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Languedoc (Traditional province, France)

by Pierre Gay

Origin of the name of Languedoc
Geography of Languedoc
History of Languedoc
Description of the flag of Languedoc
Pays of Velay
Pays of Vivarais

See also:

Origin of the name of Languedoc

Languedoc literally means 'language of oc'. The oc languages are traditionally opposed to the oil languages, oc and oil being the ancient forms of oui (yes).
The Romance languages which were spoken in the south of France are collectively called langues d'oc or occitan, as opposed to the langues d'oil, which were spoken in the north of France. Among those languages, Francian, spoken in Ile-de-France, is the source of modern French. The linguistical border between oc and oil starts near Bordeaux, then moves to the north of Limousin and Auvergne, and eventually goes south-eastwards and reach the Italian border near Briançon.

The Occitan languages are divided into three main groups:

the north-Occitan group, including Limousin, Auvergnat, and Alpine Provençal;
the median-Occitan group, including Languedocian and Provençal sensu stricto;
the Gascon, spoken west of the river Garonne.

The Occitan languages were resurrected in the XIXth century by the Félibre, a cultural movement founded in 1854 by seven young Provençal poets, the most famous of them being Joseph Roumanille (1818-1891), Théodore Aubanel (1829-1886) and Frédéric Mistral (1830-1914, Nobel Prize in Literature, 1904). The most famous modern Occitan writer is the poet Max Rouquette (born in 1908), often nominated for the Nobel Prize.

Ivan Sache, 24 April 2003

Geography of Languedoc

What geographs call Languedoc should be more properly called Languedoc méditerranéen. This area is the coastal stripe of land bordered by the mountain ranges of Cévennes and Corbières. It matches more or less the Region of Languedoc-Roussillon, excluding the departments of Pyrénées-Orientales (Roussillon) and Lozère (Gévaudan), the west of the departments of Aude and Hérault and the north of the department of Gard.

Ivan Sache, 24 April 2003

History of Languedoc

The historical Languedoc was much larger than the geographical one. It was limited by the rivers Garonne (west) and Rhône (east), and the mountain range of Massif Central (north). Languedoc was formed by the possessions of the Counts of Toulouse, which was the capital city of Languedoc.

The early ages

In 122 BP, the Roman general Domitius Ahenobarbus repelled the Arverns to the Massif Central and subjected the Volsques, and created in the conquered territory the Provincia Transalpina. In 118, Colonia Narbo Martius (now Narbonne) was the first Roman colony established out of Italy. In 27 BP, the provinces were reorganized and Narbo became the capital city of the Provincia Narbonensis, the richest province in Gaul. The province was divided in pagi (later counties), including civitae (administrative cities), vici (rural centers), and villae (estates). This system was progressively applied to the rest of Gaul and is the orgin of our pays, cités, villes and villages.

In 507, Clovis, king of the Francs, defeated the Wisigoths in Vouilé, near Poitiers, and repelled them to the Septimania, an area bordered by the river Rhône (east) and the Pyrénées mountains (west) and named after the seven (sept) cities of Carcassonne, Narbonne, Béziers, Agde, Nîmes, Maguelonne and Elne. The Sarracens seized several of these cities but Pépin le Bref eventually expelled them from Narbonne and incorporated Septimania to the Frank kingdom in 759. Septimania matched more or less the geographical Languedoc.

The county of Toulouse

The first known count of Toulouse, Fédelon (849-852), was appointed by king of Francia occidentalis Charles le Chauve. His successors progressively increased their domain: Raimond III (923-c. 950) incorporated the geographical Languedoc, and Raimond IV (1093-1105) incorporated areas located in the south of Massif Central (Rouergue, Gévaudan and pays d'Uzès). The county of Toulouse was then a powerful feudal state in which a brilliant civilisation developed around the troubadours. The counts of Toulouse were in permanent competition with their powerful neighbours, the duke of Aquitaine and later the king of England, and the count of Barcelona, and had to cope with their disobedient vassals.

The Albigensian Crusade

The golden age of the county of Toulouse ended with the Albigensian Crusade. A good source on the Crusade is the book La Chanson de la Croisade albigeoise, edited