La Pierre Folle, Vendee

La Vendée

History

What brings together Charles Martel, Eleanor of Aquitaine, François I, Richelieu, Rabelais and Clemanceau?

Yes: La Vendée! Each of these illustrious figures left his or her imprint on the region's history.

From the Paleolithic Era to the Roman Empire, there were many battles, destructions, reconstructions, and progress as well!

The area today called the Vendée was originally known as the Bas-Poitou and is part of the former province of Poitou. There is evidence the area was inhabited from prehistoric times (menhirs and dolmens from 2,500 BC and earlier, such as those near Avrillé and Le Bernard.

From the 10th century castles began to appear across the Vendée: for example at St Mesmin, Noirmoutier, and Talmont.

In the south-east corner, the village of Nieul-sur-l'Autise is believed to be the birthplace of Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204) and was part of her Kingdom. Eleanor's son, Richard I of England (the Lionhearted) often based himself in Talmont.

The Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), after Edward III made a claim to the French crown, turned much of the Vendée into a battleground.

Abbey Nieul sur l'autize

Cardinal Richelieu

Since the Vendée held a considerable number of influential Protestants, including control by Jeanne d'Albret, the region was greatly impacted by the French Wars of Religion which broke out in 1562 and continued until 1598. Eventually King Henri IV issued the Edict of Nantes and the Wars came to an end. When the Edict of Nantes was revoked in 1685, it caused many Huguenots to flee from the Vendée.

Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642) - one-time bishop of Luçon - who was chief minister to Louis XIII between 1624 and 1642, saw the need to unite the whole of France under one crown. To reduce the power of the provincial dukes and princes, he ordered the destruction of their strongholds, reducing such Vendean castles as Talmont, La Garnache, Les Essarts and Apremont to ruins.

The Vendée heart symbol results from the period of the Vendean wars; the two hearts represent the king and queen; the crown for the monarchy and the cross for the catholic faith

The Vendée is also remembered as the place where the peasants revolted against the Revolutionary government in 1793. They resented the changes imposed on the Roman Catholic Church by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790) and broke into open revolt in defiance of the Revolutionary government's military conscription. A guerrilla war, known as the Wars of the Vendée, led at the outset by an underground faction called the Chouans (tawny owls), it would cost more than 100,000 lives until it ended in 1796.

The suppression of the Catholic Royalists was merciless. It is considered by some to be the first modern genocide and has only relatively recently been so understood.

This period of Vendean history is key to understand the people of the region - there are poignant reminders of it across the area. For an account of the Vendée Wars
by Australian writer Sophie Masson (whose ancestors came from the Vendée), visit her website by clicking here

In 1815 when Napoleon returned from Elbe for his Hundred Days, La Vendee refused to recognise him and stayed loyal to King Louis XVIII. General Lamarque led 10,000 men into La Vendee to pacify the region.

The region slowly recovered from the devastation of the Vendée Wars. Vast areas of pine and holm oak were planted from the mid-19th century to anchor the shifting sands along the coast.

Abbey de Maillezais

Fontenay-le-Comte

The coming of the railways in the mid 19^th century helped to develop tourism around the ports of St-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie and Les Sables-d'Olonne where you can still see some fine examples of Victorian-period seaside architecture. The railways also provided a means of escape for many of the inhabitants of marshland farms, leading to a rural exodus around the turn of the century.

From the late 18^th until the mid-20^th century there was a coal-mining industry at Faymoreau-les-Mines, just to the west of Mervent.

For more than four years of World War II the Vendée was occupied by German forces, who commandeered the coastline and denied access to many villages along it.

Tourism has today taken the lead as the county's main money-spinner. Close behind come agriculture (beef and dairy cattle, pigs and poultry in the woods and hills of the "bocage"; cereal-growing in the plains; sheep and cattle in the marshes; and early vegetables on the island of Noirmoutier); fishing (sardines, tuna, sole and langoustines, oysters and mussels); manufacture of clothes and shoes; boat-building (St-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie is the home of the world-famous Bénéteau yachts); food-canning; and the construction of agricultural machinery.