History of Holy-Suzanne (Mayenne)

The Holy-Suzanne city of (Mayenne) forged a rich person passed, supported by a a long time strategic geographical location and the quality of the families which had her castle.

Holy-Suzanne, 6000 years of History

Prehistory

In the canton of Holy-Suzanne, the caves decorated with Saint-Pierre-on-Erve and Thorigné-in-Charnie testify with certainty to the human presence in the area since 25.000 to at least 30.000 years.

The protohistoire: Celts and Gallic

The occupation by the Celts is attested by the presence of old a Mur vitrified. Still visible and although partially destroyed at the 19th century, it is made by it mention since 1759 and of many fragments are regularly put by it at the day at the time of excavations or borings. Thus the archaeological excavations undertaken in 2006 in the court of the castle made it possible to reveal, under two levels of habitat themselves former to the Moyen-âge (beginning of the age of iron or end of the Bronze Age), of the pieces extracted the Mur vitrified, vestiges of a process of fortification which passed a long time for enigmatic. Their dating will make it possible soon to determine their age.

The feudal age

See also: County of Maine, List of the counts of Maine, List of the Viscounts of Maine

The keep is built by the Viscounts of Beaumont-with-Maine, Fresnay and Holy-Suzanne in first half or in the middle of the 11th century. Of 1083 with 1086, Holy-Suzanne is the place of confrontation between the Viscount of Maine, Hubert II of Beaumont, whose Ermengarde wife of Nevers is the back-back grand-daughter of Hugues Capet, and the duke of Normandy and king d' Angleterre, William the Conqueror. Hubert had since 1063 supported the fight against Guillaume Bastard the ; he had had to return to him in 1073 the castles of Beaumont and Fresnay, but he never disarmed. In 1083, it is locked up with his Ermengarde wife, girl of Guillaume Ier of Nevers, (° 1029 † 1083), count de Nevers, niece of Robert of Nevers, (° 1035 † 1098), known as Robert Burgundian the , in the keep of Holy-Suzanne, there joins together an elite of knights, and badgers until Mans the partisans with the Conqueror with England. This one decides in 1083 to assist as of his, but gives up tackling face the castle, located at the top of a hill protected by inextricable vines. It installs a fort in the valley of Beugy to 800 m of the castle, and leaves there a many troop and aguerrie under the orders of Alain the Russet-red one, count of the Breton ones.

The Middle Ages

During the War One hundred Year old, the place is with the hands of the French before the Traité of Brétigny (signed on May 8th 1360 between Edouard III of England and Jean II the Good and which allows a nine years truce in the One hundred Year old war); Marguerite de Valentinois, widow of Jean II of Beaumont-Brienne, and his/her son Louis II of Beaumont-Brienne, still child, is on May 15th 1359 there.

At the 14th century, all the subjects are constrained to come to make the guet with the castle, obligation against which protest in 1369 and 1396, in the name of their men and servants, Carthusian monks of the Parc of Orcs and Bénédictines of Étival. (In 1460, to exempt guet with the castle of Holy-Suzanne, the inhabitants of Thorigné-in-Charnie, whose castle depended on the baronnie on Holy-Suzanne, declared that they were baronnie of Sanded…)

In 1415, the English, Masters of Normandy, are apprètent to invade the Maine. As of 1417, they share the fortified towns; John Popeham titrates captain of Holy-Suzanne: it is a threat. All the subjects, even those which of it were of right free, subject in 1419 to make the guet with the castle " because of the estat of time present and eminent dangiers who, at the time of the war, pourroient future in the ville" . The duke Jean Ier d' Alençon (Valois), killed in 1415 with Azincourt, it is his Marie wife of Brittany which becomes duchess of Alençon and puts in a state of defense its various fortresses. The command of Holy-Suzanne is entrusted in 1422 to Ambroise de Loré, companion of Jeanne d' Arc, which holds good until in 1425. The garrison operates even exits with those of Montsûrs, Laval, Castle-Gontier (January 1423).

