Tours in the context of "Guillaume Rouillé"

Touraine (US: /tuˈreɪn, tuˈrɛn/; French: [tuʁɛn] ) is one of the traditional provinces of France. Its capital was Tours. During the political reorganization of French territory in 1790, Touraine formed the bulk of the Indre-et-Loire department as well as parts of the new departments of Loir-et-Cher, Indre and Vienne.

The Loire (/lwɑːr/ LWAR, US also /luˈɑːr/ loo-AR, French: [lwaʁ] ; Occitan: Léger [ˈledʒe]; Arpitan: Lêre; Breton: Liger [ˈliːɡɛr]; Latin: Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of 1,006 kilometres (625 mi), it drains 117,054 km (45,195 sq mi), more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône.

It rises in the southeastern quarter of the French Massif Central in the Cévennes range (in the department of Ardèche) at 1,350 m (4,430 ft) near Mont Gerbier de Jonc; it flows north through Nevers to Orléans, then west through Tours and Nantes until it reaches the Bay of Biscay (Atlantic Ocean) at Saint-Nazaire. Its main tributaries include the rivers Nièvre, Maine and the Erdre on its right bank, and the rivers Allier, Cher, Indre, Vienne, and the Sèvre Nantaise on the left bank.

During the early Middle Ages, the count of Tours was the ruler of the old Roman pagus Turonicus: the city of Tours and its hinterland, the Touraine.

Under the Merovingians, counts at Tours were appointed local representatives of the king, such as the base-born Leudast who had made his way at the Paris court of Charibert I and was appointed count at Tours by the king in the 570s, to the disgust of Gregory of Tours.

Martin of Tours (Latin: Martinus Turonensis; 316/336 – 8 November 397) was the third bishop of Tours. He is the patron saint of many communities and organizations across Europe, including France's Third Republic. A native of Pannonia (present-day Hungary), he converted to Christianity at a young age. He served in the Roman cavalry in Gaul, but left military service prior to 361, when he became a disciple of Hilary of Poitiers, establishing the monastery at Ligugé. He was consecrated as Bishop of Caesarodunum (Tours) in 371. As bishop, he was active in the suppression of the remnants of Gallo-Roman religion.

The contemporary hagiographer Sulpicius Severus wrote a Life of St. Martin. He is best known for the account of his using his sword to cut his cloak in two, to give half to a beggar clad only in rags in winter. His shrine in Tours became an often-frequented stop for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

In the medieval Roman Catholic church there were several Councils of Tours, that city being an old seat of Christianity, and considered fairly centrally located in France.

Judith of Bavaria (c. 797-805 – 19 April 843) was the Carolingian empress as the second wife of Louis the Pious. Marriage to Louis marked the beginning of her rise as an influential figure in the Carolingian court. She had two children with Louis, Gisela and Charles the Bald. The birth of her son led to a major dispute over the imperial succession, and tensions between her and Charles' half-brothers from Louis' first marriage. She eventually fell from grace when Charles' wife, Ermentrude of Orléans, rose to power. She was buried in 843 in Tours.

Alcuin of York (/ˈælkwɪn/; Latin: Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus; c. 735 – 19 May 804), also called Ealhwine, Alhwin, or Alchoin, was an Anglo-Latin scholar, clergyman, poet, and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student of Archbishop Ecgbert at York. At the invitation of Charlemagne, he became a leading scholar and teacher at the Carolingian court, where he remained a figure in the 780s and 790s. Before that, he was also a court chancellor in Aachen. "The most learned man anywhere to be found", according to Einhard's Life of Charlemagne (c. 817–833), he is considered among the most important intellectual architects of the Carolingian Renaissance. Among his pupils were many of the dominant intellectuals of the Carolingian era.

Alcuin wrote many theological and dogmatic treatises, as well as a few grammatical works and a number of poems. In 796, he was made abbot of Marmoutier Abbey, in Tours, where he worked on perfecting the Carolingian minuscule script. He remained there until his death.