brands , French province before Revolution of 1789, roughly corresponds to modern Department Creuse with a small fragment of Indre and much of northern Haute-Vienne.
In ancient times the country was part of Limousin, from which it was detached in the mid-10th century to create a separate to form a frontier census (march) to protect Poitou and the rest of the Duchy of Aquitaine from invasion from the north. During the 12th and 13th centuries grew a chain of fiefs directly from Poitiers dependent and with church lordships was interspersed, to make the census practically divided into western and eastern halves, mass Marche and Haute Marche, to dissect . The Countship held by a junior line of Bourbon from 1342 to 1435 and by a junior line of Armagnac from 1435 to 1477 later passed to Pierre II, Duke of Bourbon (father of Beaujeu) , and then to Constable Charles, Duke de Bourbon. Confiscated by Francis I of France In 1527 it was bestowed on the widows of French kings successively from 1574 to 1643. From the late 17th century to the end of Ancien Régime the title was borne by the sons of the princes of Conti.
Administrative was basse Marche from 1586 under the intendant of Limoges and haute Marche under the intendant of Moulins (Bourbonnais); Judicially, the entire province was dependent on the Paris Parliament.