Asfeld#History

Asfeld is located some 35 km east by south-east of Laon and 8 km north-east of Neufchâtel-sur-Aisne. Access to the commune is by road D 926 from Vieux-lès-Asfeld in the south-west passing through the town and continuing north-east to Aire. The D 37 also goes from the town north-west to Villers-devant-le-Thour. The D 18 from Villers-devant-le-Thour to the D 926 north of Balham passes through the north-east corner of the commune. The D 137 road branches off the D 18 in the commune and goes south-west to Avaux. The D 237 goes from the town south-east to Roizy. Apart from the town there is also the village of Juzancourt in the north of the commune. The commune is mainly farmland with some forested areas near the river and in the north.[https://www.google.com/maps/place/08190+Asfeld/@49.4686485,4.1452794,9626m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x47e990bcec50bda1:0xcc51065aba0c28fd?hl=en Google Maps]

The river Aisne passes through the commune from east to west forming a part of the eastern border and continuing south-west to eventually join the Oise at Compiègne. The Canal des Ardennes also passes through the commune parallel to the Aisne. The Ruisseau des Barres forms the eastern border of the commune as it flows south to join the Aisne.

{{Geographic location

|width=auto

|Centre = Asfeld

|North = Saint-Germainmont

|Northeast = Balham

|East = Avançon

|Southeast = Saint-Loup-en-Champagne

|South = Houdilcourt

|Southwest = Vieux-lès-Asfeld

|West = Prouvais

|Northwest = Villers-devant-le-Thour

}}

File:Ferme Asfeld Ardennes France.jpg

Asfeld was a village formerly called Ecry where the Vikings were defeated in 883.

On 28 November 1199 a tournament was held in Ecry, in which several of Pope Innocent III's papal legates recruited Theobald III, Count of Champagne, the tournament host, Louis of Blois, Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester and Reynald of Montmirail for the Fourth Crusade. Historians have debated whether one of the Pope's most controversial papal legates Fulk of Neuilly was one of the aforementioned recruiters.McNeal, Edgar H. “[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2849695?refreqid=excelsior%3A9223288397a1b571b1096c7b21a8a0ad Fulk of Neuilly and the Tournament of Écry].” Speculum, Volume 28, No. 2 (1953). pp. 371–375.{{cite book |author1=de Villehardouin, Geoffroi |author1-link=Chronicle of the Fourth Crusade and the Conquest of Constantinople |editor1-last=Marzials |editor1-first=Frank T. |title=Memoirs of the crusades |date=1908 |publisher=J. M. Dent |location=London |page=xii |url=https://archive.org/details/memoirsofcrusade00villuoft/page/n15/mode/2up |chapter=Introduction (by the translator) |quote=...Fulk went about preaching new efforts for the expulsion of the Saracens...as he addressed the nobles and lesser men assembled at Ecri, towards the end of November 1199, to take part in the great tournament instituted by Thibaut III., Count of Champagne.}}

In the Middle Ages, the Lords of Escry built a fortified residence. It was passed to the Grandpré family then to the Bossut. The chateau suffered numerous assaults: in 1359 it was sacked by the troops of Edward III riding from Calais to Reims then again by the Burgundians around 1425.

In 1625 it was again attacked by Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, profiting from the Fronde to plunder Champagne and threaten Île-de-France.

In 1671, Jean-Jacques de Mesmes, Count of Avaux bought the fief of Ecry after it had been devastated by these successive invasions to complete his territory. The main town of Ecry was then renamed Avaux-la-ville.

Jean-Jacques de Mesmes stimulated the local economy by establishing a weekly market and two annual fairs. He strengthened and enlarged the chateau and its approaches.

In 1680 he decided to build a new church as the existing church was in a particularly bad state. This construction was part of an overall plan for the surroundings of the château.Philippe Seydoux, Country seats and fortified Houses in Champagne, Marne, and Ardennes, Éditions de La Morande, 1997, Vol. 1, 320 pages, p. 94-97, {{ISBN|2-902091-30-3}} and Plan of the Château d'Avaux-la-Ville, p. 95 {{in lang|fr}} The new church building was blessed on 15 June 1685.

