The independent counts of Foix, with their castle overlooking the town of Foix, now in southernmost France, governed their county of Foix, which corresponded roughly to the eastern part of the modern département of Ariège (the western part being Couserans). However, it should be noted that in 1290 the counts of Foix acquired Béarn, which became the center of their domain, and from that time on the counts of Foix rarely resided in the county of Foix, preferring the richer and more verdant Béarn.

During the Middle Ages, the county of Foix was an independent fief of the kingdom of France and consisted of an agglomeration of small holdings ruled by lords, who, though subordinate to the counts of Foix, had some voice in the government of the county. The provincial-states of the county, which can be traced back to the 14th century, consisted of three orders and possessed considerable power and energy. In the 17th and 18th centuries Foix formed one of the thirty-three gouvernements (military areas) of France and kept its provincial-states until the French Revolution. In 1790 it was joined with Couserans to form the département of Ariège (see Couserans article for a full explanation).

The province of County of Foix, as it existed just before the French Revolution, had a land area of 2,466 km² (952 sq. miles). At the 1999 census there were 76,809 inhabitants living on the territory of the former province of County of Foix, which means a density of only 32 inh. per km² (84 inh. per sq. miles). The largest urban areas are Pamiers , with 17,715 inhabitants in 1999, and Foix, with 10,378 inhabitants in 1999.

House of Foix

The counts of Foix flourished from the 11th to the 15th century. They were at first feudatories of the counts of Toulouse, but soon succeeded in establishing their independence, and during the 13th and 14th centuries the counts of Foix figured among the most powerful of the French feudal nobles. Living on the borders of France, having constant intercourse with Navarre, and in frequent communication with England through Gascony and the Aquitaine, they were in a position favorable to an assertion of independence, and acted rather as the equals than as the dependents of the kings of France.

The title of Count of Foix was first assumed by Roger (died ca 1064), son of Bernard Roger, who was a younger son of Roger I, Count of Carcassonne (d. 1012), when he inherited the town of Foix and the adjoining lands, which had hitherto formed part of the county of Carcassonne. His grandson, Roger II took part in the First Crusade, 1095, and was afterwards excommunicated by Pope Paschal II for seizing ecclesiastical property; but subsequently he appeased the anger of the church by rich donations, and when he died in 1125 he was succeeded by his son, Roger III (died about 1149), and his son, Roger Bernard I (died in 1188).

Roger Bernard's only son, Raymond Roger accompanied the French king, Philip Augustus, to Palestine in 1190 and distinguished himself at the capture of Acre. He was afterwards engaged in the Albigensian Crusade, defending the Cathars, and on being accused of heresy his lands were given to Simon IV de Montfort. Raymond Roger came to terms with the Church and recovered his estates before his death in 1223; he was a patron of the Provencal poets and a poet himself.

He was succeeded by his son, Roger Bernard II the Great, who assisted Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse, and the Albigenses in their resistance to the French kings, Louis VIII and Louis IX, was excommunicated on two occasions and died in 1241. His son, Roger IV died in 1265, and was succeeded by his son, Roger Bernard III, who, more famous as a poet than as a warrior, was taken prisoner both by Philip III of France and by Peter III of Aragon. This count married Marguerite, daughter and heiress of Gaston VII, Viscount of Béarn (died 1290), and he inherited Béarn and Nébouzan from his father-in-law in 1290, which led to the outbreak of a long feud between the houses of Foix and Armagnac.

House of Foix-Béarn

The quarrel was continued under Roger Bernard's son and successor, Gaston I, who became count in 1302, inheriting both Foix and Béarn. Becoming embroiled with the French king, Philip IV, in consequence of the struggle with the count of Armagnac, Gaston was imprisoned in Paris; but quickly regaining his freedom he accompanied King Louis X on an expedition into Flanders in 1315, and died on his return to France in the same year. His eldest son, Gaston II, made peace with the house of Armagnac, Gaston took part in various wars both in France and Spain, dying at Seville in 1343, when he was succeeded by his son, Gaston III.

Gaston III (1331-1391), called Fébus or Phoebus (the Latin version of Apollo) on account of his beauty, was the most famous member of the House of Foix-Béarn. Like his father he assisted France in her struggle against England, being entrusted with the defence of the frontiers of Gascony; but when the French king, John II, favored the count of Armagnac, Gaston left his service and went to fight against the pagans of Prussia. Returning to France about 1357, he delivered some noble ladies from the attacks of the adherents of the Jacquerie at Meaux, and was soon at war with the count of Armagnac. During this struggle he also attacked the count of Poitiers, the royal representative in Languedoc, but owing to the intervention of Pope Innocent VI he made peace with the count in 1360. Gaston, however, continued to fight against the count of Armagnac, who, in 1362, was defeated and compelled to pay a ransom; this war lasted until 1377, when peace was made.

