Les Châteaux de Landiras et de Montferrand and Their Seigneurial Families—Part One: Setting, Medieval History, and Genealogy

Abstract

Apart from Arnaud Communay’s “Genealogical Essay”, as he himself noted (1889: v), the Montferrands of the Bordeaux region have been neglected.1 The present approach to their history initiated in research on the Chateau de Landiras, whose baronial family tended to heiresses until one of them married a Montferrand. So began a four-century association of the “first and second baronies of Guyenne”! This first part will describe the socio-geographical settings of the two branches, some of their medieval experiences, and then proceed to presenting the combined genealogies—a task not previously attempted. The second part will narrate their respective and blended subsequent histories.