Chapelle royale de Dreux
The Royal Chapel of Dreux situated in Dreux, France, is the traditional burial place of members of the House of Orléans. It is an important early building in the French adoption of Gothic Revival architecture, despite being topped by a dome. Starting in 1828, Alexandre Brogniart, the director of the Sèvres porcelain manufactory, produced fired enamel paintings on large panes of plate glass, for King Louis-Philippe, an important early French commission in Gothic taste, preceded by some Gothic features in a few jardins paysagers. In the 1770s, Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, Duke of Penthièvre was one of the greatest land owners in France prior to the French Revolution. In 1775, the lands of the county of Dreux had been given to the Penthièvre by his cousin King Louis XVI. In 1783, the Duke sold his domain of Rambouillet to Louis XVI. On November 25 of that year, in a long religious procession, Penthièvre transferred the nine caskets containing the remains of his parents, Louis Alexandre, Count of Toulouse and Marie Victoire de Noailles, his wife, Princess Maria Teresa Felicitas of Modena, six of their seven children, from the small medieval village church next to the castle in Rambouillet, to the chapel of the Collégiale Saint-Étienne de Dreux.
Penthièvre died in March 1793 and his body was laid to rest in the crypt beside his parents. On November 21 of that same year, in the midst of the French Revolution, a mob desecrated the crypt and threw the ten bodies in a mass grave in the Chanoines cemetery of the Collégiale Saint Étienne. In 1816, the Duke of Penthièvre's daughter, the Duchess of Orléans, had a new chapel built on the site of the mass grave of the Chanoines cemetery, as the final resting place for her family. In 1830, Louis Philippe I, King of the French, son of the Duchess of Orléans and enlarged the chapel, renamed the Royal Chapel of Dreux, now the necropolis of the Orléans royal family. Among the seventy-five members buried in the new chapel are: Louis Alexandre, Count of Toulouse Marie Victoire de Noailles wife of the above. Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, Duke of Penthièvre Princess Maria Teresa Felicitas of Modena wife of the above. Louis Marie, Duke of Rambouillet. Louis Alexandre, Prince of Lamballe. Vincent Marie Louis de Bourbon.
Marie Louise de Bourbon. Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon. Louis Marie Félicité de Bourbon. Louis François Joseph, Prince of Conti the heart of Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans, Regent of France for Louis XV of France. Louis Philippe I. Princess Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies, wife of the above. Antoine Philippe, Duke of Montpensier. Princess Adélaïde of Orléans. Françoise d'Orléans Mademoiselle d'Orléans. Louis Charles, Count of Beaujolais. Prince Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans. Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria. Duchess Helen of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, wife of the above. Charles, Duke of Penthièvre. Prince Henri, Duke of Aumale Princess Maria Carolina of the Two Sicilies, wife of the above. Louis, Prince of Condé. Léopold Philippe, Duke of Guise. François Paul d'Orléans, Duke of Guise. François Louis, Duke of Guise. Prince Antônio Gastão of Orléans-Braganza, Prince of Brazil. Prince Luís of Orléans-Braganza, Prince Imperial of Brazil. Princess Maria di Grazia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, wife of the above.
Prince Henri, Count of Paris, Orléanist pretender. Princess Isabelle of Orléans and Braganza, wife of the above. Prince François Gaston, Duke of Orléans, son of the above. Prince Thibaut, Count of La Marche, brother of the above. Bathilde d'Orléans. Prince François, Count of Clermont. Prince Henri, Count of Paris, Orléanist pretender. List of works by James Pradier Royalty Guide
Eure-et-Loir
Eure-et-Loir is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers. Eure-et-Loir is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790 pursuant to the Act of December 22, 1789, it was created from parts of the former provinces of Orléanais and Maine, but parts of Île-de-France. The current department corresponds to the central part of the land of the Carnutes who had their capital at Autricum; the Carnutes are known for their commitment, imagined, to the ancient Druidic religion. A holy place in the "Forest of the Carnutes" used to host the annual Druidic assembly. In the north of the department another pre-Roman people, the little-known Durocasses, had their capital at Dreux. Eure-et-Loir comprises the main part of the region of Beauce, politically it belongs to the current region of Centre-Val de Loire and is surrounded by the departments of Loir-et-Cher, Essonne, Eure and Sarthe; the inhabitants of the department are called Euréliens. The Eure-et-Loir is a department of agricultural tradition, but at the forefront in three economic sectors: The department is a major economic player in the production of grain and oilseed in France.
