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VALENCIENNES
. The church of Notre-Dame-la-Grande at Valenciennes (Nord) was another of the large
buildings of northern France destroyed in the years following the French Revolution. We
know the building only from documents, as the site has not been excavated and no
fragments are known to have survived. It was an interesting variation on the trefoil plan,
in which the chevet and each transept arm were polygonal in plan and surrounded by an
ambulatory and gallery. The axial chapel of the ambulatory was two-storied, and both
transept arms had two-story polygonal chapels on the east side. Above the gallery was a
wall passage and clerestory windows. If the visual evidence and descriptions are
trustworthy, Notre-Dame-la-Grande, which was built in the last quarter of the 12th
century, was richly decorated on the interior with dark Tournai stone. It may have been
known to William of Sens before he went to Canterbury.
William W.Clark
Serbat, Louis. “L’église Notre-Dame-la-Grande a Valenciennes.” Revue de l’art chrétien
53(1903):366–83; 56(1906):9–21, 242–52.
——. “Quelques églises anciennement détruites du nord de la France.” Bulletin monumental
88(1929):365–435.
Thiébaut, J. “Quelques observations sur l’église Notre-Dame-la-Grande de Valenciennes.” Revue
du Nord 62(1980):331–44.
VALENTINOIS
. Until its annexation to the French kingdom in the 15th century, this region, bounded by
the Rhône, the Isère, the Drome, and the Diois, constituted a virtually independent
principality centering on the city of Valence. Imperial charters gave the bishops, who
ruled the city, secular authority over the diocese as well, but their claims were challenged
repeatedly by the counts of Valentinois. In 1189, Raymond V of Toulouse ceded his
rights in the Diois to Aymar II de Poitiers, count of Valentinois, who thereafter
intensified his efforts to create a unified state at the expense of the bishops in both
regions. During the Albigensian Crusade, Simon de Montfort attacked Aymar’s citadel at
Crest because of Aymar’s alli ance with Raymond VI of Toulouse. In 1396, Valence was
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