Harfleur | |
|---|---|
 The town hall in Harfleur | |
 Coat of arms | |
 Location of Harfleur | |
  Harfleur  Harfleur | |
| Coordinates:49°30′26″N0°11′56″E / 49.5072°N 0.1989°E /49.5072; 0.1989 | |
| Country | France |
| Region | Normandy |
| Department | Seine-Maritime |
| Arrondissement | Le Havre |
| Canton | Le Havre-2 |
| Intercommunality | Le Havre Seine Métropole |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2020–2026) | Christine Morel[1] |
Area 1 | 4.21 km2 (1.63 sq mi) |
| Population (2022)[2] | 8,296 |
| • Density | 1,970/km2 (5,100/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 76341 /76700 |
| Elevation | 0–89 m (0–292 ft) (avg. 6 m or 20 ft) |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
Harfleur (pronounced[aʁflœʁ]) is acommune in theSeine-Maritimedepartment in theNormandyregion of northern France.
It was the principal seaport in north-western France for six centuries, untilLe Havre was built about five kilometres (three miles) downstream in the sixteenth century to take advantage of anchorages less prone tosiltation. Harfleur is now on the eastern edge of Le Havre's urban area.
Alight industrial town situated in thePays de Caux by the banks of theSeine andLézarde rivers, some 6 miles (10 km) east ofLe Havre, at the junction of the N282, D231 and D6015 roads.Harfleur station has rail connections to Fécamp and Le Havre.
InRoman times, Harfleur was known asCaracotinum, the principal port of the ancientCalates.[3] A Roman road led from Harfleur toTroyes. Another road that disappeared during theHundred Years War linked Harfleur toFécamp.
Several Merovingian sarcophagi have been unearthed at the foot of Mount Cabert.
In the Middle Ages, the town's name,Herosfloth,Harofluet orHareflot, was still sufficiently uncorrupted to indicate itsNorman origins.[3] The suffixfleur comes fromOld NorseFlöthe meaning "estuary or arm of the sea". The precise meaning of the prefix "har" is unknown.
For six centuries, Harfleur was the principal seaport of north-western France. In 1415, it was captured byHenry V of England, an event explicitly mentioned in a popular song of the day, theAgincourt Carol. SirJohn Fastolf ofCaister CastleNorfolk (1380–1459) later claimed to have been 'the first man over the side' of the boat when the English landed outside the town; and he certainly played a part in the siege, being invalided home afterwards. TheSiege of Harfleur lasted some weeks longer than Henry V had anticipated; that was not helped by the outbreak ofdysentery which afflicted and killed soldiers, knights, and nobles, with many of the sick having to be transported back to England. The town's defences were badly damaged by the siege warfare, as were many of the principal buildings of the town. In order to consolidate his victory, Henry was forced to leave a significant part of his army as a garrison for the newly captured town. While Henry's intentions after the end of the siege are unclear, he had clearly entered France with an army large enough to engage the French in open battle and not merely to lay siege to one town. Henry left Harfleur, but he found his path to Calais blocked by a French army forcing him inland. The French cut off the English route and confronted them on the muddy fields near Azincourt (not the present-day Agincourt) onSaint Crispin's Day, 25 October 1415. TheBattle of Agincourt ended in a decisive English victory with minimal losses - only in the hundreds - and a crushing defeat for the French with losses nearing the tens of thousands.
In 1435, the people of the district ofCaux, led byJean de Grouchy, rose against the English. One hundred and four of the inhabitants opened the gates of the town to the insurgents, and forced the English occupiers out. The memory of the deed was long perpetuated by the bells of St. Martin's tolling 104 strokes.[3]
Between 1445 and 1449 the English were again in possession, but the town was recovered for the French byJean de Dunois in 1450. In 1562, theHuguenots pillaged Harfleur and its registers and charters perished in the confusion, but its privileges were restored byCharles IX of France in 1568. It was not until 1710 that it was subjected to the "taille".[3]
In the 16th century, the port began to dwindle in importance owing to the silting up of the Seine estuary and the rise of Le Havre.[3] In 1887, theTancarville canal restored waterborne access to the town from both the Seine and Le Havre.
In 1884,Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée shipbuilding company constructed an artillery workshop on the land immediately south of the canal,Gustave Canet [fr] known forhis QF designs worked there. In January 1897 the workshop together with the shipyard's intellectual property related to artillery was bought bySchneider et Cie, who employed Canet and invested a lot of money into developing the facility into a full-scale plant with a large testing range that could be used for firing at both sea and land targets, and also built Mayville town north of the canal for the workers. In 1937 it wasnationalized by theleft government of Popular Front and later existed as Ateliers de construction du Havre de la Compagnie normande de mécanique de précision (AHE/CNMP), producing e. g.Panhard AML armoured cars. In 1963 it was subordinated toSNECMA, which redirected the efforts to aerospace industry. Now the location hosts a Safran Nacelles plant.
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After the Armistice following World War I, a huge hutted camp was established at Harfleur as a basis for dealing with the transit of thousands of troops being demobilised. The British soldier Arthur Bullock recorded in his memoir what life was like there, together with a humorous illustration of his Nissen hut, labelled 'Home Sweet Home'.[4]
| the arms of Harfleur are blazoned : Azur, on a sea, a ship with three masts argent. |
| Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
|---|---|---|
| 1968 | 9,872 | — |
| 1975 | 10,102 | +0.33% |
| 1982 | 9,703 | −0.57% |
| 1990 | 9,180 | −0.69% |
| 1999 | 8,517 | −0.83% |
| 2007 | 8,124 | −0.59% |
| 2012 | 8,202 | +0.19% |
| 2017 | 8,449 | +0.60% |
| Source: INSEE[5] | ||
The siege and conquest of Harfleur is described in Act III, Scenes I though III ofShakespeare'sHenry V.
The 2009 novelAzincourt (U.S. titleAgincourt) byBernard Cornwell describes the siege and the conquest of Harfleur by the army ofHenry V of England in 1415.
The 2003 novelA Hail of Arrows by Michael Cox describes the siege and conquest of Harfleur by the army of Henry V of England in 1415 as witnessed by a 14-year-old boy-archer. Its describes illness and food shortage inflicted by the English army. It goes on to describe the battle of Agincourt.
The poem "Demain, dès l'aube", by Victor Hugo, alludes to "the distant sails descending towards Harfleur" ("les voiles au loin descendant vers Harfleur").
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Harfleur".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 952.
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