page_title: Duchy of Gascony
section_title: Personal union with Aquitaine (660–769)
hierarchical_section_title: Duchy of Gascony / History / Personal union with Aquitaine (660–769)
caption_attribution_description: English: Northeastern Iberia and southern Gaul around the Pyrenees in year 740, military campaigns and geopolitical situationEuskara: Iberiako ipar-ekialdea eta Galiako hegoaldea Pirinioen inguruan 740 urtea, kanpaina militarrak eta egoera geopolitikoaEspañol: Noreste de Iberia y sur de Galia en torno a los Pirineos en el año 740, campañas militares y situacion geopolítica
context_page_description: The Duchy of Gascony or Duchy of Vasconia was a duchy in present southwestern France and northeastern Spain, an area encompassing the modern region of Gascony. The Duchy of Gascony, then known as Wasconia, was originally a Frankish march formed to hold sway over the Basques. However, the Duchy went through different periods, from its early years with its distinctively Basque element to the merger in personal union with the Duchy of Aquitaine to the later period as a dependency of the Plantagenet kings of England.
  In the Hundred Years' War, Charles V of France conquered most of Gascony by 1380, and under Charles VII of France it was incorporated into the kingdom of France in its entirety in 1453. The corresponding portion within Spain became part of the Basque Kingdom of Navarre.
context_section_description: In the year 660, Felix of Aquitaine, a patrician from Toulouse of Gallo-Roman stock, received the ducal title of both Vasconia and Aquitaine (located between the Garonne and Loire rivers), effectively ruling independently over Vasconia and at least part of Aquitaine. Under Felix and his successors, Frankish overlordship over these lands became merely nominal, and Vasconia became a prominent regional power. The Ravena Cosmography cites "Wasconia" as extending up to the Loire, although the real concept behind the name is contested; it further divides the territory into Guasconia (north of Garonne) and Spanoguasconia (south of Garonne).
  Independent dukes Lupus, Odo, Hunald and Waifer succeeded him respectively, with the last three belonging to the same lineage. Their ethnicity is not certain, since records and their names are not conclusive.
  But the Umayyad invasion of 711 effected a complete shift in trends. Hitherto the duke Odo the Great had been independent, refusing to recognise the authority of either the Merovingian king or his mayor of the palace. In 714, Pamplona was captured by the Umayyads. In 721, Odo defeated the Arabian-African forces at the Battle of Toulouse.  However, in 732 he was utterly routed at the Battle of the River Garonne near Bordeaux, after which the Muslim troops under Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi plundered the country and captured Narbonne. Only by submitting to the suzerainty of his Frankish archrival, the mayor Charles Martel, could they decisively defeat the Umayyad invaders at the Battle of Tours. Aquitaine and its attendant marches were then united to Francia, but Odo probably kept ruling the Duchy of Vasconia and Aquitaine about the same as before until his death.
  Odo died c. 735, leaving his realm to his son Hunald, who desiring the former independence which had been his father's, attacked Martel's successors, starting a war which was to last for two generations. In 743, the situation was further complicated by the arrival of Asturian forces attacking Vasconia from the west. In 744, Hunald abdicated to his son Waifer, who repeatedly challenged Frankish overlordship. After a campaign against the Umayyads in Septimania, the king Pepin the Short turned his attention to Aquitaine and Waifer, unleashing a devastating war on Aquitaine (Vasconia included) that was to have dire consequences on its population, towns and society. Waifer and his Basque troops confronted Pepin several times but were defeated thrice in 760, 762, and 766, after which Aquitaine and Vasconia pledged loyalty to Pepin and Waifer was eventually murdered by desperate followers, or possibly by someone bribed by Pepin.
caption: Duchy of Vasconia after the Battle of Poitiers (734-743)
exif: {"Image Artist": "Inaki", "Image ExifOffset": "56", "Image XPAuthor": "Inaki", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:11:09 21:33:32", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:11:09 21:33:32", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "52", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "52"}