Péronne, a sub-prefecture of the "Département" of the Somme, was one of the centres of the sugar and hosiery industries in France, with a pre-war population of about 5,000 inhabitants.
Built at the junction of the Rivers Somme and Cologne, which form a picturesque girdle of marshes and ponds before the walls of the town, Péronne was formerly a fortified city. Its brick ramparts and moats were being dismantled when the late war broke out.
Origin and Chief Historical Events
Péronne, whose origin goes back to a Merovingian villa built there in the seventh century, became, in the Middle-Ages, an important fortified city, under the rule of the Counts de Vermandois. One of them kept Charles-le-Simple imprisoned there until his death (929). Philippe I. annexed Péronne to the Crown lands, but in 1435 Charles VII. gave the city to Philippe-le-Bon, Duke of Burgundy. In 1483, during the rebellion of the Liégois, Louis XI., who was then the guest of Charles-le-Téméraire, was kept a prisoner in the castle and compelled to sign a humiliating treaty—called the Péronne Peace—which he afterwards refused to fulfil.
In 1536, the Spaniards, under the leadership of the Prince of Orange, besieged the town for thirty consecutive days, but thanks to the bravery of the inhabitants, and the heroism of a woman named Catherine de Poix, or Marie Fouché, who was the soul of the resistance (photo, p. [104]), Péronne was saved.
The "Holy League," which marked the commencement of the Religious Wars, was founded at Péronne in 1577 by the nobility and clergy.
In 1870-71, the Germans besieged the town for thirteen days (December 28 to January 9), and subjected it to a violent bombardment, which caused considerable damage, though insignificant in comparison with the depredations of the late war. The church, especially the belfry, was greatly damaged, part of it collapsing, and a number of houses were either burnt or destroyed. During the occupation the enemy committed no excesses.
Péronne—whose arms bear the following device, "Urbs nescia vinci" (the undefeated city)—was decorated in 1913 for its gallant conduct in 1536 and 1870-1871.