Follow
The Lusignan family was an extremely powerful family of barons in medieval Poitou, Angouleme and Norman England. There were at least fourteen generations of Hugues de Lusignan.
The following is excerpted from Charles Cawley's Medieval Lands database on the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy (pages on Poitou and Angoulême and la Marche)
SIRES de LUSIGNAN
Painter notes that the castle of Lusignan "stood on the western bank of the river Vonne, a tributary of the Clain, about twenty miles southwest of Poitiers", commenting that all the possessions of Hugues [IV] de Lusignan "except the estates around the town of Saint-Maixent could have been enclosed in a circle with a radius of fifteen miles centering in Lusignan" and that "he was essentially a local potentate"[722].
The first two generations of the Lusignan family... are known only from references in contemporary or near contemporary chronicles. Other members of the family can be identified from 11th century cartularies but their precise family relationships cannot be established beyond all doubt.
Hugues IV "le Brun" Sire de Lusignan is the first member of the family about whom anything is known besides his name. Charters issued by the Lusignan family are also included in the cartulary of the abbey of Noaillé, which has not yet been consulted[723].
HUGUES [I] "Venator/le Veneur". The Chronicle of Saint-Maixent records the death in 1110 of "Hugo [de Leziniaco] filius Hugonis Bruni", providing his ancestry "qui fuit Albi, qui fuit Cari, qui fuit Hugonis Venatoris"[724], although this text appears to omit a generation in the descent.
[references: [722] Painter, S. ´The Lords of Lusignan in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries´, Speculum, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Jan 1957), pp. 28-9.
[724] Marchegay, P. and Mabille, E. (eds.) (1869) Chroniques des Eglises d'Anjou (Paris) Chronicon sancti Maxentii Pictavensis, p. 424.]
COMTES d'ANGOULÊME et de la MARCHE (LUSIGNAN)
The county of la Marche, which had been held directly by Henry II King of England and his son King Richard I since they bought it from Comte Audebert [IV] in [1178], was seised by Hugues [X] "le Brun" Sire de Lusignan after the death of King Richard. His acquisition of the county was accepted by King John.
The county of Angoulême was inherited by Hugues [XI] de Lusignan Comte de la Marche in 1220 after he married Isabelle, heiress of the former dynasty of comtes d´Angoulême and widow of King John.
Both counties remained in the Lusignan family until the death in 1303 of Hugues [XIV], the last direct male line descendant. The counties of la Marche and Angoulême were inherited by his sisters Isabelle and Jeanne, who jointly sold their rights to Philippe IV "le Bel" King of France in 1309, at which time the territories were incorporated into the domaine royale of the French kings.