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In this pleasant town, one might have lingered indefinitely and not
lacked entertainment.
Soissons was called Augusta Suessionum under the early Empire. The town
has great notoriety among historians for the great number of sieges it
has undergone, down to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, when for three
days it resisted all attempts to take it.
Here Pépin le Bref was proclaimed King, and Louis le Débonnaire's
undutiful sons imprisoned him in the Abbey of S. Medard.
From the beginning of the eleventh century to the middle of the
fourteenth century, Soissons was ruled by its hereditary counts, but one
of these, Louis de Chatil-lon, who fell at the battle of Crécy,
being imprisoned in England, to pay his ransom, sold his countship to
En-guerrand VII de Coucy in 1367, and with all the rest of the appanage
of Coucy, it was taken by the crown of Louis XII.
From Cæsar to Napoleon its importance from a military point of view has
been of the greatest value from its splendid position on the banks of
the river Aisne. For centuries it had to defend itself from continued
attacks, and in these, although many times successful, the stronghold
seems to have worn down to its walls and towers. It has been called by
historians "The City of Sieges," and certainly few towns seem to have
suffered more. Doubtless its magnificent strategic position on the river
Aisne has been the reason for the successive attacks upon it. It was
also a favorite seat of royalty, and the capital of a Roman king,
Syagrius. Architects have pronounced the Cathedral's interior even more
impressive than that of Rheims, and say that "the beautiful proportions
of the nave, the simplicity and purity of the carved capitals, the
splendid glass, rendered it one of the most beautiful cathedrals of
France." ("Cathedral Cities of France," Herbert Marshall.)
It was a splendid example of mixed Romanesque and Gothic of the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries. The west façade had three beautiful doors,
and a great rose window of Gothic design containing glass, the equal of
which cannot, in the writer's opinion, be found in all France. There is
a great square tower on the south side, terminating in an apse.
Inside, I saw some tapestry of the fifteenth century in good condition,
and the sacristan showed an "Adoration of the Shepherds," which he
attributed to Rubens, but it was so badly lighted that little of the
detail could be seen.
Soissons suffered much at the hands of the Germans during the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870, when it was besieged by a force under the
command of the Duke of Mecklenburg, whose soldiers burned and destroyed
to their hearts' content.
Even as late as 1910, when I visited the town, the sacristan of the
Cathedral, in response to a question as to his knowledge of the siege,
became quite incoherent in his denunciations of the enemy. One wonders
what has become of this cultured and delightful old man, who was at once
priest and patriot. The south transept is said to have been the oldest
part of the Cathedral, and here was the sacristy (dated the end of the
twelfth century). The sacristan showed us the choir (1212) which was
surrounded by eight square, and the apse by five chapels of polygonal
form. Of these "Fergusson" says, "Nothing can exceed the justness of the
proportions of the center and side aisles, both in themselves and to one
another."
Kneeling statues of the abbesses, Marie de la Rochefoucauld and
Henriette de Lorraine d'Elbeuf were placed at either side of the west
portal. These were from the royal abbey of Notre Dame, but the sacristan
could not, or at any rate did not, give me any other information
concerning them. In the west end was a lovely little chapel, in what is
called the "Salle capit-ulaire," entrance to which is through an early
Gothic cloister with graceful vaulting supported by two beautiful
columns.
Very little remained of the once magnificent Abbey of St. Jean des
Vignes, except two spires, and a ruined façade, and this is on an
eminence near the station. In the bombardment of the town during the
Franco-Prus-sian War these were greatly damaged, but not destroyed.
Here Thomas à Becket lived in 1170. Some of the remaining buildings were
being used as a military prison in 1910.
The beautiful remains of the royal abbey of Notre Dame were given
over to the authorities as a soldiers' barracks, and admission to the
premises was refused us at the gate by a sentry.
Behind the Cathedral was the Hôtel de Ville, which contained the Library
and the Museum, neither of which was impressive.
Near the royal abbey of Notre Dame was the old Tour Lardier, in which,
according to legend, Satan was put in chains and confined by St. Vaast.
Outside the town, to the north, was the ruined church of St.
Crepin-en-Chaye, where in an abbey built in the eleventh century, the
Saints Crepinien were burned at the stake as martyrs. The abbots of old
were certainly militant personages, and their castles were strongholds.
We saw the remains of the abbey of St. Medard, which is said to have
been founded in 560 by Clotaire I. Here the Kings Clotaire and Sigebert
were buried, and here Childeric III was deposed; Pépin of Heristal
received his crown, and Louis le Débonnaire imprisoned by his heartless
sons in 833. Abelard, condemned at the Council of Soissons, was confined
here for years.