Its agricultural economy is still dependent on the economic and regulatory environment of the markets for crops. The Eure-et-Loir region is the first grain producer of France, it is the national leader in the production of rapeseed and peas. Wheat production is by far the most dominant in the area. Nearly 40% of all farmland is devoted to the cultivation of wheat, which has generated an average of 29% of the commercial agricultural production of the department over the last 5 years; the "Pôle AgroDynamic promotes agriculture in the department", a grouping of subsidiaries providing added values in different sectors: agro-energy, agricultural materials, Agrohealth. The Cosmetic Valley cluster, around Chartres, the most important centre of the French beauty and well-being industry, with big names such as Guerlain, Paco Rabanne, Lolita Lempicka, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac and Jean-Paul Gaultier; the Cosmetic Valley represents 2.5 billion euros of turnover, includes 200 companies, collaborates with the Universities of Orleans and Paris and employs more than 30,000 employees.
The pharmaceutical industry, around Dreux and the Polepharma cluster. Created in 2002 under the leadership of CODEL Polepharma is a cluster of French pharmaceutical production which includes companies like Ipsen, Novo Nordisk, Laboratoires Expanscience, LEO Pharma, Ethypharm Famar, Nypro, Synerlab / Sophartex and Seratec; the cluster represents 50 % of drug production in 30,000 jobs. The Pharma cluster is one of the creators of the inter-regional alliance "Pharma Valley" that has partner networks: Polepharma, CBS and Grepic; this alliance represents 60% of the production sites located in France and 2.5 billion euros of turnover. The agri-food industry, promoted by Agrodynamic, with two major companies in the sector: Ebly at Chateaudun and an Andros at Auneau. Woodcraft and furniture industry around the association Perchebois; the rubber and plastics industry, through the cluster Elastopole. The elevator manufacturer Octé has its head office in Châteauneuf-en-Thymerais The department has the lead in renewable energy.
Ranked second nationally in terms of power generation through its wind farms located in particular in the Beauce region of Eure-et-Loir in 2012 will be the largest producer of electricity with photovoltaic French original creation on the airbase NATO disused Crucey-Villages near Brezolles in the region's natural Thymerais, the largest photovoltaic park in France. Given in February 2011 by the General Council to the operator, EDF Energies Nouvelles, the park will cover 245 ha of the military base and produce the equivalent output of 160 wind turbines; the President of the General Council is Albéric de Montgolfier of the Union for a Popular Movement. The most important tourist attraction is the cathedral of Chartres, with its magnificent stained-glass windows. Church: Saint-Pierre of Dreux, Saint-Denis Chapelle Royale of Dreux Beffroi of Dreux Abbaye Saint-Florentin Castle of Anet, of Chateaudun, of Maillebois, of Maintenon, of Montigny, of Montigny-sur-Avre, of Charbonnières, Castle Saint-John, Castle of Villepion, Castle of Reverseaux Regional parc of the Perche Hasting, viking chief, Count of Chartres Hugues Capet Lords of Puiset Fulbert de Chartres bishop founder of l'École de Chartres John of Salisbury, student of Abélard and of Fulbert de Chartres.
