Page 14 - PGA Community News - November '22

Page 14, PGA C.A.N.! November 2022 November 2022
La Rochelle: Town Of Two Countries

By Don Kiselewski, MCC, La Rochelle was born in the
D.S., Palm Beach Gardens early 12 century. At that time the
th
Travel Leaders islands of Oléron and Ré, off the
Aquitaine is the west coast of France, had already
traditional name for the established their personalities. But
southwestern province in La Rochelle was just a tiny dot on
France where La Rochelle the map. The first references of La
can be found. The area was Rochelle mentioned its salt pans
first controlled and used and fishing fleet. It was recorded in
by Julius Caesar in the 996 A.D. among the archives of St.
first century B.C. Under Cyprian’s Abbey in Poitiers, and
the Romans, the province noted a small population of people
extended from the Loire River in the north to a location who lived a fair distance from the
south of the estuary known as Gironde. coast, near the church of Notre
Dame de Cougnes. Archeological
excavations at the site revealed a
Roman agricultural center as well
as a treasure in Roman coins that
were found in the area known as
Benon.
The area was controlled by the
Duke of Aquitaine, whose titles
were held by the Counts of Poitiers
from the 10th to the 12th century. The Saint-Nicholas Tower (left) and the Chain Tower (right)

The last duke was William X who wasn’t as well known or
powerful as his daughter, Eleanor. Whether it was her beauty
or her land possessions, the fact remains that she was able
to shape the nationality of that part of the world. In 1137,
she inherited the duchy of Aquitaine from her father and
the same year became the queen consort by marrying Louis
VII of France.
When Eleanor accompanied her husband, the king,
on his second crusade to the Holy Land, it was rumored
that she had committed adultery. The scandal, along with
the fact that she had not given the king a male heir and a
few other issues including blood kinship with the king,
resulted in an annulment of their marriage. She kept her
possessions and two years later in 1154, she gave them
to Henry Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, who became King
Henry II of England. Talk about working both sides of the
Channel!
Some 16 years later, she convinced her husband Henry
to relinquish some of the gifts she had given him and
invest them in her son, Richard “the Lion-Hearted”…
this included Aquitaine. Richard and his brother rebelled
against Henry and because Eleanor sided with her sons,
she was placed in confinement where she remained until
Henry’s death in 1189. With Richard out on the Third
Crusade, Eleanor was left in charge and ruled as regent for
five years. This time in history was depicted by the 1968
The Saint-Nicholas Tower was constructed from 1372 to movie Lion In Winter, staring Academy Award-winner
1376 and sits at the mouth of La Rochelle’s main harbor on Katherine Hepburn as Eleanor.
the south bank.
Statue of Admiral Guy-Victor Duperré La Rochelle: Town Of Two Countries on page 15
John Deloach

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