Beauvais

Beauvais is a city and commune of northern France, préfecture (capital) of the Oise département. Population (1999): city: 57,355 (beauvaisiens); city and suburbs: 59,003; urban area (in French: aire urbaine): 100,733. It lies about 90 kilometers north of Paris.

History

Beauvais was known to the Romans as Caesaromagnus (though the post-Renaissance Latin rendering is Bellovacum) and took its present name from the Belgic tribe of the Bellovaci, whose capital it was. In the 9th century it became a countship, which about 1013 passed to the bishops of Beauvais, who became peers of France from the twelfth century. At the coronations of kings the Bishop of Beauvais wore the royal mantle and went, with the bishop of Langres, to raise the king from his throne to present him to the people.

Related Topics:
Romans - Belgic - Bellovaci - Bishop of Beauvais

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In 1346 the town had to defend itself against the English, who again besieged it in 1433. The siege which it suffered in 1472 at the hands of the duke of Burgundy was rendered famous by the heroism of the women, under the leadership of Jeanne Hachette, whose memory is still celebrated by a procession on the 14th of October (the feast of Ste Angadrème), in which the women take precedence of the men.

Related Topics:
Siege - Duke of Burgundy - Jeanne Hachette

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