Early history The upper town of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat
Picardy plain, has always held strategic importance. In the time of
Julius Caesar there was a Gallic village named Bibrax where the
Remis (inhabitants of the country round
Reims) had to meet the onset of the confederated
Belgae. Whatever may have been the precise locality of that battlefield, Laon was fortified by the Romans, and successively checked the invasions of the
Franks,
Burgundians,
Vandals,
Alans and
Huns. At that time it was known as
Alaudanum or
Lugdunum Clavatum. Archbishop
Remigius of
Reims, who baptised
Clovis, was born in the Laonnais, and it was he who, at the end of the fifth century, instituted the
bishopric of Laon. Thenceforward Laon was one of the principal towns of the kingdom of the Franks, and the possession of it was often disputed.
Charles the Bald had enriched his church with the gift of very numerous domains. In about 847 the Irish philosopher
John Scotus Eriugena appeared at the court of Charles the Bald, and was appointed head of the palace school. Eriugena spent the rest of his days in France, probably at Paris and Laon. Laon was the principal city of the late Carolingian kings of France, beginning with
Louis IV. After the fall of the
Carolingians, Laon took the part of
Charles of Lorraine, their heir, and
Hugh Capet only succeeded in making himself master of the town by the connivance of the bishop, who, in return for this service, was made second ecclesiastical peer of the kingdom. Early in the twelfth century the
communes of France set about emancipating themselves, and the history of the commune of Laon is one of the richest and most varied.
Anselm of Laon's school for theology and exegesis rapidly became the most famous in Europe. The citizens had profited by a temporary absence of
Bishop Gaudry to secure from his representatives a communal charter, but he, on his return, purchased from the
king of France the revocation of this document, and recommenced his oppressions. The consequence was a revolt, in which the episcopal palace was burnt and the bishop and several of his partisans were
put to death on 25 April 1112. The fire spread to
Laon Cathedral, and reduced it to ashes. Uneasy at the result of their victory, the rioters went into hiding outside the town, which was anew pillaged by the people of the neighbourhood, eager to avenge the death of their bishop. Thereafter, French monarchs intervened as needed to settle disputes between the bishop and the townspeople until 1331, when the commune was abolished. In the latter stages of the 1337–1453
Hundred Years' War, Laon was captured by
Philip, Duke of Burgundy; he relinquished control to his English allies, who held it until 1429 when it fell to
Charles VII of France. The
Catholic League used the town as a base during the
French Wars of Religion; it was retaken by the former
Huguenot Henry IV in August 1594.
Modern history At the
Revolution (1789) Laon permanently lost its rank as a bishopric. During the campaign of 1814,
Napoleon tried in vain to dislodge
Blücher and
Bülow from it in the
Battle of Laon. In 1870, during the
Franco-Prussian War, an engineer blew up the powder magazine of the citadel at the moment when the German troops were entering the town. Many people died; and the cathedral and the old episcopal palace were damaged. It surrendered to a German force on 9 September 1870. In the fall of 1914, during
World War I, German forces captured the town and held it until the Allied offensive in the summer of 1918. ==Geography==