Editing Duchy of Anjou (section)

== Province of Anjou ==
[[File:Anjou - old traditional countries - fr.svg|thumb|400px|{{ubl| Map of Anjou in the 18th century. |In red: the [[Maine-et-Loire]] current département.}}|left]]
{{Infobox former subdivision
| common_name            = Duchy of Anjou
| s2                     = Indre-et-Loire
| year_leader2           = 1774 – 1791
| deputy1                = [[Louise of Savoy]]
| year_deputy1           = 1515 – 1531
| year_deputy2           = 1755 – 1791
| deputy2                = [[Louis XVIII|Louis Stanislas Xavier de Bourbon]]
| flag_s1                = Blason département fr Deux-Sèvres.svg
| s1                     = Deux-Sèvres
| flag_s2                = Arms of Charles le Bel.svg
| title_deputy           = [[Duke of Anjou]]
| flag_s3                = Blason département fr Loire-Atlantique.svg
| s3                     = Loire-Atlantique
| s4                     = Maine-et-Loire
| flag_s4                = Blason département fr Maine-et-Loire.svg
| flag_s5                = Blason département fr Sarthe.svg
| s5                     = Sarthe
| flag_s6                = Blason département fr Vienne.svg
| native_name            = Province of Anjou
| title_leader           = [[King of France]]
| demonym                = ''Angevin, Angevins, Angevine, Angevines''
| p1                     = Duchy of Anjou
| conventional_long_name = Province of Anjou
| government_type        = Province
| era                    = [[France in the Middle Ages|Middle Ages]] / [[Early modern France|Early Modern]]
| year_start             = 1482
| year_end               = 1791
| event_start            = Integrated into Kingdom of France
| event_end              = Decree dividing France into departments
| image_map_caption      = Location of Anjou and Saumurois within the Kingdom of France in 1789
| image_coat             = Arms of Hercule dAnjou.svg
| image_map              = Anjou and Saumurois in France (1789).png
| capital                = [[Angers]]
| leader1                = [[Louis XI]]
| year_leader1           = 1482 – 1483
| leader2                = [[Louis XVI]]
| flag_p1                = Arms of Hercule dAnjou.svg
| image_flag             = Flag of Anjou.svg
| s6                     = Vienne (department){{!}}Vienne
}}

Unlike his predecessors, who had rarely stayed long in Anjou, René from 1443 onwards paid long visits to it, and his court at Angers became one of the most brilliant in the kingdom of France. But after the sudden death of his son [[John II, Duke of Lorraine|John]] in December 1470, René, for reasons which are not altogether clear, decided to move his residence to [[Provence]] and leave Anjou for good. After making an inventory of all his possessions, he left the duchy in October 1471, taking with him the most valuable of his treasures. On 22 July 1474 he drew up a will by which he divided the succession between his grandson [[René II, Duke of Lorraine|René II of Lorraine]] and his nephew Charles II, count of Maine. On hearing this, [[Louis XI of France|King Louis XI]], who was the son of one of King René's sisters, seeing that his expectations were thus completely frustrated, seized the duchy of Anjou. He did not keep it very long, but became reconciled to René in 1476 and restored it to him, on condition, probably, that René should bequeath it to him. However that may be, on the death of the latter (10 July 1480) he again added Anjou to the royal domain.{{sfn|Halphen|1911}}

Later, [[Francis I of France|King Francis I]] again gave the duchy as an appanage to his mother, Louise of Savoy, by letters patent of 4 February 1515. On her death, in September 1531, the duchy returned into the king's possession. In 1552 it was given as an appanage by Henry II to his son [[Henry III of France|Henry of Valois]], who, on becoming king in 1574, with the title of Henry III, conceded it to his brother [[François, Duke of Anjou|Francis, duke of Alençon]], at the treaty of Beaulieu near Loches (6 May 1576). Francis died on 10 June 1584, and the vacant appanage definitively became part of the [[Crown lands of France|royal domain]].{{sfn|Halphen|1911}}

=== Government ===
At first Anjou was included in the ''gouvernement'' (or military command) of Orléanais, but in the 17th century was made into a separate one. Saumur, however, and the Saumurois, for which [[Henry IV of France|King Henry IV]] had in 1589 created an independent military governor-generalship in favour of Duplessis-Mornay, continued till the Revolution to form a separate ''gouvernement'', which included, besides Anjou, portions of Poitou and Mirebalais. Attached to the ''[[généralité]]'' (administrative circumscription) of Tours, Anjou on the eve of the Revolution comprised five ''êlections'' (judicial districts):--[[Angers]], [[Baugé]], [[Saumur]], [[Château-Gontier]], [[Montreuil-Bellay]] and part of the ''êlections'' of [[La Flèche]] and [[Richelieu, Indre-et-Loire|Richelieu]]. Financially it formed part of the so-called ''pays de grande [[gabelle]]'', and comprised sixteen special tribunals, or ''greniers à sel'' (salt warehouses):--[[Angers]], [[Baugé]], [[Beaufort-en-Vallée|Beaufort]], [[Bourgueil]], [[Candé]], Château-Gontier, [[Cholet]], [[Craon, Mayenne|Craon]], La Flèche, [[Saint-Florent-le-Vieil]], [[Ingrandes, Maine-et-Loire|Ingrandes]], [[Le Lude]], [[Pouancé]], [[Saint-Rémy-la-Varenne]], Richelieu, Saumur. From the point of view of purely judicial administration, Anjou was subject to the parlement of Paris; Angers was the seat of a presidial court, of which the jurisdiction comprised the ''sénéchaussées'' of Angers, Saumur, Beaugé, Beaufort and the duchy of Richelieu; there were besides presidial courts at Château-Gontier and La Flèche. When the Constituent Assembly, on 26 February 1790, decreed the division of France into departments, Anjou and the Saumurois, with the exception of certain territories, formed the department of Maine-et-Loire, as at present constituted.{{sfn|Halphen|1911}}

Under the [[kingdom of France]], Anjou was practically identical with the [[diocese of Angers]], bound on the north by [[Maine (province of France)|Maine]], on the east by [[Touraine]], on the south by [[Poitou]] ([[Poitiers]]) and the [[Mauges]], and the west by the countship of [[Nantes]] or the duchy of [[Brittany]].{{sfn|Baynes|1878}}{{sfn|Halphen|1911}} Traditionally Anjou was divided into four natural regions: the Baugeois, the Haut-Anjou (or Segréen), the Mauges, and the Saumurois.

It occupied the greater part of what is now the [[department (France)|department]] of [[Maine-et-Loire]]. On the north, it further included: [[Craon, Mayenne|Craon]]; [[Candé]]; {{ill|Bazouges, Château-Gontier|lt=Bazouges|fr|Bazouges}} ([[Château-Gontier]]); and [[Le Lude]]. On the east, it further added [[Château-la-Vallière]] and [[Bourgueil]]; while to the south, it lacked the towns of [[Montreuil-Bellay]], [[Vihiers]], [[Cholet]], and [[Beaupréau]], as well as the district lying to the west of the [[Ironne]] and [[Thouet]] on the left bank of the [[Loire]], which formed the territory of the {{Interlanguage link|Mauges|fr}}.{{sfn|Halphen|1911}}