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CHAPTER XXVTHE ISLE OF FRANCETHE royal domain during the Romanesque period Thewas confined within narrow limits, though the kingexercised a more or less shadowy supremacy over thegreat feudatory dukes and counts whose dominions andpower exceeded his own. When Louis VI (Le Gros)came to the throne in 1108 the royal domain scarcelyextended beyond the cities of Paris, Orleans, Bourges,and the adjacent districts. His territory comprised onlythe modern departments of Seine, Seine et Oise, Seineet Marne, Oise and Loiret 1 . The six great peers of The greatFrance were the Count of Flanders, whose territoriesreached from the Scheldt ,to the Somme, the Count ofChampagne, the Dukes of Normandy and Burgundy,the Count of Toulouse, and the Duke of Aquitaine whoincluded in his domains Poitou, Limousin, most of Guienneand the Angoumois, and latterly Gascony. The Countsof Anjou,Ponthieu and Vermandois and others had helddirectly from the Carlovingian kings,but were more orless independent or had passed under other allegiance.The firmer establishment of royalty began with Louis VI.His grandson Philip Augustus took Artois and Vermandoisfrom the Count of Flanders, and Normandy, Maine, andAnjou from John of England. His son Louis VIIIconquered Poitou and attacked Guienne ;the Albigensian1Guizot, Civilization in France^ Lect XI II.; Hallam, Middlechap. I.