Rouen, France, was founded by the Gaulish tribe of Veliocasses, who controlled a large area in the lower Seine valley, which today retains a trace of their name as the Vexin. The Gauls named the settlement Ratumacos[1] and the Romans called it Rotomagus.[2] Roman Rotomagus was the second city of Gallia Lugdunensis, after Lugdunum (Lyon). After the reorganization of the empire by Diocletian, Rouen became the chief city of the divided province of Gallia Lugdunensis II and reached the peak of its Roman development, with an amphitheatre and thermae, the foundations of which remain today. In the 5th century, it became the seat of a bishopric and later a capital of MerovingianNeustria.
After the first Viking incursion into the lower valley of the Seine in 841,[3] they went on to overrun Rouen, and some of them settled and founded a colony led by Rollo (Hrolfr), who was nominated to be count of Rouen by King Charles in 911. In the 10th century Rouen became the capital of the Duchy of Normandy and the residence of the dukes, until William the Conqueror established his castle at Caen.
During the early 12th century, the city's population reached 30,000.[4] In 1150, Rouen received its founding charter, which permitted self-government. During the 12th century, Rouen was probably the site of a Jewish yeshiva. At that time, about 6,000 Jews lived in the town, comprising about 20% of the total population[citation needed]. The well-preserved remains of a medieval Jewish building, that could be a yeshiva, were discovered in the 1970s under the Rouen Law Courts.
In 1200, a fire destroyed part of Rouen's Romanesque cathedral, leaving just St Romain's tower, the side porches of its front, and part of the nave. New work on the present Gothic cathedral of Rouen began, in the nave, transept, choir, and the lowest section of the lantern tower. On 24 June 1204, Philip Augustus entered Rouen and annexed Normandy to the Royal Demesne. The fall of Rouen meant the end of Normandy's vassal state status. He demolished the Norman castle and replaced it with his own, the Château Bouvreuil, built on the site of the Gallo-Roman amphitheatre.[5]
A textile industry developed based on wool imported from England, competing with the northern County of Flanders and the Duchy of Brabant. The city found its market niche in the Champagne fairs. Rouen also depended on the river traffic of the Seine for its prosperity. Wine and wheat were exported to England, with tin and wool received in return.
In the late 13th century, urban strife threatened the city: in 1291, the mayor was assassinated and noble residences in the city were pillaged. Philip IV restored order and suppressed the city's charter and the city's lucrative monopoly on river traffic, but he was quite willing to allow the Rouennais to repurchase their former liberties in 1294. In 1306, he decided to expel the Jewish community of Rouen, which then numbered some five or six thousand in the city of 40,000 people.[6]
In 1389, another urban revolt of the underclass broke out, the Harelle. It was part of a widespread rebellion in France that year and was suppressed with the withdrawal of Rouen's charter and river-traffic privileges once more.
During the Hundred Years' War, on 19 January 1419, Rouen and its population of 70,000 surrendered[8] to Henry V of England, who annexed Normandy once again to the Plantagenet domains. But Rouen did not go quietly: Alain Blanchard hung English prisoners from the walls, for which he was summarily executed; the Canon and Vicar General of Rouen, Robert de Livet, became heroes for excommunicating the English king, which occurred shortly after de Livet's own five year imprisonment in England.
Rouen became the capital city of English power in occupied France. When the Duke of Bedford bought Joan of Arc her liberty from the Duke of Burgundy, who had been keeping her in jail since May 1430, she was sent to be tried in the city during Christmas 1430. After a long trial by a church court, she was sentenced to be burned at the stake. The sentence was carried out on 30 May 1431 in the city, and most residents supported the Duke of Burgundy, Joan of Arc's royal enemy. In that same year, the young Henry VI was crowned King of England and France in Paris before coming to Rouen where he was acclaimed by the crowds.
The king of France Charles VII recaptured the town in 1449, 18 years after the death of Joan of Arc and after 30 years of English occupation.
The Renaissance Period
The naval dockyards, where activity had been slowed by the Hundred Years' War, became busy again as did the church of Saint-Maclou, which had been founded under English occupation The nave of the church of Saint Ouen was completed at last. The salle des pas-perdus (a sort of waiting room or ante-room) of the present law courts was built during this time. The whole building was built in a flamboyant style into which the first decorative elements typical of the Renaissance style right at the beginning of the 16th century had been incorporated.
At that time Rouen was the fourth most populous city in the realm, after Paris, Marseille and Lyon. Rouen was also one of the Norman cradles of artistic Renaissance, in particular the one under the patronage of the archbishops and financiers of the town.
