| History |
Bayeux is the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England.
The city was known as Augustodurum in the Roman Empire. It means the durum (Celtic word duro- \'door\', \'gate\', Welsh dor, Breton dor \'door\', \'gate\') dedicated to Augustus, Roman Emperor. The Celtic word duron, Latinised as durum, was probably used to translate the Latin word forum (Compare Fréjus Forum Julii, dedicated to Julius (Caesar)).[1]
In the Late Empire it took the name of the Celtic tribe who lived here: the Bodiocassi, Latinized in Bajocassi, Bajocasses, and this word explains the place-names Bayeux and Bessin. Bodiocassi has been compared with Old Irish Buidechass \'with blond locks\'.[2]
History[edit]
Origins[edit]
Founded as a Gallo-Roman settlement in the 1st century BC under the name Augustodurum, Bayeux is the capital of the former territory of the Baiocasses people of Gaul, whose name appears in Pliny\'s Natural History (iv.107). Evidence of earlier human occupation of the territory comes from fortified Celtic camps, but there is no evidence of any major pre-existing Celtic town before the organization of Gaul in Roman civitates. Any settlement was more likely confined to scattered Druid huts along the banks of the Aure and Drome rivers or on Mount Phaunus where they worshiped. Cemeteries have been found on the nearby Mount Phaunus indicating the area as a Druid centre. Titus Sabinus, a lieutenant of Julius Caesar, subjected the Bessin region to Roman domination. The 5th-century Notitia provinciarum et civitatum Galliae mentions Suevi that had been officially settled here (laeti).[3]
The town is mentioned by Ptolemy, writing in the reign of Antoninus Pius, under the name Noemagus Biducassium (for *Noviomagus Badiocassium \'New market of the Badiocassi\') and remained so until the time of the Roman Empire. The main street was already the heart of the city. Two baths, under the Church of St. Lawrence and the post office in rue Laitière, and a sculpted head of the goddess Minerva have been found, attesting to the adoption of Roman culture. In 1990 a closer examination of huge blocks discovered in the cathedral in the 19th century indicated the presence of an old Roman building. Bayeux was built on a crossroads between Lisieux and Valognes, developing first on the west bank of the river. By the end of the 3rd century a walled enclosure surrounded the city and remained until it was removed in the 18th century. Its layout is still visible and can be followed today. The citadel of the city was located in the southwest corner and the cathedral the southeast. An important city in Normandy, Bayeux was part of the coastal defence of the Roman Empire against the pirates of the region, and a Roman legion was stationed there.
Middle Ages[edit]
Bayeux (Bagias), depicted in scene 22 of the Bayeux Tapestry
The city was largely destroyed during the Viking raids of the late 9th century but was rebuilt in the early 10th century under the reign of Bothon. In the middle of the 10th century Bayeux was controlled by Hagrold, a pagan Viking who defended the city against the Franks. The 12th-century poet Benoît de Saint-Maure, in his verse history of the dukes of Normandy, remarked on the \"Danish\" commonly spoken at Bayeux.[4]
The 11th century saw the creation of five villages beyond the walls to the north east evidence of its growth during Ducal Normandy. William the Conqueror\'s half brother Odo, Earl of Kent completed the cathedral in the city and it was dedicated in 1077. However the city began to lose prominence when William placed his capital at Caen. When King Henry I of England defeated his brother Robert Curthose for the rule of Normandy, the city was burned to set an example to the rest of the duchy. Under Richard the Lionheart, Bayeux was wealthy enough to purchase a municipal charter. From the end of Richard\'s reign to the end of the Hundred Years\' War, Bayeux was repeatedly pillaged until Henry V of England captured the city in 1417. After the Battle of Formigny, Charles VII of France recaptured the city and granted a general amnesty to its populace in 1450. The capture of Bayeux heralded a return to prosperity as new families replaced those decimated by war and these built some 60 mansions scattered throughout the city, with stone supplanting wood.
Bayeux is a major tourist attraction, best known to British and French visitors for the Bayeux tapestry, made to commemorate events in the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. According to the legend, the tapestry was made by Reine Mathilde, wife of William the Conqueror. In fact, it may have been designed and woven in England.[7] It is displayed in a museum in the town centre. The large Norman-Romanesque and Gothic Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux,[8] consecrated in 1077, was arguably the original home of the tapestry where William\'s half-brother Odo of Bayeux (represented on the tapestry with a wooden club at the Battle of Hastings), would have had it displayed. [1] |
| History |
Poppa of Bayeux was born about 872 in Evreux, Eure, Haute-Normandie. She was the mistress or wife (perhaps by _more Danico)_ of Rollo, duke of Normandy. According to Orderic Vitalis, Rollo \'stormed and captured Bayeux, slew its count Berengar and took to wife his daughter Poppa\'. She was the mother of Guillaume I \'Longsword\', duke of Normandy, and Gerloc-Adele of Normandy, who would both have progeny. It appears that Rollo repudiated her, but about 912 remarried her after the death of his second wife Giselle de France, daughter of Charles III \'the Simple\', king of France. Poppa died about 925 in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie.
A statue of Poppa stands at Place de Gaulle in Bayeux. [2] |
| History |
Poppa of Bayeux was the Christian wife or mistress[1] (perhaps more danico)[2] of the Viking conqueror Rollo. She was the mother of William I Longsword and grandmother of Richard the Fearless, who forged the Duchy of Normandy into a great fief of medieval France.[3] Dudo of Saint-Quentin, in his panegyric of the Norman dukes, describes her as the daughter of a \"Count Berengar\", the dominant prince of that region, who was captured at Bayeux by Rollo in 885 or 889.[4] This has led to speculation that she was the daughter of Berengar II of Neustria. Despite the uncertainty of her parentage, she undoubtedly was a member of the Frankish aristocracy.[5] A statue of Poppa stands at the Place de Gaulle in Bayeux [3] |
Ellie Wood Keith Genealogy
Abt 872 - Abt 925 (~ 53 years)
