Editing Reims (section)

==History==
{{see also|Timeline of Reims}}

[[File:Porte de Mars.jpg|thumb|left|[[Porte de Mars]], from the 3rd or 4th century<ref name=EB1911/>]]
Before the Roman conquest of northern [[Gaul]], Reims had served as the [[Remi]] tribe's capital, founded {{Circa|80&nbsp;BC}}. In the course of [[Julius Caesar]]'s [[conquest of Gaul]] (58–51&nbsp;BC), the Remi allied themselves with the [[Roman Republic|Romans]], and by their fidelity throughout the various [[Gauls|Gallic]] insurrections secured the special favour of the imperial power.<ref name=EB1911/> At its height in Roman times the city had a population in the range of 30,000–50,000 or perhaps up to 100,000.<ref name="google">
{{cite book|title= An Historical Geography of France|author1= de Planhol, X.|author2= Claval, P.|date= 1994|publisher= Cambridge University Press|isbn= 9780521322089|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=C19glZh7zfoC|page= 47|access-date= 10 October 2014}}
</ref> Reims was first called {{lang|la|[[Durocortorum]]}}<ref>{{Cite book|author=Félix Gaffiot|author-link=Félix Gaffiot|title=[[Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français|Dictionnaire latin-français]]|year=1934|page=566}}</ref> in [[Latin]], which is hypothesized to derive from a [[Gaulish]] name meaning "Door of Cortoro-".<ref>{{cite book|author=Jean-Paul Savignac|title=Dictionnaire Français-Gaulois|publisher=La Différence|page=274}}</ref> The city later took its name from the [[Remi]] tribe<ref>{{Cite book|author=Auguste Longnon|title=Les noms de lieu de la France|year=1968|volume=1|language=fr|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B7QKAQAAIAAJ|page=103}}</ref> ({{lang|la|Rēmi}} or {{lang|la|Rhēmi}}).<ref>{{Cite book|author=Félix Gaffiot|author-link=Félix Gaffiot|title=[[Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français|Dictionnaire latin-français]]|year=1934|page=1339}}</ref> The modern French name is derived from the [[accusative case]] of the latter, {{lang|la|Rēmos}}.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Auguste Longnon|title=Les noms de lieu de la France|year=1968|volume=1|language=fr|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B7QKAQAAIAAJ|pages=98, 103}}</ref>

Christianity had become established in the city by 260, at which period Saint [[Sixtus of Reims]] founded the [[Diocese of Reims]] (which would be elevated to an [[archdiocese]] around 750). The consul [[Jovinus (consul)|Jovinus]], an influential supporter of the new faith, repelled the [[Alamanni]] who invaded [[Champagne, France|Champagne]] in 336, but the [[Vandals]] captured the city in 406 and slew [[Nicasius of Rheims|Bishop Nicasius]];<ref name=EB1911/> in 451 [[Attila the Hun]] put Reims to fire and sword.

[[File:St Remy Bishop of Rheims begging of Clovis the restitution of the Sacred Vase taken by the Franks in the Pillage of Soissons.png|thumb|left|[[Saint Remigius]], Bishop of Reims, begging [[Clovis I|Clovis]] of the restitution of the Sacred Vase taken by the Franks in the pillage of Soissons. From the manuscript of the ''History of the Emperors'' ([[Library of the Arsenal]]).]]
In 496—ten years after [[Clovis I|Clovis]], King of the Salian Franks, won his victory at [[Soissons]] (486)—[[Saint Remigius|Remigius]], the bishop of Reims, baptized him using the oil of the sacred phial–purportedly brought from heaven by a dove for the baptism of Clovis and subsequently preserved in the [[Abbey of Saint-Remi]].<ref name=EB1911/> For centuries the events at the crowning of Clovis I became a symbol used by the monarchy to claim the [[Divine right of kings|divine right]] to rule.

Meetings of [[Pope Stephen II]] (752–757) with [[Pepin the Short]], and of [[Pope Leo III]] (795–816) with [[Charlemagne]] (died 814), took place at Reims; here [[Pope Stephen IV]] crowned [[Louis the Debonnaire]] in 816. King [[Louis IV of France|Louis IV]] gave the city and countship of Reims to the archbishop [[Artaldus]] in 940. King [[Louis VII]] (reigned 1137–1180) gave the title of duke and peer to [[William of Champagne]], archbishop from 1176 to 1202, and the archbishops of Reims took precedence over the other ecclesiastical [[peers of the realm]].<ref name=EB1911/>

