Rethel

{{expand section|date=July 2016}}

According to legend, the city was founded by Julius Caesar, who established a camp on the site of the city during his campaigns.

The parents of St. Arnulf of Metz were said to have given all they owned in villa Reistete (in the city of Rethel) to St. Remigius, bishop of Reims, so that their prayers for a child would be answered.

The city belonged to the Abbey of Saint-Remi and was administered by its advocati. One of them, Manasses I, became the first Count of Rethel. In 1481 the county, with Rethel as its seat, was elevated to the Peerage of France; it was elevated to a duchy in 1581 and in 1663 it became the Duchy of Mazarin.

During the Franco-Spanish War it was captured by Spanish forces under Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Condé on 30 October 1652 after a four-year siege, but was retaken by the French in July 1653.

In 1814 Spanish prisoners of war from the Napoleonic Wars introduced typhus to the city. Jean-Baptiste Reberotte-Labesse cared for the soldiers who were ill. Cholera epidemics occurred in 1832 and 1849, while typhoid fever ravaged the city in 1839, with an average of thirty deaths a day.

During World War II Rethel was the site of heavy combat from May to June 1940 during the Battle of France. French troops under Jean de Lattre de Tassigny repelled German assaults on the town for a month before it fell.

In 1974, Rethel absorbed the former commune Pargny-Resson.[https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/jo/id/JORFCONT000000021342 Modifications aux circonscriptions administratives territoriales (fusion de communes)], Journal officiel de la République française n° 0030, 3 February 1974, pp. 1283-1284.

{{Historical populations

|align = none

|cols = 2

|percentages = pagr

|source = EHESS{{Cassini-Ehess|28985|Rethel }} and INSEE (1968-2017)[https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/4515315?geo=COM-08362#ancre-POP_T1 Population en historique depuis 1968], INSEE

|1793 |4512

|1800 |4985

|1806 |5551

|1821 |5351

|1831 |6585

|1836 |6771

|1841 |7184

|1846 |7581

|1851 |7499

|1866 |7400

|1872 |7086

|1876 |7415

|1881 |7403

|1886 |7432

|1891 |7136

|1896 |6742

|1901 |6434

|1906 |5708

|1911 |5187

|1921 |4813

|1926 |5940

|1931 |5428

|1936 |5662

|1946 |4718

|1954 |5686

|1962 |7359

|1968 |7804

|1975 |8361

|1982 |8339

|1990 |7923

|1999 |8052

|2007 |7793

|2012 |7724

|2017 |7592

}}

Rethel was the birthplace of:

• Jacques Boucher de Crèvecœur de Perthes (1788–1868), archeologist and antiquary
• Louis Christophe François Hachette (1800–1864), publisher.
• Maurice Maillot (1906–1968), film and theater actor.

{{Weather box|width=auto

|metric first=y

|single line=y

|collapsed = Y

|location = Rethel (1981–2010 normals, extremes 1959–2013)

|Jan record high C = 16.2

|Feb record high C = 20.1

|Mar record high C = 25.2

|Apr record high C = 29.5

|May record high C = 33.0

|Jun record high C = 37.5

|Jul record high C = 38.0

|Aug record high C = 40.7

|Sep record high C = 34.4

|Oct record high C = 28.7

|Nov record high C = 20.7

|Dec record high C = 16.0

|Jan record low C = -20.5

|Feb record low C = -17.6

|Mar record low C = -11.6

|Apr record low C = -6.4

|May record low C = -3.0

|Jun record low C = -1.2

|Jul record low C = 2.2

|Aug record low C = 2.3

|Sep record low C = -1.3

|Oct record low C = -6.0

|Nov record low C = -11.0

|Dec record low C = -19.2

|Jan high C = 5.9

|Feb high C = 7.5

|Mar high C = 11.9

|Apr high C = 15.9

|May high C = 20.3

|Jun high C = 23.2

|Jul high C = 26.1

|Aug high C = 25.6

|Sep high C = 21.3

|Oct high C = 16.5

|Nov high C = 10.2

|Dec high C = 6.6

| year high C = 16.0

|Jan mean C = 2.8

|Feb mean C = 3.5

|Mar mean C = 6.9

|Apr mean C = 9.8

|May mean C = 14.1

|Jun mean C = 16.9

|Jul mean C = 19.4

|Aug mean C = 18.9

|Sep mean C = 15.3

|Oct mean C = 11.6

|Nov mean C = 6.5

|Dec mean C = 3.6

| year mean C = 10.8

|Jan low C = -0.3

|Feb low C = -0.5

|Mar low C = 1.9

|Apr low C = 3.7

|May low C = 7.9

|Jun low C = 10.6

|Jul low C = 12.7

|Aug low C = 12.3

|Sep low C = 9.2

|Oct low C = 6.6

|Nov low C = 2.7

|Dec low C = 0.6

| year low C = 5.7

|precipitation colour = green

|Jan precipitation mm = 69.2

|Feb precipitation mm = 56.2

|Mar precipitation mm = 68.3

|Apr precipitation mm = 54.7

|May precipitation mm = 62.7

|Jun precipitation mm = 60.1

|Jul precipitation mm = 69.4

|Aug precipitation mm = 72.0

|Sep precipitation mm = 58.1

|Oct precipitation mm = 71.1

|Nov precipitation mm = 66.5

|Dec precipitation mm = 80.6

|year precipitation mm = 788.9

|unit precipitation days = 1.0 mm

| Jan precipitation days = 12.3

| Feb precipitation days = 10.4

| Mar precipitation days = 12.0

| Apr precipitation days = 9.8

| May precipitation days = 10.7

| Jun precipitation days = 9.4

| Jul precipitation days = 8.6

| Aug precipitation days = 8.2

| Sep precipitation days = 8.9

| Oct precipitation days = 10.9

| Nov precipitation days = 11.6

| Dec precipitation days = 13.4

| year precipitation days =126.3

|source 1 = Meteociel{{cite web

|url=https://www.meteociel.fr/obs/clim/normales_records.php?code=8362002

|title=Normales et records pour Rethel - Man (08)

|publisher=Meteociel

|access-date=21 November 2024}}}}

• County and Duchy of Rethel
• Alfred Rethel (1816 to 1859), artist.
• L'Ardennais, an automobile manufactured in Rethel from 1901 to around 1903.
• Counts and dukes of Rethel
• Communes of the Ardennes department

{{reflist}}

{{Commons category|Rethel}}

{{Ardennes communes}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Communes of Ardennes (department)

Category:Subprefectures in France

Category:Champagne (province)

Category:Ardennes communes articles needing translation from French Wikipedia

{{Ardennes-geo-stub}}