Misplaced Pages

#945054

48-545: The Vimeu ( French pronunciation: [vimø] ) is a natural region of France, located west of Picardy and bounded by two valleys, that of Bresle in the south and that of the Somme in the north. This Somme geographical article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Picardy Picardy ( / ˈ p ɪ k ər d i / ; Picard and French: Picardie , French: [pikaʁdi] , Picard: IPA: [piˈkaʀdi] )

96-505: A Picard song, is a symbol of the local culture (and of that of Artois). Picardy is arguably the birthplace of Gothic architecture, housing six of the world's greatest examples of Gothic cathedrals, which span the history of Gothic architecture in its entirety. Amiens Cathedral , standing as the largest cathedral in Europe, which according to John Ruskin is the "Pantheon of Gothic architecture", could house Notre-Dame de Paris twice over. It

144-436: A court, a university, a military post, a bishopric, a stock exchange, a fair, a hospital, etc. The protests of the towns which had always fulfilled one of these functions and which were thus deprived of their court of appeal, their arsenal, their university or their fair, prevented this plan from being completely implemented. In some cases, modern regions share names with the historic provinces; their borders may cover roughly

192-446: A hundred individual peoples (300 according to Flavius Josephus), some with very different customs. Julius Caesar called each of these independent states civitas (city, without the word in this case referring to the idea of town or village), some of which were subdivided into pagi . Many of the smaller Gallic peoples were clients of their neighbors, and therefore dependent on them, sometimes paying them tribute. These confederations,

240-404: A precise legal definition, clearly defined boundaries and codified administrative structures. The number of provinces, their organization and boundaries varied widely over the course of five centuries, and each was headed by a proconsul or propraetor . In addition to Provincia (Provence), which was already Roman, Caesar divided Gaul into three provinces: Aquitanica , Celtica and Belgica . Over

288-411: A province, without covering the same geographical area. For example, the jurisdiction of the parlement d'Artois did not correspond to the same territory as the gouvernement d'Artois or the intendance d'Artois. The Constituent Assembly of 1789 , having abolished all the rights and customs specific to the different regions (also known as privileges, such as those of the classes, nobility and clergy) during

336-535: Is a historical and cultural territory and a former administrative region located in northern France . The first mentions of this province date back to the Middle Ages: it gained its first official recognition in the 13th century through the nation of Picardy at the University of Paris and entered French administration in the 14th century. Unlike regions such as Normandy , Brittany , or Champagne , Picardy

384-517: The ancien régime , Picardy was generally defined by thirteen traditional regions, still divided into Upper and Lower Picardy: the former grouping inland areas and the latter, coastal areas. It was divided between the governments of Picardy and Île-de-France. The government of Picardy covered the northern half of Upper Picardy, while the government of Île-de-France held the southern half, including towns such as Beauvais, Noyon, and Laon. This description of Picardy, seen in 19th and 20th-century records from

432-593: The Battle of the Somme , were fought by British, Commonwealth, French and German forces in the fields of Northern Picardy. In 2009, the Regional Committee for local government reform proposed to reduce the number of French regions and cancel additions of new regions in the near future. Picardy would have disappeared and each department would have joined a nearby region. The Oise would have been incorporated in

480-560: The Belgian province of Hainaut . Between the 1990 and 1999 censuses, the population of Oise increased 0.61% per year, almost twice as fast as France as a whole. Meanwhile the Aisne department lost inhabitants, and the Somme barely grew with a 0.16% growth per year. Today, 41.3% of the population of Picardy live inside the Oise department. Picardy stretches from the long sand beaches of

528-706: The Hundred Years' War , Picardy was the centre of the Jacquerie peasant revolt in 1358. Beginning in 1419, the Picardy counties ( Boulogne , Ponthieu , Amiens , Vermandois ) were gradually acquired by the Burgundian duke Philip the Good , acquisitions confirmed by King Charles VII of France at the 1435 Congress of Arras . In 1477, King Louis XI of France led an army and occupied key towns in Picardy. By

SECTION 10

#1732798739946

576-647: The Nord-Pas-de-Calais region but does incorporate the pays of Beauvaisis , Valois, Noyonnais, Laonnois, Soissonnais, Omois among other departments of France . The older definition of Picardy survives in the name of the Picard language which applies not only to the dialects of Picardy proper but also to the Romance dialects spoken in the Nord-Pas de Calais region , north of Picardy proper, and parts of

