History of Yvelines

The history of Yvelines , department young on the administrative level since it was born only in 1968 pursuant to the law of the bearing July 10th, 1964 reorganization from the Paris region, is that of a ground very in the past populated, rich in monuments of various times. It was marked by its geographical position, with horse on the valley of the the Seine, privileged way of development thanks to the commercial exchanges but also way of invasion, between Paris with the east and the Normandy in the west, which in made a ground of confrontation a long time. The proximity of the capital allowed that several cities of Yvelines become royal residences in turn: Poissy, Saint-Germain-in-Bush hammer, Versailles.

General history of the territory of Yvelines

Prehistory

The presence of human settlements in Yvelines is attested since the old paleolithic (approximately 400.000 years before Jesus-Christ). Vestiges of various civilizations were found in more than 3000 sites having been the subject of archaeological excavations in the whole of the department and testify to various civilizations which followed one another until the age of iron.

Several megalithic monuments dating from the end of the Neolithic (approximately 2500 years before J. - C.) can be still seen in place in their original sites, for the majority in the valley of the Seine or not far from this one. They are in particular collective burials, shady walks or Dolmen S, in particular the shady walks, like the “alley of justice” with Épône (Élisabethville), the “cellar with the fairies” with Brueil-in-Vexin, the “alley of the large walls” to the Mureaux, the “dear arpent” with the Pond-the-City and it “hones ardoue” with Saint-Leger-in-Yvelines like three Menhir S remaining, the “raised stone” with Drocourt, the “stone drette” with Guitrancourt and the “gray stone” with Neauphlette. Two shady walks, that of Conflans-Holy-Honorine and that of Aubergenville (the “hole with the English”), were moved by increase and safeguard measure in the court interior of the Château of Saint-Germain-in-Bush hammer.

Gallic and Gallo-Roman period

At the time Gallic, the current territory of Yvelines was mainly in the field of the tribe of the Carnutes which extended towards the south until Cenabum (Orleans) and included vast the Forêt of Yveline. Other tribes were present on the fringes is, northern and west of the department, of which enough curiously the purely administrative limits follows about antiques borders which separated Carnutes from the Parisis in the east, of the Véliocasses in the north of the Seine and the Aulerques Éburovices in the east.

The Gallic period left few vestiges, the most remarkable site being the sanctuary of Bennecourt which remained until the Gallo-Roman time.

Gallo-Roman time one could recognize several sites, of which that of Diodurum (close to Pontchartrain which was with the crossing of two important Roman ways like several villae , in particular with Richebourg, Limetz-Villez and with the Mesnuls (Millière), and a sanctuary dedicated to the Mithra god with Septeuil.

The Middle Ages the day before the Revolution

Time mérovingienne, one found many necropoles, of which most important is with Vicq in the center of the department. The presence of cross in the burials attests christianization of the territory between IVe and VIIIe century.

But the most outstanding time for this territory is that which, of the beginning of XIIIe century with the end of XVIIIe during which it was the residence of kings de France, episodically initially since holy Louis born with Poissy towards 1214, which often resided at Saint-Germain-in-Bush hammer, then Henri IV which made Château of Saint-Germain-in-Bush hammer the royal residence, until Louis XIV gives up it for Versailles, where the Court definitively settled in 1682. It will remain there until in 1789.

According to a legend, the Fleur of lily, emblem of kings de France, would have his origin in the forest of Cruye (Forêt of Marly), close to Saint-Germain-in-Bush hammer. Close to the castle of Montjoie where according to the tradition the king Clovis came to remain, close to a fountain a hermit lived that the very Christian queen Clotilde was accustomed to coming to consult. One day that it was in prayer with the saint man, an angel would have appeared to them and would have asked him to replace the escutcheon of his/her husband, carrying three crescents or three clamping plates, by three flowers of lilies which shone of a gold color on the plain of the current Joye-in-Valley.

Concluded on July 11th, 911, the Traité Saint-Clearly-on-Epte the fixed one on the course of the Epte the border enters the kingdom of France and the future duchy of Normandy. This limit still that which delimits the territory of Yvelines towards the west.

At the time of the kings Capétiens, the territory of Yvelines enters the royal field gradually. In 987, with the advent of Hugues Capet, only chatellery of Poissy, which covers the country of the Pincerais, in fact part. Many local lords are the vassal ones of king de France, but certain powerful families dispute her suzerainty: the counts de Meulan, the counts de Vexin in north, the counts de Montfort, lords of Rochefort in the south.

To XIIe century, communal charters are granted to three bordering cities of the Seine, Mantes, Poissy and Meulan, by the king for the two first, by the local lord, the count Robert III for the last. These communes are moral persons who manage themselves freely, but Meulan will give up this statute in 1320, the communal community not being able to assume its loads.

