French royal domain in the context of "Capetian-Plantagenet rivalry"

The Count of Anjou was the ruler of the County of Anjou, first granted by King Charles the Bald of West Francia in the 9th century to Robert the Strong. Ingelger and his son, Fulk the Red, were viscounts until Fulk assumed the title of count.

Ingelger's male line ended with Geoffrey II. Subsequent counts of Anjou were descended from Geoffrey's sister Ermengarde and Count Geoffrey II of Gâtinais. Their agnatic descendants, who included the Angevin kings of England, continued to hold the title and territory until King Philip II Augustus seized the region and annexed it to the French crown lands.

The Duchy of Aquitaine (Occitan: Ducat d'Aquitània, IPA: [dyˈkad dakiˈtanjɔ]; French: Duché d'Aquitaine, IPA: [dyʃe dakitɛn]) was a historical fiefdom located in the western, central, and southern areas of present-day France, south of the river Loire. The full extent of the duchy, as well as its name, fluctuated greatly over the centuries and at times comprised much of what is now southwestern (including Gascony) and central France.

The territory originated in 507 as a constituent kingdom of Francia after the Salian Franks conquered Aquitaine following the Battle of Vouillé; its boundaries were ultimately a combination of the Roman provinces of Aquitania Prima and Secunda. As a duchy, it broke up after the conquest of the independent Aquitanian duchy of Waiofar, going on to become a sub-kingdom within the Carolingian Empire. It was then absorbed by West Francia after the partition of Verdun in 843 and soon reappeared as a duchy under West Francia. In 1153, an enlarged Aquitaine pledged loyalty to the Angevin kings of England. As a result, a rivalry emerged between the French monarchs and the Angevins over control of the latter's territorial possessions in France. By the mid-13th century, only an enlarged Guyenne and Gascony remained in Angevin hands. The Hundred Years' War finally saw the Kingdom of France gain full control over Aquitaine in the 1450s, with much of its territory directly incorporated into the French royal domain itself.

The Count of Foix ruled the County of Foix, in what is now Southern France, during the Middle Ages. The House of Foix eventually extended its power across the Pyrenees mountain range, joining the House of Bearn and moving their court to Pau in Béarn. Count Francis Phoebus became King of Navarre in 1479. The last count was King Henry III of Navarre, after whose accession to the French throne the county entered the French royal domain.

To this day, the president of France is considered an unofficial successor of the count (as the current ruler of the French state) as co-prince of Andorra.

The County of Anjou (UK: /ˈɒ̃ʒuː, ˈæ̃ʒuː/, US: /ɒ̃ˈʒuː, ˈæn(d)ʒuː, ˈɑːnʒuː/; French: [ɑ̃ʒu]; Latin: Andegavia) was a French county that was the predecessor to the Duchy of Anjou. Its capital was Angers, and its area was roughly co-extensive with the diocese of Angers. Anjou was bordered by Brittany to the west, Maine to the north, Touraine to the east and Poitou to the south. Its 12th-century Count Geoffrey created the nucleus of what became the Angevin Empire. The adjectival form is Angevin, and inhabitants of Anjou are known as Angevins. In 1360, the county was raised into the Duchy of Anjou within the Kingdom of France. This duchy was later absorbed into the French royal domain in 1482, and remained a province of the kingdom until 1790.

The First Hundred Years' War (French: Première Guerre de Cent Ans; 1159–1259) was a series of conflicts and disputes during the High Middle Ages in which the House of Capet, rulers of the Kingdom of France, fought the House of Plantagenet (also known as the House of Anjou or the Angevins), rulers of the Kingdom of England. The conflict emerged over the fiefs in France held by the Angevins, which at their peak covered around half of the territory of the French realm. The struggle between the two dynasties resulted in the gradual conquest of these fiefs by the Capetians and their annexation to the French crown lands, as well as subsequent attempts by the House of Plantagenet to retake what they believed to be their rightful ancestral claims in western France.

While not a widely used term, "First Hundred Years' War" is the designation most often applied to this period when one is used, referring retrospectively to the Anglo-French conflicts preceding the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) as it is seen as a precursor to the later conflict, involving many of the same belligerents and dynasties. Like the "second" Hundred Years' War, this conflict was not a single war, but rather a historiographical periodisation to encompass dynastically related conflicts revolving around the dispute over the Angevin Empire.