Artois

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Artois

Artois (adjective Artesian) is a former province

Provinces of France

The Kingdom of France was organised into provinces until March 4, 1790, when the establishment of the d?partement in France system superseded provinces....
of northern France

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
. Its territory has an area of around 4000 km² and a population of about one million. Its principal cities are Arras

Arras

Arras is the capital of the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France in northern France. The historic centre of the Artois region, its local speech is characterized as a Picard language dialect....
(Dutch: Atrecht), Saint-Omer

Saint-Omer

Saint-Omer , a Communes of France and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais....
, Lens

Lens, Pas-de-Calais

Lens is a Communes of France in the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France in northern France. It is one of France's large Picard languagee cities along with Lille, Valenciennes, Amiens, Roubaix, Tourcoing, Arras, and Douai....
and Béthune

Béthune

B?thune is a city in northern France, Subprefectures in France of the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France....
.

Location
Artois occupies the interior of the Pas-de-Calais

Pas-de-Calais

Pas-de-Calais is a Departments of France in northern France. Its name is the French language equivalent of the Strait of Dover, which it borders....
département, the western part of which constitutes the former Boulonnais

Boulonnais

The Boulonnais, also known as the "White Marble Horse", is a heavy draft horse breed now bred mainly by the France government due to their decreased numbers....
.

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Encyclopedia

Artois (adjective Artesian) is a former province

Provinces of France

The Kingdom of France was organised into provinces until March 4, 1790, when the establishment of the d?partement in France system superseded provinces....
of northern France

France

Arras

Saint-Omer

Saint-Omer , a Communes of France and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais....
, Lens

Lens, Pas-de-Calais

Béthune

B?thune is a city in northern France, Subprefectures in France of the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France....
.

Location

Artois occupies the interior of the Pas-de-Calais

Pas-de-Calais

Boulonnais

The Boulonnais, also known as the "White Marble Horse", is a heavy draft horse breed now bred mainly by the France government due to their decreased numbers....
. Artois roughly corresponds to the arrondissement

Arrondissements of France

The 100 France Departments of France are divided into 342 arrondissements, which may be translated into English as districts.The capital of an arrondissement/district is called a Subprefectures in France....
s of Arras

Arrondissement of Arras

The arrondissement of Arras is an Arrondissements of France of France, located in the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Regions of France....
, Béthune

Arrondissement of Béthune

The arrondissement of B?thune is an Arrondissements of France of France, located in the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, in the Nord-Pas de Calais Regions of France....
, Saint Omer

Arrondissement of Saint-Omer

The arrondissement of Saint-Omer is an Arrondissements of France of France, located in the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Regions of France....
, and Lens

Arrondissement of Lens

The arrondissement of Lens is an Arrondissements of France of northern France, located in the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, in the Nord-Pas de Calais Regions of France....
, and the eastern part of the Arrondissement of Montreuil

Arrondissement of Montreuil

The arrondissement of Montreuil is an Arrondissements of France of France, located in the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, in the Nord-Pas de Calais Regions of France....
. It occupies the western end of the coalfield

Coalfield

A coalfield is an area of certain uniform characteristics where coal is mined. The criteria for determining the approximate boundary of a coalfield are geographical and cultural, in addition to geological....
which stretches eastward through the neighbouring Nord

Nord (département)

Nord is a departments of France in the far north of France. It was created from the western halves of the historical counties of County of Flanders and County of Hainaut , and the Archdiocese of Cambrai....
département and across central Belgium

Belgium

* A small German-speaking Community of Belgium exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political and cultural conflicts are reflected in the history of Belgium and a complex Communities and regions of Belgium....
.