Wars of religion

The church of Holy-Suzanne is rebuilt on the site of old in the years 1526 - 1536; it is devoted on May 31st 1553 by Jean VIII Jouvenel of Ursins , bishop of Tréguier (in residence in Mans), coadjutor of Jean of Bellay (1492-1560) .

Holy-Suzanne residence in peace until the time of the Holy League, which is formed in 1576.

The XVIIe century: the great century

A few years later, in 1604, Guillaume Fouquet of the Game preserve, statesman and minister of Henri IV, buys with the first wife of the king, Marguerite de France (1553-1615) known as the Queen Margot , the ruins of the old fortress to transform the old castle into residential residence. This project is not completed, because the assassination of the king in 1610 brings gradually the forfeiture of Guillaume Fouquet of the Game preserve, It remains however of this period the home , a beautiful body of building in the purest style of the beginning of the 17th century.

Holy-Suzanne, become baronnie then marquisat, passes then, after the descent of Fouquet of the Game preserve, to the family of Champagne the Unpleasant ones, then with those of César Gabriel de Choiseul-Praslin and of Charles de Beauvau-Craon and finally with Ange Hyacinthe Maxence, baron de Damas. In July 1661 of the signed letters patent of Louis XIV concedes “ Foires & go for the Town of Saincte Suzanne first Tuesday of January, Tuesday of the Holy Week, the day of the Saint Mathieu, the day of the Saint Eutrope, the day of the Sainte Suzanne and the shortly after the festival of all the Saints ". The economy (agriculture, breeding, craft industry: flour-milling, tannery, paper mill, manufacture charts to be played…) becomes active.

Holy-Suzanne knows with and 18th century a administrative and jurisdictional life activates . The notable ones are thus numerous with Holy-Suzanne under the old Mode. The middle-class houses that they build will intra muros translate still today this activity which will decline after the French revolution.

Already in June 1589, by letters dated from the camp of Gergeau , Henri IV had ordered to transfer to Holy-Suzanne the seneschalsy, sits présidial, eslection, prévôté, recepte of the sizes, taillon and attic with salt of Mans, as well as the jurisdictions of Mayenne and of Sanded , ordinances which undoubtedly remained dead letter and which, in any case, were brought back by other letters, data with the camp of Alençon in December 1589.

There exists in fact in 1624 a provostal seat of constabulary charged to judge the crimes and offenses (presence of a lieutenant of constabulary in 1640). Place chief of Bailliage .

In January 1657 is established a ordinary of station to the horses , of Vitré, Laval, Évron, Holy-Suzanne transport , Mans, towards Paris. An office of transport for Mans exists in 1611 and 1684. An office of Letter post would have existed as of 1675 with Holy-Suzanne like office of distribution.

The XVIIIe century, administration under the old mode

In 1725, a Grenier with salt is created, generating in parallel an activity of False-salt making. In the middle of one of the most frightening crises that French monarchy had to cross, when the English were Masters of most of France, and that all the financial resources of the state were exhausted, salt became in 1343 a state monopoly by an ordinance of the king Philippe VI of Valois, which instituted the gabelle one, a considerable tax on the salt which the inhabitants had from now on to buy in the royal attics. This tax was very expensive everywhere; but it was in the Maine of a more difficult perception and consequently more vexatious, because this province was close to Brittany, in which the trade of salt free and was not burdened with tax; the fraud was as easy as frequent, and the average employees to repress it more rigorous.

