ANGELA BIRD'S
|
|
The |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Photo: Angela Bird |
When Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henri
Plantagenet, Duke of Normandy (and, later, King Henry II of England) in 1152,
she brought as her dowry vast areas of western France. Combined with her
husband's existing lands in the north, this meant that half of France was in
English hands. The pretty Vendée village of
Nieul-sur-l'Autise is thought to be the birthplace of Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Nieul's Romanesque abbey, left, was the burial place of Eleanor's mother. |
|
|
|
|
Photo: Angela Bird |
Eleanor's son Richard the Lionheart -
Richard I of England - liked the Bas-Poitou (as theVendée was then known) and
often based himself in the region, notably at Talmont (left), either for
fighting or hunting. A century later the English king Edward III, grandson of
king Philippe IV of France, made a claim to the French crown. The resulting Hundred Years' War betwen the two
countries - sustained by England's Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V - turned
much of north and western France into a battleground until 1453 when the
French succeeded in winning back everything but the town of Calais. |
|
|
|
|
Photo: Angela Bird |
Since the Vendée held a considerable
number of influential Protestants, the region was also greatly marked by the
36-year Wars of Religion which
broke out in 1562. Eventually the French king Henri IV, who had been brought
up a Protestant and converted to Catholicism on his accession, granted
freedom of worship to the Protestants in 1598, through the Edict of Nantes, and the Wars of
Religion came to an end. (The Edict of Nantes was revoked in 1685, causing
many Protestants to flee from France.) A stone Plantagenet-style figure, left,
visible in the Romanesque church of Angles is thought to be of Richard
Coeur-de-Lion, or of his father Henry II of England. |
|
|
|
|
Photo: Angela Bird |
Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642) -
one-time bishop of Luçon - who was chief minister to Louis XIII between 1624
and 1642, saw the need to unite the whole of France under one crown. To
reduce the power of the provincial dukes and princes, he ordered the
destruction of their strongholds, reducing such Vendean castles as Talmont,
La Garnache, Les Essarts and Apremont to ruins. Richelieu, left, seen against the
backdrop of Luçon cathedral |
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE WARS OF THE VENDÉE
|
After the Storming of the Bastille in 1789 and the
Declaration of the |
|||
|
Photo: Angela Bird |
New ideas permeated only slowly to the
Vendée, more than 200 miles from Paris. In this rural region, then known as
Bas-Poitou, social inequality was not as marked as elsewhere. The aristocrats
were less rich, their tenant farmers less poor, and the priests more revered. The Vendean peasants were dismayed to
find that the Revolution removed their king (Louis XVI was executed in
January 1793), forced on them the unpopular new priests loyal to the changed
order, and called for the payment to the Republican government of even higher
taxes than had been due under the monarchy. The confiscated goods of the old
Church and deported clergy were thought to be lining the pockets of the
bourgeoisie who had engineered for themselves top administrative posts.
Ignoring the newly sworn-in priests who had been assigned to their churches,
the Vendeans continued to worship clandestinely at open-air Masses said by
rebellious, pre-Revolutionary clergy. Vendean farmers, left, took up scythes
and billhooks to protect themselves. |
|
|
|
Photo: Angela Bird |
The spark that ignited the three years
of horrific civil warfare, was the Republican government's decision in
February 1793 to raise a 300,000-strong army for the defence of France's
borders against threatened invasion by neighbouring countries opposed to the
overthrow of the French monarchy. The people of Bas-Poitou and neighbouring départements refused to submit to
formal conscription so Republican soldiers were sent in to draw names at
random. Riots ensued. In March the inhabitants of Machecoul massacred the Republican
troops billeted in the town; other villages followed suit. But generally
counted as the start of the wars was the mass refusal of conscription, on 11
March 1793, by the people of St-Florent-le-Vieil, midway between Nantes and
Angers, in the département of
Maine-et-Loire. Switching their scythe blades from horizontal to vertical,
the populace routed the "Bleus" ("Blues", or Republican
troops, sometimes referred to as "patriots"), and captured their
cannon, then called upon a humble carter, Jacques Cathelineau, to lead them. Cathelineau and, later, Jean-Nicolas Stofflet were working-class generals;
for the rest, the Vendean peasants prevailed on trusted members of the local
aristocracy to take command - François-Athanase Charette de la Contrie, Henri de Lescure, Henri de la
Rochejaquelein, the Duc d'Elbée
- whose names have passed into local folklore. The stone, left, at Nuaillé - near
Cholet - marks the place where Henri de la Rochejaquelein fell. |
|
|
|
The initially ill-equipped Republicans
were soon reinforced, and the early Vendean victories turned to defeat at
