Place:Aude, France

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Aude is a department in Southern France, located in the Occitanie region and named after the river Aude. The departmental council also calls it "Cathar Country" (French: Pays cathare) after a group of religious dissidents active in the 12th to 14th centuries.

Its prefecture is Carcassonne and its subprefectures are Limoux and Narbonne. As of 2019, it had a population of 374,070. Aude is a frequent feminine French given name in Francophone countries, deriving initially from Aude or Oda, a wife of Bertrand, Duke of Aquitaine, and mother of Eudo, brother of Saint Hubertus. Aude was the name of Roland's fiancée in the chansons de geste.

History

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Prehistory

Human traces have been found dating between 690,000 and 300,000 years before present in the form of hammers and worked tools on the hill of Grazailles at Carcassonne. The most interesting discovery, however, is that of the skull of Tautavel Man, made by Henry de Lumley in 1971 in the commune of Tautavel in the Pyrénées-Orientales department. It is the oldest skull known in Europe. It dates from about 450,000 years BC. It is likely that Tautavel Man lived in all of this region.

Roman Era

The Romans, led by the consul-general Domitius Ahenobarbus, first occupied Narbonne in 118 BC on the oppidum of Montlaurès. This became the provincial capital and a very active mercantile port. The position was strategically important since it stood at the crossroads of two Roman roads, the Via Aquitania and the Via Domitia, as well as by the sea near the mouth of the river Aude. Carcassonne became Latin in 30 BC with the creation of numerous grain farms. For almost two centuries, Aude enjoyed peace and strong economic growth.

Barbarian invasions

The Visigoths invaded the area in 435 AD at a time when Flavius Aetius, the Roman senator, was busy suppressing the Bagaudes, who were brigands or lawless types in central and northern Gaul. Roman authority was restored until 462. In 507, the victory of Clovis I at the battle of Vouillé permitted him to conquer Toulouse and Aquitaine. However, he could not recover the Aude territory, which remained in the hands of the Visigoths, thanks to the help of the King of the Ostrogoths. His troops defeated Clovis's son in 508. The region was part of Septimania, so called because it was composed of seven bishoprics that the Visigoth kings had established there: Elne, Agde, Narbonne, Lodève, Béziers, Maguelonne, and Nîmes. Septimania covered the Aude but also the whole region of Languedoc-Roussillon.

Middle Ages

In 817, Louis le Débonnaire detached Carcassès and Razès from Septimania to reunite them with the marquisate of Toulouse and the kingdom of Aquitaine. The first Count of Carcassonne was Oliba from the family of the Counts of Barcelona who established himself in 819. Razès was another county that was formed by an archbishop of Narbonne who had been chased from his town by the Saracens. He had transferred his episcopal seat to Razès and had procured the honours of the feudal title for the area. Narbonne formed a third county. Thus, the Aude department was formed in the ninth century from three counties: Carcassonne, Razès and Narbonne. In 880, the County of Razès was united by marriage to that of Carcassonne, never to be separated.

Catharism in Aude

In the 13th century, the region saw the development of Catharism, a dualistic Christian sect with similarities to Gnosticism. This religion was very quickly judged to be heretical by the Catholic Church. Faced with its growing strength in the counties of Carcassonne and Toulouse, Pope Innocent III in 1209 declared a crusade against the Albigensians. The barons of the north united to form an army under the command of Simon de Montfort. Whereas the count of Toulouse Raymond VI received absolution, the Count of Carcassonne confronted the army alone. The city of Carcassonne became the refuge of numerous Cathars.

The Protestant crisis and economic expansion of the department

In 1561, religious troubles appeared at Carcassonne in the form of a Protestant crisis. Duke Henri I de Montmorency, the Governor of the Languedoc, joined the Reformed side in 1574. On the Catholic side, the Duke Anne de Joyeuse became head of the Catholic League. Henri II de Montmorency was defeated at the Battle of Castelnaudary in September 1632 against the royal troops then was condemned to death and executed at Toulouse.

The creation of the department

The present department is one of the original 83 departments created by the Constituent Assembly during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Languedoc. Administrative divisions were amended by the Act of 28 Pluviôse of Year 8, which created four arrondissements (reduced to three by Premier Raymond Poincaré in 1926) and reduced the number of cantons from 45 to 31.

The 20th century

The Aude enjoyed strong wine production while grain farmers of Lauragais faced great difficulties. However, the department suffered from oversupply and a slump in sales of wine. In 1907 the crisis produced a winemakers' revolt. This led to the establishment of many Winemaking cooperatives in Aude from 1909.

Heraldry

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