fjt_729497 - BÉARN - Noblesse et villes Charlotte d’Albret, comtesse de Foix 1565

BÉARN - Gentry and Towns

Around Pau, Béarn was part of Aquitaine in Antiquity. Invaded by the Visigoths and then by the Franks, Béarn was established as a viscountcy in 820. In 1290, the viscounty was united to the county of Foix by marriage and then passed to the Albrets and then to the Bourbons. Henri IV unites Béarn to the Crown in 1594. In 1620, Louis XIII will attach Béarn to the crown of France by the Edict of October 1620.