Cambrai

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Commune of Cambrai
Location
Longitude 03°14'08" E
Latitude 50°10'36" N
Administration
Country France
Region Nord-Pas de Calais
Department Nord (sous-préfecture)
Arrondissement Cambrai
Canton Cambrai
Intercommunality Communauté
d'agglomération
de Cambrai
Mayor François-Xavier Villain
(2001-2008)
Statistics
Altitude 41 m–101 m
(avg. 60m)
Land area¹ 18.12 km²
Population²
(1999)		 (Cambrésiens) 33,716
 - Density (1999) 1,861/km²
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code 59122/ 59400
¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 mi² or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
² Population sans doubles comptes: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel).
France

Cambrai (Dutch: Kamerijk; old spelling Cambray) is a French town and commune, in the Nord département, of which it is a sous-préfecture.

Cambrai is the seat of an archdiocese whose jurisdiction was immense during the Middle Ages. The territory of the Bishopric of Cambrai, roughly coinciding with the shire of Brabant, included the central part of the Low Countries. The bishopric had some limited secular power.

The Battle of Cambrai (20 November - 3 December 1917), a campaign of World War I took place there. It was noted for the first successful use of tanks.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Roman times

Little is known with certainty of the beginnings of Cambrai. Camaracum or Camaraco, as it was known to the Romans, is mentioned for the first time on the Peutinger table in the middle of the 4th century. It was a town of the Nervii, whose "capital" was at Bagacum, present-day Bavay.

In the middle of the 4th century Frankish raids from the north led the Romans to build forts along the Cologne to Bavay to Cambrai road, and thence to Boulogne. Cambrai thus occupied an important strategic position. In the early 5th century the town had become the administrative centre of the Nervii in replacement of Bavay which was probably too exposed to the Franks' raids and perhaps too damaged.

Christianism arrived in the region at about the same time. A bishop of the Nervii by the name of Superior is mentioned in the middle of the 4th century, but nothing else is known about him.

In 430 the Salian Franks under the command of Clodio the Long-Haired took the town. In the early 6th century Clovis undertook to unify the Frankish kingdoms by getting rid of his relatives. One of them was Ragnacharius, who ruled over a small kingdom from Cambrai.

In 870 the town was destroyed by the Normans.[1]

[edit] Music history

Cambrai has a distinguished musical history, particularly in the 15th century. The cathedral there, a musical center until the 17th century, had one of the most active musical establishments in the Low Countries; many composers of the Burgundian School either grew up and learned their craft there, or returned to teach. In 1428 Philippe de Luxembourg claimed that the cathedral was the finest in all of Christendom, for the fineness of its singing, its light, and the sweetness of its bells. Guillaume Dufay, the most famous European musician of the 15th century, studied at the cathedral from 1409 to 1412, and returned in 1439 after spending many years in Italy: other composers such as Johannes Tinctoris and Ockeghem went to Cambrai to study with him.

Canadian Soldiers at a Thanksgiving ceremony at Cambrai Cathedral WWI
Canadian Soldiers at a Thanksgiving ceremony at Cambrai Cathedral WWI

Cambrai cathedral had other famous composers in the later 15th century, including Nicolas Grenon, Alexander Agricola, and Jacob Obrecht. In the 16th century, Philippe de Monte, Johannes Lupi, and Jacobus de Kerle all worked there.

As the economic center of northern Europe moved away from Bruges, the area became poorer, with an associated period of cultural decline. The cathedral was destroyed in 1796, but the archives were preserved (presently they are in the Archives Départmentales du Nord at Lille).

There was a pub L'homme armé in Cambrai, across the street from Dufay's residence.

[edit] Births

Cambrai was the birthplace of:

[edit] Twin towns

Cambrai (Drawing)
Cambrai (Drawing)

Cambrai is twinned with:

[edit] Role in the Italian Wars

Cambrai was the site of negotiations that led to the League of Cambrai, an alliance created by Pope Julius II against the Republic of Venice, in 1508. The League collapsed in 1510 when Julius allied with Venice against his former ally France. The conflict is referred to as the War of the League of Cambrai and lasted from 1508 to 1516.

Cambrai was also the site of negatiations in 1529 that led to France's withdrawal from the War of the League of Cognac.

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
  • David Fallows, Barbara H. Haggh: "Cambrai", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed December 18, 2005), (subscription access) (source for the music history section)
  • "Cambrai." Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed. New York, Encyclopedia Britannica Co., 1910.
  • "Histoire de Cambrai", sous la direction de Louis Trénard, Presses Universitaires de Lille, 1982.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, "Cambrai"

[edit] External links

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