Angoulême

“ The weather was superb, and it seemed too good to be true that we were actually flying down the famous poplar-edged roads of France in our own little car. We reached Angoulême at sunset-time. If you have ever been there, you will remember the wonderful situation of the city. It rises high in the center of a plain and the walk around the walls affords a beautiful view. After getting settled in the hotel, we made the circuit of the town and watched the shades of a pink and gold sunset slowly deepen into the purple of twilight. ”

“ Tours is a fine old town, and is the place where our grandfather died. I saw his house, quite a palace, now the museum. We slept again at Angoulême, a very striking place, the old town rising out of the new, a rocky citadel surrounded with the most beautiful public walks I ever saw out of Rome, and a curious cathedral. This Bordeaux is a second Paris, only with a river like an arm of the sea, and immense quays, full of bustle and hubbub, like the Carminella at Naples. ”

“ With the Rue d'Angoulême came extensions—even the mere immediate view of opposite intimacies and industries, the subdivided aspects and neat ingenuities of the applied Parisian genius counting as such: our many-windowed premier, above an entresol of no great height, hung over the narrow and, during the winter months, not a little dusky channel, with endless movement and interest in the vivid exhibition it supplied. ”

“ The crossing is surmounted by a dome, and the extremity of the north transept by a fine square tower over 160 ft. high. The hôtel de ville, also by Abadie, is a handsome modern structure, but preserves two towers of the chateau of the counts of Angoulême, on the site of which it is built. It contains museums of paintings and archaeology. Angoulême is the seat of a bishop, a prefect, and a court of assizes. Its public institutions include tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a council of trade-arbitrators, a chamber of commerce and a branch of the Bank of France. ”

“ But when one has paid due tribute to the cathedral one is called on, from its doorway, to97 recognize Angoulême’s other striking distinction: its splendid natural site, and the way in which art has used and made the most of it. Starting from a long leafy cours with private hôtels, a great avenue curves about the whole length of the walls, breaking midway into a terrace boldly hung above the valley, and ending in another leafy place, beneath which the slope of the hill has been skilfully transformed into a public garden. ”

“ In place of its ancient fortifications Angoulême is encircled by boulevards known as the Remparts, from which fine views may be obtained in all directions. Within the town the streets are often dark and narrow, and, apart from the cathedral and the hôtel de ville, the architecture is of little interest. ”

“ It is easy to imagine the influence of the class sentiment which held Angouleme aloof from L'Houmeau. The merchant classes are rich, the noblesse are usually poor. Each side takes its revenge in scorn of the other. The tradespeople in Angouleme espouse the quarrel. "He is a man of L'Houmeau!" a shopkeeper of the upper town will tell you, speaking of a merchant in the lower suburb, throwing an accent into the speech which no words can describe. ”

“ Salvius, honoured as a martyr at Valenciennes, whom the "Gallia Christiana" makes a Bishop of Angoulême, was undoubtedly only a missionary bishop of the eighth century. In the list of the Bishops of Angoulême is found the name of the poet Octavien de St. Gelais (1494–1502) . The religious monuments of the province of Angoumois are remarkable for their admirable Romano-Byzantine façades. The most beautiful of them is St. Peter's Cathedral at Angoulême. The memory of a wealthy and famous Augustinian abbey, founded in 1122, is kept alive by its ruins at Couronne, near Angoulême. ”

“ Angoulême is often first called to mind by its famous or notorious Duchesse, whose fame is locally perpetuated by a not very suitable column, erected in the Promenade Beaulieu in 1815. There is certainly a wealth of romance to be conjured up from the recollection of the famous Counts of Angoulême and their adherents, who made their residence in the ancient château which to-day forms in part the Hôtel de Ville, and in part the prison. Here in this château was born Marguerite de Valois, the Marguerite of Marguerites, as François I. called her ”

“ He appears to have retired from public life shortly after the death of Richelieu in 1643. His first wife died in 1636, and in 1644 he married Françoise de Narbonne, daughter of Charles, baron of Mareuil. She had no children and survived her husband until 1713. Angoulême himself died on the 24th of September 1650. By his first wife he had three children: Henri, who became insane; Louis Emmanuel, who succeeded his father as duke of Angoulême and was colonel-general of light cavalry and governor of Provence ”

