The Cambrésis is one of the old countries and Provinces of France and one of the natural areas of France. The city-center of Cambrésis is Cambrai.

Geography

Cambrésis is presented in the form of a plain to the soft undulations. It is located enters, in the east, the hills of the Thiérache and the Avesnois, buttresses of the the Ardennes and with the west the hills of the Artois, end of the Paris basin. It is a point relatively low (“threshold of Cambrésis” sometimes also called “threshold of Bapaume”) which facilitates the passage between the south and north: Bapaume (Artois): 100 m; Avesnes-on Helpe (Avesnois): 143 m; Cambric 41-101 Mr.

This “country of chalk” rests on layers of limestone dating from the cretaceous, themselves covered with Lœss and silts accumulated by the winds, which make the ground very fertile. Cambrésis is a beet and grain-bearing land. The landscape of Openfield which dominates most of the country starts to yield the place, in the east of the Cateau-Cambrésis, the Bocage.

Hydrography

Cambrésis corresponds about to the catchment area of the high valley of the the Scheldt and to that of its affluent of Right Bank, the Selle, which sprinkles Cateau-Cambrésis and Solesmes.

History

Antiquity and Early middle ages

At the time Gallo-Roman current Cambrésis belonged to the Cité ( civitas ) of the Nerviens, which roughly speaking extended on all Right Bank from the the Scheldt and whose capital was initially Bagacum or Bavay, then about the middle of the 4th century Camaracum or Cambric.

The évêché of Cambric, installed at the 6th century and which merged with the city of Nerviens, was divided into six pagi or “country”:

  • pagus Cameracensis (Cambrésis)
  • pagus Hainoensis (the Hainaut)
  • pagus Fanomartensis (the area of Famars
  • pagus Templutensis (the area of Valencian)
  • pagus Barchbatensis (the the Brabant)
  • pagus Antwertensis (the area of Antwerp)

The term of Cambrésis is thus derived from pagus Latin Cameracensis in , literally “the country of Cambrai”.

The Middle Ages

To the Traité of Verdun in 843 the Right Bank of the the Scheldt is allotted to Lothaire Ier. However with died of Lothaire II, without heir, Charles the Bald person tries to put the hand on its kingdom while being made crown with Metz. Cambrésis returns thus in the kingdom of Francie Western, but for little time: as of 925 Henri the Bird-catcher recovers the heritage of Lothaire. Cambrésis will remain thus ground of Empire until its fastening in France eight centuries later, in 1678.

With the Moyen-Âge Cambrésis was a county. The competition between the count and the bishop of Cambric ceased when an arbitration of Otton Ier in 948 allotted to this last the comtaux capacities on the city. In 1007 the emperor Henri II made of the bishop the count of all the territory of Cambrésis. Consequently this one cumulated the spiritual powers and temporal; Cambric and Cambrésis became a Principauté ecclesiastical, like that of Liege, independent but attached to the Holy roman Empire.

The county comprised twelve peerages or noble grounds, created by the emperor Othon III in 983 (or 986). The pars of Cambrésis were vassal of the Cambric bishop and sat at the States of Cambrésis.

twelve peerages with their blazon, according to description that Eugene Bouly in his historical Dictionnaire gives of it (see references) .

According to the definition of INSEE, the Bassin of employment “Cambrésis” includes the Cambric district to which are added the cantons of Marquion and of Bertincourt (Arrondissement of Arras, Pas-de-Calais).

Cambrésis is divided into two electoral constituencies: the Eighteenth district of the North which gathers the cantons of Cambric-Is, Cambric-West, Carnières and Marcoing, represented with the National Assembly by Mr. François-Xavier Villain, connected UMP, and the Twenty-second district of North, consisted of the cantons of Solesmes, Cateau-Cambrésis and Clary to which three cantons of the Arrondissement of Avesnes-on-Helpe are added: Berlaimont, Quesnoy-Is and the Quesnoy-West, represented by Mr. Christian Bataille (PS).

Demography

In about thirty years, census of 1968 with that of 1999, the Cambric district lost 15  327 inhabitants, is 8,8% of his population of 1968. It is more than the population of its second city, Caudry (13  469 inhabitants in 1999).

It is especially the Migratory balance, constantly negative, particularly in the Seventies and Eighties, which is responsible for this decline: between the censuses of 1968 and 1999 they are 31  250 people who left the district: this number is not very far away from the population of the town of Cambrai (33  716 inhabitants in 1999). The natural Solde (difference between the births and the deaths) remained positive throughout this period but was divided by two into thirty years. It does not compensate, far is necessary some, the departures.

