TAMH: Trading Ports

Centuries - 16 | 17

Bordeaux in the 16th century

(Bordeaux, France)

The city began as Burdigala in the first century BC when the Bituriges Vivisci, a Gaulish tribe, had chosen a hilltop site overlooking streams flowing into the Garonne as a market town. In 1154, following the marriage of Eleanor, Duchess of Poitou, to Henry II of England, the city became English for three hundred years. The battle of Castillon (1453) at the end of the Hundred Years' War had brought Bordeaux back into the French kingdom. Parisan rule was resented, though, and revolt and rebellion continued until final subjugation by Louis XIV in 1653. As one might expect, the 16th century trading records show cargoes predominantly of wine coming to Tayside.

Search for voyages to Bordeaux in the 16th century.