The History of the Dordogne
Fighting Talk!
The Périgord has formed the front line in many conflicts, and this has had a tremendous effect on the culture and style of the area.
After three centuries of peace under the Romans, the area was attacked successively by Alemanni and Franks, followed by Visigothes and the Franks again before the Vikings laid waste to the region in the 9th century.
In the 12th century a lady called Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry Plantagenet, future Henry II, King of England.
Her dowry was … the whole of South West France. Not everybody was happy about suddenly becoming English, and for the next 200 years the French and English went at it periodically across the border of the Dordogne river.
One of the more famous protagonists was Henry's son, Richard I, Coeur de Lion, or 'The Lion-Hearted' to his mates. Richard the Lionheart was briefly resident at Château Beynac, and in fact this English King, as well as hardly ever setting foot in England, presided over a very bloodthirsty set of Barons in the Périgord.
Things got even hotter midway through the 14th century when these continual skirmishes erupted into The Hundred Years War. The Périgord was successively conquered and re-conquered, and was largely laid to waste in the process.
The end of The Hundred Years War in 1453 heralded peace for the first time in 300 years. But, less than a century later the Périgord was in the front line again when the repeal of the Treaty of Lyon led to more than 100 years of fighting in The Wars of Religion.
The French Revolution must have seemed like a well-earned break. This continual conflict has left an amazing architectural heritage, with dozens of castles, walled towns, fortified churches and farmhouses. But, it also impoverished the area for centuries, and this general depopulation is still evident today. It is only in the last 30 years that tourism has brought some regeneration to The Dordogne.
If you visit in December, the the whole region is deserted, and I find it amazing to see how long-term the effects of so much conflict can be.