Send Gift Baskets to Valenciennes, France

A legal document by Clovis II (Valentina) mentions Valenciennes for the first time in 693. As a result of the 843 Treaty of Verdun, it became a neutral city between Neustria and Austrasia. By the end of the 9th century, the Normans had overrun the region, and the town passed to them in 881. It passed to the Holy Roman Empire-dependent Duchy of Lower Lotharingia in 923. After the establishment of the Frankish Empire, the city began to develop, though the archaeological record still needs to reveal everything about this period. Valenciennes became the center of marches along the Empire’s border under the Ottonian Empire.

A terrible famine brought about the Plague in 1008. Tradition has it that the Virgin Mary surrounded the city with a cordon, which miraculously protected its people from the disease. Since then, the Valenciennes have walked the 14 km (9 mi) road around the town every year, known as the tour of the Holy Cordon. After 1070, many counts became counts of Hainaut, first as counts of Valenciennes.

At a General Chapter of the Dominican Order held in Valenciennes in 1259, Thomas Aquinas established a ratio studiorum or program of study for the Dominican Order [10] that featured the study of philosophy as an innovation for those not sufficiently trained to study theology with masters Bonushomo Britto, Florentius, Albert, and Peter. A Dominican scholastic philosophy evolved from this innovation, for example, in 1265 at the Order’s studium provinciale at the convent of Santa Sabina in Rome, from which the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas would emerge, Aquinas, Angelicum.

By 1285, the currency of Hainaut had been replaced by the money of France: the French écu. Besides many corporations in Valenciennes, many convents developed outside its walls, such as the Dominican convent (whose church was excavated by the Valenciennes Archaeological Service in 1989 and 1990).

A bell is still rung in honor of Our Lady of the Holy Cordon in the Tower of Dodenne, built by Albert of Bavaria in the 14th century. Valenciennes, a part of Hainault, lost its autonomy when it was re-attached to Burgundy in the 15th century. As well as Georges Chastellain, Jean Molinet, Simon Marmion, Pierre du Préau, and Jérôme de Moyenneville, Valenciennes had several famous sons during this period: the chronicler Georges Chastellain, the poet Jean Molinet, and the goldsmith Jérôme de Moyenneville).