On 20 March 1728 Claude François Bidal d'Asfeld bought the County of Avaux which was created from Avaux-le-Château, Avaux-la-Ville, Aire, Vieux, and Vauboison. In 1730 this lordship was raised to a marquisate. Avaux-la-Ville, which had been called Ecry until 1671, again changed its name and took the current name of Asfeld.

Claude François Bidal Asfeld was Lieutenant-General of the armies (equivalent to General of division of the King and Director-general of fortifications, succeeding to this function from Vauban.

At the same time, Nicolas Bidet from Reims, a winemaker and author of a botanical treatise on the nature and the culture of grapevines, became Lord of Juzancourt, now a hamlet in Asfeld commune.

The son of Claude François Bidal d'Asfeld, Claude Étienne, the second Marquis of Asfeld lived mainly in Paris but had strong relationships with the inhabitants of Asfeld. The French Revolution of 1789 accentuated the conflicts.

The gates of the château were forced open on 13 June 1790. The Marquis of Asfeld condemned the leaders but on 25 August 1792, hearing of the fall of the monarchy, mobs again entered the property of the Marquis and symbolically burned his Charter. The Marquis preferred to emigrate to Aachen following the French Revolution. His assets were seized and sold as Biens nationaux (national property). The castle was demolished the following year. The church was spared.

During the Revolution the commune took the name of Écry-le-Franc or Escry-le-Franc.

In 1814, during the Battle for France, the region of Berry-au-Bac in Asfeld was the scene of fighting between Field Marshal Blücher, the Duke of Ragusa, and General Ricard.Jean Baptiste Frédéric Koch, Memoir to serve as a history of the campaign of 1814,, volume 2, Paris, 1819, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Kqw7AAAAMAAJ&dq=asfeld+1814&pg=PA97 Read online] {{in lang|fr}}

In February 1848 a native of Asfeld, the botanist Jean-Baptiste Payer, participated in the revolutionary events in Paris, became Chief of staff for Lamartine then enjoyed a burgeoning popularity in his native region and was elected MP for Ardennes in the French Second Republic although it was ephemeral.

At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century the construction of railways was encouraged by freight traffic from the sugar beet industry. Spurred by the brothers Jules and Désiré Linard, the railway was quickly built and created potential for further diversification for farmers.

Throughout the 1914-1918 war the area was close to combat zones until the final daysJoseph Prudhon, Journal of a Soldier 1914-1918: Recalling the miseries of the Great War, L'Harmattan, 2010, {{ISBN|978-2-296-12855-2}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=c-k8P4KhHr0C&dq=asfeld+1914&pg=PA291 Read online] {{in lang|fr}} and suffered extensive damage. In 1940 after the breakthrough at Sedan in May, it was along the Aisne and in particular at Asfeld that a line of defence against the German invasion was attempted to be organized in early June without much success. In the years that followed, resistance movements emerge, such as the FTP.

{{Blazon-arms

|img1=Blason ville fr asfeld (ardennes).svg

|legend1=Arms of Asfeld

|text=The official status of the blazon remains to be determined

Blazon:

Quarterly, at 1 and 4 Gules, with a bend of Azure charged with three antique crowns of 3 points of Or between two palm branches the same; at 2 and 3 a lion issuant of Argent crowned the same, that at 3 counter-rampant; over all an inescutcheon of Or with four pales of Gules, the inescutcheon crowned with a Ducal crown of Or with a crest of a griffin issuant the same.

}}

{{Blazon-arms

|img1=Croix_de_guerre_1914-1918_française.jpg

|l1=80px

|legend1=

|text=

The Croix de guerre 1914-1918 was awarded to the commune on 17 September 1921.

