An important fortress and garrison town, Metz was besieged (1870) by the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War, and after a two-month siege, 179,000 French soldiers under Marshall Achille Bazaine capitulated. The Peace of Westphalia (1648), ending the Thirty Years War, confirmed the three bishoprics in French possession. In 1552, Henry II annexed the three bishoprics of Lorraine (Metz, Toul, and Verdun), and soon after, Metz, under the command of François de Guise, resisted a long siege (1552–53) by Emperor Charles V. During the Reformation the bourgeoisie of Metz welcomed Protestantism, but the city never became a bastion of Calvinism, and the uneasy bourgeoisie accepted the protection of the French crown. and was then one of the richest and most populous cities of the empire. Metz became a free imperial city in the 12th cent. Metz was a major cultural center of the Carolingian Renaissance (8th cent.) and was later (10th cent.) a prosperous commercial city with an important Jewish community. Metz was an early episcopal see and became the capital of Austrasia (the eastern portion of the Merovingian Frankish empire) in the 6th cent.Īfter the division of the Frankish empire (8th cent.) the bishops of Metz greatly increased their power, ruling a relatively vast area as a fief of the Holy Roman Empire. One of the most important cities of Roman Gaul, it was invaded and destroyed by the Vandals (406) and the Huns (451). Of pre-Roman origin, the city was the capital of the Mediomatrici, a Gallic people. It is one of eight cities targeted by the French government for special planning and development. It is a cultural, commercial, and transportation center of Lorraine, an industrial city producing metals, machinery, tobacco, clothing, and food products, and the home of one of France's largest military bases. 127,000), capital of Moselle dept., NE France, on the Moselle River.
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