British intellectual, friend of Thomas Becket. Bishop of Chartres from 1176 to 1180. Bernard of Tiron, founder of the monastic order of Tiron and of the abbey of Thiron-Gardais. Jean II of France, who signed the Treaty of Brittany during the Hundred Years War at Sours, Brittany Philippe VI of France died at the Abbey of Notre-Dame of Coulombs, near Nogent-le-Roi Rémy Belleau poet of the Pléiade Jean Louis de Nogaret de La Valette, Duc d'Épernon, minion of Henri III of France. Henri IV of France entombed in Chartres Cathedral Maximilien de Béthune, duke of Sully-sur-Loire died at the château Villebon, buried at Nogent-le-Rotrou) Jeanne of France, born in Nogent-le-Roi, wife of Louis XII of France, canonised by the Pope Pius XII in 1950. Diane de Poitiers Chaïm Soutine Émile Zola, inspired by Romilly-sur-Aigre for his novel La Terre Lolita Lempicka, perfumier who lives in
Louis VI of France
Louis VI, called the Fat or the Fighter, was King of the Franks from 1108 to 1137, the fifth from the House of Capet. Chronicles called him "roi de Saint-Denis". Louis was the first member of his house to make a lasting contribution to the centralizing institutions of royal power, he spent all of his twenty-nine-year reign fighting either the "robber barons" who plagued Paris or the Norman kings of England for their continental possession of Normandy. Nonetheless, Louis VI managed to reinforce his power and became one of the first strong kings of France since the death of Charlemagne in 814. Louis was a warrior king but by his forties his weight had become so great that it was difficult for him to lead in the field. A biography - The Deeds of Louis the Fat, prepared by his loyal advisor Abbot Suger of Saint Denis - offers a developed portrait of his character, in contrast to what little historians know about most of his predecessors. Louis was born around the son of Philip I and Bertha of Holland.
Suger tells us: "In his youth, growing courage matured his spirit with youthful vigour, making him bored with hunting and the boyish games with which others of his age used to enjoy themselves and forget the pursuit of arms." And..."How valiant he was in youth, with what energy he repelled the king of the English, William Rufus, when he attacked Louis' inherited kingdom."Louis married Lucienne de Rochefort, the daughter of his father's seneschal, in 1104, but repudiated her three years later. They had no children. On 3 August 1115 Louis married Adelaide of Maurienne, daughter of Humbert II of Savoy and of Gisela of Burgundy, niece of Pope Callixtus II, they had eight children. Adelaide was one of the most politically active of all France's medieval queens, her name appears on 45 royal charters from the reign of Louis VI. During her time as queen, royal charters were dated with both that of the king. Suger became Louis's adviser before he succeeded his father as king at the age of 26 on 29 July 1108.
Louis's half-brother prevented him from reaching Rheims, so Daimbert, Archbishop of Sens, crowned him in the cathedral of Orléans on 3 August. Ralph the Green, Archbishop of Rheims, sent envoys to challenge the validity of the coronation and anointing, but to no avail; when Louis ascended the throne the Kingdom of France was a collection of feudal principalities. Beyond the Isle de France the French Kings had little authority over the great Dukes and Counts of the realm but Louis began to change this and assert Capetian rights; this process would take two centuries to complete but began in the reign of Louis VI. The second great challenge facing Louis was to counter the rising power of the Anglo-Normans under their capable new King, Henry I of England. From early in his reign Louis faced the problem of the robber barons who resisted the King's authority and engaged in brigandry, making the area around Paris unsafe. From their castles, such as Le Puiset and Montlhery, these barons would charge tolls, waylay merchants and pilgrims, terrorize the peasantry and loot churches and abbeys, the latter deeds drawing the ire of the writers of the day, who were clerics.
