Beaujolais

Beaujolais, a subdivision of the old province of Lyonnais, France, which now forms the northern part of the department of Rhône, and a small part of Loire. Its fine vineyards yield the wine called Beaujolais, of which large quantities are exported. Beaujeu was the capital. It formed at first a separate barony; came into the hands of the Bourbons in 1400, was afterwards united to the crown by Francis I., and next passed into the hands of a nephew of the Constable de Bourbon. It came by marriage to the House of Orleans in 1626, with whom it remained until the Revolution.