“ The mountaineers, who had suffered so much from the exactions and ill treatment of the royal volunteers, now repeated in their turn "Wo to the vanquished!" and did not allow a moment's rest to the Duke of Angoulême and his followers. Pressed on one side by the columns of Grouchy, on the other by the troops of General Gilly; shut in, without hope of succour, between the Drôme, the Rhone, the Durance, and the mountains, the Duke of Angoulême had only two resources: one was, to abandon his army, and get over the mountains to Marseilles or Piedmont ”

“ The cathedral is built in brick and externally has the appearance of a fortress. In the cathedrals of the south-west of France, where the naves are covered with a series of domes—as at Cahors, Angoulême and St Front de Périgueux—the immense piers required to carry them made it necessary to dispense with aisles. The cathedral of Angoulême (fig. 7) consists of a nave covered with three domes, a transept of great length with lofty towers over the north and south ends, and an apsidal choir with four chevet chapels. ”

“ But the story will not bear scrutiny. Angoulême was far away from the scene of operations in the Garonne valley, and its introduction is due to Froissart's misapprehension of Jean le Bel's ‘cité d'Agolent,’ a fanciful name for Agen in allusion to its fabled defence against Charlemagne by a Saracen of that name (ib. Preface, xxiii. xxix) . ”

“ The following day the King took up his quarters at Aytré, Monsieur having removed to the Château of Dompierre, to the north-east of La Rochelle, on the road between that town and Niort, and, to the intense mortification of Bassompierre, who had flattered himself that the matter was settled, his first business was to hold a council to discuss the position of Angoulême. ”

“ On the 16th day of July, the king left the city of Angoulême, to join his army in the Bordelois: he was accompanied by the counts of Angoulême, of Maine, of Nevers, of Estampes, of Castres, of Vendôme, and many other barons, knights and esquires, to the town of Libourne. His army was then before Fronsac, which was held by the English, who afterward surrendered it on capitulation of being allowed to go to England,—and they marched out with only staves in their hands. The army then crossed the Dordogne, to subdue the country within the two rivers, and captured many towns from the English. ”

“ If we wish to know all that is worthy of being imitated, we must make of legends a part of our studies and observations. The marvel of the lives of the saints is not their miracles, but their conduct.—Joubert, Pensées (1754-1824; born in Périgord) .
Angoulême Cathedral. A XII-century Cupola Church of Aquitaine with a Typical Façade of Poitou’s Romanesque School
The cathedral of Angoulême shares with St. Front and Fontevrault the distinction of being the finest cupola church in France. It is unsurpassed in the setting on the edge of the city’s steep hill above the Charente valley. ”

“ Commerce is carried on in wine, brandy and building-stone.
Angoulême (Iculisma) was taken by Clovis from the Visigoths in 507, and plundered by the Normans in the 9th century. In 1360 it was surrendered by the peace of Bretigny to the English; they were, however, expelled in 1373 by the troops of Charles V., who granted the town numerous privileges. It suffered much during the Wars of Religion, especially in 1568 after its capture by the Protestants under Coligny. ”

“ Flour-mills and leather-works are numerous. There are also many minor industries subsidiary to paper-making and brandy-distilling, and Angoulême manufactures gunpowder and confectionery. Coal, salt and timber are prominent imports. Exports include paper, brandy, stone and agricultural products. The department is served chiefly by the Orlêans and Ouest-État railways, and the Charente is navigable below Angoulême. Charente is divided into the five arrondissements of Angoulême, Cognac, Ruffec, Barbezieux and Confolens (29 cantons, 426 communes) . ”

“ Nearly every house in the upper town of Angouleme is inhabited by noble, or at any rate by old burgher, families, who live independently on their incomes—a sort of autochthonous nation who suffer no aliens to come among them. ”

“ The young king at the same time quitted Limoges to make a diversion at Angoulême. On his return, however, he found it impossible to re-enter Limoges; its townsfolk had by this time so fully awakened to his real character and to their own best interests that they drove him from their walls with a volley of stones, shouting “We will not have this man to reign over us!” [1069] He had already robbed them of their wealth and stripped the shrine of their patron saint to provide wages for his Brabantines ”

