedoc has reappeared but not corresponding exactly to its authentic territory and attached to the territory predominantly Catalan from Roussillon and Alta Cerdanya (or the Eastern Pyrenees).

Language of oc and province of Tonguedoc

See main article: Occitan language

The name of the province of Lenguadoc refers to the Occitan language that was already used in the Middle Ages, and that is spoken in this region and other neighboring ones. The name of the language comes from the word oc which in Medieval Occitan means “yes”, in contrast to Northern French or lengua de oïl (pronounced uí, ancestor of modern French oui). The word oc came from the Latin hoc, while oïl was derived from the Latin hoc ille. The word Occitan comes from the name of the historical region of Occitania, which in turn comes from Aquitaine, a former Roman administrative region.

Fonts

• Francisco de Paula Mellado, Modern Encyclopedia: Universal Dictionary of Literature, Science, Arts, Agriculture, Industry and Commerce. Madrid, 1851.