IX.
EPERNAY.
The connection of Epernay with the production of wine of remote date—The town repeatedly burnt and plundered—Hugh the Great carries off all the wine of the neighbourhood—Vineyards belonging to the Abbey of St. Martin in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries—Abbot Gilles orders the demolition of a wine-press which infringes the abbey’s feudal rights—Bequests of vineyards in the fifteenth century—Francis I. bestows Epernay on Claude Duke of Guise in 1544—The Eschevins send a present of wine to their new seigneur—Wine levied for the king’s camp at Rethel and the strongholds of the province by the Duc de Longueville—Epernay sacked and fired on the approach of Charles V.—The Charles-Fontaine vendangeoir at Avenay—Destruction of the immense pressoirs of the Abbey of St. Martin—The handsome Renaissance entrance to the church of Epernay—Plantation of the ‘terre de siége’ with vines in 1550—Money and wine levied on Epernay by Condé and the Duke of Guise—Henri Quatre lays siege to Epernay—Death of Maréchal Biron—Desperate battle amongst the vineyards—Triple talent of the ‘bon Roy Henri’ for drinking, fighting, and love-making—Verses addressed by him to his ‘belle hôtesse’ Anne du Puy—The Epernay Town Council make gifts of wine to various functionaries to secure their good-will—Presents of wine to Turenne at the coronation of Louis XIV.—Petition to Louvois to withdraw the Epernay garrison that the vintage may be gathered in—The Duke and Duchess of Orleans at Epernay—Louis XIV. partakes of the local vintage at the maison abbatiale on his way to the army of the Rhine—Increased reputation of the wine of Epernay at the end of the seventeenth century—Numerous offerings of it to the Marquis de Puisieux, Governor of the town—The Old Pretender presented at Epernay with twenty-four bottles of the best—Sparkling wine sent to the Marquis de Puisieux at Sillery, and also to his nephew—Further gifts to the Prince de Turenne—The vintage destroyed by frost in 1740—The Epernay slopes at this epoch said to produce the most delicious wine in Europe—Vines planted where houses had formerly stood—The development of the trade in sparkling wine—A ‘tirage’ of fifty thousand bottles in 1787—Arthur Young drinks Champagne at Epernay at forty sous the bottle—It is surmised that Louis XVI., on his return from Varennes, is inspired by Champagne at Epernay—Napoleon and his family enjoy the hospitality of Jean Remi Moët—King Jerome of Westphalia’s true prophecy with regard to the Russians and Champagne—Disgraceful conduct of the Prussians and Russians at Epernay in 1814—The Mayor offers them the free run of his cellars—Charles X., Louis Philippe, and Napoleon III. accept the ‘vin d’honneur’ at Epernay—The town occupied by German troops during the war of 1870–1.
IF Reims be the titular capital of the Champagne wine-trade, Epernay can boast of containing the establishments of some of the most eminent firms engaged therein. Its connection with the production of the wines of Champagne is of the remotest. The vineyards stretching for miles around the ancient Sparnacum claim indeed an antiquity far exceeding that of any existing portion of the town itself, which, despite the remote date of its foundation, and the fact that it was a place of considerable importance as early as 445, presents a thoroughly modern aspect. Unlike Reims—so rich in the remains of antiquity—it possesses no mementoes of the days when its lord Eulogius gave it to St. Remi,[428] and he in turn bequeathed it to the Church.
The reason is simple, for the history of Epernay may be briefly summed up in the words—fire, pestilence, and pillage. From the days when misfortune first overtook it, after the division of the Frankish monarchy on the death of Clovis, it has been burnt down on half a dozen occasions, repeatedly depopulated by the plague, and captured and sacked times out of number. The contending sovereigns of Austrasia and Neustria alternately obtained forcible possession of it, and the rival counts of Paris and Vermandois snatched it repeatedly from each other’s hold, like hungry dogs contending for a bone; whilst the Normans, the Hungarians, the vassals of Charles of Lorraine, and the followers of Otho of Germany added their quota to the work of destruction during the long period of anarchy preceding the establishment of the Capetian race upon the throne of France. The founder of the said race, Hugh the Great, distinguished himself in 947 by plundering the town of Epernay, ravaging the surrounding country, and profiting by the fact that it was vintage-time to carry off all the wine of the neighbourhood.[429]
Even during the epoch of comparative tranquillity which prevailed up to the English invasion, Epernay became from time to time the prey of robber knights like Thomas de Marlé and rebellious nobles like Count John of Soissons; and at the commencement of the thirteenth century Count Thibault of Champagne was fain to burn it, in order to prevent it from serving as a rallying-place for the lords who had risen against Queen Blanche and her infant son Louis IX. After the battle of Poitiers it was pillaged by the partisans of Charles the Bad of Navarre; Edward the Black Prince entered it twice as a conqueror; and John of Gaunt exacted a heavy tribute from it. In the struggles which followed the death of Henry V. of England it was again taken and re-taken, partially burnt and utterly ruined, remaining for three years absolutely depopulated after the unwelcome visit paid it by the Duke of Burgundy in 1432.