By the 10th century, Reims had become a centre of intellectual culture. Archbishop [[Adalberon, archbishop of Rheims|Adalberon]] (in office 969 to 988), seconded by the monk Gerbert (afterwards (from 999 to 1003) [[Pope Silvester II]]), founded schools which taught the classical "[[liberal arts]]". (Adalberon also played a leading role in the dynastic revolution which elevated the [[Capetian dynasty]] in the place of the [[Carolingian]]s.)<ref name=EB1911/>

[[File:Calice du sacre Tau.jpg|thumb|The Coronation Chalice, also known as the Chalice of Saint Remigius ([[Palace of Tau]])]]
The archbishops held the important prerogative of the consecration of the kings of France – a privilege which they exercised (except in a few cases) from the time of [[Philip II of France|Philippe II Augustus]] (anointed 1179, reigned 1180–1223) to that of [[Charles X of France|Charles X]] (anointed 1825). The [[Palace of Tau]], built between 1498 and 1509 and partly rebuilt in 1675, would later serve as the Archbishop's palace and as the residence of the kings of France on the occasion of their coronations, with royal banquets taking place in the ''Salle du Tau''.<ref name=EB1911/>

[[File:Ingres coronation charles vii.jpg|thumb|[[Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres]], ''[[Joan of Arc at the Coronation of Charles VII]]'', 1854 ([[Louvre]])]]
[[Louis VII]] granted the city a communal charter in 1139. The [[Treaty of Troyes]] (1420) ceded it to the English, who had made a futile attempt to take it by siege in 1360; French patriots expelled them on the approach of [[Joan of Arc]], who in 1429 had [[Charles VII of France|Charles VII]] consecrated in the cathedral. [[Louis XI]] cruelly suppressed a revolt at Reims, caused in 1461 by the [[Gabelle|salt tax]].{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

During the [[French Wars of Religion]] the city sided with the [[Catholic League (French)|Catholic League]] (1585), but submitted to King [[Henri IV]] after the [[battle of Ivry]] (1590).<ref name=EB1911/> At about the same time, the [[English College, Douai|English College]] had been "at Reims for some years."<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Seventeenth-Century Tradition: A Study in Recusant Thought|author=George Henry Tavard|year=1978|isbn=9004054561|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tr8eAAAAIAAJ}}</ref>

The city was stricken with plague in 1635, and again in 1668, followed by an epidemic of typhus in 1693–1694.<ref>{{Cite journal|journal=Population|first=J.-M.|last=R.|title=Benoit R. — ''Vivre et mourir à Reims au Grand Siècle (1580-1720)'' [compte-rendu]|language=fr|year=2000|volume=55|issue=2|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/pop_0032-4663_2000_num_55_2_7132|pages=405–406|doi=10.2307/1535044|jstor=1535044}}</ref> The construction of the {{lang|fr|[[Hôtel de Ville, Reims|Hôtel de Ville]]|italic=no}} dates back to the same century.<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=NArW1LX4yKQC&pg=PA66 |title=Nouvelle revue de Champagne et de Brie|year=1895|page=66}}</ref>

The [[Place Royale, Reims|Place Royale]] was built in the 18th century. Some of the 1792 [[September Massacres]] took place in Reims.

In the invasions of the [[War of the Sixth Coalition]] in 1814, anti-Napoleonic allied armies captured and re-captured Reims. "In 1852, the [[Chemins de fer de l'Est|Eastern Railways]] completed the Paris-Strasbourg main line with branch lines to Reims and Metz."<ref>{{cite book|title=Railways:The Pioneer Years|page=46|author=Malcolm Fletcher|year=1990|isbn=9781555216276|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aesAWrfDYu0C}}</ref> In 1870–1871, during the [[Franco-Prussian War]], the victorious Germans made it the seat of a governor-general and impoverished it with heavy requisitions.<ref name=EB1911/> In 1874 the construction of a chain of detached [[fort]]s started in the vicinity, the [[French Army]] having selected Reims as one of the chief defences of the northern approaches to Paris.{{efn|Atop the ridge of St Thierry stands a fort of the same name, which with the neighbouring work of [[Chenay, Marne|Chenay]] closes the west side of the place. To the north the hill of [[Brimont]] has three works guarding the [[Laon]] railway and the Aisne canal. Farther east, on the old Roman road, stands the [[Fort de Fresnes]]. Due east, the hills of Arnay are crowned with five large and important works which cover the approaches from the upper Aisne. [[Fort de la Pompelle]], which hosts a [[World War I]] museum featuring a rich collection of German uniforms, and [[Fort de Montbré|Montbré]] close the southeast side, and the Falaise hills on the southwest are open and unguarded. The perimeter of the defences measures just under 22 miles, and the forts are at a mean distance of {{Convert|6|mi|km|0}} from the centre of the city.<ref name=EB1911/>}} In the meantime, British inventor and manufacturer [[Isaac Holden]] had opened plants at Reims and [[Croix, Nord|Croix]], which "by the 1870s [...] were producing almost 12 million kilograms of combed wool a year [...] and accounted for 27 percent of all the wool consumed by French industry."<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Emergence of Modern Business Enterprise in France, 1800-1930|page=149|author=Michael Stephen Smith|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zs26hd5keYkC|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2006|isbn=9780674019393}}</ref>