Early in 1380 the count was appointed governor of Languedoc, but when Charles VI succeeded Charles V as king later in the same year, this appointment was cancelled. Refusing, however, to heed the royal command, and supported by the communes of Languedoc, Gaston fought for about two years against John, duke of Berry, who had been chosen as his successor, until, bested in the combat, he abandoned the struggle and retired to his estates, remaining neutral and independent. He then resided in Orthez, the capital of Béarn. In 1348 Gaston had married Agnes, daughter of Philip, Count of Evreux (died 1343), by his wife Jeanne II, queen of Navarre. By Agnes, whom he divorced in 1373, he had an only son, Gaston, who is said to have been incited by his uncle, Charles II of Navarre, to poison his father, and who met his death in 1381. It is probable, as Froissart says, that he was killed by his father.

Gaston was very fond of hunting, but was not without a taste for art and literature. Several beautiful manuscripts are in existence which were executed by his orders, and he himself wrote a treatise on hunting, Livre de chasse, known in English as The Hunting Book. Froissart, who gives a graphic description of his court and his manner of life at Orthez in Béarn, speaks enthusiastically of Gaston, saying: I never saw none like him of personage, nor of so fair form, nor so well made, and again, in everything he was so perfect that he cannot be praised too much.

Left without legitimate sons, Gaston de Foix was easily persuaded to bequeath his lands to King Charles VI, who thus obtained Foix and Béarn when the count died at Orthez in 1391. Almost immediately after Gaston's death Charles granted the county of Foix to Matthew, Viscount of Castelbon, a descendant of Count Gaston I of Foix. When Matthew died without issue in 1398, his lands were seized by Archambault, Count of Grailly and Captal de Buch, the husband of Matthew's sister Isabella (d. 1426), who was confirmed as legitimate count of Foix in 1401.

House of Foix-Grailly

Archambault's eldest son, John (ca 1382 - 1436), who succeeded to his father's lands and titles in 1412, had married in 1402 Jeanne, daughter of Charles III, king of Navarre. Having served the king of France in Guienne and the king of Aragon in Sardinia, John became the royal representative in Languedoc, when the old quarrel between Foix and Armagnac broke out again. During the struggle between the Burgundian party and the Armagnacs, he intrigued with both, and consequently was distrusted by the Dauphin, afterwards King Charles VII. Deserting the France cause, he then allied himself with Henry V of England; but when Charles VII became king in 1422, he returned to his former allegiance and became the king's representative in Languedoc and Guienne. He then assisted to suppress the marauding bands which were devastating France; fought for Aragon against Castile; and aided his brother, the cardinal of Foix, to crush some insurgents in Aragon.

Peter, cardinal of Foix (1386 - 1464), was the fifth son of Archambault of Grailly, and was made archbishop of Arles in 1450. He took a prominent part in the struggle between the rival popes, and founded and endowed the Collège de Foix at Toulouse. The next count was John's son, Gaston IV, who married Leonora (d. 1479), a daughter of John, king of Aragon and Navarre. In 1447 he bought the viscounty of Narbonne, and having assisted King Charles VII in Guienne, he was made a peer of France in 1458. In 1455 his father-in-law designated him as his successor in Navarre, and Louis XI of France gave him the counties of Roussillon and Cerdagne, and made him his representative in Languedoc and Guienne; but these marks of favor did not prevent him from joining a league against Louis in 1471.

His eldest son, Gaston, the husband of Madeleine, a daughter of Charles VII of France, died in 1470, and when Gaston IV died two years later, his lands descended to his grandson, Francis Phoebus (d. 1483), who became king of Navarre in 1479, and was succeeded by his sister Catherine (d. 1517), the wife of Jean d'Albret (d. 1516).

A younger son of Count Gaston IV was John (d. 1500), who received the viscounty of Narbonne from his father and married Marie, a sister of the French king Louis XII. He was on good terms both with Louis XI. and Louis XII., and on the death of his nephew Francis Phoebus, in 1483, he claimed the kingdom of Navarre against Jean d'Albret and his wife, Catherine de Foix. The ensuing struggle lasted until 1497, when John renounced his claim. He left a son, Gaston de Foix (1489-1512), the distinguished French general, and a daughter, Germaine, who became the second wife of Ferdinand I of Spain.

In 1507 Gaston exchanged his viscounty of Narbonne with King Louis XII of France for the duchy of Nemours, and as duke of Nemours he took command of the French troops in Italy. Having delivered Bologna and taken Brescia, Gaston encountered the troops of the Holy League at Ravenna in April 1512, and after putting the enemy to flight was killed during the pursuit. From the younger branch of the house of Foix-Grailly have also sprung the viscounts of Lautrec and of Meilles, the counts of Bnanges and Candale, and of Gurson and Fleix.

Houses of Albret and Bourbon

When Catherine wife of Jean d'Albret succeeded her brother Francis Phoebus, the House of Foix-Grailly was merged into that of Albret, and later into that of Bourbon with Henry III of Navarre, son of Antoine de Bourbon and Jeanne d'Albret. Henry III of Navarre became King Henry IV of France in 1589. In 1607, he united to the French crown those of his personal fiefs that were under French sovereignty (i.e. County of Foix, Bigorre, Quatre-Vallées, and Nébouzan, but not Béarn and Lower Navarre, which were sovereign countries outside of the kingdom of France), and so the county of Foix became part of the royal domain.

See also: List of counts of Foix