Buis-les-Baronnies
Buis-les-Baronnies is a commune in the Drôme department in southeastern France. Buis-les-Baronnies is located on the right bank of the Ouvèze River. Baronnies Communes of the Drôme department INSEE
Henry II of France
Henry II was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I, he became Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder brother Francis III, Duke of Brittany, in 1536. Henry was the tenth king from the House of Valois, the third from the Valois-Orléans branch, the second from the Valois-Orléans-Angoulême branch; as a child and his elder brother spent over four years in captivity in Spain as hostages in exchange for their father. Henry pursued his father's policies in matter of arts and religion, he persevered in the Italian Wars against the House of Habsburg and tried to suppress the Protestant Reformation as the Huguenot numbers were increasing drastically in France during his reign. The Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, which put an end to the Italian Wars, had mixed results: France renounced its claims to territories in Italy, but gained certain other territories, including the Pale of Calais and the Three Bishoprics. France failed to change the balance of power in Europe, as Spain remained the sole dominant power, but it did benefit from the division of the holdings of its ruler, Charles V, from the weakening of the Holy Roman Empire, which Charles ruled.
Henry suffered an untimely death in a jousting tournament held to celebrate the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis at the conclusion of the Eighth Italian War. The king's surgeon, Ambroise Paré, was unable to cure the infected wound inflicted by Gabriel de Montgomery, the captain of his Scottish Guard, he was succeeded in turn by three of his sons, whose ineffective reigns helped to spark the French Wars of Religion between Protestants and Catholics. Henry was born in the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, the son of King Francis I and Claude, Duchess of Brittany, his father was captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 by the forces of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, held prisoner in Spain. To obtain his release, it was agreed that his older brother be sent to Spain in his place, they remained in captivity for over four years. Henry married Catherine de' Medici, a member of the ruling family of Florence, on 28 October 1533, when they were both fourteen years old. At this time, his elder brother was alive and there was little prospect of Henry coming to the throne.
The following year, he became romantically involved with a thirty-five-year-old widow, Diane de Poitiers. Henry and Diane had always been close: the young lady had fondly embraced Henry on the day he, as a 7-year-old child, set off to captivity in Spain, the bond had been renewed after his return to France. In a tournament to honor his father's new bride, Eleanor and his older brother were dressed as chevaliers, in which Henry wore Diane's colors. Confident and intelligent, Diane left Catherine powerless to intervene, she did, insist that Henry sleep with Catherine in order to produce heirs to the throne. When his elder brother Francis, the Dauphin and Duke of Brittany, died in 1536 after a game of tennis, Henry became heir apparent to the throne, he succeeded his father on his 28th birthday and was crowned King of France on 25 July 1547 at Reims Cathedral. Henry's reign was marked by wars with Austria and the persecution of Protestants Calvinists known as Huguenots. Henry II punished them the ministers, for example by burning at the stake or cutting off their tongues for uttering heresies.
Henry II was made a Knight of the Garter, April 1515. The Edict of Châteaubriant called upon the civil and ecclesiastical courts to detect and punish all heretics and placed severe restrictions on Huguenots, including the loss of one-third of their property to informers, confiscations; the Edict strictly regulated publications by prohibiting the sale, importation or printing of any unapproved book. It was during the reign of Henry II that Huguenot attempts at establishing a colony in Brazil were made, with the short-lived formation of France Antarctique; the Eighth Italian War of 1551–1559, sometimes known as the Habsburg–Valois War, began when Henry declared war against Holy Roman Emperor Charles V with the intent of recapturing Italy and ensuring French, rather than Habsburg, domination of European affairs. Persecution of Protestants at home did not prevent Henry II from becoming allied with German Protestant princes at the Treaty of Chambord in 1552; the continuation of his father's Franco-Ottoman alliance allowed Henry II to push for French conquests towards the Rhine while a Franco-Ottoman fleet defended southern France.
