FIG. 183. AURIBEAU.
From an early time Grasse was an industrious and commercial town. It thus became rich, and its wealth brought upon it frequent attacks from the Saracens while they had their headquarters at the Great Fraxinet. Early in the twelfth century the inhabitants followed the example of the Italian towns with which they had commerce by constituting themselves a free republic. Their consuls formed treaties with Pisa and Genoa, and unfortunately the town got mixed up with Italian politics and the disputes of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. This led to the usual unhappy result of dividing the people into violent factions, and enabled Raymond Béranger, Count of Provence, in 1226, under pretext of aiding the Guelph party, to render himself master of the town. In the sixteenth century Grasse shared the unhappy fate of the rest of this part of France, when Francis I. found himself unable to defend it against Charles V., and therefore laid the whole country waste. The town also suffered greatly during the religious wars of the seventeenth century.
FIG. 184. GRASSE.
FIG. 185. PLAN OF GRASSE CATHEDRAL.