Maine (province of France)
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Maine [mɛːn] is one of the traditional provinces of France (not to be confused with La Maine, the river). It corresponds to the former County of Maine, whose capital was also the city of Le Mans. The area, now divided into the departments of Sarthe and Mayenne, contains about 857,000 inhabitants.
In the 8th and 9th centuries there existed a Duchy of Normandy (ducatus Cenomannicus), which several of the Carolingian kings used as an appanage. This duchy was a march that may have included several counties including Maine, and extended into Lower Normandy, all the way to the Seine. In 748, Pepin the Short, then Mayor of the Palace and thus the most powerful man in France after the king, gave this duchy to his half-brother Grifo. In 790 Charlemagne in turn gave it to his younger son, Charles the Younger. Charlemagne's grandson, the future Charles the Bald, and his son Louis the Stammerer inherited the title. At the height of the Scandinavian invasions Ragenold of Neustria held the title as well as the Neustrian march and the county of Maine, given to him on the death of Gauzfrid by Charles the Bald because Gauzfrid's children were too young to act in that capacity. Ragenold, who may have been the son of Renaud d'Herbauges, died in 885 fighting the Vikings who were pillaging Rouen.
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