Norwich bulletin., 1916-08-16
THE WAR. PRIMER By National Geographic Society

Cambrai.-If. after Peronne. St. Quentin should be retaken by the French and English in their fierce of fensiVe. Cambrai would be one of the important ObjectiVes in the line of advance. This town, 121 miles by rail northeast of Paris, is the subject of the following war geography bulletin issued by the National Geographic So- ciety fro mits headquarters in Wash ington:
 Twenty miles southeast of Arras and about the same distance north of St. Quentin, CanlbTai, which had 9 pOpulatI0n approaching 30, ,OO0 before the war. is one of the most interesting towns in northern France. Situated on the right bank Of the River Scheldt at it's 5uncture with the St. Quentin Canal, the city enjoyed COnsidera bIe commercial prosperity on account of it's soap works, sugar mills and tex tile factories. Its importance to France now, however, is sentimental rather than strategic
 The event connected with Cambrai which commended it to wOmankind thrOughout tha Western World was the invention here, ill the fifteenth century, of the fine linen fabric which takes it's name from the town-cambric The name of Baptiste COutaing, the weaver who is supposed to have made the first canIbriC, is perpetuated in the muslin called batiste.
 "One of the most formidable aIi- ances of the middle ages was that which was affected here under the name of the League of Cambrai at the beginning of the sixteenth century The members of the league were Pope Julius II, the Emperor AaximiIian I, and the kings of France and Spain. These four major. powers, brought to- gether through the diplomacy of the Pope, had as their object the hunbIing 0f the great Rpn1Il1ir of NaT7Tr1 17a avOwed end having been achieved, the victOrs began to quarrel over the spells and the league soon ceased to exist.
 "Cambrai is famous as the city where two royal women of masculine force joined in a great diplomatic ex- change of views resulting in the Paix deS Danes (Ladies' PeaCe) which brought to an end, temporarily, the destructive war between France I of France, and the Emperor Charles V. The treaty. signed in 1929, caused an abandonment of the plans for @ duel to which Francis mad challenged Charles as a means of settling their quarrel single handed. The two women who negotiated the treaty were Louise of Savoy, devoted mother of the French king, and AIaraget of Austria. who had been the guardian of lls, nephew, the future emperor, during his youth, and whose long regency of the Netherlands was distinguished by frnneSs and justice. It was to Louise, upon whom he had conferred the title of Madame after ascending the throne, that Francis wrote his famous letter following his defeat and capture 1t Pavia in Italy. Of all things he said, nothing remains but honor and life which is safe From this we have derived inc familiar All is lost save honor
 Tn the closing years of the sixteenth century Cambrai was captured by the Spaniard3 and it remained a part of the Flemish possessions Of the south ern kingdom for nearly a hundred years, until Louis XIV secured it's Cession to France by the Treaty of NimegucE. In 1793 the town success fully resisted the besieging forces of Austria, but it was not so happy in it's resistance to the Duke of Wellington in 1915.
 Among the great names in French history which are associated with Cambrai are those of two churchmen- the scholarly and exemplary Archbish- op F'enelon, whose Treatise on the Education of Girls was a pioneer dis cussion of the problem of higher edu- cation for women, and the Cardinal Dubois, described by a vitriolic con- temporary historian as little, pitifuI, Wlzened man in a faXen wig, with a weazePs face brig ghtened by some in telligence. a man in whom all the vices-perfidy, avarice, debauche1y, ambition, fattery-fought for the mastery Despite this disagreeable picture, it is to be remembered that as the virtual ruler of France while serv- ing as private secretary to the regent, Dubois gave his country a Iongedfor era of peace which would have been fraugflt with even greater benefits had it not been for John Laws Mississippi Bubble which burst, precipitating the nation over the brink of financial ruin.
 "Enguerrand de Monsrelet, whose chronicles of medieval France begin where FroissarJ's end, also belongs in Cambrais hall of fame"