Soissons
Encyclopedia
Soissons is a commune
Communes of France
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

 in the Aisne
Aisne
Aisne is a department in the northern part of France named after the Aisne River.- History :Aisne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Île-de-France, Picardie, and Champagne.Most of the old...

 department in Picardy
Picardy
This article is about the historical French province. For other uses, see Picardy .Picardy is a historical province of France, in the north of France...

 in northern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, located on the Aisne River
Aisne River
The Aisne is a river in northeastern France, left tributary of the river Oise. It gave its name to the French département Aisne. It was known in the Roman period as the Axona....

, about 100 kilometres (62.1 mi) northeast of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. It is one of the most ancient towns of France, and is probably the ancient capital of the Suessiones
Suessiones
The Suessiones were a Belgic tribe of Western Belgium in the 1st century BC, inhabiting the region between the Oise and the Marne, based around the present-day city of Soissons...

. Soissons is also the see of an ancient Roman Catholic diocese, whose establishment dates from about 300.

History

Soissons enters written history under its Celtic
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...

 name (as later borrowed in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

), Noviodunum, meaning "new hillfort". At Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 contact, it was a town of the Suessiones
Suessiones
The Suessiones were a Belgic tribe of Western Belgium in the 1st century BC, inhabiting the region between the Oise and the Marne, based around the present-day city of Soissons...

, mentioned by Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

 (B. G. ii. 12). Caesar (B.C. 57), after leaving the Axona (modern Aisne
Aisne
Aisne is a department in the northern part of France named after the Aisne River.- History :Aisne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Île-de-France, Picardie, and Champagne.Most of the old...

), entered the territory of the Suessiones, and making one day's long march, reached Noviodunum, which was surrounded by a high wall and a broad ditch. The place surrendered to Caesar.

From 457 to 486, under Aegidius
Aegidius
Aegidius was a Gallo-Roman warlord of northern Gaul. He had been promoted as magister militum in Gaul under Aëtius around 450. An ardent supporter of Majorian, Aegidius rebelled when Ricimer deposed Majorian, engaging in several campaigns against the Visigoths and creating a Roman rump state that...

 and his son Syagrius
Syagrius
Syagrius was the last Roman official in Gaul, whose defeat by king Clovis I of the Franks is considered the end of Roman rule outside of Italy. He came to this position through inheritance, for his father was Aegidius, the last Roman magister militum per Gallias...

, Noviodunum was the capital of the "Kingdom of Soissons", until it fell to the Frankish
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...

 king Clovis I
Clovis I
Clovis Leuthwig was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler, changing the leadership from a group of royal chieftains, to rule by kings, ensuring that the kingship was held by his heirs. He was also the first Catholic King to rule over Gaul . He was the son...

 in the Battle of Soissons
Battle of Soissons (486)
The Battle of Soissons in the year 486 was fought between the Frankish forces under Clovis I, and the Gallo-Roman Kingdom of Soissons under Syagrius...

.

Part of the Frankish territory of Neustria
Neustria
The territory of Neustria or Neustrasia, meaning "new [western] land", originated in 511, made up of the regions from Aquitaine to the English Channel, approximating most of the north of present-day France, with Paris and Soissons as its main cities...

, the Soissons region, and the Abbey of Saint-Médard, built in the 8th century, played an important political part during the rule of the Merovingian kings (A.D. 447-751). After the death of Clovis I
Clovis I
Clovis Leuthwig was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler, changing the leadership from a group of royal chieftains, to rule by kings, ensuring that the kingship was held by his heirs. He was also the first Catholic King to rule over Gaul . He was the son...

 in 511, Soissons was made the capital of one of the four kingdoms into which his states were divided. Eventually, the kingdom of Soissons disappeared in 613 when the Frankish
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...

 lands were amalgamated under Clotaire II
Clotaire II
Chlothar II , called the Great or the Young , King of Neustria, and, from 613 to 629, King of all the Franks, was not yet born when his father, King Chilperic I died in 584...

.

In 744 the Synod of Soissons met at the instigation of Pippin III, and Saint Boniface
Saint Boniface
Saint Boniface , the Apostle of the Germans, born Winfrid, Wynfrith, or Wynfryth in the kingdom of Wessex, probably at Crediton , was a missionary who propagated Christianity in the Frankish Empire during the 8th century. He is the patron saint of Germany and the first archbishop of Mainz...

, the Pope's missionary to pagan Germany, secured the condemnation of the Frankish bishop Adalbert
Adalbert (mystic)
Adalbert was a Gaullic preacher who lived in the 8th century. Adalbert claimed that an angel had conferred miraculous powers on him at his birth and that another had brought him relics of great sanctity from all parts of the earth...

 and the Irish missionary Clement
Clement
Clement is an English name, a form of the Late Latin name Clemens. Clément is a French form of the same name. Clement or Clément may refer to:- Companies :* Clément , limited British automobile manufacturer or importer....

