The arrondissement of Cognac was created in 1800.[4] On 1 January 2008 the canton of Rouillac that previously belonged to the arrondissement of Angoulême was added to the arrondissement of Cognac.[4][5] At the January 2017 reorganisation of the arrondissements of Charente, it gained 14 communes from the arrondissement of Angoulême, and it lost two communes to the arrondissement of Angoulême.[6]
As a result of the reorganisation of the cantons of France which came into effect in 2015, the borders of the cantons are no longer related to the borders of the arrondissements. The cantons of the arrondissement of Cognac were, as of January 2015:[7]
^(in French) " Vian, Dominique, Marie, André, Ferdinand" (prefect, born 1944), pages 2190-2191 in Who’s Who in France : Dictionnaire biographique de personnalités françaises vivant en France et à l’étranger, et de personnalités étrangères résidant en France, 44th edition for 2013 edited in 2012, 2371 p., 31 cm, ISBN978-2-85784-053-4 .