| Main city : POITIERS
capital of Vienne dept., W central
France, on the Clain River. The ancient capital of Poitou, it is now an industrial, agricultural, and
communications center.
Poitiers's industries include
metallurgy, machine building, printing, and the manufacture of chemicals and electrical
equipment. The city was the capital of the Pictons, a Gallic people, and under the Romans
was called Limonum. Christianized early in Roman times, it was a stronghold of orthodoxy
under its first bishop, St. Hilary of Poitiers (4th cent.), and, because of its important
monasteries, was a great religious center of Gaul. A residence of Visigoth
kings, the city was captured (507) by the Franks under Clovis I. In 732, Charles Martel
turned the Muslim tide by defeating the Saracens between Poitiers and Tours. Poitiers was
often sacked by the Normans in the 9th cent. It was twice under English rule
(1152–1204, 1360–72) and was the location of the brilliant court of Eleanor of
Aquitaine. At Poitiers in 1356, Edward the Black Prince defeated and captured John II of
France and his son, Philip the Bold of Burgundy. Charles VII had his court in Poitiers
from 1423 to 1436 and founded a university there in 1432. In the Wars of Religion
(1562–98) the city was unsuccessfully besieged (1568) by the Huguenots; in 1577 the Peace of Bergerac (also known as
the Edict of Poitiers) was signed there granting religious freedom (see Religion, Wars of). |
