History and civilization
The legend of "Lyderic and Phinaert" puts the foundation of the city of "L’Isle" at 640. Although the first mention of the town appears in archives from the year 1066, some archeological digs seem to show the area as inhabited by as early as 2000 BC.
Origins and Middle Ages
- The name Lille comes from insula or l’Isla, since the area was at one time marshy.
- This name was used for the Count of Flanders’ castle (Château du Buc), built on dry land in the middle of the marsh.
- The original inhabitants of this region were the Gauls, such as the Menapians, the Morins, the Atrebates, and the Nervians, who were followed by Germanic tribes, the Saxons and the Frisians, and the Franks later.
- From 830 until around 910, the Vikings invaded Flanders.
- From the 12th century, the fame of the Lille cloth fair began to grow.
- On February 6th, 1236, Countess Jeanne of Flanders founded the Countess’s Hospital (L’hospice de la comtesse) which remains one of the most beautiful buildings in Old Lille.
- Lille fell under the rule of France from 1304 to 1369, after the battle of Mons-en-Pévèle.
- The county of Flanders fell to the Duchy of Burgundy next, after the 1369 marriage of Marguerite de Male, Countess of Flanders, and Philippe II le Hardi, Duke of Burgundy. Lille thus became one of the three capitals of said Duchy, along with Brussels and Dijon.
- In 1477, at the death of the last duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, Mary of Burgundy married a Hapsburg, Maximilian of Austria, who thus became Count of Flanders.
- At the end of the reign of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Spanish Flanders fell to his eldest son, and thus under the rule of Philip II of Spain, King of Spain. The city remained under Spanish rule until the reign of Philip IV of Spain.
The modern era
- The 16th century was marked, above all, by the outbreak of the Plague, a boom in the regional textile industry, and the Protestant revolts.
- In 1667, King Louis XIV (the Sun-King) successfully laid siege to Lille, resulting in it becoming French in 1668 under the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.
- A number of important public works undertaken between 1667 and 1670, such as the Citadel (erected by Vauban), or the creation of the quartiers of Saint-André and la Madeleine, enabled the King to gradually gain the confidence of his Lille subjects.
- During five years, from 1708 to 1713, the city was occupied by the Dutch, during the War of the Spanish Succession.
- In 1792, in the aftermath of the French Revolution, the Austrians, then in the United Provinces, laid siege to Lille. The Column of the Goddess, erected in 1842 in the Grand-Place (Place du Général de Gaulle), is a tribute to the city’s resistance.
- The city continued to grow, and by 1800 held some 53,000 residents, leading to Lille becoming the county seat of the Nord départment in 1804. In 1846, a rail line connecting Paris and Lille was built.
- In 1858, an imperial decree led to the annexation of the adjacent towns of Fives, Wazemmes, and Moulins.
- By 1912, Lille’s population was at 217,000: the city profited from the Industrial Revolution, particularly via coal and the steam engine.
- From October 4th to 13th, 1914, the troops in Lille were able to trick the enemy by convincing them that Lille possessed more artillery than was the case; in reality, the city had only one cannon. Despite the deception, the German bombardments destroyed over 2,200 buildings and homes.
- Lille was liberated by the British on October 17th, 1918.
- Lille was taken by the Germans in May 1940.
- The départments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais were, for the most part, liberated in five days, from the 1st to 5th September 1944 by British, American, Canadian, and Polish troops.
- In 1967, the Chambers of Commerce of Lille, Roubaix, and Tourcoing were joined, and in 1969, the Communauté urbaine de Lille (Lille urban community) was created, linking 87 communes with Lille.
- In 1983, the VAL, the world’s first automated rapid transit underground network, was opened. In 1993, a high-speed TGV train line was opened, connecting Paris with Lille in one hour.
Source: Wikipedia