History of Vaucluse

Even if the French department of (or of) Vaucluse were created only on August 12th 1793, the history of the territory which it recovers is rich and much older.

The oldest village of (future) the French territory is the site of Courthézon, gone back to 4560 av. J. - C. approximately.

Neolithic

2.090 + 140 av. J. - C.: the hypogean one of Roaix (Vaucluse) delivered the overlapping skeletons of forty individuals, men, women or new-born babies, of which some presented arrowheads driven in the bones of the basin or in the middle of the thorax. It is about the one of the oldest evidence of collective burial following a massacre and one of the first testimonys of Guerre.

The tribes Celto-Ligurians

Before the arrival of Jules César, the territory is occupied by several tribes celto-Ligurians. One finds traces of Cavares, Voconces and Méminiens… but also of Dexsiviates, Menlini, Tricastini, Vordenses and Vulgientes.

Towards 539 av. J. - C., Avenio (which will become Avignon) is founded by Phocéens of Marseilles. This city will be a long time the capital of Cavares.

The Voconces, like other Gallic people of the sector, are romanisés between 125 and 118 before J. - C. at the time of the conquest of the province of Narbonnese. These people occupied an important territory (several current departments) with a presence on the buttresses of Ventoux and current the Vaison-the-Roman like one of their chief towns.

In the current of Ier century before J. - C., Voconces signed with Rome a treaty of friendship ( foedus ) which enabled them to keep a certain autonomy and their traditional institutions.

Roman period

The territory which will form the future department of Vaucluse has many traces of the occupation Roman (ancient Théâtre of Orange, etc).

They is at that time that will be created the future towns of Avignon, Orange, Carpentras, Cavaillon, Apt, Vaison-the-Roman… Orange is founded in 35 av. J. - C. by the veterans of the second gallic legion under the name of Colonia Julia Secundanorum Arausio in the territory of the Gallic tribe of Tricastins ( Tricastini ). The Roman Emperor Vespasien (69-79 a. J. - C.) manufactures a " cadastre" of Orange and transforms the city.

Between IIe and IIIe century, the town of Vaison takes its independence and separates from the city of Voconces with Gap and Sisteron.

Structure

The empire is vast and the future Vaucluse east at the exit of Italy. Several ways (roads) then will be created. Oldest is the Via Domitia, (way of Domitien), by Cavaillon, the Pont Julien and Apt. Its role is mainly strategic, to convey quickly troops of the Italia (Italy) to the Hispania (Spain). Another Roman road will pass by Vaucluse, the Via Agrippa (way of Clutched), on a North-South axis, from Arles to Lyon.

Agriculture and economy

Country in full rise until the medium of IIIe century. Regional big industry is that of iron with rich grounds on Roussillon, Gargas, Rustrel, etc One finds furnaces artisanal of Fountain-of-Vaucluse to Simiane-the-Rotunda.

The Middle Ages and Rebirth: Wars and religion

Towards the fine of IIIe century , the Romain empire disaggregates. Christianity appears and is propagated at the same time as its clergy is organized.

Towards the fine of Ve century , Vaucluse is the theater of invasions " barbares" like the Visigoths.

In the year 500 , Gondebaud, king of the Burgundian , seizes Avignon and defends oneself there against Clovis Ist Thereafter, the city is the prey of the Goths, and finally of the Francs under Thierry Ier, king of Austrasie, in 612 .

In 574, Lombards devastate the sector.

The troops arabo-Moslem women take Avignon in 735 then attack Burgundy. Many Burgundian lords “make a pact” then with the Berber ones but Charles Martel managed to drive back them in the south of the valley of the Rhone in 736. In 737, it takes again Avignon with his half-brother Childebrand. It is combined in Lombards to take again the Provence in 739. The final ousting of the troops arabo-Moslem women of the sector (whose VAr) only in end 976 by Guillaume the Liberator will be made.

The Orange county is founded by Charlemagne.

XIIe and XIIIe centuries , movements of spiritual and religious rebirth. Creation of abbeys, churches, convents, Romance vaults…

Towards 1136, Templiers found powerful commanderies.

The Orange county becomes Principauté of Orange in 1181.

1229 with the treaty of Meaux, Raymond VII gives up with the Popes all that it has on left bank of the Rhone. In 1274, Philippe the Bold met Popes in possession of the Comtat Venaissin.

Structure

XIe century , creation of the “Castrum” (Fortifications perched around whose villages developed) of Luberon and Mounts of Vaucluse

June 23rd 1148, the Abbaye of Sénanque is founded on the territory of Gordes

Agriculture and economy

Strong economy around olive (oil, etc)

XIVe century

in 1347 and until 1351, Europe is touched by a very important epidemic of Black Death. Provence (1347), then the Comtat Venaissin (1348) are touched in the first.

Policy

Popes in Avignon : From 1309 to 1376, seven popes French go to sit at Avignon: Clement V, Jean {{XXII}}, Benoit {{XII}}, Clement {{VI}}, Innocent {{VI}}, Urbain {{V}} and Gregoire {{XI}}.

