Gascony

Historical and cultural region, southwestern France. It encompasses portions of the southwestern French régions of Aquitaine and Midi-Pyrénées. Historically, it consisted of the northern foothills of the Pyrenees and extended east from the Basque Country along the France-Spain border to Toulouse on the upper Garonne River. Under Roman rule it was the province of Novempopulana. Taken by the Visigoths in the 5th century and by the Franks in 507, it was overrun from 561 by the Basques, or Vascones; in 602 the Frankish kings recognized Vasconia, or Gascony, as a duchy. In 1052 it was conquered by Aquitaine, and in the 12th century it passed to the Plantagenet kings of England. In the Hundred Years' War, Gascony retained English allegiance until the French reconquest in the mid-15th century.