Chapter 1. Chapter 2. The present document shows the nobility in the western part of the county of Poitou, from the Atlantic coast eastwards. The families of the vicomtes in the area of Aulnay within the county of Poitou can be reconstructed into two separate groups.
The family in which the name "Mainard" was predominant and the family of the "Cadelon" vicomtes. The relationship, if any, between the two family groups has not been established. Members of the "Cadelon" family are recorded as vicomtes from [] until the early 13th century when the family became extinct in the male line and the title Vicomte d'Aulnay passed to the family of the Seigneurs de Taillebourg.
The "Mainard" vicomtes were more short-lived, mentioned first in and for the last time in []. As noted in Part A below, it is likely that the family became extinct with the death of Vicomte Gombaud in [].
A study of the short-lived "Mainard" family raises some interesting general questions concerning the jurisdiction of the vicomtes within the county of Poitou in the 10th and 11th centuries. Assuming that both families did live within the " pagus Alniense ", this raises the issue of the potential overlap of jurisdiction between the different vicomtes.
It is of course possible that the title "vicomte" was simply assigned by the Comte de Poitou to the principal nobles who seconded him in governing his county without any geographic attribution. If this is correct, it would be irrelevant from a jurisdictional perspective that the castles of both families happened to be located within the same pagus. It would also present an interesting parallel with the situation of the nobility in Germany where titles linked to geographic locations only emerged in the 12th century.
