in September 1531, the duchy returned into the king's
possession. In 1552 it was given as an appanage by Henry II. to his son
Henry of Valois, who, on becoming king in 1574, with the title of Henry
III., conceded it to his brother Francis, duke of Alencon, at the treaty
of Beaulieu near Loches (6th of May 1576). Francis died on the 10th of
June 1584, and the vacant appanage definitively became part of the royal
domain.

At first Anjou was included in the _gouvernement_ (or military command)
of Orleanais, but in the 17th century was made into a separate one.
Saumur, however, and the Saumurois, for which King Henry IV. had in 1589
created an independent military governor-generalship in favour of
Duplessis-Mornay, continued till the Revolution to form a separate
_gouvernement_, which included, besides Anjou, portions of Poitou and
Mirebalais. Attached to the _generalite_ (administrative circumscription)
of Tours, Anjou on the eve of the Revolution comprised five _elections_
(judicial districts):--Angers, Beauge, Saumur, Chateau-Gontier,
Montreuil-Bellay and part of the _elections_ of La Fleche and Richelieu.
Financially it formed part of the so-called _pays de grande gabelle_ (see
GABELLE), and comprised sixteen special tribunals, or _greniers a sel_
(salt warehouses):--Angers, Beauge, Beaufort, Bourgueil, Cande,
Chateau-Gontier, Cholet, Craon, La Fleche, Saint-Florent-le-Vieil,
Ingrandes, Le Lude, Pouance, Saint-Remy-la-Varenne, Richelieu, Saumur.
From the point of view of purely judicial administration, Anjou was
subject to the parlement of Paris; Angers was the seat of a presidial
court, of which the jurisdiction comprised the _senechaussees_ of Angers,
Saumur, Beauge, Beaufort and the duchy of Richelieu; there were besides
presidial courts at Chateau-Gontier and La Fleche. When the Constituent
Assembly, on the 26th of February 1790, decreed the division of France
into departments, Anjou and the Saumurois, with the exception of certain
territories, formed the department of Maine-et-Loire, as at present
constituted.

AUTHORITIES.--(1) _Principal Sources_: The history of Anjou may be
told partly with the aid of the chroniclers of the neighbouring
provinces, especially those of Normandy (William of Poitiers, William
of Jumieges, Ordericus Vitalis) and of Maine (especially _Actus
pontificum Cenomannis in urbe degentium_). For the 10th, 11th and 12th
centuries especially, there are some important texts dealing e