Viscounty of Limoges
Encyclopedia
Between Limoges
Limoges
Limoges |Limousin]] dialect of Occitan) is a city and commune, the capital of the Haute-Vienne department and the administrative capital of the Limousin région in west-central France....

, Brive and Périgueux
Périgueux
Périgueux is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.Périgueux is the prefecture of the department and the capital of the region...

, the viscounts of Limoges, also called viscounts of Ségur
Ségur-le-Château
Ségur-le-Château is a commune in the department of Corrèze in central France.-Population:-References:*...

created a small principality, whose last heir was Henry IV
Henry IV of France
Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....

. Ségur was the main home of these viscounts, in the heart of their domain. The viscounty went from the Limoges-Ségur family into the hands of the Brittany one, then to Albret's and eventually to Bourbons'.

Territory

Their territory included the castles of Ségur, Excideuil, Aixe-su-Vienne, Auberoche and Nontron.

Ségur Castle

Built in a shingle of the Auvézère River, at the borders of Saint-Eloi, Saint Julien, Payzac and Beyssenac parishes, the place is naturally defensive. The Ségur "verteil" (headquarters of the milites castri, the knights who defend the castle) was home to the Pérusse family (future dukes of the Cars), Bonneval family (future marquises of Bonneval
Coussac-Bonneval
Coussac-Bonneval is a commune in the Haute-Vienne department in the Limousin region in western France.Inhabitants are known as Coussacois.-References:*...

) (Claude Alexandre de Bonneval
Claude Alexandre de Bonneval
Claude Alexandre, Comte de Bonneval was a French army officer who later went into the service of the Ottoman Empire, eventually converting to Islam and becoming known as Humbaracı Ahmet Paşa....

 became a famous Ottoman Empire pasha), and Prévot family (later "du Mas" family, future marquises of Paysac
Payzac, Dordogne
Payzac is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.-Population:-History:The commune was written as Peisac, Peyzac, Paysac and since the late-19th century: Payzac...

).

The upper castle is in ruins. Today, the only remaining part is the Pérusse hotel, in the "verteil".
No visits (December 2006)

Excideuil Castle

Only two big towers remain, joined together by a screen wall that used to be the aula pinion.
The main home (16th or 17th century?) was doubled in width, at the beginning of the 20th century.
Vis-à-vis the city, the outwards gate of the milites castri's verteil is a beautiful, Renaissance door

Auberoche Castle

See Château d'Auberoche in the French Wikipedia for a detailed discussion (in French).
Probably around 1037 or 1059, the successor of Bishop Frotaire (the castrum founder) is said to have submitted the place to the Limoges viscount, in order to get the protection of this laic potentate against the Count of Périgord
Count of Périgord
Count of Périgord is a noble title in the peerage of France, first created for Emenon, who was also Count of Poitiers and Count of Angoulême. Most likely, the title was bestowed on Emenon in 845 by Pepin I of Aquitaine as a reward for Emenon fighting with Pepin against Louis the Pious...

.

As soon as the last third of the 12th century (1154–1157), the Viscount of Limoges acknowledges the bishop of Périgueux as his suzerain, as far as Auberoche is concerned. By this submission, the viscount extended his domination up to the Périgord episcopal and county headquarters gates. Therefore, the viscounts of Limoges could maintain and use of their political and economic power at the gates of Périgueux. The castle became a chaplain center which included 16 parishes (in 1365) and controlled two main, convergent traffic streams towards Périgueux city, through the Auvézère and Manoir valleys.

Confirmed as soon as September 1257, the judicial and administrative power was enforced in the whole district area by a provost, agent of the viscount of Limoges.

All location castles came under the ownership of the Segur viscounts who were intially abbots or clergy, the Monsbruen-Segur line came to be known as the barons that would fuel both the French and Provencal Kingdoms but also the dominaters of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms throughout Briton and Celtic and Norse lands by intermarriage with the Anglo-Saxon Kings like the predesesors the Britons who were a united branch of exiled Greek warriors and criminals who escaped the Turkish domination of the Achaea region of Greece and Rome's only influence were churches and statesmen in Brittania.
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