Known to his subjects both as the Beloved (le Bien-Aimé) and the Mad (le Fou), on this day in 1411 (
see previously) sage Charles VI of the Valois dynasty, in the midst of civil war and trying to win over allies, granted to the town of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon the monopoly to sell cheeses with the designation of “Roquefort”—to include the
caves wherein the cheese is ripened (
affinage). This exclusive right, still upheld today, is one of the earliest and love-lived instances of legal protected and enforceable designation of origin.