page_title: History of Rouen
section_title: The Middle Ages
hierarchical_section_title: History of Rouen / The Middle Ages
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Normandie, France. Hôtel de Ville et Abbatiale Saint-Ouen. English: Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Normandie, France. City Hall and Church of St. Ouen.
context_page_description: Rouen, France, was founded by the Gaulish tribe of Veliocasses, who controlled a large area in the lower Seine valley, which today retains a trace of their name as the Vexin. The Gauls named the settlement Ratumacos and the Romans called it Rotomagus. Roman Rotomagus was the second city of Gallia Lugdunensis, after Lugdunum. After the reorganization of the empire by Diocletian, Rouen became the chief city of the divided province of Gallia Lugdunensis II and reached the peak of its Roman development, with an amphitheatre and thermae, the foundations of which remain today. In the 5th century, it became the seat of a bishopric and later a capital of Merovingian Neustria.
context_section_description: After the first Viking incursion into the lower valley of the Seine in 841, they went on to overrun Rouen, and some of them settled and founded a colony led by Rollo (Hrolfr), who was nominated to be count of Rouen by King Charles in 911. In the 10th century Rouen became the capital of the Duchy of Normandy and the residence of the dukes, until William the Conqueror established his castle at Caen.
  During the early 12th century, the city's population reached 30,000. In 1150, Rouen received its founding charter, which permitted self-government. During the 12th century, Rouen was probably the site of a Jewish yeshiva. At that time, about 6,000 Jews lived in the town, comprising about 20% of the total population. The well-preserved remains of a medieval Jewish building, that could be a yeshiva, were discovered in the 1970s under the Rouen Law Courts.
  In 1200, a fire destroyed part of Rouen's  Romanesque cathedral, leaving just St Romain's tower, the side porches of its front, and part of the nave.
  New work on the present Gothic cathedral of Rouen began, in the nave, transept, choir, and the lowest section of the lantern tower. On 24 June 1204, Philip Augustus entered Rouen and annexed Normandy to the Royal Demesne. The fall of Rouen meant the end of Normandy's vassal state status. He demolished the Norman castle and replaced it with his own, the Château Bouvreuil, built on the site of the Gallo-Roman amphitheatre.
  A textile industry developed based on wool imported from England, competing with the northern County of Flanders and the Duchy of Brabant. The city found its market niche in the Champagne fairs. Rouen also depended on the river traffic of the Seine for its prosperity. Wine and wheat were exported to England, with tin and wool received in return.
  In the late 13th century, urban strife threatened the city: in 1291, the mayor was assassinated and noble residences in the city were pillaged. Philip IV restored order and suppressed the city's charter and the city's lucrative monopoly on river traffic, but he was quite willing to allow the Rouennais to repurchase their former liberties in 1294. In 1306, he decided to expel the Jewish community of Rouen, which then numbered some five or six thousand in the city of 40,000 people.
  In 1389, another urban revolt of the underclass broke out, the Harelle. It was part of a widespread rebellion in France that year and was suppressed with the withdrawal of Rouen's charter and river-traffic privileges once more.
  During the Hundred Years' War, on 19 January 1419, Rouen and its population of 70,000 surrendered to Henry V of England, who annexed Normandy once again to the Plantagenet domains. But Rouen did not go quietly: Alain Blanchard hung English prisoners from the walls, for which he was summarily executed; the Canon and Vicar General of Rouen, Robert de Livet, became heroes for excommunicating the English king, which occurred shortly after de Livet's own five year imprisonment in England.
  Rouen became the capital city of English power in occupied France and when the Duke of Bedford bought Joan of Arc her liberty from the Duke of Burgundy who had been keeping her in jail since May 1430, she was sent to be tried in the city during Christmas 1430. After a long trial by a church court, she was sentenced to be burned at the stake. The sentence was carried out on 30 May 1431 in the city, and most residents supported the Duke of Burgundy, Joan of Arc's royal enemy. In that same year, the young Henry VI was crowned King of England and France in Paris before coming to Rouen where he was acclaimed by the crowds.
  The king of France Charles VII recaptured the town in 1449, 18 years after the death of Joan of Arc and after 30 years of English occupation.
caption: City Hall and Church of St. Ouen, Rouen
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