In 1108, soon after he ascended the throne, Louis engaged in war with Hugh of Crecy, plaguing the countryside and had captured Eudes, Count of Corbeil, imprisoned him at La Ferte-Alais. Louis besieged. In early 1109, Louis besieged his half-brother, the son of Bertrade de Montfort, involved in brigandry and conspiracies against the King, at Mantes-la-Jolie. Philip's plots included the lords of Montfort-l'Amaury. Amaury III of Montfort held many castles which, when linked together, formed a continuous barrier between Louis and vast swathes of his domains, threatening all communication south of Paris. In 1108-1109 a seigneur named Aymon Vaire-Vache seized the lordship of Bourbon from his nephew, Archambaud, a minor. Louis demanded the boy be restored to his rights but Aymon refused the summons. Louis raised his army and besieged Aymon at his castle at Germigny-sur-l'Aubois, forcing its surrender and enforcing the rights of Archambaud. In 1121, Louis established the marchands de l'eau. In 1122, Bishop of Clermont, appealed to Louis after William VI, Count of Auvergne, had driven him from his episcopal town.
When William refused Louis' summons, Louis raised an army at Bourges, marched into Auvergne, supported by some of his leading vassals, such as the Counts of Anjou and Nevers. Louis seized the fortress of Pont-du-Chateau on the Allier attacked Clermont, which William was forced to abandon. Aimeri was restored. Four years William rebelled again and Louis, though his increasing weight made campaigning difficult, marched again, he burned Montferrand and seized Clermont a second time, captured William, brought him before the court at Orleans to answer for his crimes. Some of the outlaws became notorious for their cruelty, the most notable being Thomas, Lord of Coucy, reputed to indulge in torture of his victims, including hanging men by their testicles, cutting out eyes, chopping off feet. Guibert of Nogent noted of him, "No one can imagine the number of those who perished in his dungeons, from starvation, from torture, from filth."Another notable brigand was Hugh, Lord of Le Puiset, ravaging the lands around Chartres.
In March 1111, Louis heard charges against Hugh at his court at Melun from Theobald II, Count of Champagne, the Archbishop of Sens, from bishops and abbots. Louis commanded Hugh to appear before him to answer these charges. Lou
Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, Duke of Penthièvre
Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon was the son of Louis Alexandre de Bourbon and his wife Marie Victoire de Noailles. He was a grandson of Louis XIV of France and his mistress, Madame de Montespan. From birth he was known as the Duke of Penthièvre, he possessed the following titles: Prince of Lamballe. He was the father in law of Philippe Égalité. Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon was born at the Château de Rambouillet, the son of Louis XIV's youngest legitimised son with Madame de Montespan, the Count of Toulouse, his wife, Marie Victoire de Noailles, one of the daughters of Anne Jules de Noailles, Duke of Noailles. Since his mother acted as a surrogate parent to the young, orphaned Louis XV, the duke formed a close relationship with the young monarch, his godfather. At the age of twelve, upon his father's death, he succeeded to his father's military posts and titles: Admiral of France Grand Master of France Grand Huntsman of France Marshal of France Governor of BrittanyOn 2 July 1733 at the age of eight, he was made a maréchal de camp and the next year, a lieutenant général.
In 1740, he received the Ordre de la Toison d'or from the King of Spain. In 1742, King Louis XV conferred upon him the Order of the Holy Spirit, he served in the military under his maternal uncle, the maréchal-duc de Noailles, fought brilliantly at Dettingen in 1743 and Fontenoy in 1745. As the possessor of one of the largest fortunes in Europe, Louis Jean Marie was a attractive marriage candidate considering his close links with the French royal family. A suggestion was made that he marry his cousin, Louise Henriette de Bourbon, the eldest granddaughter of his paternal aunt, Louise-Françoise de Bourbon; this idea, was abandoned as Louise Henriette's mother wished her daughter to marry Louis Philippe d'Orléans, the heir of the House of Orléans. In 1744, at the age of nineteen, Penthièvre married Princess Maria Teresa Felicitas of Modena, the daughter of Francesco III d'Este, the sovereign Duke of Modena and Reggio, his first cousin, Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans; the young couple occupied a suite of apartments at Versailles, occupied by their joint ancestor Madame de Montespan.