An early offensive into Lorraine was successful. Henry captured the three episcopal cities of Metz and Verdun, secured them by defeating the Habsburg army at the Battle of Renty in 1554; however the attempted French invasion of Tuscany in 1553 was defeated at the Battle of Marciano. After the abdication of Charles V in 1556, the Habsburg empire was split between Philip II of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I; the focus of Henry's conflict with the Habsburgs shifted to Flanders, where Phillip, in conjunction with Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, defeated the French at the Battle of St. Quentin. England's entry into the war that year led to the French capture of Calais, French armies plundered Spanish possessions in the Low Countries. Henry was nonetheless forced to accept the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, in which he renounced any further claims to territories in Italy; the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis was signed between Henry and Elizabeth I of England on 2 April and between Henry and Philip II of Spain on 3 April 1559 at Le Cateau-Cambrésis.
Under its terms, France restored Piedmont and Savoy to
Provinces of France
The Kingdom of France was organized into provinces until March 4, 1790, when the establishment of the department system superseded provinces. The provinces of France were equivalent to the historic counties of England, they came into their final form over the course of many hundreds of years, as many dozens of semi-independent fiefs and former independent countries came to be incorporated into the French royal domain. Because of the haphazard manner in which the provinces evolved, each had its own sets of feudal traditions, taxation systems, etc. and the system represented an impediment to effective administration of the entire country from Paris. During the early years of the French Revolution, in an attempt to centralize the administration of the whole country, to remove the influence of the French nobility over the country, the entirety of the province system was abolished and replaced by the system of departments in use today. In some cases, several modern regions or departments share names with the historic provinces, their borders may cover the same territory.
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, the seat of a judicial and quasi-legislative body called either a parlement or a conseil souverain. In some cases, this body met in a different city from the capital. Île-de-France Berry Orléanais Normandy Languedoc Lyonnais Dauphiné Champagne Aunis Saintonge Poitou Guyenne and Gascony Burgundy Picardy Anjou Provence Angoumois Bourbonnais Marche Brittany Maine Touraine Limousin Foix Auvergne Béarn Alsace Artois Roussillon Flanders and Hainaut Franche-Comté Lorraine.
The Republicans (France)
The Republicans is a centre-right, conservative political party in France. The party was formed on 30 May 2015 by renaming the Union for a Popular Movement party, founded in 2002 under the leadership of former President of France Jacques Chirac; the party used to be one of the two major political parties in the French Fifth Republic along with the centre-left Socialist Party, following the 2017 legislative election, it remains the second largest party in the National Assembly. LR is a member of the European People's Party, the Centrist Democrat International, the International Democrat Union. After the election in November 2014 of Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France from 2007 to 2012, as president of the Union for a Popular Movement, Sarkozy put forward a request to the party's general committee to change its name to "The Republicans" and alter the statutes of the party. With the name chosen, vice-president of the UMP Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet presented Sarkozy and the party's political bureau the proposed new statutes.
The proposed statutes provided for, among other provisions, the election of the presidents of the departmental federations by direct democracy, the end of the political currents and consulting members on election nominations. Critics of Sarkozy claimed it was "illegal" for him to name the party "Republicans" because every French person is a republican if they support the values and ideals of the French Republic that emanated from the French Revolution, as such the term is above party politics; the new name was adopted by the party bureau on 5 May 2015 and approved by the party membership on 28 May by an online "yes" vote of 83.3% on a 45.7% turnout after a court ruling in favour of Sarkozy. The new party statutes were adopted by 96.3% of voters and the composition of the new political bureau by 94.8%. The change to the name "The Republicans" was confirmed at the party's founding congress on 30 May 2015 at the Paris Event Centre in Paris, attended by 10,000 activists. Angela Merkel, chairwoman of the centre-right CDU, sent a congratulatory message to the congress.
The Republicans thus became the legal successor of the UMP and the leading centre-right party in France. The organisation has been declared in the préfecture de Saône-et-Loire on 9 April 2015. According to the statement of this declaration, its aim is to "promote ideas of the right and centre, open to every people who wish to be member and debate in the spirit of a political party with republican ideas in France or outside France"; this party foundation was published in the Journal officiel de la République française on 25 April 2015. On 3 July 2016, Nicolas Sarkozy announced that he would resign as leader that year in order to compete to be the right-wing candidate in the 2017 presidential election. After winning the party's presidential primary, François Fillon suffered a historic defeat in the first round of the presidential election, with the candidate of the right failing to continue to the second round for the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic amid "Penelopegate". In the second round of the legislative elections in June, The Republicans and its allies suffered further losses, losing nearly a hundred deputies, which represented its worst performance.