The Guerre One hundred Year old tests the territory hard. After having taken Normandy, the English occupy the cities of the valley of the Seine, Mantes, Meulan and Poissy, where the king of England Edouard III settles as of August 1346 and right before the Bataille of Crécy. From August 13rd to 16th 1346, it is the ride of prince de Galles, Edouard de Woodstock, oldest son of Edouard III of England, known as the black, Prince sixteen years old, who on the basis of Poissy sets fire to the abbey of Joyenval and the castle of Saint-Germain and continues his devastations towards the east to Borough-the-queen. Mantes-the-pretty is definitively released only in 1449.

In 1561, from September 9th to 26th, is held the conference known as of Poissy, on the initiative of Catherine de Médicis which joins together brings together 46 catholic prelates, 12 protesting ministers of religion and forty theologists in order to maintain peace religious in France. But the assembly, prolonged with the Château of Saint-Germain-in-Bush hammer finishes on a failure.

January 17th, 1562, Catherine de Médicis makes sign with the king Charles IX, then twelve years old, the edict of Saint-Germain or edict of tolerance which authorizes reformed to practice their religion under certain conditions but which does not prevent the release of the wars of religion. Those strike the area, Poissy east taken and plundered by Huguenots in 1567.

In 1631, the king Louis XIII made build the first castle of Versailles on the site of a hunting lodge acquired in 1624, and in 1632 acquires the seigneuriaux rights of Versailles.

In 1682, Louis XIV decides to transfer the Court to Versailles.

In 1760, Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf creates with Jouy-in-Josas the manufacture of printed cottons (known under the name of Toile of Jouy), which will become “royal manufacture in 1783.

Revolution with the Great War

Versailles, city of the king and seat of the government, were also the theater of events of national range which marked the first phase of the Révolution during the summer 1789.

The May 4th 1789, the General states open in the room of the assembly of Notable to Versailles. The June 17th, the General states, on a proposal from the Sieyès abbot, take the title of “National Assembly”. The June 20th, the deputies of the Tiers state joined together in the Salle of the Play of palm lend the Serment of the Play of palm and commit themselves not separating before to have given a Constitution written to France. The July 9th, the Parliament proclaims constituent Assembly.

As of the autumn 1789, Versailles is deserted by the king, the Parliament and the administrations, parties in Paris, and quickly loses half of its population which will fall to less than 27.000 inhabitants in 1806.

The March 4th 1790, the department of Seine-et-Oise is created pursuant to the law of December 22nd, 1789. Its territory which takes part of the dismemberment of the old province of Ile-de-France has a particular form wedging Paris completely (department of the Seine). It is composed of nine “districts”: Corbeil, Dourdan, Stamps, Gonesse, Mantes, Montfort, Pontoise, Saint-Germain and Versailles. The chief town is fixed at Versailles, finally preferred with its competitors: Saint-Germain-in-bush hammer, Stamps and Pontoise. The city thus recovers the administration of the department, which includes/understands an assembly of 36 members and a directory of eight members. These managements were flanked “representatives of the people on mission” who exerted the reality of the capacity.

The September 9th 1792, Versailles was the theater of massacres against prisoners of Orleans whose convoy passed by the city, then in the prisons of the city where slaughters continued the following days. One estimates the number of victims at 70

Ier|[Napoleon] made frequent stays with the Castle of Rambouillet. It is him which decides the creation of the district of Rambouillet in 1811. It spends there the night from June 29th to 30th 1815, its last night in a French castle, before leaving in exile for Sainte-Hélène. July 1st, 1815 took place the Bataille of Rocquencourt, in which the general Exelmans demolished a Prussian brigade of the army of Blücher. Victoire without a future, the French staff having decided to sign the armistice as of the next on July 3rd.

August 2nd, 1830, Charles X, withdrawn with the castle of Rambouillet, abdicates and leaves in exile for Scotland.

The royal castles are reconverted in Musée s.
June 10th, 1837, the king Louis-Philippe inaugurates the historical museum lately installed in the castle of Versailles. Napoleon III decides by decree of March 9th, 1862 the creation of a museum of Celtic and Gallo-Roman antiquities in the Château of Saint-Germain-in-Bush hammer. The inauguration takes place in 1867.

the war free-Prussian and the Common

Immediately after the capitulation of Sedan the September 2nd 1870, the Prussian troops make their entry with Versailles. The September 18th a first detachment of eight hussards of Dead is presented and the following day they are several regiments of cavalry. The Prussians make to city their general headquarter. The occupation is very hard for Versailles and the area. A German prefect, Von Brautshitch, are named, which quickly makes stop the mayor of Versailles, Rameau, and its advisers. They are taken as an hostage until January 6th, 1871. In all the current territory of Yvelines, fixings oppose the Prussian troops to franc-tireurs. Heavy reprisals are exerted against the population: thus on September 22nd, the Wall-on-Seine is partly set fire to, in October Ablis is put at bag, burnt Bréval on November 1st after a German was killed on the place of the village… June 18th, 1871, supreme humiliation for the French, the king of Prussia, Frederic-Guillaume 1 {{er}}, is made proclaim emperor of Germany in the Galerie of the Ices.

