Armagnac

(a ˙ r-ma ˙ -nya ˙ k), an ancient territory of France, in the province of Gascony, some of the counts of which hold prominent places in the history of France. Bernard VII, son of John II, surnamed the Hunchback, succeeded his brother, John III, in 1391, and was called to Court by Isabella of Bavaria, with the view of heading the Orleans in opposition to the Burgundian faction, where he no sooner gained the ascendancy than he compelled the queen to appoint him Constable of France. He showed himself a mercile tyrant, and became so generally execrated that the Duke of Burgundy, to whom Isabella had turned for help, found little difficulty in gaining admi ion into Paris, and even seizing the person of Armagnac, who was cast into prison in 1418, when the exasperated populace burst in and killed him and his followers. John V, grandson of the above, who succeeded in 1450, made himself notorious for his crimes. He was a a inated in his castle of Lectoure in 1473 by an agent of Louis XI, against whom he was holding out.