Libourne

Libourne stands at the confluence of the Isle and Dordogne, where inland goods could reach the Gironde. Around 1269–1270 Roger de Leyburn, an English officer serving Prince Edward in Aquitaine, founded a bastide here and gave it his name. The new town incorporated an older riverside settlement, Fozera. Its regular streets, market square and port joined the authority of the English dukes of Aquitaine to the commerce of the river valleys.

Wine was already passing through Libourne around 1300, and by the fourteenth century the town had become one of the principal urban centres of the diocese of Bordeaux. Its merchants and boatmen connected vineyards and inland communities with the downstream trade. Through the changing fortunes of English and French rule, the rivers remained the basis of the town's importance.