Anjou summary

Explore the administrative history of Anjou

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Anjou.

Pouancé, France: medieval castleRuins of the medieval castle at Pouancé, Maine-et-Loire *département*, Anjou region, France.

Anjou, Historical region, lower Loire valley, northwestern France. Organized in the Gallo-Roman period as the Civitas Andegavensis, it later became the countship, and from 1360 the duchy, of Anjou. Its capital was Angers. Under the Carolingian dynasty, it was nominally administered by a count representing the French king. The area came under the English king Henry II when he married Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, thus founding the Anglo-Angevin empire of the Plantagenet dynasty. The French recovered Anjou in 1259, and it was united with France in 1487. It ceased to exist as a department in 1790.

France Summary

France, country of northwestern Europe. Historically and culturally among the most important nations in the Western world, France has also played a highly significant role in international affairs, with former colonies in every corner of the globe. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the

Philip II Summary

Philip II was the first of the great Capetian kings of medieval France (reigned 1180–1223), who gradually reconquered the French territories held by the kings of England and also furthered the royal domains northward into Flanders and southward into Languedoc. He was a major figure in the Third