Nantes (where Cathelineau was mortally wounded). The Vendeans (also known as
"Whites", or "brigands") lost Cholet and then, in search
of hoped-for reinforcements from England (whence many of the French nobility
had fled), made a seemingly-impossible dash, known as the "Virée de
Galerne", north across the river Loire. On 18 October 1793 the Vendeans
ferried between 60,000 and 100,000 men, women and children over the wide and
treacherous river. After an epic 200km march north in an attempt to capture a
suitable Channel port ready to receive the expected English aid, the Vendeans
laid siege to the town of Granville in November. Having failed to take the
port, they set off back towards the Loire. At Le Mans, 10,000 were cut down
at the hands of the heavily-armed Republicans. Tens of thousands more died,
either in combat or from sickness or hunger. In December 1793 just a few
thousand managed to re-cross the Loire. Determined that such insurrection should
never happen again, the Republicans sent "colonnes infernales" ("fiery columns" of troops)
to lay waste every village and kill every remaining person in the département of Bas-Poitou - that would
henceforth be renamed "Vendée". From early 1794 these death squads
passed from village to village burning, pillaging and massacring. At Les Lucs-sur-Boulogne 563 people -
women, children and old men - were shot as they knelt in church. (Try clicking on various headings on
the Les Lucs/Chabotterie website for “virtual tours” of memorial and chapel) |
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Photo: Josette Ahuir |
The few surviving Vendeans returned home
to ruined houses, murdered families. Hiding out among the gorse and the
forests, they continued to wage a guerrilla warfare for many months. Charette
and Stofflet signed peace treaties with the Republicans in 1795, though
Charette continued to lead skirmishes and ambushes against the Blues until
his capture at La Chabotterie in
March 1796, and his subsequent execution.
|
|
|
Under a treaty drawn up by the
Republican General Hoche in 1799, freedom of worship returned to France.
Napoleon Bonaparte made supervision of the unruly region less difficult by
transferring the capital from Fontenay-le-Comte to La Roche-sur-Yon, then a mere village, in the geographical heart
of the Vendée. Although, with Charette's death, the
wars had reached an end, some further attempts were made to rekindle them. In
1815, Louis de La Rochejaquelein (brother of Henri) carried out an
unsuccessful invasion near Croix-de-Vie. Seventeen years later the Duchesse
de Berry tried to seize the French throne for her son, the Duke of Bordeaux -
grandson of Charles X. © Angela Bird |
|
|
|
|
|
PLACES ASSOCIATED WITH THE VENDÉE WARS
Tourist offices stock maps describing Les
Routes de la Vendée Militaire.
Among
the most interesting museums and other places associated with the Vendée Wars
are:
|
Photo: La Chabotterie website |
The Logis de la Chabotterie, near
St-Sulpice-le-Verdon; an elegant manor house where the Vendean general
Charette was captured and interrogated. Now an informative museum and
discovery centre, with large park, and a beautifully-tended garden. The south façade of La Chabotterie,
left, overlooks the colourful parterre garden.. |
|
Photo: La Chabotterie/ |
Les
Lucs-sur-Boulogne, scene of a terrible massacre where 563 people were
locked in a church, shot and then burnt by Republicans. Memorial chapel of
Les Petits-Lucs, built on the site; new, state-of-the-art Chemin de la
Mémoire building; stained-glass windows in village church. The solid grey stone of the Mémorial des
Lucs is a focal point for memory.. |
|
Photo: Angela Bird |
The Historial
de la Vendée, also at Les Lucs-sur-Boulogne, is a comprehensive modern
museum on Vendée history from earliest times. It has a large section devoted to the “Guerres de Vendée”. There’s so much to take in at the
Historial, you might want to take advantage of the annual “pass” for 24€
which gives free admission for 12 months, not only to the Historial but also
to all the other sites run by the Vendée Conseil Général. These are: Logis de la Chabotterie- Château de
Tiffauges – Haras de la Vendée – Cité des oiseaux – Prieuré
de Grammont – Abbaye de Nieul-sur- l’Autise and Abbaye de Maillezais. |
|
Photo: Noirmoutier tourism brochure |
Noirmoutier Castle, on the island of the same name, for the
bullet-ridden chair where d'Elbée was shot on the square outside, also the
painting of this scene, and other souvenirs.
|
|
Photo: Angela Bird |
Le Mont des Alouettes, near Les Herbiers; three remaining windmills of
the seven whose sails were used to pass coded messages to the guerrilla
warriors indicating the whereabouts of the Republican troops. One of the remaining windmills, left, at
Le Mont des Alouettes. |
|
Photo: Refuge de Grasla brochure |
Forest of Grasla, north of La Roche-sur-Yon; 2,500 Vendeans hid out
here for six months in 1794. One of the most attractive corners of
the Vendée, the Refuge de Grasla, left, is a reconstruction of the woodland
shelters constructed by Vendeans trying to hide from the Republican forces. |
|
Photo: Cholet |
Musée d'Art et
d'Histoire, at Cholet; paintings, objects and explanations in an
ultra-modern setting.