For more details on papacy in Avignon, to see: Avignon and Papacy of Avignon

1394, expulsion of the Jews of the Kingdom of France. Number of them were réfugissent then in the young person Comtat Venaissin, state pontifical tolerating in their connections.

Structure

The Palais of the Popes is built between 1335 and 1352 on a rock protuberance in the north of the city, overhanging the Rhone, under pontificates of Benoît {{XII}} and Clément {{VI}}.

1367, beginning of the construction of the Synagog of Carpentras.

Agriculture and economy

The arrival of the Popes in Avignon introduces the culture of the silk into the area. Little by little the culture of the mulberry tree will develop whose sheets are used as food with the worms.

XVe century

Policy

  • Died of the King Rene in 1480. 1481, the county of Provence is incorporated in the kingdom of France under the name of " royal province française".

  • April 1481 - civil war of Provence

Of Vaud

The history of Of Vaud in the area of the Luberon (southern of France) illustrates the religious tensions which shake the Christian world with the Middle Ages and the Rebirth.

The installation of Of Vaud in the area of Luberon begins in 1399: Louis II of Provence, following a long military campaign in Italy, needs money. He on sale puts grounds of little value, which are bought to him by the lords of Counting frame-Cental and Rocca-Sparviera. Those, which have possessions in Piedmont, install in these lately acquired grounds a hundred families of peasants Piedmontese, of religion of Vaud: in Mérindol, Vaugines, Cabrière d' Aygues.

Testimonys of time describe these Of Vaud like large workers, just, paying their debts, of a great purity of manners. Thanks to their labor, the grounds produce more and more, and their lords see their dividends passing “from four ecus to eight hundreds”.

By natural increase, and the arrival the new Piedmontese one, they settle in other villages on other side of Luberon: Cabrières-in Avignon, Gordes, Goult, Lacoste.

Structure

Agriculture and economy

XVIe century

Policy

In second half of XVIe century, the kingdom of France is devastated by the wars of religion where are opposed catholic and Protestant.

In 1590, Henri IV creates with Pertuis a rival Parliament of that of Aix (since this one does not recognize it for king).

The Of Vaud ones, continuation

Until worms 1528, they seem to live in good intelligence with their catholic neighbors.

Toughening

In 1528, the bishop of Apt, Jean Nicolaï, starts to launch lawsuits in heresy. Towards 1530, Jean de Roma, a Dominican , assembles a troop and begins massacres, rapes, tortures, plunderings, before having to flee with the Comtat Venaissin: the king of France, anxious of these plunderings, had seized against him the Parliament of Aix. He dies a few years later.

It is the time of the installation of the Calvinisme to Geneva. In 1530, the Of Vaud ones of Piedmont send some emissary to it. Calvin shows them their similarities of doctrines.

In 1532, the movement of Vaud is attached officially to Protestantism.

The beginning of repression

In the Comtat Venaissin, pertaining to the Pope, the vice legate confiscates grounds the Of Vaud one and redistributes them with catholics. The pope Clément VII asks for the King de France François I {{er}} to act in the same way on the French slope of Luberon.
Or, after the election of Charles Quint in 1519 as emperor of Germany, François Ier feels encircled because Charles Quint has the Spain, the Netherlands and part of the Italy. In reaction, François Ier is combined with the Ottoman Empire of Soliman the Magnificent the, by a treaty of February 4th, 1536 known as “of the capitulations”. This alliance with a Moslem country making scandal, François Ier cannot allow any more a tolerant attitude in France towards hérétiques.
The Parliament of Aix-en-Provence condemns in 1532 seven personalities of Vaud, and asks the local lords to confiscate the grounds of the Of Vaud one. Those take the weapons, and seize Mérindol, Lacoste and of Cabrières-in Avignon.
In 1534, new judgments strike the Of Vaud ones, which are released by their co-religionists out of weapons of the prisons of Apt, Cavaillon, Roussillon.
The international policy interferes once more with the question of Vaud: In November 1535, François Ier claims again the duchy of Milan.
It invades the Savoy at the beginning of 1536.
Charles Quint then takes in person the head of its army to invade Provence by crossing the Var on July 25th, 1536, and seizes Toulon, which is occupied from August 10th to September 15th. Its army in prey with the epidemics, Charles Quint gives up besieging Marseilles and turns back in September.
François Ier then seeks to calm the situation in Luberon, and on July 15th, 1535, it grants forgiveness to Of Vaud provided that those abjure their religion in the six mois.

In 1544, the Of Vaud ones set fire to the monastery of Sénanque (Gordes).

The persecution of 1545

After obtainhaving obtained it in an underhand way (the king does not read the edict of Mérindol), the Of Vaud ones are condemned.

