Gascony

Description

In the verse Purgatorio XX 66, Gascony is placed by Dante in the survey of territories wrested by deceit and force by the king of France from the king of England, his feudal vassal: the county of Ponthieu, Normandy, and Gascony. The notes to the verse specify that Ponthieu and Gascony were occupied by deceit by Philip IV in 1294, while Normandy had already been reconquered in 1204; Dante nevertheless grouped the three regions together in a single list as illegitimate conquests of the house of France. The same name recurs in the notes to other cantos: Clement V, the Avignonese pope born in Gascony, is recalled as a figure linked to the Avignon captivity and to the opposition to Henry VII. The inhabitants of the region are also indicated by the notes as known for their greed, while Bertran de Born, viscount of Hautefort in Gascony, is remembered by Dante among the great poets of the Provençal language.