Périgord in the Middle Ages

The 11th century marked the beginning of the repopulation of Périgord. It was divided in two until the end of the Middle Ages: politically, during the Hundred Years War between the French and the English, and religiously, during the Wars of Religion between Catholics and Protestants. This explains why there are so many castles, and fortified churches and villages that you can still visit today, many of them in almost perfect condition and relatively untouched by the periods that followed.

Périgord formed part of the dowry that Eleanor of Aquitaine brought with her on her marriage in 1137 to Louis VII, the future King of France. Aquitaine thus became French, fulfilling an old Capetian dream, but the dream was shattered fifteen years later when the marriage was dissolved. Eleanor got back her dowry as well as her liberty. Two months later she married Henry Plantagenet, Count of Anjou and Lord of Maine, Touraine and Normandy, who shortly after inherited the throne of England which he ruled as Henry II. France was not to regainAquitaine until the end of the Hundred Years War in 1453.