624-511: The Oise département . In 1557, Picardy was invaded by Habsburg forces under the command of Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy . After a seventeen-day siege , St. Quentin would be ransacked, while Noyon would be burned by the Habsburg army. In the early 18th century, an infectious disease similar to English sweat originated from the region and spread across France. It was called Suette des picards or Picardy sweat . Sugar beet

672-553: The Roman Empire , the word first appeared in the 15th century and has continued to spread, both in official documents and in popular or common usage. Whatever the century or dictionary consulted, the definition of the word often remains vague, due to the coexistence of several territorial division systems under the Ancien Régime. Some geographers, even some of the most famous, such as Onésime Reclus , have widely criticised

720-480: The longue paume (ancestor of tennis), as well as danses picardes and its own bagpipes, called the pipasso . The villages of Picardy have a distinct character, with their houses made of red bricks, often accented with a "lace" of white bricks. A minority of people still speak the Picard language , one of the languages of France , which is also spoken in Artois ( Nord-Pas de Calais région ). " P'tit quinquin ",

768-453: The night of 4 August , decided to establish a uniform division of the territory, the départements , and that this division would be the same for the different functions of the State: military, religious, fiscal, administrative, university, judicial, etc. The town chosen as the capital of each department would have to be the seat of each of these functions, and at the same time have a prefecture,

816-544: The Île-de-France , the Somme would have been incorporated in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Aisne would have been incorporated in the Champagne-Ardenne. The vast majority of Picards were opposed to this proposal and it was scrapped in 2010 (see newspaper: "Courrier Picard"). Today, the modern region of Picardy no longer includes the coastline from Berck to Calais, via Boulogne (Boulonais), that is now in

864-495: The "former provinces of France". The list below shows the major provinces of France at the time of their dissolution during the French Revolution. Capital cities are shown in parentheses. Bold indicates a city that was also the seat of a judicial and quasi-legislative body called either a parlement (not to be confused with a parliament ) or a conseil souverain (sovereign council). In some cases, this body met in

912-540: The 5th century, the area formed part of the Frankish Empire and, in the feudal period, it encompassed the six countships of Boulogne , Montreuil , Ponthieu , Amiénois , Vermandois and Laonnois . In accordance with the provisions of the 843 Treaty of Verdun , the region became part of West Francia , the later Kingdom of France . The name "Picardy" derives from the Old French pic, meaning " pike ",

960-544: The 90 départements and their capital cities, although their ethnonyms have been replaced by names related to physical geography: rivers, mountains, coasts. Depending on their laws, customs and languages, the territory of the kingdom is divided into countries of written law (roughly south of a line from La Rochelle to Geneva) and countries of customary law (north of the same line). Each of these groups includes several parliaments, which are appeal courts whose jurisdictions form as many judicial provinces, and to which belong all

1008-533: The Duchy of Gascony disappeared in the 11th century, and the Duchy of Normandy was divided into two military governments. In modern times, the "thirty-six governments" corresponded to the provinces on which all the fiefs and arrière-fiefs depended, providing territorial districts for defense and marshaling, the raising of men-at-arms, the construction of squares, arsenals and castles, judges-at-arms, and therefore also all questions of nobility, armorial bearings, etc. At

SECTION 20

#1732798739946

1056-685: The Society of Antiquaries of Picardy and the Historical Society of Upper Picardy, extended from Senlis to Calais, from Soissons and Laon to Abbeville and Boulogne-sur-Mer. Historians and geographers like Robert Fossier , Albert Demangeon , and Philippe Pinchemel replaced the idea of the ancien régime Picardy with the notion of an ethnic Picardy, identified particularly by the Picard language . This ethnic Picardy would include places like Senlis and Soissons, which popular tradition historically associated with Picardy due to their dialect, with

1104-542: The Somme estuary in the west to the vast forests and pastures of the Thiérache in the east to Chantilly and Pierrefonds near the Paris Area and vineyards of the border with Champagne to the south. The president of the regional council prior to its abolition in 2015 was Claude Gewerc , a Socialist who had been in office since 2004. That year he defeated longtime UDF incumbent Gilles de Robien . Since 2008,

1152-603: The best-known of which are those of the Arverni , Aedui and Armoricans , formed a kind of province before Roman reorganization. The Gallic cities, with their territory and the name given to their chief town, became dioceses under the Lower Empire; their status as "mainmorte", having escaped the division of patrimonial domains, explains why they remained almost intact until the end of the Ancien Régime. These divisions were subsequently taken over and partly regrouped to form

