Norwich bulletin., 1916-07-14
THE WAR PRIMER By National Geographic Society

Peronne, the first important objec- | tive of the French and English forces when the allies big push" was inaug- urated, is described in today's war geography bulletin of the National Geographic Society as follows:
 The important railway center of Peroune, rich with historic assoCia- LiOnS of ancient and medieval France, was a town of less than 1000 people at the outbreak of the war, and It had little industrial or commercial signifi- canoe, but fer nearly three hundred years it bore an honOred nom de guerrc, La Pucelle, (The Impregnable), this distinction having been accorded it in 536 when the courageous wOm- an, Marie FOure, also known as Cath rine de Polk, successfully defended it against the imperial forces of Charles V commanded by the Count of Mas dropped by the city in 1915, however, for in that year it was captured by the Duke of Wellington. Its name stands high among the cities of cOur- age in the F'ranCO-German war, dur ing which it WithstOOd a destructive bombardment of 12 days and only capltulated because the civil popuIa- ton was being decimated by an epi- demic of smallpox.
 "Tha French maintained Peronne as d SIltd4I 4AilLdLy SLIOnSLOlu uflCl ten years ago when it's Notifications were razed, but up to the time of the on ward sweep of the Germans toward Paris in the summer of 1914 the four lowered castle was still standing and visitors were shown the call in which in the tenth century, the unhappy French king, Charles the Simple, post humOuS son of Louis the Stammerer was starved to death. Charles was kept prisoner here by the treacher- ous Herbert, Count of Vermandois, who had promised to aid the sovereign against Rudolph, Duke of Burgundy.
 "PerOnne was the scene of another act of treaChery against a French ruler five hundred years later when the bourgeois king Louis XI., trust Charles, the Bold. Two days after Louis arrival in Peronne on a mission of conciliation, there came the news of a supposed massacre of the bishop and ducaI governor of Liege. The rumOr was felse, but Charles, sus- pecting Louis of -deaGSg, threw
 ae king in prison and kept him in cell until he consented to sign the Treaty of PerOnne', insuring all Elan ders freedom from the jurisdiction of the parlement in Paris. This treaty was the most humiliating episode in Louis life, for the people of Picardy taught their tame jays and magpies to cry Peronne' and Perette' in deris- ion of the sovereign. Thoroughly nor- tifed, Louis determined to find a scapegoat and Cardinal Jean Balue was the unhappy victim. Balue fled and Joined Harancourt, bishop of Yer dun, in revolt. Both were captured, and Balue was kept a prisoner for II years while Harancourt was con-
 fined in an iron cage, like wild beast, for 13 years.
 "The history of Peronne ygoes back to the days of the Frankish king Clo- wis IT., who owned a villa here and who gave it to his mayor of the pal ace, Erchinoaldus, founder of the monastery of St. Fursy in the seventh century. It received it's charter from the French crown in 1909.
 The town is situated on the Somnae River, 94 miles byfrail north of Paris, and 35f miles eastlof Amiens. It is 20 miles by rail east of Fricourt, one of the first villages taken by the British in their offensive which began on the first day of Jt11y'.