Everything about Gu Nes totally explained
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This is for the commune in France. For the city in Cuba, see Güines.Guînes is a
commune of northern
France, chief town of the
canton of Guînes,
arrondissement of Calais, in the
Pas-de-Calais département.
Geography
Guînes is located on the border of the two territories of the
Boulonnais and
Calaisis, at the edge of the now-drained
marshes, which extend from here to the coast. The Guînes canal connects with Calais.
History
Historically, Guînes was the capital of a small county of the same name. After the
Romans left, in the 5th century, there’s little known about the town. Sometime during the
Dark Ages, according to legend, the territory of Guînes became the property of one Aigneric,
Mayor of the Palace of the
Burgundian king
Théodebert II.
In
928, when the Danes invaded and seized the place, it was probably a defenceless village. A fenced mound and a double ditch would soon have been created by the Danes. This is the origin of the castle of Guînes.
Arnulf I, Count of
Flanders, realizing a counter-attack would be costly, arranged the marriage of his daughter Elstrude, to Sigfrid, the Danish leader, bestowing upon him the title of Count of Guînes but as vassal to him, the Count of Flanders. Under Sigfrid’s successors, the county of Guînes acquired considerable importance.
At the beginning of the 11th century, Count Manassès founded a convent of the order of
Saint-Benoit. This was placed under the jurisdiction of the nearby abbey of
Saint Léonard. At that time, Guînes comprised three parishes within its walls, whose churches were dedicated to
Saint Bertin,
Saint Pierre and
Saint Médard. Outside the town ramparts were the abbey of Saint Léonard, the church of Saint-Blaise, in the hamlet of
Melleke, and the leper-house of Saint Quentin, in the hamlet of
Spelleke (in
Tournepuits).
At the end of 11th century,
Baudoin II built a huge stone castle on top of Sigfrid’s old keep and enclosed the town within a stone wall, with defensive towers at each of the entrances.
On January 22,
1351, three years after the capture of
Calais by
Edward III, the castle of Guînes was also delivered up to the English..
In
1360, the
Treaty of Brétigny surrendered the city and its county to England.
Population
Places and monuments
Blanchard's Column
Image:guines-blanchard01.JPG||The column
Image:guines-blanchard02.JPG|The plaque on the column
The column was erected to commemorate
Jean-Pierre Blanchard's crossing of the English Channel by hot-air balloon on the 7th January 1785.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Gu Nes'.
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