1200-580: The characteristic weapon used by people from this region in ancient times. The term "Picardy" was first used in the early 13th century, during which time the name applied to all lands where the Picard language was spoken including territories from Paris to the Netherlands . In the Latin Quarter of Paris, people identified a "Picard Nation" ( Nation Picarde ) of students at Sorbonne University , most of whom actually came from Flanders . During

1248-428: The concept of province with that of generality. The concepts do occasionally coincide, when the extent of a generality more or less overlaps that of an older territorial entity, but they are not synonymous. These are the fiefs that depend directly on the crown (duchies, counties and marches) and owe it military aid. In addition to the Duchy of France, which became part of the royal domain, the first six major fiefs have

1296-515: The course of four centuries of Roman control, the number of provinces increased from three to eleven, due to both the expansion of the empire and the reduction in size of the original provinces: 1st and 2nd Germania , 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Lugdunensis , 1st and 2nd Aquitanica , 1st and 2nd Belgica , 1st and 2nd Narbonensis , Novempopulanie , Sequanorum , Viennensis , Alpes Cottiarum , Alpes Maritimae , Alpes Graiae et Poeninae . These provinces were subdivided into cities (civitas or civitates in

1344-399: The end of 1477, Louis would control all of Picardy and most of Artois . In the 15th century, the government (military region) of Picardy was created. This became a new administrative region of France, separate from what was historically defined as Picardy. The new Picardy included the Somme département , the northern half of the Aisne département and a small fringe in the north of

1392-519: The end of the Ancien Régime, not counting overseas territories such as the French islands of America, Pondicherry, Mauritius or New France (a province from 1663 to 1763, when it was ceded to Great Britain and Spain), there were thirty-six regions with a governor in charge of defense, called governments. Each had its own nobility. Together with the regions attached to France since 1791, these thirty-six governments correspond to what are usually known today as

1440-524: The generalités, then the départements, but replacing their former ethnic names (e.g. Poitou for the country of Pictons, Auvergne for the country of Arverni, Rouergue for the country of Ruteni , Périgord for country of Pétrocores, etc.) with a physical geographic name (giving respectively the départements of Vienne , Puy-de-Dôme , Aveyron , Dordogne , etc.). The Latin etymology of the term provincia gives us an idea of its original meaning: pro vincere , conquered in advance. Each of Gaul's Roman provinces had

1488-539: The historic Beauvaisis is in the northern part of the Val-d'Oise department, around Beaumont-sur-Oise and L'Isle-Adam. The historical province of Picardy stretched from Senlis to Calais via the main parts of the Oise and Aisne departments, the whole of the Somme department and the west of the Pas-de-Calais department. The province of Artois ( Arras area) separated Picardy from French Flanders . From

Vimeu - Misplaced Pages Continue

1536-406: The idea of provinces and provincial identity, sometimes denying that the word covers any tangible reality. In fact, the many lists and maps showing the provinces of France are neither perfectly superimposable nor exactly comparable. The fact remains, however, that the names of many of the territorial subdivisions of the Ancien Régime refer to Gallic civitates . Before the French Revolution, France

1584-459: The late Middle Ages, it also encompassed Saint-Quentin, Douai, Abbeville, Béthune, Clermont, and other towns like Noyon, Valenciennes, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Hesdin, and Laon. At that time, Picardy was divided into Upper and Lower Picardy: Upper Picardy was closer to Île-de-France, while Lower Picardy, which Barthélemy the Englishman referred to as Hainaut, was closer to Flanders and Brabant. During

1632-728: The mayor of the city of Amiens , the regional capital, has been Socialist Gilles Demailly . He defeated longtime mayor Gilles de Robien of the New Centre party. Historically, the region of Picardy has a strong and proud cultural identity. The Picard (local inhabitants and traditionally speakers of the Picard language ) cultural heritage includes some of the most extraordinary Gothic churches (Amiens and Beauvais cathedrals or Saint-Quentin basilica ), distinctive local cuisine (including ficelle picarde , flamiche aux poireaux , tarte au maroilles ), beer (including from Péronne's de Clercq brewery) and traditional games and sports, such as

1680-483: The name of an ancient Gallic people, also given to the diocesan capital. Dioceses were made up of parishes , groups of inhabitants who could gather in the same church, whose names and boundaries have been preserved in the 36,000 French communes. Ecclesiastical districts, by virtue of their mainmortal status, are the oldest and most stable territorial circumscriptions, from late antiquity to the general reorganization of 1802. Today, these 130 or so districts are grouped into