The city's economic upturn at the end of the 15th century was mainly due to the emergence of the cloth industry, but also partly due to the development of the silk industry and metallurgy. The fishermen of Rouen went as far afield as the Baltic to fish for herrings. Salt was imported from Portugal and Guérande. Cloth was exported to Spain who also provided wool, and the Medici family made Rouen into the main port for the resale of Roman alum.
At the beginning of the 16th century, Rouen became the main French port through which trade was conducted with Brazil, principally for the import of cloth dyes. By 1500, ten printing presses had been installed in the city following the installation of the first sixteen years earlier.
The Wars of Religion
In the years following 1531, part of the population of Rouen embraced Calvinism. The members of the Reformed Church represented a quarter to a third of the total population, a significant minority.
In 1550, King Henry II staged a triumphant entry into Rouen, modeled on the ancient Roman triumph and specifically designed to ape Pompey's third triumph of 61BC at Rome: "No less pleasing and delectable than the third triumph of Pompey... magnificent in riches and abounding in the spoils of foreign nations".[9] It was not enough, however, to long sustain royal authority in the city.
From 1560 onwards, tensions rose between the Protestant and Catholic communities, and the Massacre of Vassy triggered the first of the French Wars of Religion. On 15 April 1562 the Protestants entered the town hall and ejected the King's personal representative. In May there was an outbreak of Iconoclasm (statue smashing). On 10 May the Catholic members of the town council fled Rouen. The Catholics in turn captured the Fort of Saint Catherine which overlooked the town. Both sides resorted to terror tactics.
Overview of Rouen, 1572
At this juncture, the Protestant town authorities requested help from Queen Elizabeth I of England. In accordance with the Hampton Court Treaty which they had signed with Condé on 20 September 1562, the English sent troops to support the Protestants. On 26 October 1562 French Royalist troops retook Rouen and pillaged it for three days.
The news of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day reached Rouen at the end of August 1572. Hennequier tried to avoid a massacre of the Protestants by shutting them up in various prisons. But between 17 and 20 September the crowds forced the gates of the prisons and murdered the Protestants that they found inside.
The permanent Exchequer of Normandy, which had been installed in Rouen in 1499 by George of Amboise, was transformed into a regional administrative assembly by Francis I in 1515 and up to the time of the Revolution was the administrative centre of the region. It had judicial, legislative and executive powers in Norman affairs and was only subordinate to the Privy Council. It also had power to govern French Canada. By the 1550s, Rouen reached a population of about 75,000 inhabitants and became the second largest city in France.[10] During the early modern era, warfare was a common threat to the city of Rouen. There was military improvement in technology and organization; however, the siege of 1591–1592 concluded with high casualties.[11] In the 16th century, The Protestant Reformation resulted in religious wars which caused a population decline in many areas of France.[10] Until the 1750s a lot of cities, including Rouen, were in a stage of stagnation or decline of population.[11]
The 16th and 18th centuries brought prosperity to the city through the textile trade and the increased use of port facilities, as well as the development of public transportation and other industries. In 1703, the Norman Chamber of Commerce was formed. Rouen was well known for the production of wool and faience– glazed ceramic ware; wool was the main source of wealth for the city. The printing industry was introduced to Rouen in 1485 and influenced its cultural and economic development. Rouen became a regional centre of production by introducing a variety of books to the industry.[12] Although it did not have a university, Rouen became an important intellectual centre by reason of its reputed schools of higher learning. In 1734, a school of surgery was founded (second only to that of Paris, founded in 1724). In 1758 a new hospital was opened, to the west of the town, which replaced the old medieval one which had become too small.
19th and 20th centuries
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, Rouen was occupied by the Prussians.
During the First World War, the British used Rouen as a supply base and there were many military hospitals.
During World War II, in 1940–1944, the town was occupied by Germany. Rouen was heavily damaged during the war– approximately 45% of the city was destroyed. In June 1940, the area between the Rouen Cathedral and the Seine river burned for 48 hours as the Germans did not allow firemen access to the fire. Other areas were destroyed between March and August 1944, just before and during the Battle of Normandy, which ended on the left bank of the Seine with the destruction of several regiments belonging to the German 7th Army. Rouen's cathedral and several significant monuments were damaged by Allied bombing. During the German occupation, Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine had its headquarters located in a château on what is now the Rouen Business School (École Supérieure de Commerce de Rouen). The SS operated a subcamp of the V SS construction brigade in the city.[13] Around 500 prisoners, mostly Polish and Soviet, were used as slave labour to build launching bases for the V-1 and V-2 rockets.[13] Several prisoners died as they were forced to work even during air raids, and several others were executed either for escape attempts or for being no longer considered "fit for work".[13] In August 1944, due to Allied advance, the Germans dissolved the subcamp and deported surviving prisoners to the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp.[13] The city was liberated by the Canadians on 30 August 1944 after the breakout from Normandy.
Normandy is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy.
