Soissons

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Soissons

Soissons is a commune in the Aisne

Aisne

Aisne is a departments of France in the northern part of France named after the Aisne River....
department in Picardie

Picardie

This article is about the modern French region. For other uses, see Picardy .Picardy is one of the 26 regions of France of France. It is located in the northern part of France....
in 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....
, located on the Aisne River

Aisne River

The Aisne is a river in northeastern France, left tributary of the river Oise River. It gave its name to the French d?partement in France Aisne....
, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) northeast of Paris

Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
. It is one of the most ancient towns of France, and is probably the ancient capital of the Suessiones

Suessiones

File:Suessiones.jpgThe Suessiones were a Belgae people of north-eastern Gaul in the 1st century BC, inhabiting the region between the Oise River and the Marne River, based around the present-day city of Soissons....
.

sons 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 languages language family. The term "Celtic" was used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, having much earlier been used by Greek and Roman writers to describe tribes in central Gaul....
name (as later borrowed in Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
), Noviodunum, meaning "new hillfort". At Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
contact, it was a town of the Suessiones

Suessiones

Julius Caesar

'Gaius Julius Caesar' , July 13, 100 BC ? March 15, 44 BC,) was a Roman Republic military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
(B.

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Encyclopedia

Soissons is a commune in the Aisne
Aisne

Aisne is a departments of France in the northern part of France named after the Aisne River....
department in Picardie
Picardie

This article is about the modern French region. For other uses, see Picardy .Picardy is one of the 26 regions of France of France. It is located in the northern part of France....
in 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....
, located on the Aisne River
Aisne River

The Aisne is a river in northeastern France, left tributary of the river Oise River. It gave its name to the French d?partement in France Aisne....
, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) northeast of Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
. It is one of the most ancient towns of France, and is probably the ancient capital of the Suessiones
Suessiones

File:Suessiones.jpgThe Suessiones were a Belgae people of north-eastern Gaul in the 1st century BC, inhabiting the region between the Oise River and the Marne River, based around the present-day city of Soissons....
.

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 languages language family. The term "Celtic" was used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, having much earlier been used by Greek and Roman writers to describe tribes in central Gaul....
name (as later borrowed in Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
), Noviodunum, meaning "new hillfort". At Roman
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
contact, it was a town of the Suessiones
Suessiones

File:Suessiones.jpgThe Suessiones were a Belgae people of north-eastern Gaul in the 1st century BC, inhabiting the region between the Oise River and the Marne River, based around the present-day city of Soissons....
, mentioned, by Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar

'Gaius Julius Caesar' , July 13, 100 BC ? March 15, 44 BC,) was a Roman Republic military and political leader. He played a critical role in the 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 departments of France in the northern part of France named after the Aisne River....
), 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 promoted as magister militum in Gaul under Flavius A?tius around 450. He was an ardent supporter of Majorian, whom he helped to gain power....
and his son Syagrius
Syagrius

Syagrius was the son of Aegidius, the last Roman magister militum per Gaul. Syagrius preserved his father's rump state between the Somme and the Loire around Domain of Soissons after the collapse of central rule in the Western Empire, the so-called "Kingdom" of Syagrius, as Gregory of Tours understood it, applying the Frankish term for...
, Noviodunum was the capital of the "Kingdom of Soissons," until it fell to the Frankish king Clovis I
Clovis I

Clovis was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Franks under one king. He succeeded his father Childeric I in 481 as King of the Salian Franks, one of the Frankish tribes who were then occupying the area west of the lower Rhine, with their centre around Tournai and Cambrai along the modern frontier between France and Belgium, in an...
in the Battle of Soissons
Battle of Soissons (486)

The Battle of Soissons in the year 486 was fought between the Franks forces under Clovis I, and the Gallo-Roman Domain 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 was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Franks under one king. He succeeded his father Childeric I in 481 as King of the Salian Franks, one of the Frankish tribes who were then occupying the area west of the lower Rhine, with their centre around Tournai and Cambrai along the modern frontier between France and Belgium, in an...
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 or Frankish people were a West Germanic ethnic group first identified in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River....
lands were amalgamated under Clotaire II
Clotaire II

File:Clothaire II 584 628.jpgChlothar II , called the Great or the Young , King of Neustria, and, from 613 to 629, King of 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 or Wynfrith at Crediton in the kingdom of Wessex , was a missionary who propagated Christianity in the Frankish Empire during the 8th century....
, the Pope's missionary to pagan Germany, secured the condemnation of the Frankish bishop Adalbert
Adalbert

Adalbert may refer to:* Adalbert * Saint Adalbert of Egmond aka Adelbert of Egmond, Northumbrian missionary* Adalbert of Magdeburg * Saint Adalbert of Prague , "The Apostle of the Prussians"...
and the Irish missionary Clement
Clement

Clement is an English masculine name. It is a form of the Late Latin name Clemens. Cl?ment is a French form of Clemens. Clement or Cl?ment may refer to:...
.

During the Hundred Years' War
Hundred Years' War

The Hundred Years' War was a prolonged conflict lasting from 1337 to 1453 between two royal houses for the French throne, which was vacant with the extinction of the senior House of Capet line of French kings....
, French forces committed a notorious massacre of English archers stationed at the town's garrison, in which many of the the French townsfolk were themselves raped and killed. The massacre of French citizens by French soldiers shocked Europe, and 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 an English victory against a much larger French army in the Hundred Years' War. The battle occurred on Friday 25 October 1415 ...
on St Crispin's Day 1415.

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

Sights
Today, Soissons is a commercial and manufacturing centre with the 12th century Soissons Cathedral
Soissons Cathedral

Soissons Cathedral, or the Cathedral of St. Gervais and St. Protais, is a Gothic architecture cathedral in Soissons, France. Its construction began about 1195, and continued into the late 13th century....
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....
contains a museum, geological trail, and botanical garden
Botanical garden

Botanical gardens grow a wide variety of plants primarily to categorize and document for scientific purposes. Botanists and horticulturalists tend the flora and maintain the garden's library and herbarium of dried and documented plant material....
.

Miscellaneous

Soissons is the birth place of:
Aurore Clément
Aurore Clément

Aurore Cl?ment is a France 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....
(born 1945), actress

The saints Crispin
Crispin

Saints Crispin and Crispinian are the Christian patron saints of Shoemaking, Tanning, leather workers and - recently - of leather subculture . Born to a noble Roman Empire family in the 3rd century AD, Saints Crispin and Crispinian, twin brothers, fled persecution for their faith, winding up in Soissons, where they preached Christianity to th...
and Crispinian were martyred c. 286 at Soissons for preaching Christianity to the local Gauls.

See also

Franks
Franks

The Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic ethnic group first identified in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River....
List of Frankish Kings
List of Frankish Kings

The Franks were originally led by Dux and Rex . The Salian Franks Merovingian dynasty rose to dominance among the Franks and conquered most of Roman Gaul....
Merovingians
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 France town Soissons:...
Wolf of Soissons
Wolf of Soissons

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

External links