Versailles was thereafter the framework of another historical event: the signature the June 28th 1919 of the Treated of Versailles which put an end to the First World War. Revenge wanted by Clemenceau: the ceremony took place in the same gallery of the Ices.

November 11th, 1876 is brought into service the first network, with horse-drawn traction, of the trams of Versailles. It will be thereafter, in October 1895, taken again and electrified by the SVTE (Société of Versailles of electric trams). The network functioned until October 1953 before being replaced by services of urban buses.

Yvelines are the theater of several episodes of the beginnings of aviation. Clément Ader carries out on the plate of Satory close to Versailles one as of its first flights in 1890 with Éole , then the October 14th 1897 with the Avion n° 3 , its first flight of 300 meters, test which finishes badly and involves the destruction of the apparatus and the abandonment of its research by Ader. A monument located at Versailles celebrates this exploit occurred six years before the first flight of the Frères Wright. In 1909, Santos-Dumont connects Satory to Buc, distant of eight kilometers in five minutes on board the Demoiselle . In February 1910, the count of Lambert discovers the site of Villacoublay where quickly a flying school and a factory of assembly of plane settle.

Great War at our days

Yvelines were also the witness of the first line of Railroad opened to the travellers in France between Paris and Pecq in 1837, then at the XXe century of the first French Autoroute between Saint-Cloud and Orgeval starting from 1939.

The year 1910 is remembered by the great rising of the Seine which affects the bordering communes of the river between on January 20th and on February 2nd.

In June 1940, the major part of the population flees in front of the advance of the German army, it is the exodus which leaves almost empty the majority of the agglomerations. Thus in Versailles, there remains only 10.000 inhabitants out of 60.000. The Germans cross the Seine, in spite of the destruction of the bridges, as of on June 13rd and Versailles is occupied as the remainder of the department.

The year 1944 is remembered by many allied bombardments which aim in particular the bridges on the Seine, the stations and the industrial parks. Some make many victims among the population, as in Mantes it Jolie whose old center is devastated and in Versailles even. the release of the department by the American army intervenes between 19 and on August 24th, 1944.

Two meetings at the top of the group of the most industrialized countries (currently G8) were held in Yvelines: the first of the kind (G6) in 1975 with the Château of Rambouillet joined together on the initiative of the president Valery Giscard d'Estaing gathered six countries (Germany (Helmut Schmidt), the United States (Gerald Ford), France, Italy (Aldo Moro), Japan (Takeo Miki) and the United Kingdom (Harold Wilson), then the eighth in 1982 under the presidency of François Mitterrand with the Château of Versailles.

In 1972, creation of the new City of Saint-Quentin-in-Yvelines pursuant to Article 3 of the law n° 70-610 of July 10th, 1970 tending to facilitate the creation of new agglomerations.

In 1999, the castle of Rambouillet was the theater of the Accord of Rambouillet, proposal for an peace agreement between the Yugoslavia and the Albanians of the Kosovo.

In November 2005, the vague of urban violence which touches the Parisian suburbs does not save Yvelines. It does not make victims but sets ablaze all the cities known as “sensitive” to Achères, Mureaux, Mantes-the-Pretty, Sartrouville, Trap door-in-Yvelines, Chanteloup-the-Vines. The most spectacular incident with place with Trap door-in-Yvelines: a bus depot of a subsidiary company of the RATP is burnt on November 4th and 52 vehicles are destroyed. The state of emergency is issued in the whole of the department on November 8th initially for 12 days, then prolonged three months.

Administrative history of the department of Yvelines

1964 (law of July 10th): the creation of the department of Yvelines is decided, its limits are fixed (western part of the old department of Seine-et-Oise, namely almost totality of the districts of Mantes-the-Pretty, Saint-Germain-in-Bush hammer and Versailles, most of the district of Rambouillet and a small portion of the district of Pontoise)
1965 (decree of February 25th): the chief town of the department is fixed at Versailles
1966 (decree of June 2nd): the 4 districts are delimited
1967 (decree of July 20th): creation of the 31 cantons of Yvelines
1967 (decree of September 19th): the complete coming into effect of the law of July 10th, 1964 is fixed at January 1st, 1968
1968 (January 1st): official creation of the department of Yvelines and entry according to the general advice elected in 1967
1969 (decree of November 21st): fastening of the communes of Toussus-the-Noble Châteaufort and with the detriment of the the Essonne
1976 (decree of January 15th): the number of cantons is increased to 37
1982 (decree of January 15th): the number of cantons is increased to 38
1985 (decree of January 31st): the number of cantons is increased to 39

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