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Is hier, les guerres de religion | |
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BY-GONE
IS: THE WARS OF RELIGION. Owing
to the vehement opposition to the Protestants, the wars of religion
brought Is its share of suffering and persecution from the St
Bartholomew's Day massacre onwards. The town, which was partially
fortified at that time, was the scene of numerous troop movements and
feats of arms which favoured first one side and then the other: but the
people of Is sided with Henri IV and, on 9th April 1600, the strong
Protestant community, legalised by the edict of Nantes, established a
place of worship on the corner where the Place Jean Durand and the Rue du
Prêche now meet. The 17th
century saw the Protestant faith flourish within the town under the long
ministry of pastor Jean Durand (1616-1678). Is hosted numerous Burgundy
synods, the minutes of which have survived intact, bringing to life once
more "les Protestants bourguignons dans leurs paroisses avec leurs
joies et leurs peines, leur foi, leur courage et leurs faiblesses"
(Jacques Fromental). ("The Burgundy Protestants in their parishes,
with their joys, their sorrows, their faith, their courage and their
weaknesses"). Their meeting-place was destroyed on 16th October 1685
after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The Protestants of Is were
ordered to give up their faith, an order which very few families were
prepared to obey. They preferred exile, mainly to the east (towards
Switzerland). So it was that Is-sur-Tille, like so many other towns of the
kingdom, had to suffer the disastrous consequences of an intolerant
decision which caused a massive emigration of people who had had a major
influence on the area's economy. | |
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The
fortification of the town, which seemed a common-sense solution to the
townspeople, weary of invasion and pillage, took place between 1583 and
1589, but the protection afforded by the battlements was an illusion.
Instead, peripatetic armies saw in them the chance of a sheltered
resting-place and an easy supply of food. The opposition, whose aim was to
obliterate the protestant faction, occupied the town on many occasions:
the Duke of Nemours (1589), the Viscount de Tavannes (1593), the Lord of Rougemont (1593), the Baron of Lux (1594),
Tremblecourt, Roticoti and their troops of 1,000 soldiers from the
province of Lorraine. There is a long list of these unscrupulous war-lords,
who lived off a vulnerable population. |
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In 1632
Gaston of Orleans, in revolt against Richelieu, pitched camp in
Is-sur-Tille. In two days his 12,000 men had emptied the town of food. As the town on the border between the rival
provinces of Burgundy and Franche- Comté, Is was again ransacked in 1636
by the soldiers of Count Galas, who failed to invade Selongey. A few months
later, however, the people of Is were more successful in their resistance
to a unit from Galas' army. Under the command of Claude Hector de Chargey,
they pursued it and scattered it at Moloy. This time, three women from
Is-sur-Tille joined their husbands to fight against the looters. The only
one whose name is known to us died as a result of her injuries. She was
Catherine Grandcompain. The same
year, plague broke out in Is-sur-Tille and claimed more than five hundred
victims in sixteen months. When the town was not dealing with armed groups
of marauders and all kinds of looters it was made to accommodate the
regular armies. "Pendant trois siècles notre ville eut le tracas de
l'étape" (A. Mochot). "For three centuries our town lived with
the anxiety caused by being a resting-place for armies on the move".
Thus it was that in 1650 the town had to play host to Persan's regiment. Up until the Revolution, the peaceful existence of the town was punctuated by its numerous garrison duties, but it was able to experience again a prosperity which had been absent for a long time.
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