History

Originally a feudal county itself, Artois was annexed by the county of Flanders

County of Flanders

The County of Flanders was a historical region in the Low Countries.It consisted not only of the two actual Belgium provinces of East-Flanders and West-Flanders but also much of the present-day France d?partement of the Nord , in parts of which there is still a minority speaking the French Flemish dialect of Dutch language, and the sout...
. It came to France in 1180 as a dowry of a Flemish princess and was again made a separate county

County of Artois

The County of Artois was a Carolingian lordship , established in Western Francia. In Ancient Rome times, Artois was situated in the Roman provinces of Belgica and Germania Inferior and inhabited by Celts, until Germanic peoples replaced them as the Roman Empire waned....
in 1237 for a grandson of that princess. Through inheritance, Artois came under the rule of the dukes of Burgundy in 1384. At the death of the fourth duke, Charles the Bold, Artois was inherited by the Habsburg

Habsburg

The House of Habsburg was an important royal house of Europe and is best known as supplying all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1452 and 1740, as well as rulers of Spanish Empire and the Austrian Empire....
s and passed to the dynasty's Spanish line. After the religious revolts of 1566 in the Netherlands, Artois briefly entered the Dutch Revolt

Dutch Revolt

The Dutch Revolt, Eighty Years' War or the Revolt of the Netherlands , was the successful revolt of the Seventeen Provinces in the Low Countries against the Spanish Empire....
in 1576, participating in the Pacification of Ghent

Pacification of Ghent

The Pacification of Ghent, signed on November 8,1576, was an alliance of the provinces of the Habsburg Netherlands for the purpose of driving mutinying Spanish Empire mercenary troops from the country, and at the same time a peace treaty with the rebelling provinces Holland and Zeeland....
until it formed the Union of Atrecht

Union of Atrecht

The People of Arras was an accord signed on January 6, 1579 in Arras , under which the southern states of the Low Countries, today in Wallonia and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais r?gions in France and Belgium, expressed their loyalty to the Spain king Philip II of Spain and recognized his Governor-General, John of Austria....
in 1579. After the Union of Atrecht, Artois and Hainaut

Hainaut

Hainaut is the westernmost Provinces of regions in Belgium of Wallonia, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders in Belgium on the provinces of West Flanders, East Flanders, Flemish Brabant and those of Walloon Brabant and Namur , and on France....
(Dutch: Henegouwen) reached a separate agreement with Philip II

Philip II of Spain

Philip II was King of Spain from 1556 until 1598, List of monarchs of Naples from 1554 until 1598, king consort of England, as husband of Mary I of England, from 1554 to 1558, lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories, such as Duke or Count; and King of Portugal as Philip I...
. Artois remained with the Spanish Netherlands until it was conquered by the French during the Thirty Years War. The annexation was acknowledged during the Treaty of the Pyrenees

Treaty of the Pyrenees

The Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed in 1659 to end the war between France and Spain that had begun in 1635 during the Thirty Years' War. It was signed on Pheasant Island, a river island on the border between the two countries....
in 1659, and it became a French province. Though Artois had already been largely French-speaking, it was considered part of the Netherlands until the French annexation.

Artois experienced rapid industrial development during the second half of the 19th century, fueled by its rich coal

Coal

Coal is a readily combustion black or brownish-black sedimentary rock. The harder forms, such as anthracite, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure....
resources. During World War I

World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
the front line between the opposing German and Allied

Entente Cordiale

The Entente cordiale is a series of agreements signed on 8 April 1904 between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and French Third Republic....
armies in France ran through the province, resulting in enormous physical damage. Since the latter half of the 20th century Artois has suffered along with similar areas because of the decline of the coal industry.

Notable residents

Pierre-Charles Le Sueur
Pierre-Charles Le Sueur

Pierre-Charles Le Sueur was a France fur trader and explorer in North America, recognized as the first known European to explore the Minnesota River valley....
, (c.1657-c.1705), born in Artois, noted explorer and trader.
Maximilien Robespierre
Maximilien Robespierre

Maximilien Fran?ois Marie Isidore de Robespierre is one of the best-known figures of the French Revolution. He was an influential member of the Committee of Public Safety and was instrumental in the period of the Revolution commonly known as the Reign of Terror that ended with his arrest and execution in 1794....
(1758-1794), French revolution
French Revolution

The French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudalism for the aristocracy and Roman Catholic Church clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on Age of Enlightenment principles of cit...
ary leader, born in Arras

Artois

Location

History

Notable residents

See also