The coat of arms of Fézensac dates from the 10th century, when the County of Fézensac was divided as heritage between two sons. The senior kept the County of Fézensac – just territorially reduced – the younger brother received the newly created County of Armagnac. Both counties used the same coat of arms. It showed a red lion on silver. In 1140 Count Geraud III. united his county of Armagnac with the County of Fézensac, because he had remained without a male heir, but the name Armagnac and the coat of arms were maintained.
The provinces (or governorates) that existed until the French Revolution were historically grown entities that had often developed from former fiefdoms of the French crown, historical counties and duchies, often existed for hundreds of years and had preserved regional characteristics (cultural peculiarities and regional languages). Such phenomena were naturally undesirable to the French Revolution, and in the context of its bloody and violent egalitarianism, all regional references were eradicated. Shortly after the Revolution, the provinces were dissolved and France was divided into many small départements, which were to be approximately the same size and have the same status, controlled by prefects of the central administration in Paris. The departments were named after rivers or mountains so as not to use the names of any of the old provinces. However, it was not possible to sever the ties between the inhabitants of France and their respective historically grown regions, so that in 1960 regions were created again. There can hardly be said to be any real autonomy. The regions are only supposed to promote the economic, social, health, cultural and scientific development of the region, keep an eye on housing and living conditions, and provide support in some areas, e.g. urban development policy, urban regeneration, regional planning, preservation of regional identity and promotion of regional languages. When the regions were formed, departments located in a particular historical province were administratively grouped together into a region that often had the same historical name. The resulting entities only roughly corresponded to the boundaries of historical provinces. In strictly centralised France, however, any form of responsible regionalism is avoided. The regions do not even have their own seals with which to mark their own legally binding decisions, because there are no plans to introduce such a thing. Therefore, anything to do with coats of arms or flags is completely irrelevant. The logos of the regions are used generally, sometimes with the colours reversed and placed arbitrarily on flags or banners. There are no rules, as they are not official symbols. The logos and flags of the regions therefore often look like company logos: Unloving, unhistorical, technocratic and modernistic. That is why most of these regions have a kind of unofficial heraldic flag, which is intended to recall historical heraldic models. However, these are merely decorative in nature and are not a symbol of sovereign functions. The regions created in 1960 were even called into question in 2014, and a territorial reform was decided – centrally from Paris – which reduced the number of regions by almost half through mergers. The regions and their institutions were not even consulted on this matter.
771 · Charlemagne takes over Aquitaine and transmits it later as a kingdom to his youngest son Louis the Pious, Charlemagne estblishes the County of Fézensac to counter the repeated revolts of the Basques against the rule of the Carolingians, the first mentioned Carolingian count is Leuthard of Paris (House of Matfriede)
819 · King Pepin I. of Aquitaine appoints Aznar Sanche to the Count of Gascony
836 · the County of Fézensac is owned again by the Basques, it belongs to the Basque Gascony and develops into its central part
848 · Count Sanche Mitarrat calls himself a Duke
920 · death of Garcia Sanchez le Tors, the heritage (the duchy of Gascony) is divided among his three sons, the majority of Gascony comes to Sancho III., the Counties of Astarac and Fézensac come to the other brothers – after the death of William Garcia, Count of Fézensac, the county is divided among the sons, the elder son Othon receives the county Fézensac, his younger brother Bernard le Louche receives the by the division newly created County of Armagnac
1140 · Count Geraud III. of Armagnac unites his county with the County of Fézensac because he had remained without a male heir
The geographical names Armagnac and Fézensac are of Basque-Occitan origin and difficult to explain. Supposedly, however, the name Armagnac should be an old family name, after that the area was named.