“ The restless barons of Aquitaine, still smarting under their defeat of 1169, were but too eager, at the instigation of their duchess and their newly-crowned duke, to renew their struggle against the king. Foremost among them were, as before, the count of Angoulême, [660] the nobles of Saintonge, and Geoffrey of Lusignan, beside whom there stood this time his young brother Guy, now to begin in this ignoble strife a career destined to strange vicissitudes in far-off Palestine. [661] The heart of the old Angevin lands, Anjou itself, was in the main loyal ”

“ At Angoulême we saw, I may say, the first professional beggars we had met on the tour. A warm sun seems to breed beggars as it breeds mosquitoes, or is it that Southern peoples have less self-respect than the Northern? ”

“ The countship of Angoulême dated from the 9th century, the most important of the early counts being William Taillefer, whose descendants held the title till the end of the 12th century. Withdrawn from them on more than one occasion by Richard Coeur-de-Lion, it passed to King John of England on his marriage with Isabel, daughter of Count Adhémar, and by her subsequent marriage in 1220 to Hugh X. passed to the Lusignan family, counts of Marche. ”

“ Twenty-nine years before, Richard, as duke of Aquitaine, had vainly striven to wrest Angoulême from Ademar in behalf of Matilda, the only child of Ademar’s brother Count Vulgrin III. Matilda was now the wife of Hugh “the Brown” of Lusignan, who in 1179 or 1180 had in spite of King Henry made himself master of La Marche, [2002] and whose personal importance in southern Gaul was increased by the rank and fame which his brothers Geoffrey, Guy and Almeric had won in the kingdoms of Palestine and Cyprus. ”

“ Anglare, the castle of, besieged by the lord de Barbasan, vii. 13
Angora, battle of, between Tamerlane and Bajazet, i. 107
Angoulême, the count of, pledged to the English, iii. 93
Angoulême, Madame d', mother of Francis I. is present at his coronation, xii. 175
Anjou is invaded by the earl of Somerset, viii. 348
Anne, duchess of Bedford, dies at Paris, vii. 100
Anne, duchess of Brittany, married to Charles VIII. xi. 371
is crowned and makes her public entry into Paris, xi. 378
dies, xii. 161
Anthony, duke of Limbourg, takes possession of that duchy and Maestricht, i. ”

“ The colonel rose next. "Gentlemen, to the Royalist! for the hero of this evening had the courage to fight for sound principles!"
"Bravo!" cried the prefect, leading the applause.
Then Petit-Claud called upon all Lucien's schoolfellows there present. "To the pride of the grammar-school of Angouleme! to the venerable headmaster so dear to us all, to whom the acknowledgment for some part of our triumph is due!"
The old headmaster dried his eyes; he had not expected this toast. Lucien rose to his feet, the whole room was suddenly silent, and the poet's face grew white. ”

“ In Angouleme that day people talked of nothing but the Bishop's epigram and Mme. de Bargeton's reply. Every least thing that happened that evening was so much exaggerated and embellished and twisted out of all knowledge, that the poet became the hero of the hour. While this storm in a teacup raged on high, a few drops fell among the bourgeoisie; young men looked enviously after Lucien as he passed on his way through Beaulieu, and he overheard chance phrases that filled him with conceit.
"There is a lucky young fellow!" ”

“ Angers, in spite of its overpowering château and its unique cathedral, is of a modernity and luxuriousness in its present-day aspect which is all the more remarkable because of the contrast. Formerly the Angevin capital, from the days of King John up to a much later time Angers had the reputation of being a town "plus sombre et plus maussade" than any other in the French provinces. ”

“ Hardly a building in his realm preserves the memory of Henry II.; Richard is a mere visitor to English shores; Beaulieu alone and the graven tomb at Worcester enable us to realize John. But along the Loire these Angevin rulers meet us in river-bank and castle and bridge and town. Their names are familiar words still through the length and breadth of the land. At Angers men show you the vast hospital of Henry II., while the suburb around it is the creation of his son. And not only do the men come vividly before us, but they come before us in another and a fresher light. ”