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Auxerre (Municipality, Yonne, France)

Flag of Auxerre - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 13 June 2021

Presentation of Auxerrre
Flag of Auxerre

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Presentation of Auxerre

Auxerre (34,778 inhabitants in 2021; 4,995 ha) is a commune and the prefecture of the Yonne department.

Auxerre was a flourishing Gallo-Roman center, then called Autissiodorum, through which passed one of the main roads of the area, the Via Agrippa (1st century AD) which crossed the Yonne river her.

In the 5th century it received a cathedral. It was in Frankish hands when its bishop Theodosius signed the acts of the Council of Orléans (the first national Merovingian church council) in 511. The episcopal domain, established by 700, was confiscated by Pepin the Short (751–768). The first known count is a companion of Charlemagne, Hermenold, who received Auxerre in 771. Several counts succeeded him and in 859, Charles the Bald gave the county of Auxerre to his first cousin Conrad II. Having revolted, he was dismissed and the county was entrusted to Robert the Strong (great-grandfather of Hugh Capet and thus the ancestor of all the Capetians). On his death, Hugh the Abbott, Conrad II's brother, became the regent and guardian for Robert's sons, Odo and Robert. He entrusted Auxerre to a delegated count, Girbold, then made it the dowry of his niece Adelaide who married Richard the Justiciar, duke of Burgundy. He and his successors appointed viscounts in Auxerre, the first of which was a certain Rainard. During the second half of the tenth century, no count is known. The episcopal domain was restored under Bishops Herbert I (971–995), half-brother of the Duke of Francs Hugues Capet, and Hugh of Chalon (999–1039), assuming the function of counts de facto. Hugh was proclaimed Bishop of Auxerre in 999 atfer his father's death, by request of Henry I, Duke of Burgundy. After the death of the latter, he abandoned Auxerre to defend his family county of Chalon in the war that ensued. The county eventually returned to the Capetians and Robert II the Pious made it the dowry of his daughter Adelaide who married Renaud I of Nevers. The latter was therefore count of Auxerre and Nevers and came into conflict with the bishop of Auxerre. Until the thirteenth century, that is to say for two and a half centuries, the destinies of the counties of Auxerre and Nevers would remain linked, and to which would be added that of the county of Tonnerre, until the death of Mathilde II, in 1262. Her three daughters would share the counties and Alix, married to Jean Ier de Châlon, inherited the county Auxerre. In 1370, John IV of Châlon sold Auxerre to the king of France, who made it a royal bailiwick. In 1435, a peace treaty between Charles VII, King of France, and Philippe III the good, Duke of Burgundy, gave the city to the Duchy of Burgundy, and it was definitively annexed to France in 1477.

Bourgeois activities accompanied the traditional land and wine cultivations starting from the twelfth century, and Auxerre developed into a commune with a Town Hall of its own. The city suffered during the Hundred Years' War and the Wars of Religion. In 1567 it was captured by the Huguenots, and many ofthe Catholic edifices were damaged. The medieval ramparts were demolished in the 18th century.

In the 19th century numerous heavy infrastructures were built, including a railway station, a psychiatric hospital and the courts, and new quarters were developed on the right bank of the river Yonne.

Olivier Touzeau, 13 June 2021

Flag of Auxerre

The flag of Auxerre is vertically divided, with the colours of the arms: blue and yellow, and with the coat of arms in the center: photo (2010) photo (article published in 2016), photo (article published in 2020).

These arms (Azure billetty or, a lion Or armed and langued gules) are the arms of the first Counts of Nevers and Auxerre (in the 11th and 12th centuries), and these two towns have exactly the same coat of arms today.

Olivier Touzeau, 13 June 2021