These apartments were used by the duke and his family until the reign of Louis XVI of France when the space was given to Mesdames, the new king's spinster aunts, Louis XV's unmarried daughters. The couple had seven children, only two of whom survived infancy: Louis Marie de Bourbon, duc de Rambouillet. Louis Alexandre Joseph Stanislas de Bourbon, prince de Lamballe, married Princess Marie Louise of Savoy and had no issue. Jean Marie de Bourbon, Hôtel de Toulouse, Paris, 17 July 1748 – Hôtel de Toulouse, Paris, 19 May 1755), duc de Châteauvillain. Vincent Marie Louis de Bourbon, comte de Guingamp. Marie Louise de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Penthièvre. Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, Mademoiselle d'Ivoy and Mademoiselle de Penthièvre, married Philippe d'Orléans and had issue. Louis Marie Félicité de Bourbon; the Duchess of Penthièvre died in childbirth in 1754, at the age of 28, her last child surviving her only a few hours. Inconsolable at the loss of his young wife, the duke never married again.
After his wife's death, the duke lived away from the court at Versailles, dividing his time between two of his many country residences, the Château de Rambouillet and the Château de Sceaux. He devoted the majority of the rest of his life to dispensing charity. During the French Revolution, he gave refuge in Sceaux to the poet Jean Pierre Claris de Florian, one of his pages and his secretary at the Château d'Anet and the Hôtel de Toulouse in Paris. In 1791, he moved to the Château de Bizy, at Vernon in Normandy, where his daughter joined him in April of that year after leaving her husband, the Duke of Orléans. Respected by the people because of his philanthropy, the duke was never bothered by the radicals as the French Revolution progressed. Others of his immediate family, were not spared. On 3 September 1792, his daughter-in-law, the princesse de Lamballe, was savagely murdered, on 21 January 1793, his cousin Louis XVI was executed, he never saw the arrest of his daughter in April 1793. On the night of 6 to 7 March, his body was brought clandestinely to Dreux, where it was buried in the family crypt at the Collégiale Saint-Étienne.
Nine months on the afternoon of 21 November 1793 a group of Jacobin radicals and their workmen broke into the chapel, with the excuse of searching for lead and destroying feudal symbols, outlawed. They smashed the armorial decorations, uprooted the coffins, treated the remains of the royally-connected Penthievre family to a common pauper's burial, in a quicklime-coated pit in the nearby canons' cemetery. Similar treatment had been given to the remains of the duc's executed cousin King Louis XVI in Paris, to the
Communes of France
The commune is a level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are analogous to civil townships and incorporated municipalities in the United States and Canada, Gemeinden in Germany, comuni in Italy or ayuntamiento in Spain; the United Kingdom has no exact equivalent, as communes resemble districts in urban areas, but are closer to parishes in rural areas where districts are much larger. Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and are vested with significant powers to manage the populations and land of the geographic area covered; the communes are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France. Communes vary in size and area, from large sprawling cities with millions of inhabitants like Paris, to small hamlets with only a handful of inhabitants. Communes are based on pre-existing villages and facilitate local governance. All communes have names, but not all named geographic areas or groups of people residing together are communes, the difference residing in the lack of administrative powers.
Except for the municipal arrondissements of its largest cities, the communes are the lowest level of administrative division in France and are governed by elected officials with extensive autonomous powers to implement national policy. A commune is city, or other municipality. "Commune" in English has a historical bias, implies an association with socialist political movements or philosophies, collectivist lifestyles, or particular history. There is nothing intrinsically different between commune in French; the French word commune appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia, for a large gathering of people sharing a common life. As of January 2015, there were 36,681 communes in France, 36,552 of them in metropolitan France and 129 of them overseas; this is a higher total than that of any other European country, because French communes still reflect the division of France into villages or parishes at the time of the French Revolution. The whole territory of the French Republic is divided into communes.
