Editing Rouen (section)

==<FONT COLOR="#0000CC">'''HISTORY OF ROUEN'''</FONT>==
Rouen was founded by the Gaulish tribe of the Veliocassi, who controlled a large area in the lower Seine valley. They called it Ratumacos, the Romans called it ''Rotomagus''. '''Roman Rotomagus was the second city of Gallia Lugdunensis after Lugdunum ([[Lyon]]) itself'''. Under the reorganization of Diocletian, Rouen was the chief city of the divided province Gallia Lugdunensis II and reached the apogee of its Roman development, with an amphitheatre and ''thermae'' of which foundations remain. In the fifth century it became the seat of a bishopric, though the names of early bishops are purely legendary and later a capital of Merovingian Neustria. <br />
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From their first incursion in the lower valley of the Seine in 841, '''the Normans overran Rouen; from 912 Rouen was the capital of the Duchy of Normandy and residence of the duke of Normandy''' until William the Conqueror established his castle at [[Caen]]. <br />
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In 1150 Rouen received its founding charter, permitting self-government. During the twelfth century Rouen was the site of a yeshiva; at that time, about 6,000 Jews lived in the town, comprising about 20% of the population, in addition to a large number of Jews scattered about another 100 communities in Normandy. The well-preserved remains of the yeshiva were discovered in the 1970s under the Rouen Law Courts, and the community has begun a project to restore them.<br />
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In 1200 a fire destroyed a part of the old cathedral and the present Gothic mainworks for the Cathedral of Rouen were begun. On June 24, 1204 Philippe Auguste entered Rouen and definitively annexed Normandy to the France in the Middle Ages. He demolished the Norman castle and replaced it with his own, the Château Bouvreuil, built on the site of the Gallo-Roman amphitheatre. '''A textile industry developed, based on wool imported from England, for which the cities of Flanders and Brabant were constantly competitors''', and finding its market in the Champagne fairs. Rouen depended for its prosperity also on the river traffic of the Seine, of which it enjoyed a monopoly that reached as far upstream as [[Paris]]. Wine and wheat were exported to England, as tin and wool received in return. In the fourteenth century urban strife threatened the city: in 1291 the mayor was assassinated and noble residences in the city were pillaged. Philip IV of France reimposed order and suppressed the city's charter and the lucrative monopoly on river traffic; but he was quite willing for the Rouennais to repurchase their old liberties in 1294. In 1306 he decided to expel the Jewish community of Rouen, then numbering some five or six thousands. In 1389 another urban revolt of the underclass occurred, the ''Harelle''; it was part of widespread rebellion in France that year and was suppressed with the withdrawal of Rouen's charter and river-traffic privileges once more.<br />
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During the Hundred Years' War, on January 19, 1419, Rouen surrendered to Henry V of England, who annexed Normandy once again to the Plantagenet domains. But Rouen did not go quietly: Alan Blanchard hung English prisoners from the walls, for which he was summarily executed; Canon of Rouen Robert de Livet became a hero for excommunicating the English king, resulting in de Livet's imprisonment for five years in England. '''Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen on May 30, 1431 in this city''', where most inhabitants supported the duke of Burgundy, Joan of Arc's king enemy. The king of France Charles VII of France recaptured the town in 1449.<br />
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The city was heavily damaged during World War II on D-day and its famed cathedral was almost destroyed by Allied bombs. During the Nazi occupation, the German Navy had its headquarters located in a chateau on the ESC Rouen (École Supérieure de Commerce de Rouen) campus.<br />
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'''''More informations about the History of Rouen on the [[wikipedia:Rouen]] !'''''