After Emmanuel Macron was elected as president, he appointed three right-wing politicians in his government – Édouard Philippe as Prime Minister, Bruno Le Maire as French Ministry for the Economy and Finance, Gérald Darmanin as Minister of Public Action and Accounts. As a consequence, a parliamentary group including LR dissidents supportive of the government line, "The Constructives", was formed in the National Assembly, separate from the existing group. On 11 July, the political bureau of The Republicans agreed to hold a leadership election for president of the party on 10 and 17 December. Politics of France List of political parties in France The Republicans group The Republicans group Official web site of Les Républicains
Die, Drôme
Die is a commune, former episcopal see, subprefecture of the Drôme department in southeastern France. The region around Die is known as the Diois. Die is best known for a sparkling wine, it was a county in the High Middle Ages. It was once the see of a Roman Catholic diocese and its cathedral remains. Die is situated in a valley, surrounded by the Glandasse mountain, a massive and steep rocky barrier, which separates the area from the Vercors Plateau; the territory of the commune of Die is part of the regional natural park of these regions. There were inhabitants during the Neolithic age, this has been confirmed by Chanqueyras excavations. A big engraved standing stone and two small menhirs that are now in the Die museum were found near the wine cooperative proved inhabitation in this area at that time; the remains of the final Bronze Age were discovered at La Roche De Marginal, for example, some shards have been found at Chandillon. A first agglomeration seems to have appeared at the beginning of the Roman era, on a little mountain pass overhanging the Drôme, the small valley of Meyrosse, at the crossroad between the valley and the path to Trièves.
Lots of clues show the extension of urbanisation during the 1st century. The museum and some of the artifacts from Die and its surroundings At the beginning of the 2nd century, the city of Die constructs monuments and becomes a Roman capital, replacing Luc-en-Diois in that function for the Celtic people of northern Voconces, it seems it will be named as a colony towards the end of the 2nd century or during the 3rd century because the town became an important centre of fertility goddess Cybele’s cult. While the Roman Empire was showing signs of weakness, between the years 285 and 305, a fortified wall was constructed around the town, protecting an urbanised surface of 25 hectares, this wall is more than a mile long. During its construction, fragments of burial monuments were reused. Die had two main gates: to the west, the gate of Saint-Pierre and to the east, the gate of Saint-Marcel. To go to Chichilliane, people would take the road near Grenoble, cross the Glandasse mountain. On this plateau were found stones from the quarry and brought to Die.
The first certified bishop of the Ancient Diocese of Die was Nicaise in 325, the only Gallic church representative at the First Council of Nicaea. The diocese was merged with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Valence in 1276, yet again separated at the end of the 17th century, before its suppression during the French Revolution; the Die and Diois museum in the centre of town shows the multiple and imposing remains of the Roman era, but tells the story of the Diois during prehistory, the Middle-Ages of this episcopal city and the devastation caused by religious wars. Apart from agriculturalists and wine producers, the economy is still composed of many little companies, of craftsmen, of tourism providers and local retailers. Die is the economic and social centre of all the Diois, it offers schools and professional centres. Public and administrative services allow the well-being of this valley; the commune of Die is composed of less than 5000 inhabitants. The city concentrated on small industries, such as furniture and shoes during the 1960s and the'70s, thus missed the opportunity of mass tourism.