The population of Cambrésis is appreciably older than that of the area and account a smaller proportion of people in age to work than the area or the country: if the age bracket 0-19 years, to 26,2%, is between the averages regional (28,6%) and main road (24,6%), the age brackets 20-39 and 40-59 add up only 52% in Cambrésis compared with 53,2% for the area and 54,1% for the country: it is undoubtedly the result of the strongly negative migratory balance, which saw leaving a majority people in these age brackets. Finally the age brackets 60-74 and 75 and more add up 21,7% in Cambrésis, against 18,8% in the area and 21,3 in France.

Housing

With the census of 1999 the Cambric district counted a total of 67  535 residences, including 90,3% of main homes and 1,5% only of second home (against 3% for the area and 9,2% for France). Individual housing counted for 87,1%, far in front of the collective habitat (12,9%), proportion much higher than in the area (73,9%) and France (56,8%).

The residences are sensiblements older in Cambrésis than in the area and the remainder of France: the share of residences going back to before 1949 amounts there indeed to 55%, against 39,9% for the Nord-Pas-de-Calais and 32,9% for the Metropolitan France. Conversely the recent residences (after 1974) add up 19,5% only in Cambrésis against 28,5% in the area and 34,1% in France, consequence probable of the low demographic dynamism of Cambrésis.

The higher Middle Age of the residences can explain than they also, on average, are less better equipped in the district with Cambric than in the remainder with the area or the country: the proportion of residences without bath-tub nor shower was of 7,7% in 1999 (Nord-Pas-de-Calais area: 4,7%, France: 2,3%); 76,1% of the residences were equipped with the Central heating (area: 78,2%, France: 84,1%); and 3,8% only of the residences had two water rooms (area: 4,4%, France: 10,0%).

Economy

The 10 principal companies of the district are (2007):

  • Sicos (Caudry): 700 paid (perfumes and cosmetic)

  • Bormioli (Masnières): 490 paid (bottles out of glass)
  • CMD (Cambric): 446 paid (Messian ex-company, gears and reducers)
  • Auchan (Cambric): 427 paid (large distribution)
  • Spring wheat (Cateau): 347 paid (automobile equipment)
  • SIFTED (Cateau): 325 paid (food silicones)
  • Cora (Cambric): 323 paid (large distribution)
  • Cedilac Candia (Cambric): 280 paid (dairy)
  • Laces Sophie Halette (Caudry): 230 paid (laces)
  • Cardoon tradilinge (Cambric): 218 paid (household linen)

The unemployment rate of Cambrésis was in September 2006 of 12,6% (Nord-Pas-de-Calais: 13,2%, France: 9,8%)

Transport

The difference is clear between the west and is district concerning road transport.

If the west (Cambric) is well served with the crossing of two highways (A2 and A26), is served only by the Trunk road 43 and the secondary road 932 (ex- Trunk road 32, of Compiegne at the Franco-Belgian border.) Exchanger A2/A26 being located at the Cambric west, the vehicles coming from the east of the district must cross the city. The Cambric skirting, whose completion is envisaged in 2009, should however improve the situation.

Teaching and formation

Cambrésis constitutes a Bassin of formation depend on the School inspectorate of North and academy of Lille.

Secondary education

Cambrésis on the whole counts 17 colleges, including 4 deprived, with Avesnes-les-Aubert, Cambrai (6), Caudry (2), Gouzeaucourt, Iwuy, Cateau-Cambrésis, Masnières, Solesmes (2), Villers-Outréaux and Walincourt-Selvigny. The general high schools and technological are 8, including 4 private: 5 are located at Cambrai including 3 deprived, with Caudry, one in Cateau-Cambrésis and the last with Solesmes (private). Finally there exist two vocational schools, located at Cambrai.

Higher education

Cambric lodges two antennas of the Valencian universities of and Hainaut-Cambrésis (UVHC), and of Lille 2. For more details, to see: higher education in Cambrai.

Schooling

According to the census of 1999 the rate of schooling in nursery school from the 3 to 6 years was high in the Cambric district, to 90,2% compared with 88,5% for the whole from the area and 81,5% for France. On the other hand the rate of continuation of studies between 19 and 24 years amounted only to 46,2% in the Cambric district, against 53,8% in the area and 56,3% in France. For the 25 years and more, this rate was only of 1,2% in Cambrésis, against 1,8% and 1,9% in the area and the country, respectively.

Sociology

The pattern of the settlement of the district (active population 15 year old or more having one employment) by socioprofessional category showed in 1999 an underrepresentation of the executives and intellectual professions higher compared to the French average (7,7% against 13,1%) and a on-representation of the workmen (36,5% against 25,6%).

The pattern of the settlement of more than 15 years not provided education for showed in 1999 a delay of Cambrésis on the area North-not-of-hamper, and more still on the French average, concerning the post-graduate advanced degrees:

Tourism and inheritance

Religious heritage

Cambrésis kept few religious buildings dating from the Middle Ages, except notable for the Abbaye of Vaucelles, of Romance style cistercian, with the Street-of-Vines in the Cambric south, and of the Chapelle Vaucelette of the refuge of this same Abbey with Cambric, which was built at the 13th century on the model of the chapter house of the abbey, but with a quarter of surface. The Old cathedral of Cambric, “wonder of the Netherlands”, was destroyed as well as many other Cambric churches during the French revolution. Certain churches of Cambrésis preserve elements dating from: it is the case in particular of Carnières, Villers-Outréaux, Élincourt, Montay and Bermerain.

