Velay () is a historical area of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

situated in the east

Haute-Loire Haute-Loire (; or ''Naut Leir''; English: Upper Loire) is a landlocked department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of south-central France. Named after the Loire River, it is surrounded by the departments of Loire, Ardèche, Lozère, Canta ...

'' département'' and southeast of Massif Central.

History

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...

mentioned the vellavi as the subordinate of the arverni. Strabon suggested that they might have made secession from the arverni and

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

located them as ''vellauni''. The country is well delimited by natural obstacles:

Allier Allier ( , , ; ) is a Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region that borders Cher (department), Cher to the west, Nièvre to the north, Saône-et-Loire and Loire (department), Loire to the east, Pu ...

river in the south, Mount Boutières and Mézenc in the east, and Devès massif in the west. Devès has Celtic toponyms clearly suggesting an antic border (Fix from ''finis''; la Durande from Gaulish ''Equiranda'' meaning frontier). No explanation concerning the toponym, except 19th century naïve scholastic ones that connected the name to PIE root ''wel'' (land of "well ... people") or even to the mythological ''Hel'' (“land or mountains of the hell” referring to the volcanic geology).

Middle Ages

In the early

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

Velay was known as and was placed under the rule of the

Duchy of Aquitaine The Duchy of Aquitaine (, ; , ) was a historical fiefdom located in the western, central, and southern areas of present-day France, south of the river Loire. The full extent of the duchy, as well as its name, fluctuated greatly over the centuries ...

, and followed the Auvergne destiny. The first mention of a county of Velay was in 1142. By the beginning of the 10th century,

Le Puy-en-Velay Le Puy-en-Velay (, ; , before 1988: ''Le Puy'') is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Loire Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region of south-central France. Located near the rive ...

had supplanted Ru-Essio ( Saint-Paulien) as the religious and administrative capital of the Velay. In 1162, Velay became an independent county, with its bishop as count reporting directly to the King. Velay was divided into eighteen baronies. From the mid 14th century it was part of

Languedoc The Province of Languedoc (, , ; ) is a former province of France. Most of its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in Southern France. Its capital city was Toulouse. It had an area of approximately . History ...

but kept its own States General until 1789. During the same period, it was a crossroads of pilgrimage trails.

Modern period

At the beginning of the 16th century, Velay was wealthy, but the religious wars ruined the country. Le Puy was ardently catholic but the extreme south east of Velay was deeply Protestant. It is still nowadays the most Protestant area of France. Velay ceased to exist after the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. The department of

was created from the former county of Velay, on top of it a portion of Auvergne, Gévaudan and

Vivarais Vivarais (; ; {{cite web , url=http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/Graesse/orblatv.html , title = ORBIS LATINUS - Letter V) is a traditional region in the south-east of France, covering the ''département'' of Ardèche, named after its capital Vivier ...

are added. The first part of '' Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes'' (1879) by

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

is entitled Velay, the country being the starting point of the writer's trip. The name is kept for geographical terms (Mounts of the Velay) or new French geographical administrative entity ('' Communautés de communes du Velay'').

References

Sources * Francisque Mandet, Histoire du Velay (1862

*Christian Lauranson-Rosaz, L'Auvergne et ses marges (Velay, Gévaudan) du VIIIe au XIe siècle. La fin du monde antique ?, Le Puy-en-Velay, éd. des , 1987, rééd. 200

*'' :s:The Annotated 'Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes', The Annotated ''Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes'''', at

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. {{DEFAULTSORT:Velay Former provinces of France Languedoc Geography of Haute-Loire