|
|
|
Le Panthéon de la Vendée, cemetery at La Gaubretière , near Les Herbiers, where many combattants
are buried. |
WEB SITES DEALING WITH THE WARS
|
in
French You can click on links to see some of
the stained-glass windows (vitraux)
in the area that tell parts of the story. |
BOOKS DEALING WITH THE VENDEE WARS
|
|
by Anthony Trollope Available here for
download, free from Project Gutenberg First published in 1850, Trollope's
historical novel based on the diaries of Madame de la Rochejaquelein (who was
married to - and lost - two husbands who were civil war leaders), is an
excellent introduction to this tragic episode in Vendée history. |
|
|
by Simon Schama Fascinating and highly readable account
of the French Revolution, by well-known historian Simon Schama, including an
excellent section examining the often-ignored Vendée Wars. |
|
|
by Veronica Bamfield A study of the major leaders in the
Vendee Wars by the late Veronica Bamfield, a traveller, writer and
broadcaster, who became fascinated by the Vendée Wars in the 1970s. She based
herself in the area, and interviewed the descendants of many of the people
involved. Order from www.lulu.com |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
20th-CENTURY HISTORY |
|
|
|
|
|
Photo: Angela Bird |
The conscription of World War I, and the
horrific loss of men’s lives in the trenches, did not spare the inhabitants
of the Vendée – as can be seen from a look at any village war memorial
in the area. One event that has developed near-mythic
status is “La Tranchée des Baionnettes” of 11 June 1916. On that day, French
infantrymen (including many from the 93rd RI of La Roche-sur-Yon)
were in a trench near Douaumont,
preparing for an assault on the enemy.
As they stood in readiness, with fixed bayonets, a massive explosion
nearby caused the earth to cave in around them, burying alive 57 men
(including 33 Vendeans).
In recent times, a musical has been written that commemorates this
event, which is produced occasionally in the area. It is called Clemenceau,
la Tranchée de Baionnettes, and also commemorates Vendée-born Georges Clemenceau, the politician
who drew up the peace treaty that ended World War I. Elegant
war memorial by Vendean sculptors Jan and Joel Martel, in the village of Venansault |
|
Photo: Angela Bird |
Vendée-born Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, who had joined General de Gaulle’s
Free French in London, led French troops in a successful invasion of France
from the Mediterranean in August 1944, and signed the peace treaty on behalf
of France in Berlin in 1945.
There is much to see in connection with de Lattre at his home village
of Mouilleron-en-Pareds (see p119 of current Vendée book). After the World War II, France’s Marshal
Pétain, who had surrendered his country to Germany in 1940, was tried for
treason and sentenced to life imprisonment on the Ile d’Yeu, off the Vendée
coast. You can visit the citadel where he was confined, the graveyard in
which he is buried, and the former home of his wife during the marshal’s
exile (see p60 of current Vendée book). Statue
of Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, on a hill above Mouilleron-en-Pareds |
|
Photo: Angela Bird |
For more than four years of World War
II, from 1940, the Vendée was occupied by German forces, who commandeered the
coastline and denied access to many villages along it. Frenchmen who had been
in the army at the time of the fall of France in 1940 became prisoners of
war, and spent many years in captivity in Germany. Vestiges of the defences that made up
Hitler’s impregnable “Atlantic
Wall”, built by slave labour, can be seen on the beaches at Pont-Jaunay, Jard
and other places. Especially interesting places to visit are the Grand
Blockhaus, across the Loire at Batz (see page 150 of current book), and the
vast submarine base at St-Nazaire (see page 166). Le
Grand Blockhaus, at Batz-sur-Mer, near La Baule. © Angela Bird |
|
|
|
|
FURTHER READING |
|
|
|
by Charles Williams A biography of France’s Marshal Pétain,
a military hero of World War I. However, in 1940 he handed his country to the
Germans and became an enthusiastic collaborator. After World War II Pétain was tried for treason and
sentenced to death – commuted to life imprisonment in a lonely fort on
the Ile d’Yeu. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
THE VENDÉE TODAY |
|
|
© Angela Bird |
|
| index page |
| activities | beaches | calendar | cottage rental | courses |
|guidebook | guidebook update | history |
| introduction to the vendee | links | markets |
| practical info | property-owners' pages | restaurants | themed pages | wines |
| mail webmaster by returning to the bottom of the index page |