Poitou (UK: /ˈpwʌtuː/ PWUH-too, US: /pwɑːˈtuː/ pwah-TOO,[2][3][4] French: [pwatu]; Latin: Pictaviensis, Pictavia; Poitevin: Poetou) was a province of west-central France whose capital city was Poitiers.

At the conclusion of the Battle of Taillebourg in the Saintonge War, which was decisively won by the French, King Henry III of England recognized his loss of continental Plantagenet territory to France.

During the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Poitou was a hotbed of Huguenot (French Calvinist Protestant) activity among the nobility and bourgeoisie.

After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, the French Roman Catholic Church conducted a strong Counter-Reformation effort.

Similarly, during Napoleon's Hundred Days in 1815, the Vendée stayed loyal to the Restoration Monarchy of King Louis XVIII.