Histoire de la conquête de la Guyenne par les Français - Henry Ribadieu

Histoire de la conquête de la Guyenne par les Français - Henry Ribadieu

"I thought that I too could, in spite of its insufficiency, work for the emancipation of my country, by reminding men who are nothing more than what their ancestors of the Middle Ages were", C ' is in these bold and iconoclastic terms that Henry Ribadieu presents his work with the provocative title: History of the conquest of Guyenne by the French, published in Bordeaux in 1866.

Reckless enterprise, since it intends to be a "patriotic act of awareness and even liberation ("emancipation") from "Gascon nationality" because Ribadieu deliberately and constantly uses this terminology, very marked from a political point of view, which designates the will for the autonomous existence of a population whose distinctive features are underlined.

Irreverent enterprise, since it tends to nothing less than to take the opposite view from French national and nationalist official history, gladly glorifying "this beautiful centralization" that Michelet sings.

This reading of a history more national than provincial could not disturb. It is probably for this reason that Ribadieu's work is so little mentioned, even less commented on.

This is the old edition of 1990, already a "reprint" of the original edition published in Bordeaux in 1866. Since then, the "Princi Negre Editor" Editions have become the "Éditions des Régionalismes" ...

Preface by C. Coulon, chercheur au CNRS et "redécouvreur" de Ribadieu.
Princi Negre Editor.

The author:
Henry Ribadieu, né à Coimères (Gironde) en 1825, est issu du côté maternel d'une vieille famille noble apparentée aux anciens seigneurs de Montferrand et de Budos, premiers barons du duché à l'époque anglo-gasconne. Journaliste successivement au Courrier de la Gi­ronde puis à La Guyenne organe des Légitimistes oeuvrant pour le retour à la monarchie et l'avènement d'Henri V, comte de Chambord dont il devien­dra le rédacteur en chef. Mais c'est aussi l'historien qui révolutionnera l'histoire régionale en la rendant autonome face à la toute-puissance de l'histoire de France « officielle », une et difficilement « divisible ».