The capital of Maine was Le Mans. In the thirteenth century it was annexed by France to the royal domain.
The capital of Maine was Le Mans. In the thirteenth century it was annexed by France to the royal domain.
Henry the Young King (28 February 1155 – 11 June 1183) was the eldest son of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine to survive childhood. In 1170, he became titular King of England, Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou and of Maine. Henry the Young King was the only English king since the Norman Conquest to be crowned during his father's reign, but he was frustrated by his father's refusal to grant him meaningful autonomous power. He died aged 28, six years before his father, during the course of a campaign in Limousin against his father and his brother Richard.
The Capetian House of Anjou, or House of Anjou-Sicily was a royal house and cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty. It is one of three separate royal houses referred to as Angevin, meaning "from Anjou" in France. Founded by Charles I of Anjou, the youngest son of Louis VIII of France, the Capetian king first ruled the Kingdom of Sicily during the 13th century. The War of the Sicilian Vespers later forced him out of the island of Sicily, leaving him with the southern half of the Italian Peninsula, known as the Kingdom of Naples. The house and its various branches would go on to influence much of the history of Southern and Central Europe during the Middle Ages until it became extinct in 1435.
Historically, the house ruled the Counties of Anjou, Maine, Touraine, Provence and Forcalquier; the Principalities of Achaea and Taranto; and the Kingdoms of Sicily, Naples, Hungary, Croatia, Albania and Poland.
The Rorgonids were a powerful Frankish family dating from the eighth century. They are sometimes referred to as the first Mayennaise dynasty, referring to the city of Mayenne, and are the original counts of Maine. The Rorgonids were named after Rorgon I, Count of Maine, who was the progenitor of the dynasty. His son, Gauzfrid, Count of Maine, was the first to hold power in the Norman March of Neustria. The Rorgonids controlled the County of Maine throughout the ninth century. The Rorgonids and the Widonids competed for control of the Breton March through much of that time.
The first known ruler of Maine (called the Duke of Maine) was Charivius, who is conjectured by Christian Settipani to be the brother or nephew of Lambert, Count of Hesbaye. Further, Settipani identifies Charivius as a direct ancestor of the Rorgonids. Charivius was displaced as ruler of Maine by the Carolingians in 748, with his dynasty restored in 832.