The attic with salt of the Gravel having been removed in 1725, it was made of it same year with Holy-Suzanne. This court, established to judge disagreements which occurred between the Traiteurs which had the firm salt and the inhabitants, and to continue all the frauds who could be relative made with the tax of the gabelle S, was composed with Holy-Suzanne of a president, a grenetier, a controller, a prosecutor of the king, having all the quality of Advisers of the King , a clerk and an usher. The clerk and the controller fulfilled with the court the functions of advisers near the president: they were held to be present when one brought salt to the attic and during the distribution which one made to the inhabitants. But the farmers general put these two advisers in their interests in their allotting, as with their own agents, a gratification proportional for the benefit resulting from the surplus found at the end of the exercise in the attic with salt. It resulted from it that the interests of the inhabitants could suffer from the parsimony with which one distributed to them what they really bought. Although these functions or public offices if multiplied can be cumulated, and that some of the least important were it indeed, they had had as a result to form and to maintain with Holy-Suzanne many a middle-class . The priest Jean-François Marquis-Ducastel will thus note the names of these families: Aveneau, Bassoin, Bésognard, Coignard, Coutelle of Houssaye, Coutelle of Tremblaye, Fauvelais, Marsollier, Mustière, Olivier, Parsnip, Pélisson, Provost, Riballier, Saudubray, Sorin . One of most considerable appears to have been the family Pélisson which had several branches: the Pélisson of Wood , Pélisson of Genoa , Pélisson of Defay , Pélisson of Pommeraye , Pélisson of the Key and Pélisson of Vernay . It is known that, without being noble, a person could have a property nobilière giving right a title; the middle-class was very eager of this distinction, which brought it closer to the nobility; and those even which did not have noble properties took readily the name of one their grounds. In addition to the Pélisson and Coutelle above, one still finds Bassoin, sior of Hervoyère , Sorin, sior of Hardouinières , Panais, sior of Durairie , or Hodé of Huberdière , first usher of the attic with salt. The president of the baillage in 1605, Jean Delavigne , will take the name of of Lavigne of Holy-Suzanne or of Lavigne Holy-Suzanne

Two manors (of which one, Rebirth, being next to the tower of the castle, were undoubtedly the residence of the first seneshals and governors of the city, then that of the presidents of the attic with salt and the bailliage; the other, located behind the town hall, belonged to the Provost family then with the family Olivier, lawyers) and of many houses cossues appear then in the city, intended for this middle-class related on the administration and the taxation royal; one counts several notaries then, and even a surgeon. These residences replace hovels dating from the Middle Ages, whose most beautiful ferrugineous sandstone or granite stones however are re-used for the entourages of the doors and the windows of the new residences. With the Revolution, the attic with salt will be plundered by the population (in October 1790).

In 1743, a receiver of the consignments is in function.
Station of Gabelle in 1746.

In 1771, the Town hall includes/understands an alderman, advisers, a syndic-receiver, a secretary-clerk and the prosecutor of the king. One notes this same year the presence of two notaries and, in 1773, of a archer-guard of the currencies .

the city did not have a Municipal council itself before the French revolution, though administrative parts were addressed to the " mayor and aldermen " , before 1699. But, under the terms of the edicts of August 1764 and May 1765, which granted to the towns of less than 2000 hearts a municipality made up of two aldermen, three advisers, a syndic receiver, a clerk and six notable, the inhabitants of the city and suburb of Taconnière , those of the River , and finally those of the remainder of the parish, separately met August 13rd and 14th 1765. They named for each district three deputy, which élirent six notable ( Joseph Basoin, notary; Alexandre Aveneau, surgeon, Michel-Louis of Mustière, Farmer of the baronnie) , an ecclesiastic (the priest, Charles-Nicolas Mesnager) , two officers, a middle-class man, a merchant (Louis Fire-rake) , a plowman or a craftsman (Michel Bion, farmer with " Pilonnière") . Those named then:

their two alderman S: Jacques Aveneau , controller with the Attic with salt, and Olivier Provost , lawyer;
three advisers: Rene Coutelle , president with the Attic with salt, Jean-Baptiste Coignard , lord of the Hillock , old commensal of the House of the king, and Rene Provost de Brée , trader;
the syndic receiver, François Coutelle ;
the clerk, Antoine de Bert .

In 1790, the court of the district of Évron is allotted to Holy-Suzanne.

It is then composed of elder Juliot-Morandière (president), of Pre-in-Pail, Provost of the Vines, Berthelot (notary with Izé), Bourmault (prosecutor with Évron), Sweat, (prosecutor with Beaumont-the-Viscount and Jean-Baptiste Jouannault (clerk). At the 19th century is installation a district court .