[[File:Aviatiker-Woche Reims 1909.jpg|thumb|left|A month after Blériot's crossing of the English Channel in a biplane, the aviation week in Reims (August 1909) caught special attention.]]
On 30 October 1908, [[Henri Farman]] made the first cross-country flight from [[Châlons]] to Reims.<ref>{{cite magazine |author=<!--Staff; no by-line.--> |title=A New Era in Aeroplane Transport |magazine=[[Scientific American]] |publisher=Munn & Co. |date=21 November 1908 |volume=99 |issue=21 |page=350}}</ref> In August 1909 Reims hosted the first international [[aviation meet]], the ''[[Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne]]''. Major aviation personages such as [[Glenn Curtiss]], [[Louis Blériot]] and [[Louis Paulhan]] participated.

[[File:France, Reims and its cathedral, 1916.jpg|thumb|Reims in 1916]]
Hostilities in [[World War I]] greatly damaged the city. [[German Army (German Empire)|German]] bombardment and a subsequent fire in 1914 did severe damage to the cathedral.<ref name="smarthistory">{{cite web|last=Bolli|first=Christine M.|url=https://smarthistory.org/reims-cathedral-world-war/|title=Fact and fiction: The explosion of Reims Cathedral during World War I|publisher=[[Smarthistory]]|access-date=18 June 2024}}</ref> The ruined cathedral became one of the central images of [[anti-German sentiment|anti-German]] [[Atrocity propaganda#World War I|propaganda]] produced in France during the war, which presented it, along with the ruins of the [[Ypres Cloth Hall]] and the [[Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968)|University Library in Louvain]], as evidence that German aggression targeted cultural landmarks of European civilization.<ref>{{cite web|last=Clark|first=James|date=6 June 2018|url=https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/war-among-ruins|title=War Among The Ruins|publisher=[[History Today]]|access-date=18 June 2024}}</ref> Since the end of World War I, an international effort to restore the cathedral from the ruins has continued.<ref name="smarthistory" />

During [[World War II]], the city suffered additional damage. On the morning of 7 May 1945, at 2:41, General Eisenhower and the Allies received the [[unconditional surrender]] of the German [[Wehrmacht]] in Reims. General [[Alfred Jodl]], German Chief-of-Staff, signed the surrender at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force ([[SHAEF]]) as the representative for German President [[Karl Dönitz]].

The British statesman [[Leslie Hore-Belisha]] died of a cerebral haemorrhage while making a speech at the {{lang|fr|[[Hôtel de Ville, Reims|Hôtel de Ville]]|italic=no}} in February 1957.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.wimbledonguardian.co.uk/news/9922334.heritage-the-wartime-minister-whose-wimbledon-hideaway-was-bombed/|title=Heritage: The wartime minister whose Wimbledon hideaway was bombed|date=11 September 2012|newspaper=Wimbledon Times|access-date=14 October 2024}}</ref>

<gallery>
File:Reims OSM 01.png|alt=|Map of Rheims
File:Tombeau de Jovin Musée Saint-Remi 90208 01.jpg|alt=|Sarcophagus of Jovinus ([[Musée Saint-Remi]])
File:Clovis crop.jpg|alt=|[[Master of Saint Giles]], ''The Baptism of Clovis'' (detail), {{Circa|1500}} ([[National Gallery of Art]])
File:Douai-Rheims New Testament (1582).jpg|alt=|The New Testament of the [[Douay–Rheims Bible]] was printed in Reims in 1582.
File:Statue de Louis XV Place Royale Reims 03.jpg|alt=|Monument to King Louis XV of France, at the center of [[Place Royale, Reims|Place Royale]]
File:(Top) - German officers sign unconditional surrender in Reims, France. (Bottom) - Allied force leaders at the signing. - NARA - 195337.jpg|alt=|[[Victory in Europe Day|German surrender of 7 May 1945]] in Reims. Top: German officers sign [[unconditional surrender]] in Reims. Bottom: Allied force leaders at the signing.
</gallery>