Towards the end of the 10th Century Hugh Capet, a descendant of the Frankish Noble Robert the Strong, formed the Capetian dynasty which was to rule France till 1789. (After 1328 in the form of the House of Valois and from 1589 the Bourbons). The 11th and 12th Centuries saw two events which were to, impact France during the ensuing centuries - first the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 and second during the mid-12th Century was the Cathar Heresy in the South.

During the 12th Century the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry Plantagenet, soon to become Henry II of England, brought about the gradual occupation of most of Western France, including the Périgord and Quercy, by the English.