Chief town of canton in 1790. In Pluviôse Year V (1798), Julien François Olivier is president of the cantonal administration . Simon Pierre Bigot (° Saint-Pierre-on-Erve, January 24th 1767) is municipal administrative secretary of the canton of Holy-Suzanne; it Marie 30 vendémiaire Year VII (October 21st 1798) with Victoire Addé (° Holy-Suzanne, December 26th 1773), direct first of the Letter post of the Office of Holy-Suzanne , created like Direction in 1791, removed fine 1797 - 1798 fine and restored 1799.

Tax authorities: Holy-Suzanne is at the 19th century chief town of perception for Holy-Suzanne, Blandouet, Chammes, Torcé and Viviers, and counts a receiver of recording and a excise officer .

Required in the Year VI, the gendarmerie is removed in 1857, then restored in 1872. The common one counts moreover a conducting the Highways Departments and two notaries .

The French revolution

In 1789, the priest written in margin of the parochial registers of Registry office that the year is most remarkable of the century present, by the rare events that it presents to us in abundance. The winter was most rigorous that one ever felt in our climates: it began as of on November 22nd 1788 and it continued until January 18th according to. The river was taken of ice during all this time, so that the paper mills were stopped. The mills with flour could not grind. One was about to test the greatest food shortage. One made use of the mills with tobacco to grind the grains. The forests tested great devastations, and much of wood perished… And, in May 1789: the General states are assembled in Paris. The ordinary Assemblies are held with Holy-Suzanne for the canton. They train the voters for the Parliament of Mans. Ten deputies are sent Clergé, Noblesse and Tiers state. One takes the weapons in all the cities and all the boroughs…

The Registers of grievances of the communes of the canton are restricted to require the reform of the taxes (and especially the suppression of the Gabelle of salt), the improvement of the ways, the establishment of Sisters of Charity. However, the offenses repressed by the magistrates of the Baillage and many texts let imagine the suffering of the people in this end of 18th century.

July 14th, the Storming of the Bastille does not move in an apparent way the population, but on the other hand, in September, the abandonment of the market granted in 1661 by Louis XIV, and the obstacles tested in the close markets by the bakers and the farmers throw some disorder in the spirits… This calm apparent is explained partly by the situation isolated from the small town. However, a good part of the population of the Low-Maine and the middle-class of Holy-Suzanne already embraced with heat the novel ideas.

The city shelters a republican garrison; the captain of the national guard, Delelée , sends on June 1st 1790 an address ignited to the National Assembly. In October, the population plunders the Grenier with salt.

Holy-Suzanne takes the name of Mount-in Erve; starting from 1793, the Chouans furrow the countryside and the forest of the Charnie. April 2nd, it is ensured that for some time is formed a species of assembly in the wood of Montecler and the Vault-Rainsouin, and that a citizen of Châtres-the-Forest was disarmed there by nine people. the following day, a new gathering is announced… From day in day, successes of the the Vendée more over-excite the partisans of the Révolution… Of the detachments of volunteers are formed to go the ones at the borders, the others with the help of the Département of Maine-et-Loire…

October 17th 1793, a troop of 1200 men concentrates in the city, which one repairs the breaches with haste, by fear of the Vendéens. This garrison goes on Mans on December 3rd 1793. The 13 at the evening, shortly after the battle of Mans, François-Joseph Westermann, called “the butcher of Vendean” the , which massacred runaways in its race since Mans, layer with Holy-Suzanne.

