Editing Rochechouart (section)

==History==
Aymeric I, who lived around 990, was the first viscount and established the Rochechouartais dynasty. Aymeric IV took part in the [[First Crusade]] at the end of the 11th century at the side of [[Godfrey of Bouillon]], and it was Aymeric VI (1170–1230) who built the present castle, the [[Château de Rochechouart]], the keep and gatehouse of which remain standing.<ref name=Dulery>{{cite book|author=Abbé Duléry|title=Rochechouart: histoire, légendes, archéologie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sXs9AQAAMAAJ|year=1855 |publisher=Imprimerie Ducourtieux et Cie}}</ref>

At the end of the 13th century, Aimeric XI renounced a large part of his privileges and promulgated a [[charter]] of enfranchisement which transformed Rochechouart into a democratic city, and turned its inhabitants from slaves to the state into citizens.  The city was from then on governed by four consuls who chose their own successors, without their lord's intervention.  At the same time the viscount suppressed all direct taxes such as the "[[taille]]" and the "quête" and abolished duties of service to the feudal lord.  He also accorded the inhabitants of Rochechouart the essential conditions for total liberty – they could dispose of their goods, buy or sell, import and export whatever they wanted, build, move about freely within the viscountcy, all without intervention from their lord. This Charter was very advanced for its times, and despite pressure from the other lords in the region, it remained in force until 1789.<ref>{{cite book |title=Histoire de Rochechouart, des origines à la Révolution |author=Docteur Adrien Grézillier |year=1977 |publisher=Dupanier |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XrS2AAAAIAAJ }}</ref> François de Rochechouart in the late 15th century is known for his study on the ''Dialogues'' of [[Pierre Salmon]], the secretary of [[Charles VI of France]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Hedeman, Anne Dawson |title=Of Counselors and Kings: The Three Versions of Pierre Salmon's Dialogues|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iMD0LfctPQsC&pg=PA54 |year=2001 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-02614-0 |pages=54–}}</ref> Before the [[French Revolution]], Rochechouart administratively depended on the [[Poitou|Province of Poitou]], the viscounts of Rochechouart being vassals of the [[Count of Poitiers]], and religiously, it was under the control of the diocese of [[Limoges]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2019}}