1728-467: The northern boundary marked by the linguistic border with Flemish , thus extending to Calais and Tournai. In the 20th century, geographer Albert Demangeon demonstrated the existence of a geographic Picardy through what he called the "Picard plain," a vast chalk plain stretching from Beauvais to Arras, from Cambrai and Laon to Abbeville and the Boulogne region. From 1972 to 2015, a region of the same name

1776-552: The plural), the number of which rose from 33 to 113. Metropolises are territories under the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop , also known as provinces because they originate from the Roman provinces administered by the first bishops after the fall of the Roman Empire. They are made up of the dioceses which, by the same process, succeeded the ancient civitas or romanized Gallic cities, and which almost always retained

1824-655: The return to the crown of a former fiefdom, such as the Duchy of Burgundy , which had been held by Hugues Capet's brother. Others, such as the Duchy of Savoy , Corsica , Comtat-Vénessin and the County of Nice , were acquired from the Empire or the Holy See. Unlike the ecclesiastical provinces, their extent varies over the course of history according to the possessions of their holders, or to political reorganizations. For example,

1872-418: The royal jurisdictions, baillages (bailiwicks) and seneschaussées (seneschalties) . They are made up of several countries , each corresponding to a general custom, or even a particular custom corresponding to former vici that have retained local customs. For example, the seneschalty of Quercy is made up of five secondary bailiwicks, corresponding to five former vigueries . Some authors attempt to equate

1920-535: The same territory. It's worth noting that the old Gallic states retained their names, their boundaries and a kind of moral existence in people's memories and affections until very recently. Neither the Romans, nor the Germans, nor feudalism, nor monarchy destroyed these enduring units; they can still be found in the provinces and countries of present-day France. Gaul was occupied by fifty-four main peoples and more than

1968-415: The term of "general government" (a military division) with that of a cultural province, since the general governments often used the names and borders of a province. It was not always the case, which causes confusion as to the borders of some provinces. Today, the term "province" is used to name the resulting regional areas, which retain a cultural and linguistic identity. Borrowed from the institutions of

Vimeu - Misplaced Pages Continue

2016-504: The title of peerage: Their holders were considered electors of the King of France, along with six other ecclesiastical peers: The number of grand fiefs varies with history (inheritances, confiscations, conquests, losses, treaties) and increases with the definitive attachment of the County of Provence , the Duchy of Anjou , the Duchy of Burgundy , the Duchy of Brittany , the Duchy of Lorraine , and so on. Some of these provinces were simply

2064-639: Was built in as little as 50 years. Picardy also holds the tallest transept in the history of the Gothic period; this transept is located in Saint-Pierre cathedral in Beauvais, Oise. The Museum of Picardy in Amiens, built between 1855 and 1867, houses a vast array of great works, spanning the centuries and ranging from archaeology from ancient Greece and Egypt to modern works of Pablo Picasso . The museum

2112-523: Was closed until the end of 2019 for building work. Although Picardy is one of the least-known regions in France, its influence from art and most certainly architecture is vivid throughout the world. Provinces of France The country was subdivided ecclesiastically into dioceses, judicially into généralités , militarily into general governments. None of these entities was called "province" by their contemporaries. However, later interpretations confused

2160-602: Was created, bringing together the three departments of Somme , Oise , and Aisne , thus encompassing most of Picardy as defined in the Ancien Régime. Today, Picardy, in its various definitions, is largely contained within the Hauts-de-France region and spread across its five departments. Part of the linguistic Picardy is in the Wallonia region of Belgium , in the Hainaut Province , and a small portion of

2208-675: Was introduced by Napoleon I during the Napoleonic Wars in the 19th century in order to counter the United Kingdom which had seized the sugar islands possessed by France in the Caribbean . The sugar industry has continued to play a prominent role in the economy of the region. One of the most significant historical events to occur in Picardy was the series of battles fought along the Somme during World War I . From September 1914 to August 1918, four major battles, including

2256-401: Was made up of territorial divisions resulting from history, geography and settlement, which differed according to the different powers that were exercised there, with different categories such as metropolises, dioceses , duchies , baronies, governments, states, elections, generalities, intendances, parliaments, countries, bailliages, seneschaussées, etc. Each of these categories took the name of

2304-413: Was never established as a duchy, county, or principality, and its boundaries fluctuated over the centuries due to the political instability in the area it covered. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region of Hauts-de-France . The first geographic description of Picardy appeared in the late central Middle Ages, including the bishoprics of Amiens, Beauvais, Arras, Tournai, and Thérouanne. In

#945054