This is unlike some other countries, such as the United States, where unincorporated areas directly governed by a county or a higher authority can be found. There are only a few exceptions: COM of Saint-Martin, it was a commune inside the Guadeloupe région. The commune structure was abolished when Saint-Martin became an overseas collectivity on 22 February 2007. COM of Wallis and Futuna, which still is divided according to the three traditional chiefdoms. COM of Saint Barthélemy, it was a commune inside the Guadeloupe region. The commune structure was abolished when Saint-Barthélemy became an overseas collectivity on 22 February 2007. Furthermore, two regions without permanent habitation have no communes: TOM of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands Clipperton Island in the Pacific Ocean In metropolitan France, the average area of a commune in 2004 was 14.88 square kilometres. The median area of metropolitan France's communes at the 1999 census was smaller, at 10.73 square kilometres. The median area is a better measure of the area of a typical French commune.
This median area is smaller than that of most European countries. In Italy, the median area of communes is 22 km2. Switzerland and the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia in Germany were the only places in Europe where the communes had a smaller median area than in France; the communes of France's overseas départements such as Réunion and French Guiana are large by French standards. They group into the same commune several villages or towns with sizeable distances among them. In Réunion, demographic expansion and sprawling urbanization have resulted in the administrative splitting of some communes; the median population of metropolitan France's communes at the 1999 census was 380 inhabitants. Again this is a small number, here France stands apart in Europe, with the lowest communes' median population of all the European countries; this small median population of French communes can be compared with Italy, where the median population of communes in 2001 was 2,343 inhabitants, Belgium, or Spain.
The median population given here should not hide the fact that there are pronounced differences in size between French communes. As mentioned in the introduction, a commune can be a city of 2 million inhabitants such as Paris, a town of 10,000 inhabitants, or just a hamlet of 10 inhabitants. What the median population tells us is that the vast majority of the French communes only have a few hundred inhabitants. In metropolitan France just over 50 percent of the 36,683 communes have fewer than 500 inhabitants a
Counts of Dreux
The Counts of Dreux were a noble family of France, who took their title from the chief stronghold of their domain, the château of Dreux, which lies near the boundary between Normandy and the Île-de-France. They are notable for inheriting the Duchy of Brittany through Pierre de Dreux's marriage to Alix de Thouars in the early 13th century. In the tenth century the lands belonged to the forebears of the Capetians. In 1017 the lands were given as dowry to Richard's illegitimate daughter Matilda, who married Odo II, Count of Blois. King Robert II of France confiscated the lands of Dreux from Odo, they formed part of the royal domain until Louis the Fat granted the county of Dreux as an appanage to his son Robert; the descendants of Robert held the county of Dreux until 1355, when the heiress, Countess Joan II of Dreux, married Simon de Thouars. Simon and Joan had no sons. King Charles gave the county of Dreux as a dowry in the marriage of his kinswoman Marguerite de Bourbon, daughter of Peter, Duke of Bourbon and of Isabella de Valois, daughter of Charles of Valois, with Arnaud-Amanieu d'Albret in 1382.
The county returned to the crown in 1556, thereafter formed part of the royal domain the lands of François, Duke of Anjou, after his death was sold to the Duke of Nemours. It returned to the royal domain in the reign of Louis XV. 1355-1365: Simon 1365-1377: Péronelle 1365-1377: Isabeau 1365-1377: Margaret In 1377 the three sisters sell their fief to the French crown. 1382-1401: Arnaud Amanieu 1401-1415: Charles I 1415-1471: Charles II John IV 1471-1522: Alain - Alain the Great John V 1522-1555: Henry I 1555-1572: Jeanne
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Todi, Italy, since 1960
Melsungen, Germany, since 1966
Koudougou, Burkina Faso, since 1972
Evesham, England, United Kingdom, since 1977
Mohammedia, Morocco, since 2010
