money” from, certain people. The kings of the early 14th century, for instance, required
Italian merchants in France to purchase letters of bourgeoisie for a sum equal to 5 percent
of their property—a thinly disguised tax known as the boite aux Lombards.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
[See also: CITÉ; COMMUNE; TOWNS]
Chabrun, César. Les bourgeois du roi. Paris: Rousseau, 1908.
BOURGES
. Situated on a hill at the confluence of the Auron and Yèvre rivers, Bourges (ancient
Avaricum) was the chief town of the Bituriges Cubi in pre-Roman Gaul. It became the
capital of the imperial province of Aquitania Prima and of the medieval province of
Berry. It was also the seat of an archbishopric founded, according to tradition, in the 3rd
century by St. Ursinus.
At the fall of the western Roman Empire, Bourges was occupied by the Visigoths and
then by the Franks and preserves much of its fortifications from this period. It was given
a count, but that office was suppressed by King Raoul in 926 and was replaced by a
viscountship. In the absence of any major secular powers in the region, its archbishops
came into prominence as hosts to synods in 1031, 1225, and 1276 and built, between
1135 and 1324, the main structure of the magnificent five-aisled cathedral that dominates
the old quarter of the town.
Bourges (Cher), Saint-Étienne, plan.
After Branner and Capron.
In 1101, the viscountship was purchased from Eudes Harpin de Dun by King Philip I,
presaging a rebirth of royal influence in Bourges. Although Berry was given in dowry to
Eleanor of Aquitaine and Blanche of Castile, Philip Augustus established a bailli in
Bourges, and royal influence increased in the 13th century.
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