Nowadays, Die receives an important number of tourists during summer, from foreign countries such as The Netherlands and Belgium, making the most of camp sites around the Drôme valley. On the contrary, in winter the tourists come from the surrounding regions to do winter sports at the Col du Rousset ski station; the most popular activities are: snowshoe hiking, sled dog racing. In 1992, it is here; the cooperative winery Clairette de Die, the biggest Diois employer, had the idea a few years ago to adopt the brand name “jaillance” to be better known by the competing cooperative wineries, to be better identified by consumers and to optimise its power in sales and exports. Die is twinned with: Wirksworth, United Kingdom Varallo Sesia, Italy Frankenau, Germany Kiskunfélegyháza, Hungary Dhouge, Senegal Communes of the Drôme department Parc naturel régional du Vercors INSEE Gazetteer Entry
Nyons
Nyons is a commune in the Drôme department in southeastern France. Nyons was settled in the 6th century BC as Nyrax by a Gallic tribe the Segusiavi or the Sequani. Hecataeus of Miletus mentioned Nyrax around 500 BC, it is situated next to the river Aigues or Eygues, crossed by an ancient bridge. Nyons has a mild microclimate, which makes it a good place for people suffering from respiratory problems, for which there is a special clinic, it is famed for its olives. Nyons is a sub-prefecture of the department, it features a lycée. Villages that are facilitated by Nyons are situated within an area of about 20 to 30 km, such as Les Pilles, Aubres and Mirabel-aux-Baronnies. Nyons is 120 km from Marseille and is located close to the boundary of the Vaucluse department. Jardin des Arômes Nyons Bridge Nyons is twinned with: Manciano, Italy Mechernich, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany Nyon, Switzerland Nules, Castellón, Spain Borca, Neamț, Romania Baronnies Communes of the Drôme department INSEE
France
France the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean, it is bordered by Belgium and Germany to the northeast and Italy to the east, Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic and Indian oceans; the country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nice. During the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by a Celtic people. Rome annexed the area in 51 BC, holding it until the arrival of Germanic Franks in 476, who formed the Kingdom of Francia.
The Treaty of Verdun of 843 partitioned Francia into Middle Francia and West Francia. West Francia which became the Kingdom of France in 987 emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages following its victory in the Hundred Years' War. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a global colonial empire was established, which by the 20th century would become the second largest in the world; the 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars between Protestants. France became Europe's dominant cultural and military power in the 17th century under Louis XIV. In the late 18th century, the French Revolution overthrew the absolute monarchy, established one of modern history's earliest republics, saw the drafting of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which expresses the nation's ideals to this day. In the 19th century, Napoleon established the First French Empire, his subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a tumultuous succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870.
France was a major participant in World War I, from which it emerged victorious, was one of the Allies in World War II, but came under occupation by the Axis powers in 1940. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and dissolved in the course of the Algerian War; the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, remains today. Algeria and nearly all the other colonies became independent in the 1960s and retained close economic and military connections with France. France has long been a global centre of art and philosophy, it hosts the world's fourth-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the leading tourist destination, receiving around 83 million foreign visitors annually. France is a developed country with the world's sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP, tenth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of aggregate household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, human development.
France is considered a great power in global affairs, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a leading member state of the European Union and the Eurozone, a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, La Francophonie. Applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name "France" comes from the Latin "Francia", or "country of the Franks". Modern France is still named today "Francia" in Italian and Spanish, "Frankreich" in German and "Frankrijk" in Dutch, all of which have more or less the same historical meaning. There are various theories as to the origin of the name Frank. Following the precedents of Edward Gibbon and Jacob Grimm, the name of the Franks has been linked with the word frank in English, it has been suggested that the meaning of "free" was adopted because, after the conquest of Gaul, only Franks were free of taxation.
Another theory is that it is derived from the Proto-Germanic word frankon, which translates as javelin or lance as the throwing axe of the Franks was known as a francisca. However, it has been determined that these weapons were named because of their use by the Franks, not the other way around; the oldest traces of human life in what is now France date from 1.8 million years ago. Over the ensuing millennia, Humans were confronted by a harsh and variable climate, marked by several glacial eras. Early hominids led a nomadic hunter-gatherer life. France has a large number of decorated caves from the upper Palaeolithic era, including one of the most famous and best preserved, Lascaux. At the end of the last glacial period, the climate became milder. After strong demographic and agricultural development between the 4th and 3rd millennia, metallurgy appeared at the end of the 3rd millennium working gold and bronze, iron. France has numerous megalithic sites from the Neolithic period, including the exceptiona
. Encyclopædia Britannica. 8 (11th ed.). 1911.