The XIXe century

Napoleonean sympathies of the city are worth to him then during the Hundred Days the nickname of the Isle of Elba . At the end of the Hundred Days, a royalist detachment, ordered by Camille de Pontfarcy , comes on July 10th 1815 to seize Holy-Suzanne, and wants to deliver the attack. The population, joined by refugees, is barricaded in the city, lends to resist. But there are only some rifle shots, and the royalists withdraw themselves with Évron on order come from Laval. July 13rd, the mayor having made say that the city went without condition and that the refugees had left it, Eugene Boullier comes to take possession of it. The inhabitants “accepted the royalists with a dull silence and a marked sadness” . Jacques Marquis-Ducastel, brother of the former priest, is named mayor in July 1815 to replace Edouard Delespinasse, with undoubtedly too marked Napoleonean sympathies, which is also manager of the castle. The noise runs that disasters plots are still woven. If these noises are vain, it is certain that the leading class is not gained with legitimacy, and that one greets with joy at the end of July 1830 ( Three Glorious ) the fall of Charles X.

the artisanal suburb of the River . 16th century at the beginning of the 19th century, thanks to the many mills on the Erve, an industrial and artisanal life intense animates the hamlets of the River: Bridge-Perrin , Large-Mill (old communal oven said " mill in Vicomte"), Pont-Neuf (mill, quarry stone), Choiseaux , Mechanical , Gohard , Castle-Strapping man , Mill with the hares , Saugère , Borough-Guyon , Patache , etc Tannery, mills with corn, paper spread out throughout the river. In the middle of the century, this suburb " industriel" count even as many inhabitants as the agglomerated population. The Papeteries of Holy-Suzanne intensely function of 1544 with 1820 approximately. But these activities decline quickly at the end of the XIX {{E}} and at the beginning of the 20th century with the abandonment of the project of installation of a factory of electricity and the development of the manufacturing methods and means of communication. The artisanal suburb does not manage to pass the course of industrialization.

The years 1830 - 1850 are marked by the economic decline (closing of the paper mills, tanneries…), whereas the city forever counted as many inhabitants. The appearance, in 1845, of a brick factory, compensates for only very slightly these disappearances. The agricultural day workers, who constitute the essence of the labor, are not easily employable the winter; it is essential to provide work to these workmen without work, and of what to get bread to them, while at the same time cereals became very expensive following rigorous winters. The easy population will have to thus be charitable towards the poor , as well by spirit of solidarity as per reflex of defense, to avoid the dangers of the begging. In 1847, the Municipal council creates a workshop of charity intended to employ the workmen to repair the streets and to remake ways of communication. The fortunate inhabitants have to support the continuation of this work in the form of subscription.

Nothing astonishing in this context so that the city affirms its sympathies with the French revolution of 1848.

In 1852, one distributes to the poor a sum which was intended for the public festivals. In 1855, the Prefect encourages the communes to create Mutual aid associations . The Municipal council, “while recognizing the utility of similar companies, decided that the moment did not appear convenient to him to create some currently in the commune, at a rate of the extrème distress where the working class is in consequence of the dearness of the food products aliementaires, which would prevent it from providing any contribution, and because the subscription which has just taken place to form an office of charity would be also an obstacle so that the easy people contribuasssent to form the funds of a company. There exists besides in the commune a Company of charitable ladies for the relief of the sick poor. They do themselves the search, Sunday, with the church, and with the resources which they get thus, they distribute to the patients the helps for which they need out of bread, meat, wine, linen and drugs” .

The weekly markets and the 8 annual fairs are, on the other hand, more flourishing. With each fair are presented on average between 400 and 600 bovines, 100 to 350 equine, 100 to 400 porcine, and 80 to 100 sheep, the fair of December 31st 1885 gathering for example 1350 animals.

At the time of the War of 1870, the commune is occupied Sunday 15 at Tuesday January 31st 1871 by the Uhlan S, which requisition dwellings, vivres and forages. Given up by the remains of the 17th body (Colomb) , the municipality had made raise the white flag. Two recognitions from the French the 16 and the 23 note that the city is evacuated, but the following day 24, the 6th hussards of Silesia settles there and withdraws itself only with the armistice, the city being included/understood in the neutral zone. A chronicle from day to day of the Prussian occupation was held by the Abbot Julien Monguillon, priest of Holy-Suzanne of 1865 with 1877.

The XXe century

At the time of the Great War, Holy-Suzanne loses 59 of his/her children, Morts for France.

Famous characters

Sources and bibliography

See those of Holy-Suzanne.

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