page_title: Margaret of Béarn
section_title: Béarn after Margaret
hierarchical_section_title: Margaret of Béarn / Béarn after Margaret
caption_attribution_description: France, Counts of Béarn. 905-1134. AR Denier (0.85 gm). Centulle mint. COME CENTVLLO, cross pattée, pellet in 2nd and 4th quadrant +ONOR FORCHS, PAX in monogram, read clockwise from left. Poey d'Avant 3233; Boudeau 525. Good VF, toned.
context_page_description: Margaret of Béarn was a noblewoman who ruled lands near the Pyrenees mountains and in the southwestern part of present-day France. She inherited the lands, assets and title, Viscountess of Béarn, on the death of her father in 1290. Later, she inherited the assets and title of Countess of Bigorre, from her sister when she died in 1310.
context_section_description: During Margaret's time in Béarn, it was a sovereign principality using its own coinage and language, which was a local vernacular Bearnès dialect of the Old Occitan language. The principality at times was expanded to include Andorra and parts of Basque Country, now located in northern Spain and southern France. 
  Because Béarn was an independent state, it was the subject of attempted takeovers over the centuries until it was annexed by France in 1620 when King Louis XIII marched into the area with a large army, seized the nobles' estates and, sitting on his new Béarnese throne, declared that the lands were now part of France, thereby ending the principality's sovereignty.
caption: Coins used in Béarn (c. 1200)
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