FOIX

foix, a town of south-western france, in the middle ages capital of the counts of foix, and now capital of the department of ariege, 51 m. s. of toulouse, on the southern railway from that city to ax. pop. (1906) town, 4498; commune, 6750. it is situated between the ariege and the arget at their confluence. the old part of the town, with its ill-paved winding streets and old houses, is dominated on the west by an isolated rock crowned by the three towers of the castle (12th, 14th and 15th centuries), while to the south it is limited by the shady promenade de villotte. the chief church is that of st volusien, a gothic building of the 14th century. the town is the seat of a prefecture, a court of assizes and a tribunal of first instance, and has a lycee, training colleges, a chamber of commerce and a branch of the bank of france. flour-milling and iron-working are carried on. foix probably owes its origin to an oratory founded by charlemagne. this afterwards became an abbey, in which were laid the remains of st volusien, archbishop of tours in the 5th century. the county of foix included roughly the eastern part of the modern department of ariege, a region watered chiefly by the ariege and its affluents. during the later middle ages it consisted of an agglomeration of small holdings ruled by lords, who, though subordinate to the counts of foix, had some voice in the government of the district. protestantism obtained an early entrance into the county, and the religious struggles of the 16th and 17th centuries were carried on with much implacability therein. the estates of the county, which can be traced back to the 14th century, consisted of three orders and possessed considerable power and virility. in the 17th and 18th centuries foix formed one of the thirty-three governments of france, and in 1790 it was incorporated in the department of ariege. _counts of foix._--the counts of foix were an old and distinguished french family which flourished from the 11th to the 15th century. they were at first feudatories of the counts of toulouse, but chafing under this yoke they soon succeeded in throwing it off, and during the 13th and 14th centuries were among the most powerful of the french feudal nobles. living on the borders of france, having constant intercourse with navarre, and in frequent communication with england, they were in a position peculiarly favourable to an assertion of independence, and acted rather as the equals than as the dependents of the kings of france. the title of count of foix was first assumed by roger, son of bernard roger, who was a younger son of roger i., count of carcassonne (d. 1012), when he inherited the town of foix and the adjoining lands, which had hitherto formed part of the county of carcassonne. dying about 1064, roger was succeeded by his brother peter, who died six years later, and was succeeded in turn by his son, roger ii. this count took part in the crusade of 1095, and was afterwards excommunicated by pope paschal ii. for seizing ecclesiastical property; but subsequently he appeased the anger of the church by rich donations, and when he died in 1125 he was succeeded by his son, roger iii. the death of roger iii. about 1149, and of his son, roger bernard i., in 1188, brought the county to roger bernard's only son, raymond roger, who, in 1190, accompanied the french king, philip augustus, to palestine and distinguished himself at the capture of acre. he was afterwards engaged in the wars of the albigenses, and on being accused of heresy his lands were given to simon