}}

{{incomplete list|date=April 2021}}

List of Successive Mayors[http://www.francegenweb.org/mairesgenweb/resultcommune.php?id=8438 List of Mayors of France] {{in lang|fr}}

{{clear}}

The inhabitants of the commune are known as Asfeldois in French.[https://www.habitants.fr/ardennes-08 Le nom des habitants du 08 - Ardennes], habitants.fr

{{Historical populations

| align = none

| cols = 2

| percentages = pagr

| source = EHESS{{Cassini-Ehess|1481|Asfeld}} and INSEE[https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/4515315?geo=COM-08024#ancre-POP_T1 Population en historique depuis 1968], INSEE

| graph-pos = bottom

|1793 |947

|1800 |1056

|1806 |1084

|1821 |1121

|1831 |1248

|1836 |1284

|1841 |1221

|1846 |1220

|1851 |1238

|1866 |1151

|1872 |1102

|1876 |1057

|1881 |1078

|1886 |961

|1891 |965

|1896 |950

|1901 |913

|1906 |932

|1911 |907

|1921 |1020

|1926 |849

|1931 |840

|1936 |812

|1946 |772

|1954 |812

|1962 |843

|1968 |803

|1975 |926

|1982 |1015

|1990 |1061

|1999 |976

|2007 |999

|2012 |1104

|2017 |1116

}}

Asfeld is a stage on the Route de Porcien, a tourist route promoted by the Tourism Office of Ardennes

• The former Arlot Flour Mill (17th century)18pxMinistry of Culture, Mérimée {{Mérimée|IA08000312|IA08000312 Arlot Flour Mill}} {{in lang|fr}}
• The German War cemetery

File:Asfeld (Ardennes) Mairie.JPG|Asfeld Town Hall

File:Entrée Asfeld 01267.JPG|Entrance to the German War cemetery

File:Monument Asfeld 01273.JPG|The German War cemetery

File:Asfeld (Ardennes) Cimetière allemand.JPG|Inside the German War cemetery

File:Asfeld (Ardennes) Cimetière allemand, plaque.JPG|Commemorative Plaque at the German cemetery

File:Asfeld (Ardennes) Monument aux morts.JPG|The War Memorial

File:Collège 01171.JPG|Asfeld college

File:Communauté de communes 01170.JPG|Community of communes office

File:Gendarmerie 01157.JPG|Police Station

File:Pompiers 01159.JPG|Fire Station

• The Church of Saint-Didier (17th century)18pxMinistry of Culture, Mérimée {{Mérimée|PA00078333|PA00078333 Church of Saint-Didier}} {{in lang|fr}} contains a:
• Painting: The Martyrdom of Saint-Sebastian18pxMinistry of Culture, Palissy {{Palissy|PM08000635|PM08000635 Painting: The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian}} {{in lang|fr}}
• The Chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Pitié contains a Sculpture of the Virgin of Pity18pxMinistry of Culture, Palissy {{Palissy|PM08000025|PM08000025 Sculpture: Virgin of Pity}} {{in lang|fr}}

File:Église Saint-Didier d'Asfeld.jpg|Church of Saint-Didier

File:Entrée église 01173.JPG|Entrance to the Church of Saint-Didier

File:Église Saint-Didier d'Asfeld 4.jpg|Plan of the church

File:Église Saint-Didier d'Asfeld 2.jpg|Choir of the church

File:Orgues 01200.JPG|The church organ

File:Autel Didier 01228.JPG|The main Altar

File:Vitrail 01208.JPG|Stained glass in the church

File:Table 01227.JPG|Table in the church

File:Chapelle Notre -Dame de la Pitié-Asfeld 1.JPG|Chapel of Notre-Dame de la Pitié

File:Schopin - Claude François Bidal d'Asfeld (1665-1743) - MV 1081.jpg

• Jean-Jacques de Mesmes, Count of Avaux
• Claude François Bidal d'Asfeld
• Nicolas Bidet of Juzancourt
• Jean-Baptiste Payer
• Désiré Linard

• Communes of the Ardennes department

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [http://rumsey.geogarage.com/maps/cassinige.html?lat=49.4697&lon=4.1192&zoom=13 Asfeld on the 1750 Cassini Map]

{{Commons category|Asfeld}}

{{Ardennes communes}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Communes of Ardennes (department)