Nov 13, 2022
Paris in Medieval Times (~350 to 1500 CE)
Following its tumultuous medieval period Paris adopted the motto of boatmen working along the Seine River: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Tossed but not sunk).
The emergence of Paris as a world-class city was not preordained. The earliest written account we have of the city is from 358 CE. Roman emperor Julian described Lutetia, as Paris was then known, as “a small island settlement with a few bridges and good water.”[1] Julian was passing the winter between military campaigns against the Germanic tribes threatening the frontier along the Rhine. With a population of only around 8,000, Lutetia ranked as a second-tier city during the period of Roman rule in Gaul (~50 BCE until ~460 CE). The Roman settlement at Lyon, more important because it lay directly on the main route between Rome and outposts in England, was home to between 20,000 to 30,000 people.
People have been living on and around Île de la Cité, the large island in the Seine that is the heart of Paris, since at least 4000 years before the Romans arrived. The Carnavalet Museum of Paris history has in its collection several log canoes unearthed in 1980 at a construction site in the 12th Arrondissement. The canoes are from the late Neolithic period, about 4500 to 3400 BCE. During the Bronze Age (3300 BCE to 1200 BCE) the Seine was a corridor for transporting tin mined in Cornwall, England, to Greece.[2] These are but two of many lines of evidence that point to the enduring importance of the Seine in the life of Paris.
Accessibility by overland travel is another factor that attracted people to the area. Paris occupies a broad valley carved by the Seine over geologic time out of the surrounding highlands. People traveling through the Northern Lowlands of Europe, between what is now Belgium and the Netherlands and the Atlantic coast of southwest France, must cross the Seine. This is a place where it was easy for travelers on foot to enter the valley, cross the river, and continue on their journey.
In present day Paris, rue Saint Martin, in the Right Bank neighborhood, and rue Saint Jacques, in the Left Bank, follow the path of a pre-historic track that crosses the river at Île de la Cité. Rue Saint Jacques is the first leg of a centuries-old pilgrimage route that begins at Notre Dame Cathedral and ends in Santiago, Spain - the Way of Saint Jacques.
Therefore, the city of Paris encompasses a natural crossroads, where overland travel intersects with river-borne trade and commerce. This has always been a place where people gather, to meet, to trade, to share information and explore new ideas. People have travelled to and from Île de la Cité perhaps for as long as humans have existed. During medieval times the fortunes of Paris, as those of other cities of Europe, rose and fell owing to the vagaries of politics, war, and disease.
When the Roman army conquered this area in 52 BCE, they found a tribe of the Celtic people known as the Parisii living in a fortified town on Île de la Cité with several bridges spanning the Seine. Paris gets is name from the Parisii. The Romans established a garrison town on the left bank of the Seine, where the ground rises gradually above the flood plain. The Roman baths and an arena still exist from that time.
The “good water” mentioned by Julian referred to the clear, flowing water of the Seine. Another a small river, the Bièvre with headwaters near Versailles, enters the Seine southeast of the city center. However, to supply the baths and other uses in the center of Lutetia Roman engineers constructed an aqueduct that tapped the Rungus River. Traces of the abandoned aqueduct can be seen at Auteuil, south of the city, and along road cuts at several locations in Paris.
Following the decline of the Roman Empire, Paris was rescued from obscurity by Clovis, the leader of the Germanic tribe, the Franks, that assumed control of Gaul when the Romans left. Clovis made Paris his capital city in 508 CE. For the next 250 years Paris was a capital of the Frankish Empire, which extended over much of western Europe. During this time, Paris also emerged as an important center of activity by the Catholic church as it expanded its influence throughout Europe.
The future of Paris was secured during the reign of Philip II, from 1180 to 1223 CE. Also known as Philippe Auguste, Philip II expanded the royal domain, the lands under the direct control of the king. He was the first in the line of Frankish monarchs to claim the title of King of France. Philip II made Paris the capital of his expanding domain and dared to dream of the day that the city would wield the same influence as Rome during the Roman Empire.
Philip II made Paris into the most conspicuously defended strong-hold in Europe. He built a fortified palace at the future site of the Louvre, and he surrounded the city with an impregnable defensive wall. The Philippe Auguste wall enclosed Île de la Cité and large areas on both the right and left banks of the Seine. Remnants of the Philippe Auguste wall can be seen in various parts of the city today.
Industry flourished. An industrial corridor developed along the Bièvre river. Vinyards, mills, butchers, tanners, and dyers lined its banks. Goods and materials from all parts of Europe moved up and down the Seine through the city’s port, near the present-day Place de la Hotel de Ville. Construction began in 1163 CE on a monumental cathedral on Île de la Cité that would become one of Paris’ most well-known landmark, the Notre Dame Cathedral.
During this same period Paris solidified its position as an international center for education and research. Philip II granted a charter to the University of Paris in 1200. Offering studies in the arts, medicine, law, as well as theology, this was the second university to be established in Europe, behind the University of Bologna. The university was located in the Left Bank neighborhood of the city, which had a long history as a center for theological studies. The original institution was dissolved in 1793 CE, as a consequence of the French Revolution, and it was reconstituted as the University of France during the First Empire and again in 1896 CE as the present-day University of Paris.
As the Paris expanded beyond the banks of the the Seine, the question of how to supply the growing city with water became a concern. In the Left Bank, the Roman aqueduct was renovated and eventually replaced around 1630 CE by the newer Medici aqueduct terminating at the Maison Fontainer [3]. Providing water to the broad, low-lying flood plain occupied by the Right Bank neighborhood was a challenge. A solution was found in the 12th century by capturing the flow of springs that occurred naturally high on the slope of the hill at Belleville. Some elements of the aqueduct system build to tap these springs still exist, c.f. the Regard Saint Martin.
By 1500 CE Paris was a the prosperous capital city of the most powerful country on the European continent, excepting England. It was also the most populous, with about 200,000 inhabitants. The extent of the medieval city had expanded to completely fill the area enclosed by the Philippe Auguste wall. Paris held the distinction of being the largest city in Europe until it was surpassed by London in the 18th century.
Notes
[1] Jones, C., 2005. Paris: The Biography of a City, Penguin Books. page 1.
[2] Muhly, J. D., 1973. Tin Trade Routes of the Bronze Age: New Evidence and New Techniques Aid in the Study of Metal Sources of the Ancient World. American Scientist 61, no. 4, pp 404–13, July 1, 1973.