In April 1545, persecution starts, with as military chiefs Paulin of the Guard and Joseph d' Agoult, under the direction of the first president of the Parlement of Aix, Jean Maynier, baron of Oppède. The villages of Vaud are plundered, the massacred men or envoys with the galères, the women violated before being killed. Some are sold in slavery. The grounds are confiscated. The plundered goods are sold off with the tenth of their price, to pay the soldiers. Violences overflow, the villages around undergo them too. On the whole, 24 villages are destroyed, 3000 people are massacred, 670 men are sent to the galères. Moreover, the passage of the soldiers prevents the cultures, the herds are killed, and an unspecified number of peasants die of hunger. With died of François I {{er}}, a lawsuit is opened by the lords of the area, who lost large. But the roughneck soldiers, like the members of Parliament who grew rich, all are discharged.

NB: Source/page of the Of Vaud of Luberon

Structure

Agriculture and economy

The XVIIe century

Policy

The Jewish community of Comtat, called Jewish of the Jewish Pope or comtadins ,

Structure

Agriculture and economy

The XVIIIe century

1709, several documents attest of one winters very hard which strongly will penalize the population by destroying harvests (of which olive-trees), pots of storage, stone tanks…

Policy

The Black Death

In 1720, the plague starts to go up of Marseilles through all the Provence.

To protect the Comtat Venaissin from pestiferous from Provence, the communes of the area then begin the construction of a wall on 27 kilometers, the “Mur of the plague”. It is about a kept dry stone wall. Even if the plague is very slowed down by the device, that does not prevent it unfortunately from being spread beyond that. In reaction, certain cities decide to be supplied so as to hold more the possible for a long time and to close their doors. With Pernes, all the doors of the ramparts are closed except the Notre-Dame door, which nevertheless will firmly be kept. Lastly, one sets up places of forty such as the “barn the Hope”. Thanks to all these provisions, the parochial register counts only 122 deaths in 1721 whereas other cities lose almost the quarter of their inhabitants.

The epidemic, reduced in 1722, ends in 1723.

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  • legal settlement of 1734

  • Vaucluse and the French revolution

The creation of the department

Previously pontifical possessions, Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin were attached to France on September 14th 1791. March 28th 1792, these territories formed two new districts, Avignon in the Rhone delta and Carpentras in the Drome.

The August 12th 1793 was created the Département of Vaucluse , consisted of the districts of Avignon and Carpentras, but also of those of Apt and Orange, which belonged to the Rhone delta, as well as canton of Sault, which belonged to the Low-Alps.

1800 - Suze-the-Russet-red modification of the limits departmental is attached to Drome, which had as a consequence the enclavement of the canton vauclusien of Valréas (known as the Enclave of the Popes).

Structure

Agriculture and economy

The Sériciculture develops in Provence, in particular in the Luberon.

The XIXe century

End XIXe, beginning XXe, several earthquakes occur in Luberon of which that of the November 14th 1887.

Policy

By the law of August 10th 1871, the department becomes juridically a Territorial collectivity and the General advice receives a total competence to regulate the businesses of departmental interest.

Structure

Agriculture and economy

The Sériciculture made broad great strides in Provence at the XIXe century (as at the XVIIIe century) and will perdurera to the First World War. With Come, Country house-of-Jourdans the was one of the communes of the Luberon which drew from them the most benefit thanks to plantations of mulberry trees disappeared today. The domestic industry, the operations of spinning and treatment of silk occupied of many people and offered an auxiliary income to the peasants.

In parallel, development of the culture of garance, initially around the Sorgues then on all Vaucluse (Of 1855 to 1870, a third of Vauclusiens works the garance). But also culture of pastel with Cucuron and Cavaillon, indigotier and polygonum with It Isle-on-the-Sorgue

The XXe century

German occupation

Many hearths of resistance.

June 12th, 1944, massacre of Valréas

Military Cross in Vaucluse

November 11th 1948

  • Gordes - Military Cross with quotation to the order of division (money star)

  • Lambesc - Military Cross with quotation to the order of division (money star)
  • Sault - Military Cross with quotation to the order of the army corps (star of vermeil)

Post-war period

Development of tourism.

The Nineties - The business of the profanation of the cemetery of Carpentras does much noise.

The nuclear site of the Plate of Albion

April 1965, because of its human weak density and its ground, the plate of Albion is selected for the nuclear silo installation of. Only 18 silos and 2 driver's cabs of shooting (PCT) will be built (restriction of budget) on the 27 silos and 3 driver's cabs of shooting initially envisaged (at the beginning of 1966). air base (BA200)

1971 - Fine of work

September 1996, President Jacques Chirac announces the closing and the dismantling of the installations of Albion, because of the evolution of the European géostratégie (falls of the Eastern bloc) and of the ageing of the too expensive missiles in maintenance and not being worth the sorrow to be modernized.

More details on the page: Plate of Albion

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1982 - laws of decentralization (France). Suppression of the prefectoral supervision. The President of the General advice of Vaucluse holds the executive power and ensures the preparation and the implementation of the budget.

XXIe century

2004 - Act II of decentralization (France).

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