.

During the Hundred Years' War
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of separate wars waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings...

, French forces committed a notorious massacre of English archers stationed at the town's garrison, in which many of the French townsfolk were themselves raped and killed. The massacre of French citizens by French soldiers shocked Europe; Henry V of England, noting that the town of Soissons was dedicated to the saints Crispin and Crispinian, claimed to avenge the honour of the saints when he met the French forces at the Battle of Agincourt
Battle of Agincourt
The Battle of Agincourt was a major English victory against a numerically superior French army in the Hundred Years' War. The battle occurred on Friday, 25 October 1415 , near modern-day Azincourt, in northern France...

 on St Crispin's Day 1415.

Between June 1728 and July 1729 it hosted the Congress of Soissons
Congress of Soissons
The Congress of Soissons was a diplomatic conference held between a number of European powers, but principally Great Britain and Spain between June 1728 and July 1729 in the French town of Soissons....

 an attempt to resolve a long-standing series of disputes between Great Britain
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...

 and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 which had spilled over into the Anglo-Spanish War of 1727
Anglo-Spanish War (1727)
The Anglo-Spanish War of 1727–1729 was a limited war that took place between Great Britain and Spain during the Eighteenth Century, and consisted of a failed British attempt to blockade Porto Bello and a failed Spanish attempt to capture Gibraltar...

. The Congress was largely successful and led to the signing of a peace treaty
Treaty of Seville (1729)
The Treaty of Seville was signed on 9 November 1729 between Great Britain, France, and Spain, concluding the Anglo-Spanish War .Preliminary discussions had already taken place between Britain and Spain at the Convention of Pardo and the Congress of Soissons...

 between them.

The town was on the main path of totality for Solar eclipse of August 11, 1999.

Population

Sights

Today, Soissons is a commercial and manufacturing centre with the 12th century Soissons Cathedral
Soissons Cathedral
Soissons Cathedral is a Gothic cathedral in Soissons, France. The construction of the south transept was begun about 1177, and the lowest courses of the choir in 1182. The choir with its original three-storey elevation and extremely tall clerestory was completed in 1211...

 and the ruins of St. Jean des Vignes Abbey as two of its most important historical buildings. The nearby Espace Pierres Folles
Espace Pierres Folles
The Espace Pierres Folles is a museum with geological exhibit and botanical garden located at 116 chemin du Pinay, St Jean des Vignes, Soissons, Aisne, Picardie, France. It is open daily in the warmer months; an admission fee is charged....

 contains a museum, geological trail, and botanical garden
Botanical garden
A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...

.

Cathedral


The Cathédrale Saint-Gervais-et-Saint-Protais de Soissons is constructed in the style of Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

. The building of the south transept was begun about 1177, and the lowest courses of the choir in 1182. The choir with its original three-storey elevation and extremely tall clerestory was completed in 1211. This was earlier than Chartres, on which the design was supposed to have been based. Work then continued into the nave until the late 13th century.

Notable people and events

  • The actress Aurore Clément
    Aurore Clément
    Aurore Clément is a French actress. She has performed in a number of motion pictures in both the French language and the English language as well as in television films and miniseries.-Early life:...

     was born in Soissons in 1945.
  • The saints Crispin and Crispinian were martyred c. 286 at Soissons for preaching Christianity to the local Gauls.


The city was also the site of a World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 German awards ceremony in August of 1918, in which Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

 was presented the Iron Cross
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....

 (First Class) on recommendation from his superior officer, a Jewish Lieutenant named Hugo Gutmann
Hugo Gutmann
Hugo Gutmann was a German-Jewish veteran of World War I who is famously known as Adolf Hitler's superior officer during the war, as well as the man responsible for recommending Hitler for the award of the Iron Cross.-Early Life and Army career:...

.

See also

  • Battle of Soissons
    Battle of Soissons
    The Battle of Soissons can refer to one of several important historical battles, all of which took place in the vicinity of the French town Soissons:...

  • Communes of the Aisne department
  • Franks
    Franks
    The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...

  • List of Frankish Kings
  • Merovingians
  • Suessiones
    Suessiones
    The Suessiones were a Belgic tribe of Western Belgium in the 1st century BC, inhabiting the region between the Oise and the Marne, based around the present-day city of Soissons...

  • Wolf of Soissons
    Wolf of Soissons
    The Wolf of Soissons was a man-eating wolf which terrorized the commune of Soissons northeast of Paris over a period of two days in 1765, attacking eighteen people, four of whom died from their wounds....


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK