History of Versailles

The history of Versailles is that of a city or at least of a relatively old village which saw its quiet evolution rocking at the 17th century by the chance of the choices of the French monarchs.

Origins

The name of “Versailles” probably comes from the Latin versare which means to pour, to turn over. The term, the 11th century, would have indicated at the origin of the grounds Labor ées (turned over).
A Versailles is indeed as old French is a cleared ground. This word has for usual Synonyme Essart , which one finds in the name of the commune the Essarts-the-King not far from Rambouillet. One also finds this term with a more antiquated orthography in the form versail . Nevertheless, the controversy relating to the etymology of the name of the royal city is not completely extinct and other explanations were advanced:

- a Germanic or franque origin: " Warge" monticule and " would mean; allein" wanting to say insulated ; this Toponyme would thus refer to the Montboron hillock, but this solution remains very disputed insofar as it résoud not the question of the plural of Versailles

- an allusion to an old forest right called in Latin versagium

- a Latin origin in reference to the main feature of the place until the XVIIè century: the presence of a mill. The verb " vertere" give to the supin " versum" who means to turn and " alae" , wings . Versaliis could thus interpreted like small towers or " turn-ailes".

The first attested mention of Versailles dates from the year 1038. A certain Hugues of Versailles " Hugo of versaliis" is quoted in a charter of the abbey of Saint-Par of Chartres. It would be the first known lord of Versailles. The second allusion appears in 1065 in an act by which a certain Geoffroy de Gometz founded on this date the priory of Bazainville, not far from Houdan, that it gave to the abbey of Marmoutier Turns. To ensure of the regular and sufficient resources, it grants several grounds and privileges to him, with in particular " three Emolument S in Versailles from which one is in domino ". Of these three emoluments canonic, one can put forth the assumption that " in domino " raised of the lord of Versailles, the two others of the tourangelle abbey.

In the Feudal system of medieval France , the lords of Versailles were subordinates directly to the king, without intermediate suzerain between them and the king. They were not then of a very important row. At the end of the 11th century, the first village had been established near a medieval manor and around the Saint-Julien church. The Saint-Julien parish of Versailles is quoted in a charter of 1084. Its agricultural activity and its position on the road of Paris to Dreux and the Normandy made a prosperous village of it, especially at the end of the 12th century known as the “century of holy Louis”, which was one boom in the north of France, marked by the construction of the Cathédrale S Gothic S. the 14th century brought the Black Death and the Guerre One hundred Year old, with their processions of died and destruction. At the end of the War One hundred Year old, at the 15th century, the village started to be rebuilt with a population of only 100 inhabitants.

At the 14th century, Gilles of Versailles exerts the load of Baillif of the king.

In 1561, Martial de Loménie, Secretary of State to finances of the king Charles IX, became only lord of Versailles. It obtained the authorization to establish four annual fairs and a weekly market Thursday. The population of Versailles reached 500 inhabitants then. Martial de Loménie was assassinated during the Massacre of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (August 24th 1572) leaving only minors.

In 1575, Albert de Gondi, duke of Retz, originating in Florence arrived to France with Catherine de Médicis, bought the Seigneurie of Versailles. Consequently, Versailles was the property of Gondi, a family of rich and influential lawyers to the “Parlement” of Paris. The grandson of Albert, Henri de Gondi, which became cardinal, accepted on several occasions the king Henri IV in his manor of Versailles. In the years 1610, Gondi invited several times the young king Louis XIII with shooting parties in the vast forests of Versailles.

Louis XIII

In 1622, the king Louis XIII acquired of a piece of forest in Versailles for its private huntings. Later, in 1624, it bought news of them and instructed its architect Philibert Roy to build to him, at the top of a hill, a hunting lodge which became its go of hunting preferred. It is in this modest castle that took place the November 11th 1630 the historical event known under the name of “Day of Dupes”, during which the party of the queen mother was demolishes and Richelieu confirmed in its functions of Prime Minister.

Finally, in 1632, the king repurchased with Jean-François de Gondi, archbishop of Paris and last lord of Versailles, the ground and the seigniory of Versailles in its totality for 70 000 pounds. The castle was increased and deeply transformed between 1632 and 1634, the work started with Philibert Roy will be completed by Jacques Boyceau and Jacques de Menours. The red brick frontage with white stone chaining surmounted by a slate roof decorated with attic windows, is typical style says “Louis XIII”. With died of Louis XIII, in 1643, the village had 1 000 inhabitants. The king Louis XIV, his son, was then only five years old.

