CAMBRAI

'Cambrai' (Dutch: ''Kamerijk''; old spelling 'Cambray') is a French town and commune, in the Nord ''département'', of which it is a ''sous-préfecture''.
Cambrai is the seat of an archdiocese whose jurisdiction was immense during the Middle Ages. The territory of the Bishopric of Cambrai, roughly coinciding with the shire of Brabant, included the central part of the Low Countries. The bishopric had some limited secular power.
The Battle of Cambrai (20 November - 3 December 1917), a campaign of World War I took place there. It was noted for the first successful use of tanks. A second Battle of Cambrai took place between 8 October - 10 October 1918 as part of the Hundred Days Offensive.

Contents

History

Roman times

Early Middle Ages

Music history

Births

Twin towns

See also

Sources

Notes

External links

History

Roman times

Little is known with certainty of the beginnings of Cambrai. ''Camaracum'' or ''Camaraco'', as it was known to the Romans, is mentioned for the first time on the Peutinger table in the middle of the 4th century. It was a town of the Nervii, whose "capital" was at ''Bagacum'', present-day Bavay.
In the middle of the 4th century Frankish raids from the north led the Romans to build forts along the Cologne to Bavay to Cambrai road, and thence to Boulogne. Cambrai thus occupied an important strategic position. In the early 5th century the town had become the administrative centre of the Nervii in replacement of Bavay which was probably too exposed to the Franks' raids and perhaps too damaged.
Christianity arrived in the region at about the same time. A bishop of the Nervii by the name of ''Superior'' is mentioned in the middle of the 4th century, but nothing else is known about him.
In 430 the Salian Franks under the command of Clodio the Long-Haired took the town. In the early 6th century Clovis undertook to unify the Frankish kingdoms by getting rid of his relatives. One of them was Ragnacharius, who ruled over a small kingdom from Cambrai.
In 870 the town was destroyed by the Normans.^[1]

Early Middle Ages

Cambrai began to grow from a rural market into a real city during the Merovingian times, a long period of peace when the bishoprics of Arras and Cambrai were first unified (probably owing to the small number of clerics left at the time) and were later transferred to Cambrai, an administrative centre for the region. Successive bishops founded abbeys and churches which hosted relics, which contributed powerfully to giving Cambrai the appearance and role of a city.
When the treaty of Verdun (843) split Charlemagne's empire into three parts the county of Cambrai fell into Lothaire's kingdom. This meant the city would be part of the Holy Roman Empire for the next eight centuries, in addition to being on the border between France and the Empire.
In 948 Otto I granted the bishop with temporal powers over the city. Cambrai and its county thus became a church principality, much like Liège, an independent state which was part of the Holy Roman Empire.
In 958 one of the first communes in Europe was established in Cambrai. The inhabitants revolted against the bishop's power and abuses. They were severely represseed, but the discontent flared up again in the 1Oth and 11th centuries. In 1226, following another period of unrest, the burghers of Cambrai finally had to give up their charters and officially bow to the bishop's authority, while keeping in fact a modicum of freedom in the running of the town.

Music history

Cambrai has a distinguished musical history, particularly in the 15th century. The cathedral there, a musical center until the 17th century, had one of the most active musical establishments in the Low Countries; many composers of the Burgundian School either grew up and learned their craft there, or returned to teach. In 1428 Philippe de Luxembourg claimed that the cathedral was the finest in all of Christendom, for the fineness of its singing, its light, and the sweetness of its bells. Guillaume Dufay, the most famous European musician of the 15th century, studied at the cathedral from 1409 to 1412, and returned in 1439 after spending many years in Italy: other composers such as Johannes Tinctoris and Ockeghem went to Cambrai to study with him.

Cambrai cathedral had other famous composers in the later 15th century, including Nicolas Grenon, Alexander Agricola, and Jacob Obrecht. In the 16th century, Philippe de Monte, Johannes Lupi, and Jacobus de Kerle all worked there.
As the economic center of northern Europe moved away from Bruges, the area became poorer, with an associated period of cultural decline. The cathedral was destroyed in 1796, but the archives were preserved (presently they are in the Archives Départmentales du Nord at Lille).
There was a pub ''L'homme armé'' in Cambrai, across the street from Dufay's residence.

Births

Cambrai was the birthplace of:

★ Amé Bourdon (1636 or 1638 - 1706), physician and anatomist

★ Charles François Dumouriez (1739-1823), French general

★ Francisco de Carondelet (1747-1807), in Noyelles, Spanish governor of Louisiana, president of the ''Audiencia'' of Quito

★ Louis Blériot (1872-1936), aviator

★ Henri de Lubac (1896-1991), Jesuit and theologian

★ Julien Torma (1902-1933), writer, playwright and poet

★ René Dumont (1904-2001), engineer in agronomy, sociologist, and environmental politician

★ Maurice Godelier (born 1934), social anthropologist, neo-Marxist, and French intellectual

Twin towns

Cambrai is twinned with:

★ Houma - Louisiana, United States

★ Châteauguay - Québec, Canada

★ Kamp-Lintfort - Germany

★ Esztergom - Hungary

★ Gravesend - Kent - UK
==Role in the Italian Wars==
Cambrai was the site of negotiations that led to the 'League of Cambrai', an alliance created by Pope Julius II against the Republic of Venice, in 1508. The League collapsed in 1510 when Julius allied with Venice against his former ally France. The conflict is referred to as the War of the League of Cambrai and lasted from 1508 to 1516.
Cambrai was also the site of negotiations in 1529 that led to France's withdrawal from the War of the League of Cognac.

See also

★ Cambric

★ Great Fear

★ Archdiocese of Cambrai

Sources

★ David Fallows, Barbara H. Haggh: "Cambrai", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed December 18, 2005), (subscription access) (source for the music history section)

★ "Cambrai." Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed. New York, Encyclopedia Britannica Co., 1910.

★ "Histoire de Cambrai", sous la direction de Louis Trénard, Presses Universitaires de Lille, 1982.

Notes

1. 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, "Cambrai"

External links

★ Cambrai website (French)

★ Webpage about the fortifications

★ Webpage on the 1677 siege