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Belleu

Communes of AisnePages with French IPASoissons arrondissement geography stubs
Belleu (Aisne) mairie
Belleu (Aisne) mairie

Belleu (French pronunciation: [bɛlø]) is a commune in the department of Aisne in Hauts-de-France in northern France.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Belleu (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Belleu
Rue Joliot Curie, Soissons

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 49.3592 ° E 3.3356 °
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Address

École primaire Léo Lagrange

Rue Joliot Curie
02200 Soissons
Hauts-de-France, France
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Belleu (Aisne) mairie
Belleu (Aisne) mairie
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Notre-Dame de Soissons
Notre-Dame de Soissons

Notre-Dame de Soissons was a nunnery dedicated to the Virgin Mary (Our Lady) in Soissons. It was founded during the Merovingian era, between 658 and 666, but the community was dissolved and the building partially demolished during the French Revolution (1789–99).The convent was founded by Ebroin, the mayor of the palace under the Merovingian kings, who appointed Aetheria, a nun from Jouarre, as its first abbess. Jouarre had been founded by Ado, a disciple of the Irish missionary Columban, and Notre-Dame therefore stood in the Columbanian tradition of monasticism. In the 660s the nunnery received a monastic rule from the bishop of Soissons, Drauscius. It was a mixta regula, a mixed rule, combining elements of the Benedictine rule and the rule of Columban. The text of this unique rule has not been preserved. During the 660s, the nuns also adopted the practice of the laus perennis (perennial praise), whereby the Psalms were sung constantly, day and night, by alternating groups of singers. This custom was pioneered at the monastery of Saint-Maurice d'Agaune.During the Carolingian era, the nunnery came under royal control. Charlemagne's daughter Rotrude (died 810) became a nun there, and his sister Gisela became abbess. In 816–17 it adopted the reforms of Benedict of Aniane propounded at the synods of Aix-la-Chapelle. According to the record of monasteries made around that time, the Monasterium sanctae Mariae Suessionis owed the state dona et militia, a monetary gift and military contribution (in the case of a nunnery, paid soldiers). In 858, an inventory (descriptio) of the monastery's possessions was made before the king's leading men (optimates) and signed by fifteen bishops and abbots. The document is preserved. Such inventories were made and confirmed by the king or other leading men to serve as proof and confirmation of possession.The writer and theologian Paschasius Radbertus was raised at Notre-Dame de Soissons—prior to 803/4, when Charlemagne made illegal the education of boys at nunneries. He dedicated his treatises De assumptione sanctae Mariae virginis to the Abbess Theodrada (abbess 810, died 846), a cousin of Charlemagne, and her daughter, Irma. After Irma succeeded her mother as abbess, Radbertus wrote the Expositio in Psalmum XLIV for the nuns of Soissons. It is an exposition of Psalm 44 as an epithalamium.

Battle of Soissons (718)

The Battle of Soissons of 718 CE was the last of the great pitched battles of the civil war between the heirs of Pepin of Heristal. Since Pepin's death in December 714, his grandson and heir Theudoald, his widow Plectrude, his bastard son Charles Martel, his successor as mayor of the palace in Neustria Ragenfrid, and the new king Chilperic II had been waging a war for ascendancy. Though Ragenfrid and Chilperic had begun with successes and Plectrude and Theudoald were removed early, Martel turned the tide of war and eventually forced the surrender of all his opponents. After their defeat at the Battle of Vincy, Chilperic and Ragenfrid allied with Odo the Great, the independent duke of Aquitaine, and marched on Soissons. Unfortunately, Charles had anticipated this, and was awaiting them, with an ever better trained core of veterans, many of whom would serve him all their adult lives. That army easily defeated the allied forces of Odo, Chilperic, and Ragenfrid near Soissons. The king fled with his ducal ally to the land south of the Loire and Ragenfrid fled to Angers. Soon Odo made peace and surrendered Chilperic to Charles and Ragenfrid made peace too. The war was over and Charles was undisputed dux Francorum. Charles chose not to execute any of his enemies, indeed, his nephew would serve in his army, and was treated kindly. Nor was his grandmother Plectrude treated with anything but kindness. Finally, Charles allowed both the deposed king, Chilperic and his mayor, Ragenfrid to live. Norwich has commented that "either Charles Martel possessed a degree of decency and kindness to defeated foes unknown in that age, or his belief in himself was so great that he felt he could afford kindness as the ultimate show of strength in allowing them to live after their various plots and machinations against him."