Rouen is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the region of Normandy and the department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, the population of the metropolitan area is 702,945 (2018). People from Rouen are known as Rouennais.
Seine-Maritime is a department of France in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre. Until 1955 it was named Seine-Inférieure. It had a population of 1,255,633 in 2019.
The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholics and Protestants from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease directly caused by the conflict, and it severely damaged the power of the French monarchy. One of its most notorious episodes was the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572. The fighting ended with a compromise in 1598, when Henry of Navarre, who had converted to Catholicism in 1593, was proclaimed King Henry IV of France and issued the Edict of Nantes, which granted substantial rights and freedoms to the Huguenots. However, Catholics continued to disapprove of Protestants and of Henry, and his assassination in 1610 triggered a fresh round of Huguenot rebellions in the 1620s.
Louviers is a commune in the Eure department in Normandy in north-western France.
Lisieux is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. It is the capital of the Pays d'Auge area, which is characterised by valleys and hedged farmland.
Yvetot is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France. It is the capital of the Caux region.
Rouen Cathedral is a Catholic church in Rouen, Normandy, France. It is the see of the Archbishop of Rouen, Primate of Normandy. It is famous for its three towers, each in a different style. The cathedral, built and rebuilt over a period of more than eight hundred years, has features from Early Gothic to late Flamboyant and Renaissance architecture. It also has a place in art history as the subject of a series of impressionist paintings by Claude Monet, and in architecture history as from 1876 to 1880, it was the tallest building in the world.
Lillebonne is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in Northern France. It lies 3.5 miles (5.6 km) north of the Seine and 24 miles (39 km) east of Le Havre.
Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France.
The siege of Rouen was a key military engagement of the first French Wars of Religion. After having been seized by those opposing the crown on 16 April, the siege, beginning on 28 May and culminating on 26 October brought the important city of Rouen back into the crowns control. The fall of Rouen would set the stage for the main battle of the war at Dreux several months later.
Normandy was a province in the North-West of what later became France under the Ancien Régime which lasted until the later part of the 18th century. Initially populated by Celtic tribes in the West and Belgic tribes in the North East, it was conquered in AD 98 by the Romans and integrated into the province of Gallia Lugdunensis by Augustus. In the 4th century, Gratian divided the province into the civitates that constitute the historical borders. After the fall of Rome in the 5th century, the Franks became the dominant ethnic group in the area and built several monasteries. Towards the end of the 9th century, Viking raids devastated the region, prompting the establishment of the Duchy of Normandy in 911. After 150 years of expansion, the borders of Normandy reached relative stability. These old borders roughly correspond to the present borders of Lower Normandy, Upper Normandy and the Channel Islands. Mainland Normandy was integrated into the Kingdom of France in 1204. The region was badly damaged during the Hundred Years War and the Wars of Religion, the Normans having more converts to Protestantism than other peoples of France. In the 20th century, D-Day, the 1944 Allied invasion of Western Europe, started in Normandy. In 1956, mainland Normandy was separated into two regions, Lower Normandy and Upper Normandy, which were reunified in 2016.
The Massacre of Vassy was the murder of Huguenot worshippers and citizens in an armed action by troops of the Duke of Guise, in Wassy, France on 1 March 1562. The massacre is identified as the first major event in the French Wars of Religion. The series of battles that followed concluded in the signing of the Peace of Amboise on 19 March 1563.
Bonsecours is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France.
Envermeu is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France.
La Frénaye is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France.
Rouen Castle was a fortified ducal and royal residence in the city of Rouen, capital of the duchy of Normandy, now in France. With the exception of the tower wrongly associated with Joan of Arc, which was restored by Viollet-le-Duc, the castle was destroyed at the end of the 16th century, its stones quarried for other construction.
Eu is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Rouen, France.
Siege of Rouen may refer to:
References
↑ Ratu- is not well explained; -macus, magus is a familiar toponymic suffix signifying "plain"[citation needed].
↑ With the exception of the tower associated with Joan of Arc, which was restored by Viollet-le-Duc, the castle was destroyed at the end of the 15th century, its stones used for other buildings.
↑ Beard, 31. See 32, Fig. 7 for a contemporary depiction of Henri's "Romanised" procession.
1 2 Jonathan., Dewald (1980). The formation of a provincial nobility: the magistrates of the Parlement of Rouen, 1499-1610. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN9781400853762. OCLC767556295.
Lajoye, Patrice. "L'évolution du nom de Rouen dans l'Antiquité et au Haut Moyen Âge en domaines celtique, latin et germanique". In: Annales de Normandie, 57e année, n°3-4, 2007. pp.223–229. [DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/annor.2007.1618] www.persee.fr/doc/annor_0003-4134_2007_num_57_3_1618
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