Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/251

Rh V I L V I L 229 The population in 1881 was 8433 (commune 10,366), and in 1886 8092 (commune 9836). Villefranche, founded about 1252, owes its name to the numerous immunities granted by Alphonse of Poitiers, count of Toulouse. In 1348 it was so flourishing that sumptuary laws were passed. The town fell into the hands of the Black Prince, but was the first place in Guienne to rise against the English. Charles V. granted it new privileges, which were taken away by Louis XL In 1588 the inhabitants repulsed the League, and afterwards murdered a governor sent by Henry IV. The town was ravaged by the plague in 1463, 1558, and 1628. A revolt excited by the exactions of the intendants was cruelly repressed in 1643. Villefranche was the birthplace of Marshal de Belle-Isle. VILLEFRANCHE -SUR-SAONE, a commercial and manufacturing town of France, chef -lieu of an arrondisse- ment in the department of Rhone, is situated on the Morgon, near its junction with the Saone, 18 miles by rail nearly north of Lyons. The chief industrial establishments are factories of coarse woven goods, cotton, fustian, &quot; molle- tons,&quot; prints, and blankets, tan-yards, puddling-works, spinning-mills, distilleries, foundries, and a saw-rnill. The wines of Beaujolais, hemp, cloth, linen, cottons, drapery goods, and cattle are the principal articles of trade. An old Renaissance house is used as the town-hall. The church of Notre Dame des Marais, begun at the end of the 14th and finished in the 16th century, has a tower and spire (rebuilt in 1862), standing to the right of the facade (15th century), in which are carved wooden doors. Villefranche is the seat of the primary normal school of the department. The popu lation, 12,032 (commune 13,074) in 1881, was 12,157 (commune 12,518) in 1886. The town grew up near a tower from which the lords of Beaujeu enforced their rights of toll on the Burgundy and Lyons road. The name arose out of privileges granted by Guichard I. of Beaujeu, which were confirmed and extended by his successors. Under the dukes of Burgundy Villefranche was the capital of Beaujolais, and retained some of its privileges when united to France. Baron des Adrets sacked the town and demolished the ramparts in 1562. A well-known academy was founded here in 1695. VILLEHARDOUIN, GEOFFROY DE (c. 1160-c. 1213), the first vernacular historian of France, and perhaps of modern Europe, who possesses literary merit is rather supposed than known to have been born at the chateau from which he took his name, near Troyes in Champagne, about the year 1160. Not merely his literary and histori cal importance, but almost all that is known about him comes from his chronicle of the fifth crusade, or Conquete de Constantinople. Nothing is positively known of his ancestry, for the supposition (originating with Du Cange) that a certain William, marshal of Champagne between 1163 and 1179, was his father appears to be erroneous. Villehardouin himself, however, undoubtedly held this dignity, and certain minute and perhaps not very trust worthy indications, chiefly of an heraldic character, have led his most recent biographers to lay it down that he was not born earlier than 1150 or later than 1164. He introduces himself to us with a certain abruptness, merely specifying his own name as one of a list of knights of Champagne who with their count, Thibault, took the cross at a tournament held at Escry-sur-Aisne at Advent 1199, the crusade in contemplation having been started by the preaching of Fulk de Neuilly, who was com missioned thereto by Pope Innocent III. The next year six deputies, two appointed by each of the three allied counts of Flanders, Champagne, and Blois, were despatched to Venice to negotiate for ships. Of these deputies Ville hardouin was one and Quesnes de Bethune, the poet, another. They concluded a bargain with the seigniory for transport and provisions at a fixed price. Villehardouin had hardly returned when Thibault fell sick and died ; but this did not prevent, though it somewhat delayed, the enterprise of the crusaders. The management of that enterprise, however, was a difficult one, and cost Villehardouin another embassy into Italy to prevent if possible some of his fellow-pilgrims from breaking the treaty with the Venetians by embarking at other ports and employing other convoy. He was only in part suc cessful, and there was great difficulty in raising the charter- money among those who had actually assembled (in 1202) at Venice, the sum collected falling far short of the stipu lated amount. It is necessary to remember this when the somewhat erratic and irregular character of the operations which followed is judged. The defence that the crusaders were bound to pay their passage-money to the Holy Land in one form or other to the Venetians is perhaps a weak one in any case for the attack on two Christian cities, Zara and Constantinople; it becomes weaker still when it is found that the expedition never went or attempted to go to the Holy Land at all. But the desire to discharge obligations incurred is no doubt respectable in itself, and Villehardouin, as one of the actual negotiators of the bargain, must have felt it with peculiar strength. The crusaders set sail at last, and Zara, which the Venetians coveted, was taken without much trouble. The question then arose whither the host should go next. Villehardouin does not tell us of any direct part taken by himself in the debates on the question of interfering or not in the disputed succession to the empire of the East, debates in which the chief ecclesiastics present strongly protested against the diversion of the enterprise from its proper goal. It is quite clear, however, that the marshal of Champagne, who was one of the leaders and inner counsellors of the expedition throughout, sympathized with the majority, and it is fair to point out that the tempta tion of chivalrous adventure was probably as great as that of gain. He narrates spiritedly enough the dissensions and discussions in the winter camp of Zara and at Corfu, but is evidently much more at ease when the voyage was again resumed, and, after a fair passage round Greece, the crusaders at last saw before them the great city of Con stantinople which they had it in mind to attack. When the assault was decided upon, Villehardouin himself was in the fifth &quot; battle,&quot; the leader of which was Mathieu de Montmorency. But, though his account of the siege is full of personal touches, and contains one reference to the number of witnesses whose testimony he took for a certain wonderful fact, he does not tell us anything of his own prowess. After the flight of the usurper Alexius, and when Isaac, whose claims the crusaders were defending, had been taken by the Greeks from prison and placed on the throne, Villehardouin, with Montmorency and two Venetians, formed the embassy sent to arrange terms. He was again similarly distinguished when it became necessary to remonstrate with Alexius, the blind man s son and virtual successor, on the non-keeping of the terms. Indeed Villehardouin s talents as a diplomatist seem to have been held in very high esteem, for later, when the Latin empire had become a fact, he was charged with the delicate business of mediating between the emperor Bald win and Boniface, marquis of Montferrat, in which task he had at least partial success. He was also appointed mar shal of &quot; Romanic &quot; a term very vaguely used, but appa rently signifying the mainland of the Balkan Peninsula, while his nephew and namesake, afterwards prince of Achaia, took a great part in the Latin conquest of Pelopon nesus. Villehardouin himself before long received an im portant command against the Bulgarians. He was left to maintain the siege of Adrianople when Baldwin advanced to attack the relieving force, and with Dandolo had much to do in saving the defeated crusaders from utter destruc tion, and conducting the retreat, in which he commanded the rear guard, and brought his troops in safety to the sea at Rodosto, and thence to the capital. As he occupied