The House of Armagnac is a French noble house established in 960 by Bernard I, Count of Armagnac. It achieved its greatest importance in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The House of Armagnac, at the end of the thirteenth century, was not yet powerful enough to play a political role beyond its possessions. The House of Toulouse, which ruled over the large southeast of France, was defeated by the Capetians during the Albigensian Crusade, but local dynasties, like the House of Foix, the Counts of Comminges and the House of Albret, were gaining momentum. * Counts of Armagnac * *