Nîmes its greatest degree of civil autonomy and represents the height of its consular
regime. In 1226, the knights of the Arena were dispersed by Louis VIII; their consulate
was suppressed definitively in 1353. Nîmes’s prosperity declined during the crises of the
14th century. Its region was devastated most severely by the rural revolt of the Tuchins in
1382.
Alan Friedlander
[See also: BEAUCAIRE; LANGUEDOC; SAINT-GILLES; TRENCAVEL]
Dupont, André. “L’évolution sociale du consulat nîmois du milieu du XIIIe siècle au milieu du
XIVe siècle.” Annales du Midi 72 (1960):187–308.
Huard, Raymond. Histoire de Nîmes. Aix-en-Provence: Edisud, 1982.
Ménard, Léon. Histoire civile ecclésiastique et littéraire de la ville de Nismes. 7 vols. 1750–58;
repr. Marseille: Lafitte, 1975.
Michel, Robert. “Les chevaliers du château des arènes de Nîmes aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles.” Revue
historique 102 (1909):45–61.
Rogozinski, Jan. “The Counsellors of the Seneschal of Beaucaire and Nîmes, 1250–1350.”
Speculum 44 (1969):421–39.
NIORT
. In Roman times, a “new ford” (Novum Ritum) over the River Sèvre, Niort (Deux-
Sèvres) is the site of a castle built by Henry II Plantagenêt and his son Richard the
Lionhearted. Only the twin-towered keep, joined by a 15th-century building, remains.
The Flamboyant Gothic church of Notre-Dame was built by Berthomé between 1491 and
1560. The spire of its impressive bell tower soars to over 250 feet.
William W.Kibler
Bily-Brossard, Jeanne. Le château de Niort. Niort: Privately printed, 1958.
NITHARD
(d. after 843). The most detailed information about the division of the Carolingian empire
in 840, upon the death of Louis the Pious, and the first years (840–43) of the reign of
Charles II the Bald, is found in the contemporary Histories of Nithard. Nithard’s mother,
Bertha, was a daughter of Charlemagne, and he served his cousin Charles the Bald, both
in court and at war, and wrote at the king’s suggestion. Much of his work was a
glorification of the Franks and a justification of Charles’s actions, especially his wars
against his older brother Lothair.
Constance B.Bouchard
[See also: CHARLES II THE BALD; STRASBOURG, OATHS OF]
Nithard. Histoire des fils de Louis le Pieux, ed. Philippe Lauer. Paris: Champion, 1926.
Scholz, Bernard S., trans. Carolingian Chronicles. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1970.
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