A
ABBEVILLE. The town of Abbeville (Somme) was an important center on the Somme
River that became the seat of the county of Ponthieu. In 1184, the count recognized a
commune that the townspeople had organized some years earlier. The heiress to the
county married Ferdinand III of Castile in 1257, and Ponthieu became the dowry of their
daughter Eleanor when she married Edward I of England. Abbeville passed back and
forth between France and England during the Hundred Years’ War and was one of the
strategic towns along the Somme
Abbeville (Somme), Saint-Vulfran,
nave and north aisle. Photograph:
Clarence Ward Collection. Courtesy of
Oberlin College.
that were given to the duke of Burgundy in 1435 subject to repurchase by the king of
France. Louis XI exercised this option in 1463, but the town was regained by Burgundy
for a few more years before the French king acquired it permanently.