Louis XIV

They are only eighteen years later, in 1661, whereas it began its personal reign, that the young king was interested in Versailles. The idea to move away from Paris, where he had lived child the insurrection of the Fronde, had never left it. There Louis XIV charged his architect Vau and his landscape gardener Ours to transform and increase the castle of his father, as well as the park, so as to be able to receive the Court. In 1678, after the Traité of Nimègue, the king decided definitively to establish the Court and the government in Versailles, which was made the May 6th 1682. Very quickly, the small manor of countryside was transformed into a prestigious Château and one arranged a large park raised around. It became the symbol of the absolute capacity. the festivals in Versailles which were so extravagant, showed its power too. The Galerie of the Ices is completed in 1684.

At the same time, a new city left the ground, result of an astute decree of the king dating from the May 22nd 1671, by which the king authorized whoever to acquire free a piece of ground in the new city. This acquisition was subjected to two conditions: on the one hand, a tax symbolic system of five grounds per arpent of ground was to be paid annually; in addition, a house was to be built on the piece by respecting the plans and models establish by the “superintendent of the buildings of the King”. These plans envisaged a city built symmetrically compared to the avenue of Paris (which starts in front of the entry of the castle). The roofs of these buildings were not to exceed the level of the marble court, located at the entry of the castle (which is built on a hillock dominating the city), so as not to block the prospect since the aforementioned court as well as windows for the castle. The old village and the Saint-Julien church were destroyed to leave room to constructions intended to accommodate the Large Commun runs (administrative services managing the intendance of the castle). On both sides of the avenue of Paris the districts Notre-Dame and Saint-Louis were built, with churches, markets, private mansions, etc, the whole being built in a very homogeneous style imposed by the “superintendent of the buildings of the King”. Versailles was in building site during many years.

The water provision of the city and the castle quickly became problematic in a site deprived of river worthy of this name. In 1687, the Machine of Marly enters in service and makes it possible to bring the water of the the Seine to Versailles.

Little by little, to Versailles all those came which wished to live close it political power or which had the obligation of it. With died of the sun king Soleil in 1715, the village of Versailles had become a town of approximately 30 000 inhabitants.

Louis XV and Louis XVI

During the regency of the duke of Orleans, the Court gives up Versailles and fixes itself at Paris.

When the Court of the king Louis XV went back to Versailles in 1722, the city had 24 000 inhabitants. During the reign of Louis XV, Versailles increases even more. Versailles was the capital of the most prosperous kingdom of Europe, and all Europe admired new architecture and the new tendencies coming from Versailles. Enough quickly, the rules of strict constructions established under Louis XIV was not respected any more, the real estate speculation became flourishing, and the batches allotted free under Louis XIV were negotiated from now on at high prices. In 1744, the population of the city rose with 37 000 inhabitants.

The city changed considerably under the kings Louis XV and Louis XVI. Constructions were from now on higher. The king Louis XV made build the ministries for the War, of the Foreign affairs (where was signed in 1783 the Traité of Paris (1783) putting fine at the Guerre of independence of the United States of America) and of the Navy. In 1789, the population had reached 50.000 inhabitants, and Versailles was from now on the third or fourth town of France and one of largest the town of Europe.

September 19th, 1783, the Frères Montgolfier make rise a balloon with hot air in front of the king Louis XVI and presses it gathered on the place of Weapons in front of the castle of Versailles. The balloon whose nacelle in wicker transports a sheep, a cock and a duck, carries out a tour of 3,5 kilometers.

French revolution

Sit of the political power, Versailles became naturally the cradle of the French revolution. The General states met in Versailles the May 5th 1789. The members of the Tiers state occupied the Salle of the play of palm the June 20th 1789, and the constituent Assembly abolishes the Féodalisme the August 4th 1789. Finally, the 5 and October 6th 1789, a horde from Paris invades the castle and forced the royal family to return to Paris. A little later the constituent Assembly followed the king to Paris and it was the end of the role of capital of Versailles.
Versailles was renamed by the revolutionists “Cradle of Freedom”.

Versailles then lost a good part of its inhabitants. Of 50 000, the population went down to 28 000 inhabitants in 1824. The castle, stripped its pieces of furniture and of its ornaments during the Revolution, was left with the abandonment. Napoleon briefly remained there, spending only one night there, before giving up the castle for good.

