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Valenciennes
appeared for the first time in a document relating a
conviction given in 693 by Clovis II, king of
the Francs.
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In 881, the region of the Hainaut was
crossed by the Normands. From 923, Valenciennes was under
the duché of the Basse Lotharingie, depending on the
Germanic empire. Under the Ottonian emperors , Valenciennes
became the centre of a
walking on the borderline of the Germanic empire.
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In 1008, a starvation caused a
terrible plague. According to the local tradition, the
Virgin Mary would have unwound a cord around the city, which
miraculously protected its inhabitants against the disease.
Since then, the people of Valenciennes got accustomed to
accomplishing this 14 km long walking : the tour of
Saint Cordon.And many tales succeded one another.
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In 1285, the currency of the Hainaut
was replaced by the currency of
France : the » écu ». Valenciennes
was then a dynamic city based on its many communities and
corporations. Inside its walls, many convents developed
following the exemple of the Dominicains.
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In the XIV th century, Albert de Bavière
had the tower of la
Dodenne built. In the XV th century, being reattached to the
Bourgogne, the region of the Hainaut lost its autonomy, but
the city of Valenciennes acquired an incredible reputation
thanks to the noble poeple that it protected within its
walls. ( the chronicler Georges Chastelain, the poet Jean
Molinet, the miniaturist painter Simon Marmion, the carver
Pierre du Préau and the goldsmith Jérôme de Moyenneville).
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In 1524, Charles Quint came to
Valenciennes. In 1552, king of France, Henry II allied to
the protestants against Charles Quint. In 1562, Valenciennes
was the place of the first resistance against religious
persecutions in the Spanish Netherlands-« the day of
Mals Brûlés » : when the crowd set free a few protestants who were convicted to be burnt at
stake. After the rebellion of the Gueux, in 1566, king of
Spain PhilippeII set his troops at the gates of Anzin in a
fortress called « la Redoute » which was
besieged by the people of Valenciennes in 1576. In 1580, , Duke of Parme and of Plaisance
Alexandre Farnèse ,
conquered the city and protestantism was eradicated.
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In 1591, the Jesuits created a school
and built the
Saint-Croix Church. In 1611 the town hall’s façade was
entirely reconstructed in the Renaissance style. In the XVI
th century, factories of fabrics, wools developed . Women
started to make the famous lace of Valenciennes to take
advantage of the linen thread.
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The French armies besieged the city
in 1656. Marquis of Trélon Albert de Mérode got killed
while he was fighting to defend the city. His corpse, buried
in Saint-Paul church, was found during the archeological
campaign in 1990. In 1677 Louis XIV’s armies took over the
city which became French in 1678
by the treaty of Nimègue. The city became one of the
main powerful area in the Northern France.
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After the Age of Enlightenment,
Valenciennes’ economic situation got worse and worse until
the discovery of coal mining. The first wellspring was dug
in Fresnes in 1718 and the discovery of the coal in Anzin in
1734 gave birth to the compagny of
the Mines of Anzin.
In XVII th century, the city was well known for its
china. The factory that set itself up had to use coal to
fuel its furnaces. In spite of its quality production, the
enterprise didn’t manage to sustain its activity.
Valenciennes, then reputed
for its many talents was nicknamed the Northern Athens,
underlining its artistic influence.
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