nearby city of Montferrand. Later, a usurpation of the power of count lead to the creation, by the legitimate robbed count, of a Dauphiné d’Auvergne, independent from the usurper count. However the royal power took action in the area rather early. Philippe Auguste linked the biggest part of the county to the royal territory. The royal territory of Auvergne took Riom as an administrative center. Staying in the bosom of the Capetian family, the Auvergne is given as appanage to Alphonse, Count of Poitiers, and then in 1360 as a duchy to John, Duke of Berry, who also bought the area of Carlades. His daughter Marie married John I, Duke of Bourbon, who in 1416 also became Duke of Auvergne. The Dukes of Bourbon acquired the Dauphiné of Auvergne through marriage, but in the end all their territories were confiscated by Francis I (1527) Modern times One century after the Hundred Years' War, the Auvergne was plunged into religious wars. Some Calvinist militia made incursions into the highlands and took castles and Catholic villages by surprise. They returned them, subject to a ransom. Captain Merle in particular, firmly established in nearby Gévaudan, took a ransom from Issoire but failed in Saint Flour. That is how the city of Aurillac had been taken over, and its abbey was completely destroyed. Around 1200, King Philip August, had not been able to fully defeat the area: the Count held out in Vic-le-Comte. In the 16th century, Catherine de' Medici, Queen of France, inherited the last part of the county from her mother, which allowed the integration of the last feudal fiefdom, in the heart of Auvergne, into the royal territory. In 1665, Louis XIV temporarily set up an exceptional criminal court in Clermont and Le Puy-en-Velay, les grands jours d’Auvergne (The Great Days of Auvergne), in response to the complaints of the people, who were victims of violence and abuse by officials and noblemen of Auvergne. During the 18th century, the economic situation of the farmers improved considerably, due to the policies of the Auvergne intendants, who developed farming, cheese manufacturing, agriculture, glasswork, ironwork and roads. During World War II, Vichy was the headquarters of the government of the French State. Demographics Auvergne is an underpopulated area with an aging population. Auvergne is one of the least populated regions in Europe, and lies at the heart of the empty diagonal, a swath of