General Notes

Foix, Comté De, region in southern France. Comté de Foix is entirely mountainous, with large valleys cut by the Ariège and Salat rivers.

In ancient times, Comté de Foix was conquered by the Roman Empire, and was later invaded by the Germanic Visigoths and Franks. In the Middle Ages, it was controlled by the Duchy of Aquitaine, the countship of Toulouse, and the countship of Carcassonne. The countship of Foix was established in 1012 by Roger, Count of Carcassonne for his second son, Roger Bernard. Several minor lordships under the counts of Foix shared in the government. In the 15th century, Comté de Foix passed to the king of Navarre. The region was annexed by the crown when Henry of Navarre became King Henry IV of France in 1589.

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Determined opponents of the territorial ambitions of the Capetian kings of France and stout defenders of Catharism, the counts of Foix drew upon themselves the wrath of Simon de Montfort senior, who four times laid unsuccessful siege to the castle, though he did capture the town in 1211. Their resistance was finally broken in 1229 when Roger-Bernard, the count of the time, was obliged to accept the feudal dominance of the French king. Foix's age of glory came in 1290 when its counts married into the house of Béarn. Although they transferred their court to Orthez in the fourteenth century, this was the beginning of a powerful Pyrenean mini-state, whose influence lasted three centuries and came to include the kingdom of Navarre, leading finally to the throne of France with the accession of Henri III of Béarn and Navarre as Henri IV of France in 1589.