XIXe century

In 1815, the city is occupied by the Prussian troops.

The king Louis-Philippe saved the castle of the total ruin by transforming it, in 1837, “national museum” dedicated “to all glories of France” as testifies the inscriptions to them on the pediments to the two buildings on both sides to the main courtyard. Versailles had become a kind of Belle to wood sleeping . It was a place of pilgrimage for the nostalgic ones of monarchy.

The war free-Prussian of 1870 again put Versailles in the high-speed motorboat. The city is occupied by the Prussian which establish there their general headquarter of the September 18th 1870 with the March 12th 1871.
The January 18th 1871, the victorious Germans proclaimed the king of Prussia, Guillaume I {{er}}, emperor of Germany in the center even of the Galerie of the ices of the castle, like a kind of revenge on the conquests of Louis XIV, two centuries earlier.

Then in March of the same year, following the insurrection of the Common of Paris, the French government directed by Thiers took refuge in Versailles, from where the military repression of the insurrection was directed. The government and the Parliament remained in Versailles after the end of the insurrection, and even a certain time was thought that the capital of France would be definitively transferred to Versailles so as to avoid, in the future, the revolutionary climate of Paris. The restoration of monarchy was even almost carried out in 1873. Versailles was again the political center of France, full with buzzes and rumors. Finally, when the republican left wing gained election on election, the partisans of the restoration of monarchy were demolished and the new majority decided in November 1879 to make return the government to Paris. After that, Versailles played never again the part of capital of France, but, of the presence of the Parliament in the Années 1870, it remains a vast hemicycle built in a wing of the Palate, still used when the French Parliament meets in Congrès to amend the Constitution.

In 1873, the lawsuit of the Maréchal Bazaine in front of the Conseil of war was held in the gallery of the Grand Trianon.

The December 16th 1873, took place the foundation of the 3Ecole Nationale Sup3erieure of horticulture installed in the Potager of the king.

1876 sees the foundation of the company of the Tramways of Versailles with the setting service of the tram with horse-drawn traction. The network will be electrified thereafter, in 1895.

XXe century

It was necessary to await 1901 so that Versailles finds its level of population of 1790, with 54 982 inhabitants with the census of 1901.

In 1919, at the end of the First World War, Versailles was again in the high-speed motorboat when the various treaties putting an end to the war were negotiated and signed in the castle itself or with the Grand Trianon; in particular, the June 28th 1919, took place the signature of the Traité of Versailles in the Galerie of the Ices of the castle.

After 1919, with the continual growth of the suburbs of Paris, Versailles knew a strong growth economic and demographic and the city was included in the Paris and its suburbs. The role of Versailles like administrative and legal center was reinforced in the Années 1960 and 1970 and the city became the principal center of the western suburbs of Paris.

In 1932, took place the inauguration of the station of the Building sites by Raoul Dautry.

During the Second world war, Versailles is occupied by the German troops of the June 14th 1940 with the August 24th 1944, date of the entry of the first armoured tanks of the 2 {{E}} dB of the general Leclerc. It undergoes, in particular in February and June 1944, of important bombardments aiming at the station of the Building sites and the camp of Satory and which made more than 300 victims.

The August 27th 1941, during a ceremony in the Borgnis-Desbordes barracks the young person Paul Collette tried to cut down Pierre Laval and Marcel Déat by drawing five balls from revolver. This event did not have political consequences.

The March 3rd 1957, the network of the Tramways of Versailles was closed and replaced by buses.

The February 25th 1965, a decree fixed at Versailles the Chef-lieu new department of the Yvelines, created officially on January 1st 1968 pursuant to the law n° 64-707 of the July 10th 1964 bearing reorganization of the Paris region.

The center of the city kept a very middle-class atmosphere, while the suburbs, rather of middle-class, developed around the stations and with the periphery of the city. Versailles is smart suburbs of Paris connected well to the center of the capital by several lines of railroad. The city however is very compartmentalized, divided by large avenues, inherited monarchy, which gives the impression of several small towns being unaware of the ones the others. Versailles forever be an industrial town, even if one finds some activities chemical and agro-alimentaires.
there Versailles has before a a whole line of business: administrations, tourism, businesses, congress and festivals.

The great storm of the December 26th 1999 devastated the plantations of the park and allowed, n the other hand, the installation of an important programme of replanting of the original gasolines in their alignments of time.

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