Neighbor of the Thiérache, Cambrésis preserved some partly strengthened churches, with Montrécourt, Boussières-in-Cambrésis, Audencourt (aujourdh' today amalgamated with Caudry) and Pommereuil.

Cambrésis has some good examples of religious architecture of, in particular in Cambrai the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Grâce, the Saint-Gery church and the Vault known as “of the Jesuits”, and with the Cateau-Cambrésis the Saint Martin's day church.

Finally the churches dating from the rebuilding according to the First World War are numerous, especially in the south-west of Cambric, place of the battles of Cambric of 1917. Some are the work of Pierre Leprince-Ringuet, with Villers-Plouich, Masnières and Flesquières.

Military inheritance

Cambric kept some vestiges of its ramparts, dismantled at the end of the 19th century: turns of the Stupid , the Caudron and the Arquets , old water door on the the Scheldt, as well as the carries Notre-Dame , going back to 1622-1623, and the carries from Paris dating from the 14th century. The carries Saint-Miser invisible because is hidden under the public garden. The castle of Saddles , built on the Scheldt by the Cambric count-bishops, shelters the law courts today. It presents also a rare whole of grafitti left by military or civil prisoners.

Cateau-Cambrésis also kept part of its ramparts, destroyed in 1642 on the order of Richelieu. Some elements of castles remain in Cambrésis, with Ligny-in-Cambrésis, Haucourt-in-Cambrésis and Busigny, but especially with Esnes where the castle, which kept until 1678 the border between France and the Germanic Empire, preserved a notched tower, two round towers framing the porch, and part of its covered way.

Finally the military cemeteries of the First World War are numerous on all the territory of Cambrésis, which was on the Ligne Hindenburg. There remain also some vestiges of the war: Blockhouse of Bantouzelle, Casemate S of the Noyelles-on-Scheldt or Tank of Flesquières.

Industrial inheritance

The museum of the lace of Caudry, installed in an old workshop of the downtown area, recalls the history of industry lacemaker of the 19th century to today.

Civil inheritance

Rural inheritance

Linguistics

Cambrésis belongs to the linguistic Aire of the Picard of north. Eugene Bouly, in his historical Dictionary of the town of Cambric (1854), gives some indications, left “very shortened grammar” says it, on the speech of Cambrésis:
  • personal Pronouns:
    • for the singular pronouns me , you , one tells him semi , Ti and Li
    • the sound “or” becomes “O” in us and you : our , your
    • the “L” disappears in it , they : I and is
    • it and they become ale , ales
    • you says to you , and the “E” is elided in front of a vowel (like front I and as in contemporary spoken French): “will suit you”
  • Pronoms and demonstrative adjectives:
    • this says cabbage
    • that says sti , that , chelle and those , cheux
    • this and this are che and chelle : “chelle woman”
August 1st

Toponymy

In addition to Cateau-Cambrésis, the following communes comprise the term “Cambrésis”: Beaumont-in-Cambrésis, Boussières-in-Cambrésis, Forest-in-Cambrésis, Haucourt-in-Cambrésis, Ligny-in-Cambrésis, Montigny-in-Cambrésis, Rumilly-in-Cambrésis, Saint-Vaast-in-Cambrésis.

Personalities

Were born in Cambrésis: Other famous characters are related to Cambrésis with various titles:
  • Enguerrand de Monstrelet (about 1390 - died in Cambrai in 1453), author of the Chronic of Monstrelet ;
  • Guillaume Dufay (perhaps born in Cambrai about 1400 - died in Cambrai in 1474), type-setter;
  • François de Salignac of Mothe-Fénelon (1651 - died in Cambrai in 1715), appointed Cambric archbishop in 1695;
  • Guillaume Dubois (1656-1723), Cambric archbishop, cardinal and principal minister of Philippe of Orleans;
  • Wilfred Owen, officer and English poet, born in 1893, killed on November 4th, 1918 with Golds close to Cateau-Cambrésis;
  • Pierre Mauroy (born in 1928 with Cartignies), French politician, Prime Minister of 1981 to 1984, studied with the colleges of Cambric and Cateau-Cambrésis.

See too

External bonds

  • Tourism and inheritance of Cambrésis
  • Actors of the economy interdependent in Cambrésis
  • Chamber of commerce and of Industry of Cambrésis
  • Official site Country of Cambrésis
  • Site of Futura Sciences: file on the physical geography of the Northern area - Pas-de-Calais

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