Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
Summary
In a period that saw the known world ravaged by the Black Death, Christendom torn by the Great Schism, and two mighty kingdoms locked in the interminable duel of Plantagenets and Valois, historians of the Hundred Years War cannot be faulted for having paid only passing attention to the person and career of Gaston III, Count of Foix and Viscount of Béarn, commonly known as Gaston-Phoebus. In an imaginary group portrait of his famous contemporaries, with the likes of Edward III and Charles V at the centre, he would have stood in the second row, perhaps even at one or other end. Some better-placed members of the assembly, such as the redoubted Edward, Prince of Wales and Aquitaine, or the overactive King of Navarre, may have looked askance at this sometimes difficult neighbour; nevertheless, all his royal contemporaries would have thought it appropriate to acknowledge him at least with a more or less cordial, but still courteous nod.
As lord of disparate fiefs strung along the northern foothills of the Pyrenees, the twelfth Count of Foix was perhaps only a minor player in the power games of his time, but the strategic situation of his domains made him a pivotal one in the complex tugging between French Languedoc, English Aquitaine, Navarre and Aragon. Moreover, he was richer than some kings, and his wealth afforded him additional leverage in his dealings with his more powerful neighbours.
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- Lord of the PyreneesGaston Fébus, Count of Foix (1331–1391), pp. vii - viiiPublisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2008