BOULOGNE-SUR-MER
. Situated near the narrowest point of the Channel, Boulogne (the Roman Gesoriacum)
was the major crossing point to Roman Britain. Part of Belgica Secunda and then of the
Merovingian kingdom of Neustria, it became the center of the Carolingian pagus
Bononiensis. After its destruction by the Norse, it reappeared in the late 9th century and
was promptly absorbed by Count Baudouin II of Flanders.
After 962, Boulogne was ruled by the descendants of Baudouin’s younger son. Count
Eustache II (r. 1049–93) wedded an English princess and played a major role in the
Norman Conquest of 1066. His granddaughter, Matilda (Mahaut), joined the countship
with the English crown by her marriage to King Stephen, but the death of their son,
Eustache IV, in 1153, left their daughter, Marie, a nun, the sole heiress. Her forced
marriage to Mathieu d’Alsace, younger son of the count of Flanders, began a series of
female inheritances that carried the Boulonnais to various families while the collateral
male lines established overseas dynasties.
King Philip Augustus seized Boulogne in 1212, when Count Renaud joined forces
with John of England but then granted it to his legitimized son, Philippe Hurepel,
Renaud’s son-in-law. The imposing 13th-century fortifications of the haute-ville survived
the bombardments of World War II. The 14th century saw Boulogne face to face with
English-occupied Calais and, in its last decades, as a base for diplomatic activities to end
the Hundred Years’ War.
In 1416, Boulogne was seized by the Burgundian duke John the Fearless, an action
confirmed by the marriage of Michelle, daughter of King Charles VI, to Philip the Good,
heir of Burgundy (1419) and by the Treaty of Arras (1435). After the death of Charles the
Bold, last duke of Burgundy (1477), King Louis XI was able to take the fortress. He
united it to the royal domain, compensating Bertrand VI, count of Auvergne, with
Lauragues and making the town a fief held of Notre-Dame-de-Boulogne, thus avoiding
earthly homage.
The cult of Notre-Dame-de-Boulogne was extremely popular in the later Middle Ages.
It centered on a miracle-working statue said to have drifted into port in the 7th century on
a crewless ship. The abbey of Notre-Dame, which was elevated to the status of cathedral
in 1567, was sold after the French Revolution and demolished, with the exception of its
12th-century crypt, which survives under the 19th-century cathedral. The only other
medieval structure in Boulogne, the transept and chevet of the church of Saint-Nicolas,
was rebuilt in the Flamboyant Gothic style between 1567 and 1604.
R.Thomas McDonald
Dhondt, Jean. “Recherches sur l’histoire du Boulonnais et de l’Artois au IVe et Xe siècle.”
Mémoires de l’Académie d’Arras 4th ser. 1(1941–42):9–13.
Héliot, Pierre. “L’église Saint-Nicolas de Boulogne avant la Revolution.” Revue du nord
19(1933):269–86.
“Boulogne-sur-Mer, église Saint-Nicolas.” Congrès archéologique (Amiens) 99(1936):371–77.
Lestocquoy, Jean. Histoire de la Picardie et du Boulonnais. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France,
1970.
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